Chapter Text
Oreia is a world of great power. It’s magic seeps into every inch of its land, fueled from the Emerald Gemstone containing the Lost Souls. The Gemstone remains in the Kingdom of Vicrelia, held deep within Vicrelia’s School of Magic. The students are vaguely aware of the Gemstones power, but few know the true horrors it can unleash.
What was once a freely distributed source, became isolated to those seeking power and control. Trapping the Souls of eight newborns fueled the magic deep within its core. 18 years later, and with the power stored, all that was left was to find someone naive enough to activate the Emerald Gemstone. Doing so would inflict immeasurable pain to any mere mortal, so the goal was to seek out someone just strong enough to withstand it’s wrath. And then the magic of Oreia would be held within one single person, making them the most powerful one to walk the land.
All magic throughout Oreia would be controlled through this fiend, and would end the diversity and beauty the world holds.
-----
“Toni…”
“Toni!”
She woke with a start, practically jumping in her bed and smacking her head off the top bunk.
“Ow fuck.”
She rubbed her head and glared at Martha. “You better have woken me up for something good.”
Martha rolled her eyes. “We have to get ready to leave for Vicrelia, remember?”
She held out the pamphlet instructing them to reach Rovia’s Harbour by midday to make their trek to the Kingdom of Vicrelia.
Toni groaned and fell back with a thud. She rubbed her hands over her face and pouted at Martha. “Five more minutes?”
“You said that 20 minutes ago. Let’s go.”
She grabbed her hands and pulled her up herself, instructed her to get ready, and then left the room.
Today they were leaving to attend Vicrelia’s School of Magic. Home to train those that were born with Magic. It was going to be torture for Toni. Her whole life as an Empath made her realize how exhausting everyone was.
Everywhere she went she could feel their emotions. She could feel their pain, their joy, their anger, their sadness. Everything.
It was so draining trying to go out anywhere. But Martha always seemed to bring a calming energy to her. With her, her thoughts were quiet and settled down into a low simmer.
Attending a school with a ton of people her age, full of hormones and drama? It was bound to be a living hell.
Thankfully, though, she bought these earplugs that helped Empaths when they wanted everything to be quiet for a while. She often slipped them on in public, unable to absorb the onslaught of emotion around her. Her anger often came into light before any other emotion, but who would blame her when she was constantly feeling everyone else's emotions instead of her own.
When she was ready and made her way to the lounging area of their house, she saw Martha concentrating on a dead plant in front of her.
She watched as wilted leaves rose up, and the flowers bloom a beautiful pink hue. It always amazed her how Martha could heal things that were dying. Martha had an amazingly useful ability to heal animals, humans, and plants. Much more worthwhile than feeling emotions all day.
“I’m leaving this for my mom,” she said quietly.
Toni sat beside her on the couch and wrapped an arm around her. “She’ll be okay, you know?”
“I know,” Martha smiled sadly. “I just can’t heal her if anything happens…”
Toni squeezed her shoulder and pointed at the flower in front of them. “She’ll take care of herself as well as she’ll take care of this flower.”
Martha snorted and Toni pulled her arm back, looking offended.
“I’m sorry,” Martha said. “It’s just...that was so cheesy.”
Toni shoved her shoulder and stood up. “Shut up. I have street cred, y’know?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Let’s find your mom and say goodbye to her.”
Their goodbye’s drained Toni. She could feel the sadness lingering between Martha and her mother, Bernice. It wasn’t like Toni wasn’t sad, because she was. Bernice had become her family and leaving felt wrong. But all her life, her emotions seemed to take second place to that of others.
By the time they were on the boat, she shoved her earbuds in and leaned her head on Marty’s shoulder.
She was not prepared for what was to come.
-----
The trip there had been quiet. Martha knew Toni enough to not disturb her during their travels, especially considering Toni gets motion sickness. There was a buzz that settled over them as they reached the school. They exchanged the same surprised look when they took note of the huge building not too far from where they docked.
Toni had never seen anything like it.
In Rovia - where they’re from - they never saw buildings this big, let alone so put together. She had heard stories about the Kingdom of Vicrelia but never imagined that it’d actually look like this. She didn’t even know what to say, but Martha seemed to be thinking the exact thing she was.
