After the mages left, my mother collapsed on the floor and my father was still short of words. They were grateful that the mages visit were not of bad but of good, but this is too good to be true and this type of good is not the one that we wanted.
In the land of Kona, there are all different kinds of magic. And some people were blessed by Konami, the god of magic. The ancestors that fled during the 100 year war, they were given the ability to use magic in other to protect themselves.
The four main types of magic are air, water, fire and earth, these are the elemental types of magic that one person must possess the ability to use. Under those types you would see non elemental magic, which includes healing, rapid growth and force fields. Then there is black magic, the best and worst of it's kind.
Only the great sorceress, chosen by Konami is able to use black magic because they can't be corrupted and controlled by it.
Anyone else who tried to tap into the world of black magic will become so strong in exchange of their will, slowly turning to powerful puppets, that is used by the black magic itself for its own benefits.
"Carmen" my father called out to me because none of us had moved from our spot since they left.
"Yes father?" I answered feeling a little bit parched.
"Go back to your room, you need to sleep. We will all discuss what happened when day breaks, okay?"
I only nodded my head and climbed back up the stairs to my room.
Leaving the door open in hopes that I can overhear what my father wants to discuss with my mother but I couldn't hear anything and before I knew what was happening, my tired eyelids closed and I fell asleep.
Meanwhile, downstairs my parents were still shaken up by what they just witnessed. They knew that the light was bright enough and most of their neighbors would suspect that something was going on.
"Julia, what do you think we should do?" He asked his wife.
"I don't know what we're going to do, Joseph, they are going to take my baby girl away from me " Julia said admist tears and sobbing.
Joseph was heart broken and seeing his precious little wife cry broke his heart the more because he knew that there was nothing he could do about it.
He squatted and held her in his arms, consoling her while trying to hold back his own tears. He wiped her tears, made her to look at him before he kissed her, assuring her that everything would be alright.
"We still have six more years to spend with her before she comes of age, let's just make the most of it dear" he tried to cheer her up.
"She's never going to have a normal life anymore. I was hoping that one day she would grow up, get married and have children and live happily even without being able to use magic " Julia complained
She had already pictured Carmen with a loving husband like hers and with children, but all those dreams are out of the window now.
No one usually wants to marry a sorceress because of the power that they possess and even though most men won't admit it, but they are intimidated by a woman for having such immense power.
So they rather marry a woman with little magic to feel useful and in charge.
"I know that darling, but this doesn't mean that she won't live a happy life. We would just have to pray that everything will go smoothly for her." Joseph said. He was rubbing his wife from her head down to her back to console her.
"We need to go back to bed. We have a long day later today" he gently carried his wife back up to their room and closed the door.
The day had barely broke when there was a loud pounding on the door.
Joseph squinted his eyes trying to adjust his eyes to the bright morning light. He rubbed his eyes trying to rid himself of the remaining sleep. He slipped out of the covers, trying not to wake his wife.
He grabbed his clothes from the floor and hurriedly put them on but as the pounding on the door got louder he left without finishing up the buttons of his shirt and rushed downstairs to open the door before they wake up his wife and child.
When he opened the door he saw a small crowd of people, mostly his next door neighbors.
'Joseph, we saw a really bright light coming from your house on the early hours of dawn, did something happen?'
'I heard that they were visited by the mages, do you think that something bad happened?'
'Is it true that the mages visited your house?
Everyone was asking their questions at the same time that Joseph nearly had a migraine.
After the little crowd had calmed down, he went ahead and said "Yes, they did visit us but we don't know what they want yet, hopefully it won't be a bad thing" he lied
People are selfish and are only after their own gains. They are all here not because they are good neighbors or people but they want to know if they could benefit from what just happened.
Visits of the mages could mean a good thing and who wouldn't want to be in the good graces of the selected people.
With what he said, some of them slowly returned claiming they had somewhere else to be and other excuses.
'Who knows what they had done this time, better safe by not associating myself with them to avoid being roped in their troubles ' someone said and others agreed left.
He closed the door and sighed. He turned only to see his wife looking at him from the stairs with worry in her eyes. He stretched out his hand and she went to hug him.
"I don't know what we're going to do dear, everyone is going to find out" she said to him.
"We'd just have to lie about it for now, you know, until the genuine people come around." He said.
She just nodded, before her brows furrowed and she asked
" But why her? Why our family? I already accepted the fact that I don't have magic and the possibility that our children might not have magic, but for our only child to be chosen baffles me."
" I know honey "Joseph replied deep in thought.
They were unaware that they would have to find an excuse for the change in the eye color of their daughter.
Carmen came down from her room to greet her parents because they were not in their room. She thought that they didn't sleep after the visit from the mages.
"Good morning father, good morning mother " she greeted them.
"Good morning Pumpkin" her father greeted back.
"Good morning sunshine" her mother greeted too.
Both looked at her in a split second but they looked at her back immediately because they noticed a change in her eyes.
They both stood up and rushed towards her.
"What happened to your eyes!" They both asked at the same time.
"M-my my eyes?" She asked confused because she had not yet looked in the mirror yet.
"They have changed color " they pointed out
"W-w-what?!"
She ran back to her room, rushed and opened her drawers looking for her little hand mirror.
She said was scared to look at her eyes.
She brought it up and looked at the mirror and what was looking back at her were the most beautiful purple and blue eyes, which is a rare combination, how she went from a plain gray eye color to purple and blue, she had no clue.
She opened and closed her eyes very fast multiple times just to make sure that she wasn't seeing things.
A lot of crazy things are happening and it's all too fast for her to comprehend.
"Now everyone will know that something happened" her mother said from the door of her room because they both followed her when she ran up.
Everyone knew that Joseph was the only one who could use magic in their family. People ridiculed him for marrying Julia because she couldn't use magic and they laughed at them when they gave birth to a child who didn't have magic too.
"Carmen, you are going to stay indoors until we can think of what we are going to do. I will head out to the capital to go see the mages and tell them of this incident. It's a two weeks journey to and fro" her father said.
"You can't go, the roads are dangerous this time of the year. Can you not send someone to go?" His wife pleaded.
"And risk people finding out about our situation? I'm sorry but I need to go alone. I can protect myself. I will cast a protection spell for you two and on the house and the garden so you can get what ever you need without leaving the gate. Wait for me until I get back".
With that, he left to prepare for the journey.
Her mother cast her a worried glance before following her husband behind to try and change his mind.
Carmen went back to look at her eyes in the mirror. She wished in her mind that her eyes would go back to it's original color and there was a silver line that just crossed both her eyes and they turned back to her plain gray eyes. She dropped the mirror and it shattered on the floor.
Her parents rushed back to see if she was okay, only to see a shattered mirror and a terrified girl. They shook her to get her out of the trance she was in.
When she looked up, they were shocked too.
"Y-yo-your eyes, they are back to it's original color " her mother said.
"How did it happen?" Her father asked.
"I-I-I just wished for it so that you wouldn't have to leave " Carmen replied in a daze.
Her parents both looked at each other.