001 - Beginnings
Title: Beginnings
Fandom: Abhorsen Trilogy
Characters: Sanar, Ryelle, Mirelle
Prompt: 001 Beginnings
Word Count: 676
Rating: G
Summary: Everyone's Sight has to begin at some point, and some people have to wait longer than others.
“Why don’t we have the Sight?” Ryelle asked her twin sister Sanar desperately. The blonde twins were sixteen years old and still their Sight had not awoken. It was unheard of for a Clayr to not have the Sight by their age.
“Maybe our Sight will awaken today. It is our birthday, after all… and the Sight would be such a wonderful birthday gift…” Sanar said wistfully. Ryelle had always been the more impulsive of the two, the one who took action quicker, yet she was quicker to feel despair. Sanar’s temper was cooler, allowing her to cling to hopes for longer than her sister.
“Maybe… sometimes I think we won’t ever get the Sight, and we’ll never be true Clayr,” Ryelle said sadly.
“We will get the Sight, Ryelle,” Sanar said firmly, as much to convince herself as her sister. “We have the Blood of the Clayr and everyone with the Blood always eventually gets the Sight.” Ryelle’s shoulder’s slumped.
“Sometimes I think that they taught us that rhyme just to make sure that we felt inferior,” Ryelle grumbled. Sanar sighed.
“I doubt it, but it worked anyway. Five great Charters knit the land, forever linked, hand in hand. One in the folk who wear the crown, two in those who keep the dead down. Three and five became stone and water, Four sees all in ice and water. We don’t have the Sight, the monarchy was abolished two hundred years ago, we aren’t made of rock, and we aren’t Abhorsens. What are we supposed to do?” she said helplessly. Ryelle’s eyes suddenly brightened.
“I have an idea. If we learn to fly the Paperwings, then we’ll be too busy to think about the Sight, and we’ll get to miss out on all the formal events!” she said excitedly. Both sisters loathed all Awakenings, funerals, and other ceremonies because they had to wear the blue tunics of children. Sanar grinned and jumped up.
“Let’s go now!” she said. Neither twin voiced the unspoken thought that if they didn’t get the Sight then it would be easy to have an accident.
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Five months and six days later, on the 14th of August, Ryelle and Sanar were returning from their patrol. They climbed out of the Paperwing, exhausted and went to climb down Starmount.
Ryelle stumbled, suddenly dizzy. As she fell, her gaze locked on the snow. As usual, she screwed up her eyes in concentration, trying to see something in the ice, just a glimpse that would give her the Sight. For the first time ever, the random pattern of snowflakes shifted and Ryelle saw herself and Sanar at an Awakening. But this time it wasn’t the Awakening of someone much younger than them. It was their own.
When the vision finished, Ryelle tore her gaze from the snow to see that Sanar had an identical look of amazement and bliss that was plastered across Ryelle’s own face. The twins stared at each other in ecstasy before sprinting down the stairs.
“Congratulations, you two!” Mirelle said, pulling the twins into a hug. Mirelle was their aunt, or at least she was the second cousin of their mother, qualifying her as an aunt of sorts. “The Voice has just announced that you two have the Sight!”
“We know,” Ryelle said happily. “We Saw our Awakenings.” Mirelle stared at her.
“A proper vision? Most Clayr only see a glimpse of the future when they receive the sight. I suppose you were up at the Paperwing hangar?” she asked. The twins nodded. “All that ice and snow must have focused your Sight. It’s very rare to have proper visions until you’ve had training.” Sanar and Ryelle shared a look. Obviously the lateness of their Awakenings had somehow intensified their Sight.
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The 14th of August was never a celebrated date in the Clayr’s Glacier, nor in the Old Kingdom, but for Sanar and Ryelle it was the most special date of every year. For it marked the beginning of their Sight, the beginning of their adult lives, and the beginning of their distinction as the two Clayr in the entire Glacier with the strongest Sight.
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