Trial by Fire

By Sara Harricharan

In Amerinth, Shatila is a young Twilight Knight up for promotion to the level of Twilight Titan. It is a coveted position she longs for. The only thing standing between her graduation ceremony is a few personal barriers. Can she make peace with her inner self in time to prepare and join the Titan ceremony? All seems possible until Master Dugene interrupts her meditations with one final assignment, an escort mission for a Duke? The last thing Shatila wants is to trek through the dense Amerinth jungle with a clueless noble in tow--but when she wins the mission by demonstration rights, she cannot refuse. Can this frustrated knight handle one final assignment? Or will her temper bring all her hard work crashing down? Book one in the Twilight Knights series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sara Harricharan
• Release date: Jul 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465936622

Sara Harricharan

Sara is a Christian author writing both inspirational Christian Fiction and Christian Fantasy. She is a graduate of the Christian Writer's Guild and recently graduated from state university with a B.A in English. She has written over two-hundred short stories and is published in anthologies, inspirational newsletters and e-zines.

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Trial by Fire

A Twilight Knight Short Story

by

Sara Harricharan

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Trial by Fire

A Twilight Knight Short Story

Copyright © 2011 Sara Harricharan

Discover other titles by Sara Harricharan at Smashwords.com

#1 Trial by Fire: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/74396

#2 Trial by Air: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/75917

#3 Trial by Water: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/79173

#4 Trial by Earth: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/454852

#5 Trial by Metal: COMING SOON

#6 Trial by Storm: COMING SOON

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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real life individuals living or deceased in the portrayed situations are purely coincidental.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to my mother who always reads my work. Thank you to my family for their encouragement and my Jewelly Sisters who help me sparkle and shine.

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He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. -Proverbs 16:32 (NKJV)

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Peace. Quiet. Tranquility. The thought scrolled through my head. Night. Dark. Silence. Mere minutes remained before my meditation would be complete in all its expected glory. This was yet another attempt to attain the elusive state of Shelena-Brie. It was a challenge I’d undertaken many times in the past year and had yet to see the true end.

Shelena-Brie was an emotionless state useful to every true Twilight who controlled their element through use of excess emotion and a healthy degree of self-control. I wished to reach this point in my meditations because Shelena-Brie was a state of mind that would keep me calm in the midst of battle, while also allowing me to refocus on the goal. Such a moment changed the tide of countless battles and as such, it was a skill I craved to master.

It would be the equivalent of forcing my second wind to show its face on my own terms.

But like most meditative states, Shelena-Brie took time. Too much time to bear. It required a ready mind, heart and soul, before it would test my patience, a virtue I had yet to call my own. What little patience I had to my name wore thin as the end was now in sight. I hadn’t moved for two days. Three days was the expected minimum when attempting Shelena-Brie and anything beyond that meant that the meditation had been successful.

Excitement touched me in the form of delicious chills skipping along the length of my spine.

I hurried to quell such emotion.

There must be no emotion at all in Shelena-Brie. Emotion was the weakness of such a pure, mindful state. In this coveted plane, there must be nothing but quiet and darkness. From the depths of such voids, something new would be born. That thing would be Shelena-Brie.

I worked to keep relief from sprouting as the next emotion when the excitement tapered off.

Redirection was the easiest distraction, so I allowed my mind to recall something rote and mundane. I pictured the meditation halls in all their refined glory, crafting a mental image as close to reality as possible. The meditation halls of the consisted of a long, darkened hallway at the end of the quietest wing in the Twilight Academy where several large windows faced a lush mountainside and wide windowsills provided the necessary seating.

Once comfortable in a windowsill seat, I pulled a curtain behind me and settled down. I did not have to close my eyes. I’d stared out of the window for so long that I would see it even in my sleep now.

A faint ache at my left ear prompted a wince right before a new image flashed through my mind’s eye. It was a familiar face and I almost groaned. There was no time to make sense of the premonition, because my silent musings were interrupted by the sound of something approaching.

Soft thumps announced a visitor’s entry into the treasured meditation halls. I already knew who it was. I would rather it be anyone else but him, and I willed the footsteps to stop anywhere but at my window.

But that would never be. Not with him.

Shatila? Two sharp knocks sounded on the wall beside my curtained window. They warned that my attention and coherency was