This week's story of the week is Wizardly Misadventures by Victoria DarkTalon.
September 5, 2004
4:14 PM
Everyone was quiet. The only sounds that were heard in the Wizard City Library were the scratching of quills on parchment, book pages being turned, a few books whistling through the air, and the water falling from the ceiling to the ground near the main desk. There were some people looking at the books and scrolls on the shelves, but most were either taking notes from books on the tables or just reading.
This was where Victoria Darktalon—a twelve-year-old Ice wizard with white hair and bright green eyes—was absentmindedly flipping through the large pages of The Spiral and the Words Within. In her left hand, she was twirling a wand that she had bought at the Wizard City Wand Shop. It had a silver handle, but had a blue crystal attached to it. Every once in a while, the crystal emitted a faint blue light and a few white sparks would appear, but Victoria didn't seem to care about this. Instead, she just kept staring at the book with the same blasé-like look in her eyes.
For about two hours, Victoria had been in the library, studying for an upcoming test in Myth class. The people who had been with her had already left to pursue other tasks and she finished her studying less than half an hour after that. She had already finished the tasks that were assigned to her a few days ago by her teachers and nearly everyone else that she knew was still busy. She felt too tired from studying and didn’t want to go outside in the hot weather to find someone to hang out with, so she stayed inside. But she soon discovered that she was not too excited about this plan either: she read all of the interesting-looking books a long time ago (she wasn’t a fan of rereading books) and even if she wanted to talk to someone, nobody in the Library would want to since they were there to study for the final exams that were coming in October and November.
Tap tap.
Victoria did not pause from the noise, but instead let out a soft sigh.
She had a twin brother, Stephen. He was known by many of the students and professors in Ravenwood to be soft spoken, if not completely silent. He didn't even seem to attempt to socialize with any of their peers either, even though it would be easy for him to make friends. But he had his odd quirks: his way of greeting his sister was to try to sneak up on her. Unfortunately for him, this usually failed due to her good sense of hearing.
“Stephen, if you’re gonna sneak up on me, get some new shoes. You’re still too loud,” Victoria said in monotone.
She could hear a soft growl behind her. This made her crack a small smile.
“This is the third time you’ve called me ‘Stephen!’”
Victoria jumped in surprise. The voice sounded nothing like her brother's. She quickly turned around. Sure enough, the person she saw now was not her brother. Instead, it was her friend, Tyler Duskglade. Like Victoria, he had white hair, but his eyes—which were now showing slight annoyance—were an amethyst purple. And unlike Victoria—who had a black wizard uniform with navy blue trims on her sleeves, hat, and shoes—his uniform was white with some purple trims.
“Oh,” she replied, “Hey Tyler.”
Her hand quickly stopped twirling the wand. She gently threw it up into the air. With a soft poof, it vanished. Tyler rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. The Ice girl was grinning in her head. She usually didn’t act so childish, but Tyler was an exception for her.
“Show off,” he whispered.
Victoria teasingly stuck her tongue out at him. Tyler looked at her from the corner of his eyes. His raised his eyebrows slightly.
“And immature.”
This time Victoria’s eyebrow twitched. She then gave him a cold stare with her bright emerald eyes. Tyler looked as though he was trying not to look away and shiver. He was a year older than her but they both knew that the ‘look’ was not good for anyone unfortunate to have it cast upon them. It didn't kill anyone, but it gave the impression that she wanted it to.
“H-hey, come on, calm down. We don’t want to make a scene here, Ed.”
Her cold stare was replaced by slight confusion.
“…Ed? Do I look like a guy to you!?”
Tyler seemed unaware of her newfound annoyance. In fact, it seemed like he was trying to conceal a smirk.
“Well, since you seem to like calling me ‘Stephen,’ I thought that it would be—well, fitting to give you a new name as well. Besides, consider it a compliment,” he said with an extremely cheesy smile on his face.
Victoria's face started to become red.
“You know that’s always an accident!” she argued. She noticed that she spoke louder than she intended and covered her mouth slightly. Some people looked up from their books for a few seconds before they resumed reading. She took a quick breath before she continued.
“Besides, how is that suppose to be a compliment?”
“Come on, you don’t see it? Giving people nicknames is a thing friends do all the time! It’s a tradition to do that.”
Victoria gritted her teeth together.
“And how did you come up with… Ed?” she asked hesitantly.
She knew that either way, the answer to a question like that would be an odd one. Especially if it was an answer from Tyler Duskglade.
