The Storm Within 72401x

The Storm Within

Brandon Eger

Copyright © 2021 Brandon Eger All rights reserved First Edition Fulton Books, Inc. Meadville, PA Published by Fulton Books 2021 ISBN 978-1-63710-421-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-63710-422-4 (digital) Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Surge Serena Shar Flux S The Slyph Secrets The Truth Lost Awakening Life Moves On

A Prelude of Storms

There was a pounding in my head, one so intense I could not even find a good comparison for. So for a time, I just lay still, staring up at the cloudless blue sky, the warm afternoon sun bearing down directly on my face. It was more pleasant than I ed it being lately, having gotten used to the humidity that generally coated Pennsylvania in summer. “Shar, what are you doing? Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I started to ask myself, pausing as I realized I was not quite sure how I had gotten here, let alone where I was supposed to be. Between the headache and the abundance of direct sunlight, my mind was in a haze, feeling worse every time I attempted to understand just what it was that brought me here. Thinking back, I could easily the important things—things like who I was, that I worked in a bank, that it was early June. Though my parents had died when I was young, I could every detail of my father’s face as he used to read me bedtime stories. It was only with the recent memories where the haziness started to surface. Stretching my arms out, I was surprised to feel my hands touch soft grass and soil warmed by the sun. Why was I lying on a field? As I attempted to sit up, I groaned loudly, a strange series of flashes going through my mind. I could not make sense of them—a car, a river, a storm, a flash of light. I suddenly began to choke as water rushed into my lungs, and a searing pain like a hot branding iron raked over every inch of my skin. I coughed and gasped for air, and the feeling slowly dissipated as I returned to the present. What the hell was that? Finding my feet was difficult with my head pounding, but the sight I took in when I finally did so was even harder to comprehend. I was standing in a field filled with flowers. A dense tree line surrounded me on all sides as far as my eye could see. The flowers were the strange part; they were unlike any I had ever seen—not that I was an expert on flowers by any means. I hated the outdoors and insects and the like generally, but these were just impossible. Every petal, every stem,

every leaf—they were all different colors and shapes. No two flowers were remotely identical as far as I could tell. One flower had half bright-yellow, halfblack petals; a cherry-colored stem; and blue leaves like opals. Another had orange, green, violet, and turquoise petals shaped like a triangle. The longer I tried to study them, the more the colors began to overwhelm my senses, and I eventually had to look back at the sky before I grew so overwhelmed that I fell back to the ground. The sky was normal, peaceful. It was the only thing keeping my head intact from the constant pounding. None of this looked remotely familiar, besides the trees, but that could mean I was almost anywhere. I started suddenly as a cough came from behind me, and I spun around as quickly as my head would allow without knocking me over. Once again, I was greeted by another impossible sight. This time, it was a man, sort of. It had the naked upper body of a man. From the waist down to where the hips should be, he had the body of a horse, starting at the neck. It tapped its hooves impatiently on the grass as it waited for me to recover from my dumbfounded shock. “Greetings, human. My name is Kefan, Sorter of the New,” it spoke in surprisingly good English. I was expecting a whinny in there or something at first. Instead he sounded pleasant and sociable, like a distant uncle. I blinked a dozen times, unsure if I was dreaming or dead. Now I was extremely confused. “Uh… Hi, Kefan. This may be a stupid question, but am I dead?” This was all impossible, wasn’t it? I was just a banker from Pennsylvania, just up for a new promotion to manage my own branch after years of dedication and long nights. Centaurs were not real; people did not just wake up in strange places with no memory of how they got there. Well, the latter not without a lot of alcohol first anyway. I was so caught off guard as he whinnied and shook his head that I fell over. “Gods, no. This is the Rainbow Garden, not the heavens. It may help you to think of it like a waypoint between the realms.” He leaned down to pull me unsteadily back to my feet. Studying my face for a long moment, he gave a deep sigh. “I know, I know. You do not know how you got here, right? Splitting

headache too? This is normal for all visitors when first coming to the Rainbow Garden. Ask away, though. I find satiating some of your questions makes you new arrivals more amiable to what comes next.” Unsure of even where to begin, I slowly shook my head, trying to clear it. Strangely, it worked a little. “How did I get here? I can’t anything sooner than a few days ago without it being hazy.” Kefan nodded, chuckling softly, before pulling a strange flip-style notepad from his saddlebag. He flipped through a few pages before making a sound in his throat. “Hmm, Shar Victor. Left a bar drunk and, in a jealous-slash-nervous breakdown, tried to drive home at accelerated speeds in the middle of a thunderstorm, drove over a bridge, and crashed into a river before you, the vehicle, and the river were struck by lightning.” What the hell? How did this creature know all that when I could not even it? Also, what horrific event would cause me to freak out enough to drive drunk after my parents died in a car crash when I was a kid? I could not wrap my head around it. “I’m sorry, Kefan. I don’t understand. Also, you’re a centaur, aren’t you? They aren’t real.” He whinnied again. This time, it sounded more like a snicker. “You humans always think your world is the only one. Tell me. Where do you think all the stories in your world originated from? You really think some wise human one day woke up and was like, ‘Hey, I think it would be great to write about a halfhorse and half-human creature today. That might be fun. Oh, and let’s make up a wyvern, too, though I’ve never seen a lizard bigger than my own body’?” I froze. “Wait. Dragons are real? That’s awesome!” For a long moment, I wondered just how hard I must have hit my head. Another flash of memory hit me. I was at a bar with a girl I recognized but could not place. Her mouth was moving, but no words came, just a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach before I went into a full-blown panic. The girl was beautiful, and I could feel that we had known each other a long time, but not much else. Why was my head so foggy?

He shook his head. “Great. Now that blowing your mind is all out of the way, I need to get back to my job.” Still confused and fairly certain I was dreaming, I nodded. “Sorry, you said you are a Sorter of the New or something?” He nodded, flicking his tail impatiently. “Correct, human. Hold still for a moment while I read you to see where your destination is.” I did as he commanded and waited patiently. Nothing happened for a long moment except his brown eyes flashing for a brief second. “Done. Thank you… Ah, you are a magus, so you’re off to Brenerra, Academy of the Arcane, located in north Ralian.” Now I knew I had to be dreaming. It was like nearly every dream I had as a kid. Before I went into the foster system at seven, when my parents died in a car accident, my dad had been obsessed with this series of books called the Storm Within. I had faint memories of him reading it to me every single night, and eventually, I had inherited the book and developed my own obsession for it. I had even been named after the main character, Shar. In the Storm Within series, Brenerra was the place where Shar started to learn magic in the very first book. I blinked slowly and rubbed my eyes, trying to formulate a question specific enough to get out of this and wake myself up. When I opened my eyes, Kefan and the field where gone. Instead I stood before a massive iron gate the size of two-story house, a giant lion’s head emblazoned onto its center. “Did he seriously just teleport me?” I didn’t even feel anything at all. I was just simply elsewhere. Still trying to catch my bearings, I realized someone else was standing in front of the gate. The person was definitely female, judging by her humanoid lithe form, but her head was shaped like a lizard’s. She had short, choppy black hair, caramel skin covered in scales, and the most intense blue eyes I had ever seen. She was wearing a strangely normal shirt and jeans, and I almost didn’t notice that she also had a caramel-colored tail slightly larger than one of her legs. She gave me a friendly smile, sizing me up and down for a moment. I couldn’t fully

make sense of why, but for some reason, I found her insanely attractive. Her voice was soft and breathy. “Hello, cutie. Can I have your name, age, and race, please?” It was a struggle to get my mouth to move with my thoughts. I was fighting to stop thinking about seeing a human-dragon hybrid revealing a surprisingly large amount of cleavage. That was definitely something the books had always omitted when describing the hundreds of different races throughout the series. “Uh, hi, I’m Shar. I’m twenty-five…and a human?” Her smile widened in a pleasant way despite her bestial features, “Oh, we haven’t had a human here in centuries. How marvelous. My name is Nypet. I have been assigned as your third-year chaperon. Now I know you are probably very confused about what is going on, but hang on a little while longer, and all shall be explained during orientation, okay?” I nodded, starting to question if I was even creative enough to dream all this up. “Okay. Nice to meet you, Nypet.” She winked. “Trust me, the pleasure’s mine. Now if you would stick close to me, I’ll show you to the testing room.” She spun around, tail swishing lightly, and pushed opened the gate enough for us to both squeeze through before closing it again. Brenerra was an enormous castle. It was so large that, standing in the garden leading up to the front archway, I literally couldn’t see the end of the walls to either side of me. It had to be at least a mile long, with dozens of large towers and bridges connecting several of them. The place looked almost more like a fortress. Nypet quickly led me through the arch and down a long veranda-type corridor off to the left. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, but taking in everything around me was overwhelming as it was already. She suddenly stopped as we came to a room leading into the castle. She spun around to face me. “Here we are. All you have to do is go inside and wait in line until they call your name.”

I nodded meekly. “What exactly are they testing for?” Several ages of Shar’s first journey to Brenerra suddenly popped into my head.

He suddenly found himself standing alone in a large chamber laden with dozens of strange apparatuses. Whirring and buzzing filled his ears, giving off the likeness of a thousand hornets swarming about. It was here, in the room of testing, unbeknownst to him that he would take the first leap into fulfilling his destiny.

I shook the thought to clear my head. Between the headache and trying to desperately the start of a series of books, I felt like I was overloading my own mind. Nypet shrugged slightly. “It’s hard to explain it accurately. All apprentices at Brenerra are assigned a rank based on the latent level of magic they have within them. Those with only lesser amounts of magic ability would naturally be assigned a rank, like I or H, while the few elite novices can be given a rank of A if they have quite a large amount of latent magic. Your rank isn’t permanent, though, because naturally your abilities develop further over time. This process is only to place you correctly in a class relative to your power level so you don’t accidentally kill yourself.” I nodded. Then this dream world really was the same Ralian as in the books. Shar—the character Shar that was—was one of only a handful of students who ever managed to obtain an S rank, which was literally the highest honor someone could achieve at Brenerra. It meant that you had a nearly unlimited amount of potential. “I understand. Thank you for your help, Nypet.” She nodded with a grin. “I’ll be waiting out here for you to finish. Don’t worry. I think you’ll do great, Shar.” I flashed her a smile and calmly stepped through the doorway. I didn’t know why

I had been fighting this dream so hard. I had wanted to come to Ralian for as long as I could . I should just enjoy it while it lasted instead. The chamber I entered was nearly the size of an entire apartment, with most of the length of the walls filled with strange devices and machines flashing sporadically. The hum of the machines almost sounded like hornets buzzing about, yet it wasn’t unpleasant. There was a strange, pink-hued woman with seethrough wings standing near a desk on the left side of the room, where the most machines were clustered. She was busily hooking up several wires to a terrifying tree-like creature with a humanistic face. Standing in line before the desk, there were a dozen or so other creatures, barely any of whom looked even remotely human except for one girl who looked like a mixture of a human and a cat. Several of them turned toward me as I walked in, all looking just as surprised to see a human. I quietly took a spot behind the feline girl and waited for my name to be called, like Nypet had instructed. The dryad creature connected to all the wires suddenly let out a yelp as the device closest to him buzzed loudly. “Fair,” the pink-hued woman exclaimed in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. “Your magic level is two-hundred and ten. You are hereby a D-rank apprentice and will be allocated to Dormitory D. Please report back to your assigned thirdyear chaperon for further instructions.” She quickly unhooked him, and he practically ran out of the room. She called out, “Next up—Raskul Klirjadarges.” Another half-dragon-like creature like Nypet stepped forward, but he resembled the lizard part much more than she did. His tongue darted out nervously as he stepped forward, and the woman began connecting the wires to him. The feline girl glanced back at me with large yellowish-green eyes, smiling shyly when I met her gaze. A few more names were called as the lengthy line slowly moved forward, and I noticed the feline girl glance back at me several more times. Finally, I made a move. “Pardon me?” I said to her softly.

She flushed underneath the soft calico fur on her cheeks as she turned back to me. “Sorry I keep staring at you. You’re just the first anthropoid I’ve ever seen outside of a textbook—err, human, I mean.” I shrugged. “It’s all right. This whole place is foreign to me. I have only ever seen other people like me before. You have a very cute tail, though.” Her face heated even more as she eyed me in a curious way before facing forward again. I shrugged and breathed a sigh of relief as it finally boiled down to only two others ahead of us left in line. Several more people had come in after me, and it felt like I had been waiting for over an hour at least. “Next up—Gijer Crescent Moon,” the woman called. The feline girl ahead of me stepped forward with surprising coolness and was quickly hooked up with the various wires. After a minute or two, the device buzzed once again. “Excellent, Gijer! Truly excellent! Your magic level is eight-hundred and fiftysix. That is the third highest we have seen today. You are hereby a B-rank apprentice and will be allocated to Dormitory B. Please report back to your assigned third-year chaperon for further instructions.” Gijer purred softly as she was unhooked. She flashed one last glance over at me before heading back outside. It was probably just my imagination, but the room seemed to go almost silent as the pink-hued woman turned her gaze to me. Whether this was just a dream or I really was somehow literally in a different realm, I had been imagining this moment since I was old enough to dream of Ralian. I was literally about to follow in Shar’s footsteps. Every fiber of my body was vibrating with anticipation. “Next up—Shar Victor.” I nodded and stepped forward without a moment’s hesitation. The woman watched me warily as she placed two wires to my forehead with suction cups and several on my arms and hands. Almost as soon as she finished attaching the last wire to my right hand, the device behind me gave off a painfully shrill beep. The woman looked confused as she stepped closer to the monitor, trying to figure out what was going on. “This makes no sense. It never gives an answer

that—” She turned to me as her face paled visibly. “Your magic level is over a thousand, and the counter is still rising impossibly fast. No normal body should be able to contain over nine hundred and ninety-nine, with the exception of elementals.” She continued watching the monitor as it made several shriller sounds before finally stopping after emitting a long dull drone. She was quiet for a long moment before speaking. “Shar, your magic level is beyond anything I have ever witnessed in the long five hundred years I have walked this world… I will have to inform the High Magus of this at once, but for now, you are hereby an S-rank apprentice. You will be assigned to Dormitory A since there are scarcely ever enough seen of your rank to warrant their own dorms. Please report back to your assigned thirdyear chaperon for further instructions and expect to be ed soon regarding the correct estimate of your magic level.” I was in a daze as she unhooked me, and I made my way toward the door past all the awestruck stares being directed at me. My head throbbed worse than ever as I stepped back outside and nearly ran into Nypet. She smiled at me, totally unaware of the bizarre situation that had just occurred. My mind tried to connect something I had read about Shar that was eerily similar to it, but the headache was starting to win out over clear, conscious thought. “See? Nice and easy, huh, Shar? What dorm were you assigned?” I blinked slowly, calming the pounding somewhat. “She said it’s Dormitory A.” Her brow lifted in shock. “Whoa! I could sense you had potential, but I would’ve never guessed. Anyway, congratulations! I’m only a B rank myself, but I will show you how to get to your dorm. Orientation starts in about two hours.” Nypet paused just before the opaline gemstone path leading up to Dormitory A. She had shown me several dormitories along the way, all of which were impressive based on scale alone, but this building was something else entirely. Whoever had built it had poured more grace and detail into it than any other part of Brenerra I had seen so far. The front doors were crystalline, similar to the path leading up to it. The building itself looked like pure marble, and most of the upper-level floors even had their own balconies.

Nypet turned to me with a dry smile. “This is the end of the line for me. As your third-year chaperone, I’m not allowed to go in with you.” I nodded. “Thanks again, Nypet. It was nice talking with you.” Her smile turned flirty. “You will have all first-year classes, so I won’t see you much from here, sadly. If you ever want to grab lunch or something, though, I’m usually in the courtyard around noon. See ya later, cutie.” With another wink, she turned and walked away. I couldn’t help but watch her for a moment, even though I was still getting used to seeing someone with a tail. Her hips swayed perfectly in tune with her lithe form. She really was attractive, though scales instead of skin might be a bit too much to try to adjust to. I shook the thought from my head and began my ascent up the sloping path into the dorm. As soon as I pushed through the glass-like doors, I was greeted by a fairly normal-looking man in his early thirties. The only unusual quality about him was his long-pointed ears jutting a good inch or so out from his choppy brown hair. He smiled in a friendly manner. “Greetings and welcome to Dormitory A. My name is Barmos Hunt, one of your dorm advisers. I just have a few quick things for you before you can your classmates in the common room.” I was handed a form that looked strangely similar to a questionnaire, and he shrugged away my quizzical expression. “Whether you are familiar with dormitories or not in your home world, our system here most likely works a little differently. This form contains a set of questions best suited to determining your malleability when it comes to the roommate or roommates you are to be paired with for the remainder of your first year.” He paused from the prepared speech to take a breath. “When you have completed the form, you are to simply hold on to it, and it shall be collected before the start of orientation this evening. Once you have finished, you may converse freely with your fellow students until orientation starts. If you have any questions, just grab either me or one of the other dorm advisers that will be walking around—noticeable by the ‘D-A’ pin on our shirts. Any questions?”

I shook my head, trying to think if this was similar to the books, but strangely, the headache seemed to be making me forget more and more of the books the longer I tried to think about them. “No. Fill out the form, and then wait for orientation,” I repeated softly. He nodded. “Yep, that’s about it. You’ll find the common room down this hallway and on the right. There are restrooms located across from the common room as well, if you should need them.” I nodded and slowly followed the dimly lit hall until I reached the room. It wasn’t quite the size of the room of testing, but it was well furnished with dozens of couches, chairs, tables. All were made from the same striking marooncolored fabric. On the left of the room was a roaring fireplace with a large statue of a gryphon mounted over the mantle. Dozens of students of varying races were scattered about the common room, some of the feline type, some half dragons, and so many others that I couldn’t even begin to compare to a creature I recognized. None of them paid any particular attention to me as I walked in and sat down on an empty loveseat with a small table in front of it, across from a group of what I could only assume were some type of fish people. What was surprisingly stranger than being the only human in a room full of monsters was that the ballpoint pen and the form were so normal that they actually felt out of place here. I quickly answered the first few questions since they were all basic things, but some of the questions were oddly specific and personal, like my sexual orientation all the way to my cleanliness habits, the level of noise I could tolerate, unpleasant habits I might have, etc. I sat the paper and pen down on the table once I finished, trying to debate if I still thought this was a dream or not. It was all too weirdly specific to be a normal dream, especially since I had never been to an actual dorm before. For a moment, I wished really hard that I had some kind of race compendium to at least understand what some of these creatures were, but unlike in a dream— where if you thought about something specific, it would appear—nothing happened. Settling for patience for a while, I began looking around at everyone else filling out their papers still or talking in small groups. After a while, my gaze wandered

toward someone I strangely hadn’t noticed before sitting alone farthest away from the fireplace. He was definitely male, but he looked like a child no older than ten. His skin was so pale that it was almost translucent, and he was watching me intently with solid-colored, lavender eyes lacking any pupils. I hesitated before meeting his gaze, but almost as soon as I did, I felt drawn into it. His eyes narrowed slightly as if he was in pain, and he reached up and touched his temple as if soothing it like he also had a headache. After a moment, he slowly moved his hand back to his side as his eyes started widening considerably. The headache eased as he moved his arm, and by the time it was back on his lap, the headache was gone completely. I stared at him in shock for a moment before I realized that he had somehow just caused it to ease to a bearable level. I stood and walked over to him. “Thank you. That was incredible.” He nodded slightly. “Pain was loud. Mind is quiet now.” His manner of speaking was strange. It was slow, and each syllable was overly enunciated as if it pained him to talk. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but what are you? I’m human. I’m not really used to this place yet.” He nodded and met my gaze once more as if testing me for something. After he seemed placated by his answer, he reached out and cautiously touched my forehead. I didn’t even have time to be confused before an onslaught of thoughts that were not mine suddenly overwhelmed my brain. It was like standing still as a giant wave of water suddenly crashed into me. The pain only lasted a split second, but I suddenly knew things I didn’t before. He was a faerie child, a creature born of an entire world of magic and mostly resembled a human child. I looked back over at the group of fish people across from where I had been sitting. They were graillagian, an aquatic race that had varying appearances, from people who looked like mermaids to those who were giant leviathans. It was as if the faerie had ed a giant dictionary of worlds and races into my brain. It was scary just how many hundreds of races there were.

He moved his hand away slowly, smiling innocently. “Gift. Human rare, only knows humans. Now you see.” I nodded slowly. My forehead still tingling with energy where he had touched. “I… Wow. Thank you yet again. I’m Shar. What’s your name?” “Comet,” he answered simply before turning abruptly. I clearly got the message that he was done talking to me. Faeries were a race prone to drastic whims. For one to even talk to someone was incredibly rare. I surprised myself yet again as the knowledge surfaced without even thinking about it. It was quite possibly the most valuable gift I had ever received. I went back to my seat slowly, but with my headache dulled, I was more confused than ever. I could clearly growing up knowing the story of Shar and the Storm Within books, but all my memories of what happened in them were gone. I knew it wasn’t something the faerie did but was something larger going on that I couldn’t quite fathom about the world of Ralian itself. Ultimately, I quit trying to comprehend what was going on and just wasted time listening to the other students talk. Quite some time ed. The orientation was finally drawing near. Then another new student came into the common room. As soon as I saw her, my breath caught in my throat as my heart took off at lightning speed. She was another dusneoc (a human-dragon hybrid) like Nypet, but she was so beautiful it was almost hard to believe. Straight, deep-pink hair lightly grazed her shoulders. Her skin was a light-peach hue with darker red spots on her neck and face that looked similar to freckles. Her face was more humanoid, but her nose and mouth extended outward lightly like a lizard. Her ears were long and wide, ri in the way a cat’s ears looked, and she had thin hide-like wings. Her tail was long and similarly thin, with a red fin trailing down from her back to about midtail. Bright-pink eyes met my gaze as she noticed me watching her, and for that infinitesimal moment, I could almost feel her energy. She was definitely strong, but it was more than that. I could feel her deep hunger to prove herself.

A spark of curiosity flashed in her eyes before her face went ive, and she walked by. I had to make a point not to watch her once she ed because my gaze instantly trailed to watch how her tight shorts clung to her thick hips as she moved. She sat down at the couch to my right, and my brain finally realized why some of the couches had a spot cut out behind the seat; it was specifically for tails. I snuck a glance when she started quickly filling out her questionnaire. I was trying to determine if I had enough courage to go talk to her or if it would be rude since she was doing something important. She caught me watching her after a moment, and I quickly turned my gaze to watch the fireplace instead. I could’ve sworn the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile slightly when she caught me staring, but I chalked it up to imagination, too nervous to glance back over in case she was still looking. Luckily, I was saved by the bell as the lights in the common room dimmed and a few of the people wearing the D-A badges walked in and gathered in front of the fireplace. Barmos Hunt, the adviser who had greeted me at the door, was the first one to speak. “Good evening, first years, and let me be the first to offer my congratulations on your acceptance into Brenerra, Academy of the Arcane. My name is Barmos. To my right is Kithise, and this is Lorathrya. We will be your dorm advisers for the remainder of the year. We are all third years, so feel free to ask any of us if you have any issues with classes, your roommates, or the like. Before we begin your orientation in a moment, does anyone still need time to fill out their roommate assignment forms?” He looked around for a moment, but even the dusneoc girl who just came in had already finished, so he nodded. “Good.” With a flourish of his hand, all the forms and pens simply vanished. He turned to the girl he had introduced as Kithise, who was a pigonan girl; she had the upper body of a human but the lower body of a serpent. She said, “Let’s jump right into it then. I know all of you have questions you’ve been dying to ask since you arrived, and we want to thank you for your patience. There was a time when we answered questions upon your arrival, but it was chaos. So we started putting it off so that they could all be answered at once.

Quick question. Do we have any native Ralians this year?” She looked around for a moment, but nobody nodded. “Okay, that makes this slightly easier then since you all come from different worlds. First and foremost, there are hundreds of thousands of different worlds in existence. I can’t tell you how many. It would be kind of like looking at all the stars in the sky on a cloudless night and trying to count them. Some worlds are primitive, some super advanced, some have magic, some don’t, etc.” She continued, “There exists a Grand Council, who is in charge of keeping all the worlds structurally sound, and a long time ago, they agreed that once a person exhibits their first sign of possessing an affinity for magic—beyond the minute normal amount that all beings have—it would be too dangerous to just let them figure it out on their own. Brenerra was built so that those with magic could be collected and taught how to use and control it in a safe environment without risk of killing themselves or others by accident.” The other dorm adviser, Lorathrya, spoke up next. She was a kryrm, a bestial humanoid like the girl from the room of testing. She had bright ivory fur and a face that looked more wolfish than feline. She said, “For some of you, when you began to show your first signs of magic, your family chose to send you here. For the rest of you, you were suddenly taken from your ordinary lives and kind of thrust into this place without warning because the Grand Council deemed that you possessed enough latent magic that it would have been harmful to let you continue as normal. Now for those of you who are still struggling with the concept that you have magic, I assure you that this is no dream nor fairy tale.” She smiled wolfishly as her tone harshened. “Magic is all too real, and not everybody is simply born with it. Sometimes circumstances present themselves that grant you the ability even if you had no prior history. There are even legends where some people were caught in a natural disaster, and instead of getting drowned, crushed, or whatever, their bodies absorbed the overwhelming profusion of energy like a battery getting supercharged. The sooner you begin to accept that this is actually happening to you, the easier this process will be.” The wolfish grin eased along with her tone. “Once you have fully mastered your abilities and graduated from Brenerra, you will be granted permission to return

to your home or even to seek new worlds to further your studies. Time works a bit differently here as well, so depending on what world you are from, it may only seem like you disappeared for only a few days or weeks instead of years.” Barmos nodded. “That being said, Brenerra is a wonderful place with unlimited possibilities. Spend your time wisely and study hard, and one day, you could become a master magus capable of nearly anything.” He paused for a moment as Lorathrya leaned in and whispered something. His eyes went wide as he nodded to her before continuing. “Ah, it has just come to our attention that additional acknowledgements are in order. For the first time in the last few years at Brenerra, we have been graced with receiving not one but two S-rank apprentices in the same year. The last student granted an S rank was actually twenty years ago. I would ask if you wish me to say your names or not, but it would get out in a matter of days either way. Shar Victor and Pyrsi Irsopha, please stand for a round of applause.” I felt my face heat as I mechanically rose to my feet. Unsurprisingly, the dusneoc who had just came in also rose to her feet. Pyrsi did not look intimidated in the slightest, though. Instead her face just remained ive as the dorm advisers clapped for a moment, as well as some of the other students. Barmos nodded. “Great. With that out of the way, I assure you we are nearly finished with orientation. Based on the questions you answered upon your arrival, your rooms have been delegated accordingly. To my right hung near the common room door, you will find the room assignment sheets. Simply look for your name on the left. It’s your first name followed by your surname, And then your room number will be listed on the right. Your schedules will still take a while to finish, so tonight and tomorrow will be your own free time.” “I suggest using the time to get familiar with the grounds and explore freely. The only stipulation is that if you choose to go beyond Brenerra’s grounds to explore Ralian, you must talk to a third year beforehand. There are special protocols so that you do not get eaten by any of the local wildlife. Also, if any of you are hungry, there is a cafeteria that is always open here in the dorms, just down the hall from the common room. There is a massive one as well in the castle that all ranks have access to if you wish to meet new friends beyond just ranks A and S or if you just don’t feel like running all the way back to the dorms between classes to get some food. Now you all are free to go. We will stick around for the

next hour or so if any of you have any further questions you would like to ask.” Once he was finished, the graillagians were the first ones over to the room assignment list. They were surprisingly nimble for a race of walking fish people. A bunch of others followed right behind them, so I waited until they were all done instead of adding to the cluster. Instead I went over to Barmos while avoiding glancing over at the dusneoc girl Pyrsi. Unlike Nypet, who was friendly and clearly interested in me, Pyrsi just wore an expression that clearly meant she didn’t want to be bothered by anyone, let alone some guy who didn’t even understand why he found her incredibly attractive. A memory suddenly hit me, becoming clear for the first time since the accident that seemed to have brought me here. Ashe, my best friend growing up, that was whom the girl at the bar had been. She told me she was getting married to someone, not realizing I had been in love with her since the day we became best friends. I had freaked out and fled the bar. Maybe this wasn’t even about them. Maybe it was my mind’s way of trying to get over the knowledge that Ashe was going to marry someone back home. I ed it all now. I had always done that. Every time Ashe found a new guy, I would hook up with some girl as if it would somehow make her see me for the first time, the real me. I could break the pattern now, though. I was literally worlds away, and I didn’t have to lash out by seeking affection anymore. I had to stop myself from actually laughing; chasing tail would be literal in this world. Barmos snapped me out of my thoughts, and I realized I had just been standing there like an idiot for a few seconds while I was lost in my own head. He said, “Hey, your name is Shar, right? What can I do for you?” I nodded. “This is probably going to be a stupid question, but are humans rare here? I haven’t seen any others since I arrived.” He paused. “It’s not unheard of for a human to develop magic. A few hundred years ago, it was actually pretty common for a dozen or so to get chosen every year, but I think magic is starting to die out for you guys more and more with every year. There’s probably five or so others at the school currently in total. I will say I’ve never seen a human obtain anything above a C rank, though. Any more energy than that is hard for any normal body to handle without starting to

deteriorate once magic starts being used consistently.” Barmos mentioned magic killing a body, similar to something they were saying about in orientation. Nearly every book on Earth that talked of magic always made it sound awesome and full of wonder; very few really touched on it being dangerous. I said, “You said something about that before with the Grand Council people too. I don’t understand. Why is magic so dangerous?” He paused, sharing a look with Lorathrya for a moment as if he was deliberating how he wanted to answer me. After a moment, he met my gaze again with hesitation. “I don’t want to scare you before you even start your classes, but I refuse to lie. Think of magic like you would any source of great power. For example, think about fire. If you use it at a distance on a chilly night, it can keep you warm for as long as you can keep it going and be beautiful to look upon all the while. Now think of a bonfire. It is so much larger that you have to stand farther back or else your skin will start to heat up to the point of being painful. It is just as beautiful but is more difficult to contain safely. Magic is much of the same. A small spell like turning moisture into a cup of water couldn’t hurt you, but trying something huge like creating a river from a small cloud would rip your body apart. It can be difficult to tell where your limits are, and many people have pushed themselves too far before they were ready. Do you understand?” I was quiet for a moment as I weighed his words. They made sense, but it was a scary notion to grasp. I nodded. “Yeah, I think I get it. Thanks.” I debated whether I should ask him about what the lady in the room of testing had told me, about waiting for the High Magus because my magic count was too much for the machine, but something instinctual told me I didn’t want that information to get out. I didn’t know how, but I could feel it was as much a bad a thing as it was good. “I have one other question, sorry. Who is the High Magus?” All three of the dorm advisers’ eyes snapped to me. Lorathrya was the one who answered. “How do you know of the High Magus?”

Feeling a bit timid, I settled for a small shrug. “Technically, I don’t. The lady from the room of testing said I would be ed soon after she spoke to the High Magus in regard to why I am an S rank.” I did my best to be honest without bringing up my magic level specifically. She nodded and chose her words carefully. “First, you must understand that Ralian is a rather unique place. As old as Brenerra is and as old as the Grand Council is, Ralian is supposedly one of the first worlds that came into existence. When I said that time works differently here, that is why the academy was built here. Most of these teachers have been here for hundreds of years or more and have only aged a few years in that time span. The High Magus is a member of the Grand Council in charge of Brenerra’s affairs, kind of like a heaster. He is also the strongest magus known in existence as of yet.” Whoa. That was really intimidating. I had never had any issues with a principal at any of the dozens of schools I had attended growing up, let alone a principal in charge of keeping order between worlds. Awestruck, I simply nodded, unsure of how to respond. “Okay, thank you.” I could still feel their eyes on me as I turned to see how long of a line was left for the room list. I didn’t realize my questions had taken that long, but there were only the faerie child and Pyrsi left. I walked over and stood behind her. This time, it was easy to keep my eyes from wandering. I felt utterly overwhelmed despite the fact that I had wished for this pretty much my entire life. I had always known there was more out there, even if I had lost hope quite a few times while growing up. Reality was just always darker than the fantasy; magic could kill you if you weren’t careful. I was in a world with barely any humans. There were no friends or family to fall back on. I noticed Pyrsi glancing back at me, and it managed to snap me out of the dark direction my thoughts were turning. This was a good thing, albeit slightly scary. I wasn’t alone in this. There were hundreds of other students in the exact same place as me, just from other worlds. The faerie child left, and Pyrsi moved forward. I waited patiently for a moment for her to find her name, but she seemed confused the longer she stared at the list. “Can’t find your name?” I asked without thinking.

I flinched, expecting some harsh, sarcastic comeback at such a dumb, obvious question, but she surprised me by just nodding. Her voice was nothing like I expected it to be. It was soft and gentle, almost like a Georgia accent but obviously from somewhere very different. She said, “I cannot find it anywhere. Do you mind taking a look? My name is Pyrsi Irsopha.” I nodded, and she stepped aside so I could move closer. My elbow accidentally brushed hers, and for a brief second, I felt that torrent of energy again like standing outside amidst a lightning storm. I did my best to ignore the energy coursing through my air, making every hair rise, as I quickly scanned the list for her name. She was correct. Her name was not where it should be between Purrenlas and Sianal. It also made me realize something else. “No, I don’t see your name. However, I’m not on here either. Maybe it’s because we’re the only S ranks?” Her face stayed ive as I turned back to her, but she nodded. “That seems logical. I’ll go ask one of the dorm advisers, unless you wish to accompany me.” Her manner of speech was strange; it was not pained like the faerie’s had been but still slow and distinctive. It almost sounded more like how I would expect someone who was noble or royal to speak, but I had no idea if dusneocs even had a concept like that. I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll you.” I didn’t realize she was quite so literal, but she met matched my stride as we turned and walked back over to the fireplace. Barmos was still looking at me strangely, but luckily, Pyrsi spoke up for us. “Hello. We were looking for our names on the room assignment list. However, neither of us are there. Was there some sort of mistake?” Kithise, the pigonan dorm adviser, smiled at us, which was rather unsettling given that most of her was a serpent. “Sorry about that. It slipped my mind to mention during orientation since you guys are so rare. S ranks get a little bit more special treatment at Brenerra. None of the A-rank rooms go above the

fourth floor. The fifth floor was built only for you guys. Since there are only two of you and you’re of different genders, we wanted to give you guys a choice. We allow roommates to be any gender since each room is separated into a living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms. It is entirely up to you two if you wish to be in the same room or different ones.” My confidence faltered a little. Pyrsi seemed nicer than I had first given her credit, but living in a group had taught me just how difficult living with someone you didn’t know could be. It also taught me that having a room all to yourself sucked just as much sometimes, so it was a difficult choice. I looked over at her and shrugged. “Personally, I don’t love the idea of living alone for an entire year, and living with someone the same rank would probably come in handy if we hit any serious hiccups. I mean, worse comes worse, if you get tired of me, I don’t mind spending most of the day in my bedroom. That’s actually pretty typical for most people back home anyway.” She was silent for a moment as she thought, but eventually, she nodded. “I am also not particularly inclined toward being alone often. It is fine with me.” I looked back at Kithise and nodded. Her smile widened. “Cool. Your room is five-zero-one. It is unlocked currently, but you will find your room keys waiting on the dining table. Have a good night, both of you.” I flashed a small smile back and quickly left the common room. It wasn’t anything personal, but snakes had always creeped me out, which apparently included snake-human hybrids. Pyrsi silently followed a few steps behind me back toward the front door of the dorms where I had thought I saw an area for an elevator. There was a space that looked similar to an elevator, but instead of buttons with floor numbers, there was only a strange speaker-like indent in the floor. I studied it for a moment. “I don’t understand. I could have sworn this was an elevator.” She gave me a strange look for a moment, testing the word. “I am unfamiliar with the term elevator. This is a lift, which is an alternative to stairs, if that is

what you mean. You have to channel some of your magic into the crystal and speak the floor you seek, and it will lift you to it.” I nodded. So elevators were called lifts, but except for the magic part, at least it was the same concept. I realized something, though. “I have no idea how to channel my magic yet. Do you mind?” She nodded, and for the first time, I saw her expression change from ive. She smiled slightly, and it just made her look all the more beautiful. I squashed the thought and paid attention as she closed her eyes and called upon her magic. She didn’t do anything physically, but I could suddenly feel a torrent of electricity rise around her, and the speaker-shaped crystal beneath us began to glow with a soft pink hue. “Fifth floor,” she spoke clearly, and instantly we were moving up. It was a strange feeling because the floor and the crystal were still on the ground and nothing was under our feet. It felt like an invisible platform was ing us, but unlike an elevator, I couldn’t actually feel myself moving. This was a thousand times better. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I would get motion sickness without the normal lurching about. In seconds, we were lifted to what I safely assumed was the fifth floor because we stopped moving. I quickly stepped off the invisible force that was ing us and back onto solid ground that I could see with a sigh of relief. “This is probably nerdy, but that was pretty cool, not gonna lie.” She shrugged, clearly familiar with the strange devices, and looked around. We were in a fairly bleak hall, similar to how the first floor had looked. There were no decorations or even pictures hanging on the walls, but almost right across from us was a door with a small metal plaque that read, “501.” Pyrsi walked into the room without hesitating, and I quickly did my best to follow behind. The room was huge. There was a full kitchen immediately to the left, a dining table big enough to comfortably fit several people, and a living room straight ahead. I was excited to see that the living room was fully furnished with two couches, a coffee table, and a very large device similar to a television. There were two more doors on either side of the living room, which led to the bedrooms but were closed.

I turned to her as she was still looking around. “It’s actually nicer than I expected, but I’ve never been in a dorm before, so maybe this is standard. I like it, though.” She nodded. “The room is fine.” She went over and started exploring the cabinets and fridge. There was food and dishes all completely stocked, though I did not recognize most of it. A fierce yawn took me by surprise at how exhausted I felt, and I did my best to quickly cover it with my hand. “Well, Pyrsi, this has been a very long day, so I’m heading to bed. Uh, it was nice meeting you. I’ll see you tomorrow, I suppose?” I wasn’t very hopeful. Truthfully, she had agreed that she didn’t want to live alone, but she did not seem the type to actually socialize. I had a feeling I’d either be in my room or studying down in a library somewhere most of the time anyway, but it was still nice to talk to someone. She surprised me yet again as she seemed to notice my hesitation and stopped to actually look over and smile at me in a forced but friendly way. “I am sorry, Shar. I know I am not the best with people, but I am not purposefully being standoffish. Today was very tiring, and I miss my sisters greatly. Tomorrow we can talk more, all right?” I nodded, and not pushing my luck, I headed for the bedroom on the right. I paused in shock as soon as I opened the door. The bedroom was enormous. Against the far wall was a king-sized bed with a tall wooden headboard emblazoned with two large gryphons in flight. It was covered in a vivid blue comforter with gray sheets and half a dozen pillows; they literally looked so comfortable that they made me instantly want to lie down and sleep. It was kind of like a hotel room but much more personal. There were nightstands on either side of the bed, a massive desk, a full dresser, dozens of empty shelves for books, empty racks for what looked like weapons, a full bathroom, and so much more. It looked like what you would expect a king’s bedchamber to be. They were not kidding about the S ranks getting special treatment. I couldn’t resist quickly kicking off my shoes and socks and climbing up on the bed so that I could jump on it. I might as well have been jumping on a cloud; it

was so extravagant. I laughed and dropped down, shifting so that I could try out one of the pillows. True to its appearance, it was the most comfortable thing I had ever laid my head on. At least if I ended up killed by my own magic, I would die in bliss. If I ever went back to Earth, I was seriously taking these beds and pillows with me. After a few moments of lazing about contentedly, I sighed, and the momentary high waned as reality fought its way back to the surface. I was whisked here with nothing—no clothes, no toothbrush, none of my own stuff. It almost felt rude for some reason to sleep naked in a bed this fancy, so on a whim, I got back up and checked the dresser to see if there just happened to be clothes waiting. The drawers were empty, of course, as well as the desk and the nightstands. I walked over to a large closet door next to the bathroom as my final hope and paused. It was definitely a closet, but the door had no handle or latch that I could see. I tried seeing if it would slide like a patio door, but it still didn’t budge. Getting aggravated, I gave up and went into the bathroom instead. Surprisingly, it was almost what I expected. There was a walk-in shower, a vanity, mirror, a sink, a toilet—everything I would see in a normal bathroom. Thankfully, there was a new toothbrush and what I assumed was toothpaste in a strange bottle sitting next to it. I quickly peed to my utter relief and then brushed my teeth before heading back to the bed. Defeated, I stripped down to my boxers and was asleep in seconds.

Chapter 1

Surge

Iwas not having a normal nightmare—of that much, I was certain. It felt similar to a dream but much more real as if my brain was trying to piece together lost pieces of memory. For a moment, I was no longer at the dorm in Brenerra. I was sitting in my Blazer as it plunged violently toward the river. The night sky flashed as bright as day as I heard the peal of thunder roar through the air. Lightning hit the water at the exact same millisecond I did, and I could feel the onslaught of energy rip through every fiber of my body. The pain was so all-consuming that I begged for my life to end if it meant it would stop. There were no words to describe it accurately. It was like every nerve being shocked all at once and set aflame. I could feel it tearing me apart as I screamed soundlessly until something instinctual flipped on in my mind. I felt my body reach out of its own accord and somehow pull the energy deep within. For a moment, briefer than the fastest beat of a heart, I was one with the energy, and then everything was simply gone…

I gasped for breath as I woke up in a panic, completely oblivious to everything around me. All I saw was that same white emptiness, and I could still feel the current inside of me from that dream. I didn’t have to think to understand what it was. I knew I was feeling for the first time whatever magical energy now resided in my own body. I struggled to quell the rising tempest, to get a grip on it, but with no knowledge of how to do so, it was like trying to keep your footing while standing inside a tornado. I could feel tendrils of energy escape from the tips of my fingers, worming their way over whatever I was lying on. The very air was alive and

humming as it responded to me until it started to vibrate so fast that it caught fire. I could feel the surge of magic impact the air like thunder without sound as everything within twenty feet of me was blasted backward. Wood cracked and splintered as objects slammed into the walls and glass shattered. I couldn’t see anything, and there were too many sounds to place everything that was going on. Once the surge ended, the storm within me quelled instantly, and the energy faded from my grasp. With it calmed, my vision returned to normal, and I could now feel what I couldn’t recognize before. It was my own magical energy resting dormant deep within me, waiting to be called upon so it could erupt like a volcano. It was a beautiful feeling, like you could take on the entire world. It was terrifying too. I had very nearly been consumed by my own magic just from sleeping. I needed to get a grip on it—and quickly—if I wanted to live. Panting I slowly forced myself to sit up and hesitantly took a look around my bedroom. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Everything was in ruins—the dresser, nightstands, the desk. All were a mess of slivers. The closet I hadn’t been able to open and the bathroom were razed. Surprisingly, the only thing still standing was the bed, which somehow survived the onslaught. Even my bedroom door had been shattered in half. Pyrsi stood in what was left of the doorway, watching me with her bright-pink eyes opened wide. She didn’t look scared like I expected. Actually, I couldn’t quite place what emotion was dancing across her features. It was like excitement mixed with knowledge and attraction. Her voice came out breathy and not nearly as reserved as she had sounded yesterday. She sounded excited now. “I now see why you were chosen to be an S rank. Truthfully, I could not sense anything from you before, but now I can actually see and feel it all around you. I have never seen anything like it. I wanted to wake you up, but the wind coming from the room was too strong. Are you all right?” I nodded slowly, trying to speak, but my throat felt dry and hoarse like I had been screaming for hours. Truthfully, now that I was awake, I felt better than I had my entire life. With the exception of my throat, my body wasn’t in pain or

sore in any way. I felt confident and brimming with energy, like I had just drunk a dozen espressos and was on a major sugar high. I tried to find the right words to voice how I was feeling to someone else. “I am…more than all right. I feel pretty amazing, actually.” She sucked on her bottom lip in very feminine way as she watched me, and I suddenly became painfully aware that she had changed out of her shorts and Tshirt and into a short nightgown. The V-neck was cut so low that I could see over half of her very large bust, and I couldn’t stop myself from blushing. She really was stunning, dusneoc or not, and something about the way she was biting her bottom lip mixed with the energy coursing through me made the air between us feel like static electricity. I was fairly certain she could feel it too. Then she pulled her gaze away, and suddenly, the energy was simply gone. She smiled to herself. “Good. I am glad you are all right. I will go back to my own room now.” She turned, and this time, I did not resist watching her hips and tail sway as she walked away. Thoroughly confused now at how I was so attracted to someone not even of my own species beyond being somewhat humanoid, it took me a moment to gather my senses enough to finally stand up. I ran into a major issue as I realized that my clothes from yesterday were lost amidst all the rubble from the magic surge. I muttered a few curses under my breath as I searched the room for a few minutes but to no fruition. My second day at Brenerra, and I already got the heaster called, destroyed my room, and lost my clothes except for the boxers I was wearing. Welcome to college! Feeling defeated yet again, I nervously walked out of my room and knocked on Pyrsi’s door, hiding my body behind the wall as best as I could now that I wasn’t covered by the blanket. Normally, I wouldn’t care about anyone seeing me in boxers, but something about her just had an effect on me that I couldn’t resist, and that would be impossible to hide. She opened her door slowly, wearing a curious expression. I said, “Uh, hey. So my clothes kind of walked away during all that. Is there some trick I’m missing to the rooms? How did you get a different outfit?”

She laughed in a soft, gentle way. “You humans really are a strange race. How do you function without magic being commonplace in your societies? Think. You have magic. If you really want, you can just summon clothes. Or you can channel some of your magic into the closet, and clothes will appear. It is the same as the lift.” Oh, that actually made a lot of sense in a sick, my-life-had-become-twisted kind of way. I was apparently just overthinking it once again. “I am kind of afraid to try to use my magic again after what just happened. Would you mind helping me out again? It would be kind of awkward to walk around in my underwear all day.” Her expression briefly flickered to an intrigued look before turning serious as she shook her head. “I cannot. I could make some appear, but they would be for a female and have holes for wings and a tail. It is easy. Just close your eyes and picture what you want to wear. Then channel your magic and make them. Watch.” She closed her eyes and was still for a moment before her nightgown suddenly started to glow with a soft pinkish light before growing into a long, flowing dress. Even knowing what she was going to do beforehand, the sight was spectacular to see. Magic was scary, but it still had its moments. I sighed nervously and closed my eyes as she instructed, stepping back away from the wall I had been hiding behind. In my head, I reached down inside myself toward the energy I was suppressing. I barely even had to try. It almost met my touch with the eagerness of something living. I wrapped the energy carefully around myself like a blanket and pictured wearing one of my normal outfits—my favorite jeans and my green T-Rex shirt. I’d had them for long enough to still clearly every detail about them from where the jeans were faded to the style of words on the shirt. For some reason, speaking out loud just felt better while I was trying to control my magic. “I command you to appear.” I waited for a minute, but nothing happened. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” I laughed softly as I opened my eyes back up. I was shocked to look down and discover that it had actually worked. I was in the exact same outfit I had worn so many times. The normality of it in such a foreign place was almost off-putting.

