"Beanni, get up!" The young teen heard her mother call to her outside her bedroom door. The stinging behind her eyelids made it feel like it was the Noir hour itself; it felt so inappropriate to get up this early.

"Beanni!" Lorren Draoicis-Lus repeated, her voice rising in her frustration.

"I'm up!" Beanni croaked and heard her mother's footsteps walk away, as she stretched out her arms and sat up.

She flung her legs over the side of the wooden frame and flipped her long, wavy, light-auburn hair over her head so that it draped to her favoured side. With an involuntary groan, she scrunched up her face then allowed her sapphire eyes to blink open to let in the pale light of dawn.

She dragged her heels towards her chest-of-drawers and fought against her heavy eyelids to focus on the wooden structure. She had no idea what she should wear that day. It being her first day attending Queen Amber Academy seemed to pile on the pressure to make the perfect decision.

"By the stars, Bay! Pull yourself together!" she scolded herself out loud and forced her hands to open a drawer.

She put on plain underwear, then fished out a pair of blue trousers, a white vest and her favourite baggy, knitted jumper. She practically lived in that over-sized, knitwear. Her father bought it for himself from the Sprèintis family a year ago, but never got to wear it because his little girl took it, tried it on and fell in love with it. Of course Lorrus loved to see a smile upon his blue-eyed lass's face and could not bring himself to ask for it back. It fell over her slender shoulders like a warm embrace and the long sleeves flopped over her hands in a quirky, yet endearing way.

When Beanni was finally dressed she grabbed her belt with the built in maroon pouch, which housed her light orb, tied it around her wool-clad waist and headed towards the door.

She made her way to the kitchen, where her two brothers and her favourite person in the whole world sat having breakfast.

"Good morning, Bay!" Lorrus greeted her from behind a slice of toast that was raised towards his smiling face.

"Morning Daddy!" She skipped to his side and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before sitting down.

"It took you long enough, Beanni, what were you doing this whole time?" Lorren questioned her daughter over her hunched shoulder, as she slaved over the dishes in the kitchen sink.

"I..." Beanni's cheeks began to burn as she felt the gaze of her eldest brother on her, she knew that he would judge her for what she was going to say next. "I didn't know what to wear."

Then, just as she expected, a loud scoff was heard from the other side of the table. He didn't dare do much else - not whilst his father was sitting beside him.

"How are you feeling about today, Bay?" Lorrus asked, his dark eyes filled with genuine concern for his daughter.

"Fine," she answered. Her sapphire eyes were not able to leave the force of her brother's ridiculing smirk.

"Well you needn't worry about it. Okay? Dillan will keep you right." His focus then switched to his younger son who seemed to be in a world of his own. "Isn't that right, Dillan?"

"Hmm?"

"You'll take care of your sister won't you?" Lorrus asked, purposefully ignoring the irritable nature of his other son's head shake.

"Oh! Yeah, sure!" The dark haired lad nodded quickly and gave a quick, timid smile towards Beanni before his amber eyes met the intimidating frown of his brother. He then shrank back and dug into the rest of his breakfast.

"There you are, Bay, my girl. You'll be just fine."

"Okay, Dad."

Once Lorrus finished his breakfast he looked up at Aeron-Lius, who quickly relaxed his brow in response.

"Come on, Aeron-Lius, time to go. You got everything?"

"What are we harvesting today again, Dad?"

"Medicinal roots for Slànacus, Son."

"Of course!" Aeron-Lius jumped to his feet and rushed towards the corridor that lead to the bedrooms.

Lorrus then got up from the table, kissed Beanni on the top of her head, then made his way to his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"We'll be gone all day today, my love," he informed her.

"Alright, Lorrus. Could you bring back some Goirt-fell Root? We've run out and my headaches have been relentless lately," she replied in a pitiful voice, warranting a tender kiss on the temple from her husband.

"Of course," he said in a soft voice, then turned towards the table where his remaining two children were still seated. "Illuminare-Trabem bless your day, you two."

"Beannas, Dad!" The two responded together as if rehearsed, then watched him grab his navy blue cloak.

He shouted over his shoulder, "Come on, Aeron-Lius!" Then disappeared out of the door.

