[Sterith]

  “You can stop right there, Sterith.” Mayor Arlish, our red faced, heavyset town mayor, was standing at the edge of town, with a hand raised and a couple of town guards standing behind him, to add a bit more force to his authority.

  I had left right after breakfast to go get the blister medication which Healer Kinning had prescribed the kids to relieve their burns.

  “What can I do for you, Mister Mayor?” I asked.

  “Your eldest assaulted several children in the park yesterday. I was told he used a kind of null magic on them and then assaulted them. You know null magic is forbidden and its use illegal. The consequences are severe. I won’t allow it in m… our fair city.”

  I glared back at him with my arms folded. “So, do you have any proof of this?”

  I stood a head taller than the paunchy mayor. It was satisfying to see him gulp a little.

  He glanced behind him to make sure his guards were still there. “Of course. I spoke to several eyewitnesses who were there. I also talked to each of the children who were attacked and saw the bloody evidence for myself. Everyone agreed it must have been null magic, because their magic stopped working. Now, I’m not an expert on magic, but they managed to convince me.”

  “So you’re going to take their word alone, without hearing the other side of the story? That doesn’t sound very fair and impartial to me. Something I’ve heard you boast about, on more than one occasion.”

  That gave him pause.

  “Well, um… I guess you are right. We need to hear the other side, of course. I’ll send for Jerik later, when I have an opening in my schedule.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. He is not of age and cannot testify. You can talk to my wife and me, who have heard the whole story.”

  “But, but...” He objected. ”You can say whatever you want. You weren’t there. We have to hear it from him directly.”

  “So, you talked to children as witnesses, then? Have you talked to the other children who were there? I understand there was quite a group of younger kids playing there at the time, the same age as my youngest.”

  “Of course not! They are only children.”

  “I see. Your double standard is what I see.” This was going nowhere, and I had urgent business. “Well then, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get medicine for my children. To treat the burns inflicted by those very children you interviewed.”

  “Oh, um. I’m afraid not.” He held up his hand again but was sweating now, even though it was a brisk morning. “The mayor’s council has decided you are not welcome in town until we get this matter resolved.”

  The guards took a step closer to me, hands tightening on their swords.

  “Let me see if I understand. Are you denying me the important medicine prescribed by Healer Kinning? You know my children were burned during the fight in which your own child was partly to blame.”

  “She… she is entirely innocent in this matter!” He raised his voice now. “It is your children who are to blame!” He had obviously made up his mind.

  The guards took another step towards me as the mayor retreated another step.

  I knew I could easily overpower them, but then what would happen? Nothing good, I’m sure. So I decided it was time for a strategic withdrawal. We needed time to make a new plan. With an angry scowl I turned around for home.

  [Jerik]

  The door slammed shut with a loud thud. Dad was more angry than I have ever seen him, I think.

  “What happened?” Mom asked. “Did you get the medicine?”

  He glared at her, but then his gaze softened. “No. The mayor stopped me. He said I was not welcome in town, at least until the matter of who was to blame and what actually happened, is resolved.”

  He then turned to look at me. “Jer, did you tell the truth? About everything?”

  “Yes, I told you everything that happened.” He still looked at me, and waited.

  Raising his voice so the twins could hear, he said “Okay, I think it’s time for a family council. I’d like everyone to come and sit at the table.”

  After we were all assembled, he began. “There are… accusations that null magic was used. You may not have heard of this yet, but it is a kind of magic which the kingdom has declared not only illegal but forbidden. Do you know what null magic is?”

  He looked at our confused faces.

  “I guess not. Null magic is like anti-magic. It cancels out magic. Good thing it is so extremely rare.”

  “Jer, are you sure you don’t have any magic? Did you feel anything… unusual during the fight yesterday?”

  The blood was draining from my head as he asked this. I looked down at the table, not able to look up, and gulped.

  “Um, well… there was something, maybe.”

  Still not looking up, I continued after a long pause. “I can’t really describe it. It was like a warm emptiness inside of me. At the time Pomir was squeezing the life out of me. I was not able to breathe at all, and I couldn’t get out of his grip. I was desperate for anything. That’s when I felt something, deep inside. When I reached for it, somehow, that’s when he dropped me, and I could finally breathe again.”

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  I finally looked up at my parents, who were nodding with serious expressions.

  “When the other kids were trying to use their magic during the fight, I kept reaching for it. It started to feel warmer and a little less empty. That’s the only way I can describe it. I don’t know if it was null magic or not.”

  Dad and Mom looked at each other.

  “Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know yet.” Mom said, reaching out to hold my hand. “Maybe we can test it out later. Yes, we should. But first, let’s talk about what this might mean.” She looked at Dad.

  “Right. The town folk already think you have null magic, whether you do or not. If you don't, maybe we can change their minds on that point. However, you know how quickly gossip and rumor travels, right, especially when it is bad?”

  We all nodded.

  “If people think you have null magic, even if it isn’t true, it’s what they will believe. Do you know what they did to null magic users in the past?”

  He looked at me, but continued after a pause, “They were put to death.”

  Silence.

  I couldn’t breathe. I was having a panic attack. I had to get away! No, we had to get away! I stood up, ready to run.

