This is where you meet the main character of the story, who's name for right now is Endros (I just happen to really like the sound of the name). As with all things, this is a work in progress but here are some details to make it easier to understand the section:
The ranks for the students from lowest to highest are: Initiate, Novus, Magus. Upon completion of study, you gain the title of "Wizard". The title of Apprentice is to denote the personal student one of the teachers of the school, like a TA. Only students who showed exemplary skill or knowledge would be accepted as Apprentice. This makes our hero a little bit of a weird case, because he is not officially a student of the school (too young) and has been an Apprentice for 7 years.
Endros is 12 at this point in the story. The youngest students are 16 years old and the average age for students is between 22 and 24.
Chapter 1
“Acido!”
cried a small, darkhaired and brown robed Initiate as she flung a small orb of
acid at her opponent. I marveled at her
skill for pulling magic from the surrounding area, reducing the effort she was
expending with each spell cast. However,
it splashed harmlessly on the out-held shield of the Novus. He was not nearly as talented at collecting
the energy of the world around him, but from the look of him, he had more power
to pull in and he was looked like he was in better shape. This gave him more personal energy to waste
on collecting that energy which was around him.
The shield effortlessly absorbed the fist-sized orb of acid. It looked
like he was going to make the Initiate work for her victory, if she could claim
it at all.
Magic is based on a couple of factors, the
most important in my mind being intelligence and creativity. Humans, as a general rule, don’t have the
ability to easily access the raw creative energy of the universe itself, so
we’re forced to use the store of it within ourselves to pull in and take energy
from the world around us. We shape it
into the tool we want with our will and creativity, then unleash it upon the
world.
The Novus dropped to a knee behind
the shield and slowly started to chant in Draconic. His free hand slowly scratching something in
the dirt. “Dewch ataf fi, Dewch ataf fi,
Dewch ataf fi, creadur rhwymo Lemuria” A
hunched, eyeless bipedal coalesced from a swirling cloud of sickening black
mist. It stood there passively and the Initiate immediately responded by
focusing her attention on it, flinging more acid orbs at it.
I watched the duel as part of me
drifted into thought. Humans are odd creatures… We don’t belong anywhere, but we fit everywhere. We’re creatures of the most amazing extremes
and the most mediocre. Through effort
and will, a human could become the strongest warrior or the greatest
spellcaster, even though we have no natural inclination towards either. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re everywhere that makes us so able to
reach such weird, disparate peaks.
The Novus stood up with a vicious
cackle and issued the simple order, “ymosod ar” to his summoned creature. It started to bound agonizingly slowly
towards the Initiate and her eyes slowly widening in fear as it got
closer. She managed to get off another
shot of acid, which splashed against its chest with a sizzling sound, before it
was on her. It used its claws to slash
her face and then her stomach, opening a huge rent in her robe and spraying her
blood over the dueling arena’s floor.
The crowd crowed in excitement and pleasure at the violence and started
to laugh along with the Novus.
“Winner! Novus Terentius!” The
referee declared pointing to the laughing man.
Still the crowd watched as the summoned devil tore away at the Initiate’s
body.
I summoned up the magic for my own
spell. I felt my own internal energy
marshal and then reach out into the world around me. I could sense the solid grip my magic got and
then felt it rip the energy out of the world and draw it back into me. My mind and will gave the idea form, a small
ball of acid, it’s one of the first spells we all learned. I pointed my hand at the summoned monster and
muttered my word, “Acidus” as quietly as I could. I felt the stored energy leave me in a rush
and get shaped into the form I desired of it.
It hit the head of the devil and splashed, consuming the skull and brain
in a flash. Its form dissipated back
into the black smoke it was created from and the Initiate was left bleeding on
the field. I shouldn’t have done that,
but I couldn’t let her keep getting hurt.
I dropped my voice and yelled, in the least squeaky voice I could,
“HEALER! TO THE DUELING GROUNDS!” As I
watched a cleric of Asmodeus come striding up the hill, I heard the bell chime
noon and my head swung around in horror.
“Dammit dammit dammit dammit,” I repeated over
and over to myself as an incantation to my own stupidity and short attention
span. My feet pounded on the stones of the Acadamae with furious intensity in a
desperate attempt to make my gawky, stalk like legs move just a little
faster. “He’s gonna kill me…” I whined
to no one but the gods and maybe the various air spirits guarding the grounds. “I’m so dead…” Every ounce of wasted breath
working my nerves over more, as if they were a club and my mental state was a
debtor’s legs .