“Whoa, I didn’t even feel anything happen.” She nodded. “Well, you did your first actual spell on your own. Congratulations.” I couldn’t help but smile and feel a little proud of myself. “Thank you for coaching me there, Pyrsi. You’d make a good teacher.” She smiled slightly. “You are welcome. Now do you need anything else? I was about to take a cold shower.” I shook my head, desperately shaking the mental image before it could fully form. “Nope. I feel like getting some breakfast. See you later today.” I wasn’t fully sure why I had the sudden urge to go out, especially since I had no concept of what time it even was, but between feeling supercharged and doing my first spell successfully, I felt a little airy. I stepped out of our room and onto the lift to test out if I could do it myself, once again relieved when it instantly responded to me. Unlike the pink glow from Pyrsi’s magic, though, the speaker-shaped object resonated with a deep emeraldgreen light. I said, “First floor, please.” It descended slowly, floating so evenly that it still was as if we weren’t even moving. I stepped off once it reached the first floor and headed over to where the cafeteria should be by the common room. It was actually pretty easy to find, and there were already a few dozen students sitting at the tables, eating. There was a line of students standing by the wall to the right, which I assumed was the line for food, so I took a place at the back. It only took a few minutes for the line to move up enough to see how the cafeteria actually worked, and I was dying to see how strange it would be in a place full of magic. Sadly, it was fairly average in reality. There were a few carts lined up with a myriad of items in a serve-yourself buffet style. I grabbed a tray and some silverware and tried to follow my sense of smell rather than my sense of sight to determine the different foods. Breakfast was easily the most confusing part of Brenerra thus far. The human in

me expected to see bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, and whatnot, but I was again made to realize just how far from home I really was. There were wyvern crisps, iron oyster, briweonate bread, dried mastigodryas, and other stuff I could barely pronounce. Still feeling brave, I grabbed some briweonate bread that looked like a loaf of wheat, roc eggs that thankfully looked like normal eggs but were brownish, and some bizarre sausage-like item called chimera lollies. A few people flashed me a strange look as I laughed when I got to the machine for drinks. Amidst all the crazy and unrecognizable options, there was a button for orange juice. Apparently, that was just a universal choice for breakfast, even on a cosmological scale. I took my plate and orange juice and was starting to sit down at one of the few empty sections of tables when I noticed Barmos sitting with a few kryrm girls, including Lorathrya. I kept walking and sat down near them instead. Barmos gave me a warm smile. “Good morning, Shar. How are you feeling today? You seem like you are a lot better off than you were yesterday.” I smiled back. “I feel great today, actually. Thanks. I channeled my magic for the first time this morning, which was scary but awesome.” He nodded. “Yeah, I can feel your energy humming around you now. Kudos, some students struggle greatly before they learn how to start tapping into their magic.” Oh, that reminded me of the fairly large issue awaiting me in the dorm. “Actually, Barmos, I did have a bit of an issue this morning. My magic started surging on its own while I was asleep, and as I woke, I accidentally destroyed my room. How do I, uh, get furniture and stuff replaced?” He barked a laugh, startling the kryrms. “I knew I liked you. Just starting your second day and already breaking everything. Don’t worry about your room. Everything is enchanted, so it’ll fix itself later when it feels like it.” Okay, that was just awesome. Even the furniture could seriously fix itself. Every story of magic I ever read about was slowly being warped the more I learned. On Earth, magic was made out to be some scary and fictional thing that got people killed once upon a time just for being suspected of having it. Here, it was just as

normal as breathing and eating. I said, “All right. Awesome. Thank you.” I started poking around at my food, playing with it nervously. The briweonate bread was decent, kind of bland like white bread, but the roc eggs were better than any egg I had ever tasted on Earth. The texture of the chimera lollies almost made me gag for the first few bites. They were like rubbery steak, but at least they tasted good, albeit a little salty. At least it was filling, even with the small portions I grabbed. Though not meaning to eavesdrop, I overheard Lorathrya and a cat-like kryrm girl talking back and forth while I finished eating. “Since today is a free day, how can I go about leaving Brenerra? I want to check out the ruins of a local village I heard a few second years talking about yesterday.” Lorathrya finished chewing a bite of something purple and gooey and said, “It’s pretty easy. There’s a sign-out form by the fireplace in the common room. It’s next to a box of stones with runes painted on them. Just grab one of the stones once you sign out and find any third year so they can explain how to activate it.” The girl nodded. “What are the stones for?” Barmos ed in their conversation. “They’re spelled with multiple protection spells as well as a tracking beacon. If you run into any trouble, you activate it, and it will instantly transport you back to the common room.” That caught my attention the most. “What sort of trouble would we run into out there? I you mentioned something about the wildlife.” Lorathrya turned to me. “Ralian is filled with all sorts of strange creatures. Most of them prefer to mind their own business and won’t bother you, but there are others that are vicious carnivores. They’re not the only danger, though. There are living plants that can kill, areas with paralytic pollen, and even some native Ralians who don’t like outsiders. That’s why it is of utmost importance to keep your protection stones close, especially for students who haven’t mastered many battle or defensive spells.”

The girl next to Lorathrya looked hesitant now. “On second thought, maybe I’ll wait to check it out. I was kind of looking forward to a nice stroll in the sunlight and not having to worry about creatures I’m unfamiliar with.” I didn’t listen to the rest of the conversation as I finished eating and stood to place my tray in the cafeteria window where I saw other students putting theirs. I hadn’t really given much thought to what I wanted to do with my free day until I heard back from whomever the lady at the room of testing was going to send about my magic level count, or about my schedule. It seemed still fairly early in the morning, so I left the dorm and followed the path Nypet had showed me back toward the front courtyard. A few students were sitting at the fountain, but everything was still pretty quiet. Wandering without really thinking about where I was going, I went into the actual castle for the first time. The grand chamber was so enormous that it was almost unbelievable. There was a large staircase going up ahead and some rooms off to the left and right. To the right, I could tell, was the main cafeteria, judging by the clamor and sound of plates, so I followed the steps instead. The second floor had dozens of classrooms in every direction, but none of them really caught my eye. I went up another floor to see more of the same, with the third floor having the exception of what was clearly the library. I headed straight in, and the nerd inside me gasped in delight. There were dozens of rows of shelves with thousands of books, so many that it actually made my head spin trying to take it all in. A faerie man with glasses sat at a desk near the center of the room, his ivory skin in stark contrast to his spiky dark-blue hair. His bright golden eyes looked up, and he smiled as he noticed me enter. “Welcome,” he said excitedly. “Your kind always ends up being my absolute favorite students—those who are the first to find the library each year, that is. My name is Seno, librarian and professor of Magi Historica.” I smiled back. His bubbly excitement was the kind that almost instantly made you want to be excited too. “Hi, I’m Shar.” A thought occurred to me. Since he was a historian, he might actually know of the Storm Within books. Being at Brenerra might have stripped me of my

memory of what exactly happens in the books, but I still knew I was named after the main character. I fully expected to see recognition flare in his gaze, but I faltered when I didn’t see it. “What a unique name,” he said. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Shar. Is there anything I can assist you in finding, or were you just exploring?” So he either didn’t know the books or was choosing not to say anything about the coincidence of two Shars going to a place called Brenerra. Or maybe the books really were just fiction, and the author just happened to make up the Shar in the story. The odds seemed astronomical, though. It would be too much of a coincidence. I had to find out the truth for myself. “Actually, I am curious about something, Professor Seno. Are you familiar with books from Earth at all?” His smile widened. “Of course! Your race has some of my favorite stories, actually. I find I am rather fond of your children’s books specifically.” I laughed softly. Somehow that didn’t surprise me. “Have you ever heard of a fiction book series called the Storm Within? My father named me Shar after the main character.” He paused for a moment as he considered my question. “Hmm, I know of a single book titled The Storm Within but not of any series featuring a character named Shar. That’s rather odd. I pride myself with being familiar with nearly every book in existence.” A strange sensation tickled the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite place what it meant. I was just more confused than before. Even back home, nobody had seemed to know it either. I sighed in frustration. “See, I don’t get it either. The books are about Ralian. Even Brenerra is in it, yet nobody else knows them.” His eyes lit up in a strange way. “You say the books are about Ralian specifically?” I nodded. “Yeah. It’s the weirdest thing, though. Ever since I arrived yesterday, I can’t much else about them.”

A dozen emotions flitted across his face as he was lost in deep thought and began searching through the dozens of papers on his desk. After a couple minutes, he finally looked back up, but it seemed like he was looking straight through me. “Most curious. I do not have an answer for you yet, but give me a few days, and I will do some research. In the meantime, is there anything else you would like to know?” I pulled my thoughts away from the books once again and debated his question. “Not at the moment. If you could look into the series, I would really appreciate it, though. I really don’t know what to think.” He nodded seriously and sat back down, once again losing himself in what he was doing. The mystery was starting to wear down the airy feeling I had, so I left the library and started to wander once again. For an academy of magic, the inside of the castle was beautiful but pretty boring. By the time I finally stepped back into the courtyard out front, the sun was already high in the sky, and there were plenty of students now walking about. I ignored the others for the most part, finding myself pulled back toward the room of testing I had been in yesterday. It was empty now, except for the machines, but they were turned off now. I was unsure if it would be breaking some rule or not, but my curiosity got the better of me as I walked back over to the strange device with a monitor whose wires the lady had attached to me. Going on memory, I slowly reconnected the wires the way she had put them on and waited for the device to give off the same shrill beep. Nothing happened this time, though, which made sense since everything was off and no longer buzzing. Following the advice Pyrsi had given me, I closed my eyes and reached back inside myself for the energy that was now a constant hum within my skin. Like this morning, I barely even had to try, as it hungrily rose to meet my touch. “Turn on,” I commanded the machines. I opened my eyes after a moment when I realized nothing was happening. I didn’t understand it. I could feel my magic waiting to be released, but it wasn’t responding to what I wanted it to do. I tried to think about what I did this morning that was different. Then it hit me. I pictured what I wanted in my mind. The words were just to make me feel better. I was doing it backward this time.

In my mind, I tried to trickle my magic into the machines like a plug slowly getting power from a live outlet. Before I even got out any words, every device in the room practically roared to life. The buzzing was different from yesterday, though. It was stronger and deeper, like the machines were running at twice the speed. The monitor gave a shrill beep as a dozen symbols I didn’t recognize popped up. The only thing I could actually understand were the numbers being displayed and rising steadily. The machine droned louder after every five hundred it rose. At one thousand, it gave a loud beep; one thousand five-hundred, a higher pitch; two thousand, a screech so loud that it made me wince. Then I saw why the lady had gone so pale, the numbers suddenly disappeared as it gave off one final long dull drone like a horn or a buzzer, like it was too high for the numbers to keep going. A few seconds later, a few plain words displayed. All the other numbers and symbols were gone. Then it went back to a blank screen. The words were “Electus unus dei deorum.” I didn’t understand what it meant, but the words sent a chill racing down my spine. I unhooked the wires and cut off my magic flow. The machines instantly became quiet. I couldn’t shake the words as I raced out of the room. They might as well have been permanently etched into my mind. For some reason, I just knew they had not appeared when the lady did it. They were meant for me alone since it was my magic powering it this time. I nearly leapt out of my skin when I ran into someone just outside the doorway. ittedly, I had not been paying attention to where I was going. She squealed as we both lost our balance and tumbled over. I tried to catch myself on the wall but couldn’t manage in time before landing on top of her. “I am so sorry. I was kind of freaking out. I didn’t look where I was going,” I said. I was even more surprised as I realized she was the first human I had seen since arriving. She was tiny and mouse-like but not in the literal sense for once. I quickly stood and helped her to her feet. She brushed herself off before looking up at me. She was a good foot or so shorter. She said, “It’s okay. I was in a hurry myself, so just as much my fault.” Her

frown deepened as she realized which room I was coming out of, and she flashed me an accusing look. “What were you doing in the room of testing just now?” I bent down to help pick up her books that were on the ground, knowing my guilt was clear on my face. “I had to see something for myself. When I was tested yesterday, the lady got really weird and said someone would me about my magic level. All she would tell me was that I was an S rank.” The girl’s eyes went huge. “Wait. So you’re Shar? That’s amazing. I’ve been looking for you for two hours to no avail, and then boom, here you are. I will excuse your curiosity just this once, but you shouldn’t go playing with things you don’t understand. You could seriously injure yourself.” She paused slightly. “But out of a professional curiosity, what did you find out?” I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I managed to get the machines working enough to run the test again, but it sputtered out before giving me a final count. It did something rather odd, though. There was a moment after the numbers stopped where a message or something popped up briefly.” Her interest was definitely piqued now if it hadn’t been before. “What kind of message?” I debated whether I should tell some person I didn’t know or not, but I didn’t even know what language it was in to even start trying to figure out its meaning. I was already getting very tired of feeling like everything around me was purposefully keeping me in the dark. I said, “Electus unus dei deorum.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I have no idea what that means. Anyway, I was looking for you pertaining to your magic count, actually. It would seem that the High Magus is away on business and will be gone for some time yet. Since your magic count level is at least over a thousand, you will be placed in the standard advanced curriculum designed for S ranks. You will find your schedule awaiting you back in your room in the dormitory, and I believe your first class begins at seven tomorrow morning—Principles and Foundations of Magic. Enjoy the rest of your evening, and please keep out of trouble.” She quickly turned and walked away, leaving me to my thoughts. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to meet the High Magus, but at the same time, I

was also disappointed. I couldn’t help hoping that he would be like Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series. At least my schedule was done. This whole free-day thing was taxing when you had no idea what to do with yourself for an entire day. I didn’t want to go back to the dorms while it was still so early and just sit aimlessly, so I headed back toward the courtyard since Nypet had said she would be there most afternoons. True to her word, she was sitting on the edge of one of the fountains, her caramel-colored scales glowing under the warm afternoon sunlight. I started walking over to her but paused in confusion when I noticed Pyrsi was the one sitting next to her. I hadn’t noticed it before since they weren’t ever near each other, but now I could see that they had similar facial features even if their skin had different-colored hues. It was entirely possible that they were sisters, but then again, I might have just been trying to compare them because I wasn’t that used to dusneocs yet. Their conversation paused as Nypet noticed me and smiled, beckoning me over with a wave. I approached nervously since Pyrsi’s expression betrayed that she clearly wasn’t done with whatever they had just been arguing about. “Hey, Shar. Looks like you managed to find me pretty easily, or were you looking for Pyrsi?” I shook my head. “No, I’ve just been exploring the grounds aimlessly. It’s nice to see you again, though. I was getting kind of bored.” She nodded. “Yeah, it’s always pretty dull the first few days before classes start up. You’re welcome to us. We were just talking about some family issues.” Pyrsi glared at her. “Issues that you are causing! You are the eldest of our brood. You need to grow up and start acting like it. I refuse to cover for your whimsicality any longer.” I gulped, realizing I had just walked into a pretty serious spat between siblings. Those were always messy no matter what world you came from. Nypet turned her gaze pleadingly toward me and did the worst thing she could do. She pulled me right into the middle of the fire. “Shar, how am I being whimsical by not wanting be set up in an arranged

contract by my parents? Doesn’t that sound like something I should have a say in?” Don’t do it, Shar. Walk away, I warned myself. I mentally cursed when I couldn’t. The look she was giving me was so helpless and pleading. “An arranged contract? Is that like a marriage?” I asked first, and she nodded. “Well, not to play the devil’s advocate, but why are they trying to set you up in an arranged contract in the first place?” Pyrsi grinned victoriously like a cat who just caught a mouse when I didn’t instantly agree. Apparently, the reason was pretty important, which was why it was such a big deal. She explained, “It would be a lot to explain, but the condensed version is that our clan, the Irsophas, used to be one of several royal families back in Flociotail —the world we are from. Our clan ruled the north, but something happened with our father, and we lost favor with the Mistress—kind of like a high king.” I nodded that I was following so she’d continue. “She stripped us of our lands and titles and replaced us with a new clan of warriors called the Woodmonds. We appealed to the Mistress many times, to no avail, but eventually, the Woodmonds took pity on us. They proposed for the eldest Irsopha daughter to enter a contract with their eldest son. That way, we wouldn’t be cast out with nothing left to our names, and they could continue their lineage as well.” Whoa, talk about pressure. Now I understood why Pyrsi was so determined but not why Nypet seemed so afraid. “I’m sorry to hear that. I understand why it’s so important then, but why do you not want to go through with it so badly, Nypet?” I was starting to see her differently from the spunky, flirty dusneoc I had first met. I was getting a look at the scared young girl hidden inside. She sighed deeply. “I have read stories about the ritual humans call marriage. The wedding ceremonies are beautiful, but there is no magic involved in the process. If someone decides to be unfaithful or seek another mate, they can get divorced or cheat or whatever. Our contracts are a different thing entirely, especially one between dusneocs like our clan and true dragons like the Woodmonds. You and your mate get bonded by magic in the ultimate form of intimacy possible. Your minds become forever linked, and you can always sense

what the other is feeling. The only thing that can end the bond is by one of you dying.” That was creepy in way but almost sweet, like marriage on steroids. “What happens if you don’t go through with it?” She went silent, and Pyrsi quietly answered instead, “She would be exiled from our clan.” I nodded. “Well, you’re still at the academy for at least another year, right? Why not just enjoy your time here for now, and when you go back to Flociotail, go on a few dates with the Woodmond guy to get to know him. That way, you can see if you actually like him or not before deciding. Then if you still feel like you can’t do it, you can make your choice and even leave if you want.” They both gave me a strange look, asking the question in unison, “What is a date?” I laughed softly at the fact that they knew what a wedding was but not a date. “A date is like the romantic version of hanging out and getting to know someone. On Earth, there are some arranged marriages, where parents make the decision and the kids just follow, but for nearly everyone else, it is a much longer process. When you like someone, you hang out with them a bunch of times, go do stuff together like see a movie or go out to eat, and talk a lot. Only after you feel like you know all the important stuff about them do you even consider asking them to marry you.” Nypet looked thoughtful for a few minutes as she weighed my words. Even Pyrsi seemed to be playing with the idea. Nypet said, “That…actually sounds doable. Pyrsi, if I at least gave him a chance and got to know him before I made a decision, would you me then?” Pyrsi nodded hesitantly. “Yes, if you did that, I could not fault you if you still truly did not wish to enter a contract. this, though, Nypet. If you run from this, I am the second eldest, and I would be forced to take your place. I do not know if I could ever forgive you for pushing that burden onto me.” Nypet nodded sadly, but at least she seemed slightly less freaked out. She

surprised me by suddenly leaning over and kissing my cheek. “You’re pretty smart, Shar. It’s too bad you aren’t a royal dragon or dusneoc, or else I wouldn’t hesitate. I’ll see you guys later. I need to go for a walk.” I flushed slightly at the half compliment and watched her stand and walk back into the castle. I turned back to Pyrsi to see her giving me a strange look again. “Siblings, huh? What can you do? Can’t always live with them and can’t bury them in the yard either,” I said softly, thinking of all the times Ashe drove me nuts every time she would run to me, crying after another guy broke her heart. Pyrsi laughed so hard that she snorted slightly, surprising herself. After a few moments of peaceable quiet while enjoying the afternoon warmth, she stood suddenly. I turned to her, but her gaze was on the path back toward the dorms. “Shar,” she said quietly, her back facing me so I couldn’t see her face. “Yeah?” Her voice faltered slightly. “Sorry for pulling you into my clan’s issues, but I’m glad you are my roommate. See you later.” Leaving me confused, she walked off without waiting for me to respond. I sighed, talking to no one in particular, “Well, at least it’s good to know that girls are just as confusing here as the ones back home.” I jumped to my feet in surprise as an unexpected deep voice spoke behind me. “You have no idea.” Turning quickly, I found another human standing just a few feet away. He looked like he was in his midthirties, with short straight black hair like mine. Actually, the more I looked at him, the stranger a feeling began to rise in the pit of my stomach. His nose was the same shape, big but with a thin bridge. He had high cheekbones, dark bags under his eyes, glasses. Even the color of his eyes were similar—a light hazel with flecks of gray. It was different from looking at myself in a mirror, though. All his features were subtly off from mine like they were just the tiniest bit blurred. I assumed it was some kind of trick, but even with the faerie child’s gift, I had no knowledge of any race that could shape-shift.

“Who are you?” I asked, taking a step back cautiously. “Don’t give me some crap about you being me or something.” He laughed softly, raising his hands in a nonthreatening gesture. “No, Shar, I am not you. That would be ludicrous. Who or what I am is not important yet. I have simply come bearing a message.” I frowned. “What do you mean?” He huffed like a teenager. “Great, I get to meet a difficult Shar. That means you are at Brenerra this time because of what happened with Ashe then, right?” I froze, not meaning to but nodding anyway. He smiled. “There we go. That’s better. Look, my time is already almost up, so just listen. Something bad is happening in Ralian, and it’s only a matter of when before you will be drawn into it. When you need answers the most, you will find them in the place where familiar giants feed on foreign grasses. Don’t forget it, all right?” I shook my head. “What are you—” But before I even finished my question, he was gone in a blink. I growled in frustration. This was getting ridiculous. The weird surge this morning, the message from the testing machine, and now some strange man giving me a riddle. I knew trouble always came in threes, but this was just getting exhausting.

Dusk had already begun its descent by the time I finally gave up trying to figure out my own life and headed back down the path to my dorm, exhausted mentally and feeling defeated yet again. Despite the sheer number of people that had been walking around all day, the entire academy seemed eerily empty and quiet now that it was getting dark. I focused on the path as I walked rather than looking around at the lower-level dorms I was ing, so it took me a moment to become aware of a low growling noise coming from not far off. I stopped to finally look up and try to find the source, but there was nobody around that I could see. “Hello?” I called out, my voice coming out quieter than I

meant it as I choked nervously. The growling sound didn’t react to me at all. It just sounded like it was moving farther away. I considered for a brief moment if I should just mind my own business and keep walking, but I had always been a rush-in-without-thinking kind of person. Being in a foreign world couldn’t even change that. I followed where it sounded like the growling was coming from, off the path and between the dorms D and C. It was just a simple grassy area, not creepy like a dark alley back home would be, but it still sent a chill rushing across the nape of my neck. I knew I was finally getting closer as the growling grew louder, and I paused just before going around the corner that led behind Dorm D. Over the deep growl, I could hear the sound of someone sobbing softly and the occasional rustle of a leaves. I walked softly to mute my steps and shifted around the corner to see what was going on. Underneath a large tree with strange circular purple leaves and branches that looked more like arms going in random directions crouched a beast like nothing I had ever seen before. Its fur or skin were like smoke, wisps occasionally rising into the air as if it was on fire. It had no tail that I could see, and it had large rounded ears and a short snout that was almost more rat-like than a dog’s muzzle. Its eyes were red, not like a demon in a movie, but like they were orbs of fire. It opened its maw as it growled deeper, and I caught a glimpse of the same red fire trickling out from between a mouth of long needle-like teeth. It still hadn’t noticed me yet, but I saw movement from a branch halfway up the tree, which drew my attention. There was a petite wisp of a girl precariously clinging to the thick tree trunk, her skin an almost translucent white-pinkish color with a pair of similarly colored tiny wings tucked against her back. She turned her bright golden gaze to me, her face marred with a mix of dirt and tears as well as blood dripping from quite a few deep scratches. Her arms and legs were bleeding, too, but more intensely from what looked like several large gashes where the beast’s teeth had torn into flesh. She tried to call out to me for help, but no sound escaped her small lips, only a large sob. I desperately tried to quickly think up a plan good enough to distract the creature so she could run for it, but she looked too injured to make it far. I needed to kill it or scare it away so that I could take her somewhere safe to get help. The girl tried to call out again, this time managing a small squeak, but she

wasn’t begging for help like I thought. She was telling me to run. Fear and panic tightened its grip on me, but I was not about to run and leave her helpless. Knowing that I was seriously about to regret this, I shook my head and stepped forward loudly. “Over here!” I called out. It snapped around with impossible speed and literally leapt at me without a single moment’s hesitation. I tried to reach inside myself to grasp my magic, but I didn’t have enough time before I had to throw myself out of the way to avoid its massive maw. I landed on my side with a grunt as it spun and leapt, again way too fast for a normal creature. Thankfully, I was in a fairly decent shape, thanks to years playing football. I managed to bring up my legs as it pounced, connecting heavily with its midsection. It let out a terrifying grunt-growl-squeak as the momentum threw it a good few feet away. As it was still falling, I rolled to my feet while reaching for my magic once again. It hungrily rose to meet my touch, and lightning pulsed through my veins as if responding to the energy in the air around me. The creature stood and charged at me instead of jumping this time just as I pictured what I wanted to happen with desperate need. Thunder without sound filled the air like a shockwave as a beam of pure, unadulterated energy shot from my outstretched hand and slammed into the beast with all the force of a bolt of lightning. I expected the bolt to rip the thing apart as it connected, but it actually seemed to absorb it instead. The fiery orbs of its eyes grew to the size of basketballs as it opened its mouth in a roar, a river of bright red flame pouring out with a vengeance. It was too wide for me to dodge out of its way, so in a moment of pure instinct, I threw my magic around me like a blanket. The fire hit the blanket with enough force to throw me back a few feet, but somehow, I wasn’t roasted to a crisp. I rose shakily to my feet as I panted in effort, and the beast mercilessly charged forward again. I couldn’t think straight as the massive rows of teeth sailed toward my head, time almost moving in slow motion. My magic knew what I wanted this time without me having to command it as it felt my desperation. Instinctively, I threw my arm out in front of me, aiming for the underside of the beast’s neck, before the sword even began

materializing in my hand. Icy blue light shot down my arm toward my hand, taking the form of a simple long sword. The steel blade was still growing as it bit into its neck as easily as cutting through butter. A mess of bone and gore exploded out the other side of the beast’s skull as its own momentum sank the blade straight through. It didn’t have time to move or even convulse. It was just simply dead as it finished crashing into me. My head and back hit the ground hard, causing my vision to swim as my magic receded. This time, I couldn’t feel it dormant, waiting to be released again. The exhaustion of using so much energy so quickly threatened to take away my consciousness, but I managed to muster the strength to roll the heavy body off of me and stay awake. The girl still needed help, even with the beast dead now. I realized the sword was still stuck fast in the beast’s skull as I slowly stood. For some reason, it hadn’t disappeared when the flow of my magic ceased. A strange wave of acceptance rushed over me, though, as I looked back down at the strange carcass. I finally didn’t feel like I was out of place with this mass of mysterious events exploding all around me. It suddenly didn’t feel like just an accident that I was here. I was meant to be here. Sure, I had just taken a life, but I had also saved a life. The girl was watching me with a mix of awe and horror as I slowly made my way back to the tree, so tired that my limbs felt like solid lead. I looked up, stopping myself from wiping my eyes as I noticed I was coated in the creature’s blood and gore. “Are you all right?” I asked her softly. She shook her head, her voice tiny and feminine like her appearance. “No, I’m hurt real badly. I can’t climb down.” I nodded, just moving on instinct at this point. “Let yourself fall. I will catch you, okay?” I expected her to protest, but clearly watching me kill the thing had earned me her trust. She nodded and let herself drop. I moved quickly and caught her easily, lucky that she barely weighed a hundred pounds.

Her face was even more pale than the rest of her body now that I had a good look at her. It was clear that she had lost a lot of blood already. She weakly let her head fall against my chest, and her pale-blond hair was stained a dark red. For a moment, I debated what I should do about the beast, but she needed help first. I could come back for it later, although something told me a beast like that shouldn’t have been be able to enter Brenerra in the first place. I steeled myself against my own exhaustion and began leadenly carrying her back toward the castle. Her eyes were starting to sink, and I had seen enough movies to know that it was bad. I had to keep her awake, or she would die. “Hey, what’s your name?” She looked up at me, and even in her weakened state, I could still see the awe in her eyes. “I’m Serena, you wonderful human.” I smiled at her. “Pretty name. Mine’s Shar. So I’m not very familiar with the races yet. Are you a faerie child?” She shook her head. “No, I’m a moon faerie.” We were ing Dorm H and getting closer to the castle. I said, “Oh, cool. I have no idea what the difference is except that you look older. Faerie children are kind of unsettling.” She nodded slightly. “I’m sleepy.” Her words were getting slurred, so I picked up the pace as best as I could. “I know but try to stay awake for me, okay? Tell me something about yourself.” Her eyes opened slightly, and she reached out to graze her fingers along my cheek. “I like facial hair. Faeries can’t grow it… You’re pretty, Shar.” The soft, nervous chuckle that escaped my lips came with the realization of how delirious she was, but at least it was working. We were at the courtyard now. “Hey!” I started shouting as loud as I was able to. “We need help!” I shouted a dozen more times as I carried her into the front archway and into the

castle itself. At first, nobody answered, but by the time I reached the steps, there were two or three people running toward the sound of my voice. I recognized one of them as the human girl I had run into outside the room of testing. “What is the meaning of this racket—” She paused midsentence once she saw we were both covered in blood. She rushed toward us. Just then, my strength finally decided to give out, my knees buckling from draining all my energy using magic and then carrying someone nearly half a mile. The human girl reached me as my knees hit the floor, helping me gently sit Serena down. I tried desperately to hear what she was telling me, but her words were beginning to sound like they were coming from underwater as my head swam threateningly. I looked down at Serena. She was still watching me with her wide golden eyes, but the light was slowly beginning to fade from them. She had lost way too much blood, and I realized they were trying to close for the last time. I managed to fight to stay awake a little longer, fueled by the desire to keep her alive. Unsure exactly of what I was even doing, I reached for my magic again and started trickling it into her as I looked up at the human girl. “Behind Dorm D. Beast attacked her, but I killed…it…” I noticed she was watching my hands with a bewildered expression. I looked down distantly and realized that my entire body was glowing with a soft white luminescence, the light slowly funneling down into Serena. It was the most beautiful light I had ever seen, even better than driving around to look at the Christmas lights on the lake back home. I couldn’t keep my eyes open to enjoy it for long, though. I was getting too sleepy. I finally gave in and let them drift closed. I had done my part. She was safe. Now it was time to rest.

Chapter 2

Serena

Even in the state between waking and dreaming, I could hear several people talking around me. Half asleep, I couldn’t really place any of the voices to a face or name. “Have you heard anything else about what happened?” “Not really. Nobody knows how the dremlich got in. All they know is that it’s a bloody miracle they are both alive. Dremliches are impervious to magic. The fact that a first year who hasn’t even attended a single class yet was able to defeat one is just…” “I know, but can’t you feel it too? He’s different somehow, Professor Mariana.” “Yeah, I feel it too. Anyway, nothing to do for now but let him rest until his energy recovers enough for him to wake up. Seno says that judging by the magic residue in the castle and behind the dorm, he was casting some pretty serious stuff. If he didn’t have such a high count, his magic would have ripped him apart before he made it back to get help.” I tried to keep listening, but sleep was fighting its way back. The most peculiar dream washed over me quite suddenly. I was high up in the clouds, my wings lazily spread out to both sides as I used thermals to glide without having to flap. Sunlight danced along my scales, a feeling of pure bliss coursing through me. That was it. I just flew for a while, feeling and enjoying the calmness. That was why it was so strange. After what felt like an eternity— but really could have been minutes, days, or hours for all I could tell—the dream slowly faded. I was finally able to wake up. I opened my eyes with a big yawn and saw soft

morning light pouring in from an open window across from me. I looked around briefly and realized I was in some kind of infirmary or hospital, but judging by the high and beautiful sculpted ceiling, I was still in Brenerra. Sleeping on a chair next to my bed was the faerie girl I had rescued, softly snoring with her head on the back of the chair. I could see all her wounds had been healed while I was asleep. I did my best not to wake her as I sat up, my body protesting stiffly like I had just been hit by a semitruck. The human girl from outside the room of testing noticed me stirring and walked over from the doorway, where she had been talking with someone I couldn’t see. Her smile was much friendlier than it had been the first time that I met her, but she still looked kind of mousey. “Ah, you’re finally awake, Shar.” I nodded, though I felt stiff at least my head felt light and clear. “How long have I been out?” She looked at the window for a moment. “Two nights. You were okay physically, but you used up a lot of energy. Since you missed your first day of classes, I’ll give you your first lesson of magic—it always comes with a price.” I now knew that lesson better than ever. I turned to the girl. “How is Serena doing…” I paused since I didn’t know the human girl’s name. She got the hint. “I’m Professor Mariana. Serena is doing fine. Don’t worry. Except for when I made her go to class yesterday, she hasn’t left your bedside. Faeries are usually slow to let anyone in, but I think it’s safe to say you’ve made a fan for life. Oh, that nice roommate of yours and her sister were here yesterday, too, but I managed to convince them to go get some sleep.” I nodded, wondering briefly about everything that happened in just a single day. Hopefully, the rest of my time at Brenerra could start being a lot less eventful. “What was that thing I killed?” Mariana looked like she was debating how much she should tell me for a quick moment before she spoke. “I’m sure by now you have heard several times that there are many wonderful and dangerous creatures that call Ralian home?”

I nodded, and she continued, “Well, that beast is technically not one of them. It is called a dremlich, a being born only when a unique set of circumstances presents itself and an influx of magic appears in a place that cannot sustain a large amount of energy. The resulting overflow creates a rift of sorts in time and space. They are one of the most evil creatures you will ever see, driven only by bloodlust and hunger and lacking any conscious thought. They are capable of absorbing all magic they encounter to boot, which just increases their own strength even more so. Only a handful have ever been seen, but it always results in catastrophe. We haven’t been able to find how it got on the grounds yet, but Serena is lucky you found her when you did, or she would have been devoured and drained of her magic. The entire academy is abuzz with what you accomplished. It was no small feat.” I couldn’t help but laugh. She raised her brows in confusion. “Sorry, it’s just funny to me. The only reason I’m alive is because I got lucky. I couldn’t even think straight. I was so scared. My magic just seemed to know what to do.” She nodded. “Well, lesson number two. Magic isn’t always something you have to think about. Fear, anger, desperation—these are all strong emotions that can accomplish the most impressive of spells.” Reflecting quietly, I settled for a small nod. A different thought occurred to me. “So I missed my first day of class, crud. I still haven’t grabbed my schedule yet. Do I have enough time to make it to class today, or am I too late?” She closed her eyes for a long moment. “Today you have Principles and Foundations of Magic again, which started at seven. It’s only eight, so you still have plenty of time to make it. If you don’t feel up to going yet, you don’t have to, though. You went through quite an ordeal, and nobody could blame you for resting up a while longer.” I shook my head. “Honestly, Professor, I just want life to go back to a little bit of structural normality. Besides, I feel a lot better now. I just needed to recoup.” She nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you a minute to wake Serena and talk to her for a moment first. Then if you’d like, I’ll walk you to class so I can excuse you for being late.”

I nodded, and she walked back to the front of the infirmary. Slowly rising to my feet, I gently shook Serena awake. “Hey,” I said softly. Her eyes flittered for a moment as she shook her sleepiness, and a dreamy smile spread on her light pink lips. “Mm, Shar, you’re okay.” I nodded and smiled back, noticing the way her golden gaze sparkled as she looked up at me. She still had that same star-struck look in her eyes. ittedly, it was a little alarming to see someone think that much of you. “Yeah, I’m great. I’m glad to see you are doing better as well.” She stood, her head only coming up to my chest. She was much shorter than me. Suddenly, she threw her arms around me. “Thank you so much for rescuing me. I was sure I was gonna die.” I patted her head gently without thinking about it; it just felt like the right thing to do at that moment. She hummed softly, and I noticed her wings flitter in a happy way. She pulled away hesitantly after a long moment, straining her neck to look up at my face. “You’re welcome, Serena. Honestly, I’m amazed I wasn’t burnt to a crisp or eaten or something.” She nodded eagerly, and I suddenly realized how cute she was in a very innocent sort of way. She asked, “So what are you doing up? Are you going somewhere?” I nodded. “I need to get to class. I already missed yesterday. I don’t want to miss any more. I appreciate you staying by me all night, but you should get to class too.” She nodded seriously in contrast to the dreamy smile still spread on her face. “Okay. I’ll see you later, though, right?” I shrugged. “That’s fine by me.” “Okay, see you later then.” She suddenly turned and half-walked and half-glided

away. It was strange to see a faerie’s excitement. She was probably older than me, yet I couldn’t help thinking of her like a small excited teenager. I looked down, realizing I was in a weird blue gown instead of my normal clothes. Closing my eyes to reach for my magic as I pictured a different outfit, I didn’t even get to finish reaching for it before the hospital clothes were gone and replaced with jeans and a plain T-shirt. The suddenness caught me off guard. Either I was getting more used to using my magic or using it the other day had somehow made my magic stronger. It didn’t feel like it did before either, like an inner volcano ready to erupt once beckoned. Now it just felt like another part of me, like an arm or leg. It was simply there. I shook my head. I could puzzle that out later. I walked over to where Professor Mariana was waiting. She gave me a knowing look as I approached, smiling bitterly. “Can I give you a piece of other world advice, Shar, human to human?” I nodded, and she continued, “Faeries are quirky and flighty beings who are prone to intense emotions. I wasn’t kidding when I said you have made a fan for life. She is already enthralled with you just by saving her life and helping her the way you did at risk of your own. Be careful not to hurt her, okay?” I nodded, unsure really of what I was supposed to do about it. Besides, it was probably harmless for now at least. “Okay, thanks for the tip. I’m ready now if you want to lead the way.” She nodded and led me out of the infirmary and straight for the steps. Apparently, the infirmary was on the fourth floor because we ed the library on the next and finally reached a classroom on the second floor. As we entered the large double doors, the professor teaching at the front of the class went silent, and nearly every eye turned back to look at us. The professor was an acreon man, kind of a bird-like race with feathers, wings, and a beak for a mouth. Professor Mariana said, “Sorry to interrupt, Professor Vaggo, but I have brought you one of your students—Shar Victor. Please excuse him for his tardiness. He has been in the hospital since the night of orientation.” Professor Vaggo nodded to Professor Mariana. “Not a problem. Please take a seat anywhere that’s open, Shar.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Professor Mariana.” She left, and I quickly scanned the room to see if I could see Pyrsi anywhere. I didn’t, so I took an empty seat next to a kryrm girl. It wasn’t until after I sat down and Professor Vaggo resumed speaking that I realized it was the same girl I met in the room of testing that first day, Gijer, who was sitting beside me, but she didn’t say anything. “Well, really quickly, welcome Shar to Principles and Foundations of Magic. Luckily, you didn’t miss a whole lot yesterday besides a few introductory games to get to know everyone. Would you like to share a little about yourself before I continue?” Professor Vaggo seemed to sense my hesitance, so he clarified, “Just stand and say your name, where you’re from, rank, etc. really quick. It’ll be painless.” I sighed and rose to my feet as he instructed, nervously running my fingers through my hair. “Hiya, my name is Shar. I’m a human from a place called Pennsylvania on Earth. I am an S rank, and I’m not really much of a public speaker.” I sat back down, and luckily, Vaggo seemed satisfied. As soon as I said my name, many of the students started whispering intensely among themselves. Thankfully, they grew quiet as the professor resumed his lecture. “So yesterday we were discussing magic history or where magic originated from. We also discussed several topics governing religion and theory, but today we will be focusing more on magic as we understand it today. Who can tell me the main elements of magic?” Most of the students looked around for a moment, guessing that they knew but were unwilling to speak up. Gijer was the first to raise her hand, and Vaggo nodded for her to speak. She spoke confidently, “The main four elements of magic are fire, water, air, and earth. These are also the common elements necessary to sustain life. Most people do not realize there is also a fifth element—” He nodded and cut her off. “Correct, but we will get to the fifth element later. Thank you. As Gijer stated, air, earth, fire, and water are the four universally recognized basic elements that make up the world around us. Air is the breath of

life as well as the soul and can even grant certain powers of the mind when mastered since it grants wisdom. Earth is the beginning and end of all things. We are born, we live, we die, and in one way or another, our bodies are reborn into something new. It also represents strength and endurance. Fire is a mix of the will and energy inside of us, as well as a creator and destroyer that can harm as much as it can heal. Water is associated with the ability to heal, to cleanse, and to purify our bodies, but it is the most misconstrued of the elements. People think fire is ion and emotion, but it is also water that governs these emotions. Of course, the elements also carry their physical meanings as well, like fire being heat or plants being of the earth.” He paused briefly to take a drink before pointing at a young tiger-like kryrm in the front row. “You, why do think the elements matter so much to us as magic s?” The boy thought for a moment. “Well, magic has to stem from something, or else it would take up too much energy, right?” Vaggo nodded enthusiastically. “Good start, but be more specific.” “For instance, say, I wanted to fill a cup with water. If I simply conjured the water from nowhere, I would be exhausted after roughly half a gallon of water. If I instead extracted the moisture in the air to create the water, I could easily produce a few gallons of water without breaking a sweat since I would simply be utilizing the elements around me instead of just my own magic.” I assumed Vaggo smiled, but it was hard to tell with a beak. He continued, “Excellent, my boy. That is absolutely correct. The elements are so important to us because they can keep us alive and help us cast spells that we may normally not be able to do alone. , no matter how strong a magus is, the tougher the spell and the less elements around you have to work with, the more energy it will require. If you try to use more energy than your body can handle at one time, it can mean your life.” Everybody was sobered by his words, but a brave girl far off to the right raised her hand. “Professor.” He turned to her as she continued. “What exactly happens when you try to use magic beyond your ability to control? Like, I’m a D rank— what would happen if I went outside and tried to conjure a lightning storm?”

Vaggo looked around the class, noticing everyone was listening with rapt attention. He sighed. “I know you are all curious, especially since most of your teachers are hesitant to talk about it. Before I can answer that, there are a few things you all need to understand about the principles of magic. Think of your body as a container for liquid that replenishes itself over time. Some are only big enough to carry maybe a few pounds of liquid, while others can be the size of a fifty-gallon drum. “The liquid inside the container represents your magic but is also tied together with your body’s physical energy since everything is connected. If you were to use up so much that the container became empty, you would out until your body had time to sufficiently recover enough energy to function. Now if you were to try to use up more liquid than was in the container in the first place all at once, you would risk not only losing consciousness but snuffing out the spark of life inside of you as your body tried to make up the difference. “Outwardly, it would look like a heart attack. This comparison can only be used lightly, though, because that container will grow over time as you learn, practice, and grow stronger, just like any other muscle you exercise. Also, trying to use more energy than you are capable of is not the only danger.” He took another drink while he caught his breath. “That only covered using the magic inside of you. Another factor is the container itself—your body. No matter how much magical energy you have inside of you, how big your container is, you are all apprentices just learning how to control it. Think of the container as your inner pool of magic with a tube that connects the liquid in the container to your will, which you use to cast that energy. A simpler way to look at it is to think of a straw. No matter how large your drink is, a straw is only so wide and can only take up so much liquid at once. “In this case, though, if you try to take up too much liquid at once through the straw, it will start to crack and burst apart. So as a D rank, if you tried to conjure a simple thunderstorm, your body might have enough magic in it to do so, but your body wouldn’t be able to handle using that much energy at once. I’ve only seen this happen a few times in my entire life, but it is a terrifying experience. I’m sure you all have heard people say that it would rip your body apart. I know it’s hard to picture, but that’s exactly what happens. “Your body will begin to swelter as you lose control. The excess magic you can’t

handle using becomes like fire in your veins, cracking and breaking apart your skin like a burning log as it tries to quickly escape any other way it can. As your body deteriorates and burns away, the magic escapes into the air with all the force of a bomb and then consumes you entirely.” Everyone was dead silent as he gazed around. Now it all finally made sense why everyone seemed so afraid. There was no way to tell how large that theoretical straw was without practice, but that meant risking death if you tried to push yourself too far before you were ready. “As awful as that sad truth is, none of you have anything to be worried about. Brenerra was specifically designed to teach you how to find your limits safely. We will start you off with small and simple stuff, and though progress may not always seem quick, you will all be able to cast some pretty advanced stuff by the time you graduate. So long as none of you travel too far off the path we lay before you, you will never risk combusting.” He continued on for a while, gearing the lecture back down to where he was originally leading, but I couldn’t stop my thoughts from trailing off. When I was fighting that dremlich, I could have easily done that to myself, especially since I used so much energy that I ed out. The only thing I didn’t understand was just how I managed to conjure the lightning. I hadn’t used any of the elements around me. I just wanted it to happen, and my magic did the rest. If I could do that, then apparently my tunnel—or whatever it was that dictated my body’s natural limit—was apparently pretty high. After a few hours of straight lecture, he finally finished up. Though he had covered a lot of useful information, it was all based on theory, not application. I didn’t really feel like I learned anything except to be cautious if I tried to use my magic again. When he finally dismissed us, I noticed the sun had already begun to set. It looked like we only had one class a day judging by how long they were, which was good since it let what you learned really sink in and gave you time to study. But it was bad as well since basic stuff like this was pretty dry. I probably should’ve paid a little more attention or took notes or something, but theory and history had always driven me crazy. Sure, it was important to learn why something was the way it was and how it came to be that way, but I learned

better by actually doing stuff. I was lost in my thoughts and didn’t realize that most of the class had already left. Gijer had hung back, though, and she was glancing at me nervously again. “Hey, Shar, do you me from the other day?” I nodded. “Yeah, your name is Gijer. Hey, I never got to say it, but congrats on making B rank.” She smiled. “Thank you… I, uh, heard about what happened with you and the faerie girl. I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re okay. That must’ve been pretty nightmarish.” A flash of memory about the creature lunging slowly toward me popped back in my head, and I shivered impulsively. “The dremlich was absolutely terrifying. I’m just glad I was able to save Serena before we both ended up as kibble.” She nodded, looking like she wanted to ask something but was too afraid to. I looked around for a moment and realized that there was still a group of students sitting around us, watching me intently. “What do you want to ask?” She flushed with a guilty look painted on her face. “Well, word has been abuzz around the academy that you used some superstrong magic without any kind of training to kill that thing. I know our classes are supposed to teach us slowly, but we’re all below A rank and can’t even channel our magic yet. We were kind of hoping you could teach us how you did it so we don’t fall so far behind.” I looked around at each of their determined faces. Most of them were kryrms like her, but there were even some dusneocs and pigonans. I sighed. “Look, what I did was based on luck, and it was incredibly dangerous and idiotic. Honestly, I don’t really know that much besides how to reach for my magic and kind of how to shape it. I don’t want to be responsible for getting any of you killed by trying anything before they teach it to us. I’m sorry.” I got up and quickly went to leave, but Gijer lightly grabbed my arm. “Wait, you wouldn’t be responsible for any of us. We don’t need you to teach us how to use anything, just how we can channel it in the first place.”

A white-furred kryrm sitting behind us nodded. “Exactly. We won’t try anything stupid. We just want to be able to at least be able to use our magic.” After debating for a moment, I sighed with resignation. “Look, if you guys still can’t channel your magic by this Friday, then I will teach you how, okay?” Gijer nodded determinedly. “That’s fair. I can handle three more days.” She looked around at the others as they nodded in agreement. I stood and quickly left before anyone else could corner me, heading back toward my dorm. This time, the walk was thankfully free of any growling and was fairly uneventful. A few people paused to say hi as they recognized me, which was a strange change from being ignored mostly when I had first arrived. I paused suddenly as I started to Dormitory D. It felt like something was pulling me down the alley between the dorms to where it had happened, but I did my best to shake it off. I took a step toward and practically leapt out of my skin when someone poked my back lightly. I spun around, my magic already pulsating eagerly as it readied to be unleashed. I rolled my eyes and let it fizzle out once I noticed Serena standing there with a smirk—well, more like floating at eye level technically. “Serena, you scared me half to death!” She giggled, a cute melodic sound like you would expect from a faerie. “I know, but you’re so easy to sneak up on.” My eyebrows rose playfully. “Easy to say when you can fly without a sound.” She nodded. “Exactly!” She giggled again and let her feet slowly touch back to the ground. “So how was your second-slash-first day of class?” I shrugged. “Boring, actually. You?” She grinned eagerly. “Mine was real interesting. I have Principles and Foundations of Magic with Professor Tari. She’s an adroil, so she’s actually a fire elemental. Her hair is literally a plume of fire—it’s awesome.” I tried to picture that mentally and laughed, considering making a pun about being a hothead but decided against it. If she was in the same class taught by a

different teacher, then it must be separated into ranks, but that didn’t quite make sense. It should be the same subject matter either way, unless I was wrong, and it was just because there were too many students to fit in just one class. Whether a person’s rank meant anything more than just what dorm they were assigned to, was not very clear. “That’s cool. I have Professor Vaggo, this really old acreon guy. He’s smart, just long-winded.” She bounced excitedly. “Hang in there. It’ll get better. My big sis said the first week is really dull. It’s all about the history of magic and why and how and stuff. After the first week, we start learning how to actually do magic, though.” That was actually really useful to know. I realized that I knew virtually nothing about Serena beyond the fact that she liked facial hair and that she was a moon faerie. “Awesome. Hey, by the way, Serena, which dorm is yours?” She turned her gaze to right, her grin dulling slightly. “Dorm E, actually. I’m not very adept with magic. My count was only five hundred. That’s why that dremlich thing got me so easy. You must be like a super-omega rank though!” Her grin came back, and I couldn’t help but laugh. It was nice being around a faerie. They were so light and free-spirited. Professor Mariana’s words about being careful stuck in my mind, though. I had to be careful not to hurt her accidentally. She was pretty and adorable, but from the first moment I had set eyes on Pyrsi, I couldn’t get her fully out of my mind. “Actually, I am an S rank. Good to know it means super-omega.” She nodded. “Glad I could help. So, Shar, I know you’re probably busy, but can I borrow you tomorrow night after classes let out?” I started to think up a reason not to, afraid it would lead her on, but I changed my mind. Just because I didn’t want to date her didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends. It was kind of nice, actually. I had always been a loner with the exception of Ashe. “Sure, should I meet you here?”

She shook her head, her face growing serious. “No, meet me in the front courtyard by the fountains right after class.” I smiled and patted her head again, getting the same wing fluttering reaction as she hummed. “All right. I gotta get back to my room. See you tomorrow, Serena.” She paused, looking up at me with that sparkle in her eyes again. She suddenly flew high enough to gently kiss my cheek before darting off. I chuckled softly. It was like being in my teens again. I resumed walking back to my dorms and activated the lift easily. I had only gotten to sleep there for one night, but it was still a liberating feeling to step back in my own room. Before I even took maybe ten steps into the living room, Pyrsi raced out of her room with a look of pure relief. “Shar, you are awake!” I nodded, giving her a big smile. “It’s good to see you too. Thanks for checking up to make sure I was okay in the infirmary. I know we’ve only known each other for, like, a day, but roommates should be like a family, I think.” She nodded her agreement. “I was really worried. Why would you try that much magic on your own when I had only just taught you how to do something simple like changing clothes?” Feeling guilty, I shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t even to stop to think about it. I had to save Serena.” She nodded. “I understand, but please be more careful in the future. I don’t want you to kill yourself, not matter the reason.” I met her bright-pink gaze, and for a moment, the air between us was like electricity again. This time, she didn’t look away, and I could tell she was feeling it, too, the spark. It took significant effort not to stutter nervously. “I’ll try to be more careful, I promise.” She nodded satisfied, and we stood there awkwardly for a long moment. The

current intensified the longer we stood there. I hadn’t had that feeling since I first went through puberty and realized I was in love with Ashe. I wanted to reach out and grab her waist and pull her into a… No. I looked away first this time, knowing my face was on fire. I had to remind myself that I had only known her for two days, no matter what I felt when I was near her. I looked back up. “It’s still a little early, but I think I’m going to bed. Class kind of drained what little energy I had recovered.” She caught my wrist as I started to turn toward my bedroom. I turned back to her with a quizzical expression. “Wait, Shar…” I waited, but she seemed to decide against whatever she was about to say, hesitation clearly written on her face. She finally said, “Uh, I just wanted to say sleep well. See you tomorrow.” With that, she turned and walked back into her room, closing the door softly. I sighed as she walked away, trying to puzzle out if we really had some super spark between us or if it had just been a really long time since I hooked up with a girl and my hormones were out of whack. As I stepped back in my own room, I knew it was the prior. My relationships had always felt empty because they lacked the spark that I felt when I was with Ashe. She had always been the one, or so I had thought. What I felt around Pyrsi dwarfed even that, but I was still too afraid to do anything about it. Apparently, you could give a guy new magic and some confidence, but he was still the same guy underneath. I paused as I realized my room was completely put back together like nothing had ever happened. “I love magic,” I said softly, stripping down to my boxers before lying on the bed with a moan of pure bliss. I was fast asleep in seconds, my thoughts lingering on Pyrsi’s face.