  “No, sit back down, Jer.” Mom said, gently grabbing my arm. “We need to discuss this as a family, calmly. We will make a decision together and abide by it.”

  “Yes.” Dad agreed. “I see only two possibilities, really. One, we continue to claim that you don’t have null magic, or any magic at all. And try to convince the town. Or two, we leave… move away to another town, which doesn’t know us. If you really do have null magic affinity, we might even have to move to another kingdom, one which is more tolerant.”

  “I vote that we leave now, while we still can,” Lil spoke up for the first time.

  “But where would we go?” Fin asked.

  “There are several towns nearby, but we would probably need to go as far as Hulls Crossing to be sure no one has heard of us or from anyone here,” Dad said.

  “We would need a wagon and a horse to pull it,” Mom said.

  “Yes,” Dad agreed. “That will take a while, so we can’t leave soon. I’ll probably have to go to New Perrin, since I can’t get what we need here, according to the mayor.”

  “Right, so as I see it, our choice has been made already, at least for the short term.” Mom said. “We stay here, but prepare to leave as soon as we can. If we don’t end up leaving, by some miracle, so much the better. It will be good to have a horse and wagon for the future.”

  “I agree. How do the rest of you feel about this plan?”

  “I don’t like that we have to leave,” Fin said.

  “I do. It could be fun to go to a better town where people are friendlier," Lil said.

  Finally, I spoke up, “I wish… I wish we lived in a different world, where we didn’t have to run away. But I think we are going to have to, eventually. So I agree with the plan.”

  “Alright, now that is settled,” Mom said, with a smile at me. “Would you like to try a test, to learn what magic affinity you might have?”

  I smiled, in spite of the atmosphere. “Sure.”

  “Let’s go outside then.” We all went out the back, to where there was some space to move.

  “I’m going to start a small breeze,” she said. “I want to see if you can stop it.”

  “Okay.”

  She held up her hands. Slowly we could all feel a little breeze blowing through our hair. I tried to think of what I did yesterday. I felt for that warm emptiness again, but, for some reason, I didn’t feel it.

  After a while, she lowered her hands and the breeze died out. “I’m not feeling anything. Did you try?” she asked.

  “I did, but I couldn’t find the right feeling this time.”

  “Hmm. Try to think like you did yesterday. Maybe imagine that this ferocious wind is trying to blow our house down, and you are the only one who can stop it.”

  “Okay, let me try that.”

  She started the breeze again, only this time it was building, stronger and stronger. She had her eyes closed and was really straining.

  I tried to remember the fear, the desperation to save my family. This time I felt it, so I reached for it, trying to stop the wind which was putting us in danger.

  The wind quickly calmed and stopped.

  Mom opened her eyes, with a small smile, but it quickly disappeared as she looked around at the family.

  “Well, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear?” She winked at me, but didn’t wait. “You definitely cancelled my magic, I could feel the power going away, like I couldn’t find it any more. So, good news: you have a magic affinity. Bad news: it is null magic.”

  I had that warm emptiness feeling inside, but I now felt a deep sense of dread.

  We would never be safe here. We might never be safe anywhere.

  [Kinneshel]

  I walked to town to get some bread and supplies at the market, pretending it was just another day shopping. I had dropped off the twins at the green to play, like they usually did. We had to leave Jer at home, it was not safe for him.

  At first, no one said anything. It seemed like a nice, normal day. Then I heard the door open and close behind me. Upon hearing nothing more, I turned to look and saw several men and women stopped just inside, glaring at me.

  I turned back to what I was doing and tried to ignore them, hoping they would go away. I was nearly done finding what I needed. Then I would go collect the children from the village green and we could return home.

  One of the women came marching over to me, Mrs. Marshek I believe. Her husband was in the infantry. “You need to leave at once!”

  I looked up at her. “Oh, and why is that?”

  “You… your family… your child,” She spat the last word. “He has null magic! And he attacked my son yesterday. Broke ‘is nose, he did. I talked to the mayor, and your family isn’t allowed in town any more.”

  She thought for a moment. “You know that the king has proclaimed null magic evil and illegal. Any users must be killed.” She grinned evilly at me, “Y’best watch out for ‘im.”

  I had heard enough, so I slapped her face hard. She fell back against a shelf, knocking the contents off, and spilling them all over her as she fell to the floor.

  “You have no proof that anyone in my family has null magic!” I yelled at her, and everyone else present. “Don’t you go spouting off your mouth like that without proper evidence.”

  Everyone was too stunned, so I left what I had, turned to the door and quickly made my way outside.

  [Finneren]

  “Um… We can’t play with you no more,” Gerrith said. “Mom was really mad.”

  “Why not?” I asked. “We just want to run around and play until Mom is done at the market.”

  “I don’t want to say,” he replied.

  “My Pa said your brother was nullified, or some’m like that,” another boy chimed in. “Don’t know what it means though.”

  Then the kids ran off. I guess we were on our own. So we walked around the green for a while, me looking for insects and Lil collecting flowers. We kept noticing kids watching us, adults too, but they were watching us with narrowed eyes.

  Eventually, Mom came to get us with a sour expression on her face. “Let’s go, children.”

  We were going to talk to her about what happened, but she didn’t give us the chance.

  For some reason we had to almost run to keep up with her as we walked home.