“Think of it like this,” he answered cheerfully. “The initials for your name are V and D. Unfortunately, I can’t find a way to pronounced V.D. So I just made the V into E, since it’s the vowel that sounds similar to it. That’s how I came up with ‘Ed.’”
“… Why do I even bother asking sometimes?” Victoria sighed, placing her cold hand on her forehead.
“Hey, look on the bright side: Now you can call me ‘Stephen’ as much as you want!”
She glared at him again.
“I told you that I always do that on accident.”
By now, Victoria was rubbing her eyes in frustration.
“Sure, whatever you say, Ed,” Tyler chuckled.
Victoria rolled her eyes and stroked her hair. But a thought came to her head. She smiled and softly chuckle.
“What?” Tyler asked, his smirk fading from his face.
“You’re a year older than me,” she said, her small chuckle turning into a laugh, “yet you’re the one acting so immature. Heh, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”
She had a hard time containing her laughter. The fact that she now saw Tyler’s eyebrow twitching did not help matters.
“Why you little--!”
But Victoria did not pay attention to what her friend had to say. At that moment, she suddenly felt her table move underneath her right hand, which was still placed on it. Slightly startled, she quickly turned her head around to see that some of her pieces of parchment had moved a few millimeters from their original positions. Her face looked calm, but in her mind, she had a million thoughts running through it. Most people—probably even wizards—wouldn’t see or feel any significant change, let alone get worried. But past experiences that ended or almost ended in disaster told her that she should be on guard.
“Did you notice that?” she asked Tyler, who was still ranting to her. She quickly looked around to see if she was wrong about nobody noticing the tremors.
“Um, no? Why..?” he asked.
Victoria didn’t look at his face, but from the all too familiar tone in his voice, she could tell that he was in between being confused and annoyed by her interruption. In fact, from what she could guess, he probably thought she was crazy.
“Tyler, I’m serious. Did you—”
Thud!
Victoria’s table jumped again and her papers and books shifted with it. This time, people seemed to notice it also, since not only did the rest of the tables make some kind of perceptible move, but some of the books on the shelves fell to the ground. One extremely thick volume even hit a short girl in the head. She could hear that people nearby either gasped or squealed in surprise. Then everything was still.
Victoria quickly stood up and looked at her friend, who seemed as shocked as everyone else.
“I really doubt that this is an earthquake,” Tyler said to her.
She looked at him with an I-Think-We-Already-Know-That look on her face. She opened her mouth to say something.
“Run!”
“Get out of the way!”
“AH!!”
Everyone, including Tyler and Victoria, turned to the front windows of the building. What they saw were many student wizards and civilians running towards the direction of Unicorn Way. The civilians and some of the wizard were panicking. A few brave wizards were firing attack spells in the opposite direction of where everyone else was running. Victoria thought she even saw a Sunbird carrying a child on its back while swiftly flying in the direction of the throng of people.
Many students in the library were starting to get terrified. They started whispering to each other, trying to figure out what was going on.
THUD!
This time some of the students yelled in shock when they fell onto the ground when the tremor came. Everyone seemed to know that whatever or whoever was causing the chaos was starting to get closer to the Library.
“I can’t take this anymore! I’m outta here!!”
Poof!
They looked to see that one of the wizards had teleported out of the building.
“I agree with her. We should leave!”
“Everyone! GET OUT!!”
Poof!
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!
Everyone else did the same until the only ones left were Victoria and Tyler. Victoria turned around to see that Tyler had a completely stunned look on his face.
“Tyler, we need to go,” she softly said.
He didn’t seem to notice his friend’s plea.
“Tyler? Hello? You there?”
THUD!!
More books and scrolls fell off their shelves while some tables jumped and fell violently to their sides. Victoria quickly glanced outside to see the street outside deserted.
"Hey! Come on!"
He still didn’t budge. As she tugged on one of his sleeves to get his attention, her anxiety seemed to grow.
“Tyler, let’s go!” she said while shaking his right arm.
But it was too late. Outside the tall windows of the library, Victoria saw that a giant figure with only one eye was peering into the Library. It wore a leather skirt and large brown sandals.
"Oh no. A Cyclops," Victoria whispered.
The Cyclops picked up a humungous stone hammer. It slowly raised the hammer above it's giant head. Victoria knew that it was about to swing—and that they were in the hammer’s path. Then the Cyclops roared angrily.
Victoria gasped as Tyler immediately pulled her towards him. He then held his left hand above their heads, and an Ice symbol was being traced in the air.
“Ice Armor.”
WHAM!!!