Chapter 3

Shar

There was something wrong with my body. It was like I was missing a large piece of me. I was back before I had magic coursing through my veins like fire. Without it, I felt helpless, naked. I stood in a large field of rainbow flowers, kind of like the Rainbow Garden I had been in with the centaur, but there were no trees around the field. This place felt darker too. The flowers didn’t give off the same aura of peacefulness. I cast my gaze to the sky and shuddered. Angry black and red clouds filled the sky like a stormy ocean at sunset but even angrier, like they were alive with fire and smoke. They gave off the same feeling the dremlich did, like looking at pure evil. A face of sorts formed in the clouds above me. It had massive red orbs for eyes and a mouth that looked like the maw of hell itself. The cloud spoke, its voice a deep booming voice like thunder that sent shivers down spine. “I am coming,” it said simply. I tried to ask what was coming, but fear froze my mouth in place. “I am coming, and I will devour all of you.” This is a dream, I told myself. Even though I couldn’t feel my magic, I reached for it anyway, willing the clouds to disperse. Nothing happened, but the face turned its gaze to me. I couldn’t actually see it do it, but I could feel it. It was staring straight into my soul. It said, “You cannot escape me, Electus unus dei deorum. You have a few more days of peace, but I am coming.” I shook my head defiantly. Magic or no, I wouldn’t let myself be intimidated anymore. I was sick of always being afraid, always feeling lost like the world was a cyclone all around me and I was stuck in the center, unable to change

anything. “I am not afraid of you,” I barely managed to choke out. I could feel its snicker even without it having a real face. It was saying, “You can’t even talk. What can you do?” My voice came out stronger this time. “I am afraid. I always have been, sure, but that won’t stop me anymore.” It was as if my words shattered whatever was blocking me, and I could suddenly feel my magic again. I didn’t have to reach for it. It was part of me again, like an arm. I cast my hands out, and purplish tentacles poured out of my fingers and reached up into the clouds. The face vanished, but the clouds didn’t budge. I growled in determination, the tentacles growing to the size of tree trunks. Still, they didn’t budge. “You cannot escape me,” its voice echoed hauntingly. I roared in effort, the tentacles melding together like shadows until massive beams of purple energy were pouring into the sky. The angry clouds receded slowly but surely until I was looking up at a plain gray sky. I let the magic fade as I panted from the effort. Something in the sky caught my attention, though. I could see the moon, but it was not like it was on Earth. It was large in the sky, like the size of a pool, and looked bluish rather than white. Something was wrong with it, though; it was like it was cracking apart, dark lines running all throughout it like veins. As I watched, pieces of it began to break off and start falling down toward me. “It begins,” the voice called out one last time.

I woke with a start, dripping in sweat but otherwise normal. Instinctively I reached for my magic to make sure it was still there, and it coursed through me the same as before. I was relieved that it hadn’t been like my nightmare the first time. This time hadn’t felt like a surge but more like a warning. That person’s voice, the guy who had looked like me, echoed distantly in my

mind. “Something bad is happening in Ralian, and it’s only a matter of when before you will be drawn into it. When you need answers the most, you will find them in the place where familiar giants feed on foreign grasses.” I tried desperately to hold on to the dream, but like every dream, it was fading the longer I was awake. I sighed and pulled myself out of bed, heading to the bathroom to pee. By the time I finished and brushed my teeth, the dream was gone completely, just leaving a hollow feeling that something was off. I felt much better by the time I got a quick shower and changed into clean clothes. I headed back into the room, looking for my schedule. It was sitting on the desk, and I sat as I quickly skimmed through it. Monday and Tuesday, I had Principles and Foundations of Magic, Room 202. Wednesday, I had Arcane Implement Training, Room 407. Thursday, I had Alchemy 101, Room 2. Friday, I had Survival Fundamentals, Room 308. Saturday morning, I had Special Studies; the meeting place was in front of Dorm A. Saturday and Sunday were my free days. Whoa, except for the class I went to yesterday, my other classes sounded really interesting. I had no idea what an implement was, but all my classes seemed to start at seven, which was at least easy to . I glanced at the clock on my nightstand and saw that it was still only five. I had plenty of time to go eat breakfast. Setting my schedule back on the desk, I briefly wondered how I would go about obtaining a notebook and a pen and if I would need textbooks for any of these classes. It hadn’t mentioned any needed materials on the schedule, so there were probably no textbooks. But a notebook would still at least be useful, as would a backpack. ing what Pyrsi had said, about channeling magic into the closet to make clothes appear, I closed my eyes. I reached for my magic and carefully let small traces of it pour over the room. I imagined shirts and shoes in the closet, supplies in the desk, clothes in the dresser, stuff like that. I couldn’t help picturing my room back home for a moment—the giant theatre poster of Sucker Punch on the wall, my messy bed table of strategy guides for games, fantasy art books, a few Japanese katanas mounted on the wall. I imagined everything all the way down to the only picture I had of me and my parents when I was four.

I gasped as I opened my eyes, once again amazed by how impressive magic could be. Except for the amazing dorm bed, which I was in love with, and the furniture, it looked like I was standing back in my room. Everything seemed picture-perfect. I slid open the desk drawer and found a notebook and some pens. I even found my old backpack sitting on the shelf in the closet. It was impressive, but it also gave me dark flashbacks of high school. A different thought crossed my mind. I just used some pretty beefy magic recreating my entire room, yet I didn’t even feel winded… Nope, I my knees hit the floor as the toll of using my magic suddenly hit. It felt like someone just drop-kicked me in the chest, but it was only physical this time. After a moment, I managed to catch my breath shakily and rise to my feet. “Really smart, Shar. Try to kill yourself a second time,” I muttered, but I couldn’t help but be a little pleased by the fruits of my effort. A sudden knock on my bedroom door caught my attention. I opened it quickly, finding Pyrsi wearing a very pretty sapphire-blue dress. This time, it didn’t have a plunging neckline, so it wasn’t difficult to control myself. “Good morning, Pyrsi. You look beautiful.” I only meant to say the last part in my head, but it just slipped out. She beamed a smile, clearly taken off guard. “Ah, thank you, Shar. I wanted to see if you would like to get breakfast together today. That way, we can talk a little.” I smiled back. “I’d like that. I just got finished making up my room, actually, so do you want to go now?” She nodded. “Okay.” I grabbed my pack and walked with her outside to use the lift. We had to wait a few minutes for some other students on different floors, so we made idle chitchat for the first time. “So I meant to ask you the other day, but you and Nypet were pretty heated. How many other siblings do you have?” I asked. Her frown was pensive. “Five. I’m the second oldest, though. I assume you are

an only child?” I nodded. It was finally our turn, so we got on the lift. “Yeah. There is one girl whom I grew up with that was kind of like a sister, but we kind of fell out.” She nodded. “Siblings are always problematic, blood related or not.” We got off the lift and headed down toward the cafeteria. It wasn’t very crowded, so we managed to get our food and find a seat pretty quickly. She asked, “What about your parents? You already know mine ruled North Flociotail until recently.” I shrugged, long past the point where talking about them was painful. “They died in a car crash when I was a kid. Honestly, I barely them anymore.” She nodded as she took a large bit of something called a sunset reaper that looked as gross as the name sounded. “I’m sorry to hear that.” We talked for a while as we ate, but we kept the conversation on light stuff. I felt like talking about my life before would bore her, but she seemed fascinated by everything, though she kept referring to it as backwater because Earth didn’t depend on magic. Her world was much more impressive from what she told me. Unlike Earth, where land masses were divided into continents and countries and separated by a few named oceans, Flociotail was almost entirely made up of one ocean that spanned the entire realm. The dusneocs and dragons primarily lived on top of towering rock spires that floated above the water, calling these occasional islands home. They rarely risked going into the ocean because of the danger it posed. It was inhabited by gargantuan creatures that fed on the magic of their kind. I wanted to stay and talk with her more, but it was getting close to half past six, so we said our goodbyes, and I headed back for the castle. My schedule had said Arcane Implement Training was held in Room 407, so I went straight up to the fourth floor. At least I found the room easily. It was actually straight across from the infirmary. I made it much earlier than I intended, beating most of the other students as well as the professor. The other students thankfully ignored me as I took a seat in the second row and pulled out

my notebook to doodle while I waited. After a few minutes, I heard the professor enter, and I looked up, surprised to see Professor Mariana’s familiar face. She flashed a smile at me and as she noticed me. “Good morning, Shar. How’d you like your first class yesterday?” I grinned back. “Morning, Professor. It was all right, just a lot of lecturing. I’ve never been a great learner from just listening. I adapt much better when it’s hands-on, ya know?” She nodded. “You’ll love this class then. I do not give many lectures, and there’s not much point in giving tests on paper. So you won’t need your notebook.” This place was so different from what I knew of school, but then again, it was a different world entirely. I had to remind myself of that sometimes. In a strange way, it was so bizarre that it almost felt normal now. As the rest of the class shuffled in slowly, Professor Mariana started unpacking her stuff on her desk as she got ready. I kept an eye out to see if there was anybody I recognized coming in, but there were only a couple of students from my other class whose faces I knew but not their names. But then I saw Pyrsi stride in next to a very tall and brutish-looking dusneoc. His tail and wings were similar in shape to hers, but his colors were much darker. He had spiky jet-black hair, large horns like a bull, dull gray eyes, and thick dark-gray scales. His body looked different than Pyrsi’s. She looked more like she was covered in skin or a thin hide rather than a dragon’s scales. He was pretty intimidating, actually, especially since his face resembled that of a lizard with barely any human shape to it, plus the fact that he was one of the few students not wearing clothes. I had seen a few students who were adroil so far who didn’t wear clothes either, but most of their bodies consisted of whatever element they were. Clothes seemed only to be a comfort to shyer races rather than a requirement here. I tried my best not to spy on them in the doorway, but my curiosity easily got the better of me this time. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but that was not necessary as she suddenly leaned up to quickly kiss him. It was slightly strange how normal a kiss it was despite both of them having longer snouts, but it was definitely not one-sided.

I cursed myself in my head, Of course, Pyrsi has a boyfriend, you dolt. She’s absolutely gorgeous. Thankfully, Professor Mariana drew my attention forward as she cleared her throat. I really didn’t need any more disappointment in my life. Everybody I actually seemed to like was always either taken already or only wanted to be friends. It wasn’t like I was unattractive by any means. Maybe I just always set my sights too high. “Good morning, class. Welcome to your very first Arcane Implement Training class. I know your other professors so far spent their first day playing get-toknow-each-other games and whatnot, but I’m afraid we only get one day a week, so we will be jumping right in. Who here knows what an implement is and what it is used for?” She looked around for a moment. A suitable number of people had their hands raised, but it was still less than a quarter of the thirty-some students. She nodded. “Not bad, more of you than I normally see. Simplified, an arcane implement is a tool or device that a magus can channel their magic through. Why is that important, though? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just use our bodies?” A few of us looked around but had no clue. Pyrsi was the first to raise her hand. Mariana gestured for her to stand. “Implements are easier than using our own bodies to channel magic because it poses far less of a risk to us. If we were to use one and try to cast too strong of a spell, generally the implement would just fail or break, and we would not risk combusting from overflow.” Mariana grinned. “Well done. What’s your name? Pyrsi? Okay, thanks. Can you also tell us just what an implement is?” She paused for a moment before answering, “Well, that is a bit more difficult to answer. Really, an implement can be anything from a weapon to a trinket. I think it just has to be something we are familiar with and have imbued with our own magic.” Mariana nodded. “Excellent. You may sit now. Pyrsi is correct, class. An implement, more or less, is just a tool that we spend our focus on. The most

common ones I see are objects like a dagger, staff, ring, amulet, book, orb, and so on. When properly prepared and used correctly, we can use magic without fear of hurting ourselves.” She paused, searching for something in her bag for a moment. She pulled out a dark wand and held it up so everyone could see. “For example, this is the wand I chose as my implement when I sat in your exact place many years ago.” She looked around for a moment at each of our desks, but I was the only one with a notebook in front of me. She pointed the wand at it without warning. Before I could even react, the pages suddenly started to fold in on themselves until it formed the shape of a dove. Immediately, the dove began to chirp and took flight, rushing over to Mariana to perch on her shoulder. It was incredible. She had actually transformed paper into a living, breathing creature. She winked at my startled expression, and I couldn’t help but smile. She knew it would catch me off guard, but she chose a bird that only a human would recognize. “Alteration magic is one of the most difficult forms in existence, not because of complexity, but because it uses up a ton of magic to give life to something that has none. Using your implement, not only do you keep yourself safe, but you also don’t drain yourself of all energy quite so fast. Some of you will never face any real dangers in your lifetime and will never understand how important that is, but there are those of you who know what it’s like. You are aware of how dangerous it would be to lose all stamina in the middle of fighting for your life.” She flashed me an apologetic look as she gestured toward me. “Take our young Shar, for example. His first official day here, he encountered a dangerous beast called a dremlich. He managed to kill it on his own and save someone’s life, but the effort literally knocked him out for two days. What did it feel like, Shar, using every ounce of energy you had?” Every stare turned to me as I uncomfortably rose to my feet. I wasn’t nervous about being the center of attention since it was only for a moment, I was just hesitant to think back to that evil thing lunging for my head. My voice came out surprisingly calm, but hollow. “At first, you just can’t feel your magic inside you anymore. Then as the actual exhaustion washes over you, it’s like getting hit hard in the back of your head. Unconsciousness threatens to

take you within seconds, but you can fight it for a little while if you stay strong. If you do manage to stay awake, it’s like your whole body is a mix between jelly and lead with every step you take. Eventually, you won’t be able to fight it anymore, and it takes you no matter if you were in the middle of walking or already brought to your knees as your strength gives out… It’s really scary, actually.” I sat back down, shuddering as I pictured the beast’s huge fiery maw slowly inching toward me. Everyone turned back to Mariana. She nodded knowingly. “That is why this class is so important. Your implement, if used properly, will save your life on many occasions.” She flicked her wand at the bird. It instantly turned back into my notebook, and it floated back in front of me before putting her wand back in her bag. She was definitely correct; her class was much more interesting than my first one. Some people started to talk quietly among themselves as she started struggling with something large under her desk. I got a glimpse of what looked like an ornate chest as she dragged it out to the empty right part of the classroom. I hadn’t really noticed it at first since it was literally just an empty floor big enough for the class to line up easily. What I had thought was a chest was actually a wooden slab with two raised spines that looked kind of similar to a display mount for a sword but hollow in the center underneath the spines. I heard someone say my name softly behind me, trying to get my attention, but I ignored them as I swore I saw the spines shift on their own. Nobody else seemed to be paying attention to what the professor was doing, but the altar-like object seemed to be pulling me toward it just like when I was standing by the dorms last night. So quick that I wasn’t sure if I just imagined it, I saw the hollow center of the altar spark with a soft white pulse. I heard a whisper again, but this time, I was sure it came from the altar. Mariana straightened and drew everybody’s attention back up to her. “Now most professors would just give you several options and let you pick your own implement, but I prefer a different approach. Before I came to teach at Brenerra, I used to travel worlds, searching for ancient relics of magic. I came across this a few years ago. It’s a device that will let you summon a unique object that can be

used as your implement. The altar will shape the summoned object depending on your inner strengths and weaknesses while mixing your magic into it as well. It is easier to show you in this case rather than try to explain the rest of it, so who would like to be the first to come up and try it?” I fought the urge to instantly rise to my feet and walk over. It wasn’t that I was getting any kind of bad feelings from it. I just didn’t know enough about magic to understand if an object calling out to you was a good or a bad sign. Luckily, Pyrsi stood and confidently walked over before I could change my mind. Mariana flashed a grin at her. “I have a feeling you’ll be one of my favorite students in this class. All right, what I want you to do is approach the altar and place your hands down as flat as you can on the outer sides of the stands. Try to channel some of your magic into it, and you should feel the altar’s presence reach back out for you. One of three things will happen. If you see a white light, you may proceed, and something will appear. If you see a blackish light, I will need you to quickly remove your hands and back away. If nothing happens, we can try again. Understand?” Pyrsi nodded, her expression dead serious. A nervous feeling washed over me briefly as I wondered what a blackish light meant, but I didn’t have time to ponder it long. Pyrsi stepped forward and placed her hands on the altar as instructed. Her eyes closed for a brief second, which I now understood as her reaching for her magic. For anybody who hadn’t been able to channel magic yet, it would just look like she blinked slowly. Almost instantly, the pulse of white light I had seen before returned, this time lingering instead of instantly sparking back out. The white pulse slowly rose from the hole in the center of the altar until it covered the raised spines completely. It only lasted a minute before receding, but sitting atop the altar now in place of the light was a small pink orb with white lines running throughout it like veins. Pyrsi gingerly picked up the orb and smiled at the professor. “Excellent, Pyrsi! Even its color matches your natural shades. Congrats! Take your seat. The rest of you can come up and form a line.” Pyrsi sat back down with a smug look as she smiled over at me. I walked over to her first while the rest of the class started lining up.

I said, “Hey, that was pretty impressive. I didn’t expect it to work that fast.” She shrugged. “We’re S ranks, Shar. I know that does not mean a lot to you as of yet, but you should start having more faith in yourself.” Her words were like an unintended knife piercing straight through me. If only it was that easy to believe in myself. I had never really believed in anything or anyone. It had only led to disappointment. I didn’t think anybody else could see that in me, though. I always kept such a calm and cool countenance. I chuckled. “I’ll get right on that.” Then I took my place at the back of the line. The kryrm man at the altar waited for a moment, but nothing happened. Mariana said, “That’s okay. It’s not always easy on the first try. Go to the back of the line, and you can get another chance in a few minutes.” He nodded and took a spot behind me. The next few students tried with mixed success. One managed to summon a dagger, another an ornamented staff, and a third also summoned an orb, but the other ten or so students failed to make the light appear. I waited for the rest to finish, but by the time it was my turn, only ten students of thirty had managed to summon something. As Mariana noticed me step up for my turn, her smile faltered, and consternation crossed her features, though she tried to hide it. I felt the same nervous wave wash over me as I lowered my hands. Before my palms were even touching the altar, the white light flared suddenly, bright enough that I had to turn my head to not be blinded. I let my palms rest flat, surprised to find the wood actually felt soft and warm. The light intensified for a moment, starting to rise up over the spines, but before they covered it fully, the light suddenly turned pitch-black. Everybody gasped at seeing it do it for the first time, and I looked up to see Mariana’s terrified look. “Shar, pull away now!” she nearly shouted. I didn’t hesitate, trying to pull my hands back, but it felt like they were being melded into the wood.

“I’m trying. It won’t let me!” My voice came out choked, but I didn’t feel afraid for some reason, more just weirded out. The black light finished rising over the spines and halfway up my arms. This light actually had a texture to it unlike the white. It was like my hands were submerged in water, but the “water” was so thick it was like a paste. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch on for an eternity, as everyone watched in horror for something awful to happen, the light receded like it should. It was different this time. Instead of my implement appearing atop the spines, the hilt of a sword jutted out from the hollow center of the altar. The reddish-orange pommel was set with a large sky-blue diamond, the mix of the two giving the appearance of a sun setting on water. The grip was wrapped in something that looked like darkgreen leather, leading to the cross guard, which fanned out to the sides and then backward in several places, almost giving the appearance of petals from a tiger lily with the same reddish-orange hue. The class was dead silent as I gingerly moved my now-freed hands over the hilt and slowly pulled it free of the altar. The scabbard covering the blade was of the same dark-green leather as the grip, engraved to look almost like the stem of a flower. With the sheath on, the sword actually did look like a giant tiger lily thanks to the cross guard, with the exception of the diamond set in the pommel. I looked up at Mariana, who looked just as shocked as I felt. “Professor, what just happened?” I asked slowly. It took a moment for her to recover enough to answer me. She smiled, but I could tell it was forced. “It’s all right. Congrats on summoning your implement successfully. Just hang back after class, and we’ll talk about it, okay?” I nodded and woodenly returned to my seat with the sword. The line resumed, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off the sword. Every time I wrapped my hand around the grip, I could feel energy coursing through it, separate from my magic. The sword’s energy was more vicious than anything I had felt before. It felt angry. I tried to force my attention back to the other students trying to summon their own implements, but not many were any more successful than their first attempt. When they all finished, only five more had managed to do it, so half the class had failed.

“All right, that was an outstanding success, all things considered. Those of you who weren’t able to summon anything, you have nothing to be ashamed of.” She went to her desk and retrieved a large duffel bag. “Feel free to choose any of the implements here in this bag.” I stopped paying attention to the others and returned my gaze to the sword lying on my desk in front of me. I grasped the hilt tightly, trying to pull it free of its scabbard, but it wouldn’t budge no matter how hard I tried. By the time the rest of the students returned to their seats, I gave up in frustration. Professor Mariana returned to the front of the classroom. “All right, you guys have just taken your first real step toward becoming full-fledged magi. We aren’t going to start using our implements just yet since there’s still a few important things we need to go over first. I have a quick question. Did your first class already teach you guys about the elements and what they signify?” Everyone nodded, so she continued, “Excellent. In addition to using an implement to our advantage, each of the elements can also be used to lessen the strain of casting pretty much any spell. For an example, let’s say I needed to quickly defend myself. Someone give me something basic I could use.” A pigonan man up front raised his hand. “You could throw a ball of fire at the danger.” Mariana nodded. “Great example of a basic spell, thank you. Now conjuring a ball of flame can be done in a few ways. First, you can simply use your magic to make one appear, but the hotter you want it, the more energy it will drain from you. Second, you can pull from your own body heat in addition to using your magic. It will take slightly less energy, but you can inadvertently cause yourself to go into hypothermic shock if you use too much of your own heat. Third, you can gather natural gases and heat from the air around you and only have to use a small spark of magic to ignite it. As long as it isn’t freezing cold, it will be easy to do and be virtually effortless. See the difference?” She went on for a little while, giving a few more examples for some of the students who were struggling with the concept, but the example Professor Vaggo had given yesterday about the cup of water versus a gallon of water had even been clear enough for me to grasp. The only concept I was struggling with still was how we were supposed to recognize what all around us was useable. Not

everything was as clear as moisture for water or heat for fire. When I had tried to kill the dremlich with the bolt of lightning, it didn’t really need heat or air, so I wasn’t sure what I could have used instead. She moved on after a long stream of questions. The bright sun was now high in the sky. “All right, that’s enough lecturing for now. It’s just now noon, so you all can take a break to go get food or whatever to recoup before we start back up. Be back by twelve thirty, though.” Everyone became excited, quickly standing to head down to the cafeteria or just stretch for a while. I hadn’t even noticed how fast the five hours went, unlike school back home, where I used to count the minutes until I could leave. The professor also left to take a break, leaving just me and a handful of other students hanging around. I knew inside my head I should use the time to socialize and try to make some new friends, but I just couldn’t bring myself to actually do it. Once a loner, always a loner, apparently. I tied the strap on the scabbard of my new sword around my waist and left the classroom as well, figuring it would at least be good to stretch my legs. I instantly regretted it. I found Pyrsi and the dusneoc from before leaning against the wall just outside of the classroom. I almost wished they were kissing again, as Pyrsi noticed me and smiled slightly. She said, “Shar, come over here for a moment. There is somebody I would like you to meet. This is Jirod, my mate. This is Shar, my roommate I was speaking about before.” I cursed in my head, wishing there was a less awkward way to meet the boyfriend of a girl you were attracted to. I managed a friendly smile, hopefully not noticeably forced. “Hey, Jirod. Are you also from Flociotail?” He nodded, his dull green gaze eying me in a strange way. His voice was oddly fitting for his appearance. It was deep and booming like a dragon should sound with no trace of softness. “Yes, I am the youngest son of the Woodmond clan.” A dozen pieces of the puzzle suddenly clicked in my brain with the news. I looked at Pyrsi. “That’s why you were trying so hard to convince Nypet to go through with the arranged contract to the eldest Woodmond son. It’s because you are dating his younger brother. You don’t want it to fall on you because you would be forced to leave Jirod and have to enter the contract in her place. That

makes so much more sense now.” She nodded, and Jirod looked like he realized something. “Yes, thank you for helping Pyrsi convince Nypet to give him a chance.” I felt used, but I had the chance to walk away instead of letting myself get pulled into their argument. My fate was forever to be a third wheel when it came to people I actually liked. “No problem. I’m glad I could help. I’ll see you guys later, but nice meeting you, Jirod.” He nodded, and I walked away as fast as I could without looking suspicious. I wasn’t really hungry, so instead of going to the cafeteria with the others, I made my way to the fourth-floor bathroom. I paused just before I went in, getting a strange tingling sensation, like someone was watching me. I chalked it up to Pyrsi and Jirod just glancing over at me and went in, heading for one of the stalls. Thankfully, the bathrooms here were pretty ordinary. There were toilets in stalls and urinals. Apparently, even aliens generally still had the same equipment. Someone else came in the bathroom before I finished, still lingering by the time I was done. I only glanced at him from my peripheral so he wouldn’t notice as I walked out and quickly washed my hands. He was definitely an adroil. Most of his was body shaped like a twisting tree trunk with moss growing up the bark. Even his head was part of the trunk. He had no neck that I could tell, and his hair looked like leaves in fall. “Hey,” he said as he walked up next to me. I finally turned to face him, fairly certain that he was the one who had been watching me. “Uh, hi,” I replied curtly but in a friendly tone and walked out of the bathroom. He followed after me pretty quickly for a creature that looked like a living tree. “Wait up,” he pleaded. I cautiously turned around to see what he wanted. “You’re Shar, right?” I nodded.

“Good. My name is Algalalder, but you can call me Al. Everyone else does. I, uh, heard some students talking about how you saved that faerie girl from that creature. I didn’t believe it at first, but then Mariana brought it up too. So is it true then?” I was confused about what point he was trying to make, but at least he seemed more harmless than I had first thought, although following someone into a bathroom was just weird. But maybe that was an unspoken rule only on Earth. “Yeah, it’s true. Why?” I thought he nodded; it was difficult to tell without a neck. “Well, they were saying that you killed it with a sword because magic wouldn’t work on it. Then in class you summoned another sword as your implement, even though the light turned black and scared the professor.” At least he did have a purpose he was trying to get to, albeit long-windedly. “Yes, is that strange or something?” He nodded. “Yes, actually. I’m not sure if that’s why the professor was worried, but swords and magus rarely go together well. Actually, I think you are the first to ever have a sword as an arcane implement.” That was strange the more I thought about. Even in fantasy games and books back home, sorcerers and wizards never used any weapons bigger than a dagger with the exception of a staff or scepter. I couldn’t help but to chuckle. “Honestly, Al, it’s been one strange thing after another since I got here. I’m almost used to it at this point. Anyway, it’s not like I’m that strange in an entire academy full of magic.” He made a face like I wasn’t understanding what he was trying to say. “You don’t… I wanted to warn you to be careful at Brenerra. This place has been here for thousands of years, but in a few days, you’re already standing out and changing normal things.” The way he said it gave me chills for some reason. “What do you mean? You make that sound like a terrible thing.”

He looked slightly relieved that I was finally grasping what he was poorly trying to get out. “What happens in your world when people encounter something they’ve never seen before?” It slid home like a kick to the chest. He was saying to be careful because since I showed up, weird events without precedent were taking place suddenly. “They end up being studied in some lab. I understand. You mean I’m standing out too much. Why is that so bad? Wouldn’t it be encouraged at an academy of magic?” He shook his head. “Only to some extent. Everyone here knows who you are already. An S rank with an unbelievable amount of magic count, you killed a creature immune to magic without so much as a single scratch…” He trailed off, and I nodded. “Okay, I’ll start being more careful. Thank you for the tip, Al.” He nodded and started to walk away, but a different thought occurred to me. “Hey, wait. Not that I’m complaining, but why did you warn me?” He glanced back and shrugged. “You risked your life to save someone else’s without hesitation. You are a good person in my opinion. Not everyone you meet here will be. The more well-known you are, the higher chance you have of encountering someone bad who will want to use you.” He walked back to the class, leaving me to my thoughts. I hadn’t really thought about it too much, but it was definitely not normal for so much to happen at once. Generally, it meant either someone was influencing terrible things to happen, or something larger was at work behind the scenes. If either was true, then things would start to get significantly worse soon. I leadenly made my way back to the class as well and took my seat. Thankfully, Mariana returned not long after I did. Most of the students who had left shuffled back in as well. Once everyone returned, she cleared her throat, and the chatter ended abruptly. “I hope everyone is feeling a little more refreshed now. We still have a few things to go over today, starting with another important part of learning to actually use magic. We know of implements and using elements to our advantage, at least in theory. Actual application is a different story entirely. See,

every one of us is born with a certain innate affinity to magic. Some of you will find you are better with magic that concerns fire. Some of you will be particularly affluent with nature. It varies with each. “Generally, we all fall into a certain categorization of magus separate from our affinity and based on a certain type of magic we excel at. Once yours is discovered, it will shape what classes you will take in your second year. Does anyone know what the different specialties of magi are?” Nobody seemed to have any idea what she was talking about this time. Everybody just referred to us as apprentices, and people who had already graduated were referred to as magus or magi. “Not too surprising, really. Typically, there are four categories you will fall under. They are elementalists, summoners, controllers, or shifters. The names are fairly self-explanatory but can also be a little misleading since any of us can use any type of magic. The classes are only meant to heighten what you are best at. An elementalist is a magus who shines at shaping the elements to their will. These are the people who learn to control weather, help repopulate forests, prevent volcanoes from erupting—stuff like that. “A summoner is one who creates things. They can learn to make living golems, summon swarms of insects, create islands in the middle of a sea, etc. Those of you who are summoners will find that you are only limited by your own imagination. Controllers are the least broad as the others go, but they are capable of incredible things on a narrow scale since they can influence the mind. They can create illusions as well as influence emotions of both people and beast. If they have enough strength, controllers can even learn to talk to animals.” She paused, looking to see if everyone was paying attention before continuing. “I saved the best for last in my opinion, because I am a shifter. Basically, we excel at changing things like I did before when I turned the notebook into a bird. We can shape-shift, change the appearance of others, transfigure objects, and so much more. Any questions so far?” I almost surprised myself as I raised my hand. I couldn’t a single time in my entire life that I actually asked a teacher a question. “You said we each have a particular affinity toward a certain element on top of our specialization. How does that work with being an elementalist? If your affinity is for fire. Are

you just doubly good at fire magic?” She pondered for a moment. “Not exactly. The system is only a guideline we use for reference, not a rule book. If you are an elementalist, you are really good at using all the elements to your advantage, not just your affinity. You will still have a particular element you lean toward, however. You’re thinking of just the physical attributes of the elements, not what they represent inside of us.” “Air is wisdom. Earth is strength and endurance. Fire is will and energy. Water is ion and emotion. If you were an elementalist with an affinity toward fire, for instance, it would mean you are good at shaping the elements and have a large amount of will and energy as per your physical character. Or, say, you were a summoner with an affinity toward water. It doesn’t mean you are only good at conjuring water-based things. It just means you tend to be more ionate and emotional.” I nodded. “Okay, I got it now. Thanks.” She smiled. “That was a really good question. Does everybody understand that now? Our affinity is toward what the element represents, not just the physical.” Everyone nodded, and she continued her lecture. Eventually, I started to zone out again, wondering what my affinity was. I was not an overly emotional person, or wise or willful. Earth made sense. I always had to be the strong one for me and Ashe, especially as life had continuously let us down. Professor Mariana went on for another few hours before wrapping up, true to her word, about not liking to lecture much. “All right, that’s it for class today. You do have homework for next week. Nothing difficult, don’t worry. I want each of you to try to figure out what your affinity and specialization are. Obviously, you won’t know for certain, but I want each of you to make your best guess and write it down. When you bring it in next week, I’ll hold on to them, so we can compare them after you are tested to figure out what they actually are. Sound good?” We all nodded. As homework went, that actually sounded like a pretty good assignment. She dismissed us, but I stuck around as the rest of the class left so that we could talk about what happened with the implement altar. Once most of the students were gone, I went up to her desk. Her face was

ive at my approach, clearly debating something heavily. “Hey, Professor.” She smiled lightly. “I guess you’re probably dying to know what happened. I’m sorry you had to wait until class was over. Before I explain, though, I need you to understand that ancient relics of magic can be quite difficult to fully understand. When I first bought it, I was instructed how to use it but not how it works. When no light shines, your magic just isn’t sufficient enough to power it, which is typical for anybody below a C rank. The white light just means it accepted your magic and it was enough to charge it.” “The black light…is one of those things that is more difficult to explain. It’s nothing you have to worry about. Really, it just means either the device encountered a problem or had trouble reading your magic correctly.” I didn’t understand how or why exactly, but I could feel she was lying about something. Her tone and expression were perfectly normal, but she just had honest eyes. She was trying to hide something about what the black light had meant. It was a device that read magic, so did that mean the problem was really something inside of me? I nodded and forced a smile. “Okay, that’s a relief. I had thought it was something I did. I’ll see you next week, Professor.” Inwardly I shook my head. How could I trust someone who would lie to my face, whether it was a teacher or not? I shook it off as I headed back down to the first floor. Whatever it meant, brooding over it wouldn’t give me any answers. I would just have to find out for myself later, the same for how to get my sword out of the scabbard. Now that class was out, I ed Serena had wanted me to meet her by the fountain in the courtyard. I had been trying to figure out a way to let her down gently before because I knew I liked Pyrsi, but that ship had sailed before I was even even at the port. Sure, I didn’t feel that magnetic spark when I was near Serena, but every time I chased after that feeling, it only let me down. Maybe it would be better to give her a chance. It would be nice to not have to chase after someone for once. Plus, she really was adorably endearing. I just didn’t want it to feel like I was just using her.

The courtyard was still empty since most of the classes were still in session, so I sat on the edge of the fountain as I tried to piece together my own feelings. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes as Pyrsi and Jirod found me yet again. I changed direction as they walked out of the castle. I briefly considered pretending like I was busy until I thought about the fact that I actually was. “Hey. That was quite an eventful class compared to the first two days,” Pyrsi said. I chuckled. “Yes, it was. I still can’t believe my implement is a sword shaped like a flower.” She laughed. “It actually looks pretty cool, though.” She paused as she glanced nervously at Jirod and then back at me. “So do you have any plans tonight?” I smiled. “Actually, I do. I sort of have a date. I’m just waiting for her to get out of class.” It was hard to tell, but I swore I saw a slight twinge in her expression. “Good for you, Shar. I was going to ask if you minded if Jirod came to our room to hang out, but you will be gone anyway.” Thank goodness Serena had asked me out today. I was getting used to this strange world, but that didn’t mean I was quite ready to hear half-dragons having sex yet. “You are welcome over anytime, Jirod. I have no qualms about you. All I ask is that if you guys are going to be getting busy while I’m there, play some music or something, all right?” Pyrsi flushed considerably, while Jirod nodded. “That’s fair.” I looked back to the castle as some students from another class started pouring out. I wished they would leave before Serena came, but that hope was crushed as I noticed her vivid blond hair in the crowd. She grinned as she saw me and quickly glided over, bubbling with excitement. “Shar, you’re already here!” I grinned. It was really hard to stay in a mood while she was near. She was just a

genuinely happy person. I said, “Hey, Serena. This is my roommate, Pyrsi, and her mate, Jirod. Guys, this is my friend Serena.” She touched back to the ground, tucking her wings against her back. “Nice to meet you, Jirod and Pyrsi.” Jirod nodded in a sort of friendly way, though it was lost in his intimidating presence. Pyrsi gave her a semi-jaded look, though. “Hello, Serena. What are you two going to do?” Serena turned serious. “I can’t say. It’s a surprise for Shar. I can’t believe you get to be his roommate, though. I’m so jealous!” Pyrsi gave me a look, but I could only shrug. She didn’t tell me what we were doing either. Thankfully, Jirod either got tired of waiting or sensed Pyrsi’s tension. He said, “Well, we should leave them to it.” I nodded. “Later, guys.” They walked off, and Serena turned to me. I grinned. “So if you won’t say what we’re doing, then can I ask where we are going?” She flashed an impish grin. “Well, it depends on something. How confident are you in your magic?” Her question caught me off guard. “Uh, mildly?” She giggled at my puzzled expression. “The place I want to go is outside of Brenerra.” Oh, that was why she wanted to know, in case something dangerous came along. I nodded. “Cool, let’s go.”

Outside of the protective gates and walls surrounding Brenerra, Ralian was

beautiful in an overgrown jungle sort of way, but it reminded me just how far from home I really was. There were no roads or paths that I could see, and everything recognizable was nearly quadruple in size. There was grass everywhere similar to Earth, but it was in a mint-blue color and stood easily four feet high in most places. The trees looked like they were made of iron instead of bark, and the smallest one I could see would take half a dozen people to be able to link arms around it. The trees that had leaves had strange hues, none of which were green, and others almost appeared to be growing a fur-like substance or strange ooze. “Whoa, this place is weird,” I said aloud, noticing that she was giving me a strange look because I had stopped walking. She smiled. “Yeah, I’ve read books with pictures of Earth before. Most of your world is barren nature-wise, right?” I looked around, trying to figure out how to compare it. “Some places are, but there are still plenty of forests and nature parks and stuff too. We have a lot of massive cities, and there are roads and highways that can take you almost anywhere.” She silently tried to picture it but ultimately shook her head when she couldn’t. “Well, there’s a path to where we’re going, but it will take a little bit of time to reach. We have to get away from Brenerra first. It’s purposefully hidden so random people don’t stumble upon it.” I nodded. “Well, lead the way then, Serena.” She flashed me a smile before starting to walk off to the right of the front gate. It took almost an hour alone to walk far enough for Brenerra to fade out of sight because of how massive the academy was, but it was easy to lose track of time between chatting lightly and looking around. Eventually, we broke free from the mix of tall grass and large trees, coming to a spot where it literally all ended, suddenly creating a line. Beyond it, the grass was blackish in color and barely high enough to cover my shoes. What few trees we ed had a similarly burnt appearance, not a single tree limb growing beyond a few feet.

“What is this place? It looks like there was some kind of fire here.” She paused for a moment, turning back to face me. “I think it’s called the Greyway, if I right. I don’t know why, but things just stopped growing here. We have to be careful now that we left Brenerra’s barrier. We may run into native Ralians or creatures out here.” I nodded and moved closer to her as she started walking again. “So, Serena, I’ve been curious about something but didn’t want to seem rude by just asking.” She smiled back at me, wings aflutter. “You can ask me anything anytime, Shar.” It took me a moment to decide on a decent way to phrase it. “How old are you? I don’t know much about faeries, to be honest, or moon faeries.” She winked over her shoulder. “Afraid I’m too young for you? I know age is an important thing with humans. Don’t worry. I’m actually ninety-five. How old are you?” I felt a bit shell-shocked. “Twenty-five.” She nodded. “Then if you were trying to compare it to a human’s age, I would be eighteen, I think? I’m an adult.” I chuckled. The way she clarified that she was an adult gave me the impression that she was used to people treating her like a child. “I had no doubts. Don’t worry. I was just curious… Hmm, do you have a big family?” She shook her head. “No, it’s just me and my mom. She won’t talk to me about who my dad is or what happened to him.” It seemed like a sensitive topic, so I shifted gears. “What is it like in your world? Like, what did you do for fun?” She shrugged. “For faeries, we are really close with our community. All the kids play together when they’re young so that the elders can focus on working. After we turn fifty, we can start learning to help our families with their work, and by seventy, we find our own jobs. Honestly, it’s a pretty boring place.” Her wings started fluttering quickly as she grew more excited. “What’s Earth

like? I bet there’s lots of fun stuff to do!” Her exuberance brought out another chuckle from me. “Usually, there is. We also hang out with other people our age when we’re younger, or we watch TV or movies, play video games, play sports. Once we’re older, we go to clubs or bars —or still sit around and watch a lot of TV or movies. Our jobs must be different from yours because most people either work part-time a few hours a day or full,time which is like forty hours a week, although once you go through puberty, half your time is spent chasing after relationships in one way or another.” She paused with a bemused expression, and once again, I caught myself thinking about how cute she actually was. She asked, “So many questions! What is a movie, what is a video game, and what is puberty?” I laughed so hard that I snorted. “Uh, a movie is pretty much like a story in a book, but instead of reading it, there are real people pretending to be the characters, and you can watch it anytime. A video game is kind of the same thing, but you can play as one of the characters. Puberty is a bit more awkward to explain, though…” I hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. “How is it decided when a faerie is ready to become an adult?” That seemed to be a much simpler answer. “Oh, when we turn seventy-five, we go through a ritual that lets us choose what gender we want to be as well as what job we want.” I froze, dumbfounded. “Wait, you just pick your own gender? Everyone under seventy-four is just…sexless?” She nodded hesitantly as she stared at me. “Yeah. Why?” I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around it. “Sorry, it’s just way different for humans. We’re generally born either male or female, except for a few exceptional cases, but our bodies are young. Puberty is when we grow up enough that our bodies become ready to start reproducing, though, generally, most humans just do…it…to have fun. They don’t start trying to reproduce right away.” She still seemed confused for a long moment until she realized what I meant.

“Oh, you’re talking about having sex, right? Okay, that makes more sense. Faeries do that lots too.” The cavalier way she talked about it threw me off once again. It was so hard to not think of her as some innocent teenager. She was an adult woman and obviously more comfortable talking about it than I was. We started walking again, and I moved my gaze to watch her butt, purposefully trying to stop seeing her like a kid and start looking at her the way I couldn’t help but to notice Pyrsi. Her hips swayed in a very femininely way, and though her butt was small, it was shaped perfectly. Her waist was super thin, but with her height and how petite she was, it made sense. She had to be so that her small wings could still her. The more I watched her, the easier it was to start seeing her as an adult. Even her bust was fairly medium for her size. I suddenly realized that the problem I had been having seemed to be more with the way she dressed. She wore a bright pink, knee-length skirt and a vivid yellow-green tank top with dark red leggings, kind of like how you would expect a child who dressed themselves to look like. In normal clothes, she would look downright gorgeous. Actually, all the female faeries I had seen so far at the academy seemed to dress in this similarly colorful way. Maybe it was just a faerie thing. She glanced back and noticed me checking her out, and she beamed as she turned back and didn’t say anything. I flushed slightly and picked up my pace. “Hey, we’re almost there. Look.” I looked ahead and noticed that we were coming to what looked like a village. None of the houses were taller than two-story structures, and all of them had seen better days. Some were missing roofs entirely. Others had large sections of walls and roof destroyed. The debris looked charred like the grass, and most were overgrown with moss and vines. “Is this a village? It looks more like ruins.” She nodded. “These are the ruins of a village called Greymoor, but they’ve been abandoned for as long as anyone can . A lot of students come out here to explore when they have free time.”

I nodded. It was definitely unique and baffling. Seeing the way the houses were destroyed, I couldn’t fathom what happened. It was too random. I almost wanted to believe a creature caused it, but one of the houses just had the center of the roof destroyed in a perfect hole, like something had fallen out of the sky and onto it. “Is this where the surprise is?” She looked back and winked again. “I’m not telling yet. Wait a bit longer.” The side of the village we entered had the first path I had seen since leaving Brenerra. It was a dirt path leading between each of the houses to the village center, where there was a well and what looked like a dried-out fountain. Twilight was finally beginning to descend by the time she led me to fountain and finally stopped walking. She spun back to face me with a huge grin. “Yes, this is where the surprise is, but it’s not time yet. We have to wait here until the sun goes down.” I nodded, and she sat down on the grass with her back against the tall walls of the fountain. I took a seat next to her, and for a while, we just sat there comfortably as we looked around. The entire village was dead quiet—not in a creepy way, but just peaceful. Occasionally, something like a bird would call out in the distance, but it was coming from far away. “It’s so nice here,” I said softly. She nodded and gazed at me for a moment before laying her head against my shoulder. I rested my head against the top of hers and cast my gaze skyward. The skies were the only thing that felt familiar; it was blue during the day when the sun was out and getting grayer as the sun set. Luckily, the way we were facing was the direction of the sun as it slowly descended behind distant mountains. The sunset was the same, casting a beautiful canvas of reds, oranges, and pinks over the clouds. The only difference was that the sun seemed much larger in the sky. Instead of the size of a pingpong ball, it was more like a basketball, though it was a subtle difference for once. She sighed dreamily. “I’ve wanted to come out here since I first heard about it,

but I was too afraid to do it alone. I knew that I’d be safe coming with you.” I chuckled. “I’m glad you have such faith in me. It’s been one thing after another since I got here. I don’t know whether to be terrified of having magic or simply thankful that I’m still alive.” She was quiet for a moment. “I know magic can seem scary if you aren’t used to it, especially with all the talk about accidentally killing yourself, but that’s just to make people realize that they need to be careful. Magic can also be amazing. The world I come from is called the Dream Sanctuary because magic is everywhere, kind of like here, but without the worry of dangerous creatures. Not just the faeries have magic, but it’s in the ground, the plants, the sky, the water. We can’t survive without it because it’s part of us.” She went silent for a moment, humming softly like she did when she was happy. It took me a moment to realize she was calling on her magic. Suddenly, a small rainbow-colored orb materialized in the air a few feet from us. For a few moments, it just kind of danced in place, sending waves of colors flicking in every direction like tendrils of smoke. She sat up and gave me a special smile, not the goofy overly eager expression she usually wore, but a secret thing meant only for me. “Think of something you miss from your home.” Nothing really came to my mind for a long moment until I ed my cat, CJ. She was just an orange tabby kitten just a few weeks old but had left her mother too early and didn’t make it. She had been the cutest thing I had ever seen. The moment I had first picked her up, she crawled inside my hoodie and fell asleep in seconds against my chest. I looked up at the orb and was amazed to see it had changed shape. Now instead of a shifting multicolored mass, an ethereal image of CJ was floating in front of us. It mewled soundlessly and rolled over as she stretched with a big yawn. Although the image was just projected, it was perfect and so real like she was really there. “Aw, a kitten,” Serena cooed softly. She cast her hand out, and a piece of string appeared over CJ. Her eyes narrowed with focus as she rolled back to her feet, eyeing the string with concentration. I laughed softly. “See, Shar? Magic doesn’t always have to be scary.”

