The School of Dark and Light

In the ruins of what was once the Enchanting Realm lies Viridis,a luxurious Central Point island,and a crescent shaped land divided into four regions.The Central Point is harsh and keeps the regions in line by claiming to “help” children with uncontrollable magic by sending them a special “academy” where they are sold into slavery. They come back battered up and traumatized.
No one knows how Oliva can do dark magic at such a young age,but it’s a cause for trouble. As her curse became worse over time,the stakes became high,her chance of being chosen for “help” becoming more certain. But there’s hope when Olivia is accepted in the School for PIrate and Warriors. Will she be able to have her powers under control before it’s too late?
== Troubled ==
Olivia
Athnis Village was a village so tiny that it was the size of a small neighborhood  With its medieval style homes, it was one of the few peaceful places left in the Enchanting Realms. It was surrounded by a forest that stretched for miles and a lake that sparkled like sapphires. It was a quiet place where the busiest part of the village was the market during rush hour. There were few disturbances within the village as people went on about their business but one of those disturbances was special… 
The village was mainly filled with people who had the dark element; however,they were still shunned by the light warriors who lived there. So mostly, dark magic was controlled so much that even the children learned how to keep it contained at a young age. But there was one child in that village who couldn’t get it controlled no matter how hard she tried. She hadn’t done anything too disastrous, but it was enough for parents to make sure their kids stayed away from her and keep her cooped up in the house. The worst this girl’s dark magic did was knock over a fruit booth,and which scared the village leaders so badly that they ordered her parents not to let her out of the house even if it were to do errands for a week. 
The worst thing about it was that it wasn't even the girl’s fault that her magic was unstable,but she still blamed herself for every mistake she made. That girl was Olivia. 
She lived with her parents in a house farther away from everyone else’s. She was homeschooled and forced to do chores the whole day after doing her schoolwork. But in her free time, she could be found curled in a corner reading a book. Olivia found her days boring and too normal, but she didn’t complain because she found herself not normal. For some reason, she didn’t find that childhood happiness and instead felt sad for no reason at all. She didn’t know why,so she never asked in fear that it would give another reason for people to think she was crazy. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t control her magic. If her mother caught her magic even if it were an accident, she would be punished. 
She was book smart beyond her age,and she was very independent. Olivia was only nine years old--soon to be ten-- and she already knew how to take care of herself; she could cook and clean and was very responsible. She didn’t know yet,but in school was always a grade above each subject. 
One day,something interesting happened to Olivia. 
The sun dripped down on Olivia as she slept in that morning.She was lost in her dreams,when could hear her mother’s shrill sharp voice.
“Wake up! Wake up! Right now.” Kathrine yelled.
Olivia didn’t want to get up. She wanted to sleep the day away from the reality of her mother scolding her. 
“Hans. Olivia won’t get up again!” Kathrine called down the stairs.
“Let her sleep,honey. You had her working all night,” Hansi told her. 
“She needs to get up and work!” Kathrine shouted back down to him. 
“Olivia! Get up!” Kathinre continued.
She threw the blanket off of Olivia,so she turned a position so that the sun could shine directly on her back. The night seemed to have passed too early. She didn’t want the new day to start,at least not yet. She just wanted the day to end again so she could mess up the green linens and escape reality. Olivia was getting comfortable when
SMACK
Olivia was so shocked that she nearly blasted magic everywhere. She sprung awake and made up the bed with one hand, holding the spot on her cheek that hurt. She was really in trouble now. Since she failed to obey directly,she had a bigger chance of being punished and was now boiling in anxiety. Olivia quickly got dressed and raced down the stairs to make breakfast for her parents. 
When she was done cooking, her mother ordered her to get the groceries. Olivia snatched the basket and grocery list fridge and burst outside into the hot summer air. It felt good to be outside for the first time in ages. Except for the fact that everyone avoided her like a disease. It made Olivia feel uneasy as everyone parted ways for her or wiped anything she touched, but she couldn’t blame them. She never got used to the shame and everything was her fault. She was off in a daze trying to ignore the stares and jumped when she heard her name being called.
Her best friend Stella was running up to her as Olivia smiled with delight. Stella was possibly the only person in the village who liked her other than her father. She lived in the orphanage, and although the staff warned the children not to play with Olivia, Stella played with her and was her only friend. Stella was Olivia’s secret friend because she assumed her mother wouldn’t like the thought of her playing with anyone. 
The girls embraced squeezing each other in bear hugs and high fiving. Stella had long light brown hair and almond-colored eyes. 
“How’d you get out of the house?” Stella asked excitedly. 