As my mind began to play sick
fantasies of the horrible things he would do to me, like give a speech in front
of the symposium or reorder his library, and if he was in a really bad mood,
light target practice… I shook my head to clear it and finally rounded the
corner to open the door.
“Endros,”
A cold, threatening hiss from the man standing in the open door stopped me
cold. “I ordered you to obtain those
texts and get back to me as soon as possible. Did I not?” The man was only a little taller than me even
though he was at least 20 years my senior.
He was clad in the classic black robes of full blown Acadamae wizards
and had various magic implements hanging from his leather belt at all
times. The man himself stared at me with
his deep green eyes and extended one of his pale skinned hands towards me, a
demand for the books in front of me. His
handsome face was imperious and aloof as he shook his head in disappointment.
“I…”
Staring at the ground, I slumped in self-recrimination. “I’m sorry, Sir. I
was…”
I tried to stammer out a response
when I was cut off with a slash of his hand. “No excuses, Endros. How many times do I have to tell you? You
worry about you need to do FIRST then everything else later.” He waves his hand
towards him, this time more demanding, as if I were a simple child. “Give me the books, boy,” His voice getting
colder with the order. “Next time, don’t
be stupid and get distracted by a duel.
Maybe then you’ll have learned what it means to be a good wizard.” He shakes his head with a sigh as he examines
the spines of the books, “You’re the youngest,” He put the emphasis on the
word, youngest. “Apprentice here by
years. I took you off the streets
because I thought you were worthy. Prove to me that you are.” He pauses and
glances up, “Go help Wizard Eb in the Stacks.
He’s been asking after you.”
“But… But… Sir…” I choked out, “You
were supposed to work on shields with me today.” My feet are rooted in place while my stomach
roils in disgust at my own lack of focus.
The man’s head looks up from the
books, “Well…” He pauses, “Maybe next time you’ll get your books here on
time. Get over to the Stacks, Now.” He
waits in the doorway, staring at me.
“I… I’m sorry. Of… course….” I nod
trying to appease my mentor. “Of course, Wizard Iustyn. Right away, Sir. When should I report back?” I smile trying to
make him happy.
“I don’t care, Endros. “ He turned
his back towards me and walked away. He
paused on the other side of the portal and faced me, “Don’t come back until
Wizard Eb has finished his reordering of the Stacks.” My eyes focus on the
smiling Imp that is closing the door behind him before my teacher is cut off
from view.
My feet were stuck firmly in place
as I tried to piece together the remaining relatively whole pieces of my
emotional well-being. I turned and
slowly started to trudge towards the massive Acadamae library where I was to
serve my penance.
You see, I’m an orphan. I never knew my parents and probably never
will, but that man, Wizard Iustyn, rescued me from the streets where he found
me. He took me in, took me HERE, the
greatest place of learning in this part of the world. I, a lowly orphan, was given access to the
greatest sources of knowledge and learning because he decided to take me in,
because he was KIND. He fed and clothed
me, he taught me magic… That was kind of
against the rules because I’m so young and because at the time I still hadn’t
passed the conjuration tests. All I had
to do was run errands for him and some of the other wizards. How hard was that? All I ever managed to do
was mess it up. I always got distracted
by the books or by other apprentices or by spells being cast or in this case, a
duel being fought over a minor bit of prestige. It was always my fault. He wasn’t being hard on me, he just demanded
me to perform better.
I had just begun the long slog over
to the Stacks when it started to rain.
“Just my luck,” I murmured to no one in particular. I continued to ramble and emotionally
castigate myself, “I really need to stop getting distracted by stuff. I really shouldn’t have watched those two
Initiates…”
My train of thought was disrupted
by a shout of “Hey! ENDROS!” My head
whipped up and around towards the sound just in time to get hit in the face by
a rock, which is followed by a chorus of laughter as I crumple to the
ground.
“Ugh…” I groaned out through a
mouthful of blood before managing to sit up and turn to address who yelled my
name. Finally managing to get a good
look at him, I knew he who was. Only one
man on campus so expertly mixed cruelty and beauty. If I hadn’t been bleeding profusely I might
have marveled at that philosophic statement.
He was an artist’s dream subject.
His form was compact, lithe muscle with long delicate fingers that
belied a surprising strength. The man’s
face was painting perfect with a jaw and cheek bones that could have been cut
from stone they were so precise. His
shoulder length raven black hair was always shining. His eyes and his mouth gave away his true
form though. They glowed and twisted
with a malicious glee. I only saw him
smile when he was torturing someone. Still,
Women and men loved him on campus. His
name, by the way, was Irok Orthelos “Irok…”
“Initiate Irok to you, Apprentice.”