The image slowly faded as the sun finally finished setting. We both sat up, the atmosphere notably shifting, and I felt like it was suddenly charged with energy. “Is it time?” She nodded. “Yes, watch.” Within a matter of seconds after the sun disappeared, hundreds of strange creatures suddenly leapt into the sky from out of nowhere all around us. They looked sort of like gargantuan bats from their heads and wings, but the body was more like that of a beetle. Their entire thorax looked like a series of plates, glowing with a bright golden light. It was like looking at lightning bugs coming out at night back home, if the bugs were the size of a car. After they flew high into the air, they stopped suddenly and simply began to hover in place. “Whoa,” I breathed. “What are they…?” I stopped as I realized what they looked like. The way that they were all spread out and hovering almost made it look like they were golden-colored stars. “They’re called grorst. We have them back home too. Every clear night, they fly into the air and mimic the stars. Nobody knows why, and not a single one has ever been seen during the day. The best part is that they change colors. If you learn how to read them, you will know what the weather will be like the next day.” She slowly reached over and put her hand on mine as we watched them. For a moment, I hesitated that I still hadn’t reached a decision yet, but when I took her hand in mine, I knew I had just made it. Neither one of us said anything else. It felt like it would somehow shatter the magic of the moment. After a while, I realized it was starting to get chilly. “Thank you, Serena. I’ve never seen anything like them.” She finally looked over at me, her expression conflicted. “Sorry to just blurt this out, but I can’t hold it in. I…I have never liked anyone before as much as I like you. I mean, back home, there were a few boys who tried to get my attention, but I just never found them appealing. But the moment you appeared behind the dorms, I knew you were special. I could see the fear painted on your face when you saw the dremlich, but the moment you looked up and saw I was hurt, your face got so determined, and I knew that you didn’t think about running for a

single moment, only how to save me. I knew you were the most dashing person I’d ever seen.” Her golden eyes sparkled softly. They were large with fear as well as hope at baring her soul to someone for the first time. I paused for a split second as I stared back at her. It was time to decide—either let her down gently or break old habits and take a leap of faith toward something new. It really shouldn’t be that difficult of a decision, but it felt larger in scale, like I was standing before a turning point in my own life rather than just whether to date someone. I had never really let anyone in before, not even Ashe, because she was always too busy for me. It was finally time for me to bare some of my own soul. “Serena…I think I like you. You’re incredibly cute and fun and so happy all the time. I have to it that I’m scared, though. Ever since I got here, my life has just been insane. On top of it, I’ve never been that great at relationships to start with. Like, I think my longest relationship was two months. I just get so focused on my own problems, ya know? But honestly, it would be really nice to have something dependable and calm in my life for once, someone that won’t just use me or leave. I just don’t want you to end up hurt because of the things happening to me that I have no control over and barely even understand half the time.” She gave a small smile that showed so much more. She understood. She was just as scared as I was. It seemed like such a small thing—someone actually listening and truly understanding you for the first time—but it was so underrated and taken for granted that it was redemptive to finally feel it. I gently leaned in and kissed her like I had never kissed anyone before, not sloppy and ionate, but small, gentle, perfect kisses. Her lips eagerly met mine, parting slightly as a soft moan escaped. Her hand ran through the back of my hair as she pulled me tighter against her, and for a perpetuity of an instant, I actually felt it, that small spark like there was nothing else but the two of us, like what you read about it fantasy novels. The grorst seemed dim in comparison as our embrace slowly became more ionate, more desperate, like that spark slowly igniting into a blaze. I grabbed her waist, accidentally brushing her wing as I pulled her against me and onto my lap. Another moan escaped her mouth, and I breathed it in deeply, the sweet smell of fresh morning dew and blueberries filling my nose. I thought I moaned too. My tongue gently trailed along her soft lips as our noses bumped against

each other. Her other hand grabbed my hair, too, as I held her waist with one hand and ran my other along her lower back. Her tongue found mine instinctually, sucking back in my own breath. I didn’t know how long it was before one of us finally pulled away, breathless and still yearning for more. That one kiss had somehow been more intimate than anything I had ever shared with anyone. Still on my lap and panting ever so softly, she met my gaze, her golden eyes sparkling with pure bliss. Catching my own breath, I silently traced small circles along the base of her spine under her shirt. Her skin was so soft and smooth compared to most humans, and completely flawless. I almost felt like I should apologize or something for how intense that was, but I realized there was no need. It had been perfect. She sucked on her bottom lip softly as we just sat there, staring at each other. “I can’t say what will happen down the road. I can’t even help you with your magic because I’m such a low rank, but I can say that no matter how crazy your life is, I will stay by you. Plus, that was a really good kiss.” I laughed. Between sucking on her lip and the fire dancing in her eyes, she was so stunning. After a moment, she laughed, too, and nuzzled her head against my shoulder. I said, “Yes, it was. All right, I don’t know how it works for faeries, but do you date?” She looked back up at me, her thin blond eyebrows raised. “Yes, we date, silly. That’s fairly universal, I would think.” Apparently, for everyone except the dusneocs. The concept had baffled Nypet. I nodded. “Then, Serena, would you like to be my girlfriend? Although I think the kiss answered—” She cut me off with a big smile. Then she kissed me again. This time, it was quick and gentle before she pulled away. “I would love to… All right, we should head back home. It’s getting really late. I wish we could just stay out here forever.” I nodded. “We’d get awfully hungry.”

She giggled at my serious expression and hesitantly stood up from her straddling position. She helped me to me feet. My body was aching like it had just been slumped against a fountain for hours, which it had been. Her grin turned fierce. “I like that word, girlfriend. It even sounds cute. Does that make you my…boyfriend?” I nodded, and she said, “Cool, you’re my first boyfriend.” I laughed, letting her play with the word without picking on her. “All right, Serena, let’s go.” She nodded and followed as I started back the way we came. It was well past dusk now. Judging by how high the moon was, it was at least midnight. Serena gently took my hand and started gliding with me since her legs weren’t long enough to match my colossal stride. We didn’t really talk much the whole way back, but it was a contented silence. I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. I had wanted it to last forever, but if one of us hadn’t pulled away, it would’ve escalated quickly at the rate we were going. I had only known her for all of like three days. It was probably better to take it at least a little slow for now. We were just about to leave the Greyway and almost at the overgrown outskirts of Brenerra when I felt the cool night air suddenly shift around us. It didn’t feel colder or anything, but it felt strange, like something bad was about to happen. I glanced at Serena, but she didn’t seem to feel it. She simply looked lost in thought. My instincts flared abruptly before I realized what was going on in my mind, and I shoved Serena a few feet ahead across the line where the Greyway ended. She yelped in surprise but landed agilely enough to roll back to her feet and turn as a black streak of something darted beside me where she had been standing only a second prior. Its talons had come so close to her head that if I had been literally a single second slower, it would have scalped her. I rolled to my left as I turned, desperately scanning the sky for where it darted off to. “What the hell was that?” Serena asked, but it came from somewhere distant. Without even trying, I could feel my magic reacting with me, fueling my eyes to see in the blackness of night as if it were daytime. After a minute, I saw it

gliding a dozen yards away and circling back around slowly now. Even from this distance, I could see that it was massive, very similar to an eagle, but its body was much wider and longer, more like the shape of a horse. Its arms and feet ended in giant talons the same red color as its beak. Serena started to step back out toward me, and I quickly motioned for her to stay put. “No, stay there. The protective barrier around Brenerra will keep you safe.” She looked like she desperately wanted to ignore my command but nodded sadly and stepped back. In the second or two that she had interrupted my line of sight, it was already gone by the time that I looked back. I started to scan the sky again but didn’t have a chance before something slammed into me with all the force of a train. It knocked me off my feet and lifted me into the air as my breath whooshed out and my vision swam. Before I smashed back into the ground and was knocked unconscious, I cast my magic behind me like net. It caught me, and I sprung back to my feet, grabbing my sword at my hip. As my fingers wrapped around the leather grip, I could feel the sword’s angry energy respond to my magic this time. Instead of feeding off my magic like I expected it to, the angry energy bit into my right arm like a jab of a thousand needles. I grunted and pulled it free of the scabbard. The blade was a plain dull-blue color similar to the diamond inset of the pummel. As the pain receded from the initial pairing or whatever it did, I could feel the same anger from the sword now burning inside of me. I looked skyward to find the creature, instantly spotting it about a yard away, circling back again. I reached for the anger instead of my magic to try to channel it, and it was like plunging my hand into a seventy-mileper-hour windstorm. I managed to grip it, though, and I pointed the tip of the sword toward the creature. A small burst of jet-black energy no bigger than a dart shot from the sword toward it with impossible speed, severing one of its wings in half as it connected. The beast screeched in agony and plummeted straight toward the ground at breakneck speed, barely managing to flap its good wing in time to not hurt itself more. Before waiting for it to make a move, I sent another eldritch dart, moving so fast that it made a whistling sound as it sped forward and severed the other

wing. The creature shrieked and writhed in agony, black fire burning the parts of its body where it touched. I knew I could safely walk into the barrier and leave the creature to be, but the anger flooding through me was too strong. The blade began dripping with the eldritch energy as I sent a third blast at the creature, this time the size of a fist. It whistled as it streaked right into the beast’s beak, severing its skull in half. No blood and gore sprayed everywhere as the creature slumped to the ground. It was all eaten by the entropic rage given form. Satisfied, I sheathed the blade and turned back to a dumbfounded Serena. This time, I was not even winded from using magic. The anger from the blade receded back into it once it was sheathed, albeit a little slowly. “I thought you were only mildly confident in your magic,” she said, a mix between awe and shock. I shrugged. “Since the first day I saved you from the dremlich, it’s been getting easier and easier to use it. Now it’s like waving my hand instead of having to reach for it purposefully and draw on it.” It was strange that it didn’t worry me this time. All the talk about combusting hadn’t even crossed my mind when I used the sword. I gently took her hand. “Anyway, it’s over. Come on.” She nodded and followed as I started walking again. I could tell she was a little freaked out and was trying not to barrage me with a dozen questions. “Serena, we’re dating now. If you want to ask me a question, I don’t want you to feel afraid. You can ask me anything.” She nodded but stayed silent for a long couple of minutes. “It’s just…we’ve only been here for four days, and you’ve only been in two classes. Doesn’t it worry you at all that it was just that easy for you to use magic strong enough to kill that thing without even blinking?” I paused as her question sunk in. She was right. It should, but when the sword’s magic had touched my own, it felt like it had stripped away all the fear and

doubt that I always carried about myself. I smiled at her, and she seemed to relax somewhat. “You’re right, but this is what I meant by not wanting you to get hurt because of these things that just keep happening to me that I don’t even understand most of the time. I may be wrong, but I think it’s just because of how high my magic count is. I think I’m just strong and getting better at accepting it.” She nodded, seemingly satisfied. “It will be interesting to see how strong you’ll be when we graduate then.” I laughed. “Interesting, definitely—a little worrisome too.” Our pace slowed considerably by the time we neared Brenerra’s front gates. Both of us were exhausted from the long day and miles of walking. I walked her back to Dorm E, stopping just before the steps. “So…crazy day, huh?” I asked softly. She gave me the small special smile from earlier. “Very but definitely my new favorite day ever. Thank you for coming with me today, my new boyfriend.” I leaned down and kissed her again, our lips lingering for a long moment before I pulled away. “Okay, we have to say good night. We have class in a few hours.” She nodded soberly. “Agreed. Good night, Shar. Sleep well.” I nodded. “You, too, Serena.” She hesitated but finally went in, and I finished the final stretch back to my own dorm. The room was dark and quiet as I entered. Pyrsi had probably long since gone to bed. I quickly stripped and lay down, my legs still feeling sort of like I was walking because I was so tired. I smiled to myself as a flash of Serena sitting on my lap while sucking on her lower lip popped in my head. She was so sweet, even when freaked out by weird magic. This was going to be an interesting year.

Chapter 4

Flux

Iwoke suddenly from a pleasant dream of lying in a field with Serena, watching the grorst. There wasn’t anything wrong that I could tell that suddenly snapped me awake—just everything felt a little off. As I sat up and looked around. Soft morning light was just starting to creep in through my window, meaning it was barely six yet. I got up and grabbed a clean pair of track pants and a T-shirt from my dresser, not really feeling up to taking a shower today. Even after brushing my teeth and going to the bathroom, I still felt off, so I left my room and explored the kitchen cupboards for the first time. It was mainly so that I didn’t have to walk all the way down to the cafeteria. Surprisingly, I managed to find oatmeal and a pot. I quickly heated myself up some. Such a familiar activity as sitting down at a dinner table to eat a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal at my dorm in Ralian was possibly the strangest thing here so far. I had tried to be quiet to not wake Pyrsi up, but I could hear her starting to stir by the time the oatmeal had finished simmering. She wandered out of her room just as I sat down, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Good morning,” I said and blew on a spoonful before gingerly taking a bite. Good, it tasted normal too. “Mm, good morning, Shar. What time did you get in last night?” I shrugged. “No idea, a while after midnight at least. Did you have a good evening with Jirod?” She nodded and sat down across from me, sniffing the air with a sleepy but curious expression. I laughed. “It’s oatmeal. There’s still some left in the pot if you would like some.

It tastes a lot better than it looks, I promise.” She smiled. “Thank you, but no, thank you. I pretty much only eat meat.” That made sense. Even if it was only partial, she was still a dragon. That didn’t explain why the smell brought her out here, though. I suddenly realized the way she was sniffing the air was pointed at me, not the oatmeal. “What? Do I stink or something?” She shook her head, eyeing me strangely. “No, it is not that. It is just… Do you feel okay? You smell different than normal.” “Actually, I woke up not feeling that great. I don’t know if it’s just only getting, like, four hours of sleep or what, but yeah.” She stared at me for a few long moments before shrugging, unable to discern whatever she was trying to figure out. “What class do you have today?” It took me a moment to . “Today is Thursday. I have Alchemy 101 in Room 2. What about you?” She smiled slightly, which I had to stop myself from thinking of as even cuter when she was half-asleep. Too bad being in a relationship didn’t shut off your ability to notice other girls, especially ones with a mate who could probably literally tear me apart. She said, “Good, both Jirod and I do as well. He is in the shower now, but if you want to wait, then we could all walk to class together.” I considered it for a moment. I should get to know her mate at some point since we would be roommates for a long time, but today I barely felt like doing anything, let alone something requiring real effort. I shook my head. “Not today. Sorry. Like I said, I don’t feel that great, and besides, I should go meet up with Serena for a little. As of last night, we are officially together.” Now Pyrsi was a lot more alert as she gazed at me. “Good for you Shar. That was a bit quick, though, right? I mean you only just met her.”

It struck me as funny that her logic was much like my own, but I kept that to myself. “Maybe a little, but she’s really sweet and really likes me. I figured it was worth taking a chance.” Pyrsi glanced back at her room when she heard a door open. “Okay, well, I will see you later then.” I nodded and quickly finished eating and cleaning up so that I could leave before they finished getting ready. I headed straight down the lift and over to Dorm E, hoping I wasn’t too late to catch Serena since we hadn’t planned on meeting before class. Almost unsurprisingly, she seemed to have the same idea and was sitting on the steps, waiting for me. She perked right up when she noticed me walking up, and she glided over excitedly. “Good morning, Shar!” I laughed and patted her head gently, wishing I could muster that much energy so early, but I was the complete opposite of a morning person. I was more of an end-up-with-milk-in-the-cupboard-and-cereal-in-the-fridge type of guy. “Good morning, beautiful. How’d you sleep?” The word slipped out, but her beaming smile in response was practically radiant as she giggled. “I slept okay, not long enough, though. What about you? You don’t look so good.” I nodded. “I don’t really feel that great. I think I may have caught a cold or something last night. It got pretty chilly.” I thought it was the first time I saw her frown with concern as she flew a little higher to feel my forehead. “Hmm, you do feel kind of warm. Are you sure you want to try to go to class? I could tell your teacher you are sick for you.” Her deep concern actually made me feel a little better as I smiled warmly. “I’ll be all right. I’ve never missed a day of work even when I had the flu, so a little cold isn’t going to stop me. What class do you have today? I wanted to walk with you.” She still looked concerned but nodded, letting it go without arguing. “Alchemy 101. I’m kind of excited.”

My eyebrows raised. “In room 2?” She nodded, so apparently, we all had the same class together on Thursdays. “Cool. So do I, actually. Do you need to grab anything, or are you ready?” “I’m ready.” Though the question was meant for her, it made me realize that I forgot to grab my pack, but then again, I really didn’t seem to need to take notes here anyway. I took her hand, and we started walking toward the castle. Room 2 was actually not in the main part of the castle, I quickly discovered. Instead Serena led my down the same veranda-type corridor that I had first gone down to go to the room of testing. Room 2 was the next room after it, and it was equally as massive as we walked in, wide enough to comfortably fit the entire length of a house inside. Not many other students had arrived yet, so we took two desks near the middle of the room. “Hey, what do you think these are for?” Serena asked, noticing that there was a strange violet flower already at her desk. On mine, there was a similar one, but it was a deep emerald green. Actually, as I looked around, I noticed every desk had a flower, each one a distinct color or type of flower. “I’m not sure. It probably just has to do with our lesson today.” She nodded and began gingerly inspecting it. They were definitely real and in full bloom but had no signs of withering, even though they weren’t in soil anymore. Normally, I would be just as curious as Serena about it, but my off feeling was slowly turning into a dull headache. Everybody else started shuffling in, including Pyrsi and Jirod, who took the seats behind us. I smiled slightly as they came in but otherwise just focused on my desk until the professor finally came in. He was definitely some type of faerie, judging by his incredibly pale complexion and bright yellow-orange eyes, but he did not have wings like Serena. Actually, the only real thing marking him different from a human was his stringy hair the color of leaves in fall and his long-pointed ears, which were jutting out nearly a foot long. They were pierced in several places with a golden band, almost like a

snake wrapping itself around his ears. It was difficult to place an age on faeries, but he seemed at least fifty, judging by my human standards. “Good morning, apprentice magi,” he spoke dreamily in an agreeable, smooth voice that made me think of fresh earth and soil. “I am Professor Alok Paneiros, but please feel free to just call me Alok. There will be no need for titles here, for we are all students in one way or another. As you all know, this is Alchemy 101. Who can tell me just what alchemy is?” I actually knew this one and started to raise my hand, but it only made my head hurt worse. I smiled as Serena bubbly raised her hand in my stead. She said, “Ooh, I know! Alchemy is the process of transmutation or changing one thing into another. like turning a stone into a statue.” He nodded slowly with a smile. “Excellent…” “Serena!” “Excellent, Serena. Alchemy is a process known in pretty much every world that exists because it focuses on everything that surrounds us. For magic, we use alchemy to fuel our spells to lessen the strain on ourselves…” He went on for a while, but it was slowly getting harder to focus, especially since we had gone over the same idea in both of my other classes. I dozed off at one point for a good half hour before Serena gently nudged me awake. I felt guilty, but his voice was so soothing, kind of like listening to an audio book. “And that is why you should never try to follow the stories. Though alchemy and magic can accomplish extraordinary things, eternal life is still one thing that has never been solved without killing anyone who tried.” I tried to focus. I thought he had been talking about philosopher’s stones, but I missed it while I was asleep. Oh, well, he said it was still impossible, so I must not have missed much. Besides, who would want to actually live forever? You would eventually run out of things to do or drive yourself mad as everyone you loved died around you. Serena glanced over at me, her face deeply etched with concern. She leaned in and whispered, “Are you sure you’re okay, Shar? You’re starting to look really

pale.” I nodded and forced myself to focus, reaching over to gently squeeze her hand. She nodded but now glanced over at me every few minutes. “All right, sorry for the long prelude there. I’m sure you are all wondering why there are emperor tulsis placed on your desks, correct?” He paused as most of the class nodded. “Today will be your first real assignment here at Brenerra. I know most of the other professors are too worried to let you actually try using magic just yet, but I have faith in all of you. Before I explain the assignment, though, who among you here has not been able to successfully channel their magic yet?” At least ten students’ hands, fins, or talons shot up. Surprisingly, one of them was Jirod. The professor continued, “At least a third of you. That’s all right. Instead of breaking up into groups right away, we’re going to try as a group here first so all of you who are able to use magic can help me with the ones who can’t. I want everybody to close their eyes, please.” I looked around as the others did. I couldn’t them, or else I’d fall right back asleep. Instead I focused on Serena’s face to try to dull my head, mentally tracing the small curve of her lips. “Now simply listen and feel everything around you, and slowly eliminate in your mind until you can only feel your own body. Inside each of us, there is a current constantly running alongside our breathing and the blood coursing in our veins. Reach inside yourself for the current, that energy, and you should feel something reaching back, yearning to be freed.” There were a few soft gasps around the room. “Just stay like that until each of you can feel it. Once you can, please open your eyes so I can see who is left.” I looked around. Only Jirod and a kryrm male up front still seemed to be struggling. The professor made his way to the kryrm first as I turned around to Jirod. Pyrsi paused gently, trying to help him, and I smiled lightly at her. “Hey, Jirod, what do you feel when your eyes are closed?” I asked him.

He shook his large head. “Nothing at all. I just hear everyone talking.” I nodded and gently put my hand on his scaly arm. He flinched at my touch at first. I said, “Sorry, should have warned you there. Can you feel my hand?” He nodded. “Yeah, you’re freezing cold.” I laughed. “Sorry. Just focus on that feeling for a second. Feel how it kind of radiates up your arm even though my hand is only in one place?” He was silent for a moment as he focused. “Kind of, actually.” “Good.” I removed my hand. “Now keep following that radiating sense of energy up your arm. You should feel a very soft energy flowing still. If it helps, don’t try to think of it like a current. Try to feel a kind of soft hum resonating inside of you.” His eyes suddenly flared open excitedly. “Great Mistress, I just felt it!” Pyrsi gripped his shoulder, beaming. “Good! Close your eyes, and try again. Can you still feel it?” He did and slowly nodded that he could after a few seconds. “Yeah. Now that I know what to look for, it’s easy.” He opened his eyes again and actually smiled at me for the first time. “Thank you, Shar. That was really helpful.” I nodded and turned back around. Serena grinned at me, squeezing my hand. “You’d make a good teacher.” I laughed. That was probably why my boss had wanted to make me a manager. After a few minutes, the kryrm up front suddenly made a throaty, purring noise. “Yes!” Alok nodded and returned to the front of the class. “Excellent. Thank you for everyone’s help there. Can all of you do it now?” We nodded. “All right, moving on then. Your first assignment is a modest one but may be

difficult for most of you since you are attempting it for the first time. I want you all to transmute the emperor tulsi in front of you into something else. I don’t care what you turn it into, and it doesn’t have to be anything big and fancy, just no longer a flower. I will give you all an hour, but feel free to raise your hands if you need any help or have any questions. Begin.” He sat down at this desk as everyone busily focused on their task. I let go of Serena’s hand and watched curiously as she picked up the flower and rolled it over in her hand a few times. “What do you want to turn it into?” I asked. She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I almost wish there was something specific thing he wanted us to do. Do you have any ideas?” She glanced over at me as I considered. “Maybe a laurel or something? You’d look really cute.” She giggled. “Okay, that’s the crown-like thing of leaves and branches, right?” I nodded, and she said, “I’ll try.” She closed her eyes as she focused on the flower between her hands. It took a minute, but slowly a soft, pale green light started pouring from her hands around it. As the light receded and she sat it down, she had created it perfectly, just a little small, only the size of her fist. She beamed at me. “Yes, great idea! All right, your turn.” I nodded and picked up the flower, trying to think of an idea past the pounding. The only thing I could think of was the sword at my hip. Though shaped like a flower, it was still a pretty nifty design. I closed my eyes and began reaching for my magic…only to feel like I was suddenly plunged into the abyss. I couldn’t feel anything inside me that had started to feel normal over the past few days. My eyes shot open as I panicked and reached for the grip of my sword. I breathed a sigh of relief when I could feel its vicious energy, but it didn’t respond to me like it had last night. The off feeling mixed with the headache was the only thing that seemed to be inside of me waiting. Serena eyed me curiously. “What’s wrong. Can’t think of anything?” She paused

as she noticed the fear in my eyes. “I…I can’t feel my magic.” She looked just as startled as I felt. “What do you mean? You just used it a few hours ago.” I nodded. That was the scary part. I suddenly felt like I did before I was sucked out of my life and into Brenerra, just kind of hollow and empty. “I don’t know. I don’t understand it.” Either by coincidence or from seeing our exchange, Alok wandered over to us. “Ah, a laurel. Well done, Serena. Everything all right over here?” I dropped the flower and let my forehead rest on my hand as my headache spiked alarmingly. Serena looked up at him. “We don’t know. Normally, Shar is really good with magic, but he has been feeling sick today. He said he can’t feel his magic now.” Alok’s eyebrows raised curiously as he leaned down to eye level with me. I tried to straighten to meet his gaze, but I was starting to get dizzy. He gently grabbed my chin and turned my head slightly a few times. “Do you have a headache?” I nodded. “Your head feels warm, but your skin feels really cold.” He closed his eyes for a long moment as he did something with his magic. After a moment, he pulled his hand away and straightened. “Nothing to worry about, my boy. You simply have a cold.” My eyes narrowed with disbelief. “What would a cold have to do with my magic disappearing?” Alok chuckled. “Your magic isn’t gone. Actually, everyone, please listen up for a moment since this is a lesson all of you will eventually face. We all know what being sick is essentially—having a cold, the flu, or whatever else we may call. Rather, you all know what it mean, but now that you all have magic, it works a little differently. Magic is a part of your body, just like your tongue or a limb or

your skin. When you’re sick, your whole body feels it, your skin can get clammy, tongue can swell up—all the fun stuff. “When you have magic, it can sometimes also swell up and clog more or less, temporarily preventing your ability to use it. Like any other muscle that is swelled up, you will have moments when, even when you are sick, it suddenly unblocks itself and works for a brief period.” He turned his attention back to just me. “Understand?” I nodded. “Okay, that I can live with. Is there any kind of magical version of Tylenol you can give me for my headache at least?” He smiled and went back up to his desk for a moment, returning with a clump of strange-looking leaves. “Chew on these for a few minutes. They’re extremely bitter, but your head will quickly feel better. I’m afraid, with regard to your magic, you’ll just have to wait and get some rest.” I nodded and eagerly popped the herbs in my mouth. Anything had to be better than— I almost threw up as a taste akin to what I assumed was a giant batch of battery acid would be like assaulted my sense of taste, smell, and I was pretty sure, even my vision. Alok and Serena both laughed at the face I made as I forced myself to chew. I gagged again. “Ugh, it’s like eating vomit that isn’t mine.” As I managed to chew the last of it, I realized my headache was simply gone. I looked up at him, shocked. He grinned. “Better?” I nodded slowly, wide-eyed. I wished there was anything on Earth that cured a headache that fast. But the taste, though, I could live without experiencing again ever. Serena hadn’t stopped giggling at my face the whole time. I looked over at her. “Keep it up, and I’ll kiss you and share the wonderful taste.” She made a face and a show of leaning away from me. “No, thank you. The smell is enough.”

I looked up at Alok. “Seriously, though, thank you. I don’t feel like I am going to out anymore. But it looks like I fail the assignment.” He shrugged. “It’s okay. The point was more just a practice…” He trailed off as his attention turned to my desk. As I spoke about the assignment, the flower on my desk suddenly burst with blackish energy as it grew impossibly fast, its features twisting and warping. The flux of magic ended as quickly as it began, but it had been enough, even though I wasn’t attempting to do anything. My emperor tulsi was gone, replaced with two massively oversized duracell batteries. The one on the right was covered in corroded battery acid. I stared in shock for a moment before bursting into laughter when I realized what just happened. I laughed so loud that everyone around us turned to me like I was crazy. “Sorry,” I said, trying to stop laughing enough to suck in my breath. “I was thinking that those herbs tasted like drinking battery acid.” None of the others seemed to know what batteries were, which just made it funnier to me. Alok shook his head. “Well, at least you ed the assignment.” I nodded, finally getting a grip. I was really glad my headache was gone. Alok resumed wandering around the class. Serena took my hand with a worried smile. I thought my laughing fit only made her more concerned. After studying me for a moment, she looked relieved. “You look so much better! Your color is starting to come back.” I nodded. “ not to kiss me today. I don’t want to get you sick too.” She nodded, and we waited for a little for everyone else to finish up. Alok really was a good teacher because everyone managed to successfully transmute their flowers. But the kryrm who had been struggling before only managed to turn his into a rose. “Well done, apprentice magi. I am proud of all of you. Now alchemy is more than just simply changing things randomly, as you are all aware. Next, we are going to discuss the actual how-to of pulling from the elements around us to fuel

spells…” He went on lecturing for a few hours, explaining similarly to how he taught the other students to feel their magic. It was interesting, just really long-winded. Honestly, it wasn’t as difficult as I pictured it being either. In the same way that our magic was always coursing through us but we weren’t always aware of it because we weren’t paying attention to it, the elements surrounded us. Taking heat from the air to fuel fire magic was as simple as focusing on it flowing with the air and guiding it where we wanted it to go instead. The other elements were similarly easy to use once you knew what to look for, but I began wondering if it only seemed so simple to me because I had already been doing it every time I cast magic so far. Like the energy from the sword, I used its own rage to fuel the eldritch bursts to kill the beast that attacked me and Serena. When I had cast the lightning bolt at the dremlich, I had sucked the static energy from the air, creating a slight shockwave. The only difference from his explanation was that I was doing it without thinking about it. Instead of using the elements to help shape what I wanted, it felt more like my will for the things I needed to happen was so strong that the elements simply moved accordingly. It was a subtle difference, and I wasn’t sure if I was correct or not, but that was what it felt like. I wished I could test it, but even with the headache gone, my magic was still completely numb to my touch. He reached a pause in his lecture, and a warning suddenly flared in my head violently as I felt a tickle in my nose. I tried to fight the sneeze that was coming, but I was too late as my head reared back, and I sucked in a burst of air. Serena slowly turned toward me to see what was wrong as I instinctually shoved myself away from my desk and darted past the other students toward an empty part of the classroom. Everyone was startled as their gaze followed. I was just in time as the painful sneeze burst out—supercharged with magic. Instead of snot and spit or whatever, gouts of flame burst from my nostrils, sucking in every ounce of heat within five feet around me. It ignited the air as it escaped, sending small currents of energy lancing out with the flames. It only lasted a few seconds, but the fire had seared everything on my face below my nose, filling my lungs with the smell and taste of ash and burnt flesh.

I gasped for breath painfully, my lips cracking like charcoal. No blood was even able to come out. The fire had instantly cauterized what little skin was left. I was in pure agony as my knees painfully hit the stone floor. I could feel Pyrsi and Serena rush over to me, along with a few other students, to see if I was all right. I purposefully kept my head turned away from them and covered my face, even though it just added to the excruciating pain. I knew the lower half of my face was ruined. Alok shoved past everybody who was behind me and knelt down next to me, gingerly taking my shoulder. “Everybody get back, please.” Everyone except Serena and Pyrsi seemed to listen. Instead they went to the other side of me. I tried to tell them to stand back as well, but the motion cracked my mouth open further, and only a yelp of agony escaped. Alok gently turned my head so that I had to meet his gaze. “I need you to move your hands for a moment, Shar.” My breath was panicked as I shook my head. I wasn’t usually vain by any means, but this was something else entirely. He nodded. “I know, I know. But I need to see how bad it is to see if it is in my power to heal you, all right?” Tears of pain were escaping my tight grasp as I nodded and hesitantly removed my hands just enough for him to see but still covering the sides so nobody else could. Watching his eyes, I could see the hopeless look of dismay even though his face stayed stoic. He let me cover my mouth once more and gave me a sorrow-filled look. “I’m sorry. I had no idea you were an S rank, or I wouldn’t have just shrugged off your cold. You’re experiencing what is called a flux. Your magic is being trapped under your skin essentially when it is used to being able to course freely, kind of like an aura of power that would normally surround you.” Pyrsi made a sound. “That’s what seemed off this morning. I couldn’t feel your power around you.” Alok nodded. “There’s a reason your rank is named S, but we don’t have time

for that right now. Your magic is trying to find other ways to break free since it’s too much for a normal body to hold within. I don’t have the ability to heal you. We need to get you to the infirmary right now. The only problem is, with your magic as unstable as it is currently, another flux could happen literally any second.” I cried out, shaking my head. I felt like a panicked horse. My breath was coming out in short bursts. Another burst like that would kill me. He nodded when he saw I understood. Fighting through the anguish, I did my best to talk without moving my mouth. “How s’op ’he f’ux?” He nodded his understanding, looking around for a moment, desperately searching for something. After a moment, he found something and handed it to someone standing behind me. He nodded to them and returned to stand in front of me quickly. “All right, I’m really sorry for this.” Something heavy slammed into the back of my head with incredible force, and then my world suddenly went as black as an abyss.

I hate magic. That was the conclusion I reached while sitting in my cage of pure darkness. It seemed like an eternity that I sat hugging my knees, but here and there, I could make a sense of time as something outside of the abyss trying to call to me and pull me out. As they called, it created a small trickle of light that I knew I could follow to escape, but I hid from it. Even in my personal abyss, I knew what was going on. They did their best to heal me, but even magic could only accomplish so much. The tissue where my magic had fluxed, sending waves of fire down my face, was healed and smooth now, but there would be scarring. I would forever look blemished, as horrific outside as the ocean of magic churning inside me. It was fun at first. It was overwhelming being told you were special and had magic, and being able to save a life and perform miraculous feats felt amazing. My magic had hurt me, though, and not even from something I tried to do. Eventually, as I hid, the voices from that distant place stopped trying to pull me out. I relaxed enough to stand and start pacing around. Of course, there was nothing in my abyss. I didn’t want there to be. “Hello, Shar.” I turned around as I felt the voice in my head. It didn’t physically speak, but I could feel the presence standing behind me. I turned and came face-to-face with a perfect mirror image of myself. It wasn’t a reflection; my mind had just projected another me into my cage. “Hi, me. I don’t really want to talk. If you could just go away now, please.” The other me smiled softly, his stupid face perfectly unmarred. “I am not exactly you. I am a manifestation of your magic.” I glared. “Great. Exactly what I need right now. Came to gloat that you just tried to kill me? Or are you here to finish me off?” He shook his head sadly. “That was beyond our control. I am massively overflowing with no way to vent, and unless you quickly learn how to start

burning off the excess, your body will desperately try to find ways to do it for you.” I nodded. “That’s great. Thanks for that nugget of wisdom, you ass. Now go away.” He sighed softly. “I cannot. I have been called here because you are inadvertently trying to eject me from your body. If you continue much longer, you will succeed, and your body will combust.” I shrugged. “I really don’t care at this point. My life sucked back home. My life was starting to turn around finally, but you saw fit to ruin any chances of that. I hate you. Ugh, I mean I hate magic.” I sat back down and went back to hugging my knees, gently rocking back and forth. He sat down next to me, quiet for a long while. “Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way. You claim you hate magic, but you also love what it can accomplish, right? Well, within you, you have nearly unlimited power. If you don’t like the way things are, then change them. If you don’t want to be blemished, find the magic needed to fix it. If you still don’t want me after all that, find a way to do that too. You’re forgetting you are the Electus unus dei deorum.” I looked up, finally paying attention to what he was saying. I didn’t look at it that way. If my magic count was really over twenty-five hundred, maybe it was time to start really doing this. No more running scared. “I still have no idea what that means.” It was the strangest thing to see…myself…give myself a skeptical look. “You took Latin in high school. Do you seriously not any of it? I wasn’t even within you yet, and I know what it means.” Oh, it was Latin. I tried to think back to years of Mrs. Tuten pacing next to me, wondering if I was some kind of idiot because I could never quite grasp what she was trying to teach. Latin was a rough language to learn. I couldn’t , and he rolled his eyes. “Fine, it means Chosen by the Gods…loosely. It’s hard to perfectly translate

anything.” I snorted a laugh. “Chosen by what gods? Hades or someone with a sick sense of humor?” He shrugged. “Sorry, I only know what you know. Now are you done with this pity party? There’s a very cute but sad woman with no fashion sense waiting for you to wake up out there.” I laughed softly, starting to feel a sense of purpose coming back. “Okay, you are right. If I really have all this power, I want to know everything, be able to do everything. Then I’m going to become the most powerful magus that ever existed so that I can make my own possibilities.” He nodded, and just like that, he was gone. I cast my hand out and unlocked the block keeping me from waking up. A small trickle of light appeared somewhere in the distant recesses of my mind, and I began the slow ascent toward it.

Chapter 5

S

The world around me slowly faded back into view as my consciousness left the place I had created in my own head. It was much different from waking up since I had never really fully lost awareness. Now that I was back, I could feel my magic pulsing within me once again as if it had never left. Whatever sickness I had had left my body probably around the time my mind had manifested that second image of me. Once again, I was lying on the stiff bed in the infirmary, but this time, Serena was cuddled up against me instead of sleeping on the chair. Her head was resting on my chest, slowly rising and falling with my breathing. To my chagrin, a smile spread softly on my lips. She really meant what she said about always staying by me. Not wanting to wake her just yet, I raised my free left arm to feel my face. The fire had burnt away my facial hair, but they had done a wonderful job in repairing the seared flesh. Still, I could feel the small scarred tissue in several places above and below my lips, a series of lines trailing in random directions. I sighed and let my hand fall to her bare shoulder instead, tracing up her neck and cheek to run my fingers through her fair hair. She stirred softly with a slight moan for a moment before hugging against my broad chest even tighter. I gazed around the room for a window, trying to get my bearings, but there weren’t any. The room was pretty much barren except for a feline-type kryrm woman sleeping in a bed a few beds down from mine. She didn’t look like a student judging by her long white gown. She was probably the doctor or nurse who had healed me or one of them at least. She looked pretty worn out, too, which made sense. There had been a severe amount of damage. I considered waking Serena up so that I could get out of this damned room, but everyone was exhausted because of me. So instead I cuddled back against Serena and let myself finally drift off to a normal sleep.

I awoke with a yawn as I stretched, feeling a little less depressed and a lot more determined. Serena was gone, and as I looked over, I noticed that the kryrm nurse was too. I sat up and stretched, trying to work out my stiff muscles. Without even thinking about it, my magic trickled slowly to help, relieving the tension in my back and neck. I smiled and stood up, noticing there was a tray of food next to my bed. Suddenly ravenous, I took it and quickly wolfed every last bite, not wanting to even think about what I could be eating. By the time I finished, the nurse returned and smiled as she saw that I was alert and already eating. She said, “Hey, Shar, how are you feeling?” I finished chewing and sat down the tray. “Pretty good, considering. Thank you for healing me. I know it had to have been more than exhausting. I woke up earlier and saw you were still ed out.” She nodded, purring softly. “You are most welcome. I have a bit of sad news—” I cut her off. “I know. I have scarring from the tissue that can’t be fully repaired. I felt them already. How bad does it look?” She studied me for a moment with a serious expression, probably weighing how honest she should be. “Noticeable but not hideous. They kind of formed a cool shape, actually.” She quickly found a mirror and paused before holding it up so I could see. I nodded for her to go ahead. She was right. In contrast to my tanned skin tone, the scars were a soft palepinkish color. They had formed a shape like a large dragon with a wing and body reaching from my chin to my lower lip. The spiked tail curved around the left side of my mouth and along my upper lip before coming to a stop just below my nostrils. I sighed. At least it wasn’t as bad as I imagined, but it was still huge. I gave a sad nod, and she sat the mirror down, taking a seat next to me on the bed. “I won’t lie to you. Some people at Brenerra are no better than some of the humans you knew back home. Everyone knows about you, and some people who envy your power will see this as a weakness and try to use it to get under your skin. If you can ignore them and find peace with your scars, then your life won’t

have to be any different. It will be difficult for a while, though.” I nodded. “I have pretty thick skin, well, just not when it comes to flames pouring out of my nose. I’ll be okay, though. Thank you.” She nodded and gave me a small smile. I asked, “Oh, where’d Serena go?” The nurse stood up. “She stayed by your side for the first night and all day yesterday, but I finally convinced her to go home and rest up. She burnt up a lot of energy helping me heal you, as did your dusneoc friend. You came in Thursday. It’s officially Saturday now, just a little past midnight.” I nodded. “I have to be breaking some kind of record. I’ve officially missed two classes now during my first week.” She laughed softly. “You probably are, but you’ve survived both incidents. That’s a feat unto itself.” I nodded, my mind starting to wander to dark places again. I didn’t doubt for a second that Serena would stick with me, scars or no, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face all that stares I would start getting now. She seemed to sense my mood shift. “Hey, you are welcome to stay here today again if you aren’t ready to deal with it all yet. I happen to know the nurse who can write you an absent note for your class—me.” I chuckled softly. “No, I need to learn how to face this until I can learn the magic to cure the scars.” She looked confused. “What do you mean? There’s magic that can shift how things look, but it’s the tissue itself that’s damaged. The scars would transfer over to the new façade.” I shook my head. “I know. I plan to keep getting stronger until I can break the impossible.” I expected her to laugh or something, but as she met my gaze, she only nodded. I had meant what I told that inner me. I would become the strongest magus that ever lived, no matter what that would mean…or cost. “Well, I wish you luck. Are you heading back home then?” she asked.

I stood up as I nodded. “Yeah. Thank you again for everything.” I picked up my sword from the table next to me along with my clothes and left as she went back to her desk. The castle itself felt as if it were asleep, too, as I walked out of the infirmary. My footsteps echoed loudly on the stone floor as I followed down the steps leading to the third floor. I paused before turning to go down the next flight, suddenly thinking about the library. I changed course and walked right, once again emerging into the dozens of rows of shelves containing thousands of books. Professor Seno was sitting at his desk like before, his glasses tilted as he busily read an ancient-looking scroll. He smiled as he looked up at hearing someone enter but faltered slightly when he saw me. “Ah, young master Shar, forgive me. I nearly didn’t recognize you.” I nodded as I walked up, smiling sadly. “I know. It’s a bit of an eyesore. Anyway, I just realized I never stopped back in. Did you find out anything about the books I mentioned before?” He sat down the scroll, shaking his head with a disappointed look. “I’m afraid I did not. I can tell you with absolute certainty that no book series named the Storm Within has ever been officially published. However, I am not entirely unhelpful. The fact that no public record exists either means the book was written and gifted to your father by a family friend or…” He paused. “You may want to brace yourself for the other possibility. Do you know anything about what people call ancient artifacts?” I shook my head. “The only one I know is what Professor Mariana uses to summon implements.” He nodded. “Okay, well, people have been discovering ancient artifacts for as long as most can . These objects always seem to be way to technologically advanced for any predating civilizations and rarely can be explained. There is a reason these things appear, though. Objects that are high in magical properties can sometimes influence time and space around them. This can create a portal essentially that literally and quite randomly plops them elsewhere. That’s why they are so rare. It is possible that these books were written sometime in your future, either by you or about you.”

He was right. The news made my head spin. “Whoa” was all I could manage. He nodded. “I’m not saying that it’s exactly how or why—just a possibility.” I took a moment to let it sink in, but I just couldn’t wrap my head fully around it. I had read those books my whole life, yet it was possible I was somehow named after myself. I froze as several pieces of the seeming puzzle that always surrounded me fell into place in an instant. I couldn’t much about the books anymore, but I ed the synopsis on the back:

Once upon a time, there was a rather unique place called Ralian, and it was a land filled to the brim with magic and creatures beyond your wildest imagination. Despite having no ruling families or martial law, the inhabitants managed to remain in relative peace for thousands of years, never knowing of the terrors of war and the approaching disaster that they would soon face. these words well. Anything that is beautiful casts a mirrored shadow just as large, for this is the truth behind Ralian as well as any other worlds out there. The only hope for their peaceful world to survive rested on a young man named Shar, a man who would one day go on to defeat the greatest evil ever known.

It all suddenly made so much sense. The boy who looked like me appearing in the courtyard, he had warned me of the same thing. “Something bad is happening in Ralian, and it’s only a matter of when before you will be drawn into it. When you need answers the most, you will find them in the place where familiar giants feed on foreign grasses.” It was the same even with the strange dream about the face in the cloud. “You cannot escape me, Electus unus dei deorum. You have a few more days of peace, but I am coming.” An impossible thought crossed my mind, but it was the only thing that made sense. The boy in the courtyard who had looked like me had asked if I was here this time because of what happened with Ashe. He had called me difficult Shar,

as if there were others. “Professor Seno, is it possible to use magic to travel through time like the artifacts do?” His eyes went wide, but he nodded. “Well, yes, actually. Anybody who had magic strong enough and learned the correct protocols to do so could, but nobody would risk it, especially since they’d be breaking nearly every law set by the Grand Council.” I titled my head. “Why?” “Well, consider the human rule for Newton’s laws of motion. I believe it’s the third law that say for every force in force in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction, right? If you travelled back in time and changed something, you would risk unintentionally creating something much worse. Like if you went back in time to save someone’s life, you could risk killing yourself or countless others in the process.” I nodded. If he was right and I wrote the books in the future, then maybe I was trying to give myself a message. Something was going to happen that was so awful that I broke every law in existence to try to change it. I could be wrong, but there were way too many indications to ignore. There were now three warnings quite literally dropped onto my lap. The only problem was that I had no idea what was coming beyond the dream saying I had a few days before it would happen. I forced a relaxed smile. “Thank you. Maybe you’re right, but who knows? I can’t the books anyway, so I’ll let it go. Actually, while I’m here, I do have one other question.” He seemed to visibly relax once we were off the subject of breaking the Grand Council’s rules. “Sure, go ahead.” “This library, there are a lot of books on magic obviously, right?” He nodded. “Are there any books of, like, really advanced magic?”

He hesitated, studying me for a long moment before he nodded. “Yes, there are since the library is for students of every year. There are also a few books for the professor that you would compare to being expert level magic, but trying any of the spells could kill you if you were ill prepared.” I nodded seriously. I was long past the point of caring what people deemed as dangerous, but I had to keep up a show so that he wouldn’t clam up and stop helping me. Hesitantly, I tried the honest truth for a change. “Look, Professor, I am an S rank. My magic count was so high that the machine gave out, and they said they would have to the High Magus for a correct estimate. My first day here, I killed a dremlich. I was sick the other day, and my magic was so strong that when I sneezed, it nearly blazed off half my face.” I ignored his gaze involuntarily falling to the scar. I continued, “Everybody treats us like children here, but I am a fully grown adult in way over my head. I want to become powerful enough to learn how heal my scars, permanently, and so much more. I’m tired of lily-footing around everyone as they teach us basic while my magic is so strong that I risk it killing me just by being awake. And even when I sleep, it goes haywire sometimes. I already have the power now. I just need the knowledge to use it for real. I need your help, Professor. I need to start studying and learning everything I can, and quickly. Where can I find the really advanced books?” I sucked in a breath after my tirade as he really looked at me for the first time. It reminded me of the way Serena had looked at me when she really understood me out in the ruins. I knew before he even said it that he understood. I saw the same desperate need flash in his eyes. He smiled sadly. “You are choosing a dangerous path, Shar. Trust me. I once thought as you did. I was an I rank when I first stepped foot inside Brenerra. My magic count was exactly one hundred, just barely high enough to be accepted as an apprentice. Back home, an evil king had taken over the faerie home world, and I needed to quickly become vastly stronger so I could return home and save my people. For the first two years, I spent every second either reading tomes of magic and practicing each new thing I learned. “By the start of my third year, my magic count had risen to over six hundred. It still wasn’t enough for me, though. I knew that if I went home with the strength of only a D rank, I would be slaughtered. So I kept pursuing knowledge until I

graduated as a B rank, thanks to all my hard-fought effort. Do you know what happened when I finally returned home?” I shook my head, taking a guess. “He was already killed by someone else?” Seno nodded. “Correct. He was killed the first year after I had been accepted into Brenerra. I wasted three years that were supposed to be some of the best of my life. I had made no friends. The only real value I gained from my struggle was that I was now strong—that’s it.” I nodded. “I’m sorry, but I won’t let that be me, though. I want to learn and grow, but I won’t forsake my girlfriend and friends to do it.” That was only a half-truth, but he didn’t need to know that. Except for Serena, I didn’t really care about being friends with everyone else—well, except maybe Pyrsi. If I was right and the world really was somehow in enough danger that I went back in time to give myself several warnings, I didn’t need them to like me to save them. If I could accomplish what I wanted, there would be nothing left that was impossible to me. He nodded. “Okay, if you are sure, I tried to warn you at the very least. The master tomes are in the protection of the High Magus’s study. I will petition on your behalf, but it could take several days to receive the sanction. Stop back in after class on Tuesday, and I’ll let you know, okay?” I smiled. “Thank you, Professor Seno. I won’t make you regret it.” He hesitated, looking around the empty library nervously. “Oh, I have one last piece of unwelcome advice to give you. If what I assume you are thinking is true, that the books you read were really written of or about you and sent back in time, then there had to be a very good reason for someone to break the Grand Council’s laws. If that is so, then the books here at Brenerra can only help you so far. Again, if—because I don’t want to know and have to report anything to the Grand Council—and when the books here no longer help, then you may find better answers with the local Ralians.” I smiled. I knew I liked Seno from the first moment I saw him. Still, though, I was completely thrown off as he itted he had seen right through me from the very start.

“Thank you, Professor,” I said. “But don’t worry. I’m sure the books were just written by a family friend like you said.” He smiled. “Good. Then have a good night, young master Shar.” “You too, Professor.” I left the library and finally headed out of the castle. It would be good to at least have one professor as a true ally, especially someone whose job it was to know books of magic. The grounds were empty and dead quiet at this time of night, almost giving the academy a creepy vibe. Luckily, the crystalline path leading to the different dorms began to glow a soft white as I started walking, almost making it feel like I was walking through space. I slowed my pace after I ed Dorm F, coming to a stop outside of E. I briefly debated if I should just go home and sleep or let Serena know I was all right first. The fact that I was not the slightest bit tired won out, so I ascended the marble-like steps and quietly tried to pull open the front door. For a moment, I was thrown off when it didn’t budge, feeling like it was locked, though there were none visible. It made sense, actually. The dorms probably got locked to other ranks after a certain time for safety reasons. I started to give up and turn back but realized this was just the kind of practice I needed to start doing. If I really wanted to become strong, I had to stop following everyone else’s rules and start making my own. I closed my eyes as I reached for the door handle once more but felt with my magic this time instead of my touch alone. For a moment, I didn’t know what to look for, so I couldn’t really feel anything, but then I suddenly noticed a thin layer of substance covering the glass. It was warm despite the coolness of night and was sleek instead of hard and unyielding. I hadn’t noticed it before because the barrier was literally right over the doors like a tightly wrapped blanket and was completely seamless. Well, almost seamless. There was a small crack running along the line between the doors. I gingerly grabbed an edge as I simultaneously pulled on the handle again. The door easily opened this time, and I slipped safely inside before letting the barrier snap back into place. My moment of victory only lasted a second as I looked around a hallway that was identical to my own dorm. I couldn’t just go ask a DA which room hers was because they would want to know how I got in, and I was pretty sure I just broke a lot of rules.