“I have to get the groceries,” Olivia replied. 
“I’ll come with you. I have so much to catch you up on!” Stella exclaimed. 
They walked through the dirt roads hand in hand, ignoring the dirty looks of the other villagers. What hurt Olivia the most was the comments people made about her as the mother dragged their children closer to them when she was remotely near. 
“Don’t follow her example.” ordered one mother to her child. 
Stella advised Olivia to ignore them, and she tried with all her might to ignore them. She at least found the villagers’ treatment of her a reason to be sad. They made it to the market, which was bustling with people buying fruits, vegetables, and meat. As soon as they saw Olivia and Stella everyone exchanged dirty looks and walked as far away from her as possible. Olivia was hoping for some extra money for candy hoping it would make her feel better. 
As she was paying for some apples, the cashier gave Stella a dirty look. 
“What are ya doin’ hangin’ out with that girl?” he asked. 
“None of your business.” Stella snapped. 
Olivia handed the cashier some cash. He used a pencil to scrape up the money and threw the bags of apples at her rather than hand it to her.
“Make sure to wash your hands when ya get home milady.” The cashier warned. 
“She didn’t do anything wrong. I honestly don’t know why you think she did dark magic on purpose.” Stella defended. 
Olivia was bursting with emotion, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. Someone was actually kind enough to stand up for her; they weren’t even afraid. She’d never been so happy in her life before.
“Thanks, Stella,” Olivia said. 
“No problem,” Stella said. “ Those people need to be more thoughtful.” 
It’s still all my fault. 
When Olivia was done shopping, they were on their way to play tag when they heard whimpering. Olivia knew she needed to get home before her parents became suspicious, but she didn’t want to leave quite yet, so she and Stella went to investigate. Sitting by a booth was a little boy. He had curly blond hair, bright blue eyes. He was a little bit younger than Stella and Olivia. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. 
“What’s wrong?” Olivia asked. 
As if to answer, the boy revealed a bruise on his arm. 
Who did this to you? 
Olivia was too polite to ask, but the boy answered anyway,
“This group of teenage boys keeps hitting me. I’ve tried everything to get them to stop but the only way to do that is to not be a pirate.” the boy said. 
“That’s awful! You need to fight back.” Stella exclaimed.
“Now don’t do that. Did you tell your parents?” Olivia asked.
“They threatened to beat me up if I told them.” the boy replied. 
“You can’t just let them control you. You have to tell them now. I can help you if you want.” Stella said. 
Suddenly, a group of teenage boys came over to them. They all had flaming red hair and blue eyes. They grinned evilly as they saw the boy with the curly hair begin to shiver, and even more so, to see him accompanied by two girls. Stella was the first to intervene. 
“Don’t you dare touch him or you’ll have to face me!” Stella warned. 
“You guys are babies, you can barely fight.” the first teen said, wearing a gold chain around his neck. 
“Try me!” Stella exclaimed.
Before anyone could throw a fist, a cloud of forest green magic was floating above the boys. Olivia gasped in horror as she saw it coming from her and dropped the basket. Anger consumed her fear as the cloud became bigger and bigger. She tried to stop it by calming herself down, but it was too late. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she scolded herself for causing chaos. 
It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault. 
The green stormcloud boom and everyone in the village bolted into their homes. The cloud followed the three boys as they began to flee to their house. In the background, Olivia could hear the orphanage staff ushering Stella to come back but Stella stayed with her. Olivia could feel her friend’s fear in the sweat of her palm, but she didn’t let go. Soon everyone in the village was in their homes except Stella and Olivia. 
Olivia closed her eyes and tried everything in her power to calm. She thought of the calmest book she read, trying to go away in her head. She had gone away for a few seconds when she snapped back into reality to see two police officers standing in front of her. She didn’t know what happened in those few seconds, but she was sure it was properly nothing good. 
“I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I didn’t mean to do it. I don’t know how it happened.” Olivia confessed. 
The officers didn’t say anything. And instead gloved up their hand and took Olivia’s hand. They brought her back to her parents and all Olivia could think of was my mom is gonna kill me. I’m going to get it. 
Her father was very concerned and her mother was fuming with rage. 
“Your daughter accidentally created another outburst of dark magic. She’s had three outbursts in the same week. I’m afraid we are going to have to put her on house arrest for a month until further notice.” 
Now I’m really going to get it. 
Her mother wouldn’t dare do anything too cruel in front of her father, but as soon as he went to work it would be hell for Olivia. At least house arrest wouldn’t be that bad because she was in the house most of the time anyway, except she wouldn’t be able to go outside occasionally. 
