Part I
These were the days that Kaharen loathed. Her hands moved absentmindedly over the loom, forming a pattern only out of habit. She heard the screeching calls of the Aleti outside and longed to be out there, watching the Riders as they prepared for the afternoon flight. Kaharen glanced at her mother and saw the determined look in Zeta's eyes. She had positioned herself by the only door to this stuffy room. Even if Kaharen to get around the other ten weavers in the room, there was no way she was going to sneak past her mother. Her quick grey eyes scanned the room, searching for something to keep her busy mind occupied. They fell on the mirror in the corner of the room. Before she could look away, her pupils dilated, and panicked thoughts ran through her head. What would it show her this time? She hadn't seen her reflection in years, not since... the last time. She tried to focus on her face. Maybe nothing would happen if she just stared at the face in the mirror. It was pale from too much time in this room and looked young for her sixteen years. She felt herself fading and switched her attention to the blonde hair. It was short, cut just above her shoulders. Her mother had been trying to persuade Kaharen to let her hair grow out ever since Kaharen had started to cut her own hair. Sometimes she wondered if the only reason she kept it short was to annoy her mother. However, even these memories couldn't prevent her from slipping away. The room faded, and the comb slipped from her hand.
As she watched, patterns spread from her feet, browns, greens, and grays intertwined and spread across ground. They formed the plain plank floor of a two-room house. Then the ribbons of color started moving at different angles, forming walls, chairs, tables, and other furniture. Soon the room was complete. Kaharen surveyed her surroundings. A familiar woman paced the floor of small room, watched by an old man. They didn't seem to see her. A black-haired girl who Kaharen also recognized sat in a chair in the next room, staring out the window at the towering mountains that surrounded the small village. "What are you going to tell her?" asked the man.
"What can I tell her? She barely got over the death of her father. What will she say if she knows the king has restarted the search for us now?"
"You must tell her something. She's an intelligent young woman, and he was as much a father to her as he was a husband to you."
"I suppose you're correct." The woman glanced at Teida. "I just wish that she hadn't been there to see... it." An eerie silence fell, and Kaharen remembered the first time she seen her reflection, the first time she had seen this family. The first time she realized that she wasn't normal...
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