#thechroniclesofagartha

Fatima panted and heaved as she kneeled on the ground. If anybody told her that passing through the portal out of Nafoura would this to her, she would have chosen to walk the long distance to Eldorado. It took her five more minutes of pure misery to take control of herself. She stood and looked around. The forest was as lush as the one in Beimini, the sounds of wildlife came as a wild symphony just as it did at Beimini, and even the occasional pixie darted fast out fast exactly as they did back in Beimini. So why did she feel exposed? She shook her head; she knew she was stronger than this. She was the first of her class, the first in every class, and she would not succumb to silly feelings of yearning for her past life. Although that past life ended only five minutes ago, and she already missed her friends. She took a deep breath, brought out her magical compass and followed its signaling arm. She walked with sure steps, resolute steps, and she intended to make her new life as good as her past. I only she could make new friends, everything would be easier then. Fatima walked fast, chasing after the compass, avoiding the occasional ditch, fallen branch, hissing venomous snake. That was a snake, wasn’t it? Fatima paused. They didn’t have any dangerous animals in Nafoura, child safety and all. This angry snake fascinated her beyond belief. She took a timid step towards it, trying to see it closer, inspect it and its beautifully patterned skin. The snake charged, and it bit Fatima in the foot. “Ouch, that hurt. I only wanted to study you!” Fatima shouted in pain. “This could be dangerous.” She talked to herself as she rummaged through her packs. She remembered that the teachers in Nafoura gave her some herbs. “A purple starter kit.” This is what they called it. She found the herbs and took them out. Now what? The teachers didn’t exactly tell her how to use them. Should she apply all of them to the bite? No, that would inefficient, and possibly dangerous. Some herbs sped up the heart rate. And if the snake’s bite was poisonous, it would kill her. She studied a lot of herbs back in Nafoura, but she studied none that can be used directly on a snake’s bite. She rubbed some herb bags in her hand as she thought about her conundrum, and a purple glow engulfed all of them. Then the glow withdrew from all the herbs bags and settled only on three of them. Magic, she had magic. How exciting! She took the herbs out, mixed them together, and applied them to the bite. A minute later, she walked through the forest with a wide smile; she was a witch! “Welcome to Eldorado.” The guard at the gate said in a monotone. “Please step on the raised platform to find out your aura.” He pointed to the circular platform to his left. “If you are indeed a purple, you will be escorted to the newcomers’ school. Thank you.” Fatima stared at his bored face for a moment, shook her head, and stepped on the platform. The platform cycled through all the colors and settled on purple. “Welcome to your home, fellow purple.” The guard intoned. “Please step through this side gate.” He pointed to his right. “And find the man or woman with the feather on their hat. Thank you.” Fatima was about to shout at him, scream at the top of her lungs. This was not a welcome, this was inventory. But she decided it was not worth it, and she just went through the gate. The moment she entered the city, she stopped and stared with wide open mouth. The city spread in front of her eyes in all its gold splendor. Although gold was worthless, still, the golden streets, minarets and spires, were just magnificent to look at. She stood at the threshold of a vast plaza. At one was the gate she entered from, at another was a market, then another gate, and finally, streets going in different directions. People in dressed in every fabric, from shimmering magical silk to drab brown linen milled about the plaza. Fatima couldn’t even see where the person with the feather in their hat was. There were so many people here, ten times, no a hundred times more than the number in Beimini. Tall towers, majestic and intimidating in their height, surrounded the plaza. The people who milled about either entered or exited them, forever in a cycle of disappearing within their depth, and reappearing as if reborn from their magic. Fatima studied every face that went by, every man, woman. And was that a minotaur? Wasn’t a known fact that minotaurs loath to mingle with humans? As Fatima stared wide eyed and breathless at the minotaur, someone tapped her shoulder. “You must be the newcomer.” An annoyed voice accompanied the tap. “I have been standing by the corner of the market waving at you for the last ten minutes.” Fatima turned to see a girl not a lot older than she was, eighteen at most. “Anyway, please come with me to start your training.” The girl moved without a warning. “My name is Erica, and we will be roommates.” “Yes Fatima.” The tutor smiled gently. “You are right.” She took a deep breath. “However, this is not a test of your knowledge of herbs and