The stone hammer caused the walls in front of the duo to instantly crumble to the ground. Many of the bookcases were crushed by the rubble that fell on them, but it didn't seem to fall anywhere near the two wizards. When the hammer was about to him the two though, it crashed into an invisible barrier about their heads. But for some reason, the shield started to crack and soon it shattered from the blow. The remaining force of the hammer was strong enough to knock them down to the ground. Victoria was able to quickly get back up, but Tyler seemed to have the wind knocked out of him since it took him a second to recover.
The building was a mess. Most of what was in front of them was obscured by a cloud of dust, but they tell that nearly every section of the front of the Library was completely demolished.
"Too bad Ice Armor is only big enough to protect one or two people," Victoria said, trying not to breathe in the dirt.
She could hear Tyler coughing behind her.
“Get out of here. Now,” Tyler told her sternly between coughs.
Victoria turned around looked down on him, as though he said something insulting. Her emerald eyes seemed to shine with newfound anger and confusion.
“Are you crazy!? Not when you're like this,” she responded in an eerily quiet tone.
Victoria couldn't guess what Tyler was thinking since he kept coughing. Her expression softened when she held her hand out in front of him. When he stopped coughing, he grabbed it and was pulled up. When he let go, she held her right palm in the air. With another soft poof, the wand she had earlier instantly appeared in her hand.
"And besides, the Cyclops is over there," she said slowly, as though she was talking to a child.
Tyler glowered slightly at her, but nodded.
“HEY! No! Bad minion!”
They both turned around, surprised. They looked around the dust cloud to see where the voice came from. Victoria’s eyes grew wide when she looked towards the direction of the front of the building.
“Oh man! You gotta be kidding,” she groaned.
At first, the cloud of dust obscured their view. But after a couple of seconds, it finally started to settle. What they then saw in front of them was a Myth wizard, who was kicking the Cyclops’ large feet. The wizard seemed to be the same age as Tyler, but his appearance seemed to completely contrast from the male Thaumaturgist: He had black hair, very dark skin, and dark grey eyes, which now looked extremely furious. He was wearing black and red robes, shoes, and hat that looked like they were from Krokotopia. The wand in his hand had a golden cobra head on it.
Victoria let out a frustrated sigh, but Tyler seemed a little amused.
“Isn’t that your Myth friend, Michael Starstrider?”
She gave a curt nod.
“Why didn’t I guess that this had to do with him?” she whispered to herself.
The Cyclops, who seemed confused, stopped swinging his hammer. Instead, with its one eye, it was staring at Michael. It started scratching its head as though it was trying to figure out what was going on. But Michael seemed unaware of the minion’s pause. He continued to yell orders and kick the Cyclops’ feet.
“I don’t know. Maybe you don’t think too much,” Tyler chuckled.
Victoria’s expression showed nothing, but she quickly jabbed her elbow into his rib cage.
“Ack! Okay, maybe I went a little far with that,” he stated. He started to gingerly rub his ribs to get rid of the pain.
Victoria kept observing Michael, who started to look as though he wanted to tear the hair off of his head.
“Exactly how many times have Myth minions done this kind of damage now?” Victoria asked with slight curiosity.
“Depends. You only talking about the times this year alone?”
Again, Victoria sighed.
“Why do their minions always have to destroy at least one building..? I mean, it seems to happen almost every year here,” she whispered to herself.
What Victoria said was true. During the early months of autumn, when students were learning a new spell from their school of choice, many Conjurers were learning how to summon a new Minion for themselves. Usually, most of the students were able to control them. But some of them—usually the less talented students—would sometimes lose their ability to command them and the Minions would run amok in the city. People usually feared the times when Journeyman ranked Conjurers learned how to summon a Cyclops, since they were big enough to destroy buildings with their large hammers, just like the Cyclops in front of them did with the library.
“I know what you mean,” Tyler responded.
Victoria raised a white eyebrow at him.
“Where is this going?”
She didn’t need to ask the question to know what he was talking about. But it stilled worried her a little.
“Well, it seems that most of the damage done here that is not caused by rogue monsters is either because of Myth people’s minions or a Storm spell gone wrong. Since Starstrider there is obviously not Storm, it’s his minion’s fault.”
Victoria softly gulped.
Please don’t say it Tyler, she thought to herself, wincing.
“In fact, this is why I hate Myth! The teachers—well, mainly Professor Drake—never seem to care if they teach inexperienced students how to summon minions. Especially someone like Michael Starstrider. I mean, come on! We both know that he’s not exactly the brightest torch around here. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t understand how he even got into Ravenwood—”
As he was speaking, his voice got noticeably louder with each word, which caused Victoria’s eyes to grow wider every second out of utter shock. She soon started glancing back and forth between outside and her friend, who, at this point, was basically yelling his frustration out to himself. Quietly, she started to slowly back away from him while trying not to trip on any rubble that was near her feet. When she felt that she was far enough, she teleported away with a soft poof!