Olivia was more worried about the punishment she’d receive from her mother. If she were lucky, she’d be assigned extra work and have to clean the whole house. Only if she were lucky… 
When the officer left Olivia braced herself for impact. Her mother’s sharp voice attacked her. She was used to being yelled at but the words still hurt her feelings. For now, she was being sent to her room until dinner, but she knew that as soon as she had the talk with her parents at the dinner table it would be worse.
She went up to her room and went to go read a book trying her best to block out her parents arguing downstairs. 
“Maybe we should teach her how to control her powers instead of telling her to conceal them.” Hansi was telling Katherine. 
“That would make everything worse! She has way too much power on her hands.” Kathrine retorted. 
“That’s one of the main reasons to have her learn how to control them in the first place,” Hansi said. 
“The village literally hates her. It doesn’t matter how controlled she is. They’re never going to respect her so it’s no use.” Kathrine pointed out.
“They don’t hate her. They fear her. If we teach her how to control her powers and explain to the villages that she won’t cause any more harm, at the very least there may be an ease with the villagers.” Hansi said. 
“Still, the villagers are still going to be uneasy around her.” Kathrine protested. 
“Well, it’s better than standing around here and doing nothing. There could be the main reason that she’s having trouble doing magic, but keeping her locked in the house and belittling her is not going to work. It’s beginning to affect her too; she’s blaming everything on herself.” Hansi suggested.  
“Well either way we’re going to have to punish her. Perhaps we should--” Kathrine caught herself quickly. 
“For now she’ll stay in her room until dinner,” Hansi said. “But don’t be too hard on her.” 
Finally, it was quiet for Olivia and she wondered if she’d get a chance to control her powers like all the other village children. What would it be like to use magic without causing disasters? Could there be a chance that if she could prove that she wasn’t a danger to herself and others, that the villagers would at least stop giving her dirty looks? Dread filled Olivia as she knew that’s most likely never knew… 
The afternoon rolled around quickly as Olivia was absorbed in her book. She went down the stairs as slowly as possible, sat down at the table, and began wolfing down her food. 
“What took you so long to get home? 
Olivia could feel her breath unsteadiness and the rivers of sweat trickling down her palm. She could feel her throat closing up and her instinct was telling her to run. 
“There--were--these warriors-- bullying a pirate-- I had to--help him.” Olivia stammered. 
“You interacted with pirates!?” Her mother questioned. 
“Yes.”Olivia stuttered. 
“You're not to interact with pirates,” Kahtrine ordered, slamming her fist on the table. “ They steal pillages and destroy them.”
“But--the pirate--I met--was really nice. He--was--troubled.” Olivia said, wiping her clammy hands on her pants. 
“Are you talking back to me?” Kathryn asked in a low but dangerous voice. 
“Yes--I mean no! I-- was just--” Olivia replied. 
“Next time I hear that you’re talking with a Pirate you’ll be punished,” Kahtirne warned. 
“But--not all pirates are bad--We just have different opinions.” Olivia pointed out. 
Before she could brace herself SMACK. Olivia fell from the table holding on her cheek while using her free hand to hold on to the edge of the table. The pain was terrible, like a sharp needle. 
I totally deserved that. 
She sat back down but didn’t face her mother.
“You’re grounded until your house arrest is over. You won’t be going to bed until this whole house is cleaned.”
“You’re punishing her for helping someone?” Hansi protested. “That’s outrageous.” 
“Shut up. I’m also punished for using dark magic, once again.” Kathrine spat. 
Olivia ran to her room, still holding her hand on her cheek. She looked in her mirror and as she expected her mother had slapped her so hard that it left a handprint mark on her cheek. She covered it up with makeup so that she wouldn’t have to see it or for anyone to bring it up again. She stared at herself in the mirror. She had short midnight hair and emerald green eyes like her mother. 
I am ugly and weak. 
She believed it was true. Olivia began to start cleaning the house before it got too late, knowing she’d be tired again. Today was not only interesting but a complete disaster. At least all she got as her punishment was cleaning and it could’ve been much worse. She couldn’t even go outside to get the mail for however long. She hoped she didn’t hurt the boys with those storm clouds, dreading the fact their mother would despise her. Soon wondered if she’d ever had a chance to control her magic or she would be doomed forever as an outcast.
The next day as Olivia was cleaning the kitchen, her mother dropped the mail on the table and ordered her to sort. As she was sorting coupons and some bills she came across an envelope that read: for Olivia.