The man sneered with a false sense of pride and a proper level of patronizing
disregard.
“What about us?” A big man to his
right rumbled. “Acadamae rule states
that superiors must be addressed with respect at all times. You should know
better, Apprentice. You’ve been called
to punishment enough time for it.” He scowled down, towering above
everyone.
I looked up at them in worry and
then glanced around, We were all alone.
This was how bad things had started before. My hands started to shake a little as I tried
to figure my way out of this problem. I
cleared my throat and addressed the group, “Afternoon, Initiates Irok, Kort and
Ladry. It’s…” I swallowed in nervous
fear and kept going “Good to see you.” I
nervously smiled up at the fully grown Initiates standing in front of me. My face must have looked a mess, with what
felt like a broken nose and blood streaming down it.
The blonde woman made a sound of
dismay then commented, “That rock did you no favors, Apprentice.” Her voice was
massive bucket of ice water down my spine.
Irok was a person who only gained enjoyment from sociopathic torture,
Ladry wasn’t even that. She was someone
who was cold and distant all the time.
Ladry seemed to examine me with the appraising eye of someone who was
looking for the best place to stick the knife in and start cutting me apart
while I was still alive.
“Yes, Initiate Ladry.” I nodded
with my head down, acquiescing to them on everything with the hope they would
just move on. They slowly started to
spread out and encircle me as I started to shake, my mind starting to scream at
me to run and my breathing becoming panicked.
.
“Afternoon, Apprentice.” Irok smiled viciously, “I’ve been hunting
vermin. It always improves my mood
dramatically to see them crushed beneath the boots of their betters.” His
comment gets a titter of amusement from Ladry and a grunt of laughter from the
giant, Kort. “How’re you on this
wonderful day?”
I looked at them all with wide eyes
as the rain poured down, failing to notice that they were all bone dry and sheltering
under their own shield spells that had been turned upward. At the Acadamae, only Initiate level and
above students could use magic on campus without strict permission and
oversight from the faculty. This was
because magic was inherently dangerous and could lead to massive backfires or
explosions if not handled properly. I
was an Apprentice, having been taken under Iustyn’s tutorship, but I had not
been allowed to take the test to move up to Initiate and take anything beyond
the basic classes…. Officially.
Irok stepped closer and the water
sheeting off the shield above him started to hit me in the face. At least it
managed to wash the blood off my face. “I’ve
been better, Initiate.” One of my hands
touched my nose lightly and I cringed in pain, definitely broken. “… anything …
can… you?” I gasp through the deluge. “… expected… the Stacks… help… Eb.” I put my hands beneath me and they sunk into
the mud of the quad while I slid my feet beneath me.
Standing slowly and cautiously, I
straightened up and stand eye to eye with Irok.
Irok was on the taller side of students and teachers, but even now he
just barely managed to overtop me. Even at 12, I was tall and towered over most
of the people in this place. “If you
would be so kind as to return these books to Wizard Eb.” He smiles viciously,
“Be careful not to get them wet, you’re sure to have heard of how angry he gets
when people mistreat his books.” He
extends the books so that they’re just under the edge of the shield and
protected from the rain.
My hand reached out tremulously to
take the books, dripping in water. A
full blown panic attack was hitting now as my hand started to shake and my
breathing got short. My mind was full of
the awful things Wizard Eb would do to me if I returned these books wet and I
took them on the verge of tears. I
pulled them to the soaked chest of my robes and slowly hunched over them to
protect the pages. The binding would be
ruined, but ruined bindings could be fixed.
The knowledge collected inside was the important part, which needed to be protected.
I started to trudge quietly to the front door
of the library with tears flowing down my cheeks unnoticed before I heard a
series of loud “POP!”s and exclamations.
Turning around, I could see the three who had harassed me suddenly
drenched with water and the rain pouring down onto their heads
unexpectedly. Good, I thought, they lost
concentration and their spells failed.
They deserved it. I turned back to the Library and caught a glimpse of a
grey robe in the window. I continued to
trudge to the huge double doors of the library and slipped beneath the
overhang. It was then that I noticed
that there was no change in the feeling of the rain on my head. I glanced up in confusion and saw a
shimmering dome of hardened air above my head.
“Huh? What? How?” I gasped out before starting to panic even more. Oh gods! If I got caught using magic without
over sight… I ran to the double doors and yanked them open in a panic. My heart
was pounding in my ears as I stepped into the warmly lit Library