“—even though he can’t even seem to cast a simple Pixie spell properly! What is up with that!? Novices seem to do a better job at it than him! If you ask me, he should’ve been Storm. He’d fit in since he seems to fizzle so much. Not to mention he’s just as…”
Tyler froze in mid sentence when he started to notice how silence it was around him. It soon caught his attention that he was alone when he looked behind himself to see that Victoria had disappeared.
Tap.
“Oh there you are Vi—”
He turned around, but instantly froze again. It wasn’t his friend he saw. Instead, it was Michael. And he didn’t seem too happy.
“Eh, um… Hey, what’s up?” Tyler said faintly and gulped.
Michael stayed silent while giving Tyler a chilling death glare. For a second, Tyler wondered if it was scarier than the one Victoria gave him half the time.
“You know, if you ask me,” Michael whispered in a cold mocking way, “you should be in Storm. You’d fit right in.”
Michael crossed his arms and silently looked at Tyler with the same chilling stare from before. Then Tyler looked behind Michael and noticed that the Cyclops minion was right behind the Myth wizard, staring at him with its one eye. Tyler thought that it seemed as mad as it’s master.
“Um…”
“Minion…”
The Cyclops gave its full attention to its master in front of him now.
“Do what you wish with him,” Michael quietly said.
Yellow and blue light enveloped him as he teleported away. When he was gone, the light quickly faded. Only a few seconds later, the minion picked up the giant stone hammer and prepared to swing again.
“Oh geez.”
~
September 4, 2004
4:25 PM
“Dang it!”
Within the spacious, deserted, and extremely red Mooshu arena, Alexandra Soulsinger was quietly growling in annoyance. Her yellow cat-like eyes were furiously glaring at the golden cobra head of her wand, while her hand was gripping the handle of it to the point that her knuckles were turning white.
“Come on, Sunbird! You were really nice to me yesterday. What is wrong with you,” she yelled.
Alexandra breathed, loosened her grip on the handle, and roughly combed her purple hair with her fingers in frustration. After stroking her hair to put down any loose strands, she took another deep breath, raised her arm, and concentrated some of her Magical Energy to the golden wand. Some of the energy left the tip of it, and a Fire symbol was being traced in front of her, a few sparks flying out of it. When the symbol was completed, it glowed a bright, fiery red. The girl could feel the heat of the symbol on her bare hand.
“Sunbird.”
She quickly flicked her wand and pointed it towards the ground.
Fizzle!
The Fire symbol turned black and disintegrated into small flakes of ash in front of Alexandra’s feet. Her eye twitched as she glared at her wand again. From the glint of rage in her eyes, it seemed as if she was trying to melt it with her stare.
“What. Is. Wrong with you!?”
Immediately, Alexandra began to smack the cobra-headed wand with her left hand. She kept doing that until she accidently hit the sleeve of her white and purple school robes, which got singed by the wand’s contact, and hissed again.
“Do you hate me or something,” Alexandra growled.
The cobra head stayed motionless.
“Don’t mess with me! I know you got a mind of your own, so answer!”
“Talking to your wands again?”
Alexandra tore her eyes away from the wand in her hand. Slightly shocked and confused, she looked around herself, but didn’t see anyone.
“Alex, I’m up here.”
Following the sound of the voice, Alexandra slowly looked up to the stands, where people occasionally came to witness any battle that was going on. Up there, leaning on the red wooden railings that separated the arena and the stands above, she saw a boy who seemed to be a few years younger than her. He had short, sky blue hair, pale skin, and innocent-looking dark blue eyes. His uniform was bright blue with a small amount of black on the sleeves and pointed hat.
“Ah! Hey Nicolas,” she said, waving at him.
“Hi,” he answered cheerfully with a big smile. “So what’s the problem for you now?”
Alexandra sighed.
“My Sunbird spell. It keeps fizzling.”
“Ah,” he said.
A glint of annoyance appeared in her eyes. She snorted at him.
“Ah? Is that all you can say? Ah!? You have any idea how long I’ve been here, trying to summon it!?”
Nicolas blinked, but his expression stayed the same.
“Okay, let’s just calm down,” he said serenely.