potion, it was a test of your abilities, and you seem to lack the confidence or will to tap into your Vrill.” “But mistress.” Fatima licked her lips. “I need to understand first what I am doing.” “I already told you countless times.” The tutor sighed. “For a purple, understanding comes through practice, not just through reading and observation.” “What if what I practice is limited? Should my knowledge be limited to it as well?” Fatima clenched her fist under her desk. “You only need to practice what you know and know what you practice.” The tutor said in a lenient tone. “This is how things are, how they were for centuries and how they will always be.” “This is just another way of telling me to stop learning outside your scope.” Fatima steeled herself. She wasn’t used to challenging authority, Nafoura taught never to try such a stunt. “But what if I become a council member one day, how can I deal with cases I know nothing about? How can I face what I don’t know?” “First, you can’t be a council member as long as you repress your Vrill that hard.” The tutor’s gentle smile turned to a grimace. “Second, if you manage, by some miracle, to actually join the council of mages, I suppose they will teach you what you need to know.” “So, there are others more knowledgeable than you out there.” Fatima swallowed. “If you lack the knowledge, how can you be our teacher and not someone better suited?” The tutor’s mouth hanged open for a few seconds, staring hard at Fatima. “Fatima, go out.” The tutor said in a firm tone. “I will not have my classroom disrupted with unnecessary debates. Go to the head tutor, and tell that I forced you out of my class, now.” Fatima checked twice to ensure that her hearing didn’t just shut down. The tutor kicked her out of class, even though she was the best student. She rushed out of the class, then started to cry immediately once the door closed behind her. Without an education, a purple is good only for a guard’s life, and Fatima was too skinny for the arduous life of a guard. Plus, she couldn’t imagine herself as an intimidating character that would force the criminal type to tremble in fear upon seeing her. She would be the joke of all the criminals. They will make it their job to make her life even more miserable. She wailed her misfortune to be with such a horrible tutor, woe was her, the fates condemned her. These were the least of the thoughts that ran in Fatima’s mind until she felt too much pain in her jaw from all her crying and sobbing and she had to stop. After sniffing and sobbing for around five minutes, she headed to the head tutor’s office. Fatima entered the office and stood silently. “Yes? What do you want, student?” The man sitting behind the massive mahogany desk looked to Fatima in annoyance. Fatima spilled the entire incident in a torrent of tears, sobs, and one very loud sniffle. “I see.” The head tutor nodded. “Mistress Amara had the right to kick you out.” “Yes, head tutor.” Fatima said miserably. “But, it doesn’t mean that you will not finish your education, far from it.” The head teacher gave her a wide smile. “Wait for me in the hall of air. Go. Hurry.” Fatima stood for an entire minute in shock. She can be something better after all. “Fatima, meet councilman Annias.” The head tutor nodded in Annias’s direction. “He is part of our exceptional purple nurturing program.” “Pleased to meet you, councilman.” Fatima curtsied. “Annias. My name is Annias, my job is councilman.” Annias pursed his lips. “I heard you are quite the rebellious type Fatima.” “No, counc…” Fatima swallowed the rest of the word as she saw the deep frown on Annias’s face. “No master Annias, it is just a misunderstanding.” “I see.” Annias nodded. “Fatima is a nine on the Farouk’s scale.” The head tutor said with a wide smile. “The first one in eight years. Of course, you know who was the last one with the same Vrill power.” The head tutor turned to Fatima. “It was Annias.” He winked. Annias’s right eyebrow rose to his hairline. “Impressive.” He stared at Fatima from head to toe. “But why didn’t you send her directly to the council initiation program?” “I am blocked.” Fatima blurted. “I can’t call on my Vrill without strain.” “Interesting.” Annias looked at Fatima with narrowed eyes. “She is the perfect candidate, Cornelius. You chose well.” “I knew it the moment she came to my office this morning.” Cornelius chuckled. “It was as if the fates had heard our discussion last night.” “It would seem so.” Annias signaled for Fatima to go ahead. “Wait outside, child, I have to talk to master Cornelius for some moments.” Child? Who was he calling a child? This story is from the book, Fatima of Agartha, free for all our newsletter subscribers. You can subscribe and receive the book HERE Check other stories from the world of Agartha here: Rowida, in the land of the dead, A Teaser story from The Chronicles of Agartha, Book 2, and Last Days of Zarzura. You might want to check our books here: The Green Boy, Red's Soul, Through The Storm, The Eternal Agathans, and The Trinity's Dream. Read the full article