Aeron-Lius made sure that he passed Beanni on the way to the front door, so that he could give her hair a harsh tug on the way past. Her head jerked uncomfortably and her hand flew to the stinging spot on her scalp. She didn't bother to cry out or to make a fuss, for she knew her mother would refuse to believe that Aeron-Lius would carry out such a vicious attack. She always took his side.

"Bye Mum!" he said innocently as he rushed out after his Dad, his velvet cloak flapped behind him as he entered the cool, blustery foghna day.

"Bye, my boy!"

Beanni managed to catch a glimpse of the orange and brown hues that nature adorned at this time of year, before the door swung shut. A peaceful silence fell over the three for a few seconds before the sound of Lorren's gasp ripped her daughter from any possible day dreaming.

"Look at the state of your hair!" her mother said, once she finally tore her focus away from her son catching up with his father outside. "Beanni, did you not think to brush it? Go and fix yourself up, you need to leave in a minute. Dillan, you too, finish getting ready please!" Beanni stood up from the table and watched her mother make her way to the living room.

"I saw what he did," Dillan said under his breath, whilst gathering his things. "It was out of order."

"Thanks, Dil," Beanni matched his hushed tone, aware that he was whispering so that their mother wouldn't overhear. She didn't bother to go and find a brush, she felt that scraping one through the unruly mess on her head was a complete waste of time.

"Are you ready to go?" Dillan piped up.

"I think so," Beanni replied, biting at her bottom lip.

"You'll be fine, come on!" he reassured her with a kind smile, grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards the front door.

Beanni sat at her wooden desk in silence. She shared her space with a girl, who had a blonde, chin-length bob and sparkling emerald eyes. They met in the corridor and clicked right away, for they had plenty to talk about. Lola was part of the Slànacus family, who as healers, worked closely with Beanni's father because he supplied them with magical plants for medicine.

"Hello everybody, now, those of you who are new here, my name is Nani Fiosolim and I teach Natanstrellean History. You'll be coming here three days a week - Beaday, Vidurday and Fìorday. You'll be coming here until you reach fifteen then you all will split into your various family classes to learn trade theory." She then reached into the purple pouch on her belt. "Now, let's begin shall we?"

She then blew into her lit up palm and the light grew to fill her grasp. She closed her eyes in concentration and opened them again as the room filled with white light that began to take form into the shape of a large, book. Upon the cover, golden letters displayed the words "Natanstrellean Contemporary History."

"Now, within this first term we'll be answering the question - Why is history important? For the new students, this topic is not as straightforward as you may think, the older students will surely agree that it is always worth going over."

The groans coming from the back of the classroom was not the response the history teacher was looking for. With a roll of her eyes and a sigh she continued.

"Within the years that followed the miraculous end to the Noir Era (We'll be going over that era in another topic later this year) Queen Astrid the first made a lot of changes to our society. Now, can any of the older ones tell me what those changes were? Let's list the Acts together."

The light cast from her light orb began to swirl around their heads as it began to reorganize itself to make up three-dimensional bullet-points in the air.

"Number one..." Nani Fiosolim prompted.

"Queen Astrid enforced the smoke-gazing ban," a red-haired girl, seated in the middle row, answered confidently.

"That's right, Ellen," the magical light then began to write the red-haired student's answer beside the first bullet point. "Okay, the next one..."

"Erm... Learning history was made compulsory?" said a less sure boy sitting directly behind Ellen.

"That's right, Micah." The boy sighed in relief as his answer was written below Ellen's, in shining gold writing. "And lastly..." the teacher added, looking around the classroom for another keen student.

"Ooh!" Beanni threw up her arm in eagerness, earning an impressed look from her desk partner.

"Yes? Erm..."

"Beanni Draoicis-Lus, Ma'am," she offered brightly.

"Thank you, yes Beanni," the teacher rattled off but then stopped and looked into the new student's sapphire eyes. "Beanni?"

"Yes?"

The teacher's olive green eyes widened as she let such an unusual name sink in. She then shook her head and refocused.

"I'm sorry, did you have an answer?"

"Erm, yeah, I think so. Is it the creation of the annual festivals - Strellemarè and Thalla-Noir?"

A smile then stretched the teacher's pale pink lips and she could not hide the pleasure she felt for her bright new student.