Nicolas raised his right hand and his fingers began to sparkle with emerald green light. As this happened, a sparkling, bright green circle began to form around Alexandra’s feet. The green light began to swiftly travel up and around her body, and her feet began to float in mid air. As the spell traveled higher and higher, taking her body with it, her feelings of frustration began to slowly melt away, being replaced by pure calmness, the kind she only felt when she was peacefully asleep.
The spell only lasted for two seconds, but it felt much longer for Alexandra. When it slowly faded, she landed softly on the ground and sighed.
“You couldn’t make it last a little longer?” she asked hopefully, looking up at him.
Nicolas shrugged his shoulders.
“Sorry Alex. Minor Blessing isn’t supposed to do much to begin with, especially with someone your level. For someone like you, it’s usually only enough to relieve stress and heal tiny scratches,” he responded.
Alexandra pinched her lips together, as though she had just tasted something sour.
“Oh… Right.”
Nicolas laughed softly. Blushing slightly, she began to turn away from him.
Wait a sec, she thought to herself as she stopped in her tracks.
“Hold on!”
Alexandra spun around and pointed an accusing finger at the boy.
“I thought you were only ten years old! You’re not supposed to be at the school!” she suddenly yelled at him.
The blue-haired boy jumped out of surprise. When he blinked, his body became less tense.
“Um, yeah,” he said calmly. “But Professor Sylvia Drake gives me private Life lessons to help control my abilities.”
Her mouth began to hang open as her eyes showed the surprised feeling that she had inside her mind. Nicolas seemed to notice the small change in her expression, since his blue eyes began to show worry.
“Um… Is there a problem..?”
When he asked her, his face showed her how bothered he was. Instantly noticing why he said that, Alexandra immediately snapped her mouth shut.
“Sorry,” she responded.
“You seemed worried for a moment? What’s wrong?”
Feeling her face turn red again, Alexandra glanced at the ground in front of her.
How do I explain this?, she thought.
“It’s just… I mean…
“Do you know of any wizard who’s had to take early Life lessons?”
As she gave her attention to Nicolas again, his expression showed nervousness.
“Why? Is private lessons a bad thing to happen,” he asked her timidly.
Alexandra squeaked.
“That’s not what I mean! I’m sorry,” she blurted out.
She was sure that right now her face was as red as a tomato. To try to calm down, she cleared her throat for a moment.
“Well, you know who Dmitri Jenson is, right,” Alexandra asked Nicolas.
Immediately after she asked him, his eyes lit up with joy.
“Who doesn’t?” Nicolas said confidently. “Famous pop singer, generous Earth humanitarian, and a pretty powerful Theurgist.”
Alexandra chuckled.
“I guess you’re a fan,” she jokingly said.
Nicolas only nodded happily.
“But I think saying powerful is a major understatement. In fact, I think many actually consider him to be one of the greatest healers of our time. Some of my Life friends even think that he is more powerful than Sylvia Drake.”
Nicolas nodded again in agreement.
“I think that if Professor Drake wanted to quit, they’d ask Dmitri to take over as head of the Theurgist Department at school,” he stated.
Then Nicolas paused and gave Alexandra a look of confusion again.
“But what does this have to do with my lessons?” he finally asked her.
For a moment, Alexandra stayed silent.
“Don’t you think that someone as powerful as Dmitri would be a weakling as a child?”
Nicolas place a hand on his chin as he thought. Slowly, he shook his head.
“I would think that he’d have a lot of Mana when he was younger, or he could’ve been lucky and just happened to become what he is today.”
“Well, do you think that he would be able to control that power without learning how to manage it?”
At first, it didn’t seem as though Nicolas comprehended what she said. But after a few short moments, his dark sapphire eyes grew wide as it showed his realization.
“A-are you trying to say that I might—?”
Poof!
A cloud of light blue and white light popped out of nowhere next to Nicolas. When it quickly faded, a girl appeared and took its place. The new girl seemed to be older and slightly taller than Nicolas. Her white hair and outfit seemed a little messy and had some black smudges, and her stunning emerald-green eyes were the only signs that showed how exhausted she was. But Alexandra felt scared, even though the girl was not looking at her. They felt too... Menacing.
“Phew,” she exclaimed as she leaned against the wooden railings.
“Hey Victoria,” Nicolas said, smiling.
Alexandra placed a hand softly on her mouth to suppress a gasp.
W-w-what? Victoria..? Surely not Victoria Darktalon… Or is it? Because she's definitely scary enough.
Victoria looked at Nicolas. The look of exhaustion left her face and she became blank as she ruffled his blue hair.
“Hey little bro,” she said affectionately.