I could try to sneak into their common room and hope that their room list was still up, but I felt like a DA would catch me that way, too, not to mention I didn’t actually know Serena’s last name. I scolded myself mentally. It wasn’t that big a deal, but I really needed to get to know my girlfriend better. I was taking too long to decide, so I walked forward to the lift. An idea came to me from years of playing the Dead Space video games as I grew up. In the game, the character could hold out his hand to see a glowing trail that led him to where he needed to go, like a quest marker. I pictured Serena in my mind as I channeled my magic into the lift, and it responded instantly, pulsating a soft silvery color. I realized it was different from the color it usually shone when I channeled my magic. I had always gotten an emerald green before. Refocusing on the task at hand since I didn’t know what that meant, I did my best to command the lift to take me to her. Slowly it raised me up to the second floor and then came to a stop. I got off and looked both way down the long hallway. Across from me was Room 201 going up toward the right and going down from 220 to the left. It was cheesy, but it was the best I could think of, so I held out my hand and cast my magic toward the floor, imagining a light green smoke leading toward Serena’s room. To my surprise, I didn’t even get to blink before the smoke started pouring out of my fingers, doing exactly what I wanted. Trying not to overthink anything, I followed the smoky trail down the hallway to the right and around the corner. The smoke stopped outside of Room 204. I almost habitually knocked until I realized it was like one in the morning and stopped myself. Okay, this is her room, but what now, genius? I asked myself. I didn’t think twice ing magic to let myself into the dorm because it was just a place, but breaking into someone’s private room was something else entirely, even if it was just to surprise someone and not to be a creep. I sighed. I still had time to turn around and go home, but I had already come this far. I didn’t even bother to try the handle this time. I simply reached my magic through the wood and unlocked it from the other side. The door slid open easily and thankfully quietly as I gingerly slipped inside. The main room was much smaller than mine. It had no kitchen and dining area. It

was just a small living room with three doors to separate bedrooms. I looked around in the darkness, trying to see something that would indicate which room was hers, but like the rest of Brenerra, it was plain and unadorned. Apparently, it was only humans that bothered to decorate their walls with pictures, posters, and whatever else they liked just to make a room feel comfortable. Nobody else seemed to feel the need to do so. I considered using the smoke trick again but decided that it was way too noticeable. Instead I closed my eyes and gently cast my magic around the room like a spiderweb. The invisible web dropped harmlessly as it touched two of the doors but vibrated soundlessly as it brushed the door to my immediate right. I sighed in relief and cautiously opened the door, careful not to make any noise. Serena’s room was pitch black with no windows, so I had to power my eyes with enough magic to be able to make out the dark forms of the furniture and not bump into anything. I half stumbled my way to her bed and debated if it would be better to lie down or wake her first. I gently shook her shoulder, keeping my voice quiet, “Hey, Serena, wake up.” She stirred after a moment and gasped harshly as she realized someone was in her room. “Hey, don’t worry, it’s just me,” I cooed softly. It took her a moment in her still-half-asleep state to realize anything that was going on. “Shar, what are you doing in my bedroom?” I chuckled. “Sorry, I wanted to surprise you. The nurse told me that you helped heal me but that she then sent you home to rest. I’m sorry I keep making you worry so much.” She shook her head. “No, it’s not your fault…” She was silent for a moment. The longer I watched her, the more I noticed that she seemed nervous. I said, “Uh, I can go if you want. I’m sorry. This was probably a bad idea.” Her head shook vigorously. “No, don’t go, Shar… Sorry, I’ve just never had a boy in my bedroom before. You can lie down with me if you want.”

I nodded, and she scooted into the middle of the bed to make room for me. I gently lay down and rested my head on my arm, facing her. I saw a flash of her smile before she quickly nuzzled against me. I pulled her close, letting my hand rest on her lower back as I realized the other part of why she seemed to be so nervous. She didn’t have any clothes on, which was almost comforting to know that sleeping naked was a pretty universal idea for other races too. It was intimidating in a way since we hadn’t been dating long and except for the amazing first kiss, I wasn’t sure how far was too far. I had never really been good at taking things slowly. Her soft breasts pressed against my chest as I brought my lips to her neck, kissing softly. Her fingers trailed along my back for a moment as a soft groan escaped her lips, and I pulled away to look at her as best I could in the near darkness. I let my magic slip away. I didn’t need it despite being incredibly tempted to get a good look at her. I brought my hand to her jaw, tracing it softly. “Shar,” she began softly. I paused to meet her gaze. “Yeah?” She lightly bit her lower lip, thinking. “I can tell something going on with you. What’s wrong?” She was way more perceptive than I gave her credit for, apparently. I half-shrugged. “Nothing is technically wrong. I know that you will stay by me, but when I was in the infirmary, I was almost afraid to wake up because I knew I would have permanent scars from what happened. I know you already saw them, but I can’t help thinking—” She cut me off as she suddenly brought her lips to mine. It was just like that first one all over again, starting out gentle and perfect. This time, though, the spark was stronger than before, and she hummed softly as I hungrily pulled her tighter against me. Her lips were soft and sweet as my tongue traced along them. She moaned softly against my mouth and suddenly broke away just long enough to get on top of me. Her long hair fell around me like a canopy as I ran my hand down her back to her bare hips and squeezed them softly, careful to keep my hands from trailing

too far. I lightly sucked on her tongue as it met mine. She seemed surprised for a split second before her wings started flittering rapidly as her back went rigid and she moaned loader than before. Her kissing suddenly turned desperately ionate as she started absently pressing harder against me, grinding instinctively. As my heartbeat and breathing quickened, she slowly pulled away and gave me an unreadable look as she panted softly. It took everything in me not to lean up and pull her back in for more, but she seemed to be visibly fighting to gain control of herself. She spoke through gritted teeth, though it seemed to be more to herself than me. “Is it always going to be like that when we kiss?” I laughed softly. “God, I hope so. I really like kissing you.” She gazed down at me seriously for a moment and then couldn’t help but giggle. “You make it very difficult to be good sometimes, Mr. Boyfriend.” I laughed, trying very hard to keep my eyes on her face and to distract myself from the fact that she was sitting naked on top of me. She let herself fall back against me and nuzzled my neck, her hair falling all around me once again. I laughed as it tickled against my nose, but the laugh was half choked out as she suddenly started sucking lightly on my neck. Instinctively, I lightly scratched my fingers down her back and grabbed her hips as another escaped her lips. Already regretting what I was about to do, I gently pulled her away from my neck to meet her gaze in the darkness. “Okay,” I breathed heavily, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we should calm down a little and take it slow. I don’t want to corrupt you already.” I meant the latter part as a joke, but it also had a grain of truth with it. I wanted her really badly, but she was so sweet and innocent that I almost felt like I was taking advantage of her somehow. I tried to read her expression, but I couldn’t as she sat there quietly for a long moment. “You are right, Shar. We probably should take it a little slower. It’s just when I’m with you…” She trailed off.

I nodded in agreement. “Trust me, I know. It’s all right. At least we can cuddle all night.” She grinned before hesitantly sliding off my lap and lying back down beside me with her head on my chest. I began running my fingers through her hair, and within seconds, I could hear her breathing slow until she was snoring ever so softly. I smiled and kissed the top of her head, letting my thought drift. Finding my way into the dorm and to Serena had been startlingly easy, and using magic hadn’t even seemed to faze me this time. It was still small stuff. I needed to get my hands on those books so that I could start learning stronger magic. I sighed. Well, if it would be a few days yet, I could just spend my time with Serena and just enjoy myself. I also had to figure out what kind of class Special Studies would be tomorrow morning. I kissed the top of her head and slowly let myself drift off into a fitful sleep.

I awoke with a start, the scar throbbing painfully like it was still aflame from the lingering nightmare I was emerging from. It took me a moment to get my bearings until I noticed Serena was still fast asleep with her head on my chest. I calmed down and looked over at her clock. It was already six thirty in the morning. I gently shook her awake. “Hey, Serena, I have to get to class.” Sleepily she groaned and looked up at me. “What? It’s Saturday.” I laughed. “I know, but S ranks have another class this morning. I just wanted to let you know why I was disappearing. Go back to sleep, beautiful.” She smiled as I kissed her head and slid off the bed. She rolled over and hugged the pillow I had been lying on, back asleep in a heartbeat. I smiled and quickly changed into lounge pants and a muscle shirt before slipping out of her room. I froze as two surprised faces turned to watch me as I emerged from Serena’s room. They were both also faeries, one with raven-black hair and dark skin and the other with silvery-white hair and pinkish skin. “Uh, hey,” I said nervously, closing the door behind me. The dark-haired one stared at me shyly without a word, but the other grinned widely. “You must be Shar. Serena never shuts up about you.” Careful to not wake her up, I chuckled softly. “Yeah, that’s me.” She nodded. “I’m Ali. This is Darla. Don’t mind her. She doesn’t talk to boys very good.” Ali giggled as Darla elbowed her in the side. I laughed. They could not have picked more fitting roommates for Serena. “Nice to meet you, Ali and Darla. Sorry, I’d love to stick around and talk, but I am actually running a bit late. I have a class this morning at seven.” She beamed back. “It’s cool. See you later.” I nodded and awkwardly left, feeling their eyes on me still. As I was closing the

door, I swore I heard Darla whisper something about me being hotter than she pictured. I laughed to myself and headed straight for the lift. It was a good ten-minute walk from Serena’s dorm to my own, and I just barely made it in time. Either way, I wasn’t late because the professor hadn’t made it yet as I approached. Pyrsi was standing in front of the dorm alone, wearing a light red sundress. She turned her gaze to me with a light smile, noticeably trying to avoid looking at my scar. It stung a little, even though I knew it wasn’t intentional. I still wouldn’t be used to the looks for a while. “Hey, Pyrsi, good to see you. I never got a chance to thank you. The nurse told me you and Serena both helped to heal me after…my accident.” She nodded. “Of course. How are you feeling? Are you just now getting out of the infirmary?” I shook my head. “I feel okay. A little nervous to be near all the other students, but I’ll survive. I actually got out last night, but I spent the last few hours with Serena.” She didn’t cringe this time when I mentioned Serena. So either she was over whatever issues she had at first or she just didn’t care now. Or hopefully it meant they had made their peace yesterday. “No professor yet, though?” I asked. She shook her head. “Not yet.” I finished walking over to her, and we waited in silence for a few minutes, but nobody showed up. Distantly I felt a strange sensation tickling at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite place what it meant. It wasn’t quite as strong as someone watching us, but it was similar to it. Pyrsi was getting impatient. “Okay, this is our Saturday. He or she better show up.” I nodded absently, gazing around the empty grounds. Near the path to the dorms, there wasn’t a whole lot of places to hide. There were trees scattered about, but all were neatly trimmed so they didn’t get in the way. The side of the castle was

a good thirty or so feet away from the path; there was mostly just bluish grass in between. Unsure fully of just why, I closed my eyes and felt around us with my magic instead of sight. I grazed Pyrsi, but I knew her energy already. It was a statickyelectric type of feeling. A little bit farther off, I could feel another presence nearby. It was much colder and wet, almost like standing on the beach as the ocean waves brushed against your feet. The person was a dozen or so paces to my left, leaning casually against a tree with round purple leaves. He—the energy was definitely masculine—felt my magic and smiled, which was a strange, feeling it instead of seeing it. A smile was like a flash of warm bluishwhite light. I opened my eyes and walked over to the source. Pyrsi watched me in confusion. “Where are you going, Shar?” I paused to look back. “I think it’s a test. The professor is seeing if we can find him.” She nodded and hesitantly followed after me, seeming aggravated for some reason. I walked over to the tree where I had felt his energy, but nobody was there. The strange part was that I could still feel him standing there, not even two feet in front of me. I cautiously reached out, but there was only air and then the bark of the tree. “What the—” Suddenly, someone coughed behind us, and we quickly spun around, startled. The feel of his magic seemed to vanish by the tree at the same instant he coughed. He was a kryrm from what I could tell but was unique from any I had seen so far. His body was completely covered in thin black hair similar to a hedgehog, and he had a thick mane of spiky black fur-like hair running from the top of his head down to his shoulders, tied off in a ponytail. His eyes were overly large with plain black pupils, and his mane trailed all the way around his eyes to an elongated shiny black nose, also like a hedgehog. I couldn’t help thinking that he almost looked like a character out of the Sonic games except for the fact that he wore a starkly normal dark hoody and jeans.

His mouth was large as well as he grinned victoriously. “You almost had me there, Shar. Well done.” I smiled, realizing what he had done. He had cast his magic against the tree as a disguise of sorts while he slipped behind us, but still that meant he was either incredibly fast or able to turn invisible. “That was impressive. I didn’t know we could cast our energy to make people think we are somewhere we are not.” His smile widened. “Oh, there is so much you two don’t know yet, but that’s why I’m here,” he said dramatically with a slight bow. “I’m Nyx. Pleased to meet you, Shar and Pyrsi.” Pyrsi still seemed annoyed. “So you were just going to make us wait until we found you? What would have happened if it took us hours? That does not seem very responsible, Professor Nyx.” He made a sour face, like he was sucking on really strong lemon. “Easy with the professor stuff. The name’s just Nyx, please. As for my responsibility, Ms. Pyrsi, I’m not a teacher here. I’m a specialist, here to teach you all about being an S rank. So if you didn’t feel like learning, then why did you come out today?” She opened her mouth to say something smart but seemed to decide against it. I was just impressed he had fooled me. I couldn’t tell why Nyx seemed to be pressing her buttons so much—unless she was just upset that she hadn’t thought to look with her magic to find him. He nodded, satisfied, when she didn’t respond. “Excellent, moving on. Actually, before we begin, I know the few S ranks that pop up every few years or so are generally overwhelmed by the time Saturday comes around. I know a lot of weird stuff happens around you and that you can never get the answers you’re looking for. As a prior S rank myself, I want to tell you that I can answer pretty much answer every question you have. So any questions before we start today’s lessons?” Pyrsi looked over at me, still trying to bite her tongue. I had hundreds of questions, but I mentally compartmentalized, trying to figure out the most important ones. I asked, “One of the things that has bothered me the most since I arrived here is

the rank system. Why is S rank the only one not chronologically in order? What makes us so special?” Nyx grinned. “Great first question. Well, S rank stands for singular, which seems underwhelming but is really accurate. Ranks A all the way to I are all based on a preassigned numeric value. Every living creature in any world has a magic count between one to ninety-nine. This is simply the energy in all living things. As you know, once you have above one hundred, you are taken here to Brenerra, but it is about more than just protecting people from accidentally blowing themselves up when they get emotional and unwittingly using their magic. “The average body, be it any race, can only hold a magic count up to nine hundred and ninety-nine no matter how much they train or struggle to improve. This is because, at every level, we are all still creatures made up of cells. Sorry to get all science-y on you two, but when a cell grows beyond a certain limit, its energy is unable to through the cell’s walls fast enough anymore to the new increased volume.” “When this happens, the cell has to divide into smaller cells, or it will die. At the level we see on the outside, the excess energy as cells die starts trying to escape rapidly but can’t find a way to exit the body. That’s why you start bursting apart at the seams as it forces an exit.” He paused to make sure he hadn’t lost us completely yet. “But S ranks are singular. This means that their cells are mutated in a way that allows for increased cellular volume without the need to divide. For some S ranks, it is only a small difference, like an eleven hundred magic count or something, but for others, the mutation could be astronomical in scale. Nobody has been able to tell why it happens yet. We only know that it does every few years and that, once in a while, an extreme singularity is born. It means more than just your cells being able to hold more energy. The other reason you guys are separate from the other ranks is because you don’t fit into any of the classification they order the other students by. You have no affinity or specialization. You could, with time, master all.” Pyrsi’s eyes went wide as she grasped the significance of what he just said, as did mine. Her voice came out less annoyed and more unsure. “So you are saying that everything is our affinity, so to speak? We have every element? We are controllers, summoners, elementalist, and shifters?”

He nodded, his expression set serious now. “Exactly. Besides being named as singular, we are also called Electus unus dei deorum, although not many people use the phrase anymore. It means Chosen by the Gods, roughly. The exact translation was lost millennia ago. Essentially it’s because if we train up enough, we can harness the power of a god.” Pyrsi frowned as she nodded seriously like it was some kind of giant responsibility, but I couldn’t help a smile from spreading across my face. He was just strengthening what I already set my mind on—breaking the impossible. Another thought crossed my mind. “Hey, Nyx, one other question. Since you were a singular, you should understand. A few days ago, I got sick, and my magic fluxed pretty badly. They were able to heal me mostly from the aftermath, but the damaged tissue left me with the ugly scar. Are you able to heal it?” He frowned as he studied my face for a long moment. Eventually, he shook his head, “No, I’ve never really studied healing magic much, sorry. That’s actually another good point. Just because we’re singular and have the potential to learn any magic, it does not instantly make us masters at everything. We still have to practice and grow like anyone else. Our pools are just only limited to what we set our minds to.” I nodded. I had figured as much, but it was still worth a shot. He casually glanced between the two of us. “Any other questions you guys wanna ask?” I shook my head. I knew more about S ranks now, but it only furthered the fact that I needed to find my own way. Pyrsi nodded. “Actually, I do. I understand that we are singulars because of a mutation, basically just random. I also know that Shar’s flux happened because he was sick. Thus, his magic had no way to escape his body. Professor Alok told us that much about how it happened. What I do not understand is why it happened. If our cells hold so much more energy without having to split apart, should our bodies not be the same way?” He flashed a gentle smile. “You are thinking of two separate things entirely. Your body is just a meaty shell covering what makes you unique. The mutation may change what’s inside, but your body is still just a body. If you fill a balloon with

too much air, it doesn’t matter what kind of air, it will still eventually pop.” She nodded. “That makes sense. Thank you.” He nodded. “All right, final chance for questions.” We both finally shook our heads. It was a lot to take in, but at least we had answers finally. Between this singular stuff and knowing an impending disaster was coming soon, I felt like I should be vastly overwhelmed, but instead I just felt calm and ready to learn. “Excellent. So we are going to start off simply for today. However, we cannot practice here. We need a wide-open space to train, and it so happens I have one prepared. If you would, both of you follow me.” We nodded and followed as he led us farther down the crystalline path than I had even been before. It led past Dorm A and all the way around the side of the castle to the back. I was amazed to see the semi-normal-looking grounds suddenly open up into a massive field, almost like two football stadiums, but it was completely flat. The path ended abruptly at the exact end of the side of the school, and we walked over the trimmed blue grass for a while until we were well into the field. Sitting smack dab in the center was a training dummy staked into the ground like a scarecrow, but it was twenty times more hideous than any scarecrow I had ever seen. It almost looked like what you would expect the charred remains of a human to look like dressed in full plate armor with red eyes glowing under the helm. I paused in shock just to stare at it for a few moments along with Pyrsi as he turned around to face us. “Guys, meet Vocado, Brenerra’s oldest target practice dummy. This thing has survived thousands of years and every student who has ever attended Brenerra, including the High Magus himself. I told you today’s first lesson is a simple one since it is mainly so that I can get an accurate feel for where you are currently and what we need to learn first.” Pyrsi caught on faster than I did. “You want us to hit with the best magic we can muster?” Nyx nodded and flashed her a grin. “Correct, my pretty little dragon. I take it

you would like to go first then?” She rolled her eyes at his egging and nodded. “Yes, but if you call me your pretty little dragon ever again, I will roast you.” He winked at her, and we quickly stepped back a couple dozen paces out of her way. Pyrsi stood statue still as she quietly searched for inside of herself for whatever she was planning. From our distance, I couldn’t really feel her energy, so I waited silently until she nodded to herself. “Go ahead whenever you’re ready, Pyrsi,” Nyx called out. She nodded and pulled out her orb from her handbag. She let go of it, and the orb started hovering in front of her level with her chest. A wave of ice suddenly poured out of the orb and over the dummy and the ground around it in a good five-foot radius. We waited patiently as she seemed to start breathing heavier, but it didn’t seem like she was done yet. I jumped as a large crack echoed through the air like a tree being uprooted, and a massive boulder exploded from the orb, smashing into the dummy with the force of a hurricane. The ice shattered loudly as the rock hit it, and then both ice and boulder simply vanished. The dummy was still standing there, not a scratch on its shiny armored surface. Pyrsi walked over to us unsteadily, panting heavily. Nyx smiled and patted her shoulder. “Well done, Pyrsi. Honestly, that was pretty good work, especially for a beginner. Mixing elements like that was perfectly executed.” She actually flashed a small smile at him for the first time, proud of herself. I smiled too. “That was awesome.” I got a grin. “Thanks, Shar. Good luck,” she said. Nyx nodded to me. “Yep, your turn, buddy.” I sighed and walked halfway up to the dummy. I didn’t really want to be as close to it as she had been. The problem was, I couldn’t think of any really strong magic to try. With the exception of the failed lightning on the dremlich, so far, I had only used magic to accomplish things I was trying to do. I hadn’t really tried

anything offensive. Magic in video games was limited to a couple of fireballs or energy surges but was nothing really unique. They stood back, keeping quiet out of respect to give me time to think. I was almost wishing he’d give me some kind of directions. No, that was the old me. If I was going to become what I wanted, I needed to keep being bold. Pyrsi called out, “It’s okay, Shar. You don’t have to try to be fancy. You could do something simple and just put a lot of power into it.” Ugh, if she was starting to doubt me, then I was definitely making a bad first impression on Nyx. I needed something better than decent. Then an idea came to me out of nowhere. I pulled my sword free of its scabbard and let the rage soak into me and mix with my magic. It was so strong this time that I could feel it heating up my blood like it was boiling. I looked around. I could actually see the aura of energy circling around me with a pulsating silvery hue. “Please don’t let this kill me,” I whispered as I focused all the rage and power coursing throughout my body and channeled it into my left hand. I gasped as it worked. There was so much of it broiling inside that it felt like my hand was ready to explode. Moving quickly, I slammed my fist into the ground, easily piercing the hard soil like it was water. I pulled my hand out slowly as I found what I was looking for or, rather, what I was summoning. The air around me started humming with a high-pitched whirring as I slowly lifted my arm from the ground and reached as high as I could skyward. Damp soil, rock, air, and fire from my magic started to combine in the wake of my hand in a visible swirling vortex like a tiny tornado. As it finished mixing the different elements into a purple mist, I punched my energized fist into the vortex. The hum in the air instantly turned violent, whipping up a strong gale with my creation as the source. I groaned as pain lanced through my hand briefly, adding the last ingredient—a little of my blood. I stepped back a few paces as I let go of the rage-infused magic from my hand. I glanced over at Pyrsi and Nyx, smiling softly at their expressions. They looked uncertain if they were confused or anxious at what I was trying to do.

The swirling vortex, now roughly the size of a person, began to get thicker until it mimicked a texture similar to skin. It began to take shape in the outline of a person, and then all at once, the gale stopped, and the purple mist stopped moving. The artificial construct suddenly finished its molding and snapped back to face me, standing as still as a statue. It was a golem exactly like I had imagined. “Destroy,” I commanded it softly, breathing heavily from the exertion but surprisingly not half as exhausted as I expected to be. It nodded as best as a mass of energy without a definitive head could. Then it turned back to the dummy and slowly stepped toward it. Each step it took created a small quake in its path, nearly knocking me, Pyrsi, and Nyx to the ground, even though they were nearly fifty feet away. The construct reached the dummy and paused, seeming to study it for a few seconds. With surprising haste, it raised two purple limbs in the air and made an awful howling sound like incredibly high winds before slamming its arms down on the dummy. The air around it exploded like a bomb, sending the three of us flying. For a brief moment, I caught a strange glimpse of what happened as its arms struck the dummy. All in the same second, water and fire washed over it in torrents as the ground under it shot into it like spikes. A peal of thunder rang out with the air exploding like a bomb, and a bolt of lightning slammed into it from literally out of nowhere. I hit the ground hard, the wind getting knocked out of me, but I quickly pushed myself back to my feet. The construct had disappeared, which wasn’t too surprising since I had only made it for a single command, but what it left in its wake was impressive even to myself. There was a crater under the dummy at least ten feet deep and five feet wide in a perfect circle. The dummy was still upright, but the armor that had surrounded it had been shattered. Pieces of metal, or whatever the armor had been made of, were scattered all over the crater, and all that was left of the dummy itself was the charred skeleton. I wasn’t sure whether to be more amazed that I had been the first who managed to break some of it or more so that it was still standing at all. I walked over to Nyx and Pyrsi as they rose to their feet, eyeing the destruction.

Pyrsi grinned at me. “Hey, you managed to break it somewhat. That was awesome in a slightly terrifying way.” I laughed. “Thanks, Pyrsi. So, Nyx, how’d I do?” His face was an unreadable mask as he pulled his gaze from the dummy. His voice was low as he spoke. “That was remarkable, Shar. I’ll give you that. Where did you learn to do that, though?” I didn’t have to decipher what he was really asking. I already knew. He meant using my blood as an ingredient for magic, not the golem part. I shrugged. “It was more of an instinct honestly.” He nodded, a grim frown reaching his lips. “As for mixing the elements as successfully as you just did, I’m impressed. Golems are difficult to create for some master magi. You should never use your blood to empower magic again, however.” I froze. The icy way he said it made it sound severely ominous. “Wait, what’s so bad about it?” I asked softly. Pyrsi looked just as confused. “Is it just because it is dangerous?” Nyx shook his head. “It is illegal for anyone to use blood magic. That is one of the Grand Council’s first laws, but since you didn’t know, it can be excused this time.” Professor Seno had mentioned the Grand Council’s laws before, too, but otherwise, the laws didn’t really seem to be taught at Brenerra. Feeling guilty, I just nodded. “I’m sorry. Yeah, I had no idea. Nobody has actually taught us about the Grand Council’s laws yet.” Nyx turned to Pyrsi, but she shook her head that she didn’t know them either. He sighed softly. “It would still seem that the teachers at Brenerra are afraid of teaching about the laws then. They used to say it would encourage some students to try to break them purposefully. Since you are both singulars, though, I have no qualms about teaching you. They’re pretty simple stuff, actually, despite being laws set to keep the entire cosmos in order. I’ll narrow them down for you too.

No blood magic, no time travel, no changing the past, no destroying planets, no creating planets, no disobeying the direct orders from the Grand Council… And the one you all know—any person who exhibits a stronger than average affinity for magic has to attend Brenerra.” Oh, it really was mostly simple laws that made sense. They didn’t want people playing God, whether it related to worlds or time itself. The blood magic part still didn’t make sense to me, though. “Okay,” I said, “I get why they don’t want people messing with big stuff that involves a lot of other people’s lives, but how does blood magic fit in? It only affects the person using it.” Nyx glanced between me and Pyrsi for a moment before sighing. “I’m probably not supposed to tell you this since I shouldn’t even know it myself, but oh well… A very long time ago—and I’m talking long before Brenerra was created and even before the Grand Council was formed—there were only three known inhabited worlds in existence. They were Ralian, Oplyria, and Flociotail, also referred to as the Trio of Origin. Apart from the of the Grand Council, there is no other person still alive from that time, and the ones that are still alive are not the sharing sort. But there are a few books left over that detail what it was like back then…” He hesitated as if mentally steeling himself for what he was about to say. He leaned in close to us, keeping his voice low despite the fact that we were standing alone in the middle of a field. “So the time before the Grand Council was called the Bloody Aeon. As you can imagine, three worlds filled with unbridled magic and no laws to govern how to use it was more than a bit chaotic. A lot of people were content to keep to themselves and live in relative harmony for a long time, but as you expect, there were some who quickly grew dissatisfied and felt the need to seize control over everyone else. “A group of fifteen men and women living in Ralian banded together and figured out how to harness the magic of the world around them to strengthen the magic they already naturally possessed and learned how to use it. They linked the three worlds together with a sort of dimensional gateway, allowing them access to even more untapped power. Within a year, the fifteen first magi actually succeeded in gaining control of all three worlds without having to kill very many people since they were the only ones who had learned to use magic.”

He paused, catching his breath quickly before turning to Pyrsi specifically. “They ruled over the people and creatures of all three worlds with an iron grip, but under their rule, many of the cities and kingdoms were built, some of which we still see today. It was around that time that a young dragon was born in Flociotail, born with a potential for magic like none before her. When she turned twenty, she began to gather an army of dragons and other people who had either suffered under the fifteen’s rule or craved freedom and taught them not only how to harness their own magic but also how to mix it with the elements around them to make themselves stronger. “All of her people began calling her the Mother, and they treated her almost like she was a god. The Mistress and her army marched on each of the fifteen’s cities, and war ensued, a war that would last the next thirty years. Much to everyone’s surprise, the Mistress’s army managed to defeat five of the fifteen magi and gave the people of the Trio of Origin something they didn’t have before—hope. Her army increased by over a thousand as everyone realized they could also learn to use magic if they ed her cause, and the fifteen slowly dwindled down to only five left. “Although it seemed like the Mistress would soon win, the magi were growing increasingly desperate. Then the leader of the magi, a man named Theodoric Moonsable, supposedly used his magic to travel to the core of Ralian, hoping to obtain enough power to wipe out the Mistress and her armies in one fell swoop. He managed to do just that and somehow survived absorbing whatever he found at Ralian’s core. When he returned, he was no longer anything resembling the human he once was. His mind was gone, and his body was warped by dark greed and pure power. He left his Kingdom of Zoibeigh in Ralian and teleported himself and the other four magi to Flociotail to force a final confrontation with the Mistress. “Her armies were already waiting for them, for they had no idea of the power he now held. Theodoric smiled evilly at the thousands of people and creatures amassed behind the Mistress before surprising everyone as he suddenly ripped the life force out of the other four magi and used what is now called blood magic for the very first time.” He turned back to me. “You know how that small amount of blood you used powered your magic enough to shatter part of the dummy? Imagine the power of harnessing the life of four master magi. It is said that he dissipated into a black

and red mist, covering the entire sky like an ocean of fire and smoke. His face appeared in the mist, as large as the entire army itself, and his massive mouth opened up as he bellowed an ear-splitting scream. Every one of the nearly five thousand in the Mistress’s army began splitting open from the inside out until only she remained. I don’t really know much else, but that’s definitely why blood magic was outlawed. It is too easy to cross the line and turn evil.” We all stood there in stunned silence for a long few moments. He had a point. It only took one desperate act to go from using your blood to empower a spell to using others’ instead, especially if you were around normal people who couldn’t even defend themselves. I wanted power, sure, but that was a line I would never cross. After all, what point would there be in saving others if you had to kill people to accomplish it? I nodded gravely. “Thank you for the history lesson. I won’t soon forget it,” I said softly. Pyrsi looked perturbed. “Nyx, the Mother you were talking about, you don’t mean the Mistress of Flociotail, do you?” He shook his head. “No, if the stories are true, the Mother gave birth to your Mistress a hundred or so years later.” She nodded. “Still, I had no idea the Mistress was that old.” He smiled as he shrugged slightly. “When Theodoric absorbed the core of Ralian, it was said to have stopped time here. Perhaps the Mother or the Mistress learned how to utilize it to live longer.” She nodded slightly, lost in thought. Nyx stretched with a large yawn. “All right, kids. That’s all the time we have today. It’s already noon. Now that I have roughly felt where you are with your magic, I will start formulating a lesson structure for the following classes. You are dismissed for today, but, Shar, I would like to speak you a bit longer still if you don’t mind.” I nodded, and Pyrsi smiled excitedly. She said, “Okay, then I am off to go see Jirod. See you later, Shar.”

I smiled back, and we watched quietly as she made her way back toward the dorms. When I turned back to face Nyx, his face was set with a grim determination. “Okay, Shar, now that we’re alone, I have a few things for just you.” My eyebrows lifted in confusion. “Uh, okay, what do you mean?” He cast his gaze toward the sunny skies for a long moment before answering. His voice was quiet as he finally spoke. “Look, I don’t want to freak you out too much, but the point of the lesson was so that I could use my magic to feel both of yours as you unleashed it. Pyrsi is strong, determined, and cunning, but I felt that she is afraid to fully unleash her potential. I don’t know if it was because she doesn’t want to outshine her mate or if it has something to do with her family, but it is definitely holding her back. Still, her magic is pure in a sense and has a potential to become incredibly strong, especially when it comes to the elements. “You are a different story, though. You are unsure of yourself, but you are becoming progressively confident of your magic. In a sense, that’s a good thing because nothing will hold you back from growing vastly stronger, but I also could feel your desperate hunger for knowledge and power. Desperation is no different for magi than it is for normal people, but the scale is greater than you could ever understand to a terrifying level. When a person gets desperate, it can turn them to acts like violence or stealing, things that they would never do under normal circumstances. “For magi, it is the same thing. In a moment of desperation, we can cast amazing spells that we wouldn’t be able to normally, but it can also drive us toward corruption. Brenerra is a wonderful place, but it isn’t what people realize when they think of an academy of magic. They do not teach good or evil here. They only teach how to use your magic safely and then set you free to do as you wish.” I nodded. “You’re worried that if I learn too much, I’ll become evil somehow, like Theodoric?” Nyx shook his head vigorously. “No, that’s not what I mean at all. Honestly, I don’t sense any corruption in you, at least not yet. I mean, sure, you could become an evil monstrosity if you weren’t careful, but so could any of us. Really, you just feel angry and confused about your life and desperate to learn

how to change it. I’m not worried about what you will do with your magic but what others at Brenerra may try to do to you. You see, when I felt your magic, it was the purest thing I had ever felt before in my entire life. I can’t even picture all the things you could accomplish with that much of a power source or, rather, what others would do to get their hands on that much power.” “There are some students at Brenerra who come from places full of magic. Some are those who grew up in dark places, and there are even teachers that tread on dangerous ground. There are ways that a magus with the right know-how of blood magic can strip another of their magic and harness it for themselves. If they were to do so, your magic will not replenish as it normally would over time. It would be ripped violently from your body, which may or may not kill you in the process as well. If someone like that got their hands on your magic, we would all be very screwed.” A shiver ran down my spine. That guy, Algalalder, from before had warned me of something similar a few days ago. He was warning me that I was drawing too much attention to myself and that some of it could be from bad people. Getting my magic stripped from me would be very contrary to my goal. I nodded grimly. “Is there anything I can do to prevent something like that from happening?” He pondered my question for a long moment. “There are two main things I could think of. The first step would be learning to mask your magic. Right now, it’s freely gyrating around you like a swarm of grorst, which means it’s impossible not to notice. The other way I could suggest would also help prevent you from ever fluxing again.” My attention fixated a hundredfold. “How?” My voice came out barely above a whisper. Nyx nodded. “Keep in mind it is a slightly dangerous method but an effective one. Have you ever heard of a magi’s arcanus? No? Well, it is an enchanted piece of jewelry that functions as a shell similar to a magus’s body. Basically, it is a vessel that you can pour your magic into, but instead of functioning like an amplifier to cast spells as an implement does, its only purpose is to hold your magic. The enchanted piece of jewelry only lets the one wearing it access the magic stored inside, and as long as you are wearing it, you would still have your

full abilities.” “If you were to ever get sick again, for instance, and you had your magic stored in your arcanus, you still wouldn’t be able to use it. But it wouldn’t be ready to explode out of your body either. The reason it is dangerous is that if you ever take it off with your magic stored inside and someone else puts it on, they can use it just as easily.” I laughed internally. He was describing Merlin’s ring for all intent and purposes. A thought occurred to me, though. If Merlin had been a real person, he actually would have attended Brenerra when he was first learning magic. This was probably where he learned how to make one. I shook my head, forcing myself to focus. “So basically if I have an arcanus and I pour my magic into it, then nobody could steal my magic unless I was stupid enough to take it off. I like the idea, especially if mine could be a ring. But what’s the catch?” A thin smile crossed his lips. “They are incredibly hard to make, which means they are super rare to come across and very expensive if you do… So this is sadly the part where I have to be one of those people who needs to take advantage of your power. It just so happens that I know where to get one made, but it is more than I could afford even if I wanted to.” “I also know that someone is looking for a very difficult job to get done and is willing to pay quite a hefty sum to the one who can do it. I saw what you can do on just pure instinct alone. I know you have enough power to get the job done. It’s your choice. I honestly don’t have the strength to do it myself.” Nyx went silent, patiently waiting for me to think it through. “I guess it depends on what the job is. Is it illegal or something?” He shook his head. “No, nothing like that. It’s legit, honest work, just difficult. He needs someone to retrieve an item from a place protected by a creature.” Lovely, to obtain an item meant to protect me and my magic from bad people, I had to go risk my life. I sighed aloud. It would be a good opportunity to get stronger, though, and it was not like it was the first creature I had to kill so far. I was getting quite a collection for my first week—the dremlich that attacked Serena, the gryphon that attacked me… Why not add another mythical beast? I

just hoped my good luck would hold out a little longer. “Honestly, sure. Why not? The idea of never having to worry about fluxing again is too good to up.” Nyx surprised me as he whooped suddenly. “Yes! Shar, you have no idea how rich this is gonna make us. All right, I have to go pay a visit to someone to get the specifics for you, which will take a little bit. So do you want to just meet me at the front gates around nine tonight?” I nodded. “Sure, that works.” His grin was wolfish. “Awesome, later then.” Nyx suddenly vanished in a burst of wispy white smoke. It was instantaneous, almost unnoticeable, except for the small popping sound that followed. I let myself be impressed for a brief moment. I liked him. At least he was straightforward enough to it that he was using me, whether it benefited us both or not. I shook my head and started walking the long trek back toward the dorms. Now that was after noon, I knew a lot of students were out walking around. Thankfully, not too many students hung out around the side of the castle past Dorm A, and none seemed to wander out to the field behind it, where I was either. I steeled myself for the few people I did though. Now that everyone at Brenerra really did seem to know who I was, I could feel their gazes trailing toward my scar as they whispered to one another. I knew they weren’t trying to be rude. It was hard to not look at a mark the size of a golf ball on someone’s face, but ittedly, it still stung. After I ed the fifth person openly gaping at me, the sting warped to annoyance instead. I quickened my pace and started to avoid looking at the people I ed. I made it almost all the way to the building before I nearly smashed into a group of students walking the opposite way down the path. I quickly dodged right to avoid them as I finally looked up with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” The one I almost ran into, an acreon girl with bright red feathers, nodded. “Don’t worry about it.” Another acreon standing near the back of the girl tried to whisper to his friend,

but he spoke loud enough for me to hear, “Holy crap.” Similar to when I grasped the sword, pure rage flooded through me. For a brief moment, I wanted to kick the crap out of him as I struggled to get my temper back under control. They must have seen it in my eyes because half of the group instantly paled considerably. I was rapidly losing my patience with everyone. For an entire academy of mages, they should all be used to seeing weird things. Hell, half the races I had seen so far, like the walking swamp people, were revolting to be near, yet a scar somehow bothered them. It took everything in me to not slug him in the beak or say anything as I pushed past them and walked up to the front doors. I calmed somewhat as I heard someone else reproach him as they began walking away. “Real subtle, Kody. You’re an ass,” the person said. I slipped inside the dorm and paused to just catch my breath in the dim, empty hall. At least I only had to endure a few more days of it being new and worth talking about before everyone would be used to it and move on. I just had to keep my temper in check to make it that far.

Chapter 6

The Slyph

My dorm room felt like a safe haven as I finally stepped inside. It felt like I hadn’t been home for days, but then again, I had left Thursday morning for class, and it was already noon on Saturday. Surprisingly, the room was completely quiet as I stepped into the living room. I had half expected to return to find Pyrsi and Jirod getting busy or making out or something, but judging by her half-open door, they certainly weren’t here. I hesitated instead of instantly going to my room, my curiosity trying to get the best of me. If they weren’t here, then this might be the only chance I would ever have of seeing what a dusneoc girl’s bedroom was like. On the other hand, it was a total invasion of privacy. I shrugged and knocked on her door loudly so that it would swing open wider. I was disappointed as I caught a peek inside. There were no decorations, no framed pictures, no posters on the wall—nothing. It looked exactly like how the rooms looked before we moved in, with the exception of the comforter being ruffled slightly. I didn’t understand just why it bothered me so much that nobody else had any decorations except for me, but it did. There had to be at least one other race besides humans who did it. I shook my head and started to turn around but paused when something caught my eye. Under one of her pillows, there was a corner of a book jutting out. Either it was for night-time reading or some kind of diary. I blanched and quickly turned around without a second thought. I was okay with curiosity over what someone’s room looked like, but I had zero desire to go searching through someone’s private things. As I started to open the door to my bedroom, a strange sound coming from my left made me pause. I turned to see the device that looked like a television suddenly turn on by itself. It emitted a shrill dull tone almost like how dial-up internet used to sound. A voice tried to come out of the device, but it was all

scratchy and staticky, like there was a bad connection. I reached out and let my magic brush against it. The device instantly became crystal clear. A machine-like male voice spoke suddenly. “Mr. Victor, you have an incoming call from Serena Voullerd. Do you accept?” Whoa, apparently, it was some kind of high-tech cell phone, not a TV. I would have never guessed. “Uh, yes, I accept.” Virtually instantaneously, Serena appeared on the screen, but it wasn’t like a picture or live stream of her. It was a perfect 3D hologram of her. She looked so real it felt like I could reach out and touch her. For once, she didn’t instantly light up or smile when she saw me. Her golden eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying. “Serena, what’s wrong?” She sniffled loudly. “Hey, Shar, sorry I couldn’t come see you in person. Something happened with my family, so I got a to go home for the rest of the weekend. I have to leave right now, though, or I can’t go.” I nodded. “That’s okay. Is there anything I can do?” She shook her head. “No. I don’t have enough time now, but I’ll tell you more when I come back, okay?” I smiled. “Don’t worry about me, beautiful. I understand. I hope everything is okay.” She nodded. “Thanks. Okay, I have to go.” She suddenly vanished as the screen faded. It was troubling to see her so miserable compared to her usual bubbliness, but sadly, there was nothing I could do. I could simply just hope that her family was okay. It was a strange coincidence that she suddenly had to go away the night I would have to try to figure out how to explain why I would be disappearing for a few hours. I shook my head. “Good luck to us both, I guess.” I walked back to my bedroom finally and lay down to try to get some rest for

tonight, but I couldn’t quite shake off seeing Serena so upset. I set an alarm for eight and just let my mind wander until I eventually managed to doze off. I had a strange dream in which Serena was walking into a massive palace that was built into the biggest tree I had ever seen. The roots alone were the size of an entire dormitory, and a wide archway was built into the base of the trunk. As strange as the palace was, though, Serena was even more bizarre. Her usual colorful childish clothes were gone, replaced with a long flowing white gown the color of fresh snow. The skirt was shaped like snowflake, shimmering as she walked like it was covered in tiny diamonds. For a moment, I began wondering why I would be dreaming of her home, but I recalled our conversation back in the field with the grorst. She had told me about the Dream Sanctuary, where she was from. This was probably my dream’s way of linking memories with reading stories of the fae as a kid. I watched her stride into the tree palace, her usual quirkiness replaced with an air of authority surrounding her. Two guards in green armor standing on either side of the archway straightened as she ed but otherwise didn’t react. I wanted so bad to follow her into the tree and see what the point of the dream was, but suddenly, my alarm clock started blaring, and I could feel myself being sucked out of the dream forcibly. I woke with a groan, and I hit my clock harder than I meant to in order to shut it up. It felt like I only slept ten minutes, not a few hours, with how groggy my head felt, but I forced myself to get up. Sleepily, I strapped my sword to my hip and left the dorm. As promised, Nyx was already waiting for me at the front gates by the time I finally made my way down the long path back to the front of Brenerra. He smiled as he noticed me approach, warily eyeing the few students walking the courtyard. He led me outside the gates so we wouldn’t be overheard and handed me a small slip of paper. “All right, Shar, I got everything taken care of for us. The man we are working for is called Slade. He’s a…connoisseur of rare objects, you could say. Slade wants you to go to a place called Wyrmwood Grotto and find one such object. That paper I gave you is an enchanted map—or com, technically. You’ll see an arrow appear, and you just keep following that direction until you reach the cave. He didn’t seem too sure of what manner of beast protects the cave, but I urge you to be extremely careful.”

I nodded. “What about the object I’m to look for? What is it?” His smile faltered. “So therein is the tricky part. The object he seeks is called the celestial gem. He knows what it does, but nobody who has ever seen it has lived to tell the tale, so he doesn’t know what it looks like.” I sighed. “Great. Anything else I need to know?” Nyx shook his head. “That’s about it. If you get past the guardian, find the gem and bring it back. You get your arcanus, and I get my payday. I want to give you enough time, so do you want to meet around two in the afternoon tomorrow near the training dummy?” I nodded. “Sounds good. See you tomorrow—hopefully.” I turned away from him and unfolded the paper as I heard the familiar pop behind me. His description had been accurate. The map literally consisted of only a windrose showing the cardinal directions and a drawing of an arrow pointing off to my right—to the northeast. Out of curiosity, I turned ninety degrees to my right with the map and the arrow suddenly flipped as well, like a real com. Impressed, I turned northeast and started walking into the dense Ralian jungle.

I had already been walking a few hours—that was clear—but it was difficult to tell for just how long I’d be under the endless canopy. Even with some of the trees having the slime-like substance instead of leaves, they were all so massive that they completely strangled out any trace of the sky. When it had gotten too dark for me to even see my map, I cast a small ball of light ahead of me without even thinking about it. I eventually paused and looked around as I realized something strange. The whole time I had been walking, I had not once heard any animals nearby or had to swat away any insects. I was long since outside the protective field surrounding Brenerra, but this time around, everything just seemed to be avoiding me. At first, I was a little creeped out by the eerily silent darkness, but I realized that, without the worry of nearby beasts, I could make my light brighter. At some point, the endless rows of trees began to thin out and shrink in size considerably until I found myself coming upon a miniaturized forest. The tallest tree was only the height of my knee and barely half as thick as my ankle. The effect was so gradual and smooth that it literally made me feel like I was getting larger as I walked and was now a giant. It was trippy in a way but still really cool. I kept following the map past the mini forest until the trees were too small to notice anymore. After another hour or so of walking through a pretty much empty field of short blue grass, I finally saw the outline of buildings start to loom before me. I picked up my pace and retracted my orb of light, getting to the village pretty quickly. I paused behind one of the buildings instead of just walking straight in. I didn’t know anything about the native Ralian people or creatures, so it would be idiotic to just charge straight through. I listened for a while to see if I could hear anyone walking around or talking, but the village was just as eerily quiet as the jungle had been. The only thing I could really gather was a sour smell wafting in the wind, so I finally steeled myself enough to walk around the building. I only made it maybe a dozen steps before the sour stench got so bad that it made me gag. It was like spoiled, rotting meat mixed with raw sewage and covered in fresh

soil. I staggered a few steps deeper in and instantly found the source of the smell. Scattered between the assortment of buildings were corpses everywhere. They were all mutilated beyond recognition. Various organs, limbs, and chunks of gore were scattered everywhere like they had all been mauled by some kind of beast and then slowly eaten. They had been there for quite a while, too, judging by the vines and tall grass growing over them. I turned and retched for a solid minute before my nose clogged enough to block out the smell. The sight would stay with me forever, though. I knew that already. I desperately tried to think of a way to bury them or at least give them some kind of proper goodbye, but there were over thirty, and I didn’t have the time or the knowledge to do any rites. Then a different sort of idea came to me. If I couldn’t physically bury them, I could at least prevent more animals from further desecrating their remains. I pulled my sword free from its scabbard, the clear metallic ring echoing sorrowfully with no other noises to mask it. I didn’t feel the sword’s rage fill me this time, but then again, this was the first time that I drew its power without a tangible enemy in front of me. Mentally I reached for the moist soil and spread it wide as I brought the water in the ground to the surface. The water dampened the ground enough to spread it and created sinkholes below each of the bodies that I could see. Once they were a good few feet down, I let go of the soil and let it naturally fall back to bury the dead. It was a lot of soil to move, but the methodology made the required energy much less significant. It knocked the wind out of me for a moment and left me panting, but otherwise, I felt fine. I sheathed the sword and looked around at my work. The buildings were unkempt but otherwise unharmed, and with the corpses gone, so was the stench. It just looked like a ghost town instead of a graveyard now. “I was never very religious, so I don’t know any verses to read you all. Not like you all even would know the human God. Well, I guess I actually do know one. We used to have to say it in the morning at the group home. ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our treses as we forgive those who tres against us. And lead us not into temptation, but

deliver us from evil.’ Uh, rest in peace.” My words echoed hollowly for a while as I stood there, unsure of how to recover from seeing something like that. The fact that, a week ago, I had been a simple bank employee and was someone who has only seen death on TV was not lost on me. I wondered if I should try to make sure that the beast that had done this wasn’t nearby, but I was running out of time. It had to at least be two in the morning by now. I shook my head with a sigh and resumed following the map. It led me through the empty village, and about a mile east, the sparse field started to be populated with some flowers and trees once more. The ground began to slope steeply into a massive hill as I walked. At one point, the slope was so bad that I had to get on all fours to climb up, but I eventually came upon a massive outcropping of strange black boulders. I made my way around the right face, coming across a literal hole that dove nearly straight down into the rock. I hesitated, half hanging onto the edge of the mouth of the cave so I wouldn’t fall down the slope. I rechecked the map, but this was definitely the place, so I pulled myself up and put it in my pocket. Luckily, it wasn’t actually a straight drop like it looked at first, but I could only see a few feet before it went jet black. The light orb wouldn’t be an auspicious idea this time since I didn’t know what was waiting in the cavern, so I went with using my magic to simply refract more light like a cat. Even only a few feet inside, the air in the cavern was vastly different. Any trace of the heat of the near-summer night outside was gone. The air was so frigid that I could see my breath. It didn’t really smell musky or stale like I expected, just damp. The hole was only tall enough for me to crawl downwards for a while. It was so narrow that my back painfully hit against the stone a few times. I started getting the choking, panicky feeling of claustrophobia after a few minutes, but luckily, the cavern began to open up more. After a few more minutes of me crawling, it was tall enough for me to stand up, and I paused to look around finally. The hole I had just crawled out of was smooth and ribbed strangely like some kind of giant worm had made it, but the chamber I was standing in now looked more natural. Stalagmites and stalactites littered the cave, which was normal enough except for their sparkling red tint. Off to the right water was dripping down from the ceiling in a continuous

stream, giving the effect of a waterfall. The excess water followed the slope like a river, continuing farther than I could see. Almost disappointingly, the cave seemed empty. The only sound was that of water. To my left, the chamber branched into several ages, but none stood out specifically. I could try each one, but I felt like I would quickly lose my bearings that way. I sighed, trying to come up with an efficient plan. Besides exploring, no other great ideas came to me. Closing my eyes, I used my magic to fan out in every direction, trying to touch any kind of energy in the near vicinity. For a few moments, it felt like nothing but rock until I grazed something small down the second age to my left. I couldn’t quite place what it was, but it was the first anything that I had felt since I left Brenerra, so I opened my eyes and headed in that direction. I had to throw myself to the side against the wall as I suddenly felt a massive flare of energy streak toward me. I couldn’t see anything until it was only a foot away, but I caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a flaming pebble. Not even a second after it whizzed by me, I felt another one coming toward me. I rolled forward to just barely dodge it, rolling back to my feet so that I could take off running toward the source. A third flaming object came shooting at me, but this time, it was as large as the tunnel itself. In a desperate flash, I cast a magic shield in front of me but with the consistency of a trampoline instead of a wall. The flaming boulder slammed against it with an ear-splitting crack, and for a moment, it came so close that it was barely an inch from my face. My shield held, though, and suddenly flung the boulder back in the reverse direction with double the force. I couldn’t see what happened with the boulder obscuring my view, and I didn’t care. I used the opportunity to drop the shield and charge forward again, quickly closing the distance to whatever was trying to kill me. There was a high-pitch screech for a moment, and the boulder suddenly vanished. I skidded to a halt only a few feet away from it. The creature was unlike anything I had ever seen before, which, after a week in this world, was saying a lot actually. It was clearly a female. Her face was normal like a human’s, and she

had pale skin and glowing green eyes like emeralds. The normality ended there, though. Her long neck sloped down to a chest with large breasts and beige scales trailing up between and then curved down and backward like the body of a big cat. Her arms and legs were muscled and covered in the same beige scales, coming to large talons five times the size of my fingers. Her torso was similar to a large feline, rippling with muscle and sinew, coming to a long serpentine tail. Two angel-like wings trailed down from her shoulders to the middle of her back. She was a strange mix of terrifying and fascinating, like her emerald eyes were trying to pull you in. She made a hissing sound but didn’t try to strike again right away. Instead she eyed me warily as if studying me. I considered drawing my blade and just charging, but I could see deep intelligence in her eyes. Diplomacy was at least worth an attempt. She had attacked first, but I was invading her territory after all. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to speak, would you?” I asked. She cocked her head to the side as I spoke, her gaze trailing down to the sword at my hip. I cautiously took my hand off the hilt, holding my hand up in my best attempt to look nonthreatening. “I didn’t come here to hurt you,” I said. “I didn’t know what to expect in this cave, let alone…whatever you are. I was just told it was incredibly dangerous.” She hissed again, but it was softer this time, less of a warning. Without warning, I felt her energy reach out to graze against my mind. I reeled, instinctively throwing up half a dozen shields. She reeled back as if in pain and hissed viscously. She reached out tentatively this time, and I gingerly let my shields lower enough to see what she wanted. After a few seconds, she pulled away, her body briefly shimmering with a greenish hue. “Can you understand me now?” she suddenly asked, her voice coming out surprisingly normal. Her voice had a soft feminine lilt, but it was almost too velvety. I nodded. “You just used your magic to learn my language.”

