Tradition

Marielle could, indeed, hear the shouting of the crowd right outside. She remained quiet, still, not answering Christopher.

"Don't you understand? They'll kill you!"

"They'll kill me anyway, Chris. They'll find me, burn me, it doesn't matter how much I try to hide. It's too late for me, my fate was sealed long ago." There were tears in the girl's eyes. She was young, too young to die. Too brave to try and run. "Take ... take my daughter, find a place for her. Don't let them know she's my daughter, or they'll kill her too, baby though she is." Marielle turned a tender smile towards the small child in her arms.

"You can't just stay here!" cried Christopher.

"Yes, I can. If I'm here, they won't go looking for you. I need you to take Alise, and escape with her, so that my daughter can live. I'm begging you. Please?"

Christopher finally nodded, hearing the crowd even closer. "Yes, I will."

Marielle smiled. "Thank you," she whispered. Then she turned towards her child. So sweet, so young, so perfect; so powerful. She had the power inside, just as her mother had. "Don't let anybody know," Mari whispered to her child. "Keep it secret, never show that you are different in any way. I love you." She kissed the child's forehead. Though the baby was still to young to understand what was happening, or what her mother had said, she understood that something was wrong, and uttered a cry.

Marielle gave the child to her husband. "Go!" she whispered furiously. "Go, run away, don't let them find you! Do anything you must to keep our daughter safe, do you understand? Keep her safe!"

Christopher nodded. He kissed Mari on her forehead. "Goodbye," he whispered back. "I love you." With that, the man left the room, and Marielle was all alone, waiting for the mob to come in.

She didn't have to wait long. The men with their torches, shouting, scared of the small woman, broke the door down.

"You!" One of them cried. "Witch! Sorceress!"

"Yes," whispered Marielle quietly. "Yes, I am."

"So you admit to your evil?"

"No," said Marielle quietly, "I am not evil. It is not evil to have a power that others do not."

"You killed our children! You gave them the sickness, then you plagued our crops! That is evil, woman, you witch! God wishes you to die!"

Marielle sighed up at them. She didn't cause the plague, a virus did. She could have easily cured the children, had the parents let her get close. It was in fact her trying to help the children that led the people to believe that it was she who hurt them. It didn't take them long to realize all the odd things that that foreigner new, how she seemed to have magic. Noe having anyone, anything else to blame, they blamed her for everything. And now they were killing her, after all he work to try and help them.

But they wouldn't get Alise. Alise would live on, to lead others like them. For there had to be others out there, simply afraid to do show themselves, hiding from the normal people, who were afraid of anyone different.

Marielle didn't fight them as they tied her up. She watched quietly as they set fire to the straw below her, and it started to burn her up, the village cheering for her death.

She looked off, into the back of the crowd, where Christopher was standing. He was fighting back tears, and Marielle gave him a brave smile. She then turned her attention to the child in his arms, the child was oddly quiet.

"You, Alise, you will lead our people to a place where they can live in peace amongst themselves. You will bring properity to people like us.

"You will have great power, and you will use it for good. You will use it to find others, and help them. You, my daughter ... you are my legacy. You are the future."

That said, Marielle closed her eyes. When the flames hit her, turning her body into ash that would lay on the ground for eternity, she didn't feel any pain. She was already dead.

Veheli sighed, looking out over the ocean. The breeze coming from the huge body of water brushed Veheli's hair in front of her face, with the young girl pushing the thick black stuff back behind her hear every few minutes.

The girl had never been off the large Island that was her home, and she probably never would, either. Very few people ever went travelling, and no foreigner ever visited-- of course, the second one would be impossible. There were so many charms, so many spells and manipulations around Atlantis, that no normal could ever know that it was there.

The only time anyone ever left the planet was to collect some new Eneni who had been born to a normal. It was very few, in a hundred years there would only be two, possibly such children born in the entire world.

Of course, the room on Atlantis was limited, and we tend to live much longer lives than normals, Veheli reminded herself. She sighed.

"Hey, Vel!" called someone. Veheli turned, and saw that it was her friend, Cuiaree Kewni. Veheli smiled.

"Hey, Cuiaree," she said in her normal soft voice, "How are you?"

"I'm alright," said Cuiaree carefully, sitting next to Veheli on the shore. "I'm still trying to figure out which class I'm going into."