An awkward silence filled the arena. (At least, that's what Alexandra felt it was). But after what felt like an eternity, their mouths began to twitch slowly into smiles. Then they both laughed. The chilling look in Victoria's eyes instantly went away, and they suddenly sparkled with happiness. The look completely allured Alexandra as her fear subsided.
She should look happy all the time. It makes her even more beautiful.
“What are you doing here though? I thought you were studying for the finals. You usually take longer.”
Victoria stopped laughing as her smile slowly fell, until a small frown formed on her lips.
“Well,” she told Nicolas, visibly uncomfortable, “Um... Let’s just say that Tyler is probably gonna hate me for a while.”
Nicolas started to frown like Victoria, as if what she said had put him on edge. But unlike Victoria, he seemed to be scared of something unknown.
“Um, you don’t mean like… Before..? Do you?” he whispered.
Alexandra could see Victoria’s eyes blink and her body stiffen out of surprise.
“Oh no, definitely not,” she answered exasperatedly while waving her hands in front of herself, as though to emphasize her answer.
Nicolas sighed and they both began to relax.
“Yeah, if that was the case, he would’ve been dead by now,” she continued to say.
She playfully nudged his arm with her elbow as her smile appeared again, although it now looked as though it was forced.
“That’s good," Nicolas sighed. "I mean, you remember how upset Stephen was back then, though? He looked as though he wanted to blow Tyler up to—”
Stephen? Stephen Darktalon? Then that means…
“You are Victoria Darktalon!”
Both Victoria and Nicolas jumped and turned their heads towards Alexandra.
“Um, yes? And you’re Alexandra Soulsinger, my brother’s Fire friend,” Victoria stated, looking back and forth between Alexandra and Nicolas.
The purple-haired girl gasped.
“You know my name?”
Victoria nodded cautiously. Alexandra didn’t seem to notice it, but Nicolas’ expression hinted at the panic that was starting to build up inside of him.
“Uh, Alex—”
“Oh my gosh! She knows my name! Yay!”
As she said that, Alexandra began to move her feet. She then started to skip around the arena, yelling out of joy. It didn’t take her a long time before she started to dance and sing wildly. But as she was celebrating, Victoria and Nicolas were looking at each other, mystified.
“Um, I guess she’s a fan of yours,” Nicolas stated.
“Uh, yeah,” Victoria nodded, raising an eyebrow to show how strange the thought was to her. “But I have to admit that you’ve made a strange friend.”
Nicolas didn’t reply. After a few minutes of giving each other confused looks, they turned their attention back to Alexandra, who happened to still be reveling in the arena. After a few seconds of observing the Fire girl, Victoria pointed her head towards her brother.
“Seriously though, what’s with her? It’s kinda weird to see a Pyromancer get so excited to see an Ice—”
But Victoria was unable to finish her thought before Nicolas abruptly placed his hands on top of her shoulders and shoved her below the wooden railings next to them. Less than a second later, she felt an unbearable heat wave fly above her head, barely missing her white hair. When it disappeared, she noticed that a few of the seats behind the railing had caught in fire. She then looked down to the arena to see that the tip of Alexandra’s golden wand was in flames.
"Drat."
“What’s happening,” Nicolas asked as Alexandra’s wand began to fire flames towards every direction.
Victoria sighed.
“Well, from what I can tell, she isn’t really paying too much attention to her emotions right now,” she explained in a monotonous tone, as though this was a boring lecture she was reciting. “Extreme emotions—you know, ones like rage, agony, or even excitement—can cause an inexperienced wizard to lose control of their powers. This usually only happens when magic is showing signs of its presence in young kids. It’s how nearly everyone finds out if they could have the possibility of becoming a wizard. But right now, it’s just a nuisance.”
“First of all, why did you recite that like it was a speech? And second, 'just a nuisance?' She’s burning a quarter of the Mooshu arena!”
“It’s a habit, and it could be worse, kid.”
Crackle!
"See? It just got a little worse."
They both looked up to see that part of the red railing above them had caught on fire. When Nicolas saw how nonchalant Victoria was about the situation, he got a little upset.
“How can you act so calm if we might die from an out of control Pyromancer? Don't you want to stop this before she kills us,” he said, with fear perceptible in his voice.
Out of the blue, Victoria swiftly turned her head to her brother. Her eyes seemed to glow with a very clear, threatening message that only he could see.
“You think I’m just gonna let us die from this..? What is wrong with that head of yours!? Has Life messed up your mind? Have you forgotten our past also? Because here's some news: Unlike you, I haven't gotten that weak, Nicolas!" she yelled as hostility was dripping from every word.
