I was somewhat in shock by the time I finally made my way back to town.  I had no intention of staying, but I wanted to pack up my stuff and get that stupid diploma.  It didn’t mean much more than the piece of paper it was written on, considering how lackluster my education was, but I had worked hard to stay here for that long, because Mother wanted me to graduate.  So I needed that stupid piece of paper.

I went to the house first, throwing what I wanted in a duffel bag.  I didn’t want much.  Some clothes, some spare cash – at least enough to get me a bus ride out of here – a couple of keepsakes Mother had given me over the years, and that was pretty much it.  I wasn’t a sentimental person or someone who would want to say goodbye to my kapra family, even.  It wasn’t that I didn’t love them.  I did, in a manner of speaking.  But we had never been close and if the odd member of the family disappeared without warning, I doubted it would surprise – or grieve – any of them.

My bag over my shoulder, I marched out of the house, ignoring my cousin calling after me as I headed towards the school.

I underestimated his persistence, however, or his longer legs, as he caught up to me halfway there.

“Winter?  What’s going on?”  He sounded a little out of breath.  “Why do you have a bag with you?”

“I’m leaving,” I explained shortly.  “I’m done with this whole stupid town and stupid feud.  I stuck with it for Mother’s sake all these years, but now I don’t have that reason anymore, so I’m done.”

He stopped in his tracks, clearly confused about my reference to my mother – whom none of them had seen in over a decade – then tried to catch up with me again as I reached the school building and yanked the door open.

The students still in the building startled when they saw me, clearly a bit confused and alarmed by the expression on my face.  I was known to not care, yet I was sure that in this moment I looked a mixture of fury and determination.  No one had better get in the way of what I wanted.  I wasn’t going to keep playing the stupid kapra games anymore.

I reached the office and almost slammed the door behind me, making the office people jump a little.  “I need my diploma,” I stated without preamble.  Sure, I hadn’t shown up for the ceremony – which for all I knew had turned into another fight – but it shouldn’t matter.  They should still give me the diploma regardless.

One of the office people, seeing my expression, hurried to flip through a box of papers until they found mine, and handed it over without a word.

I took a moment to stare at the piece of paper with the name of my town and high school printed in bold on the top, almost wishing I didn’t have to take a souvenir from this town with me.  I wanted to be free of this place and all the painful memories it offered.  But I also needed this, if not for my own sake, then for Mother’s.

I uttered a brief thank-you, shoved the piece of paper in my bag, and then started for the door.

I paused before I got there and decided to take a detour.  I had no idea if Mark’s locker had been cleaned out yet, but I knew his combo and I knew he’d bought that bus ticket.  I also knew he wouldn’t mind if I took the ticket and used it – in fact, he’d probably be happy about it.

I drew a couple of looks from people when they spotted me in the hydra section of the lockers, but one look at my face and they all kind of faded back and decided to ignore the situation, none of them bothering to stop me as I opened his locker, found the ticket, and briefly looked through it to see if there was anything else of his I’d want to take.  A picture of us I didn’t even know he had was tucked inside one of his books.  It wasn’t a great picture – dark, from one of our night visits, and you could barely make out the details, but it was probably the only picture that existed of the two of us, so I slipped it into my bag as well.  Everything else was just his school books, but I did end up taking his notebook with all his sketches and science scribbles.  It wasn’t like I could understand what he wrote, but it felt like a bit of him that I could take with me.

Huh.  Maybe I was sentimental, after all.

I turned and started for the back door, intent on leaving this horrible place, getting my bike, riding to the other side of the lake, and catching a bus to any part of the world that wasn’t here.

Then I heard raised voices from the cafeteria and, knowing perfectly well what it would likely be, I glanced in the doors, almost bored, as I passed by.

Marilyn and Bill were yelling at each other, that was normal.  There were fewer students around, and some parents instead – most of the students on campus today were graduating seniors, and their parents probably came to watch them get their diplomas – so the intensity on their faces was more than normal.  Probably because their parents were there, or everyone else, and they felt even more pressure to play up their rivalry.  I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.  I just wanted to get out of here.

And then Marilyn’s words caught my ears.

“Don’t push your luck, Bill.  Your hydras are too stupid to avoid getting caught in obvious magic.  Why should I care if more weak, stupid hydras get killed?”

My hands balled into fists.  I didn’t even hear Bill’s response as I tried to calm my rage enough to speak again – because I knew.  I knew who she was talking about.

“Fuck you.”

The entire cafeteria stilled, all eyes turning to where I stood in the door.

And I wasn’t even close to being done.