Before she could make a comment about it, they were being ushered off the boat with their luggage.
After leaving the dock, the pair walked towards the cobblestone pathway beyond a large gate with the words Vicrelia’s School of Magic plastered on top.
“Where the fuck do we even go?” Toni asked as they walked through with the few other students. Rovia wasn’t home to many people who got to attend this school, but they had received a formal invitation from the headmistress.
“I have no idea,” Martha replied. They continued walking until they noticed signs pointing towards a large set of doors. There were hundreds of students filtering through as they joined the crowd. Toni clenched her jaw and shoved her earplugs in.
Martha grabbed her gently and looped their arms together. Toni nodded in appreciation because Martha knew her better than anyone else and always knew what to do. In situations like this, she did everything she could to tune out the emotions. And because Martha was one of the only people to make her feel calm, she clung to her like a lifeline in crowded spaces.
After going through some papers and talking with higher-ups, they made their way to the left side of the building, toward the girls side of the dormitories, at least that’s what Toni assumed. She couldn’t really hear what Martha had been talking about with anyone.
The crowd thinned out as they went deeper into the school and Toni finally removed her earplugs and muttered, “holy shit.”
Martha startled and raised her eyebrows at her.
“Sorry,” she shrugged. “Just finally getting an actual look at the place…”
And needless to say, Toni was in awe. The architecture of the building was gorgeous. It all seemed too much like a fairytale to be true, but Toni was grateful to be there nonetheless.
The hallway they walked down was lined with torches and the building seemed to be entirely made up of stone.
“I think this is us,” Martha cut in. The door had the number 150 on it. Tentatively, Martha placed her hand on the scanner on the front of the door.
“Uhm what are you doing?” Toni asked.
Martha rolled her eyes as a green light ticked above them. “We had to do those hand scans before we came here, remember?”
Toni nodded. “Well, it’s to use for recognition to get into the rooms,” Martha added as she pushed the door open. And okay, holy shit. This room alone was bigger than their entire house back in Rovia. They knew it was a space meant for eight people, but this could fit three whole families if need be.
It was a huge open space concept with two large couches in the back, along with a kitchen towards the left corner from where they stood. There also seemed to be an eating area towards their right, which is where they saw two people huddled together talking amongst themselves.
“I just don’t think that it’s-” the girl looked up then and stood abruptly to acknowledge their presence. She nodded at Martha and Toni with a small smile and waved awkwardly.
“Hi. You must be two of our roommates. I’m Nora, this is my sister Rachel.”
Martha smiled and made her way over to shake their hands and introduce herself. They both looked to Toni who just gave a head nod and said, “Toni.”
“You can pick any room you’d like,” Nora explained. “Except the one behind me.”
Toni made a note then to glance around the room again. She noticed there were two doors on the left and two one the right, presumably for their sleeping arrangements.
“No one else is here yet?”
“Nah,” Rachel replied as she stood and moved toward her room. “But should be fun rooming with eight people, right?”
Toni eyed her and felt it. She could feel that Rachel was angry, her own chest feeling the fire looming from it. She shook herself and just shrugged as Rachel rolled her eyes and wandered into her room.
Nora smiled apologetically. “Don’t mind her. She’s a little frustrated getting accustomed to everything here.”
“It’s no problem,” Martha said easily.
Toni just tilted her head and felt that Nora was concerned. “It’s more than that, though,” she said before she could stop it.
“Excuse me?” Nora questioned.
Before Toni could reply, Martha jumped in. “And don’t mind Toni. She likes to be intuitive of other people's emotions.”
Nora looked confused but then she looked scared. And Toni read her again. She could feel her fear, but it melted away as quickly as it had come. That was a first, most people weren’t able to control their true emotions.
“You’re an Empath?” She asked, but it came out more like a statement.
“Yup.”
Before she could reply, the door opened again. Two more girls walked in and immediately placed their stuff down in the middle of the room with a huff.
“Please tell me we’re done carrying these fucking bags around,” one of them whined.
“Well considering we’re in the room now, I’d say that we’re done.”
