Back to Atlantis

you for years, ever since the priest told us where the future mage was. I know the grades you’ve gotten since kinder garden by heart.” Gloriana sat down on the moss. “Sit. We need to meditate.”
Yasmin sat, quite annoyed. Why do I have spies following me? She wondered, outraged. Do I have no privacy? Her mind full of thoughts, she began meditating, and her power wasn’t quite under control—Understatement. It kept flickering over her body, mostly lightning, every time Yasmin thought of something, which was often.
Finally, Gloriana had it.
“Ouch!” She cried out, when lightning hit her arm.
“Be careful! Don’t let your power flow outward! Relax!”
“I am trying!” Yasmin growled. It was hard work, meditating. It was boring, and she wasn’t good at letting her thoughts drift.
“Try harder! Clear your mind, and relax. We are not here to kill you, but I am here to teach you.”
When Gloriana saw the look on Yasmin’s face she changed her mind. “You obviously have a lot of energy to expel, Yasmin. So why don’t you run ten laps around the palace. Not all of it. But I will mark the places with my magic. By the time you are done, you will be too tired to be emotionally unstable, like now.”
Not waiting for an answer, Gloriana mumbled something under her breath while drawing strange symbols in the air. A glowing line ran from Yasmin’s feet and raced away.
“Hurry!” Gloriana said when Yasmin just stared at it. “If you don’t catch it, you will run ten times around the palace. If you want to stop running, catch it!”
For once in her life, Yasmin didn’t question her. She wanted to get away, and to stop running. So she ran at full speed after the glowing line, which was disappearing around the corner of the courtyard.
Breathing fast, Yasmin rounded the corner. She had lost count of how many times she had run around the palace. That cursed line was always at the edge of her vision, running away from her just as fast as she ran from it. Every time she took a break, she heard Gloriana’s voice in her head, or Abby’s. So she kept running, tired of feeling crazy.
When she at last stepped on that glowing line, which Yasmin had thought of many names for by then, and most weren’t nice, she was back in the courtyard. Feeling her legs give way beneath her, she collapsed on her back, staring up at the blue sky.
“One, two three…” said a voice so quiet it was like Yasmin’s own thoughts, crept into her head. Without thinking she entered meditation, looking at the blue sky. After a while, the voice stopped, but Yasmin was still meditating.
“Not bad,” a voice said, rousing her out of meditation. “You did better than I expected, holding up for an hour.”
Yasmin looked up, moaning at her still hurting muscles and the sight of Gloriana Stargazer. She had hoped the teacher was gone for good.
As if she had read her thoughts, Gloriana grinned. “I don’t get lost that easily, Yasmin. And you are quite easy to find. Your power is like an untrained beacon, shining among the castle candles.”
“Thanks, I think?” Yasmin said, getting up. “Am I done for the day?”
“Almost,” Gloriana said, causing Yasmin to moan. “You have to pick out a book from the library and read it. I want you to finish it by tomorrow. This is your homework, girl.” She handed her a piece of paper with the name of the book on it. “Now, shoo!”
That night, Yasmin had her worst dream yet. She was in a dark forest, unable to move, clothed in a pink dress. She felt dead in her own skin as a green goo surrounded her and began covering her. As much as Yasmin fought, it was useless.
When the goo had completely surrounded her, she was lying on the ground as it soaked into her skin like she was a sponge.
When she took a breath and opened her eyes, it wasn’t Yasmin who controlled her body. She had become a puppet, and she had no idea who the puppeteer was.

Chapter 4
A princess
The library had been wonderful, but the book Gloriana had chosen for her was kind of boring. Her book was about the history of Atlantis, and Yasmin could barely get into the story. She read all one thousand pages, well she tried, but Yasmin fell asleep at page one hundred and ten.
What she did read was about the rise of Atlantis, and the legend that it had drowned. Apparently, Atlantis was nearly flooded by storms, but a mage believed to be sent by God saved the country with his fearsome powers.
Since then, mages have been powerful influences in the world. People like King Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, Madame Currie, and more, too many to count. Sometimes people went a few hundred years without knowing who the mage was, but they eventually found him/ her.
Eating a chocolate sandwich, she made her way down to where she trained yesterday. Thinking about Atlantis, she wondered, why is the royal family so annoying?
‘They have a hard time.’ The now familiar voice said inside her head. ‘I think that if you give them a chance, they might be nice people.’
‘They didn’t give me a chance!’ Yasmin argued with her crazy voice. ‘Why should I give them one?!’
‘You trashed and ruined their ball, but they didn’t hurt you and forgave you. Yasmin, you get a lot more chances than you realize. And was Princess Amanda anything but friendly toward you?’ The crazy voice declared in her head. ‘Yasmin, you were the one who didn’t give them a chance.’
Yasmin shut up mentally. It was impossible to argue with yourself, especially when your crazy voice was making sense.
Wait a minute! She realized. I have to apologize! Forgetting about mage training, she ran in the other direction, having caught a piece of gossip earlier that morning about the room of the princess.
Running through marble hallways, Yasmin saw that things were becoming more girly. Paintings