Who would possibly want to mail something to Olivia? Stella couldn’t have because then her parents would know she had a friend. Perhaps one of her relatives? She was afraid that her mother would snatch it from her, so she left it on the table and resumed mopping the floor. Kathrine was picking up the mail when she glared wide-eyed at the envelope with Olivia’s name on it. 
“Hansi! Olivia’s got mail!” Kathrine yelled to Hansi. 
He came down the stairs and grabbed the letter to hand it to her.
“Care to do the honor?” he joked. 
Olivia opened it and read it aloud. 
Hello, if you’re interested in joining The School for Pirates and Warriors, please take this entrance exam. This exam will test how knowledgeable you are in magic. Please have this submitted by the 20th of June. In a week prior you will receive a letter stating whether you were accepted or not. 
Sincerely,
Star Jones
The rest of the letter contained multiple-choice questions and an essay section. To Olivia, it looked like a fraction of her daily workload. She was pretty sure she could ace the test in a matter of minutes. 
“There’s no way you’re going to pass that test. You don’t know a thing about magic. But if you absolutely insist, go ahead and take it.” Kathrine snapped. 
It took Olivia all her might not to give her mother a smirk. She immediately got to work writing her repose with great detail and determination with intelligence beyond her years without even knowing. When she finished checking over her work, she frowned at the paper, sighed in despair, and decided that she’d have to turn it in as best she could. She folded the paper back up, put in a new envelope and her father delivered it in the mail. Olivia went on with her boring day of cleaning, wishing to get back to her book. 
You’re never going to get into that school. Stick to the books. 
There might be one chance of hope. I could be free, for a whole five days, I could make so many new friends. 
Snap out of it. Quit your wishful thinking. It’s not gonna happen.
Olivia couldn’t get her mind to decide whether to hope or not, her negativity haunting her all the way until she got into bed. She tried to brush away the thought by thinking of her birthday that was coming in a week. Most likely, nothing special was going to happen and it would be a normal day. Her father would bring her something nice but that was about it, not that she was ungrateful; she was just hoping for her mother to at least say happy birthday. 
All through next week was suspenseful as Olivia waited for her acceptance letter. Her father was pretty excited for her. Olivia thought of being free--free from the yelling and belittling, a chance to make new friends. It sounded too good to be true--like a dream. 
So there came a surprise when Olivia woke up on her birthday and as she expected her mother didn’t even say happy birthday to her. 
“Happy Birthday, Olivia!” Hansi shouted when she came down the stairs. 
He wrapped her up in a bear hug.
“I’ll make you whatever you want for breakfast.” he offered. 
For Olivia, this was the best gift ever. Her father made her homemade chocolate chip pancakes with bacon, which made Olivia happy for the rest of the day, even when doing chores. Even though she didn’t get the day off, she was so happy. Later that day, her mother was informed that she wasn’t on house arrest anymore, which meant that Olivia was finally ungrounded, but for extra cruelty, her mother still made her work. Olivia went outside to get the mail, appreciating the sunshine and the beautiful day.
There was an envelope with her name on it, and as soon as she saw her heartbeat started picking up. She placed the envelope and coupons on the table and waited until her mother noticed them. When she did, her mother stared at Olivia in disbelief making her stomach all squirmy, her breathing tense. Kathrine threw the letter in Olivia’s face and with a shaky hand began reading. 
Dear Olivia, we happen to inform you that you have been accepted into The School For Pirates and Warriors. School begins on August 1st and ends on May 30th Please have a parent or guardian sign this paper. Here is a list of all things you’ll need for school. 
Books: The Four Elements, The Three Magical Elements, The History of Magic, How Magic Follows Emotion, The True Meaning of Being a Warrior. 
School Uniform
School Supplies
Sincerely, Madam Jones
Parent Signature
----Olivia couldn’t believe it. She got in. She reread the letter several times to make sure that she was reading it correctly. It took everything in her not to explode with excitement.
But then her mother snatched the letter out of her hand, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trash. 
“You don’t deserve to go to that school. Clean up this mess.” Kathrine spat. 
“But--I --” Olivia started.
SMACK!
Kathrine stormed up the stairs leaving Olivia to cry at the kitchen table. Hansi came back from work later and asked her what was wrong. 
“I got in the school, but mom threw the letter in the trash and said that I didn’t deserve to go,” Olivia explained gloomily. 
He took the letter out of the trash and smoothed it out.
“You deserve better,” said Hansi. 
He grabbed a pen and signed the letter.
"Leave this miserable place." he told her
Category:Fantasy
Category:Dark
Category:Moderate (for some scenes of gore and violence)