She smiled in a disarmingly arresting way. “Yes, I did. Why have you come here?” Yes, she was very intelligent for a creature, meaning that I needed to be very wary of what she would do. “I was given a job to come to Wyrmwood Grotto to find something called a celestial gem. Are you familiar with it?” Her smile turned icy as she stepped back reflexively. “So you really are a thief then who’s come to steal my treasures.” I shook my head. “Well, technically, yes. However, I didn’t know that a beautiful and intelligent…lady…such as yourself lived here. I told you I don’t wish you any harm, and I meant it.” She nodded, taking a few steps toward me until she was within arm’s reach. It made me uncomfortable having her so close. It meant I wouldn’t be able to draw my sword easily. She made a purring sound in her throat as she sniffed at me. “I can sense you are speaking the truth. Yet still you are tempted to lunge at me, even if you are restraining yourself. What is holding you back?” I met her gaze unflinchingly. “I am not some evil monster who is going to try to kill you just because you are different from me. You attacked me without warning, though. That’s why I’m being cautious.” She nodded and began to slowly circle around me, studying me. “I struck, thinking you were just another thief sneaking into my den. None of the countless others have tried to speak to me before, though. I will give you that. It just so happens that I have a soft spot for good-looking adventurer types, too, so I will give you a chance. Why should I give you one of my treasures?” I turned to face her halfway through her circling. “You mean, like something to trade?” She smiled coyly. Even with her walking on all fours, I was only barely at eye level with her.

“A trade I would take,” she said, “but sadly you have nothing on you that I desire.” I nodded. “I have really strong magic. If there’s something you want, I may be able to get it for you.” Her eyes flashed dangerously with a lusty expression. “Yes, you do,” she said, breathing heavily, “but it cannot help you here. You may have strong energy coursing through you, but you are just one unusually shiny but still small speck within an ocean that will walk these many realms.” This was getting me nowhere, so I shifted track. “Okay. I don’t know what you want then. Do you have a name at least?” She blinked at me slowly, almost as if offended by the question. “Names are only given to creatures when there are too many other creatures to tell them apart. I am the only one of my kind that has ever been or will ever be. I am the Slyph.” My eyes widened. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. “Is that anything like a sphynx? I suppose you kind of look like one with the whole humanistic upper body and the cat-like lower body going on.” She snorted at me. “No, I am not some riddle-speaking human fable. I choose this form only because it is comfortable.” Before I could move to react, gray smoke suddenly burst from her body, covering her like a cocoon. It dissipated a brief second later, and the sight of the form she revealed knocked the wind out of me like a kick to the solar plexus. If Ashe had a twin, she was suddenly standing before me with an amused expression. Almost every detail of her was perfect, from her shoulder-length auburn hair with its slight curl to the small dimples in her cheeks. The only part that was off was that her eyes were still the deep emerald color instead of blue, but it didn’t stop my jaw from hanging as I openly gawked. She was stark nude. Her breasts were small and had pinkish areolas leading into puffy, erect nipples. I tried with everything I had to fight what I was seeing and convince myself it was only an illusion meant to entice me, but even my magic didn’t stand a chance against something that I had wanted with every ounce of my being since

I was a teenager. I tried to speak forcefully, but my breath came out hoarse, barely more than a whisper. “Please, Slyph, stop.” Ashe (The Slyph! I mentally screamed at myself) sulked at me. “Shar, why did you leave me and Barnabas at the bar?” I could feel her magic probing my mind now that my defenses were down, but I was too far lost inside the powerful glamour. “I was in love with you, A, since the moment we met when we were ten. You never once really saw me, though, and when you told me you were getting married, it shattered something inside of me.” Ashe’s expression turned to one of dismay. “I’m so sorry, Shar. I didn’t know. Why did you never say anything?” I shook my head. “Don’t give me that bull. There’s no way you didn’t know. Everyone knew, even the staff. They just never bothered separating us because they knew nothing would ever happen.” She was quiet for a moment before nodding slightly. “Maybe you’re right. It was just so nice knowing that there was someone who really loved me and was always there for me no matter what. You are the only family I’ve ever had that made me feel safe like that. I was so afraid of letting myself ever love you back the same way because I didn’t want to risk losing what we had if it didn’t work out.” For a moment, I stood there in total disbelief, wondering if it was a lie or just an excuse. Then the Slyph brought a memory to the surface. I had thought it was just a strange dream and had long since forgotten about it. I was sixteen, living in a group home in Pennsylvania at the time. It had been a particularly sweltering summer day, and the air conditioning was busted, so I was sleeping fitfully. Sometime while I was half asleep, lying there, the door to my room opened, and someone snuck inside before closing it gently. That someone sat down on the edge of my bed and just watched me for a long time. After a while, it almost sounded like they were crying softly. “Shar,” Ashe’s voice whispered longingly, “there are so many things I wish I

could say to you when you are awake. You are the most perfect boy I’ve ever met. You know what my dad did to me before I was taken away, and you know how screwed up and twisted I am inside, yet somehow you see right through all of it and truly love me for me. You make me feel safe and warm and loved, and whenever I’m near you, I feel like I have a home again. “Some days, all I want is for you to wrap your arms around me and to kiss you like there was no one else but us in the world, but I can’t let you because I know all my walls and defenses would crumble into a million pieces. I love you, Shar, probably more than I could ever find the words for, but I can never tell you any of this. If I did, we could be together and happy for a while, but eventually, I would screw it up. “Once I did, you would leave me. I know it’s selfish, but I can’t lose you. You’re the only thing that holds me together. Without you…I don’t know. I guess I would end up killing myself or something.” She had sat there for a while before leaning over and gently kissing me, and then she had slipped back out of my room. “Enough!” I found the strength to draw the sword at my hip, shattering the glamour over me. My breathing was heavy as I met the creature’s emerald gaze defiantly. I was filled with enough of the sword’s and my own rage to breath fire. My voice came out in a deep roar. “What are you trying to accomplish, Slyph?” Still in Ashe’s form, she looked genuinely hurt by my tone as she stepped back a pace in fear. “It is not what you think, Shar. What I just gave you was the greatest gift of all.” My eyebrows lifted, puzzled, some of the anger cooling to bitter sarcasm. “How is torturing me with the visage of my former best friend a gift exactly?” She shook her head, still looking sincerely sad. “Not torture, Shar. Redemption from something that has plagued you since childhood. The memory of your Ashe was being pushed to the dark recesses of your mind but would have still haunted you eternally. I simply gave you the answers you have been longing for so long. She did love you back but chose to not tell you. You don’t have to be honest with me, but be honest with yourself. Now that you have the honest answer of why, try to tell me you don’t feel better.”

I sheathed the sword hesitantly, letting myself cool off. I was loathe to it it, but she was right. I had thought I was over Ashe, but I was just bottling those emotions up instead of dealing with them. Now that I knew, it felt a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I was at peace with it and her. “I don’t understand you, Slyph. What do you want from me? Why would you try to help me sort out twisted feelings I had bottled up? What do you get out of it?” I asked. She flashed a sad smile. “I told you. I have a soft spot for good-looking adventurer types. Also, I would like for you to be able to trust me. It has been so long since I have had good company.” The smoke surrounded her once again as the façade of Ashe dropped and she reverted back to her original form. I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Somehow seeing a massive sphinxlike creature felt more normal than looking at Ashe here in Ralian. I laughed internally. This place was seriously still managing to flip my sense of weird in new ways almost daily. “I don’t know about trust, Slyph, but I will thank you for the gift and drop it at that. I would still like an answer to my other question, please. I need your celestial gem. What would you like in return?” She smiled slyly as she studied my face once more. “Very well, Shar, back to business. As I said, nothing you possess currently I desire. However, there is still something you can give me. I looked into your future while I was in your mind and have seen many possibilities that may come to if the right circumstances present themselves. In return for the gem you seek, I want you to give me a child—well, not just a child, but your child.” I was stunned. “What? I don’t have any children.” She shook her head. “Forgive me. Your language has a lot of double and triple meanings. I want you to impregnate me with your first heir.” I blanched, hundreds of red flags and questions coming to mind, but I thought hard so I wouldn’t risk offending her beyond repair. “Uh, why?” She blinked slowly in a very feline way. “My reasons are my own, human, but that is my price. You may take it or leave it. If it is any piece of mind, though,

you will live to sire many other children.” I mimicked the slow blink, but mine was of pure confusion. I tried to think of a reason for her to want to have my kid, but I literally could not fathom it. The only reason I could see was that she said she was the only one of her kind. Maybe she really was just lonely, but that seemed like a stretch. “No offense intended, Slyph, but even if I agreed to that, can it even be done? I mean I’m a human, and you’re a…well, Slyph.” The same sly smile spread across her lips. “Oh, don’t you fret,” she purred. “It will work, and she will be incredible. If it pleases you, I can take any body you desire. I could become Ashe again or your cute little faerie girlfriend or even that dusneoc roommate of yours that you crave so fiercely—that is, unless you find this form more desirable. Either way, nobody will ever know but us.” I hated myself for even considering her proposal, but I needed the arcanus. I could try to find another way to get one, but it could take a long time. It was only a matter of time before I got another cold, though, and there was no guarantee that the next flux wouldn’t kill me or someone else. “Give me a moment. I am considering your request. I have another question first, though. Do you know how to heal this scar on my face?” Her eyes narrowed as she stepped closer and gently brought her talon to my chin to inspect it. “You have been misinformed about that ‘scar,’ Shar. It is not the result of being unable to knit together damaged tissue or something else so infantile in understanding. Magic healed the charred tissue. You really think it couldn’t fix a few simple scars? It is not a scar but a mark of the Electus unus dei deorum made physical when your unadulterated magic was unleashed. The only way to remove it entirely would be to rid yourself of your magic or die.” I could tangibly feel it as all my hopes were suddenly ripped out from under me. Even if I became strong and gathered enough knowledge, it really couldn’t be done. I was marked by own magic, not by dead tissue. She seemed to sense my inner turmoil because she suddenly ran a large nail down my cheek in a tender way. “I like you, Shar, and I am feeling most generous today. If you lie with me, in addition to giving you the celestial gem, I will also bestow upon you the

knowledge of how to move your mark to a different part of your body.” My eyes transfixed on hers to weigh the truth of her words, but they carried no deceit, only genuine tenderness. I finally saw past the magic and the strange form to the simple girl underneath it all. I forced myself to block out the thoughts of trying to understand what she would want with my kid and just focus on that tender look in her eyes. “All right, I’ll do it,” I said. She smiled, not slyly like before but seemingly genuinely happy instead. “What form would you like me to take, my darling?” I gritted my teeth. I didn’t know how I would be able to look Serena in the eyes after doing this. As it was, taking her form was out of the question. Seeing Ashe would satisfy a lot of fantasies and dreams I once had but would probably bring up the feelings I had just finally moved beyond. I sighed. “Since you have already been in my head, you already know what she looks like, I guess. I want you to take the form of Pyrsi.” She nodded, and with the return of the gray smoke, her perfect mirror image suddenly stood in front of me. That had to be a neat trick to learn, I thought distantly. I felt my face heat up as I studied her body. Just like I saw the first day when I had my surge, her bust was massive, at least a double D cup or more, with large areolas and nipples in a dark reddish color similar to the freckles on her neck. She bit her lower lip as she watched me studying her body. “Mm, it feels good to be looked at with so much desire. It has been a long time. Come with me to my bedchamber, Shar.” I nodded, and she took my hand, leading me out of the massive part of the cavern we were standing in toward a large clustered group of rock formations. All at once, the columns opened up to the left in a way that made it almost impossible to detect until you were right next to it. We walked for a while through what could almost be called a hallway until we came to a small chamber. There were some kind of furs spread over a part of the ground like a

bed and a massive heap of strange shimmering objects off to the right. She let go of my hand and turned back to face me with a small smile. “You are the first person to see my bedchamber in a thousand years, you know.” Still looking around nervously, my response was off-handed. “It’s not very personal.” She shrugged. “There’s no need. I use this room only to store my treasure or sleep.” She fidgeted in a nervous way. “So, my darling, how would you like to do this? Is it to be romantic, or do you just want to get it over with? I promise I won’t be offended whichever you choose. I am getting what I want either way.” I nodded, suddenly extremely anxious. “Lie down for me, please.” She nodded and slowly lay down on the furs in a very effectively seductive way. She watched with her interest piqued as I pulled off my clothes and sat them neatly in a pile by the wall. I didn’t know if she meant to or not, but she was biting her lower lip as I returned and gently lowered myself on top of her. I brought my lips to her elongated mouth, half expecting her lips to feel wrong or cold somehow. Instead her mouth was warm and wet against mine as she moaned breathlessly against me. As we kissed, I brought my hand to her sex, which was also surprisingly normal despite the real Pyrsi being half-dragon. The only difference I could feel was that her sex gave off a lot more heat than a normal person, as if her body heat was almost triple. She broke away from our kiss to moan louder as I familiarized myself with her strange body and brought my lips to her neck, trailing down to her right breast to lightly flick my tongue against her nipple. Her back arched forward, and I pushed a finger into her sex, teasing her as I tried to settle my mind into a habitual ease. Her nails raked against my back, and I smiled for a moment in spite of myself. It had been quite a while since I was last with a girl, but foreplay had honestly always been my favorite part of sex. Still, I hesitated after a moment, though I didn’t stop. Even if it was for a good reason, I was cheating on possibly the sweetest girl I had ever met. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the guilt of not telling her. I had never cheated before. I shook my head. It was too late now. The dark deed was already done whether I

went all the way or not. I steeled my nerve and removed my hand from her sex, positioning myself. Her eyes slowly opened as she felt my pause of apprehension, and her emerald gaze drew me in. “Don’t worry, Shar. Everything will work out in the end.”

Her expression was glossy and contented as we both climaxed at the same time. Then we lay there for a moment, tangled up in each other. I didn’t pull out right away. Honestly, sex with her had been better than anything I had felt before. She was fiery and ionate in all the right ways and surprisingly easy to please over and over. I supposed not having sex in over a thousand years would do that to anyone, especially when you were then with someone who was fairly experienced. In the years of trying to forget Ashe, I’d had a lot of practice. It was just too bad none of it had meant anything. Here I was again, doing the same thing. She groaned one last time and pulled her hands away from my back. Her fresh scratches were starting to burn painfully now that the adrenaline was beginning to wane. I pulled out and sat back on my knees, begrudgingly watching her breasts rise and fall with her heavy breathing. Pyrsi’s body really was something, even if it was just the Slyph in a glamour. She sat up slowly as she reflexively licked her lips. She paused from her intent study of my face. Then she smiled. “I can feel your guilt, but your cute faerie girlfriend will be pleased when the time comes, young one. Now you’ve fulfilled your end of the bargain. It is my turn.” She slowly stood and walked over to the treasure pile. She rummaged around a moment before retrieving a small clear stone similar to a diamond but the size of my fist. She handed it to me tentatively but willingly. She said, “As for the other part of your deal, it is actually fairly simple. Close your eyes for a moment.” I did as she commanded and felt her hands come to rest on either side of my head. Her magic brushed against my mind like earlier, but instead of trying to search my mind, I could feel her gifting me with some of her knowledge. I gasped as a warm tingling filled my head, wondering how I had never realized

that it was so simple a split moment before. She was smiling as I opened my eyes. “Understand?” I nodded and moved my hand over the scar, channeling my magic into my hand like I had done when I was creating the golem. Magically, I pulled the scar into the coated hand and slid it down my face and neck to my shoulder. I released the scar and my magic, instantly feeling my chin and mouth once more. It had really worked. My face was completely smooth once more except for the patches of facial hair that had grown around the scar. She blinked slowly at me and transformed back into her original form once more. I felt a strange mix of stunned and thankful, unsure of how I should feel. I hated myself for cheating, but at the same time, it had gotten me exactly what I needed and more. “Thank you, Slyph,” I said softy. “You are most welcome, Shar. Now that we both have what we wanted, I have one last stipulation to request of you. You must never come seek me out again— or our child.” A cold wave rushed over me. I wasn’t entirely sure, but the way she said it didn’t sound like a threat so much as a plea. “I can definitely agree to that, but I am curious why.” She shook her head. “Again, my reasons are my own. I will warn you that it would most likely mean your demise, however.” I nodded gravely. “Don’t worry. I would like to forget this ever happened anyway. No offense.” She smiled coyly. “That works well for me then. Goodbye, Shar. I will not soon forget you.” I started to respond, but faster than I could blink, I was suddenly standing at the base of the massive hill. I looked around to find myself fully clothed again. The giant outcropping of black boulders hiding the cave were gone as well. The hill was completely flat and grassy as if nothing had ever been there. I silently stood in awed silence for a moment, wondering just what the hell the Slyph really was.

If she had the strength to instantly teleport me out of the cave and simultaneously move almost a mountain of rock, I hadn’t been a tenth as afraid of her as I should’ve been. Her words echoed hauntingly. “I am the only one of my kind that has ever been or will ever be. I am the Slyph.” I whispered a silent prayer to whatever gods watched over this world, thankful that I was alive. Then I turned my attention to the celestial gem in my hand. At a second glance, I lost all thoughts of it being just a diamond. Though I had thought the color was completely clear, that wasn’t exactly the case. It didn’t bend light the way a diamond would, nor did it sparkle. It was more like there was an orb of small invisible light at the center, giving off a white light and allowing nothing else inside. It didn’t matter if I held it in my hand or up to the bright morning sky. The white light never altered. “Nifty,” I muttered. Eventually, I lost interest in it and shifted my focus on a way to ensure I would get it back to Nyx safely. It didn’t take a genius to know pocketing it would just be foolish and simply carrying it around would be troublesome if I got attacked. Sighing, I was unable to come up with a good plan, so I headed back toward the village. Maybe there would be something in one of the houses that I could use.

Chapter 7

Secrets

The palace she stood in was not the same one she had left behind a week prior. The Olden Tree was dying. That much was clear. The roots had contracted as they withered and were turning a charred black color. The trunk that was vastly larger than some of the major cities in the Dream Sanctuary was much of the same. Strips of bark were peeling and fading, exposing the vividly red sap, which made it look the tree was dripping blood from hundreds of thousands of wounds of every size. The palace built inside was untouched physically by the Olden Tree’s deterioration, yet the sensation of dying magic filled the empty halls as tangibly as blistering, humid air. Everywhere she looked around her once-beautiful home, but she now only felt the emptiness. Steeling herself for what needed to be done, she crossed the archway into the throne room. Immediately after she ed the double doors, ten women in dull green and brown armor had their spears at the ready and surrounded her. “May the moon illuminate your path, my children,” she spoke in her native high dialect. It took them only a split second upon those words to realize whom they were pointing their spears at. Each one pulled their spear over their chest plates and dropped to a knee. “May the stars guide you, my lady,” they returned the greeting in unison. The largest of the women, the only one wearing a helm shaped like leaves, risked looking up from the floor to speak. “Lady Serena, apologies on behalf of me and my warriors. We did not recognize you garbed as such.” She nodded sternly. “It is forgiven this time, Captain Dune, given these dire circumstances. Rise, warriors of the Fallen Leaf. There is much to be done, and

we have little time to do it.” The women stood as one and planted the butts of their spears at their right foot in unison. Captain Dune motioned to the others, and they quickly took up defensive positions around the large room. She moved to Serena’s side as they approached the empty thrones. Dune watched silently as Serena gazed around her oncefavorite room to sneak off and play in with tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. Serena forced them back under the surface. It wouldn’t do to lose control of herself here. The captain broke her reveries. “Serena—” Her eyes snapped to the captain, silencing her instantly. “It is Lady Serena or Lady of the Fae now. We must be careful, Captain Dune. With my parents entering the everlasting slumber, there are many who will attempt to make me look like I am still a child so they can vie for the throne as ruler of the fae. We cannot give them any reason to doubt me, so titles are important.” Dune nodded and bowed slightly. “My apologies again, my lady. You are right. What would you ask of me and your warriors?” Serena took one last glance around before meeting her old friend’s gaze. “I want you to gather all the warriors who aren’t positioned at the palace and bring them here. Then summon all the nearby townsfolk and villagers, and tell them to come to the palace as well. I need to address everyone and quickly, before our enemies have time to move or strike again.” Dune saluted with a fist over her heart. “As you command, Lady Serena. I will have everyone here by twilight.” She motioned for her warriors and quickly spat out half a dozen commands. They saluted and scattered off in every direction. Serena turned to the larger of the two thrones made completely of green diamond. As she stepped closer, she closed her eyes and breathed in. It still carried her father’s scent. She hesitantly sat, feeling like nothing more than a pretender. Her parents had been adored by everyone in the hundred and fifty years they had reigned and never had a single incident or revolt. She had been the Lady of the Fae for all of a day, and there were already dozens of people trying to take her place. Serena sighed now that she was alone in the throne room, and she let her

thoughts drift to Shar. He had looked so concerned when she told him she was going home, like he could see right through her. It had only been a day since she last saw him, but she missed him more fiercely than she could even think possible. He was always so strong and sure, even when facing impossible odds, like with the dremlich. If he was here with her, he could probably console her and help her win the people over without even blinking. He wasn’t, though. It was all down to her, and she was too weak to even protect herself, let alone rule an entire realm. She shook her head. She had to stop thinking like that. She was the daughter of Durin and Breena Voullerd, trained to lead the fae since birth. Whether or not she felt up to it, this was her birthright, and nobody was going to take that away from her. She could do this for them. She had to. Serena waited patiently for hundreds of warrior and faerie folk to slowly be shepherded into the throne room. She didn’t address them right away, ignoring dozens of questions until every last man, woman, and child was gathered. There were nearly a thousand, but still they fit comfortably in the massive chamber. Once the captain had returned to her side and they were all silently watching her, anxious that she had not uttered a single word yet, she stood and cleared her throat. Everyone’s eyes turned to her, unease clear on their faces. “Thank you all for heeding my summons on such short notice. As you know, two days ago, my father, Lord Durin, and my mother, Lady Breena, were found dead in their bedchambers. I gave the command to keep you all in the dark on what happened until I could address everyone at once. Your Lord and Lady of the Fae were assassinated.” She went quiet for a moment, letting the whispers flow freely. Everyone had suspected it, of course, but it was another thing entirely to be itted so directly. She raised her hand, and the room went silent once more. “Trust me. I know how you all feel. All hope is not lost to us, though. I, Serena Voullerd, the true heir of the fae, will step up to take my mother’s place as the Lady of the Fae. I am aware that there have been murmurs that I am too young and inexperienced to take the throne, but I want to make it clear that any such talk is as untrue as it is blasphemous. I am not without clemency, so if any of you think I am unfit to be the Lady of the Fae, I would like to encourage you to

step forward and speak your mind now.” The crowd visibly flinched as Serena took her seat again, staring straight ahead with as much stoniness as she could muster. Nobody moved or spoke for a long moment until a small boy suddenly pushed his way to the front of the throng. Upon closer look, she found that he wasn’t actually a kid but a faerie child, clear by his solid-lavender pupilless eyes. He looked no older than nine, but she knew him and knew how vile he really was. He had once been her mother’s advisor until he was exiled for attempting to poison her father. If he was back, he had just inadvertently let slip that he had aided in the planning of their assassination. He bowed slightly, his eyes flashing dangerously. He was about as harmless as a viper among mice, though he hid it well. “Lady Serena, I am heartened to see you have grown up to be so much like your mother. I know I am but a humble farmer now, but I had the pleasure of once being very close to her. Although it is true you are mature now, you were only just sent away to begin to learn how to use your magic. I have no doubt once you finish your training you would make a great ruler, but without the full knowledge of your own power, I fear you would not properly be able to safeguard the realm. The Olden Tree is already dying without the connection to your family’s magic.” Serena faltered inwardly, though she kept her stoic and calm expression. That much was true. The connection of the Lady of the Fae and the Olden Tree was what kept the realm in balance. She was aware she needed to get on that but had no idea how. She nodded. “Thank you for your honesty, Aelfdane. Is there anyone else who wishes to voice their concerns?” He bobbed his head and stepped back into the crowd. A few others murmured among one another, but no one else dared to step forward. She smiled cunningly and met Aelfdane’s gaze as he looked around in shock. He had been trying to get a rise out of others by being the first to step forward, but he failed miserably. They either respected her family too much or were terrified of what she was capable of. Serena rose to her feet. It was time to finally show she could be a viper too. “Well then, I am sure there are a few others who have equal concerns but are

choosing to have faith in me. I would like to express my gratitude for that. I know I have a lot to learn, but together our realm will continue to flourish just as it has for hundred of years. Also, I have other news about my parents’ assassination.” For the slightest moment, every breath paused as they listened with rapt attention. “I already have been made aware of who is behind their death. Our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of Kredal in the north have been plotting for the last few years to seize control of the fae. They failed for a while until they managed to get someone on the inside. I do not know how many spies and traitors walk among us, but I know one of those people is Aelfdane.” Aelfdane cried out in surprise as the throngs of people suddenly exploded into an uproar of rage. For a moment, everyone seemed unsure of what to do—until he tried to bolt for the door. Immediately he was grabbed by several warriors and civilians alike and dragged before the throne. Serena looked down on him without any trace of mercy in her eyes. He pleaded as he gazed up at her, begging for his life, but he did not even attempt to claim that he was innocent. She turned her gaze back to her people. “It pains me to say this after having so many years of peace, but I cannot simply let those responsible for murdering our beloved leaders get away with it. At dawn tomorrow, I am declaring war against the Kingdom of Kredal and any others who dare to stand with them.” For the first time in her life, she did not wear a calm mask or one of childlike happiness. For once, she let it all slip as her rage visibly bubbled to the surface. “I am aware that I still have a lot to learn about magic, but that does not for a second mean that I am unfit to rule our people. Are you willing to stand with your new Lady of the Fae?” The crowd, still whipped into a frenzy, shouted their in unison. There were a few who blanched at the thought of war and others who yet still doubted her, but the bloodthirst of the masses would keep them silent. Lady Serena smiled lovingly at her people, but inside she was still torn. It was going to be a long time before she would see Shar again, if ever, but this was more important than either of them. Still, she smiled in spite of her sadness of not being able to return to Shar and Brenerra. He had looked at her like a child at

first. Never in a million years would he expect that she had a secret life, where she had to be another person entirely. She made a vow to herself. Once they got revenge on Kredal and the realm fell back into its natural order, she would find a way to Shar and tell him everything. For now, her only worry had to be to survive long enough to do so…

It was well past noon by the time I finally reached Brenerra’s front gate. All the effort of walking for nearly a day straight, using magic, and the encounter with the Slyph had my body aching from my neck clear down to the sores on my feet. I sucked it up, though, and made my way around the school to the back field, hoping that Nyx hadn’t given up on waiting yet. He was good to his word and was sitting beside the crater around the skeleton of the training dummy. Someone else was standing next to him, too, but they wore a long hooded black robe that completely covered any discernable features. Nyx stood as he noticed my approach, and they eagerly met me halfway across the field. Nyx grinned from ear to ear, practically slavering with excitement, he whistled at me. “Look at you,” he greeted. “You look fantastic for someone who just survived a run-in with the devil.” I kept my face ive. I really wasn’t sure just how much I should tell them about what actually happened. He asked, “How’d it go?” The hooded figure kept silent, seemingly content to let Nyx do all the talking. I smiled back. “Surprisingly easy, actually. There was only one creature protecting the grotto, so I managed to get in and out pretty quickly. I’m assuming this is the Slade you mentioned who gave you the job?” Nyx nodded and turned to him. “My apologies. I’m a bit excited over here. Slade, this is the astounding Shar I told you about. Shar, this is Slade.” I smiled at him or her—I had no idea truthfully. I could see nothing but darkness under the hood. “Pleased to meet you.” I pulled the velvety pouch I had strapped to my belt loop free and let the gem fall into my hand. Even without seeing Slade’s face, I could feel his gaze snap toward my hand as he watched the way the gem did not sparkle or shine in the sunlight. His. He was definitely male given his husky, deep tone. His voice sent a chill

down my spine. It wasn’t creepy by any means. It just gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. He said, “Trust me, Shar. Not as pleased as I am to meet the one capable of retrieving this prize. May I see the jewel?” I almost hesitated until I realized I had no reason to, and I held it out as his pale muscled hand reached out from under the robe. Taking it gingerly, as if it were made of glass, he rolled it between his hands as he inspected it closely. After a few moments, he made a satisfied grunt and looked back up at me. “There is no uncertainty. This is the celestial gem. Nyx said that, in addition to the monetary recompense, you would like an arcanus, correct?” I nodded. “Yes, I would like a ring if possible.” He bobbed his head. “It will be done. Hold still for a moment so I can measure your potency to determine the strength required for your arcanus.” Nyx laughed. “You better brace yourself, Slade. It’s like being hit by a bolt of lightning if you aren’t prepared when you first touch his magic.” Slade harrumphed in a skeptical way as I felt his magic brush against my mind. I did my best not to flinch, but his magic felt wet and slimy, almost like an eel. With ample time to prepare this time, I threw up mental shields around my thoughts and memories, only letting his wriggling magic my own. After a brief moment, he retracted the tendril of magic, and I caught a brief glimpse of eyes like liquid sliver flashing iridescently. “I am finished,” he stated simply, choosing not to say anything about what he felt within me. He closed and opened his right hand, and a gleaming black ring with the head in the shape of a distorted skull with horns like a bull appeared in his outstretched palm. “Since your potency is unusually high, your arcanus is made slightly different than most. It will be able to withstand the massive onslaught of your magic as it should, and you will be able to use it like normal. However, there is a very large drawback… I trust you are familiar with how they work if you sought one, so I’ll be brief. Normally, if you place your magic into an arcanus and someone else

wears it, they can use your stored magic.” “You merely have too much potency for this to apply to you, however. If someone gets their hands on this while you have your magic stored and attempts to use it, they will be able to unleash a tremendous level of magic, but it would kill them in the process. I suppose you can look at it as a double-edged gift. You never have to worry about someone getting away with stealing it.” Surprisingly, with everything I had learned at Brenerra about magic so far, I found I wasn’t surprised in the slightest. I nodded and carefully took the ring from him and put it on my right middle finger. Truthfully, it felt no different than any other piece of jewelry I had ever worn, but maybe it felt different when it was imbibed. Slade turned to Nyx and handed him a pouch so stuffed that it looked like it would burst apart at any second. Nyx’s eyes were full of greed as he smiled at the hood. “Thank you.” Now that his prize was received and payment was delivered, Slade took a step back and turned to me once more. “As a matter of curiosity, what was made of the guardian of Wyrmwood Grotto?” I froze, quickly trying to come up with a believable lie. Something told me that itting what really transpired would be a very bad idea. He seemed to know something about the Slyph even if he didn’t say it outright. I decided upon a half-truth. “It lives,” I said. “I made a deal to get the gem, and the price wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.” He made a snickering sound. “I have no doubt. It was fascinating to meet you, Shar. I’m sure our paths will cross again in the future.” Before I could even nod in response, he was gone. Nyx smiled at me one last time. “See you next Saturday, Shar. Thanks again for the help.” With a soft pop, he teleported himself away as well, leaving me in an empty field. Wondering how long it would be before they taught us how to teleport, I shook my head and began heading back for my dorm. I was ready to sleep for a month with how exhausted I felt, but I still had to figure out how I would face

Pyrsi if she was home. Even though it hadn’t actually been her, there was no way I could get the mental picture of her moaning in ecstasy as she raked her nails down my back out of my head. I managed to stifle the thought somewhat as I rode the lift up to the fifth floor. I paused outside of my room and sighed. I hadn’t even faced Pyrsi yet, and I was already racked with guilt. There was no way I could face Serena at this rate. I needed to get ahold of myself. The room felt pleasantly cool after spending so much time outside in the hot spring air. Closing the door behind me, I paused quietly in the entryway to listen for a moment to see if I could hear anyone. It was muffled, but I could hear Pyrsi’s and Jirod’s voices drifting out of her closed door. It sounded like a heated argument. I knew I should mind my own business and just go to my room, but I inched closer out of curiosity anyway. Pyrsi sounded like she was sniffling. “Well, I am sorry, but that is what you get for going through a girl’s private journal.” Jirod voice was much easier to hear since his tone was irate. “You are my mate, Pyrsi. I don’t care if it was just a ing thought in your journal or if you told half the academy. The problem is that you even felt it in the first place.” I halted, realizing they were having a full-blown fight, not just a heated argument. I began slinking away from their door toward my own room. Pyrsi said, “How many times do I have to apologize? I can’t help the way I feel, but I have not done anything wrong either! You are the only one I want to be with, or else I would have already left.” He grunted. “Yeah, you’re with me, but you forget I read what you wrote.” He slammed something down hard onto wood, causing a loud echo. He started reading from her journal just as I finally made it to my door. I froze, still too curious to miss what the fight was all about. “I have never felt so uncertain in my entire life. I love Jirod, I know I do, but he can be so cold and distant sometimes. On the other hand, he”—he spat the word like it were venomous—“is everything Jirod isn’t. He’s sincere, caring, and attentive. Whenever I look into those beautiful hazel eyes, it is like there is this

magnetic pull between us. I wish I could get him out of my head so everything could go back to normal, but I am scared that the more time we spend together, I may quickly start to fall for him.” He snapped the book closed violently. “Does that sound like I’m the only one you want to be with? it it. Since you met him, things just haven’t been the same between us.” All at once, realization dawned on me. I hadn’t done a single thing to purposefully provoke it, yet I was the cause of their bout. She had felt that same static electricity between us that I had felt in the first few days before I realized she was taken. I wanted desperately to go in and stick up for Pyrsi that I was dating Serena and that nothing was going to happen between the two of us. He sounded long past willing to listen to reason, though. It would probably just make things a lot worse, actually. Now that I wanted to very quickly be away from the tension, I quickly opened up my room and slid inside. Once the door was closed behind me, the sound of their voices faded out completely. I was already running at negative steam before hearing that bombshell, and I didn’t have enough energy to try to figure it out until I got some rest. I locked the door and got a quick shower to wash off everything from the last few days. Surprisingly, I really hadn’t gotten filthy in the grotto. I just felt dirty mentally, and a shower was the only physical thing I could do to soothe myself. At least hearing their fight had done one thing. It finally let me stop reliving the encounter with the Slyph over and over again. I still felt guilty as hell, but at least I was clean as I returned to my bed. I wanted to inspect the arcanus now that I finally had a moment but was fast asleep in seconds. For once, no dreams came to me, only darkness.

Sometime later, I was startled awake by the muffled sound of shouting coming from outside my room. Groggily I sat up, still out of it, but I was awake enough to understand that it was Pyrsi and Jirod again.

“I give up! If you refuse to let it go, then I am done trying to convince you. Get out of my dorm!” Jirod screamed back, “Fine! You warn that bastard, though, the next time I see him will be the last.” She growled in anger. “You are so ridiculous! He did not even do anything. Just leave already.” The front door smashed so loud that it should’ve splintered, and the room was once again silent. I contemplated if I should go and try to comfort her, but unintentionally or not, I had just caused her to lose her mate. Lying back down, the door to her room closed softly, but otherwise, she didn’t make a sound. I felt so guilty that sleep eluded me this time, so I switched to focusing on the ring to distract myself. My magic responded to my thoughts without having to consciously reach for it and trickled from my hand to my finger and into the arcanus. As soon as it had imbibed even the slightest bit of magic, I could feel it start to react. The cold metal began to glisten slightly as if it were wet, heating with a pleasant warmth, but otherwise stayed the same. Satisfied that nothing bad seemed to happen, I let the trickle grow to a steady torrent. The arcanus soaked it up hungrily until I had poured all but a sliver inside and cut off the flow. I felt drained, of course, but also relieved without the volcano raging inside of me. Honestly, except for the warmth coming from it, it still felt like any other piece of jewelry, so I decided to test it. I motioned with my hand as if unlocking the door to my room. The magic stored in the ring responded just as naturally as if it was my body. The lock turned instantaneously. Good, it really didn’t feel any different. Now that my energy was spent, I was tired once more. If nothing else, it would also be an effective way to make myself go to bed when I wasn’t sleepy. I drifted off once more, my thoughts wandering to how Serena was faring back home or if she had made it back already.

When I woke up this time, I felt significantly more sure in myself. There would

never be a way to fully eradicate my guilt over the Slyph, but I felt like I was ready to face Serena and tell her the truth. She deserved to know, even if it cost me her love. As for the Slyph taking Pyrsi’s form, that didn’t actually affect anyone but myself, so it could stay my secret. I got up and got dressed in some faded jeans and a plain black tee and headed for the communication device in the living room. It was only about nine in the evening, so I wasn’t surprised to find Pyrsi’s door still shut. Given what had occurred a few hours prior, she deserved the sleep. Being as quiet as I could, I sat on the couch and reached out and let my magic brush against the communication device like I had done before. The machine-like male voice instantly responded to my probing. “Mr. Victor, what can I do for you today?” I smiled sadly. I was really starting to miss how efficient it was to have a cell phone. “Uh, hi. I would like to see if Serena Voullerd has returned from her home leave yet.” The device gave off the dull tone for a long moment as it searched or processed my request—or however it did its thing. After a moment, the tone faded, and the voice returned. “I’m sorry, Mr. Victor, but Ms. Voullerd has not returned to her room yet.” I sighed but had still half expected that to be the case since she hadn’t tried to call me yet. “This may be a strange question, but is there anyway way to a different world? I’m worried about her.” The device hesitated for a moment before answering my question as if reciting a rulebook. “Students wishing to make extradimensional calls are required to have a magic level exceeding five hundred. Brenerra, Academy of the Arcane, will not be held liable for any injuries or deaths resulting from an overexpenditure of the student’s magic while making such a call. Do you accept these ?” Whoa, that was some serious fine print. It made sense, though. They didn’t want to be responsible for a student with too little magic killing themselves because they wanted to phone home. “I accept,” I said. “Please call Serena Voullerd at the Dream Sanctuary.”

Once again, the dull tone emitted from the machine as I funneled a lot more magic into it. For a moment, nothing happened, and I began to think it was futile until the screen suddenly filled with static. I channeled more magic from the ring, and the screen cleared, showing a sight that made my blood run cold. I was looking at a blurred Serena. It was eerily similar to the dream I had of her entering the palace in the tree. She wore the same flowing snow-white gown, the skirt shimmering like it was covered in thousands of tiny diamonds. Her hair was different as well. It was not a mess of pale blond anymore; now it was combed neatly with two braids trailing down her forehead and around her head, giving the appearance of a crown. Serena was sitting alone in a dark room, on a bed with vivid green blankets and curtains around it. She smiled at me as I came into view, but her golden eyes betrayed how sad she really was. “You found a way to me, Shar,” she said softly. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You really are brilliant.” It was strange, but her entire manner of speech had changed. She didn’t sound cute and bubbly anymore. Her tone was slow and deliberate now. I asked, “You look so different, Serena! What happened? Is everything okay at home?” She shook her head. “No, it’s not. I have so much to tell you. I just didn’t expect to have to find words for it all so soon.” She sighed deeply and strangely elegantly. “My mother and father ruled the realm of the fae, but they were murdered a few days ago. I came back because I had to become the next Lady of the Fae and take their place. Now we’re at war with the people who are behind it, and everything has fallen onto my shoulders. I wish things could be different, but I am not coming back to Brenerra.” The news stung. I hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye, and now I’d never see her again? The fact that she was royalty didn’t matter to me. I just missed her. I said, “I’m so sorry about your parents, beautiful. Is there anything I can do? I’ll come to the Dream Sanctuary if you want me to and help you.” Her forced smile faltered with the trembling of her lips as tears began to well up at the corners of her eyes. She gave me a yearning look filled with such pain and love that it made me desperately want to reach out and hold her, but I knew I couldn’t. She knew it couldn’t happen either, and I could see it breaking her

heart. Even her words were unsteady. “You have no idea just how much I wish you could be here with me, but this is not your battle. You need to stay at Brenerra so that you can go on to achieve remarkable things. Shar…I love you. I know it seems soon, but I need to tell you that at least once. The little time I’ve know you, it’s felt better than anything I’ve ever had in my whole life.” My voice cracked. “Serena, you’re making it sound like we’re never going to see each other again.” She nodded, holding back a sob. “That’s because we aren’t, at least not for a very long time. Maybe after you graduate you can come see me—that is, if you still me by then.” I felt a single tear fall down my cheek. “Don’t talk like that. I will see you again, okay? I promise.” I could feel myself falling apart, too, but I held it together. This had to be a thousand times harder on her, so I had to be the strong one. I wanted to go to her, comfort her, protect her, but she didn’t want me there. She had to figure out how to lead an entire realm of people now, and I was her weakness. “I understand. You gotta do what you gotta do. I love you, too, Serena. Take care of yourself, okay?” She nodded and then was simply gone. I just sat there staring at the blank screen for what seemed like an eternity. The sound of a door opening behind me finally snapped me out of my daze, and I turned to see Pyrsi looking just as devastated as I felt. Her eyes were red and puffy from hours of crying, but they were filled with understanding as she looked at me. “I am sorry, Shar. I did not mean to eavesdrop, but I could hear everything from my room. I lost Jirod as my mate today as well, so I guess it is just the two of us now, huh?” she whispered gently. I nodded, at a loss of what to do or say. It had already felt like a lifetime ago since I first looked up at Serena’s scared, pale face. She’d been barely conscious; she was so hurt yet also telling me to run and save myself.

“What happens now?” I asked aloud. “How do we just go back to classes like nothing is different?” She shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea.” She was quiet for a long moment. “I have a crazy thought. I will not be offended if you do not want to…but do you mind if I sleep with you tonight? I do not feel like being alone.” She was right. It probably was a bad idea, but it was an old philosophy and an effective one at that. If you coudn’t be with the one you love… I nodded. “Yeah, I could use the company, too, I think.” Feeling stiff, I rose to my feet and walked over to Pyrsi. We didn’t need any other words as I softly took her hand, and we walked into my room. She didn’t look around curiously. She just went straight to the side of my bed and stripped down to her underwear before lying down under the comforter. I followed suit and lay down next to her, feeling somewhat awkward after everything that had happened. Any further thoughts were banished as she rested her head on my chest and wrapped herself around me. I moved my left arm under her neck and hugged her back as I gently ran my fingers through her soft dark hair. Though she didn’t make a sound, I could feel her begin to cry against me. I held her tighter and closed my eyes, debating if trying to get her to open up about what happened would be a dumb idea. After a while, I made the decision. “Hey, Pyrsi. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay, but I overheard a little of your fight when I came home.” She sniffled as she looked up at me, her tail shaking the bed a little as it arched reflexively. She sighed against me. “None of this is how I wanted it to happen, but you deserve the truth. You have been nothing but kind to me since we met. I keep a journal. It is something I have done since I was little and just never quit. Nobody but me has ever been allowed to see it, and Jirod never tried until he saw I was jealous the other day when you told me you were going on that date with Serena. The first day we met in the common room, I wrote about how charming and nice you seemed but not much else. The next day, when you had that surge and I came to make sure you were okay, it felt like the air was charged between us.”

“I love Jirod. He and I have been through a lot together, but I constantly feel that magnetic pull between you and me that I cannot seem to shake no matter what I do. Jirod and I have always worked well together, but we were always missing that spark between us. Still, I had no intention of doing anything about it. I just wrote about it in my journal to try to help me sort out my feelings, but Jirod broke my trust and read all of it.” I nodded. “So now he wants to hurt me because he feels like I broke the two of you up?” She sobbed. “I am so sorry. It is all my fault.” I searched within myself for some way to make her feel better. “Pyrsi, I don’t blame you in the slightest. I also feel that pull between us. At first, I wanted you so badly that it was difficult to be near you, but then I found out you were with Jirod, so I forced myself to stop thinking about it. I know I can’t fix you and Jirod, but at least you don’t have to worry about him hurting me. Trust me. I can take care of myself if he tries anything, and I have nothing against him.” She sat up, gazing at me with fear palpable in her eyes. She shook her head. “You do not understand, Shar. The Woodmonds are different than most of the dusneocs you have met so far. They are a clan of some of the best soldiers in Flociotail. Dragons already can hold a grudge for hundreds of years, even over something trivial, but dusneoc soldiers are a dozen times worse. If they feel someone slighted them, they declare a blood feud, meaning that they will not rest until they or the other person is dead.” I gulped on reflex. Before the dremlich, I never really had to actually face a lifeor-death circumstance. I was too young to much when my parents died. Earth had a lot of violence, but none that I ever had to see. The idea of either having to die or kill another person just because they read someone’s private thoughts made me sick to the stomach. “Be that as it may, I still don’t hold it against you. He’s the one with the issues. If he is really that determined to fight, we will face that bridge when we come to it, but for now, everything is going to be all right, okay?” She nodded again and returned her head to my chest. “It is strange, but you are the first person I have ever believed tell me that everything will be all right.”

I smiled in spite of the whole situation. That was one power I had always been proud of having. For a very long time, I was the only person who could instantly calm Ashe. It wasn’t just her either. Any time any of the dozens of the younger children ing through the home had a fit or were not adjusting well, I always managed to be able to calm them down or get them out of their shell. “Well, as you said, it is just the two of us now. It doesn’t have to be all bad, we can look out for one another.” She nodded and nuzzled into me, letting her wings rest against my arm. They felt a lot lighter than I expected, and I took the chance for the first time to lightly run my hand along one. Though they looked leathery, they were a lot softer, more like velvet. She made a weird noise as my hand glided down the inside of her wing, which made me instantly freeze. “I’m sorry. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a chance to feel a dusneoc’s wings,” I explained. She shook her head. “You can keep doing it, if you want. Your hands are so much softer than ours that it actually feels soothing.” I resumed, and within a few minutes, I could feel her breathing slow down as she fell asleep. After another moment, my eyes closed, and suddenly, so was I.

