My legs take me from the outskirts of the forest into the clear, pristine waters of the forest's blue heart. The spring had been here for a long time and it's cool and crisp waters turned a sprawling garden into the majestic forest that Black Spring province is known for. Some say it's enchanted. I don't doubt it for a second. I take a step back, taking in the view. The spring might as well been a lake of liquid crystal. Near the shore, you can see hints of iridescent silvery gray that draws me in everytime, that makes me add another thing to the many qualities of the spring that I find beautiful. Sighing, I resist the urge to take a dip. Not now. After the dues are paid I tell myself.

      I slowly walk past the spring and through the foliage of the forest. I only get about 10 yards before my senses tingle. Someone is using magic. I turn around, expecting an elf or some water sprite that was visiting the spring or heading up for fresh air. Instead, I see two figures clad in dark hunting leathers with several wards whorled around it and a piece of cloth shielding their features. I narrowed my eyes. The wards made my sixth sense, magic, fuzzy and blurred, shrouded their identity, making it hard to tell what magfolk they were and what magic they possessed. Only those up to no good cast wards like that. Carefully, I pulled out Mira, my dagger and clutched it, the swirls activating when I touched it. Made from hardened silver steel, Mira was razor-sharp, a characteristic that further enhanced when my magic flowed into the dagger, causing the swirls to glow purple. Clearly, those two magifolk could be dangerous and my magic wouldn't be effective against them with the wards. Having a weapon offered more protection than my magic.

    Although the wards made it hard to detect them with magic, it didn't erase the footprint they left behind on their surroundings. I willed my magic to focus on the air around them, to feel the vibrations of their footsteps, to feel the vibrations coming from their mouth as they talked and the way the atmosphere shifted around them. Magic welled up inside me as focused more on how the air that vibrated as they talked and willed the magic to be an extension of my ears. Their words came to me with sudden clarity as if they were standing right next to me as they spoke.

     "Are you sure the crystal apple is here? The longer we stay in this cursed forest, the easier it is for them to find us," a rough, but ancient sounding voice said.

     "My sources told me it was here." He turned his head toward the spring. "Crystal fruit only grow near the spring" said the second figure in a clipped tone that didn't hide the smooth earthly tones of his voice.

    I suppressed a gasp. Crystal fruit stopped growing the day Black Spring got its name. They say although the spring, plentiful with water, couldn't stop the forest from burning black that day. People called the spring the heart of the forest but that day, that very day, it had looked like a real one with the red flames, towering, the redness being reflected by the spring. Only when the ashes of the forest, the forest it nurtured, surrounded it and painted the waters black did it look sad and defeated. The spring never fully recovered after that. It stopped producing crystal fruit, a delicious variation of normal fruits that contained unique healing and magic enhancing abilities. From what I heard, those fruits glittered and gleamed brighter than jewels and you could see the shards of "crystal" refracting the light in a certain way to form colors and they tasted as good as they looked. It was like carrying a piece of the spring.

      It had been centuries since the fire had happened, if what he said was true, then the sapling would be the rarest plant in all of Adevar. Clearly, they meant to take it for themselves. I wasn't obsessed with plants but I refused to let these two magifolks take the sapling and let them use it for their personal gain. Before I could think about what to do, the guy who had a rough voice turns his head in my direction. A fraction a second before he looks at me, an unfamiliar power bursts from me, enveloping me in it's tendrils. Before I can do anything, his gaze settles on me, my breath caught in my throat as I find myself staring into purple eyes so dark, they are almost black. Eyes so intense they radiated power. Immediately, I snap out of my trance and looked down at myself. To my surprise, he doesn't react. It's like he can't see me. Confused, I look down at myself. Where my body should've been, lies a shadow. I had turned into a shadow. Startled, I take off deeper into the woods. My footsteps are as silent as stone like it's not physically there.

     Slowing to a stop, I took calming breaths. What had happened back there? I shivered as I remembered in that brief but unsettling moment when my magic turned into something I couldn't recognize and control. I shook my head. It was probably a lapse. Every magifolk had moments where there control over their magic lapsed for a couple of seconds. That must have happened. As I try to get my bearings I catch a glimpse of my reflection in a nearby puddle. Instead of a face with that looked elven with green eyes, I saw my normal face except my saffron eyes were now ringed with black, reminding me of a fire. Then, the black ring slowly faded away until the only thing that remained was two saffron orbs, confused and unsettled.

     I grabbed my satchel and ran home faster than I came.