Chapter 1

Candi looked out the huge window that spanned the circumference of the debate tower. In the early morning light, she cold barely make out the prince of the Hikari family walking down the path to the Yami castle. He wasn’t an exact idiot, quite brilliant actually, cause she would kn- no she would not, they had never met before they knew that the other hailed from their mortal enemy’s family, they had never once been friends. Never. Didn’t happen, he friend had not been discovered as the enemy. Yet she still felt the slight soft nick where his friendship belonged in her heart.

“We must do something! The Hikari has sent out their prince, for reason’s sake! THEY ARE GOING TO KILL US and here we are, filing our nails and twiddling our thumbs. We either have to leave, or we have to attack!”

“I'm sorry if putting on the spellglow canceler is more important than deciding whether to attack or wait and attack”, Candi said, not even glancing up from her hands. “It's not like they can see me casting a spell without the spellglow canceler.” Spellglow was the glow on the hands when one cast magic by ‘ muttering in the air and writing out nonsense’ with their hands. Special gloves or nail polish could eliminate or mask spellglow, and thus almost every magic items and assist store carried them.

“ But Princess, we can't afford to make a move yet! They are too far away for us to do anything-”

Candi looked at him.

“- except for her highness to attack but then we will lose the element of surprise! We must wait until we make a final decision.”

The debate had gone on for over twenty minutes now, and Candi was incredibly bored. The Hikari prince and his blasted oaf friends were two leagues away, too far to attack, and too close to ignore.

“ We should wait a small amount of time before attacking, as the only way for the blithering, tick. - infested idiotic - ” Candi rolled off her hatred of those stupid Hikari fools for maybe two minutes before continuing elaborating on her strategy.

“ -fools to get here is the path, which turns two leagues into about six, because of the twists and turns. If they don't take the path rigged with thousands of lethal traps, they can be puppy chow for our adorable pets.” Candi grinned, clapped once and a shadow-like apparition of a dog-wolf appeared, its mane crusted with gems and a necklace of the bones which had once belonged to intruders. Over a few years, Candi had perfected summoning familiars and had at least one thousand of the most feared and bloodthirsty hunters in the world.

“Even he couldn't get past the cute little fluffies.”

The whole castle knew that Candi had once been friends with a boy who was later realized to be a Hikari heir. And if calling orange-eyed, huge dagger-toothed beasts ‘Cute little fluffies’  helped Candi get over the heartbreak of losing her one and only childhood friend who she had known for over seven years, the palace was prepared to let her do just that.

“In any case,” Candi said, “this discussion has gone on too long for my tastes, and I think I shall retire to my rooms to make preparations for the Hikari.” Candi smiled like a wolf, like predator about to catch her prey. Then Candi jumped on the giant wolf’s back, whistled in a very strange frequency that was very difficult to hear, -the wolves had excellent hearing and loved the sound- and she and the wolf vanished in a cloud of shadowy gem dust.

In Candi’s tower, Candi walked over to her bed and crossed the magic bridge to it. Her bed was a giant circular pool with trenches, valleys, arches and mountains of rock and coral at the bottom. The water was deep, and infested with ‘Cute little fishies’ or dolphin-like sharks that Candi would swim with. Her familiars not only were the main force of the Yami army, but they were great fun to play with and have mock battles to help hone one’s skills.

Candi stepped down onto the platform in the middle of the lake that contained her bed( or at least the part she slept in ).her bed was a floating island like thing which moved around the glassy surface of the water. Due to this, a magic-enhanced bridge was required that could twist and stretch all the way around the pool. some nights Candi would wake up on the other side of the pond and discover that her fish had pushed her all the way there.

When Candi reached her bed, she threw off the dress she wore to court and put on her underwater warfare suit. It consisted of a matching set with shorts and a halter top, both of which had enchantments woven into them so they deflected magic attacks. The reason, though, that Candi couldn't wear the outfit out of water(stylish as it was) was that the swimsuit used the surrounding water to create a solid barrier and also to refract the light to mess with the spell signal.

Spells are cast by taking control of magic. Magic is in the atmosphere, like a gas. However, magic has no liquid nor solid nor gaseous form. Certain places have a higher magic concentration, resulting in an increase in magic power. It is possible to draw magic from the air, and place it inside objects such as gems, or gemstone carved bottles. The gems would then be filled with magic energy, while the bottles would be filled with magic itself.