“Fuck you,” I repeated, my eyes drilling into Marilyn.  “Fuck all of you.  You know what the problem with this town is?  It’s you.  You and Bill and every single kapra and hydra promoting this pointless, useless war.”  I took a step closer, my clear anger apparently startling her into silence, while my words were starting to sink in on the startled audience, some of whom were starting to look scared, and others angry.

“Don’t pretend you’re great leaders,” I went on, on a roll now and unwilling to stop.  I was finally telling Marilyn what I thought of her, and I wasn’t about to let her or anyone else stop me.

“A good leader would be concerned about their followers, about helping the town, about making life better.  But no, you’re not a good leader.  You promote a war with no point, no goal, no reason, and no end.  There’s nothing to win in this war, just death of people caught in your crossfire.  The only people who benefit are you and Bill and the leaders who get practically worshiped for carrying on this pointless waste of time and life.  While in reality, you’re just pushing a feud that no one knows why it started and nothing would be gained even if you were to win.  You’re not leaders.  You’re enablers.  Murderers of people who dare say anything you don’t like.”  I stared at her, hoping she could see the hatred in my eyes.  “You killed that hydra because you wanted to kill someone, when he didn’t do anything more than dare tell you not to bully a child.  That doesn’t make you a leader.  That makes you a murderer.  And all of you,” I glared deliberately around the room, at hydras and kapras alike, “who play into this whole dumb feud and keep pushing for Marilyn and Bill and their ilk to keep it going?  You’re just as guilty.  I hope this town burns itself to ground and only the innocent escape.”

I fixed Marilyn one last time, noting the way her own fury was rising as what I said was finally sinking in and everyone around the room was appearing agitated.  Probably time to get out of here.

“Fuck you,” I finished.  “Fuck you for being part of the problem.  Fuck you for killing Mark.  And fuck this entire town.”

I spun around on my foot, ready to make my dramatic exit, when something hit me in the back.

I stumbled a bit, then reached over my shoulder to touch the spot, pulling back my hand to reveal blood.  I turned back to Marilyn, whose arm was still out, magic still dripping from her fingers.

“Traitors get what they deserve,” she said coolly.  “You want to betray the kapra?  You will die for it.”  She lifted her hands again, this time focused on my heart, I presumed, and was clearly ready to pour all her magic into this.

But I sort of snorted and shook my head, my hands balled into fists again.  “I’m not the traitor, Marilyn.  I’m the one speaking up for the town and the innocent people who don’t have a choice in this stupid fight.  You’re the one who’s running the town into the ground, destroying life and happiness for everyone here.  You and people like you are the true traitors.”

Her eyes blazed with fury and she snapped her magic at me again, only this time I deflected it with water magic.  She paused, not expecting me to be able to do it that fast.

I smiled darkly.  I might not be as strong as Marilyn, but maybe it didn’t matter.  Maybe it was best if I died in a dramatic scene like this, in front of half the town, where they’d learn what I said and did.  Maybe it would inspire others.

I was about to summon my magic to use against her for the first time in my life – well, to use against anyone, since I’d had a policy against that because I didn’t want to participate in the feud myself – when something happened.

The blood that had been on my fingers dripped to the end of them and one single drop fell.

When it hit the ground, a sound like a bell rang, then echoed as the earth itself shook, reverberating quite likely through the entire town.

From the place where my blood had fallen, lines began to spread outwards – orange lines, rimmed with blue, running outwards along the ground, past the walls of the school and past, I suspected, the boundaries of the town.

I was staring at the words that where scrawled out with the lines, but before I could finish reading them, a voice began to speak.

Mother’s voice.

“The blood of an innocent has been spilled,” the voice said.  “And a curse laid upon this town in judgment.  No longer can the blood of innocents be ripped from them by those who live here.”

And then, in a clear, crisp tone, her voice recited.  “Magic is forfeit until forgiveness is earned.  Violence shall be stopped and peace shall be preeminent.  Learn to live together, or die trying.”

Utter silence followed her words, as everyone around me blinked, mouths opened, whispers starting to rise.

And I almost laughed.  This was why Mother had died sooner than I’d thought, wasn’t it?  I’d thought she had a few more weeks, at least.  But she’d summoned up enough magic to cast a spell to end this feud, once and for all.  For my sake, doubtless, seeing the pain I’d suffered after Mark’s death.  She’d done what Mark had once mentioned to me as the only way this war would end – she’d forced them to get along.  It was enough to make me both want to laugh and cry.  She’d given up the last bit of her magic to give me what I’d wanted – what Mark had wanted – but we had no way to achieve.

After all, only a very old, very powerful dragon could cast a spell like that.