Chapter 1

A Chapter by Eivah

Chapter 1:

Bella Clement opened her blue trunk to face an explosion of crumpled clothes that were squished together. Amongst the mess and dirty socks, there were crumpled school books and textbooks, holding blotches of ink and a couple of Bella's possessions. She wondered how she had somehow managed to squish all uniform and clothes in while packing to come home. Bella was a petite girl, with strawberry blonde hair that hung in a frizzy mess down to her shoulders, she had a plumpish figure that she hid with baggy clothes and large green eyes. Bella grimaced as she pulled out the muddy clothes she had stored in a bag from the obstacle course that school had hosted. She chucked them in her washing basket behind her, then continued to empty all the other creased clothes into the overflowing washing basket. Bella smiled as she reached into the trunk, pulling out her small, black box that held a small gold bracelet Clara had gotten for her at Rosemare village. Bella and Clara had been best friends since the beginning of the previous year, when Clara had first arrived at the school. Clara was the opposite of Bella. She was tall, slender, with charcoal hair that hung to mid back in cascading curls, and she wore stylish brands. Bella had often wondered how they were friends, but had always concluded that, "opposites attract." She carefully unwrapped the tissue paper that cradled the small chain with a snitch on it. Oh, I forgot to mention. The one thing that they had in common was the fact that they were both obsessed with Harry Potter.

Once Bella had finally got her life into some kind of order she headed into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. She craved something sweet. And although she knew she probably shouldn't have anything, she helped herself to a white-bread nutella sandwich. Once she had finished, she launched herself onto her bed and grabbed the book that lay on her bed-side table. She transported herself into the 4th book in the series she was reading.

You may think that Bella's life was extremely ordinary from what I've told to you now, but I must inform you that it was not. Unfortunately, I am not about to tell you she in a secret spy who lives undercover and launches into untold mysteries, and I'm also not about to tell you she was a witch and would soon be attending Hogwarts and destined to defeat a dark wizard. She did have some magic inside of her. Although she did not know it quite yet. You see ancient magic is not something that you get informed about when you turn a certain age. It's dark. It can be a blessing or a curse. It can drive you crazy to death. Literal death. It's something that will appear suddenly, causing life to turn upside down. It will be quite unstable and accidents will happen. There is no Ministry of Magic to cover it up. Bella will soon discover this, and this is the story you are about to dive into.

Lets pick up where Bella is now. Reading, quite comfortably on her single bed, that is positioned next to an arching window. She has a small desk stuffed in the corner with a metal chair. Her closet is wide open, but nearly empty as she took most of her clothes to boarding school. Now you know her, and her location, but before continuing I must inform you about her most unfortunate background. She has parents, but right now they are in a psychiatric ward, consumed by The Qurient, although she did not know that now. She is cared for by her older sister, Mia, who has recently completed her Law training and is dealing with her first case, which was obviously very stressful. Bella and her sister Mia do not get along at all, which is unfortunate and also why she goes to a boarding school. Don't get me wrong, they love each other as sisters would and have their moments, but they did prefer when they were apart. I'm not telling you this to make you feel sorry for her, I'm only informing you to make sure you understand that she was a lonely girl, which leads to the understanding of some of the choices she makes in this journey.

Bella glanced around her room, waiting for the tell-tale roar of her sisters car to give away that she was home. It was unusual for Mia Clement to be this late as she does care tremendously about her younger sister, although as I described earlier, they did not get along. She would usually make sure she was there as soon as she could, or she would make an excuse to be back at 5.00PM. On the way home, she would pop into Rosa's and buy some fresh pancakes to surprise Bella with. Switching on her phone, Bella noticed that her sister was unusually late as it was way past 5. It was nearly 8.00PM!

"The time does pass when you read," Bella reasoned, "perhaps she is here and I was simply way too indulged in my book to realise."

Bella ventured across to the kitchen once more to investigate. But when glancing outside, she saw that her sisters blue car was not parked outside the house. Bella began to worry, but then she remembered that her sister was probably at The Annex Cafe hoping for free wifi, ordering coffee and working on her case. Realising this was probably what had happened, Bella helped herself to one of the frozen meals, chicken curry, and stuck it into a bowl and shoved it onto the ageing microwave. While waiting, Bella checked her phone, searching for a text message from her sister that hopefully that explained her absence. Finding nothing but a message from Clara, she sat, waiting for a ping. Whether it was her phone or the microwave, it didn't matter.

I'm sure you're all wondering what on earth The Qurient (pronounced: Qwa-ri-ent) is, as I mentioned Bella's parents were "consumed" with it. It can mean two similar things, so try not to get them mixed up. The Qurient is the Chosen One in a sense, someone who is special and can control the Qurient, the Qurient is also a type of magic. Something that is not channeled through a wand but your mind and your body. All the the people with the Qurient live in a castle on top of a tall cliff, not very different to Hogwarts, except larger with smaller houses around its borders. Its called the Aill. All the Ailte live there, the people who have been gifted with the Qurient. There is another concept you must learn, is the Saol concept. This only applies to those who are gifted with the Qurient. When you are born you are in the Qurent (pronounced: qua-rent, not the Qurient), and in control of your life, not realising you have been gifted. Once a Ailte will discover this, some Ailte drift into the sruth. The place where you cannot control your body as the magic is too powerful and is controlling itself, pushing you away. Sometimes you end up in imithe, when you are gone. Dead. This is the basic concept of the Qurient and the Saol concept, and how they work together. The Ailte are the people from the cliffs.

I should probably stop interrupting and go back to Bella. At this point she was realising how boring it was to eat alone, as she was not used to it. At Dracon Boarding School for Girls, the lunch hall was always buzzing, as you sat with your best friends, laughing at lame jokes. Then there was when she sat with her sister, she might have been silent but at least she had company. And now she had none, and although as I have previously mentioned that she was used to knowing the feeling of being alone, she had never quite realised she usually was alone. Then came the knock. It was all about to change.

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