"Really?" asked Veheli curiously. "I'd thought that you'd want to be a sorceress for sure. You've always been into that semi-dark stuff, into controlling things."

Cuiaree shrugged. "Yeah, but everyone is expecting me to go Sorceress. Besides, they'll think I'll follow in the footsteps of my mother."

"Nobody blames you for her," whispered Veheli. "We know it's not your fault."

"Yeah? Maybe you do. But there are still plenty of people who connect the name 'Kewni' with the leader of the Okeiwe. They see my name, they know. They'll expect me to go bad."

Veheli shook her head. "Don't let that influence your decision, Cuiaree. Don't let her stop you from doing what you want to do. She's hurt you too much, made your life bad enough."

"Yeah, well, your life wasn't exactly completely unaffected by the war." Cuiaree was silent a moment, then squirmed uncomfortably and changed the subject. "You'll be an Enchantress, right?"

"Probably," nodded Veheli. "I can't really see myself being a Witch, there would be too much physical labor-- that, and the fact that I have a hard time charming plants. Then as a Sorceress, you have to be so ... so merciless at times. I think I'd be way too squeamish about using curses on the animals and stuff...I'd probably end up accidentally connecting to them and feeling their pain." The dark-haired girl smiled wryly. "I'm just too empathetic."

"Not always a bad thing," sighed Cuiaree. "I'm too insensitive. I think I inherited my morals from Mom."

"You're more caring than you think, 'Aree," Veheli spoke softly, hoping that she was right, because for once in her life she really wasn't sure. Cuiaree stumped her, which was rare for such a perceptive girl as Veheli. "Anyway, what about Priestess? Spiriel?"

Cuiaree balked. "A priestess? No. I'm not going to draw my power off of other things, and use it in the way that I'm ordered to use it. That is not the way I want my life to go. Spiriel ... again, I really don't think that I'm sensitive enough for that. If--" Cuiaree broke off, cocking her head to one side. "Do you hear that?"

Veheli tried to hear what Cuiaree was hearing. "I don't ... wait." Veheli stood up. She whispered a charm that she shouldn't have known under her breath. "Yes, I hear it. It sounds like..." her eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm late!" she broke off in a run. "Bye Cuiaree, gotta go!" Veheli screamed back behind her, going into full gear for running. If she missed dinner again... she'd get that speech all over again.

"Where did they get the idea that being late means that I'm resentful?" muttered Veheli to herself as she ran towards her house. "Maybe it means that I'm busy, did that ever occur to them?" Oh, she really didn't need to get yelled at again.

Veheli practically flew into the house, If you can even call this castle a house, thought the girl wryly. She scrambled into the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. Her dress was fairly clean, though her face was sweaty. Veheli quickly grabbed a bar of soap and washed all the dirt and grime off of her face, muttering a quick charm to stop the pain when some of the soap found its way into her eyes.

She stopped in front of the door out of the bathroom, and took a moment to collect herself. She stood up tall, and walked calmly out of the bathroom. She arrived at the dinner table a minute late, though she could have made it on time if she rushed. She murmured a quick apology, and sat down at her place.

"Mother, Tines, I'm sorry I'm late, I was down at the shore," she said, calmly and much more loudly than she normally strained her soft voice to go. She added a small emphasis on "Tines", letting them know that she in no way considered him her father. Not now, not ever, thought Veheli to herself.

"Apology accepted, Veheli," said Tines formally. The girl gave him a nod, hiding her hostility.

"Remember, you have music lessons after dinner today, and then you go to choose what class you'll be with," her mother spoke up.

Great, Veheli thought to herself, Harp, then I have to decide what I want to be. Oh, why couldn't I have chosen to take three months to decide, instead of one? Maybe I'd have some better idea of--

"Remember, dear, today is when you choose how you spend the rest of your life," said the older woman anxiously. "Do you know what you're choosing?"

Veheli nodded. "I think so. Maybe. I will choose something tonight, though." She stared down at her food, mashing it around a little. For some reason, it felt like it would be hard to even take a bite. Veheli shoved some food into her mouth. It tasted like paste.

Small wonder, thought Veheli, so much hinges on my decision tonight. If I make the wrong choice, I may spend the rest of my life paying for it. She sighed and looked out the window. Like mom did.