Chapter 8

The Truth

Something was wrong. The sensation washed over me like I was suddenly being thrust into the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean. It startled me awake in a panic, and my breathing was choked, like something heavy was pressing on my chest and pinning my entire body down. I tried to look around the room to see what was going on, but all I could do was stare up at the ceiling, frozen as I was. Pyrsi was still asleep with her head on my chest, so I knew nothing was actually physically on me. It felt more like someone’s magic. I gulped, praying Pyrsi hadn’t forgotten that she gave Jirod a key to our dorm room. “What do you want?” I asked through gritted teeth, finding that my jaw was similarly held in place. Not actually looking for an answer, I hoped to buy myself an opening and pushed against the force around me with my own magic. It was like trying to pull a skyscraper with a bicycle. There was no way this was Jirod’s doing. Nobody I had ever met put out that much power. I imagine it was similar to what it would feel like for an I rank to try to fight against my magic. I quickly attempted everything I could think of to either fight against the ethereal bonds or slip out of them, but I couldn’t even manage to shift. A few minutes ed like this, and still nobody answered my question. I began wondering if I was having another surge like I had the first day, but my magic stored in the arcanus should prevent just that. The invisible force around me suddenly intensified as it realized I was trying to break free; it started to get heavier. My breath came out in huffs as it tightened until it felt like my ribs were ready to cave in. As my vision started to become hazy, I could suddenly feel the angry energy of my sword pulse nearby.

I couldn’t explain why, but it was like I could suddenly see in in my mind’s eye, buried under my pants just a few feet away from my hand. I called out to it with everything I had, but it was beyond words, like my body and it were calling out for each other. Suddenly, it was out of the scabbard and in my hand. Rage washed over me, all-consuming. Just like when I unleashed it on the gryphon, the eldritch energy began viciously eating away at the ethereal bonds. It spread like a wildfire, shooting back toward the source as well. Whoever it was, they realized before it was too late and released the spell before being consumed. Freed and having my ability to breath restored, I shot to my feet as I gasped, startling Pyrsi awake as well. In my doorway stood the strangest man I had ever laid eyes on, even factoring in the talking fish people, the graillagians. He was shaped like a human, but everything about his features were wrong. His eyes were large and wide like orbs, all white with no pupils, and his skin looked more like thick leather. His silvery white hair was spiked and wild, and his features were all dark like, he was half made up of shadows. Even without feeling his magic, it sizzled through the air around him like metal on a sweltering day. Every smart sense in my mind screamed that I should be terrified of this man, but somehow I just knew that he was the one who was afraid of me. This had been some kind of test to prove I could be contained if need be, and I had just shattered through it like glass. As Pyrsi slowly woke, trying to figure out why I suddenly jumped up, she gasped as she saw the man in the doorway. I hesitated, wondering why he hadn’t attempted to attack again, but maybe he was preparing another spell. I started to lunge forward with the sword but jumped back as he suddenly raised his hand. I braced myself for another attack, but none came. “Wait. I am not going to try to attack you again. Forgive my rudeness for such a tactless act, but I needed to be sure it was you.” My frown deepened. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t know you.” He gave a light smile. “Not in this lifetime, but we go way back, Theodoric. Forgive me. You go by Shar this time around, right?” His retort caught me off guard. The name Theodoric sounded familiar, but I

couldn’t place where I knew it from. “My name is Shar, but I still have no idea what you’re talking about. Who are you? Why did you attack me?” His smile faltered. “My apologies. I am Damonsolmus, High Magus of the Grand Council.” I flinched. Why the hell was the High Magus attacking me? He was supposed to be away on business. “High Magus? I’ve been waiting to talk to you for a week now! What’s going on?” He sighed. “I know this must be quite an overwhelming shock to you, Shar, but I assure you I am not the villain here. Your real name is Theodoric Moonsable.” Again I felt like I knew the name from somewhere, but Pyrsi was the one who gasped. She said, “High Magus, surely you do not mean the one from the Bloody Aeon? That is impossible. That was hundreds of thousands of years ago!” He nodded. “Correct. Your friend here is one and the same. Shar, many ages ago, you were the greatest magus to ever walk the known universe. You grew corrupt, however, and traveled deep within Ralian to absorb its core in a ploy for even greater strength. The power consumed you, and you went on to commit massive genocide. I and the other of the Grand Council banded together in an attempt to finally stop you, but it was nigh impossible. It took close to a hundred years, but eventually, we found a spell capable of binding you magically. “I am the one who tried to kill you with a knife to your chest, but as you bled out, Ralian began to crumble with you. We realized that by absorbing its core, the two of you became connected and that we couldn’t simply kill you without destroying it. So we had to heal you and think of another way before you managed to break free of the containment spell.” He paused, meeting my gaze. “Then I finally thought of a curse strong enough to stop you without the need to kill you—by turning your life clock back to when you were but a babe and giving you to the purest family that I could find. The world finally had peace for a few long years as I watched you grow back up. But eventually, you became corrupt again, and again I set your life clock back. We have done this dance thousands of times now, and though each of your lives is different, it always ends up the same.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around what he was telling me. There was no way I was some terrible mass murderer. I was just Shar. Nyx had even just said he didn’t sense evil within me. He was more worried about others trying to use me. The High Magus continued, “Usually, you get to about thirty before I have to start you over, but this time, something is unlike any of the others. Your magic has never been this powerful before. Even as I stand here next to you, I can scarcely believe it. If I do not revert you now, you will wreak havoc on the world, and we may be unable to stop you this time. I am sorry that it has to be this way, but it is for the good of the universe and everyone in it.” I couldn’t believe him, that I was really some evil monster, but even if it were true, there was no way I was going to just let him revert me back to a baby or kill me or whatever he was really after. “No.” The single word escaped my lips on accident, but it shattered the tense air with the force of a gong. Pyrsi and the High Magus both gazed at me in shocked surprise. I hadn’t intended to, but the word literally dripped with magic and power. I continued, “I don’t believe you. I can’t. There is nothing that says a destiny is written in stone. Even if what you’re saying is true and I really used to be this Theodoric guy, that’s not who I am now. The Storm Within books I grew up with even said that Shar would be the one who went on to defeat evil and become the greatest magus. How do you know that, in this lifetime, with the power I have, I won’t turn out to be good?” He let out a hollow laugh. “The Storm Within series? Those are just books, Shar! I convinced your father to read them to you relentlessly so that we could keep you from becoming corrupt as long as possible. You wouldn’t believe how many times we have had this same conversation! It always turns out the same. You will become evil. It is just a matter of when.” A matter of when. It all suddenly clicked together in my head, like revealing the picture of a jigsaw puzzle after building it blindfolded. The face in the clouds from my dreams, I hadn’t realized it then, but it felt familiar. It was the face of what I could become, not the face of some unknown evil coming for me. The blurred version of me

who called me the difficult Shar and had known about Ashe was another me from a different life before I was made a child again. None of it really mattered, though. I was not about to let anyone tell me what I was going to become. Only I had control of that. To hell with the High Magus. Just because he was the most powerful whatever currently, it did not mean he was omnipotent. I shook my head, a lone tear welling up at the corner of my eye. “No, you are wrong, Damonsolmus.” I purposefully didn’t say High Magus because he didn’t deserve the respectful title. He had given up on me a very long time ago instead of trying to help me. “I refuse to let you stand here and listen to you tell me that you know everything about me. Assuming you’re even telling the truth, just once, did you ever try to make friends with me and help me stay uncorrupted instead of just watching from afar, waiting for me to fail?” He blanched, guilt written clearly on his face as the realization hit him. Pyrsi had kept silent as she listened to our exchange, but she finally moved off the bed to stand behind me. “Shar is right. Just because something has happened, it doesn’t mean it has to happen that same way over and over again. Shar is the kindest, most caring person I have ever met.” The High Magus sighed. “I’m sorry, both of you, but you are two tiny specks within an ocean that I have seen walk these realms in my many years. I cannot risk letting Theodoric return and slaughter millions of innocent people again. It is time, but if it’s any consolation, I promise to make sure you have a great childhood this time around.” Before he even finished talking, I was already pulling every ounce of magic from my arcanus and sword around myself like a suit of armor. He muttered something and cast his hands out in front of him. The dark room ignited with thin tendrils of bright white light, like a spiderweb shooting from his fingers toward me. I threw my hands in front of me with desperate abandon, keeping the magic around me as I pushed with the sword’s energy like a punch. The moment the fist of eldritch magic collided with the white web, it was like a bombshell going

off that enveloped the three of us. Excruciating anguish engulfed my body worse than when I had been struck by lightning in my Blazer, viciously tearing my body apart nerve by nerve. The agony stretched on unending this time until I finally felt the sweet release of death call out to me…

Chapter 9

Lost

Well, I wasn’t dead like I had thought at first, but the aching searing through my body made me unsure if I wanted to be alive. When our magic collided and exploded everything around us, I had assumed it was the cause, but now I could feel that it was my own magic causing the pain. It was almost like it had been poisoned somehow, the warmth of the power flowing throughout my body now more like battery acid. I forced my way past the pain and tried to use my hands to help me sit up, but whatever I was lying on dug painfully into my palms like glass. That pain was like a gnat compared to the way my magic felt, though, so I ignored it and finally managed to look around me instead of just up at the drab, stormy sky. I definitely was not anywhere near Brenerra anymore. Instead I was surrounded by nothing but endless mounds of odd-colored sand in every direction. It surely wasn’t a desert, though. The air was humid and comfortably warm, and it felt like it could rain at any second now. My feet were like jelly as I stood, but it distracted me somewhat from the pain. I began to meander aimlessly, looking for any signs of Pyrsi—or even Damonsolmus at this rate—but there was literally nothing. Except for my own footprints, the sand was completely smooth from the wind. After a few fruitless hours, my strength started to falter. My throat was so dry that I couldn’t even call out. I dropped to my knees and got my first close look at the ground. I had been mistaken. It wasn’t actually sand at all. The multicolored grains looked more like pieces of rubble and debris, long since having deteriorated due to the elements and time. I picked up a small handful of the shiny “sand,” finding shards of metal and old brick. I let them fall back to the ground, inspecting the thin slices all over my hand left in their wake. Trying to come up with a logical explanation seemed pointless given the more

pressing concerns, so I turned toward what I had been trying to avoid doing instead. I reached inside toward my magic cautiously, the burning sensation amplifying triple fold. My cry of pain only came out as a hoarse grunt as I fought past it and tried to turn the humidity around me into water. It was like squeezing lemon juice onto a fresh wound, but at least it responded, albeit slower than normal. The air in front of me drained into my cupped hands like a slow fountain, and I greedily wolfed it down, repeating the process several times before my throat felt like it wasn’t ready to bleed anymore. I wiped my hands on my bare legs, just finally giving thought to the fact that I was still only in my boxers. The urge to summon clothes was high, but I decided against the needless waste of magic for now. If something really was wrong with it, I needed to start being careful and only doing what was necessary to survive. There was no way of telling where I was or how long I would be stuck in this place, not to mention what sort of creatures I could encounter. Feeling slightly better from the water, I rose to my feet and began walking toward what I prayed was north—or at least a northern direction. It must have been hours that I walked, but the dreary sky never seemed to change, nor did the dunes ever end. They both just stretched on forever like an ocean. Finally, I stopped to look around again. “Hello?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, imploring the heavens that someone somewhere would hear me. But just like anytime anyone was stranded somewhere, no answer came. I could feel it in my blood. I was all alone here, wherever that was. No rescue was coming for me. Worse, it never seemed to end. Every day, I walked until my legs gave out, made enough water to drink, and ed out from exhaustion. When I finally woke, I would stand and start walking again until I couldn’t anymore. The storm clouds in the sky never moved or rained, and the hills of “sand” just stretched on and on. An unknown time later, I finally gave up, and I lay down, waiting for my end to come. I hadn’t eaten in who knew how long, and it was only a matter of time at this rate until my body shut down. Maybe I really had died, and this was my version of hell—walking alone forever. Delirium started to settle in at some

point too, and I started seeing hallucinations of people I knew appearing and trying to talk to me. I ignored all of them, even the ones of Serena. They disappeared for small periods and reappeared just as much until I was aching for starvation to come. After weeks of the torture, their faces became more and more blurred until I couldn’t even recognize who they were supposed to be. My mind became unhinged more and more, all of my thoughts and memories fading until only survival remained. Another few weeks later, a vision came. It was different from the faceless ghosts, though. It sounded strangely like the whinny of a horse. It was enough to make me sit up and look around to try to spot the source. I chalked it up to another hallucination until I saw the distant outline of what looked like someone on a horse-drawn carriage. It was too blurry and faded to be like the others, so I once again fought my way to my feet and began walking toward it. Luckily, the person was riding in my direction because it only took an hour or two to reach. When I finally did, I noticed it was a young girl holding the reigns of two bizarre colossal skeletal horses. She looked terrified as she saw me approach, but then again, I must look just as skeletal as the horses, if not more, by now. She eyed me up and down, her curly brunette bangs shifting slightly in the breeze. I quickly tried to think of something to say, but I hadn’t talked to anyone but myself in so long that it was hard to form complete sentences anymore, let alone explain why I was mostly naked, alone in the middle of nowhere. “Food—” Crud, I meant to say hello and ask how she was, but my stomach won that fight real quick. She looked around in alarm. “Good Lord, are you trying to rob me? I’m afraid you do not look to be in much shape to do so. I think I could take you on.” I shook my head vigorously. “No rob. Hung’y, please…” She studied me for a long moment before seeming to understand. She nodded and tied the reins to the front of the carriage before jumping to the ground in front of me. She was only a head shorter and was garbed in a strange black dress from her neck to her feet, unlike any material I had ever seen. She eyed me

cautiously to make sure I wasn’t going to attack her before turning her back on me and going inside the carriage. After a long moment, she returned with a handful of dried meat. I tried to be polite and thank her, but all that escaped was a pained moan as I darted forward and started shoveling it down, barely stopping to chew before swallowing. She flinched, thinking I was darting for her at first, but she was annoyed as she saw I was aiming for the food. In seconds, the wonderful, sweet meat was gone and I dropped to my knees. I didn’t understand why tears started streaking down my face, but the food had tasted like heaven. Her eyebrows raised as I met her hazel gaze, wondering if I was just simply crazy. The meat had helped, but I was still ravenous enough to devour an entire horse, it had cleared up some of the fog from my head though. I stood slowly, trying to be as less menacing as possible as I wiped my mouth on my filthy hand. I cleared my throat. “Th-thank you. Sorry for being rude. I haven’t eaten in…well, I don’t know.” She nodded. “That is quite all right, sir. I’m glad I could be of assistance. If you’ll excuse me now, I really must be on my way.” My temporary hope being ripped away, I fought not to panic. “Wait!” My outburst made her jump back in alarm, and I made a face, ashamed. “I have been lost for so long. Where are we? Are there any cities nearby?” She flashed me a weird look, “Cities? No, there are no cities nearby…” The strange way she answered gave me pause, but my brain was still too foggy to try to puzzle out what she meant. “You are currently in Odrunon, though. What’s your name? Where are you from?” I felt like I should know the answers to her simple questions, but everything before the endless sands had long ago faded into blurriness. “I…I don’t…” I paused, trying to think, but only one name popped into my head. It felt wrong on my tongue, though. “I think my name is Theodoric. I sort of a place called Ralian, if that means anything to you.” Her eyes went so wide they looked like they would pop out of her head. “Ralian? Ralian was destroyed thousands of years ago! You must be dreadfully confused. Look, Theodoric, I really need to get this transport finished, but given your

current state, I will allow you to accompany me. Wait here for a moment, please.” She went back in the carriage and returned with a handful of garments. She studied me again before ing me an outfit. “Try this on. I think it will fit with how lean you are, albeit a bit tight on the shoulders.” I nodded ively and pulled on the shirt, tights, and jacket. The foreign material prickled painfully against the dirt and scabs over my body as I looked down at myself. If not for my own filth, the garb almost made me look like some kind of bard or nobleman. “Uh, thank you…” She nodded. “It’s Zenaide, but you may call me Zena. Now if you’re coming, come on.” She quickly hopped back up on the front of the carriage and took the reigns as I slowly ed her. The horses looked back and sniffed at me before she ushered them to get moving again. “So, Zena, you said this land is called Odrunon? Is that a wasteland or something?” She shook her head. “Odrunon is the country we are in. There are a few places scattered about where a few Odrunonians have banded together enough to make simple shelters, but the entire realm is like this. There are no cities or towns anymore on the surface. Most everybody has went underground already.” I looked over. “I have no idea what an Ew-drone-on-ian is. Sorry.” She laughed. “It’s pronounced Oh-drune-in-ian. I guess you could say we once descended from the human race, but that was so long ago hardly anyone re anymore… Speaking of, what made you think that you are from Ralian? I don’t mean to make fun of you or anything. It’s just that a lot of people view Ralian as some kind of ancient holy land.” Trying to understand it all was making me dizzy. Half of everything she was saying meant absolutely nothing to me. I shrugged. “It’s one of the few things I can faintly . I think I came from a place called Brenerra in Ralian. I don’t know how I got here, though, and like I said, I’m not even sure if Theodoric is actually my name. Everything is just so…topsy-turvy in my head.”

She smiled gently over at me. “It’s all right, Theodoric. I will help you out. In return, you get to help me unpack the carriage when we get to Pirn.” Suddenly hopeful at the prospect of more food, I was quick to nod. “I just hope there’s more food there. I’m still starving.” Her laugh was pleasantly feminine but still a little strange, uncertain, as if she hadn’t actually laughed in a really long time. “Yes, we can also get you more food in Pirn. Don’t worry.” Feeling relieved, I nodded and tried my best to focus on the skeleton horses instead of openly staring at her, but I hadn’t seen a real person in ages. It was already taking everything in me to not reach out and brush against her again just to make sure she wasn’t some intricate illusion. After a while, I thought she began to notice my occasional glances, but she was polite enough to not call me out on it. Distracting myself was the only thing that worked, so I switched to idle conversation. “So what is it exactly that you do, Zena?” She gave me a lengthy sidelong glance. Clearly, she didn’t trust me yet. “You could say that I am a carrier of sorts. I’m one of the last few people on the surface still willing to risk voyaging through Odrunon.” I nodded. “Is it dangerous or something? You had been worried that I was trying to rob you.” She was quiet for a moment, her words coming out dripping with venom. “Yes, venturing beyond the shelters has been growing more and more hazardous every day. There are all sorts of dangerous wild beasts that roam these lands, but the real issue lies with the bountiful number of cutthroats, bandits, slavers, and even worse people than you can imagine.” It seemed like a sore subject, so I didn’t probe any further. “What happened that made things get so bad? What happened to all the cities and towns?” She sighed as if in defeat. “It would appear that you really have lost your memory and aren’t just faking it… I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but all of life has gone to hell. This is all I know personally. Forgive me if I mess up some of the details. I just always hated it when my parents tried to gave

me history lessons. “So five thousand or so years ago, there was apparently some kind of huge accident that caused Ralian to implode. There were legends about Ralian being one of the first few planets to exist, but nobody really knew how true those legends were or what would happen after its demise. Also, understand that, back then, people had magic as commonly as they had eyes or lungs. In fact, there were entire worlds that lived off it. “Magic started to die out. Some kind of cosmic equilibrium was ripped out when Ralian was destroyed, and every creature and place that depended on it began to die out with it. After that, it was just like dominoes. Hundreds or thousands of worlds were gone within a fortnight, most of the once known races and creatures too. They kept dwindling until only maybe a handful were even left. The only world that was totally unaffected, though, was Earth. “The humans had already been living without magic for a very long time, so they didn’t even notice a change for the most part. The few races who managed to survive saw this and started to flock to Earth for safe harbor, but…the humans did not respond well. They took it as an invasion and fought against those races fleeing from their dying worlds. War raged on for a very long time until, well, look around. This is all that’s left in the entire universe now.” There was nothing to say for a very long time as I let all that she told me soak in. I felt like it should be hard to believe that there wasn’t anything more out there, but probably thanks to the gaping hole in my memory, added with the fact that I had spent an eternity wandering an endless wasteland, I had no trouble believing her. After all, she had no reason to lie. “So, if this is the Human planet of Earth, why did you say Odrunonians are only ‘like’ Humans?” She smiled. “Well, nobody really re what humans or any other of the races looked like. Either we were all human, or just some mixture of whatever races survived thousands of years down the road. I’ve never been to any country other than Odrunon, but I can pretty much guarantee you that they all look like us too. The only difference between people now is the skin color, really, not that it actually makes any sort of difference.” I considered if I should tell her I had magic somehow, but if it really was extinct,

I would just freak her out more. I had no idea anymore how or why I had it. I could just feel the acidic throbbing underneath my skin as a constant reminder that it was there. There was also the issue of why I still could Ralian if it was thousands of years long dead. It meant it had all just been some kind of vivid dream, or I had somehow travelled into the future. The more Zena told me, the more I was beginning to believe the prior was true. Something bad had happened to me while I was walking Odrunon, and it caused me to lose my memory as well as all my possessions, which meant it had probably been a bandit. It was strange that they left me alive, but it explained everything except for why I could use magic. That was no hallucination. I was numb to the pain at this point, but it was still a reminder that it was real. We rode in silence after that for a long time so I could process everything. The strange part was that the more I came to grips with it, the better my head started to feel and the easier it was to push out thoughts of Ralian and whoever Theodoric had been. I wasn’t sure why I had been so confused at first, honestly. Eventually, I was able to form words to my thoughts. “So, Zena, I think you’re right. I think I was just confused about the Ralian stuff, and I just lost my memory or something. I don’t even think Theodoric was actually my name. I was having a lot of hallucinations for a while there.” She flashed me a warm smile. “I am glad that you’re starting to liven up. You kind of scared me there for a little. If Theodoric isn’t your name and you don’t know what it actually is, what would you like to be called instead?” I considered her question, but I really had no idea. “I don’t know. Any recommendations?” She looked to be deep in thought for a very long moment. “How about Maximillian, or Max for short?” Honestly, I didn’t really feel like a Max, but it was as good a name as any. “Yeah, I think Max can work. Much easier to spit out than Theodoric anyway. Mind if I ask why, though?” Zena didn’t look at me. Her voice was low as she answered, “It was my brother’s

name.” I nodded, again not probing, though a theory was starting to form about her. “Well, like I said, Max works just fine, thanks. New name, new life, fresh start, I suppose.” She laughed softly, barely loud enough to hear over the wind. “Must be nice.” There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, but she was still a total stranger and one who was helping me greatly already. I closed my eyes and let my mind drift blankly as I listened to the gait of the horses and the sounds of the carriage wheels rolling. Slowly I drifted off to sleep, the first real, peaceful sleep I had in forever.

Pirn was pretty much what I pictured in my head when Zena had told me that there weren’t even any towns left. Basically, it was a cluster of a few dozen poorly made buildings surrounded by a square of large concrete barriers and four guard towers. She stopped the carriage before the gate, where we were greeted half-heartedly by a large man wearing desert camouflage clothes. He was holding a large firearm and didn’t seem to view us as a threat as we approached. Still, he was more than just a little intimidating and looked ready for a fight. Zena motioned for me to stay put as he cautiously approached the carriage, ignoring the horses entirely. He said, “State your names and business, please.” Zena rolled her eyes. “Sure, Zachariah, it’s not like you know me or anything. My name is Zenaide Erickson. This is Maximillian…Kerr. We have a delivery from Mallowwood.” He nodded sternly, ignoring her comment as he circled around the door of the carriage. “All right, and what are the contents of the delivery?” My attention perked up since I was also curious of just what we had been carrying such a long way. She answered, “The usual foodstuff—some dried meats, vegetables, fruits, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, all that. Oh, and this time, I am also carrying some textiles and old clothes as well.” Zachariah nodded and quickly inspected until he seemed satisfied and returned back to the gate. He yelled up to one of the nearby guard towers, “They’re good. Let ’em on through.” Fairly quickly, the gate doors swung inwardly, and Zena spurred the horses into a slow gait. There were a few people walking about, mostly middle-aged women and men, but they were all carrying supplies. Everything was almost eerily quiet, devoid of any children running around or idle chitchat. Te atmosphere of Pirn was more of a prison or labor camp than a shelter. Their faces were bruised and filthy, skin wrinkled and warped from years

of harsh living conditions. Zena must have noticed whatever expression I was making because she gave me a sorrow-filled look. “Pretty hard to take in, isn’t it, Max?” I nodded. “Are there no children in Pirn? This place may as well be a graveyard for all the happiness in it.” She shook her head. “No, pretty much everyone who had kids to look after or were too old to work went underground. Everyone on the surface has to work nearly all day. Every day just to survive. This place does liven up a little at night, though, once the bar opens.” My eyebrows raised. “People are sleeping in huts and tents, but there is a bar?” She laughed. “You make it sound ridiculous, but people have to relax somehow. We spend so much time worrying about when the next raid of bandits or slavers or beasts is going to happen that it would drive most of these folks mad without a way to relax.” I nodded, returning to looking around sadly. Zena stopped in front of one of the nicer buildings that actually had a real roof instead of a tarp or straw. She said, “Here we are. Start unloading the cargo. I’m going to let Mr. Underwood know that his shipment is here.” I nodded amicably while hopping off the seat, watching her walk into the building for a moment. I hadn’t really paid attention to it before, but Zena was older than I had first thought. She had to be at least twentysomething and was actually fairly attractive in a damaged sort of way. Before she could catch me staring again, I opened the door and started unloading a few medium-sized crates onto the front porch of the one-story shack. By the time she returned with a man in his late forties a few minutes later, I already had all the crates stacked neatly and was leaning against the wall to catch my breath. They weren’t really all that heavy, and the prospect of getting more food soon lit the fire under me. She smiled at me impressed as I walked over to greet them. “Wow, you’re pretty quick. Max, this is Mr. Underwood, the grocer. I was just telling him how I

found you wandering the barrens and about your memory. He’s agreed to give you some food and a place to sleep in exchange for helping him around the store for a while.” He nodded, his wispy gray hair bobbing in the wind. It seemed like he was missing every other tooth as he smiled, but at least, he seemed friendly enough. “Nice to meet you, Max. If Zena is okay with you, then that’s good enough for me. She’s a good girl, been helping me for a few years now. It may not be much, but at least you’ll have somewhere you can call home here.” I nodded and smiled back. “Thanks, Mr. Underwood. I really appreciate it.” I turned to Zena. “So are you staying in Pirn for a few days, or are you leaving tonight?” She glanced skyward. “I’ll probably spend the night and then leave first thing in the morning. The barrens aren’t very safe in the daytime, but at night, it’s pure hell.” I glanced up at the sky. For all the time I had wandered Odrunon, I had never once seen it deviate from the bleak canopy of clouds. If there was a way of telling the time of day, it was lost on me. I nodded anyway, feeling a little sad. I had just started feeling comfortable around her. Once she was gone, it would almost be like I was lost again, but at least this time, I had a place to be and something to do. She seemed to be able to read my face again, which probably wasn’t difficult since I had no need to try to conceal my emotions for so long. She flashed me a small smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a week or so with the next delivery. I’ll check in to see how you’re settling in, okay?” I gave a small nod and looked at Mr. Underwood, my belly growling fiercely. “Is there anything you need done today, or can I get some food?” He chuckled pleasantly, not realizing how dead serious I was. Food was not a joking matter. “Come on, Max. I’ll give you the tour and have the missus fix you up something to eat.”

Chapter 10

Awakening

In the velvet darkness of a room without windows, lying on a firm bed of furs and hides, I should have been fast asleep. I had no memories to keep me awake, my belly was wonderfully satiated at the end of every day, and I had been sleeping in this glorified closet for several months now, so it wasn’t like I wasn’t used to it yet. For some unknown reason, though, there was a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach, keeping me awake tonight. I extended my palm upward and summoned a small orb of white light, the acidity of using my magic rising like bile in the back of my throat. I gazed around the small room, taking a moment to study some of the pictures hung on the stained walls. There were a few of Mr. and Mrs. Underwood when they were a lot younger, one of them at their wedding, and a recent one of Zenaide standing next to a young boy with curly brown hair. I stood and took down the picture, so I could get a better look. Zena looked roughly the same age as she was now, maybe a little younger like in her late teens, but her face was so different. In the picture, she was smiling—actually, happy smiling, not just a small amused smile or an empathic one. Her hand was on the boy’s shoulder; he was busy holding a small wolf-like dog in his arms. By now, there was no doubt in my mind that it was a picture of her brother, Maximillian, back before whatever bad secret she was keeping happened. I had tried to ask the Underwoods a few times, as well as some of the neighbors, but nobody seemed to be willing to talk about it. I hung the picture back up with a sigh and snuffed my light. Then I quietly opened my door to step out into the shop. The grocery store, if it could be called that, was the size of a living room, lined with various shelves to hold the fresh vegetables and dried meats, as well as a few other goods. I ignored the temptation to grab some more dried meats and

slipped outside into the cool night air. It had taken a few weeks, but Mrs. Underwood eventually divulged how to tell what time of day it was. In the daytime, there was no wind, and it was a few degrees hotter. At night, either a light breeze or a few heavy gusts would start to pick up, and it got ever so slightly darker. All the neighbors and other shops had long since gone to bed, so I ventured down the main path to the southeast guard tower by the gate. Toby, another Pirn guard in desert camo with choppy ginger-colored hair, grunted at me in greeting as I climbed the long ladder to the platform. “Can’t sleep again, Max?” he asked. I nodded and set up a chair next to his, silently staring out into the endless barrens for a long while. “I just have this sour feeling tonight, like something is up. Any movement out there?” I asked quietly. He shook his head. “Nope, nada. It’s kind weird, actually. I ain’t even seen a wild beast roam near the walls in over a month.” I glanced over at him. “Is that uncommon?” He nodded. “Yup. Too quiet if you ask me, but what do I know?” I laughed. “Hopefully better than the rest of us. Maybe all the rats are mustering their forces before they come and gnaw at you in your sleep.” He shivered. He had a pathological fear of vermin, though he had never voiced quite why. “Funny guy, tonight.” I grunted back. Something catching my eye off to the east. After staring hard for a while, I saw that nothing moved, and I chalked it up to imagination. “So, Toby, do you know anything about Zenaide and her brother, Maximillian? The Underwoods have a picture of them hung up, but they won’t tell me a dang thing no matter how hard I ask.” He nodded. “I do, but it ain’t my place to say.”

Rolling my eyes, I stood back up. “Thanks for nothing then. I’ll catch you later.” He let out another inarticulate grunt as I climbed back down the ladder, headed back home. I made it halfway back before I paused again to look around. There was no sign of movement, no small noises, nothing to indicate that anything was going on, but the sour feeling was twisting inside me again. On a whim, I shifted course to head back toward the front gate, just as the sound of a commotion rose up to break the silent air. I broke into a run, opening the gate just enough to slide through. Zachariah was on guard duty again, holding his rifle at the ready as a lone rider slowly made their way toward us. From this distance, it was hard to make out who it was, but they were approaching fast. “What’s going on?” Zach didn’t look away from the sight of the gun. “I can’t tell yet. It’s a girl, and she isn’t dressed like a bandit, but it could be a trap for an ambush.” I nodded, waiting as the ride closed it. Gasping once, I realized who it was riding on one of the skeletal horses. I motioned at Zach. “Wait, that’s Zena!” He didn’t lower the firearm, though, and I quickly realized why. Her carriage was gone. Her dress was in tatters, and blood was dripping from a large cut down her cheek. Her horse barely slowed as she jumped off only a few feet away. Her hazel eyes were wide and panicked; bruises covered her arms and legs. “Slavers! They’re only a few minutes behind me. I barely managed to get away in time.” Zach sprang into action, calling orders to the men in the guard towers as Zena dropped to her knees, panting. I moved to her side, wrapping an arm around her waist to help her back to her feet. She weakly leaned against me for . Her left eye was so bruised it was almost swollen shut.

“Don’t worry, Zenaide, I have you,” I said. Half delirious, she flashed me a strange smile. “Max, you’re always there for me when I need you.” Assuming she was mistaking me for her brother, I helped her through the gate as Toby began to ring some kind of alarm bell. Within seconds, the other guard towers began to ring similar bells until everyone in Pirn was suddenly out of their houses and moving into defensive positions. I would have been impressed with how quickly they reacted, but Zena was having more and more trouble moving on her own strength. I leaned her gently against the wall of a building as the Underwoods spotted me and ran over. Mrs. Underwood began inspecting Zena with the calmness of a war nurse. Mr. Underwood handed me a long board fashioned like a baseball bat with spikes all over the end. “Sorry to have to ask you this, Max, but do you know how to fight?” I shrugged. “I can figure it out. Thank you.” He nodded. “Do you know what happened?” Zena wasn’t alert enough to answer. I said, “She just rode in, saying slavers attacked her. She got away, but they are close behind.” He paled visibly. “Damn, slavers are some of the worst kinds of people out there. The missus can take care of Zena, but I need you to take them back to the shop, all right?” I nodded and lifted her into my arms; luckily, it felt like she barely weighed a hundred pounds. Mrs. Underwood followed close behind as I moved quickly toward the shop, the sound of gunfire opening up behind us. I swore a few times, but we made valuable time. Mrs. Underwood slammed open the door and cleared off a table to lay Zena down on. She began rushing about, gathering medicine and supplies, while I turned back to face the door defensively. The sound of gunfire and shouting grew louder too quickly, but with no windows, it

was impossible to tell what was happening. I was torn between wanting to go out and help defend my home and wanting to stay and protect the woman who saved my life. All at once, everything outside suddenly went dead quiet. I readied my spiked board, waiting for someone to come charging in at any moment. A long few moments of silence ed, which dragged into half an hour, but still nothing happened. Mrs. Underwood finally paused over Zena to look up at me. “Do you think they drove them off already?” My entire body was coiled like a spring as I shook my head. “No, it’s too quiet out there.” Her voice started to crack, but she fought to keep herself calm. “Oh god, that crazy old man better be all right, or I am gonna give him a piece of my mind.” I flinched as the sudden sound of the doorknob turning shattered the silence, sending waves of ice down my spine. It sprung open just as I swung, the spikes biting into the side of the surprised man’s skull with a sickening crunch. Blood and gore spurted in several directions, hitting my shirt and clothes as I pulled it free and he dropped to the ground like a rock. Two other men stood just beyond the doorway. They were shirtless and had large chains wrapped around their torsos, their muscles rippling. They looked just as shocked as I felt, but then they quickly sprung at me. I tried to swing again, but the larger of the two caught the board and ripped it out of my hands as the other tackled me to the ground, pinning me down easily. The larger one with his new prize stepped toward Mrs. Underwood with a wicked grin on his ugly face. I struggled against the one pinning me down, but by muscle alone, he outweighed me by over a hundred pounds. He grunted with effort, protecting his groin as I tried to kick my way free. Mrs. Underwood cried out as the big man easily grabbed her and twisted an arm painfully behind her back to lock her in place. He said to his companion, “What do you think, Studr? Should we keep the hot

one and the old crone or just kill her?” The man on top of me looked up. “Just ice the old one. She’s not worth much—” I managed to free my leg enough to slam it into his groin with everything I had in me. He cried out in a high-pitched yelp. I pushed him off and grabbed a piece of wood off the floor nearby and pressed it down on his throat. The big guy threw Mrs. Underwood to the side as the man under me tried to throw me off. Desperation fueled my strength as his throat collapsed and his body began to convulse. I shot to my feet and swung with the wood, catching the large one on the side of his head. He shook it off and tackled me against the wall, and my head hit against the plaster hard. His hand came up to choke me. I tried to fight against him, but my head was still swimming. “That’s two of my buddies now, you little bastard.” My vision started to swim as I gazed at Zena’s damaged body ed out on the table. Mrs. Underwood tried to stand up to help me, but she was moving too slowly. I steeled myself mentally as I reached for the familiar acid running through my veins, pulling it to reinforce my throat like steel. His expression turned from victorious to confusion as his grip was no longer able to tighten down on my throat. Letting my magic flow freely now, it went to my hand, and I pushed him off me with impossible strength and jabbed for his nose. His arm flung up defensively, knowing he should be able to block me with ease, but instead his elbow shattered in the wrong direction as bone and tendon crunched under my fist. He screamed in agony as I jabbed again, catching him right in the Adam’s apple. His throat shattered as he gurgled and dropped to the floor, blood frothing from his mouth. Mrs. Underwood looked at me in utter shock. “Max, how the hell did you just do that?” Fighting the bile rising in my throat, I ignored her and turned to step out of the shop. Pirn was a chaotic mess. Dozens of dead men and woman were scattered about. Others who weren’t so lucky were being dragged down along the sand by nearly fifty other shirtless men. The gunshots and shouting had ended because

there was nobody left to fight. Everybody was dead or captured by the slavers already except for the three of us. I pulled the body of the first man I had killed out of the doorway enough to close it and turned back to Mrs. Underwood. She gave me a sad, knowing look devoid of any hope. “We’re the only ones left, aren’t we?” she asked quietly. I nodded sullenly. “There are too many of them out there to fight off or slip past.” I thought for a long moment as she took Zena’s hand. Zena chose then to begin to stir, and she slowly sat up with some aid. She looked around at the corpses and the two of us, quickly sizing up the situation. “Zena, are you okay?” She shook her head weakly, vaguely reminding me of something that I couldn’t quite place. “No, I’m not. First, my family, and now this… I can’t be captured by slavers. You have no idea what they do to women. It would make being lost in the barrens for weeks look like a stroll through paradise.” Her hazel eyes were just as desperate as Mrs. Underwood’s. I nodded, desperately trying to come up with any kind of plan that wouldn’t get us all killed. I was rested enough to use greater magic, but using lesser amounts made me so sick I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t imagine what using a large amount would do to my body. Her pleading expression decided it for me. She had saved me when she had no reason to trust me, even with her intense hatred and fear of bandits and slavers and the like. The Underwoods had taken me in and treated me like family. Making sure they could get to safety was the least I could do to repay them. I sighed, wishing I had some fond memories to think of before attempting what I was about to do, but my mind was still a gaping hole. I walked over to the table. “Zena, Mrs. Underwood, thank you for everything you’ve done for me these last few months.” She looked at me in a panic. “Max, why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?”

I gave her a small smile. “Because I am. I’m going to buy you guys some time to escape. Wait five minutes and then go out the back door. Do not try to run for the gate, and ignore any yelling or anything else you are about to hear. Slip out the hidden age under the shelter walls, and wait until it’s quiet again before you try to run. Do you understand?” Mrs. Underwood nodded, used to taking orders, but Zena shook her head. “No! I’ve lost one brother. I don’t need to lose you too. Just come with us. We can all make a break for it together.” I smiled warmly, gently touching her cheek. “You know that won’t work, Zenaide. This is the only way to keep you guys from getting captured too.” Without meaning to, I was suddenly leaning forward and kissing her. Her whole body went rigid for a moment before she was kissing me back just as fiercely. Before I could change my mind, I pulled away and quickly stepped outside, quietly closing the door behind me. The slavers were all too preoccupied to notice me walk off the porch and out into the middle of Pirn. The largest man I had ever seen suddenly looked up at me from Mr. Underwood’s mangled body. He was at least seven feet tall, just as broad, and had muscles so bulging they looked like they were ready to burst from his skin. He smiled at me, each of his crooked teeth filed down to a point and coated in blood and bits of flesh and meat. “Well, aren’t you the ugliest son of a bitch I’ve ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on?” I called out as loud as I could, drawing the eyes of every man standing nearby. A few started to quickly move toward me, but the huge brute stopped them with a gesture as he walked up to me. I continued, “What happened? Did mommy not hug you enough as a child? Or did she take one look at your hideous mug and kill herself?” His grin only widened like a wolf about to devour its prey, amusement dancing in his blue eyes. “You talk big, pretty boy,” he said, his voice predictably deep and booming, “but we have your village at its knees. What do you think you can do against fifty of us? You aren’t even as big as one of our women fighters, pretty boy.” I laughed mockingly. There were still a few slavers who weren’t paying attention to us. But despite the big brute not getting angry, the rest of his men were, and

they were starting to circle around us. “You worry a lot about size, big man. Are you trying to compensate for something or what? Afraid your men will stop following you if they find out your brain and dick are only the size of a peanut?” The grade school insults were over the top, but the last one finally drew the others’ attention. I was surrounded by at least forty of them now. I only had one shot at this. The brute finally lost his grin. “That’s enough of the insults. Your pretty face would catch quite a high price, but your mouth runs too much. We’ll have to do something about that before we can sell you with the others.” I jeered at him. “Oh, please, you idiots couldn’t catch me if you wanted to. You may be used to bullying people into submission, but I am on a whole other level. How about this? If you can beat me at a one-on-one combat without the help of your army of rejects, I’ll go with you willingly.” His eyes flashed dangerously as his grin returned. He knew as well as I that he could rip me apart with one hand tied behind his back, but the challenge only served to stoke his massive ego. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse without looking weak even if he wanted to. His eyebrows raised. “What happens if you win?” His men started to erupt into shouts that they wanted a piece too, but he silenced them all with a single icy glare. I shrugged. “If I win, you all get the hell out of Pirn and leave everyone you captured here still alive. If you are really as confident as you act, what do you have to fear?” He shook his head. “No can do, boy. I’ve lost men taking this place. It’s ours now.” I laughed, looking around at the other slavers. “So then you are too scared to fight me head on.” The atmosphere around his men instantly turned sober as he glared at me. He knew it was a trap and that he had just walked right into it.

After a long moment, he sighed with a shrug. “Fine. If you can somehow manage to beat me at a one-on-one combat, then I will let what’s left of your pathetic village go free.” I flashed him a small smile. “All right. Do I get a weapon, or are we doing this with our fists alone?” He laughed. “I’m not without mercy. I’ll give you a fighting chance to survive with a weapon, but you I want to squeeze the life out of with my bare hands. What kind of weapon do you want, pretty boy?” I hesitated for a moment. I still didn’t have a solid plan. I was pretty much improving my way here. All I had was desperation and the intense desire to ensure the girls made it to safety. Looking around, I spotted a small rock on the ground nearby. They watched me like hawks as I walked over to the cluster of slavers and picked up the rock. I grinned at them as I stood and returned back to my place at the center. My words came out only matter-of-factly. “This rock is going to be the last thing you’ll ever see. I give you maybe two minutes left before it happens, so if you want to say your prayers, I would do it now.” I was fully serious, but he sneered at me like it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. His men were all chuckling, unaware the warning had been meant for them as well. Shaking his head, he flashed me a pity-filled look. “You got some real stones on you, pretty boy. It’s a damn shame you have to die now.” I merely smiled at him, motioning for him to make the first move. He didn’t instantly charge like I expected, so I took the brief moment to cast my magic out to see if I could feel if Zena and Mrs. Underwood had made it to the secret age yet. I breathed a sigh of relief when I couldn’t feel them inside Pirn anymore. They had escaped. No more playing around—it was time. Instead of just bile, sharp stabbing pain shot up my arm as I poured magic into my hand holding the rock. I ignored it as best as I could and threw my arm back, pretending to get ready to throw the stone. The brute took the bait and dodged right as he started to charge with surprising agility. I waited until he was only a foot or two away before I finally moved the magic from my charged hand into

the stone and let it drop in front of me. The small black pebble grew impossibly big as it half-fell and half-floated in midair, stretching until it was nearly seven feet tall. The brute was moving too fast to stop in time, and he collided head first straight into it. There was a loud, solid thud, and then he dropped straight to the ground, instantly knocked out. It would have been almost comedic if not for the alarmed faces of forty-some peeved slavers still surrounding me. I met a few of their gazes before slamming into the boulder, knocking it over on top of him. Bone shattered with a sickening crunch under the sheer size and weight, blood and gore spurting out from underneath it. I gagged as his apparently full bowels released. There was no doubt that he was dead. It was his own fault. I had tried to warn him that the stone would be the last thing he’d ever see. One of the slavers suddenly started shouting, “That’s bull! That wasn’t a fair fight!” Others quickly ed in, calling for my head. I hadn’t really expected them to keep up the brute’s deal. I just needed a pretext. They started to close in around me to grab me, so I made one last desperate act. Fierce white-hot agony shot through my body like lava as I poured every ounce of acidic energy I could muster into the boulder. The pain burned its way up to my temples too quickly, almost ending before I could thoroughly head up the inside of the boulder. I fought against the pain, watching it turn white as it started to hum. They didn’t notice. There were too busy focusing on me. Then the boulder exploded with a sound so loud it was like the entire world imploded. White light surrounded all of us as huge chunks of rock scattered like bullets in every direction. Something slammed into my head before the pain of my magic could kill me, and then there was nothing…

At first, she was too stunned to move or think. As cliché as it seemed, whether from delirium due to her injuries or not, fireworks exploded through her mind the moment his lips touched hers. Then he was pulling away before she could even decide how she felt about it and was out the front door. She sat there on the table stunned for a long moment, just staring at the closed door as a strange dull drone kept buzzing something in her ear. Slowly reality came crashing back as Mrs. Underwood begun tugging on her arm determinedly. “Zenaide, he’s gone! It’s nearly been five minutes. We need to follow his orders and get moving.” Zena nodded woodenly and let Mrs. Underwood wrap an arm around her waist and help her to the floor. Her legs wobbled shakily from too much blood loss, but they managed to half-limp their way past the shelves and slip quietly outside. It was fairly quiet except for the faint sound of people shouting from the center of the village. She froze as she saw a slaver standing over a mutilated corpse, but a second later, he seemed to hear the noise and went running to the others. Once the path behind the buildings was clear, they slowly made their way to the wall and followed it to the hidden trapdoor under the northeast guard tower. A terrible loud crunch made them freeze again, and then suddenly, the slavers erupted into a loud cacophony. She couldn’t understand how he had known everything he told them, from the five minutes that just happened to clear out the slaver behind the buildings to how he knew they should ignore all the noise, but somehow he had. From the first moment she had encountered him out in the barrens, she had suspected that there was something strange about him, but could he really be psychic? It sounded ludicrous even to herself. Mrs. Underwood pulled her along, snapping her out of her thoughts as she pulled open the large doors. Just as they started to climb down the steps, there was a massive explosion behind them. She cried out as she spun around. Bright white light shot from center of Pirn like a pillar before it sent a shockwave throughout the village. Buildings were razed like they were made of toothpicks as dozens of screams of agony rose up. Mrs. Underwood pushed her

aside and pulled the trapdoor shut over them, just as the shockwave nearly reached them too. Zena fell painfully on her butt on the hard-stone tunnel. Everything was instantly calm and silent like nothing had just happened. A single sob evaded her tight grip on trying to keep herself calm. It had happened just like before. He had gotten himself killed trying to protect her from slavers, just like her little brother had from bandits all those years ago. While she just sat there, Mrs. Underwood found one of the torches on the steps and lit it, shedding enough light to let them see a few feet around. “Zena, hang in there, okay?” Zena nodded woodenly, wondering what the point of continuing to struggle was. The world was shit, and these awful people were as unlimited as ants crawling out of the woodwork. Still, she couldn’t let Max’s sacrifice be in vain, so she slowly found her feet and looked around. The stone tunnel was ancient and full of cobwebs, predating Pirn and possibly whatever civilizations had once lived here before the barrens. It was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side and about as tall. Crumbling skeletons lined the path and the walls, giving the tunnel more of the appearance of a crypt. “What is this place?” she asked. Mrs. Underwood shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody has ever had a reason to actually use this tunnel before. I can’t even tell you where it leads.” Zena forced herself to follow Mrs. Underwood as they began to delve farther into the eerie gloom. Instead of making her feel better, the torchlight gave the place a foreboding feeling the longer they walked. Mrs. Underwood caught her off guard. “Zena…do you think there’s any chance poor Max made it out alive?” Zena wanted so desperately to have faith that there was still someone up there, looking out for good people, but God had abandoned the world a long time ago. She wanted to have hope that he was okay, but she knew better. Hope only got you hurt worse or killed.

“No. I don’t know what caused that explosion, but it looked like he was at the center of it. Even if he somehow survived it, there were over fifty slavers that attacked.” Mrs. Underwood nodded sadly. “What a damn shame. He was one of the nicest boys I’ve ever met. It’s too rare these days for someone to look out for anyone but themselves.” Zena harrumphed in agreement, focusing on the stone under her feet so she wouldn’t lose it. “I know. It’s not fair. He survives wandering around the barrens for a month, loses his memory, all just to die saving us. I hate slavers and all their ilk. I wish they would all just be wiped off the face of the Earth already.” Mrs. Underwood was quiet for a while, like she wanted to ask a question but was holding it back. Eventually, she stopped and turned back to face Zena. “Sweetie, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I know you fancied Max. It would be hard not to, even if he wasn’t the first man around your age we’ve seen in a long time. He was always so kind and caring.” Zena ignored her and kept walking. “Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Mrs. Underwood, but I…I just can’t.” She didn’t look back, but the sound of footsteps eventually started up behind her again. They walked in silence for what seemed like hours. The tunnel never twisted or deviated from the endless stone and occasional half-buried bones. Eventually, the path started to incline, and they came to another set of stairs leading to a cellar door. It was hard to tell for sure, but they had to be quite a few miles outside of Pirn now. Zena paused and sat on the steps. “So what do we do now?” Mrs. Underwood shrugged. “I suppose we wait a while until we’re sure the slavers are long gone.” Zena nodded and hesitantly rested her head against a sort of clean section of the stone wall. “Then I’m going to sleep for a little.” Mrs. Underwood nodded. “You rest up, sweetie. I’ll keep watch.”

