Dark Fairytale

By Stephanie Lattie

Prologue

Dear diary,

It's me again, Sora. Sorry I haven't written in you for so long but a lot has happened. Well, not that I wouldn't have written, but circumstances given what they were… well… it was kind of impossible at the time. But I think maybe I'm skipping ahead and should start at the beginning, where every good story deserves to start. I think it all began way before my birth, or possibly directly after I'm not sure. But anyways, what I do know is this- being born a Castinov is not a walk in the park.

What, you say?

What could possibly be better than born in the world's most esteem blood line? Well, try being a Castless for a few days and then you'll know. Oh wait, you don't know what a Castless is do you? That's right, you're only a book, not a person. Sorry for confusing you then. A Castless is someone born without magical abilities, or better yet, one that doesn't possess enough spirit energy to have one. It all has something to do with alignment of stars and planets or what not. I'm a little sketchy on the details, but being born under a falling star is obviously a bad omen. I would agree, since my life has been one disappointment after another.

Yes, I know, it's the strangest thing but it seems the only magic I have, if you can even call it magic, is the ability that eventually killed my mother. When music enters our blood we can create such angelic sounds with our voices, enough to snatch the sanity and will from any who is close enough to hear. I fear for people when they fall under this sirens song, they don't know anything other than the music and, if they listen for too long, can parish. And as for the one's to hold this alluring power… we eventually fall under the same fate as the rest. I've feared this ability for so long I see it more as a curse. If my mother died from it I surely will. And no matter how horrible my life is I would never want to burn alive.

This has led to my fathers coldness towards me, it stings almost as bad as the prospect of my ashy death if I ever sing again. Awkward, you might say, for one that has ancient blood coursing through their veins. One's whose blood is almost as great as the Rozikan. (He was the first Caster ever to live, my family came second after he mysteriously died.) But it's true, I am, and always will be, a failure in the magical communities eyes for I cant do anything more than that siren song no matter how hard I try. It's not my fault I had to take after my mother, but that's life for you.

I'm a little past the point of caring now, though it does still hurt when others mock me. What can I say? I might find the courage to defend myself, if, in fact, the things they tease me for weren't true. No, I mustn't fight back. I don't want too any more. I just want to find a place where no one ever heard of the name Castinov. To find someone - anyone - who will not judge me by my blood line but rather who I am as an individual. I doubt such a person exists.

I just want to run away from it all, the laughter, the whispers, the place I can't escape from. The Golden City of Saruin is a prison, a beautifully deceptive cage that never opens. I think that even my mother wanted escape, for those in the Golden City are mostly Casters (the one's to wield magic). She longed for freedom so much that… that… something very unfortunate happened to her.

What shall I do, dear sweet diary? You have always been here for me, and I have neglected you for so long. But again, I may add, it wasn't all my fault. And again, I have strayed from the story explaining myself to you.

So let us go back then, to the day all this began. My journey of change. When my curse was first unrightousely thrusted upon me.

When He came into my life…