Nicolas gulped. Victoria was usually much kinder to him than to others, including Stephen. She rarely snapped at him like that, if at all. But he couldn’t deny the fact that he had probably crossed the line with what he said.
“…No. Sorry.”
Nicolas sniffed to try to keep his tears from even forming. Victoria seemed to notice his attempts because her hostile expression melted away as she realized what she had done.
“No Nick. I should be apologizing,” she said. “Sorry I snapped at you like that. I’ve just been a little stressful lately.”
Before she could say more, she looked away from him as a jet of fire came flying in between them. She seemed unfazed by it, but Nicolas moved his arms in front of him and jumped away.
“Seriously though! I just got away from a Cyclops a few minutes ago! Now I gotta deal with a Fire girl that doesn’t realize that she’s gonna burn down the arena,” Victoria yelled to herself.
They both stood up from their hiding spot when Alexandra had her back towards them. Her wand was still shooting fire in random directions while she was completely oblivious to what was happening. As she was doing this, Victoria held her right hand out in front of her while her fingers began to sparkle with light blue and white light, aiming them in Alexandra’s direction. She then swiftly made a flicking motion with her fingers and the sparkles vanished.
Clink!
An invisible force mysteriously hit Alexandra from behind and she immediately toppled to the ground. The fire from the wand’s tip immediately died when the wand fell from her hand. But after a moment, Alexandra didn’t get up. Instead, her body stayed eerily limp, showing no signs of life.
“Victoria!! Did you just kill her!?” Nicolas screamed.
Victoria didn’t look at him as she sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Gosh, kid, it’s only a Freeze spell. She’s just Stunned. The spell will wear off on its own—”
“AHH!!”
Victoria glanced towards her brother. She tried not to roll her eyes again when she saw that half of one of his blue sleeves had caught on fire, probably from the jet of fire that had nearly hit them earlier. He was crying while violently shaking the burning sleeve in a feeble attempt to put the fire out.
“Get it off! Get it off!” he sobbed, tears falling from his closed eyes.
As he kept weeping, Victoria just stared at him, feeling completely awkward about the moment. Not upset or concerned, just—awkward.
This is officially the weirdest day I’ve ever had.
With another soft clink, a silver wand appeared in Victoria’s hand. She then walked up Nicolas with a bored countenance and sighed irritably.
“Okay kid; hold still if you don’t want to lose a finger from frostbite.”
~
September 12, 2004
5:17 PM
The numerous clouds made the sky black as night above the streets of Triton Avenue. The chilling rain it brought made every inch of the neighborhood soaked, and the strong and angry wind deafened the sounds of the nearby waterfalls and the mill, which was perched on top of the high, purple-stoned cliffs above. It was a scene where peace and chaos seemed to mingle together, but where nature reigned supreme above it all. But for the Storm wizard standing in the center of a small arena, these occurrences didn't even phase him. The storm wasn't the reason why he seemed occupied.
Please tell me that you’re not outside in Triton Avenue… Ah who am I kidding? Of course you are.
The Storm wizard smiled at the comment. With his eyes closed, he tilted his head towards the sky and breathed in the air around him. The blue hat he wore fell off his head, leaving his snow-white hair to be barraged by the rain. The raindrops were like sharp, cold needles on his skin, but he easily ignored it. His navy blue and black jacket and pants had already been soaked for about half an hour now.
You don’t hear me complain to you whenever you hang out in Colossus Boulevard during a blizzard, he pointed out to the voice in his head.
True, the voice responded, but I don’t have to deal with a little issue called lightning! You realize that it's basically suicide to just stand around with lightning all over the place, right?
He mentally chuckled.
I’m not crazy, Victoria. At my level, I’d quickly get killed if lightning hit me. That's not the case though, is it? All that’s happening now is a tiny little shower.
With the rain still bombarding him, he titled his head back down, keeping his eyes shut. He then held his right palm in front of him. A small zap was heard and he clenched his hand around the wand that had appeared in mid air. The Storm wizard didn’t need to look at it to know that it had a lilac-colored handle, and that on its tip was what looked like a small, blue globe of a far away world called “Earth.”
Now, can I please practice in peace?
No voice responded, and the only sounds the Storm wizard could hear was the deafening howl of the wind and the heavy rainfall slamming into the water of the river, which surrounded the small arena like an ocean around an island.
…Just don’t get into trouble, Stephen.
Stephen smiled triumphantly.
I’ll take that as a “yes” then, he said to the voice. The voice when silent and he could tell that the presence in his mind was gone.
