Excerpt from Light and Dark

At the age of ten I killed my mother.

            She was a traitor to our kingdom and I had no choice.  Mother had joined an alliance with a group of traitors in our kingdom and was planning a takeover of Dark Side.  My father would not allow that to happen.  So, he and his men gathered an army and led an attack on the hideout my mother had been living in with the other traitors.  Everyone was captured.  My father’s men murdered many of the men and women inside; leaving only a few to be imprisoned in our dungeons.  I had been sleeping in my room that evening; as it was nearing midnight and my maid, Pricilla, came to awaken me.  She said it was urgent and I should report to the dungeons immediately.  I did as I was told and upon arriving there I saw many cells filled with dirty men and women, wearing the sign of Light Side on their foreheads.  It was a sun, filled in with the brightness of the day.  I walked along the cells filling sick as I came to the end and saw my mother lying on a dirt floor.  She, too, was wearing that retched symbol.  I sneered at her and her eyes began pleading with me.  She knew why I was there.   Only I could kill her.  Only I had the power to kill a woman as powerful as my mother.  I was a gifted child, with powers beyond that of a normal sorceress.  And, she knew I would do it, too.  I was on my father’s side and had always told my mother I would never allow a traitor to walk amongst our ranks.  She had always tried to talk me into having a kinder heart, but I could see through her.  It wasn’t a kinder heart she wanted; it was a takeover of our kingdom, so we would merge with Light Side and become good.  My stomach turned at the word.  Who wants to be good?

            My mother opened her mouth to say something, but my father quieted her.  All around us men and women were pleading with us to have mercy, but there was no mercy here.  There was no hope for these traitors.  My father’s guard opened the door to my mother’s cell and allowed me to step inside.  She tried to put her arms around me, but I stepped back and grabbed her around the throat.  I knew what she was capable of; she had raised me, after all, and contributed to some of my training.  I watched the tears roll down her face as my hand tightened around her throat.  She lifted one hand and ripped off the amulet she wore around her neck.  She handed the necklace to me and, reluctantly, I took it.  But, only because it had belonged to my father’s mother and did not belong in the hands of a traitor.  I focused my gaze on her eyes and held my hand tighter around her neck.  Her eyes turned blood red and she began screaming.  Her cries rang through the dungeons and finally, after moments of torture her body burst, leaving behind sparks of magic in her place.

            I wiped my hand on my nightgown and turned to my father.  I handed him the necklace and went to the other inmates.  Their cells were slightly cleaner than my mother’s.  We normally put the worst offenders at the back of the dungeon, and leave them there for awhile.  However, this being a special case, my father feared she may escape; as with all of them.  One by one I took out the entire army of revolutionaries and walked out of the dungeon without a word.  It was not that I liked what I did, but it was my duty.  I was my father’s daughter and the High Sorceress; now that my mother was gone.  I had to protect the kingdom and all the people within it.  But, mostly, I had to protect my family’s rule in Dark Side.  Our age of rule went all the way back to the 1300’s when Dark Side was first established.  A war had broken out in Eropa, between the good and evil.  Many feared the kingdom would destroy itself and that is exactly what happened.  After years of fighting, poverty, torture and death the two sides came to an agreement.  A barrier would be created in the kingdom.  On one side would be Light Side and all things good.  On the other would be Dark Side and all things evil.  My father’s family, being the leading warriors in the war, was chosen as the leaders of Dark Side.  The two sides met in the center of the kingdom and together they created a barrier that would shield off both sides from the other.  The barrier is invisible, but neither can see the other.  Everyone, on each side, knows where the barrier is and they know to not cross it.  Anyone caught travelling through the barrier will be immediately put to death on our side.  We do not tolerate Light Siders in our realm.

            I met Pricilla at the top of the stairs and she helped me change into a clean nightgown and I climbed into bed.  I enjoyed a peaceful night’s rest.