#fitgof bpr

[fitgof]

With a final clack the marbles stopped swinging. Amy leaned over to swing them again, bumping the chair from under the desk and sending it lurching backwards. It wheeled into an old mirror, propped against the wall, and waiting to be hung on the bare wall above.

All the walls in the office were bare apart from a single painting on the other side of the room above the fireplace. Even though the art work reminded her of the burning huts of Windflower, it didn't interest her as much as the paintings she found dislodged behind the mirror. Amy’s hands trembled as she moved each canvas, recognising each and every one of them.

They were hers from Dianthus's gallery. The ones of the crows that a very secretive buyer purchased from her father. The ones that shouldn’t exist yet because she won’t be painting them for another fifty years. Scrawled in each bottom corner were her initials: A.V.A

A fire burst in the fireplace and the burning huts of Windflower glowed in amber light.

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Feeling it

Wanting it

But how much can you take?

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"Perennial!" Everlast cried for his wife, as Perennial took her last breath and dropped to the floor. "Ambrosia, what have you done?"

A punch to the stomach would have hurt less than her father’s words. He blames her, thinks she’s a monster. Anger simmered inside her, hatred grew. He doesn’t care what she’s been through and what has led her here. The final control Amy held over her father’s airflow released and he slumped to the floor, unmoving, beside his wife's own lifeless body. 

Amy fell to her knees letting out a loud guttural cry that echoed off the tiled floor. She had always known she had a temper, and that it could get the best of her, but only resulting in arguments and a bad mood. Never with violence and certainly not against those who loved her most. 

These hands once made art, now they bring death.

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“Hello, Ambrosia.” 

“You know my name?” Amy asked.

“I know many things about you. Some I probably shouldn’t or don’t want to.”

“What things?”

The creature turned around in a circle, modelling their feathers and beastly appearance. An impressive wingspan stretched from its back.  “Do you not want to know about me?” 

Amy tried to pay attention to this deformed bird person but in her weakened state their name did not register in her mind and she didn't bother to ask them to repeat it. This creature was not her rescuer, at least not in this form. Narrow beady eyes protruded from its face instead of the kind soulful eyes of her dreams.  But as part animal and some kind of spellcaster finding her in a moment of need maybe–

“Are you my familiar or something?” she asked.

“Something like that.”

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The mirrored surface disappeared, replacing Amy’s tangled hair and gaunt face with Alouette’s greying features. Her body froze in shock recognising who stood before her. If she needed proof of time passing she had it now.

Alouette’s moustache twitched when a smirk crossed his lips. “Whispers about a couple looking for their daughter are making the rounds. I was considering introducing myself. What do you think of the name Dianthus?”

“Stay away from them!” Amy sprang to her feet to bang her fists against the glass. Magic sparked out of her hands with each hit against the window. How did she not see the similarities between Alouette and Dianthus until now?

“Don't wear yourself out, my dear, you know the place is warded. Not that you know many spells to be much of a bother,” he said. “Besides, it’s not me your parents need to be concerned about; I only want to help.”

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"Wife! Daughter! Welcome to our new home."

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Unknown underground location

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Chapter 6 sneak peek 👀 ~ August 28

Previously:

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

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“They sent me away. I’m dangerous!” Amy grabbed her head in hands and pulled at her hair. “Windflower, Robin, the weather… you should report me to the Scholarship.”

“No.” Summer knelt beside Amy and pulled Amy’s hands away from hurting herself.

“Why not?”

“You’ll never get the help you need from them.” Summerdream looked around. “We need to clean up.”

How can Amy ever live with herself knowing that she had taken her parents' lives? Now Summer is burdened with her secret. She has to tell the Scholarship now, and Amy will be banished. She may as well have remained locked in Alouette's dungeon.

“My mother is dead. Why are you even still here? Your bond is broken.”

“Miss Amy, my bond is not with your mother.”

“But-”

“Miss Amy, I'm your familiar. I’m here for you.”

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For hours Amy lay alongside her parents, unblinking and unmoving until the first light of dawn filtered through the mansion windows. Sunshine crawled across the floor highlighting the bodies as it moved over her parents lifeless forms.

“Oh. Oh, dear.”

“They're dead.” Amy said, recognising Summerdream’s voice behind her.

“How? Miss Amy, what happened?”

“I’m a monster.”

“I don't believe that.”

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“I’ve never been good enough for you, have I?”

"Amy!" Everlast said, appearing in the doorway. “What are you doing?”

"What am I doing?" Amy made the air push him against the wall next to her mother.  "You sent me away!"

"To help you, Sweetheart," Perennial said. “You needed time.”

“We can talk about this," Everlast said. “Tell us everything.”

"No."

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“Ambrosia? Ambrosia, my Darling, is that really you?” 

“Hello, Mother.” Amy didn’t turn around. Waves of magic pulsed through her body and her hands trembled as it bounced between her fingers.

“Come upstairs, Sweetheart. We’ll make you a bath, freshen you up, good as new.”

Amy dropped the lid over the piano keys with a thud. 

“We can sit in the other room and talk if you like. Summerdream can bring us something to drink. Would you like hot tea? The sofas are newly reupholstered–”

While she was locked in a dungeon her mother only cared for the furniture! Amy spun around, sending the air pulsing with her turn, and pushing Perennial into the wall beneath her painting.

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Amy walked through the house, passing the statues guarding the foyer, and the cabinets in the dining room filled with fine china. She stopped beneath the portraits decorating the ballroom. 

To anyone else the van Asters had dressed in period costume at some fête but the paintings were antiques of their own. Dressed in the raw cocoa fashions of Fraise three hundred years ago, each of them took turns posing for the artist while they poked around the chateau for items to sell at auction. Amy had asked the artist a million questions in broken Fraiche but did not understand any of the answers.

The ballroom was also home to the family’s grand piano. Amy never understood why they even had it. None of them knew how to play. She plonked her fingers along the keys creating an ugly sound of random notes. 

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“Mother? Father?” Amy yelled from the doorway. She clenched her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms to slow the sizzling magic.

Inside the house was dark except for the glow of night lights shining from the upstairs landing and the moonlight filtering through the windows. Not a sound could be heard from anywhere.

The scholarship should be happy now, if this is what they wanted. Everyone would all know what ability her parents’ combined would make and if they were happy, then they should have made her parents happy in return. Happiness at the expense of their daughter’s own.

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In a blink of an eye Amy landed on her hands and knees over the manicured lawn of her family’s mansion. The freshly cut blades of grass under her fingers were so soft she wanted to roll in it after having nothing but rock and stone underfoot.Her familiar was nowhere in sight but Amy didn’t want its help anyway, this is something she needed to do alone.

So many times Amy had followed the path across the garden and up the stairs to the front door of her mansion home. She followed it once more, summoning a gust of wind as she reached the top step, pushing the door open and banging into the foyer walls.

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Ocotillo Saguaro region