Tied to a wagon and beaten by figures with faces that could not be seen, Talon found his hands and legs bound as pain erupted across his body. “No, not again!” Talon cried, desperately trying to break free of his bindings. There was nothing to be done.

  “This will always be your fate,” one of his captors said.

  “You shall experience endless pain until you beg for death,” the other added.

  What could he do? Talon wasn’t going to be rescued again. The only release was to beg for death, and that was becoming more and more tempting. “What do you want?” he asked.

  “Everything.”

  The shadowy figure raised a cloud that looked like a sword and plunged it into Talon’s chest. Unimaginable pain exploded, and he screamed as if his life were ending. “That was but the beginning,” the second one said with a dark laugh. Another cloud-shaped sword was raised and began to plunge toward his stomach.

  “Ahh!” Talon gasped and awoke, drenched in sweat. He looked around frantically while his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. It took him a moment to realize it was a nightmare. He went to gather the power and found he already had it.

  He rested his head on his pillow. Should I be scared about how easily I grab the power when I awake from these nightmares? Talon thought and stared at the ceiling. There was no going back to sleep. Each nightmare resulted in him getting up early, as he didn’t want to experience that terror again.

  How much longer would he suffer from these dreams? Talon wished they would go away. He couldn’t recall the last time he had a good night's rest. Ten minutes or an hour could have passed—he couldn’t say which, as it felt like an eternity. Sighing, he got out of bed and got dressed.

  Once he was dressed, Talon took a seated position and began to meditate. He didn’t want his guards shadowing him while he walked the halls aimlessly. In times like this, he would do exercises to try and keep himself calm. Utilizing the power, he would focus on small tasks like creating a fireball that slowly expanded. After doing that for a while, he created many fireballs that surrounded him. What surprised him was how much stronger he was getting.

  One of the benefits of holding the power constantly was that his body got used to it, allowing him to utilize more powerful attacks that took less energy. Was the benefit worth always holding the power? Talon wasn’t sure. Nothing would stop him from doing this, not until his nightmares were over. Assuming they ever ended.

  Eventually, the sun rose, and it was time to start his day. Talon got up, did a few stretches, and walked out of his room. Two Ashtari were standing guard today, Aurora and Dorvan. He didn’t mind that the two liked to work together, though he suspected they more than liked to fight together—not that he cared either way.

  Aurora would be a good teacher for Evelyn, assuming she would accept. He had a feeling Evelyn wanted him to teach her specifically, something he didn’t want to commit too much time to. There was so much to do. If only there were more hours in a day!

  Once he got to the throne room, he raised his hand to tell his guards to remain at the door and entered. Talon closed the door and saw Evelyn was already inside, who jumped up with a giant grin on her face. “About time you made it!” she said.

  “Evelyn? What are you doing up so early?” Talon asked.

  “I was too excited to sleep,” Evelyn said. Her feet were bouncing up and down, and she looked ready to jump. “I had a feeling you would be up early, so I made my way here as soon as I was ready!”

  She took a step closer when Talon raised his hand to have her stop. He couldn’t trust her, not yet. This might be a good thing; we can get this training over with early, and I can focus on other tasks after. Talon thought.

  “Worried I am here to kill you or something?” Evelyn said in a teasing tone.

  Talon ignored the comment. “No, but I don’t know if I can trust you yet.”

  “I understand,” Evelyn said with a slight bow of her head. She took a few feet back and stopped. “Is this far enough?”

  It took everything he had not to sigh. This girl was going to push her limits. “I have a couple of powerful Ashtari right outside this door. One of them is the strongest in the School of Power. I could have her teach you,” Talon said.

  Evelyn frowned and shook her head at the same time. “No. You will teach me. That was the agreement,” she said.

  I hate it when I’m right. Talon thought. She was right; he promised her father that he would teach her. There was no point in trying to get out of it anymore. “All right. What do you know of the power?” he asked.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  With a smile, Evelyn gathered the power. Talon was surprised; she was a lot more powerful than he had expected. Nowhere near his or the other Ashtari at the palace, but she would be close to being promoted to Ashtari if she were part of the school. At least in terms of raw power.

  “You know how to grab the power at will, that’s good,” Talon said.

  “I can do more than that,” Evelyn’s face grew serious, and she stretched out her palm. A ball of fire began to form. While strong, it was clear she needed proper guidance. It took her a few precious seconds to form the fireball, something that should be done within a second.

  “You’re further along than I expected,” Talon said. This was good; that meant she would learn quickly. Perhaps this agreement would be done quicker than expected.

  “I know one more thing,” Evelyn said, and the fireball disappeared. Miraculously, she gathered more power, and a strange purple aura began to surround her, swirling around her like a shield. “Try to throw something at me.”

  Talon reached out his right hand, and an empty bottle flew across the room into his hand. He pitched his arm.