Using the magic is called spellcasting. There is one language that all used to speak, and is used to cast spells. You take command of it by writing out a sequence of letters in the one language, and speaking in it. This will tell the magic what to do and the magic will pass the commands through the magic in the atmosphere, and when it reaches its target those commands will be carried out. If you tell the magic explode and send it in one direction, the magic will explode when it reaches the first solid object. If you tell the magic to ‘hit that person,’ the magic will explode on the first person hit. Of course, one could be more specific, as in hit that stupid traitor that I was once friends with and burn his- Candi cut off her thoughts. Her brain would constantly chatter about any one subject that she thought of. Candi had worked hard to make this a habit, as it usually helped her to not think about him. On top of that, her brain would wander off and chatter about whatever she happened to think about, which she hadn’t worked towards and wasn’t helpful when trying not to think of Mr. Once-In-The-Past-Friend.

Candi dove into the water. The water was filled with ever-changing currents and ever-shifting temperatures, an added fun to games. Candi found that part of her brain and messaged all the fishies that she had summoned. All, or at least, most of the halls in the Yami castle had little waterways that the sharklike dolphins would swim through, carrying messages and patrolling the corridors. The halls were also patrolled by the wolf-dogs, and the  corridors  that did  not have waterways  rushing  through  them were double-patrolled by the fluffies.

The shark-dolphins came swishing through the water, through the connected waterways and to her chambers. Candi waited while the last few that she had recently summoned found their way to her after getting lost in the artificial hot springs. Then she told them all

“Today we’ll warm up to fight the Hikari and play adura!” Audra was a game similar to tag with two teams and each time one team member tagged an opposite player, the team would score points. There were no boundary lines and each player would have one charge, or spell that they would fire at the target( it had only simple directional commands, only going straight ahead) and the spell, if it did not miss, would tag the other player and add one point. There was no penalty for being tagged, other than the other team gaining a point. The spell would then recharge, and a player could use it again. The first team to score 600 points won. The point number was ever- increasing, as new dolphin-sharks were summoned every few months or so. As it stood, Candi had exactly 437 sharks currently summoned. Candi and any else could play(if they could breathe in the water) as the game didn’t allow any magic-save underwater breathing- due to its nature. One of Candi’s abilities was to sit for hours puzzling out a spell that when cast became a concept that allowed players in the  field to play  the game according to the concept rules. This is why all the players would get one charge even if they couldn't use magic and without draining Candi’s energy.

Activating the spell, Candi and her sharks dove into the created reality and began to fire little glowing orbs that swooshed through the water. Candi dodged about five, twisting into a strange y/o/6 shape to avoid the charges, which were about ½feet in diameter. She then darted about, aiming her charge ball of pulsating, ever-color-changing dull light that swooshed straight through the water then sizzled out about 10 meters away. The charges did not go on forever, because then the game would be nearly impossible.

Pop.

One of Candi’s charges caught an unsuspecting shark straight in the nose/face. The charges did not hurt when someone was hit with them, but left a warm, tingly feeling that notified you that you were hit. Popping like a bubble, the little streamers of light floated up to the top where the bottom of the water’s surface gathered the charge light and displayed the scores. Team A (one hundred percent sharks) currently have 56-wait, make that 57 points whilst Team B (made up of something like 99.87 percent sharks and 0.13 percent Candi) had 55-no, make that-but wait, it’s now 57 points.

Candi looked around for threats and targets, and for one second realized the beauty of the scene. The dark water full of shadows gleamed with the light of the charges, and refracted off the gems adorning the shadow-sharks’ shadow-mantles and skin, sending ever-changing color blends dancing along the shifting bottom of the pool, and illuminating everyone’s darting shapes. Team A pulsated with a faint glow of colors, and Team B pulsated with a faint darkness. The smooth round walls of marble, curving around the chamber and the rest of Candi’s tower, reflected and distorted the light and dark back onto the faces of those darting around.

Pop.

During her intake of the beauty, Candi had been tagged. With a new smile on her face, she dove down to where her fish were playing.

Arcobaleno

He looked up at the sky. He could feel it, the Yami girl’s magic energy. Her minions, as well. Probably some pre-battle exercise. He extended a mental feeler to that girl’s emotions, and felt happiness, a slight exertion, and… nostalgia? A shred of memory came through her, and showed, through the girl, a small hill with a ring of orange trees at the top, and a boy chasing her, her long hair just out of his grasp.

His eyes snapped open.

It can’t be you, Candi, right? It isn’t you! The grove of orange trees, the scent of jasmine flowers, and the girl he had played with when he was small… their memories couldn’t lie!

“ Maybe searching for you after the war won’t work, Candi. Especially if you’re the one I have to face.

“I’ll come steal what’s mine soon, Candi. Soon.”