For Rashella, there weren't many happy places. In a land consumed by war, where does one turn for peace? For Rashella, it was her own personal Oasis- a little pond that no one knew about- a grove of trees people hardly ever gave a second glance. Rashella came here when she needed to be alone, when she needed to forget her memories.

At the moment, her memories were stronger than ever. Every time she closed her eyes she could see the orange glow of fire, she could taste the ash in the air, and she could smell the scents of blood and death.

She opened her eyes and shook her head to clear it. "I'm in my happy place." She reminded herself. "I'm completely safe."

Instead of closing her eyes again, she looked around her Oasis. From the pond where she sat she could see the trees that towered above her, protecting her from the outside world. She could also see the flowers they protected as well, bright yellow flowers that Rashella often took care of herself.

The Oasis was so colorful compared to the rest of the town. The sun shown down from the clear blue sky, and its brightness shone yellow and gold onto the Oasis. Combined with the blue of the sky, the blue tinted pond, the flowers, and the trees, the Oasis started to look less like a real place and more of a picture painted for the sole purpose of giving Rashella a place to rest from her burdens.

Rashella closed her eyes once again and this time was able to rid herself of her memories. If only for a moment she could rest. She saw her Oasis in her mind, and she started to picture the things that made her happy. She pictured her parents, and her uncle, and her adoptive mother all standing around her with big smiles on their faces. She pictured her friends, and she pictured peace. She was so caught up in the peacefulness of the image that her eyes grew heavy, and as they were already closed she fell fast asleep.

She awoke sometime later, and sat up with a groan. Was that the sunset she was seeing? She slowly stood up, and rung the water from her pants. She shook her head to wake herself up and gasped; she was gazing into the sunrise, for she had been in her Oasis all night.

With a frustrated sigh she made her way out of the Oasis. Her mother would be so worried! How could she be so careless? Rashella lectured herself as she ducked through the Oasis' door of vines and into the outskirts of town.

She sighed again. "Well, back to the real world I guess." She said and started the walk back to her house.

Landstown, as it was unoriginally called, was the town where most of the refuges from the war came. Rashella was no different; she was a refugee just like most of the others in the town. She had only been four when she was taken here, so she had been raised in Landstown. She had never particularly liked the town, but she had a family here and in her hometown there was nothing but ash and rubble, so she couldn't complain.

As she made her way she could just barely see the sun peeking up over the horizon, if she had to guess she would say that it was six o'clock or so. She could probably be home in time for breakfast, and she was starving after missing supper the night before. Even if she was hungry, she still didn't regret spending so much time in her Oasis; after all it was her home away from home, and even her home wasn't always a happy place.

When she finally arrived home the sun had fully risen and was beating down on her from the sky. Landstown was tropical most of the time, and was therefore fairly hot in nature, so Rashella was relieved that she could finally escape the suns golden rays.

She stepped inside her house and took a deep breath. "I'm home" she called out and stepped through the cramped entryway and into their kitchen.

The house was relatively small, but considering the hardness of times, and the fact that only her and her adoptive mother lived in it, the house was perfectly fine for their needs. The house wasn't overly colorful, most of it was beige or white, but there was the occasional color that she and her mother had decorated it with. There were colored pictures pinned on the walls throughout the house, pictures of rainbows and flowers, things she and her adoptive mother liked to draw.

When she entered the kitchen she saw her adoptive mother Marienne, sitting at the table with a bowl of porridge. She looked up and smiled.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked with a wink. "I take it you were at the Oasis again?"

Marienne was a very peculiar looking woman, with long black hair, pale skin, and dark brown eyes. She wore black most of the time, and so she gave the impression of being a dark and brooding woman. In reality, she was kind and though the burdens of living in a time of war had taken a toll on her, she still continued on living and making the best of her life. She frightened many of the others in the town, but Rashella couldn't have asked for a better person to adopt her.

"Yup..." Rashella replied. "I guess I fell asleep...I didn't mean to, honest." She exclaimed.

Marienne chuckled. "No, I imagine you didn't. But the place is so peaceful no? And you've been under so much stress lately; I would be dozing off myself if I were in your place."

Rashella grinned; Marienne somehow always seemed to be lenient towards her short-comings, perhaps it was because she was already so hyper-critical on herself, and Marienne simply wanted to balance things out.

Rashella's stomach groaned loudly in protest.

Marienne grinned and replied. "I thought you would never ask. There is porridge or leftovers from last night in the cooling cabinet. "

Rashella sighed in relief. "Thank you I'm starving!" she opened the cooling cabinet and retrieved the gravy-covered rice leftover from the supper she'd missed; she wasn't sure why but she preferred leftovers to breakfast food.

