I remembered it clearly, that day, I was woken up by the sound of my brother screaming, I ran towards him. My mother was in there, she looked at his wrist, I made my attempts at comforting him. I heard a conversation, it was an angry one it was coming from the kitchen, I opened the door ever so slightly, my parents didn't notice me "he has the mark" she said

"are you sure?" he asked

"I've seen it, it was black"

"wait what do we do?" he asked

"we send him to The Citadel," my mother said

"but," he said

"he's not our son, he's evil, The Ash God chose him for a reason, right?"

"maybe" he pauses as if thinking about, I hated him for this, when I could under my resentment for them in more detail than, they sent my brother away, I knew that this was the moment that I hated him, he had to think about this, he was struggling with whether or not to kill his son, the one person that you were meant to protect them with their life and soul, but he actually struggled "you're right" I knew that at this moment, I had to protect my brother, I run towards him, I warn him, "I forgot my necklace can you get it for me?" he said, I smile, I thought that I was going to leave with him, so I go there into the kitchen, I find the necklace a glisten shone on the jewel, I run towards the window in his room and call out for him "Daxfoss?" I call out for him, the realisation that he was gone sunk him slowly, I walk up to the window and reach upwards, knowing that I couldn't, but trying anyway "Daxfoss, come help me!"

"Daxfoss! I can't reach" I could feel the lump in my throat "come help me" I start crying, I collapse to the ground, I keep crying, I tried to keep my cries silent, it was working, I stare at the window thinking about him leaving me. It was never the same between me and my parents, I cut myself off, they wanted to reach me but I didn't let them, if they were willing to send my brother away to be killed, I hated them both for it, I pushed them away and then they stayed away and I was okay with that, all I wanted was my brother, he was my 'bestest' friend, that was my earliest memory of him, our parents said that we couldn't go to the beach, but I wanted to, so my brother took me there. The sand was black and so was the sea that stretched into the horizon. I walked into the sea, it reached up to my knees I started to wade deeper, wanting to feel the water on me, I felt ash scrape softly against me in the water "come back out!" I hear him call out

"no," I say as I turn around to look at him, the wave hits me in the face and I'm knocked under. I tried to find ground but I couldn't get a grip on it, the wave was pushing and pulling me, but slowly dragging me back, I thrash and flail against the sea. I feel something grip me they pull me out, someone was holding me in their arms, I cough the water up. I start crying "it's okay, hush," he says. He held me close to him, we go back home. I remember the smack of my father's hand against his face. I go to him this time, "hush" I hug him "it's okay" he couldn't help but laugh.

"how did you find me?" he asked, the streak of fresh tears washed the ash of his face.

"magic," I say nonchalantly

"you have blood magic?"

"yeah" I chuckle, the chuckle of someone, who had happy and ignorant bliss stripped away from them, I realised that I escaped the most dangerous place in this nation, I start to hear the sound of the sand being drained from the top half into the running, the top half was running out time, time was running out. It's starting to be drowned out by another voice an external voice, "Kill him, drain him of his blood, drink it, take his life and give it to me" the voice was growing louder, it hurt, I just wanted to stop, the grip that I had on my dagger grew tighter to the point that my wrist hurt. "give your life to me" the voice whispered, the voice wanted the life that was wasting away inside the Archaima. I tried to resist the voice growing louder. I knew that the guards were looking for me, maybe they could trace my magic, all blood magic came from the Goddess but the magic came from someone else, from me, but I was questioning it, I was questioning everything "Samai are you okay?" my brother asked, I looked at him, he was so close yet he sounded so far away, "kill him" the Goddess, said why was she so interested in me. My head hurt more, I needed it stop, I felt far away from everything, I felt a pressure pushing me down as darkness spread from the peripherals and started to block out everything else, I had a feeling that I was being pulled away from myself, the voice repeated the same command, "are you okay?" he repeats. I get up, I run away from him, I was not going to hurt him, the darkness was fading, I was coming back up, I wasn't sinking anymore, the voice was growing and it came back harder and stronger than before, my ears rang, my head hurt. I scream out in pain, Daxfoss was running towards me, I turn to him. I lose control.