Pain lanced through my skull, forcing me awake. I groaned in agony and struggled to sit up. I tried to reach up to touch the side of my head where it was throbbing the most, but something was keeping my arms held together. Waiting for my eyes to adjust, I slowly was able to tell that I sat in some kind of cell. Apart from my labored breathing, which I couldn’t get under control, everything else around me was dead silent. I rocked back and forth until I could slowly stand. I walked to the bars of the cell to peer outside. The stone hallway was dimly lit, branching off to the right and left, but all I could see was more stone. “Hello?” I called out weakly. Judging by how dry and scratchy my throat was, it seemed safe to assume that I had been ed out for at least two days now. I bent my hands back as far as I could to feel my wrist and found a course material like rope binding me. The knots were too tight to shift, so I reached for my magic—and felt nothing. I gasped in surprise. There was no more pain and no trace of my magic. It was just simply gone. I felt strangely ordinary and more than a little naked without it. I fought to logically reason it out. Either I had finally used up so much with the boulder that it was gone for good or something here was preventing me from reaching it. With my memories still gone, I didn’t know enough to figure it out, so I started looking around the cell for something to use to cut the rope. “H-hello?” a weak voice suddenly called out from somewhere down the hall. I scurried to the bars. “Hey! There’s someone else down here. Do you know where we are?” There was a faint rattling of chains. “I don’t know for sure, but I can make an educated guess. This is some kind of holding place for the slavers’ prisoners before they sell us or whatever else.” He didn’t say anything else, so I broke the deafening silence. “I’m Max. What’s your name?” He hesitated. “You can call me Damon. I’d say nice to meet you, but you’re

probably going to be sold by tomorrow afternoon just like everyone else I’ve seen get dragged here.” The way he said it made me curious. “How do you know? You sound like you’ve been down here a long time.” He grunted. “Because I have been. My best guess is, I’ve been here for a few months. They tried to sell me my second day and a few other times, but nobody really wants an old man as a slave. Eventually, they just gave up trying and left me down here to rot.” I was so distraught that I actually laughed. It wasn’t the correct response, but this was all getting too frustrating to bear. All I wanted was peace, but for some reason, trouble just seemed to follow me around everywhere I went. “Well, better than ending up as someone’s sex slave,” I said quietly. He grunted as his chains shifted back into place. I wanted to ask him if he knew anything about magic, but Zena had told me that magic died out. Having it was already supposedly impossible. I sighed and sat back down against the wall. After a while, I grew bored enough to figure there was nothing left to lose. “Hey, Damon, can I ask you a very strange question?” He grunted his approval, so I continued, “Do you know anything about magic?” The stale, damp air shifted tangibly for some reason. He didn’t answer right away, but eventually, he seemed to decide it couldn’t hurt anything. “Actually, I know quite a lot about it… Why?” I laughed. “You’re probably going to think I’m nuts, but I have magic for some reason. I lost my memory a few months ago, but as far back as I can , I’ve had it. It feels like this constant acid-poison flowing in my blood, and it makes me sick when I use it, but I was able to fight off most of the slavers with it. When I woke up—” He interrupted, “It felt like it was gone? You’re not insane, Max. The ropes they tie us up with are apparently infused with some kind of ancient material that dampens the ability of anyone with magic. Those damn things are the only reason why I haven’t been able to escape yet.”

He caught me off guard. “Wait. You have magic too?” Before he could answer, the distant sound of a metal door grating over stone echoed down the empty hall and cells. The sound of footsteps echoed for a while before a surprisingly well-dressed man stepped in front of my cell. He was fairly short, had dark curly hair and a thick black beard, and was garbed in gray and golden robes like some kind of nobleman. He said, “You must be this Max I’ve been hearing so much about.” I pretended to be uninterested, though the man gave me the creeps. I feigned a yawn. “Yep, and am I supposed to know you?” He chuckled. “No, or else you would mind your tone with me. My name is Viktor Talbot. My brother was the man you used your filthy magic on to squash like an insect.” My eyes widened fearfully, but thankfully, it was too dim for him to see my expression. “If you want an apology, I am afraid you guys chose the wrong line of work. Don’t slaughter entire villages, and you won’t get flattened like a pancake.” His gaze turned icy, but he kept a smug smile painted on his lips. “There’s the spunk they told me about. Good. You’ll need that in the days to come.” I shrugged. “Look, Viktor, you don’t really scare me. Death doesn’t really scare me either, so just do what you are going to do or shut up already. Your annoying voice is disturbing the mice.” He finally lost his smile. I had apparently hit a nerve. “Listen, you sniveling little —” He paused to get himself back under control. “Anyhow, I only came to see if you were really everything they talked you up to be. I must say that I am not disappointed. Since you have powers and they’re strong enough to wipe out nearly fifty men at once, we cannot risk selling you to some poor, unsuspecting buyer. Instead I am actually going to give you a chance at freedom.” My breath caught in surprise. “Uh, what?” His smug look returned at my incredulity. “You heard me correctly. For certain special people we find, we have instituted an arena of sorts. You are the final

contender we have been searching for. The winner gets to go free, no strings attached.” I rocked myself to my feet again, cautiously approaching the bars. “What’s the catch?” He grinned viciously. “No catch, Max. It’s as simple as the choice you gave my gullible, simpleton of a brother. Your other option is, you can simply rot down here like poor Damonsolmus over there.” Damonsolmus—the simple name made a small piece click inside my head, breaking the walls of the dam I had been scratching at for so long. I caught Viktor by surprise as I suddenly dropped to my knees. The memories were flooding back to me with the force of a tidal wave. Pyrsi, Damonsolmus, Brenerra, our magic colliding, the explosion that somehow sent us thousands of years into the future and to Earth—everything. There was more than that, though. With the dam shattered, fragments of other memories were breaking free as well. They were too distant and foggy for me to understand everything, but I could some of the original Theodoric’s life as well. I could feel that old evil start to rise within me, but I fought against it. I—no, he—had been a different person then. It felt like an eternity before I found the strength to stand again, but I was finally whole. I was Shar again. I could feel the slight prickling of the rope digging into my skin, injecting me with whatever caused the flow of my magic to be cut off. I smirked at Viktor, realizing I knew something important that he didn’t. “I have a counteroffer, Viktor. Let me out of this cage in the next minute, or I am going to kill you and every single slaver in this place. I don’t care if it’s little child slavers or mommy slavers or just people who help you. I will build a pyre so big with your bodies that it will reach the friggin’ clouds.” His bravado faltered as he studied my eyes. I had been close enough for him to see my face and the change that just occurred in me. He could sense I was different. He just couldn’t understand why. “I—” he stuttered, trying to get himself back under control. “Don’t you threaten me, you piece of shit. You just lost the offer of a lifetime. I’ll see you rot down here for the rest of your miserable li—”

Before he could finish his sentence, I simultaneously called out to my sword and reached for the trace amounts of magic still left in the arcanus. I couldn’t use magic with the enchanted rope infecting my blood, but the ring was separate. It purposefully was an external magic made for reasons similar to this. I cut the ropes with it, letting them slip to the floor, and I reached my arms through the bars and grabbed Viktor’s curly hair in both hands. He tried to dodge, but I caught him off guard and slammed his head into the iron bars. He grunted in pain, trying to struggle against my grip. I bashed his head again and again and again… After the seventh time I did, his struggling ceased, and I let his bloody corpse finally slump to the ground. With the ropes gone, the feel of my magic started flooding back into me. I greeted it eagerly—until it suddenly felt like acid again and I retched all over Viktor’s corpse. I emptied my stomach several times before the waves of nausea ed and I could stand upright again. It felt like I was grasping thumbtacks as I sent a violent, rage-infused ball of energy at the door of the cell. The iron groaned in protest for a brief moment before the lock and hinges melted and the door slammed into the wall with a loud bang. I stepped over Viktor’s corpse and searched the other cells until I found Damonsolmus. He looked up at me with a tired expression. His once-silvery white hair was matted down and filthy, and his eyes were dull and lifeless. “Theodoric,” he greeted me sadly. I shook my head. “I said this before, and I’ll say it again. Theodoric is long gone. My name is Shar.” He grunted. “You claim that you’re no longer him, but you still intend to kill me, do you not?” My sigh was hesitant. “Yes. Because of your actions, we were sent here. My magic was tied to Ralian, old fool. When we disappeared, it caused a ripple effect that killed nearly every world and being. Magic died out, and this is the only world left now. It’s dark and filled with awful people, barely inhabitable. You were so worried about saving the world from me that you became the evil you were trying to defeat. You do realize that by now, do you?” He shrugged. “We are what we are, Shar. Besides, it’s far too late to be able to do

anything about it.” I shook my head. “For a High Magus, you really are an idiot. I’m going to level this place, and then I’m going to find a way to return to our time.” He nodded. “I’m abashed to it it, but if anyone can find a way, it is you. I can’t stop you. All I can do is warn you to be careful. The line between good and evil is thin, and it is all too easy to step down into the wrong path.” I nodded and unlocked his cell door, stepping inside. “For what it’s worth, old man, I’m sorry I have to do this.” Before he could say anything else, I put my hand on his arm and concentrated until I could feel the faint pulse of his dampened magic. The old memories of Theodoric were more than enough to accomplish what I needed, even as he struggled against my grasp. I began to pull his magic into my arcanus, infusing it with my own like a conversion shell. He convulsed a few times as his age began to catch up to him with his magic gone, but I plugged the hole left behind like a stopper. As I pulled away, his gaze turned to me, confused as to why or how he was still alive. I said, “I told you I’m not the evil one, Damonsolmus. Your magic has been stripped from you permanently. I only needed to take away your ability to get in my way. Without your magic, you’re just an ordinary old man now.” With a sense of finality ringing clear, I broke the chains and rope binding him and walked away. His cell door was left open behind me. Whether he chose to stay in the cell and waste away or take the chance to be free and live normally for a few years was up to him now. I searched the rest of the prison for a while but couldn’t find anyone else, so I eventually made my way outside. The door Viktor had come from led through a small hallway that opened up into a warehouse. There were dozens of surprised men and women in the room as I walked out, but I didn’t give them a chance to react. Since my magic was poisoned, I used Damonsolmus’s magic inside my arcanus and simply cut their throats with anything lying nearby. I wandered for a while like that, killing anybody I came across while searching for prisoners. There were none to be found.

Eventually, I made my way out of the warehouse and down a series of dirt paths until I reached the center of whatever this place was. I stopped to gape. There was an entire city next to the slavers’ warehouse; it was filled with hundreds and maybe even thousands of them. Either they were slavers themselves or were accomplices because there was no way they could live that close without knowing. I came across a hand-painted sign that read, “The Dark Refuge.” Rage flooded through me, unconstrained. They made everyone’s lives miserable, while they lived freely and happily on others’ pain. I made the decision, but I had to check something before I executed it. Closing my eyes, I reached out with my magic in a wide web to see if I could feel Pyrsi anywhere within. After a long few minutes, I was satisfied that she wasn’t there, and I began funneling every ounce of the magic stored within the arcanus into the ground under every inch of the awful place. I quickly made my way to the outskirts before I let the magic-soaked ground give out. Hundreds of screams rose up as the city began to sink in a massive sinkhole. People panicked, trying to jump out of their houses and rush to the outskirts of the city, but they weren’t fast enough. In seconds, every building was over twenty feet underground, and I let go of the soil and rubble, letting it bury them all. Once the dirt settled, I ired the flat ground, impressed with just how much magic that old man really had within him. Coughing on the dust flying through the air, I began walking for a while until I realized that I had no idea where to go next. I started searching through the memories of Theodoric until I found one on how to teleport. I closed my eyes and thought of Pyrsi, surrounding myself with my magic as I sort of pulled myself to where she was. It was hard to describe just how it felt. It was like driving quickly through an underwater tunnel with my windows up and eyes closed. I couldn’t see it, but I could still hear and feel the pressure all around. When I finally opened my eyes, I cried out in shock. Pyrsi’s naked, mutilated body was lying supine in the dirt, a large sword jutting from her breast. I lost it, sinking into the dirt beside her body and crying. She hadn’t done a single thing wrong, not once. Her only crime had been lying with me for comfort after I had

come in between her and Jirod, and it had cost her life. When I finally got myself under control, I summoned a shovel and dug her a grave by hand. I laid two stones down as a head marker and then sank back to the ground, panting from the effort of digging. Sitting alone in the barrens, I wondered for a while about just why I was fighting so hard to stay alive. I thought days ed between crying and sleeping and thinking before I finally found my answer. I was the issue. Even if it wasn’t purposefully, I had the core of Ralian within me. That had to be why my magic felt like it was acidic and trying to kill me. Half of my soul was dead. That was why I always turned out to be evil; that other part of my soul didn’t belong to me. I had to go back to my own time and figure out a way to put it back and make everything right. Then I could avoid this future from ever happening. There was just one last thing I had to make right first here. I closed my eyes as I pictured Zena, once again pulling myself toward her. Space shifted around me like a blur, and suddenly I was there, standing behind her and Mrs. Underwood. They turned to me with a gasp. Zena ran over and embraced me with a sob. They both looked like death warmed over, but at least they were in one piece. “Max, you’re alive!” Zena cried against my chest. I smiled at Mrs. Underwood’s relieved face as I patted Zena’s back. “Of course, I am. You really think a few slavers could stop me?” She pulled away quickly, studying my face. “There’s something…different about you. What happened? How did you get away? How did you find us and just suddenly appear out of thin air?” I chuckled at her bemused blundering. “That’s a lot of questions at once, Zena. The simple version is that I was captured and brought to this huge city of slavers and bandits. I got my memory back, though, and managed to fight my way out. I took out the entire city before I left, to avenge your brother and everybody from Pirn.” Both their eyes went so wide it looked like it actually hurt their face.

Mrs. Underwood stuttered, “Wait. What? How did you destroy an entire city of people?” I blinked slowly, trying to keep my thoughts in a manageable logical string. With the mess of memories of so many lifetimes trying to flood back in and fight to the surface, it was really difficult to keep track of the real me. “This is going to sound insane, but it is the truth, okay?” They nodded, watching me intently. I sighed. “Like I said, this is going to be hard to accept, so bear with me until I finish. My real name is Shar Victor. I am a mage from the year 2018. I was in the middle of a fight with a really powerful magus, and there was this big explosion of light. Next thing I knew, I woke up here, thousands of years later. After wandering the barrens lost for so long, I kind of lost grip on reality and lost my memory, and you know the rest. “The part you didn’t know is that even without my memory, I knew I still had magic. It’s poisoned, though, because of what happened when magic died out so long ago. I managed to kill quite a few of the slavers when I was buying you time to escape, but my strength gave out. The reason I was able to escape and kill so many of them is because I’m one of the strongest magi of my time…well, of all time, I guess.” They shared a long sidelong glance, skepticism painted clearly on their faces, though they didn’t voice it. Zena stepped forward and took my hand gently. “Uh, Max, I think you’re confused again. There’s no way that—” I cast my other hand over the ground, reaching for the soil buried deep underneath. I found a root within a few seconds and poured magic into it as I melded it into a seed and accelerated its ability to grow. Almost instantaneously, the trunk of a tree spouted from the hard ground with the force of a tidal wave. Zena cried out in surprise and jumped back as the trunk continued to shoot up, branches growing in every direction and quickly sprouting leaves. Once it was over forty feet high, I retracted my magic and turned back to them. Her mouth gaped, and they both stared at the tree in awe. “Holy mother of God,” Mrs. Underwood whispered.

I grinned. “No gods, just a spell. Sorry for the necessary shock, but I’m kind of in a hurry here.” Zena nodded weakly, fighting to move her gaze off the tree as if it was going to start sprouting up again. “Okay, I believe you, Max—I mean Shar… I just don’t understand. What’s the point of telling us this is?” I nodded. “You saved my life, Zenaide, and Mrs. Underwood took me in and treated me like family. I figured you both deserved the truth before I had to say goodbye. I kind of left after catching you off guard before.” That was enough to finally snap her out of her shock. “Wait. What do you mean goodbye? You just came back to us.” I shrugged. “I need to get back to my own time period… when you were telling me about how everything came to be like this? That roughly five thousand years ago, there was some kind of huge accident that caused Ralian to implode, and soon after, it created a domino effect that killed magic and many worlds? Well, the explosion that brought me here was that accident. My magic was connected to Ralian, so when I disappeared—” She finished my thought as she covered her mouth, “The world’s life bled out. Holy crap!” Nodding, I flashed her a sad smile. “It’s my fault that everything went to hell. I think I can go back, though, and fix everything so that none of this ever happens.” She nodded meekly, still trying to wrap her head around it all. She was actually taking it a lot better than I had expected. Even Mrs. Underwood seemed to believe me. She spoke up finally. “What does that mean for us then? We will just not exist anymore?” I was impressed that she was able to grasp the situation so quickly, but she had always seemed so wise. I nodded sullenly. “I’m not entirely sure. Technically, I’m only an apprentice mage with too much power and not enough experience. Best I can figure is that, yes, you will just never have existed. The other possibility is that you two will eventually be born still, but the world will be

relatively normal, like it should have been without magic dying out.” Zena seemed to finally catch up. “Wait, so no matter what, I have to lose you? That sucks.” I laughed. “Yeah, that about sums it up. I’m not even sure if I am going to survive what I have to do, but it means saving billions upon billions of innocent creatures, people, even entire worlds.” A lone tear trailed down her cheek. “Take me with you then. I know that I only know you as Max, but I like you. You’re the first person I’ve been able to trust since my own family.” I considered the possibilities for a moment but still shook my head in the end. “I can’t. If fixing everything means that this place and everybody in it is never born, I could ultimately make things a hell of a lot worse, I think. I don’t know enough, but I’m pretty sure that would create some kind of terrible time flux.” She seemed to already know what the answer would be. “Sounds like we don’t really have a choice here. When are you going to leave?” I looked skyward at the endless sea of storm clouds one last time, blinking slowly as I sighed. “I’m going to try to leave as soon as we’re done here, but I’ve never attempted time travel before. I only just learned how to teleport, so it may take a few minutes or a few days. I don’t know.” Mrs. Underwood stepped forward, placing her hand on my shoulder as she smiled warmly. “To be honest, I don’t really want you to go either after everything you’ve done for us, whether you’re Shar or our Max. I think we all can agree, though, that this world needs fixing. If you really think you can do that, then I won’t try to talk you out of it. What can I do to help?” Zena was quiet for a long moment before she resigned herself. “I guess she’s right. I’ll help too.” I met both of their gazes silently for a long moment, thankful that I had accidentally made such good friends. “Honestly, we just need to get somewhere safe so that I have time to figure this out. I know it’s hard, but we could always head back to Pirn. It should do.”

Mrs. Underwood nodded, steeling herself. “All right then. Pirn is about a day and a half walk back south—” I didn’t let her finish her sentence. I lightly grabbed her arm as well as Zena’s and closed my eyes, picturing Pirn in my mind. Mrs. Underwood squawked in surprise as I pulled the three of us to it, and we reappeared inside the decimated village a split second later. The exhaustion of teleporting three people knocked the wind out of me, and the two of them jumped backwards in shock. “Max, warn us before you do that!” Zena cried out. I started to laugh at how stern she sounded until I caught a glimpse of what was left of Pirn. Most of the buildings near the center were completely razed from the blast. The ground and piles of charred bodies were spread out in almost a perfect circle around the radius of where I had stood. Gaping at it, I realized it was a miracle anything had managed to survive it. Again, I was forced to face just how much of Theodoric was really inside me, even while my memory had been MIA. It was kind of terrifying what I could do. I could see it clearly painted on their faces as well, but they were kind enough not to voice it. “All right, I’m going to fix up what I can of the gate and walls so that we’re safe here. Do you guys want to try to find some food?” Considering the appearance of the three of us briefly, I also added, “And possibly some clothes?” Mrs. Underwood nodded. “There should be everything we need at my store. I’ll head over there now.” Zena couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the crater caused by my magic. “I’ll go with you… I still need some time to process everything.” I nodded and left them to it, avoiding looking around anymore as I walked up to the gate. Luckily, despite the raid and the explosion, there really wasn’t much damage. I closed the gates and barred them before returning to the shop as well. Zena didn’t look up as she docilely ate some stale bread, sitting against the wall far away from the table where I had kissed her. Mrs. Underwood was sitting next to her, taking small sips of water. It was hard to tell if Zena was avoiding that memory or if they both were trying not to think about almost being captured by

the slavers, so I gave them some space and quickly ate. After a short time of awkward silence, I finally stood up and walked over. “All right, I have used up too much energy today to attempt anything tonight, so I’m going to get some rest… Do either of you need anything?” They shook their heads, looking just as exhausted as I felt. I knew it had to be hard to see Pirn like this, so I nodded and went to my small room. The simple makeshift bed of furs felt like heaven as I lay down; it was much better compared to the cell. I faded in and out of a fitful sleep several times over the night, the terrible memories of the war between Theodoric and the Mistress of the Dragons fighting through my wall to haunt me every time I started to dream again. At some point, I heard my door open, and a small sliver of light broke the impenetrable darkness. Only half awake, I could barely keep my eyes open. “What’s wrong?” I murmured. I was surprised to hear Zena’s voice whisper for me to be quiet as she lay down next to me. “Nothing’s wrong. I just…” She trailed off. I fought off the grogginess, rolling onto my side to look in her direction. With the door closed and no windows, it was too dark to see her expression. In the dark, she finally seemed to gain some confidence. “I never thought I would tell anyone this, but if you’re right and wipe everything away, I suppose it really doesn’t matter anymore. I like you.” She tested the word. “Shar, and before you go…” She trailed off again nervously. “What is it, Zena?” I asked as gently as I could manage while still sleepy. She laughed softly. “I’m a virgin. There I said it. I don’t want to die or vanish or whatever too scared to ever take a risk. I know it’s not the time or place, but I don’t think we’re ever going to have a better moment—that is, unless you don’t want to.” I cut her off as I clumsily brought my lips to hers. This time, she kissed me back fiercely, tears streaming down her cheeks as she sifted through dozens of emotions. Her mouth was wet from crying, but the kiss was sweet and ionate

as she rolled on top of me. She paused only to quickly pull off our shirts before melding back against me as if these were our last moments alive. It took me a moment to realize that they very well may be. If I managed to succeed in returning the core to Ralian, I would probably be dead within the week. Suddenly, I was kissing her back just as fiercely and ionately…

Chapter 11

Finale

There were a lot of things I had done in my life that I regretted greatly. Granted, not being confident enough to just talk to Ashe about how I really felt about her and getting Pyrsi killed were just two of the larger ones. Strangely, it was the insignificant things that I regretted the most, though. I was so focused on The Storm Within books throughout my childhood that I never really got to enjoy just being a kid with my family. Then they were gone, and I grew so withdrawn and hopeless for so long that I never stopped to look at all the beautiful things in the world around me. I never played any sports. I never got to enjoy skinny dipping in the lake with my friends. I never went to a dance or any of the other minute details that really made up one’s past. The only part of life I was ever normal about was girls, but even then, it had all just been to try to get over Ashe or make her jealous, so my relationships never got a chance to flourish. At first, I thought having magic changed everything. I finally opened up to people, was in a healthy relationship, and was making good friendships. But then everything with Damonsolmus ruined all that was finally good, and now it was getting almost impossible to tell apart Theodoric’s life from my own. His thoughts and memories were like black dye in crystal clear water, tiny veins stretching in every direction until I could barely see through the water anymore. As I finally woke, feeling Zena’s curly brown hair cascading over my chest like a soft blanket, a wave of acceptance finally washed over me. I didn’t fully understand it, but I was truly ready to return to Ralian and get rid of everything that was Theodoric. Even if it cost me my life, I would at least die as me, not some evil tyrant. It was funny. The High Magus had told me that The Storm Within books had just

been fantasy novels meant to slow my corruption, but they turned out to be true in the end. I was going to go on to defeat the greatest evil ever known—the darkness within myself. Even the individuals with the purest of hearts had to do it at some point. It was something none of us could avoid forever. Feeling me begin to stir, Zenaide also roused, moaning softly against me as she stretched. I reached over to light a candle, trying my best not to disturb her. “Mm, I think that was the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.” I laughed softly, kissing her nose. She scrunched it up and gazed up at me from my chest, watching me with a strange expression. “I can’t believe you have to leave us soon. I think, given a little more time, I would have fallen in love with you.” Her words stung, though she hadn’t intended them to, making this even more difficult. It would be so easy to stay and build a life with her here, lock away Theodoric’s memories, and get a chance to just be normal for a while. I couldn’t it that aloud, though. This was just as difficult for her. Instead I nodded simply. “I know. I wish I could stay, but—” She smiled gently. “But you have worlds to save, I know. Come on, we should get dressed. Mrs. Underwood is probably wondering where I am by now.” I nodded and, with fascination, watched her naked body stand. In a strange way, the simplicity of a normal body was almost foreign after being with a dusneoc. Zena’s bust was small but perky, her waist thin and curvy, her thighs thick. She noticed me staring, and she blushed slightly, pulling on a clean black sundress. I quickly got up and pulled on the semifresh pair of jeans and white T-shirt that she had apparently found for me as well at some point. Mrs. Underwood was sweeping the shop as we walked out of the small room. She raised her eyebrows at Zena. I was standing behind her, so I couldn’t see her expression, but it made Mrs. Underwood chuckle. “Well, you two look a heck of a lot more chipper today. Did you sleep well?” Zena bobbed her head shyly, grabbing some of the jerky sitting on the table. I followed suit as soon as I noticed it, devouring it just as greedily as I had the first time. There was only so much stale bread and vegetables one could stomach before craving meat, but it was a rare commodity here.

“All right, you two,” I started, and they both turned to me expectantly. “Today I am going to start testing how to time travel. Apparently, I don’t really know how to start, but I’ll be out in the center of the city for a while.” Mrs. Underwood nodded. “Okay. What do you need us to do?” I shrugged. “Well, if I’m unsuccessful still by noon, please grab me and make sure I eat and hydrate. Other than that, if you two could just kind of keep an eye out to make sure nothing surprises us, that’s all I really need. This is probably going to take a lot of concentration, so I may zone out a few times. If I’m still unsuccessful by dusk, we’ll quit for the day and try again tomorrow.” Zena nodded. “Do you mind if I sit with you for a while? I won’t interrupt you, I swear. I just want to be close.” I nodded, giving her a warm smile. “That would be nice, actually. All right, let’s get this party started.” They followed as I stepped out of the shop into the calm morning air. The sky was its usual unflinching drab as I made my way down the main path to a spot free of debris or the charred residue. I sat cross-legged, and Zena sat down behind me with her back close to mine, not enough to touch but still enough to feel her near. Mrs. Underwood slowly made her way to one of the guard towers. At first, I just sat there with my teeth gritted, trying to sort through anything from Theodoric’s memories that would help me. But he had surprisingly never attempted time travel, so it was a dead end. Since memories and knowledge failed me, I forced everything I knew and thought I knew out of my head as I closed my eyes, leaving my mind a blank slate. Instead of trying to use my magic to accomplish something, I simply cast my magic out in every direction to touch everything in the world around me. It was as overwhelming as it was awesome. I could feel Zena’s mixed emotions swarming behind me—her joy of last night and the sadness she was trying to bury deep within. I could feel the stones and tiny pieces of disintegrated debris and rubble that used to be everything, from vehicles to massive skyscrapers so tall you got dizzy if you tried to gaze up at them from the ground. I could feel Mrs. Underwood’s total acceptance; she was ready to her husband in the afterlife. I felt all of it, all the way down to the tiniest of ants making their way through the ground in order to find food at any cost, repeating over and over like

something commanding them. I was only just beginning to force myself deeper when a hand on my shoulder suddenly slammed my consciousness back into my own body. I woke in a sort of trance with a gasp, panting as I looked around. Mrs. Underwood stared down at me with a look of concern. “Hey, you said to make sure you eat and rehydrate.” I nodded weakly. My entire body still tingling from touching so much natural energy at once. It felt so clean and pure compared to the acid coursing through my veins that it was anguishing to be back in my own body. Zena helped me to my feet. I asked, “How long was I out?” Zena looked around for a moment. “I’d say four or five hours at least. It’s a little while past noon.” I nodded and stretched as Mrs. Underwood handed me some bread and a flask of water. I ate and drank slowly, giving my body sufficient time to recover. It had to be unhealthy to leave one’s body for such prolonged periods, but it was the only idea I had to work with. Mrs. Underwood returned to her guard post without another word. Her energy still lingered on my consciousness, and I smiled as I felt her begin to hum softly. There was a certain wonder to finding one’s peace; it was far greater than anything that could be accomplished through magic. Zena took my hand once I finished drinking, staring off in Mrs. Underwood’s direction. “I’m glad she seems to be doing okay with everything, considering.” I nodded. “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry. How are you feeling?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. A little happy but mostly sad, I guess.” I sighed. That was a pretty dumb question, but there really wasn’t anything I could say to make her feel any better. Instead I just stood with her for a little while, staring off into the distance with her hand in mine.

“All right, I’m going to get back to it. Wake me up again at dusk?” She nodded and hesitantly released my hand as I sat back down on the hard ground. Just like before, I cast my magic out in every direction like a giant web, softly letting tiny threads fall to touch the awareness of anything surrounding me. Everything returned in a torrent, but knowing what to expect this time let me hold on to my own mind as I slowly eliminated the known threads. One by one, they faded away until I was back to the solitary darkness of my own mind—well, maybe not quite. It was faint, but I could almost feel a slight pressure in the air. It wasn’t anything I could touch, with magic or not; it was more of a thing that just simply was. Instead of trying to use my magic again, I let the pressure wash over me. The subtle force swept into me as I dropped all my mental barriers, flowing through my body until every fiber of my being felt so light that I could simply float away if I let myself continue to be swept in the current. When I finally opened my eyes, the world around me was an entirely different place. Technically, everything was the same physically. It was my own sight that had been altered. All around me, vibrating so infinitesimally small that I would had never been able to see it before, there was a slight distortion surrounding everything. I turned my gaze to Zena. The blur surrounding her hand was vibrating slightly forward just before she reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ears. I understood what it was without any tangible knowledge of it, a thing that really had no name yet had thousands of titles. It was time, fate, destiny, and it was simply just a flow to everything, an invisible force matching every minute action and detail. Zena wore the strangest of expressions as she gazed into my eyes, as if she could see the ocean of a trillion invisible stars reflected in them. Her shoulders dropped following the slight blur, and she smiled with dejection clear in her gaze. “You figured it out, didn’t you?” she whispered softly. I nodded slowly, having difficulty letting go of my grasp on it. Now that I knew it was there, it was like it refused to yield. “I think so. It’s difficult to tell since it’s a real thing but also not real.”

She surprised me as she flashed a genuine smile at me, fighting what sadness she felt inside. “Well, you better get to it then. Look me up in a few thousand years, yeah?” I laughed, gazing around slowly. “Sure. Let Mrs. Underwood know I said goodbye just in case I fail and something goes wrong, okay?” A single tear betrayed her smile as she nodded. She stepped backward a few paces to give me space. I let our gazes linger for a long moment before turning around to walk toward the small crater in the center of the city. There was no instruction manual for this sort of thing, yet somehow I could sense exactly what I needed to do. I reached out for the invisible vibrating strands of force, a slight tingling spreading to the tips of my fingers. I tested them for a while, just gently grazing and pulling at them until I was finally ready. With a determined sigh, I grabbed as many strands as I could fit in my hands and pulled them together in front of me. There was no explosion this time, no bright white light to consume my senses. The strands that touched together simply created a small wavy distortion like trying to look through dirty glass. I refused to look back as I stepped through the wrinkle, just closing my eyes as I took the leap of faith. When I opened them again, Pirn was gone. I stood in a large room with walls as white as fresh fallen snow. Straight across from me was a single door. It was shocking in its simplicity; it was just a solid piece of oak with a faded golden doorknob. I walked toward it slowly, feeling like I was going to fall through the snow-white floor with each step. Just as I started to reach for the knob, a soft cough came from behind me, making me jump in surprise. I spun around to find a young boy standing behind me. It was strange. I could tell he was a child, but I couldn’t make out a single feature. Every time I tried to focus on his eyes or hair, it simply eluded my sight again. My voice came out in a whisper. “Who are you?” His laugh rang out soft and child-like, but he didn’t answer my question right away. Even though I couldn’t make out his eyes, I could feel his gaze piercing right through me.

“Okay, this isn’t creepy at all.” He giggled again. “Don’t be afraid, Shar.” I nodded hesitantly, taking a step toward him. “You aren’t about to try to tell me you’re God or something, are you? I’m already having strange enough of a day.” The child shook his head. “Not exactly God, but not exactly not also.” I raised my eyebrows. “Look, kid, not to be rude, but I have never been very good at riddles. I think I’ll just move along if you don’t mind.” He sort of bobbed in place in an agitated way. “Wait, don’t go, Shar. You’re the first person to figure it out and reach this place. It’s so lonely here.” I paused. “Okay, so what are you really then?” He sighed heavily. “Fine. I have had many different names, but the first one I was ever given was Magu—or Magus, if it is easier for you to understand.” Every ounce of skepticism I had left me in a whoosh, as understanding dawned on me. “Wait, you mean like Magus as in the first mage or as in you are magic?” I could feel his smile wash over me, sending warm shivers throughout my body. He said, “I guess it is the best way I can explain it to you. I’m afraid the truth would be too much to fully grasp. Yes, I am magic but also so much more than that.” I shook my head, too overwhelmed to even attempt to process that. “Okay… So what is this place then?” His laugh was mocking. “It’s a room. Can’t you tell?” I fought the urge to roll my eyes and snap back with something sarcastic. “I can see that much. I was trying to travel through time, so how did I end up here instead?” He shook his head like I was the child. “You all think you can unravel all the secrets of the universe by giving names to things. When you called on me, this is

essentially what you thought of ‘time’ as—a doorway that you could simply bend to your will and travel wherever you wanted to go. So here we are. You have a door that will take you to any time and place you want to go. It’s a onetime thing, though. Once you choose your destination, you can never return here again.” My confusion was clear on my face. “What? Why?” He shrugged. “Because I only let you in here out of curiosity. You are one of my favorite creations, the Electus unus dei deorum, ‘Chosen by the Gods.’ You are my balance to the laws of the universe, able to accomplish things that some people couldn’t imagine in their wildest dreams. Instead of being thankful, though, you all have chosen to commit so many atrocities that I have grown tired of your kind.” A twinge of guilt hit me. “I know that I used to be one of those people back when I was Theodoric, but he was a different person entirely. The whole reason I am trying to go back to my own time is to fix all the damage he has done!” He shrugged in a surprisingly innocent, child-like way. “I have not come here to judge you, Shar. I know you are willing to sacrifice your own life to return the balance of the universe back to what it should be. Like I said before, I only came out of curiosity. I cannot predict your actions since you are not influenced by fate or destiny.” It was all to much to grasp, and really, there wasn’t all that much point to trying. I had to push forward, and my life would be the cost of success. I shrugged amicably. “All right, well, it was nice to meet you and all, but I have a mission to fulfil.” Ignoring any further distractions, I spun around and gripped the doorknob. I didn’t have to picture the time and place. I already knew where I needed to go as I opened it and stepped through. The door and the white room faded instantly, and I looked around in awe as I quickly recognized where I was and just what it really meant. I had been aiming for the core of Ralian, so assuming the door hadn’t failed somehow, I really had dodged a huge bullet the last time that I was here. I was back inside Wyrmwood Grotto, standing in the small cavern that had been the

Sylph’s bedchamber. The massive heap of treasure as well as the furs over the floor were gone, but there was no mistaking it. I laughed at myself for not feeling it before, but the energy in this cave was unlike anything else, except for myself. It was my own energy pouring over every inch of this, the same energy that I had stolen when I absorbed the core so many millenniums ago. I stepped forward into the center of the room as I closed my eyes, extending my palm toward the ground. Now that I was back in my own time, the acidic quality of my magic was gone entirely. It responded eagerly as I reached out and gently grazed a small hidden hollow directly at the epicenter. A small obelisk rose at my touch, barely a foot wide on all sides and only as tall as my waist, with a small triangular device sitting on top. “Here goes nothing,” I whispered and slammed my hand down onto the spiked tip. Pain lanced up my arm as I cried out. The spike pierced all the way through and came out of the other side of my hand. As my blood poured over the black pillar, it began to glow with a faint silvery hue, growing in intensity as in drank in more blood. Once it was entirely incandescent, I released the hold on my magic, reconnecting it with the pulsating energy coming from the cavern. The altar began to vibrate as it drank in my magic, and I had to struggle just to remain upright. It drank until I had nothing left within me and kept going until I collapsed to my knees. Then all at once, the glowing stopped, and the altar descended back into the ground, finally releasing me. Amazed that I was even still alive, I tried to feel around me for any sense of the energy, but it was all gone. My magic was gone, as well as the half that belonged to Ralian. Not only that, but all of Theodoric’s thoughts and memories had been stripped from me as well. I was just a normal man once more, just Shar at last. Slowly I managed to muster the strength to stand, and I began to turn to walk out of the chamber, but I abruptly was no longer alone. I turned back—and came face-to-face with myself. It wore my face, but it wasn’t me. I realized after a moment of us watching each other cautiously that I was staring at Theodoric, the man who existed before absorbing Ralian’s core. Somehow it had split us into

separate people entirely. My face sneered to a level of terrifying that I didn’t even know I was capable of as he spat at my feet. “You imbecile! How could you willingly unravel everything I worked so hard to accomplish? Do you have any idea what you could have achieved with power like that? You had the ability to even kill a god if needed.” I shrugged. “It wasn’t our power to keep, Theodoric. You should have never stolen it in the first place. You killed a lot people after it corrupted you.” He growled, “Fool! It didn’t corrupt anything. We chose to kill those people because they stood in our way. Now I have to kill you and start all over again!” I froze, not really sure how I felt about myself wanting to kill…myself. Before I could react, he suddenly charged at me, not slowed down from the loss of blood and drained of so much energy. His hands closed around my throat as his momentum slammed us onto the ground, knocking the wind out of me more than the actual choking. I tried to fight his iron grip with my good hand, but even without his magic, he was too strong. Gasping for breath as my vision slowly faded to black at the edges, I desperately grabbed for anything within reach. My hand found a small rock at the very last second. A surge of adrenaline rushed through me enough for me to slam the rock into the side of his temple with everything I had left in me. He emitted a strange grunt as I felt bone snap beneath the blow. The force sent him flying off me. I choked on my own crushed windpipes as I fought for the strength to roll over on top of him. When I succeeded, I hit him again and again with the rock, blood and gore nearly flinging back into my eyes. I beat him with everything I had left until the breath left in my lungs faded and I was unable to draw in any more. Death finally took me.

Epilogue

Life Moves On

Time really was one of strangest fallacies in existence. We thought that because we accepted that we inevitably grew old and died after a set amount of years, we understand everything about it. But honestly, I didn’t think anyone had even scratched the surface of what it truly meant. Time could destroy anything, yet time could just as easily heal wounds or give people the strength to move on from a broken heart. If a rich man was to sit still for fifty years, pondering life and death, he wouldn’t be able to suddenly stand up one day and walk away any wiser. Yet a child who grew up with nothing in the streets could have the wisdom and courage to make a good life for himself until he grew old enough to welcome death with open arms. I couldn’t fully explain how I felt as I woke up in a real hospital bed and gazed down at the bandages wrapped around my hand and several other parts of my body in shock. There was no easy explanation, no logical reason, as to how I was suddenly back on Earth as if nothing had ever happened, no way I could even wrap my head around it. The nurse realized I was awake at some point, and she came in to talk to me. “Hey, Mr. Victor. I’m so glad to see you awake. You gave us quite a scare, you know? How are you feeling?” There were so many questions I wanted to ask, none of which she would possibly know the answer to or even believe if I told her the truth. I had no more magic. Even though I had saved Ralian, I was kicked out and thrust back into my old life.

“Like I got hit by a truck,” I groaned. My throat was somehow whole again but felt scratchy and on fire. “What happened?” She studied the chart at the end of my bed for a moment and checked on the beeping screen next to me before turning back to answer. “Well, you were in a car accident and crashed into the river. When you hit the water, you were ejected through the windshield, which banged you up and gave you a pretty bad concussion as well as severe damage to the throat. There must have been a pretty bad storm going on at the time, too, because the current carried you so far that it was a few days before someone found you washed up on the bank. Honestly, it’s a miracle you survived. You must have a mighty angel watching over you.” I tried to laugh, but it came out scratchy, sending me into a coughing fit for a long moment. Once recovered, I shook my head as best I could with my neck stiff as a board. “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. How long have I been here?” She clicked her tongue as she checked the chart again. “Uh, you’ve been in a coma for about three weeks.” I was silent for a long moment. Ralian’s time distortion would for the days where nobody “found” me, but there was no reason I would have ended up comatose. Unless having that sheer amount of magic ripped out of me had done more damage to my mind than I had realized. When I didn’t ask any more questions, she left me to my thoughts. That had to be it. It was the only thing that made any sort of sense. With no way to get any solid answers, I tried to fall back to sleep, but with the exception of my throat, I didn’t feel tired or sore in the slightest. I actually felt better than I had in a long time. So instead of sleeping, I looked around until I found the remote control for the TV across the room. I turned it on. It was the strangest thing—I thought as I settled on a channel playing reruns of Two and a Half Men—to do something so mindless and ordinary that it almost made everything that happened since I first learned I had magic feel like it was just some kind of vivid dream. I must have fallen asleep again at some point because a sudden soft knock on the open door of my room startled me awake. My breath caught in my throat as I

glanced up groggily to see Ashe’s face staring down at me with a look of pure apprehension. Seeing her felt so familiar yet so foreign at the same time, like it had been a lifetime since that old me had craved her so fiercely but was too afraid to take a leap. She almost smiled at me until she seemed to think better of it, hesitating between the doorway and stepping up next to me. “You told me you were going to the bathroom. You know that? When you never came back to dance with us, I looked around the bar for nearly an hour before I realized that you had just left without a word—” Her voice broke slightly. “I thought you had left for that promotion and moved. I called you over and over, but you never picked up. The hospital called me a week later. Apparently, I’m still listed as your only emergency .” I met her gaze gently as I nodded. “I know, A. I’m sorry. I just—You told me about being engaged, and I just sort of lost it, I guess. I think you know how in love with you I always was. I couldn’t face knowing I was going to lose you forever, so I ran.” She gave a slight nod, shifting her gaze to the window as she walked up to it. “You’re right, Shar. I have always known. You made a promise to me once, though. Do you it?” I sighed. “Of course. We promised that no matter who we dated or what happened in our lives, we would always be there for each other. We were kids, though, A, and I’m not the only thing holding you together anymore.” Her entire body went alarmingly rigid before she spun on her heels. A look of sheer alarm intermixed with disbelief washed over her face. “Wait. What did you just say?” I realized my mistake. The Slyph was the only reason I had access to that memory now. I wasn’t supposed to know about it. “That’s what you said all those years ago when you thought I was asleep, right? That you loved me but was too scared to tell me because you didn’t want to risk losing me as your glue, so to speak?” She nodded woodenly, her voice coming out in a whisper, “You knew but still never tried anything?”

I shrugged as best as I could while lying down. “You are the only family I have left, so I was just as afraid of losing you. None of that matters now, though. I finally came to with you and Barnabas. Honestly, I’m happy for the two of you. I just want you to be happy, A. You deserve it after everything you’ve been through.” She was quiet for a long moment. “You’re different for some reason, Shar. I can’t place it, but it’s like you’ve grown up since I last saw you but, like, by years or something, not weeks. I mean you’ve been getting more and more distant since we turned eighteen, but now it’s like you’re someone else entirely.” I chuckled softly. She had no idea just how right she really was, and there was no way I could ever explain to her or anyone else…assuming it had happened at all. The longer I was awake here, the more it all was starting to feel like just a distant dream. Without any magic here in this world, it just as well might have been. She gave me a strange look, trying to figure out why I laughed. It was difficult to explain it to someone while leaving out so many of the pieces, but she deserved an effort at the least. “Sorry, it’s just strange—that’s all. I feel like everything happened a lifetime ago. I’ll always care about you, A. I just finally was able to move on. I’m sorry I’ve been so distant lately. I’ll have to start coming to see you more again.” She finally smiled, like the sun breaking through dark clouds after a long dreary day of rain. I finally caught a glimpse of the reason I had first fallen in love with the shy, broken girl so long ago. It wasn’t often, but she had a smile that could light up the whole room. “Yes, you will have to, or I’ll kick your ass… So you’re really okay with me and Barnabas now?” I nodded, smiling back. “Yeah, I am.”

Five years ed. This day brought me to a barbeque in Ashe’s backyard. I never returned to the job at the bank. Instead I took a position at a local financial firm downtown so I could stay close to my best friend. They were married a year after I had woken up in that hospital bed, and I even got to walk her down the aisle and give her away. Ashe chased after her three-year-old, Charlotte, as she played in the grass. Barnabas and I were having a beer and arguing over how long the hamburgers should be cooked for. It still caught me off guard sometimes how everything in my life was turning out so different from what I thought it would be. I hadn’t thought of Brenerra or Ralian in a long time. Honestly, I’m not sure anymore if it had all been real or just a ing dream. Looking back, though, I wouldn’t hesitate to give that life up to be right where I was now. There was a certain unspoken magic about having a normal life that nobody else seemed to realize, but I would take it over constant near-death adventures any day. Our argument was cut off as the gate to the backyard opened up and some of Ashe’s friends walked in. I went to grab another beer from the cooler as I noticed one of them was a very cute petite girl with long curly natural-red hair blowing in the soft breeze. She smiled as she noticed me looking and leaned over to whisper something to Ashe, not taking her bright blue gaze off me. Ashe laughed and grabbed her arm, dragging the girl over to us as the rest of her friends scattered about. “Shar!” Ashe said through a sly smile, clearly plotting something. “This is my other bestie, Amber. Amber, this is the super awesome, totally funny, and extremely nerdy Shar, who is my other-other bestie. You two kids play nice.” She danced away as Amber and I watched her, laughing. Amber turned back to me, her eyes sparkling. “Ashe has told me so much about you, Shar. It’s nice to finally be able to put a face to the name.” I noticed Ashe watching us with a stupid grin on her face and shot her a dirty

sidelong glance before smiling back at Amber. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Amber. Ashe has talked about you a few times, but she never mentioned how breathtaking you are.” Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly as I caught her off guard. She let out a soft giggle. “Aren’t you a charmer? She kinda made it sound like you were going to be some giant geek with pimples and glasses, but you don’t look anything like I expected.” I laughed. I had nearly forgotten that I used to wear glasses. “Oh no, I’m totally a nerd. I just also like to break stereotypes…and hearts.” Her eyebrows raised playfully. “Oh, really?” I nodded seriously. “Honest to God. Here, I’ll even show you. Do you believe in magic?” She shook her head with a giggle. “No, I sadly left my unicorn at the mall, and some punk stole it.” I feigned an exaggerated devastated expression. “What? It’s a terrible thing not believing in the impossible. What’s your favorite type of flower?” She thought for a moment. “Hmm, tiger lilies, I guess. They’re really bright orange ones that look like they have freckles. Why?” I grinned, making a show of putting my hand behind me back. “Who’s the nerd now?” I teased. “How about this. If I can make you believe in magic, I get to take you out on a date?” She rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh, and if you can’t?” I shrugged. “You get to choose the punishment. I’ll take you out on that date either way.” She giggled again, a soft Southern lilt fitting someone who had grown up in either Georgia or someplace close. “Deal, but I doubt—” She gasped as I moved my hand back in front of me, holding a single perfectly bloomed tiger lily.

Her eyes were wide. “Okay, that was impressive. How did you do that?” I laughed as I shook my head. “Hey, a good magician never gives up his secrets or something like that, right? Besides, we have to have something to talk about on the second date. Wouldn’t want to give away all my mysteries so soon.” She made a cute face as she laughed. “Second date, huh? You’re pretty confident for a guy who has to plan a really good first date still if you want to impress me.” I shrugged. “I have my ways. Don’t worry… So do you believe in magic now, or do I get a second chance?”

About the Author

Photo Credit: Liam Clarke

Brandon Eger is a college student born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, who now lives in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania. He is a seasoned dungeon master for Dungeons and Dragons as well as an avid fiction reader since he was old enough to pick up his first book. He is often engrossed in fantasy worlds like Discworld or Middle-earth rather than his own, even when it means creating them himself. Although he has been building worlds and spinning tales since he was ten, he has made a living doing random jobs from building houses, working call centers as technical , and even being in the army while always writing in the background. His fantasy works are already popular with friends and family as well as on websites such as Discord, where he has his own channel and works with several role-playing groups. When Brandon is not engrossed in writing or reading, he is spending time with his wife, Brook; his one-year-old daughter, Lilith; and his two quirky, antisocial felines. The Storm Within is Brandon’s first book in the Origins of Magic trilogy, which seeks to break the traditional boundaries of fiction, presenting a fantasy realm that lies parallel to our own yet constantly overlaps.