After breakfast Rashella went into her room, where she crashed back on her bed and fell asleep again. She had been sleeping more than she used to, perhaps it was from stress.

The stress was caused by Rashella's lack of ability to keep a steady job. When she turned fifteen, she decided to try and help her mother by getting a job. Times were hard enough as it was, and Marienne could barely afford to keep the two of them going. So Rashella had gotten several jobs over the past six months, and had only kept one of them more than a month.

She hadn't thought herself clumsy, but every job she'd gotten she'd been fired from for some major accident that she had caused.

When she had started babysitting, she had tried to show one of the kids how to light a fire in the fire place (The boy was ten years old, which was perfectly old enough to at least see how fire was made) but it resulted in their little dog's fur to catch on fire, and though the dog had been fine in the end, Rashella was not hired again.

When she tried to be a street musician, she accidentally slipped on the hat they were collecting money in, sending it flying and she also went flying right into the rest of her little band. She knocked everyone over and a few instruments got broken...she was promptly told to find another job by her disgruntled companions.

The only job she hadn't been fired from was as a waitress, though she had been compelled to quit because of an incident involving a drunken customer who had somehow fallen in love with her over the course of an afternoon.

So she had been stressed out, and she was hoping that things would settle down soon. What she would soon find out however, was that things wouldn't settle down at all, they would only get much, much worse.

When she woke up she stretched with a yawn and left her room. She found Marienne at the table pouring over the mail.

She sorted out the bills that needed to be paid, and then she came to a letter that had a fancy red seal. She and Rashella both gasped. Marienne turned and looked at her adopted daughter with tear-filled eyes.

"What is that?" Rashella asked curiously. "What's going on mother?"

Rashella walked closer to see the letter; it had Rashella's name written on it, as well as her address, and it was stamped with the Imperial flag on the letter's blood-red seal.

Marienne sighed, wiping the bitter tears from her eyes. "Sit down Rashella; I have a secret to tell you."

Rashella immediately took a seat across from her mother and stared into her tear-filled eyes. The whole thing felt surreal to her, though not nearly as surreal as what she would hear next.

"Rashella, when you were younger, you were given to me as part of the Refugee program...Before that you were seen by a doctor. Do you remember this?"

Rashella shook her head. "All I remember was being scared until I came here."

Marienne nodded. "Well, you were seen by a doctor. He checked to make sure you were not harmed, and then he checked something else as well." She sighed, trying to find the words. "He was part of a scientific study that the government was conducting in secret. You see, sometime ago scientists started to believe that all humans have a magic within us. In fact, they believe that it is the very thing keeping us alive. Well, some special people can harness that magic within them, and use it for powerful things."

Rashella frowned, trying to make sense of what she was being told. "But what does that have to do with me?!" she demanded, barely grasping what she was being told.

Marienne frowned. "You are one of those special few." The tears from her eyes threatened to turn into sobs. "And...and for years now, they have been sending me mail, instructing me to tell you. Encouraging me to train you the best I can. They have never been overly aggressive about it, just consistent. But now...now I fear that they are growing impatient..."

This was unfair. Rashella had never asked for an adventure, she had never sought after anything more than mediocrity and normality. But whether she wanted it or not, she now knew that she would be forced into doing something she wouldn't like. But what exactly? And how was she supposed to use her powers anyway? What exactly were her powers?

Marienne shakily handed Rashella the envelope. "Read it" she croaked. "It will answer your questions. But where there are answers there are always regrets." She covered her face and let her head drop onto the table, dreading the words that they both knew would come.

Rashella shakily opened the envelope and pulled out the letter that it contained. She took a deep breath to prepare herself, once she read this letter there would be no turning back.

She cleared her throat and read aloud.

"Rashella Aria Baldwyn, by now you have been informed of your powers and hopefully you have been even just slightly trained.

"Rashella, you are a powerful young woman. And you have the potential for amazing feats of a heroic nature. Your powers are to be cherished and they should fill you with pride.

"That being said, the war is taking a toll on the Ignations. Thousands of soldiers are dying every day to defend our lands, and with the Saraihn Empire gaining the upper-hand, we need heroes like yourselves to aid our conquest.

"You must report in the Landstown square to the officer we have sent to your town on the twenty-fourth of June in the year of one-thousand, six-hundred, and twenty three A.S.

"If you fail to report you will be collected and if you attempt to make yourself unavailable in any way you and your family will suffer the dire consequences.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. -Ignacio, the emperor of the Ignations."

When she finished reading she dropped the letter and they both began to sob. She had three days before she would be sent off to war. Perhaps she was being pessimistic, but she had the strong impression that once she left, she would never be able to return. For a clumsy teenage girl like her, being drafted was the cruelest death sentence she ever could have received.