KERES FELT HER BREATHS coming in short, sharp gasps. The screaming, quiet at first became louder and louder. It died down as she listened, and became a thick silence filled with the clinking of armour, and the crackle of burning wood. She spun in a circle, staring around wildly. The Tenebrian army massed around her, and she tried not to fall over.

Her vision was spinning.

The rebel army had scattered, but bodies lay strewn over the ground. She stared at them.

Had she done that?

"Where is my father?" Keres asked, trying to stop her voice from cracking. It didn't work.

There was silence.

"I need to see the King and Queen!" she said, but no one would even look at her. They all averted their eyes, muttering quietly.

There was a commotion at the back of the growing crowd. Someone pushed their way to the front. Keres recognised Ragnar. She took an unsteady step forward, and Ragnar caught her arm.

"Well, well, well little sis."

He had changed in a year. Keres tried to push his hand away, but he wrapped an arm around her waist and propped her up.

There was a cut over his eye, and his armour was dented badly. So he had been fighting.

"I didn't expect to see you here." he said, raising his good eyebrow.

"Too bad. You needed me."

"Mother and father have missed you." he offered, helping her through the crowd. They pressed on every side, staring at her. There were faint whispers, but Keres couldn't make them out. She didn't care. She was back home. She was safe.

Keres stared around the familiar palace. It looked exactly the same as she'd left it. The same arching pillars, empty hallways, the same (well similar) guards that carefully looked the other way as they passed.

"No damage here?" she asked, peering around.

"They didn't get this far. I had the whole army concentrated on the entrance to the city."

"When you realised." Keres corrected.

"Yes." conceded Ragnar, sighing exasperatedly. "I suppose so."

They made their way into the throne room. The damage that Keres had caused had been long fixed, and they'd replaced the tiles that she had cracked.

Her mother and father were crowded around the table, surrounded by a number of notable nobles that Keres vaguely recognised.

Ragnar coughed. Everyone turned to stare at them.

There was a shocked gasp.

Ragnar slid out from under Keres' arm, and stood stiffly to attention.

"Mother, father."

Keres' mother gaped, open mouthed at her.

"Mother, I--" Keres began, but Ragnar cut her off.

He turned and grinned at her.

That was when everything went wrong.

She knew that grin. He had grinned that grin every single time he had dropped her right in it. Keres' heart dropped into the soles of her shoes. He wouldn't. He couldn't do that to her.

"It was lucky that Keres turned up when she did." began Ragnar, patting her on the shoulder. "Without her magic, we would have lost for certain."

"Magic?" asked her father, and she saw a glint in his eye. "You mean, the same magic she used to attack me?"

"Look, father I have it under control." Keres stepped forward, palms raised. The assembled nobility flinched as one. "I have a gift."

"A gift." her mother hissed. "The Dark Fay have gifts. You have the nerve to come back here and jeopardise our entire operation? Then we find out you're practicing witchcraft!"

"Mother." snarled Keres. "I would have died for you. You would have lost without me. You would all be dead if I hadn't come back to save your stupid kingdom, and you're complaining about me using magic?!?."

"I don't want to hear another word." said her mother. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you have left me no other choice."

"We should have known you would come back." added her father. "This is nothing but another plot to overthrow your brother."

"Overthrow?" Keres cried. "I came back because I wanted to be a family again. I wanted to make things right between us!"

"Nothing will ever be right between you, and this family." sneered Ragnar, grabbing her arms. "Guards!"

"You can't do this to me." laughed Keres hollowly, gripping her staff. 

Ragnar clapped a pair of shackles over both her wrists. Keres sighed, and tried in vain to conjure a spell. Tiredness fell over her shoulders like a cloak.

It didn't work.

"Iron." said Ragnar as way of an explanation.

Keres  blinked.

"It renders your magic useless."

"You can't do this to me, I'll kill you." Keres felt the anger rising, the pure, unbridled rage. He had caged her like a bird, weak and pathetic. There was nothing she felt towards these people except rage. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL." she screamed, fighting as more guards ran forward, dragging her backwards.

"Good luck with that little sis."

********

54 years later...

"Alizah." Bri said, her words choked with tears.

The girl in front of her opened her eyes. They glowed brightly, like two blue lamps boring into the darkness.

"Brianna, this isn't real. It's messing with your head - that thing." pleaded Cassian, touching her arm lightly.

Bri couldn't think. She took a deep, shuddering breath, reached out tentatively and touched Alizah's arm. Her whole body dissipated into a thousand coloured lights.

Words echoed around the clearing. It was Alizah's voice, clear as she remembered.

"It's good to see you Brinnie."

"Alizah." Bri whimpered. "Alizah please don't go."

"I forgive you Brinnie. You need to forgive yourself. It wasn't your fault."

"You were sick. I could have made you better."

"I wasn't going to get better Brianna."

"You shouldn't have died." Bri sobbed. "I miss you so much."

"It's alright. I love you."

The voice faded, until all that was left were the coloured lights.

They spun faster and faster, flying around her head, and landed like snow on the ground behind Cassian. They rose as she watched and slowly formed a picture.