Veheli sighed and started over. This time, she tried to hit the third string, but she was so concerned on which string to hit that she didn't pluck it the way she should have in order to get the correct note. She began again, and this time messed up before she got to that part.

The instructor stopped Veheli. "Child. I'll admit, you were never a genius at the harp--"

More like I'm the worst student she ever had, thought Veheli bitterly.

"But you're doing worse than you usually are," the instructor went on, oblivious to Veheli's thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

The young girl hesitated. "Well," she faltered, "today is the day that I have to choose which class I'm taking..."

The instructor looked at Veheli for a moment. "You don't know what you're taking? Haven't you thought of it before now? I was hoping that the only thing you put off doing would be practicing harp." The voice was stern, but the scorn in the words and in the voice didn't reach the Instructor's kind eyes.

"Yeah, well...Tines wants me to be a witch, and Mom will agree with anything *he* says..." Veheli spat the name of her step-father as if it were a curse word. "But I don't want to be a witch."

"What do you want to be?"

"Well...I guess that I'd like to be an enchantress. But they'll disapprove so much..."

"Veheli, you cannot let two people that you seem to hate so much--"

"I don't hate mom!" protested Veheli.

The instructor went on as if Veheli hadn't said anything "--to decide what you're doing with your future. You be what *you* want to be, alright?"

Veheli nodded.

"Well, then, can we get back to the harp?" The Instructor was once again the cold, sarcastic woman that everyone in Ueise knew and respected.

Even with that advice, Veheli didn't do much better the rest of the lesson. She'd probably get in trouble for choosing what she wanted to be...

******

To any outside observer, Veheli looked completely calm and composed. She didn't appear worried at all about the choice that she'd be making today.

Hiding her emotions was obviously one of the things that Veheli did well, for inside her mind was in turmoil. She was probably the most worried person there. The dark-haired girl knew what she wanted to be, but she also knew that her choice would gain Tines's disapproval. She wasn't sure what the consequences would be.

Well, I certainly don't care about his opinion, Veheli said to herself. However, that wasn't true. She scorned her mother so much for agreeing to the marriage, but she knew that it was the necessary thing to do. In order for there to be peace, people had to make sacrifices.

Of course, everyone thought that Veheli was glad of the change. Why wouldn't a girl of thirteen years wish to be rich? Why wouldn't she want to live in a mansion with servants, served the finest food and associating with the finest people?

As always, people had completely misjudged Veheli's character. Her entire life, she'd been known as a tomboy; running around, getting dirty and being late to everything. Now, in all her fine silk clothes that she was forced to wear, and all the formal dinners she had to attend, there wasn't much chance for her to enjoy the activities that she'd previously put so much of her time an energy to.

Then she'd been running around, playing with the others her age. Now she had music lessons. Music! Veheli couldn't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. She was a complete failure at her dancing lessons, which actually surprised most people, due to Veheli's reputation for being wonderful at sports. Well, thought Veheli to herself, What's the point in being slow and graceful and exact when--

"Care to join us, Veheli?" asked the teacher severely, breaking Veheli out of her memories.

"Yes, sir," she said quickly, straightening. She ignored the titters coming from the other side of the room.

"Well, then," he sniffed, "Are all of you ready to choose your future?"

Not really, Veheli thought to herself. Of course, she'd never say that out loud.

"Well, then, please step into a booth. Enter your name, birth date, number, and of course the choice you're making. Be sure to add a second choice in case you don't fit the profile.

Second choice? We have to add in a second choice? Veheli thought in panic. They never told us that!

It was obvious that the girl was very good at hiding her emotions, as more than one person looked towards the small, dark teenager and wonder how she could be so calm, so composed.

Veheli, anything but calm, nonetheless stepped into a booth. She filled out her personal information easily. She uneasily looked at the first and second choices. For first, she filled on 'witch', bitterly hating herself for it.

For second, she filled in 'Enchantress', wishing with all her being that she could really could be what she was filling in for 'second' choice.

Well, all I can do is wait and hope, Veheli thought. Hope that I'm not sacrificing my future for someone I hate. Oh, the irony. The bitter irony.

Unknown to Veheli, someone else heard those thoughts, and gave the smallest smile.