“Shut up, Leah.”
It was that moment they looked up and saw the others.
“Hi. You must be our roommates,” Leah said.
“Yes!” Martha replied. “I’m Martha, and this is my best friend Toni.”
“Hey,” Toni said.
Leah smiled and said her name, followed by the other girl speaking up. “I’m Fatin. I’m just ready for a huge nap honestly.”
Toni chuckled at that. “You and me both.”
Eventually, they all made their way to their respective rooms and unpacked their belongings. Toni didn’t have much, but she stopped when she pulled out a beige jacket from her suitcase. She ran her hands over the fabric and swallowed.
“She’d be proud of you, you know?”
Toni jumped but gave Martha a small nod although she didn’t believe her mother would be proud of her at all.
This jacket was all she had left of her. She never wanted to think of that dreadful night ever again. But everytime she pulled this jacket out, she felt it. All that pain, all that torment. She wasn’t scared of dying, but she was scared of what led up to it having felt it already.
She shook herself and continued unpacking the rest of her things. By the time night time rolled around, she found herself sitting on the floor with her new roommates.
“Aren’t there supposed to be two other people?” Rachel asked.
As if on cue, two girls came barging in.
“I said leave it, Dottie.”
“Yeah but don’t you think it’s a little strange that this dude you don’t even know comes up to you trying to take you back to his place the first night here? And that he knows your name?”
The blonde girl - who Toni notices is extremely pretty and has a weird accent she can’t really place - glares at her friend.
The brunette speaks up again after closing the door. “Look I’ll leave it alone but I’m just worried about you. That’s all.”
Blondie sighs and apologizes and they share a quick hug. Rachel clears her throat loudly.
They pull apart and awkwardly glance at the group.
“Uh hi,” the brunette says. “Dot.”
The blonde takes a moment but plasters on a smile. A really fucking fake smile Toni notes. They make their way over and sit on the floor with the others. They’re sitting in a poorly made circle on the floor despite there being two huge couches.
Everyone quickly introduces themselves and says what their main abilities are.
Rachel and Nora are twins with water manipulation abilities. Fatin can manipulate fire, and Toni has to admit, that’s pretty awesome. She wished she could control fire.
Leah has the ability of mind control, but without expanding on it, she mentioned that she doesn’t use her ability much to its full power. Dot can control plants, and at first Toni thinks it’s kind of laughable but then Dot tells a story about how she slapped a guy for being an asshole with a literal root of a tree.
And then there’s Shelby. Toni has taken keen interest on her. Her ability is conversion energy. She can convert one form of energy into another, effectively being able to perform other magical abilities by using some form of power source. She explains that she can manipulate fire, water, and has capabilities to heal. Although her magic isn’t as effective as, for example, an actual water manipulator, she could still convert energy into that form of magic. Toni has heard about that kind of ability before.
Not many people have it, not to mention how hard it is to master. As the other girls keep chatting idly, Toni eyes Shelby. She focuses her energy and reaches out towards Shelby’s emotions. She feels...something. She can’t quite place what it is. She furrows her brow, suddenly aware that her magic feels off and her body feels warm.
There’s something different about Shelby, but she focuses harder, and suddenly she feels it. Fear. Anger. Sadness. Fuck that’s a lot of emotions at once. She breathes out slowly and shakes her head slightly, pulling away from her ability. Only then does she notice Shelby is eyeing her with an eyebrow raised.
Toni blushes but turns back toward Martha who’s sat on her left side. “So what are we talking about exactly?”
-----
That night, Toni thought about Shelby and how she couldn’t reach her at first. She never had an issue reaching people’s emotions. But she did feel something, though. Something that made her insides feel warm. Something that she couldn’t quite describe but deeply wished would never happen again.
Maybe she was just annoyed. Annoyed that this seemingly perfect blonde girl with a funny accent shows up, smile plastered on her face like she needs to win everyone over. All night, she laughed the loudest, smiled the brightest, and popped question after question. She even got them to play some type of icebreaker game.
Annoyance. That’s what the feeling must have been. She must have been thrown off guard by the annoyingly preppy blonde.
At that conclusion, she finally closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.