"Yes! The annual festivals Strellemarè and Thalla-Noir were established."

Beanni felt a nudge from her right, which was followed by Lola's congratulatory whispers, which drew out a proud smile on her tan face.

"There you have it, the three topics that I'll be covering within this first term." Nani Fiosolim announced then dove straight into the first topic in great detail.

"So, was your first day as bad as you thought it'd be?" Dillan asked Beanni in a teasing voice, as they made their way through the streets of Central City.

"I never said it was going to be bad, I was just nervous," Beanni retorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sure," he laughed in response shaking his head. "Learn anything new?"

"Yeah, today's lesson was about the smoke-gazing ban. I never knew that the Fiosolim family were all forced to stare into smoke to gain wisdom, which not all came from Illuminare-Trabem some think. Isn't that bizarre? I can't imagine it. What kind of life would that be?" Beanni began to ramble. "It's no wonder that Queen Astrid banned the practice, it just seems so harmful."

"Yes but, wasn't it smoke gazing that truly saved Natanstrelle from Noir-Astra's reign?"

"Well we're not learning about that yet!" Beanni shoved her brother in the side. "And no it wasn't, I thought the violet light did, remember Dad told us! The magic of the royals cast away the darkness."

"Yeah alright sure, but you'll find that smoke gazing did serve its part. I mean, it's not all bad."

"It's illegal, Dil!"

"You can be so black and white at times, Bay."

"Well Nani Fiosolim told us that it destroyed her grandfather's life!"

"Jeremai Fiosolim was a traitor, who used the smoke to help Noir-Astra," Dillan added, then raised his eyebrows as he thought more about it. "It can be hard to live with a dark family past sometimes."

"Yeah..." Beanni agreed and shared a look of deep understanding with her big brother.

"Oi! Draoics!" A loud bellowing voice echoed around them. They couldn't work out where it came from as it bounced around the many white houses surrounding them. Suddenly Beanni felt someone grab her jumper and she tumbled backwards onto the ground.

"Hey! Leave her alone! You filthy Biab!" Dillan yelled and launched himself towards the lad that stared down at the thirteen year old girl at his feet. They began to fight and another Biabus-Lus lad joined in.

"Stop it! Leave my brother alone! Stop!" Beanni's desperate yells fell on deaf ears.

"G-et out o-f h-ere, Be-anni!" Dillan struggled to get his words out as he focused on blocking blows.

"I-I'll get help!"

She rushed to her feet and sprinted towards the Academy, but before she got anywhere near its entrance, she bumped into a boy and knocked him over.

"Woah, where are you going in such a hurry?" the boy said, getting back up and dusting himself down.

"I-I'm sorry! M-my brother is in trouble! He's..." she then went to move towards the light grey building she was just sitting in less than an hour ago. But, was stopped by the boy's red, clad arm.

"What's wrong with your brother?"

"He's in a fight. Two lads just attacked us. I was running to get help. Please let me pass!"

"I'll sort it! Take me to them!"

"What can you do?" Beanni said in an incredulous tone. "I must get an adult!"

"Come on! Take me to them!" The boy refused to listen to Beanni's further objections, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the direction that she ran from.

Beanni soon gave in and took him to her brother. She had no idea what this curly-haired boy was planning. They stopped yards away from the brawl, which now had turned into two lads kicking Dillan, who lay curled up on the floor.

The boy pulled his red sleeves up and stepped forward. He raised his light orb above his head and shouted, "Stop!"

Violet light cast out from his light orb and changed the white buildings around them into a vibrant purple. The Biabus-Lus lads froze mid kick and Dillan scurried out from underneath them and ran towards Beanni's side.

"Are you alright?" she asked him as he squeezed his aching ribs.

"Y-yes just f-fine," he managed to sneak in an answer before the boy wielding violet magic began to speak with authority.

"Biabus-Lus! Go home both of you, I'm letting you off with a warning!"

The two he addressed did not hesitate to obey, they knew that the violet glow from the boy's orb could only mean one thing. As did the two that stood behind him.

"Y-your the Prince?" Beanni asked with her mouth agape, causing him to turn around. "P-Prince Oslac?"

The violet light retracted back into his orb.

"I am!" He stored his light orb away, then added with a beaming smile, "and I've always wanted to do that!"