Brickelwhyte, the kingdom with the favor of the sun god. The kingdom that has the best masters of the elements and the kingdom with the best control over its marks. Brickelwhyte, the hell that foreigners paint as heaven. The only place where your own brand can blind you forever.
In that same kingdom thirteen years ago, what would be the light of the Antumalen clan* was born. The girl who meant that, after so many years without the favor of the sun god, it was finally her time to shine.
"Maiara, open your eyes. She opens her eyes, heir to the Antumalen clan. "Open your eyes, child of the sun."
Her four marks at age eleven was only a confirmation of what the clan already knew: her years of prayers had been answered and the generations spent by her in the ruins would be a thing of the past as soon as she shone above. of the kingdom.
After the awakening of the Maiara marks, the Antumalen clan gathered in the old hut that had been used for more than fifty years for important meetings and put the girl in the middle.
The clan's signature ritual was what could be called abominable, but that would only be a small sacrifice in the name of a greater treasure that could only be obtained by that girl if she sacrificed herself for the entire clan.
The young Maiara took that sharp object that her grandmother and matriarch of her clan extended to her. That object was an ancient relic that had been used since the beginning of the clan to perform that ritual.
"Do it," the matriarch* ordered.
Her cousins, nephews and brothers played her drums loudly, making the hairs on her body stand up. Maiara, as expected, hesitated. Why should she do that if it was horrible? Was it really a meaningful sacrifice?
She cowered in place, and some of her bones ached in the process. That "warning" from her father the night before was taking its toll on her and she would do it for a couple more weeks. Of course, that was if he didn't discipline her again with clubs or bare fists.
"Do it," her mother ordered. She, of all of them, was the sickest with that ritual and the suicidal beliefs of that clan. That clan that they had tried to extinguish and that people said that the reason why no one powerful was born was because they had been punished by the gods. Because they were bad. Their principles and beliefs were cruel, and commonly questioned.
"Do it," her father said. Her fists were clenched. Even over the bruises she had from hitting her he could see her veins from squeezing her hands so much.
"Do it, do it, do it…"
Maiara felt sorry for herself and hatred for that cursed family that had touched her. Each and every one of them deserved to die in the most painful way possible. Now he knew it, because at first he only thought that it was his father who had to do it, but beyond the pain that his blows caused him, there was the fact that his own mother had made disgusting scars on his body so that no man could never touch her and continue to be "holy, pure and chaste."
She soon found herself wishing that everyone would die. May the god of the sun take pity on her and send a burning ray of his vast power and exterminate them all, even her, who was sometimes overwhelmed by pain and found herself dancing with her death on the edge of the cliff that had close to the clan.
Maiara looked at the sharp object in her hands. The thin, shiny tip pointed upwards toward her eyes. Her ritual asked her to cause her blindness with that object by inserting it into her eyes.
Her heart ached to think that she would never be able to see, that she would never...
A breaking pot caught her attention. Her mother looked at her coldly.
"Do it or die for being a coward before the wish of the sun god"
So she chose to die. She dropped that sharp object and let out that pent-up rage that she had carried with her these eleven years.
She felt those marks burn on her body, and soon she felt her flesh burning as her power began to burn her family members alive. Several of them tried to flee, but his power reached them before they could leave the Antumalen clan camp.
She wanted them all to die, but first she wanted them to suffer at least a thousandth of what she had suffered. She burned them alive and their cries for mercy did not stop her.
Finally, she looked through her blurred vision of the massacre before her eyes, and then she could no longer make out figures, and by nightfall everything was blurry. She ended up going blind.
Her own power had condemned her for playing judge of the humans.
The sun began to burn on her skin when it became daylight. That heat that had previously been her motivation had now become a red memory in which she could only hear screams of mercy accompanied by the memory of the last thing she had seen: The body of his parents melted by the sun.
Because of her blindness Maiara tripped and fell to the ground, her skin breaking where she touched the ground. With no courage to continue, and preferring death to her life, she abandoned herself in that desert place until her body was consumed by scavenger animals, when he felt her presence near her.
When she was younger she had learned to find energy sources around her using basic bllindigia. That knowledge of her led her to recognize a certain healer who always came and went through the town, scamming people.
"Go," Maiara asked, barely able to speak due to thirst. "I want to die alone. Go away"
Although she Maiara had nothing that could be stolen, that woman came closer.
"What happened, sun girl? Have they attacked the Antumalen clan?
"Yes, he was attacked by me."
That woman's laughter reached her ears like a melody. Seconds later she felt shadow and water in her mouth.
"Baby, you must live much longer because your destiny is to save the world."
"No, silly, with this power I am going to end the world."
The woman gave Maiara water again while she spoke again slowly and without rushing.
"For now I'm going to seal two of your marks, but remember to train hard to save the world, and at the same time save yourself."
That night the sealing ritual was performed, and after healing Maiara's wounds, she gave her food and water.
"Go east. There you will meet a Lacronian boy who is fleeing his homeland. He will take you to an orphanage in Corralis. Stay there until your thirteenth birthday. That day go for a walk on the paths between Corralis and Devereaux. You will find a dying child to whom you must help."
"And then?"
"Be careful, and in the short time you will have together try to get into his head. He will be responsible for the end of the world, and if you can't stop him then you will have to prepare yourself, because you will fight with him until one of the two takes the last breath of his life."