  “Not that,” Evelyn said in an annoyed tone. “That won’t show what this can do. Use some skill of yours to try and penetrate this, and don’t do something weak!”

  The bottle landed on the ground, gently. Talon put both arms up, palms facing Evelyn. Fire began to radiate from his palms, but he hesitated. This attack could hurt her, maybe even kill her, and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. While not a violation of his agreement with Harold, he still didn’t want to harm her.

  “Perfect,” Evelyn said, her lips curled into a smile. “You better unleash that on me.”

  Crazy girl. Talon thought; he hoped she was ready. He unleashed the flames, which enveloped Evelyn completely to where he couldn’t see her. The flames were hot, and suddenly the fire began moving toward him! In the split second before the fire hit him, Talon refocused the power and absorbed the flames into his palms.

  The fire quickly disappeared into nothing, and Talon felt his body shake from adrenaline. That was far too close; if he had reacted a second later, he would have been seriously injured.

  “I’m so sorry!” Evelyn cried out. The power left her in the blink of an eye, along with the purple aura, and she rushed forward, stopping a few feet away as she remembered how he didn’t want her to get close. “I swear, that has never happened before! When I tested this with my own fireball, it disappeared as if it had never existed!”

  Despite his initial shock, Talon was surprised that he believed her. There was nothing she was saying or doing that made him think she was lying. She hadn’t tried to kill him, at least not on purpose. His paranoia about her disappeared, and she looked to be on the verge of tears, probably thinking he was going to stop training her.

  “It’s all right,” Talon said. Now that he was over the shock, he thought about the purple aura. Initially, he had thought of it as a shield. Now he wasn’t sure what it was, and he didn’t recall reading about such a move. “I don’t know why you need me when you have a technique like that.”

  The nervous expression disappeared from Evelyn’s face, replaced with relief. “This is all I know. I’m slow at creating fire, as you saw, and I accidentally discovered the purple flame while practicing in a cave.”

  “Were you in danger?”

  “No,” Evelyn looked up at the ceiling before returning her focus to him. “It was weird; I was messing around with the power, and then this purple aura appeared. I tested physical objects like rocks and even knives. When I tested my own fireball, I could sense this purple shield could hold off much stronger attacks, which is why I asked you to do what you did.”

  “Interesting,” Talon moved closer and found it odd how his earlier paranoia about her went away after her accidental attack on him. He should have been more paranoid, but he wasn’t. Was she not going to betray him as he feared? “Well, let’s try to improve your efficiency when creating fire. You’ve got the basics down, so this shouldn’t be too hard.”

  The power was swirling around them both, and Talon used one hand to demonstrate a single ball of fire. “You are putting too much focus when creating the fire. Instead, relax and think of the fire as an object. When you put too much power, it can cause the fire to overly expand or not form as the energy is unstable,” he said and allowed the fire to vanish. “Now you try.”

  “Okay,” Evelyn straightened her stance and put out her palm, facing up. Fire began to appear, quicker than before but still a tad slower than it should. “Oh,” she said and let the fire disappear. “I think I get it.” She tried once more and, after a couple more attempts, was able to create a fireball as quickly as Talon.

  “You learn fast,” Talon said. He had expected that to take longer. How strong could she get? He didn’t recall much of the Ackmard bloodline regarding the power. A thought occurred to him. “Has your family always been able to use the power?”

  There was a few seconds' pause before Evelyn nodded.

  “The mages don’t know, do they?”

  “No,” Evelyn said slowly. “I want you to trust me, so I am going to tell you this. My family has always had at least one power user born to them for the past five hundred years. We hide this from the mages and have a secret area to practice where mages can’t detect us. Unfortunately for me, my grandma passed away before I showed the ability to use the power, and I have had to teach myself.”

  Do all the royal families have power users they hide from Mortham Tower? This was something Talon would have to investigate, though it wasn’t going to be a priority. There were more important matters to deal with.

  “I’ll keep that to myself,” Talon said. “Now, let’s try something else.”

  For the next couple of hours, Talon was able to teach Evelyn how to use the power more efficiently through breathing exercises and maintaining composure of her emotions. He didn’t teach her much else in techniques, as he wanted her to have fine control of the power.

  Sweat was dripping down Evelyn’s face as she continued to grab and release the power, and Talon was more than satisfied at this point. “That’ll be enough for today,” he said, not surprised at the disappointed look on her face. Talon would have liked to keep teaching her, but he did have a kingdom to run and various things to prepare for.

  One of those things was going to the hidden archives and looking into the purple shield. If he could master that move, perhaps it would prove useful against the mages. “We’ll begin tomorrow at this time again,” Talon said.

  “All right, I’ll see you soon then,” Evelyn said.

  Talon watched her leave and found himself a little disappointed she was gone. Perhaps it was their similarities in having to teach themselves the power. Whatever the reason, he would have to live with it. He headed to the hidden archives, for he still had one hour until he had to hold an audience.