"YOU WANT TO REMEMBER." said a voice, echoing around them.

Cassian pulled Bri into his side, resting his head on hers. "I need my memories back."

Suddenly, they were surrounded by the blue light. It blocked out all view of the lake.

It was a house.

The house was small, and had thick roses growing up the walls. Outside, two girls were sitting on a thin fence that encased the building. With a shock, Bri recognised Skye. She was laughing at something, her head thrown back. The other girl had the same ginger hair, but she was smaller.

Bri didn't quite know how blue light could achieve the effect of a late summer's day, but it worked alright. Cassian's arm had gone limp around her.

"Skye! Mairi!"

The shout was faint, like hearing a voice underwater, but Bri knew it anyway. It was Cassian's, but he wasn't speaking.

As she watched, he pushed open the door and made his way into the handkerchief sized garden, and the girls jumped off the fence to greet him. Skye punched him lightly on the arm, and dodged as he tried to hit her back. Mairi laughed.

The vision blurred. It started to get faster and faster, skipping through image after image, until they were speeding by so quickly that Bri couldn't keep up anymore.

It was a battlefield.

Two figures fighting, one with a staff streaked in gold. The figure was in armour, the same armour as the statue. Cassian's armour.

There was a crack as her staff connected with his sword.

A burst of energy, bright golden light. People were thrown out of the way of the blast. When the dust cleared, all that was left was a statue, glinting dully in the sunlight.

It was nothing.

The light cleared as quickly as it had come. The lake, as still as stone rippled.

Cassian pulled his arm off Bri and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Bri asked.

"Away."

"What?"

"This was a mistake."

Bri bridled. "Excuse me?"

Cassian turned. Bri was shocked to see tears in his eyes.

"I remember everything." he said. "Everything. I can't see anyone else get hurt."'

"Whatever happens." Bri whispered, holding out her hand. Cassian shook his head. "Whatever happens." she repeated, shocked to feel the tears falling again. "You can't leave now."

"I can't let anything happen to you."

Bri tried to smile, but all that came out was a strained grimace. "I'm stronger than you think."

"My sister is DEAD because of me."

"What?"

"She begged to be in that army. I let her. This is all my fault."

"No." said Bri, wiping the tears away, and marching towards Cassian. "You do not get to do this."

"Do what?"

"What you're doing right now! Beating yourself up about something you couldn't POSSIBLY control. I know how you feel. I've been there."

Cassian frowned.

"I'm not letting you make the same mistakes I did. You are not giving up now. You've come too far. You need to see Skye again. I bet she feels exactly the same way as you."

His face crumpled up, and he started to cry. Bri pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his shaking shoulders.

"You wouldn't last an hour without me." she breathed. "I'm not giving up on you yet."

Bri wiped the last of the tears off her face. She sniffed, and squeezed Cassian's hand.

They had been walking through the forest - anything to get away from the lake. The forests were thick as always, but Bri couldn't seem to see past Cassian. He had been quiet, but reserved. She had asked him to explain the images.

He had kept it brief.

They had been a happy family - Cassian and his sisters, Mairi and Skye. His parents had been alchemists, experimenting with chemicals and other odd substances that gave off smokes, and occasionally exploded. They had created a powder that blew up with the addition of a single spark. It was their greatest invention, but they had to keep it secret.

Once the King and Queen found out, they asked for the recipe. Unwilling to say, Cassian's parents had been preparing to leave, when it happened.

Cassian, Mairi and Skye had been outside, loading up the horses. Someone had thrown a torch in the back window. The whole house had blown up. With all that black powder lying around, neither of them stood a chance.

Cass and his sisters had been travelling for a while, recruiting people to overthrow the king and queen, when they Vya found them. She took them under her wing.

From then on, everything was history.

The birds, which had been making strange chirruping noises in the background of Bri's thoughts, suddenly went silent.

Bri paused, whipping her head round.

"Something's coming."

Cassian was instantly alert. "What is it?" he whispered.

Something swooped through the treetops, claws outstretched, armour gleaming dully in the halflight of early morning.

"Armoured Griffin!" yelled Bri, "From the palace!"

She started into a dead sprint, running in between the trees, dragging Cassian behind her.

The griffin screeched, a long high scream that pierced through the silence.

Bri forced her feet to go faster, feeling her heart thudding in her ribcage.

"We can't outrun it!" Cassian wheezed, stopping suddenly, and letting go of her hand. "It's coming for me."

Bri halted, and turned to look at him. He was staring at the sky, waiting, his arms outstretched.

A huge shape burst through the treetops, claws outstretched, heading straight for Cassian.

Bri didn't think. She threw herself in front of Cassian, just as the griffin's claws wrapped around her abdomen, knocking all the air out of her.

She heard Cassian's cry, but the griffin was heading up for open sky. She couldn't scream, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except watch as she was hauled upwards, branches slicing her face.

There was a dull thud, and pain blossomed across the back of her skull. Everything started to go dark, her vision blurred and swum in front of her eyes.

She felt nothing.