Stephen barely had time to practice his spells recently. Since the school year was almost over, studying for the upcoming exams was more important at that point. But even for someone like Stephen, who was fairly quiet and preferred to study than to socialize with others, he felt that if he did not take a break soon, he would go crazy. So when he heard that a storm was coming on Sunday afternoon, he jumped at the opportunity.
With his eyes still closed, Stephen started to wave his wand in smooth, graceful motions. As he moved, he could feel his Mana slowly move through his arm and to the tip of the strange wand he held. In front of him, he could feel the powerful electrical energy of his Storm symbol on his cold, slick skin. The charge from the symbol tickled the hand that held the wand, making his heart race with excitement. He felt powerful as he began to flick his wand to cast the spell.
“I knew you’d be here.”
Stephen’s arm tensed as he froze.
Fizzle!
He suppressed a growl from escaping he throat.
Drat.
Lowering his arm, Stephen turned around slowly and reluctantly. Opening his dark blue eyes, he gave the uninvited guest an empty stare.
“Well, well. If it isn’t Jonathan Duskglade. What brings a thing like you here?”
The man called Jonathan was standing near the bright, round teleporter that was on the ground near the arena. His long cloak and the hood that was on his head were completely black. Stephen was unable to see anything else of him. In fact, if not for the blinding turquoise light of the teleporter behind him, he would have been almost invisible thanks to the darkness.
Jonathan chuckled.
“Tut tut,” he answered. “Respect your elders, Stephen Darktalon.”
Stephen’s eyebrows arched up.
“You’re only older by five years. I seriously doubt that you count as one,” he retorted.
“But I am still older than you,” Jonathan stated cheerfully. “Not only that, but I am also much stronger than an Initiate of your level. You should still be ‘friendly’ to me. You never know what could happen to you.”
Stephen tried to show indifference to his comments on the surface. But at the same time, he was beginning to bite the inside of his cheek out of irritation. He was unable to see Jonathan’s face, but he could tell that it had a sickly happy grin plastered on it.
“I didn’t realize that Ghouls had to be treated with respect here. After all, I thought all they were good for was grunting and carrying a spade. Not to mention that they smell horrible,” Stephen said.
He tried to suppress a smirk when Jonathan stayed silent. But after a few seconds, Jonathan’s shoulders began to shake and he shook his head. The shaking turned into chuckles, which caused Stephen to raise a white eyebrow out of curiosity.
Great. What’s the foul Ghoul gonna do now?
“I’m sorry, but your attitude amuses me greatly,” responded Jonathan after his chilling chuckles subsided.
When Stephen didn't respond, Jonathan let out a slightly dramatic sigh.
“But to be honest, I feel horrible for you. I thought that your parents would’ve taught you manners when you were little. It looks as though they didn’t do a good job at that.”
The chaotic noises around Stephen seemed to be silenced as he suddenly felt a tight knot form in his chest. His eyes barely widened with shock but his jaw still involuntarily clenched to the point that it was noticeably uncomfortable for him. Even though the rain had made his skin cold, he could feel his face and palms begin to heat up from the newfound anger and humiliation that was beginning to build up within him.
Calm down. No need to get upset at this moment. Breathe, he thought to himself as he took deep breaths through his nose and made a fist with his left hand and tightly clenched his wand.
Why does he do that? Is he really that senseless..?
“Oh, that’s right,” Jonathan said as though realizing something important. “You wouldn’t even know if they said that to you.”
He sighed, this time far too dramatically for Stephen’s liking.
“What is it like to have amnesia? Because I would think that it would be a horrible fate for someone to live with. Especially for you.”
At this, Jonathan took off his black hood. He was young, but his cheeks were beginning to look hollow, which gave him a skeleton-like face. Yet somehow, the face was able to show what would have looked like genuine concern to almost anyone else. But behind his semi-shaggy black hair, which was beginning to get damp from the rain, Stephen thought his grey eyes had a glint of something very… Evil? Sinister? Demonic? He didn’t know. Whatever it was, he blamed it for the sudden burst of electrical energy that was now rapidly flowing throughout his body.
“Hmm. Well, this is odd,” Jonathan stated, blinking and looking curiously around his head. “It feels like lightning is coming, but I thought there wasn’t supposed to be any.”
Stephen gripped the wand in his hand even tighter, but it only made him feel furious. He felt his self control begin to fade, but he didn't care anymore about that. As his grip tightened, the wand began to form a purple electrical current around the orb on its tip. More of Stephen’s Mana was slowly and subconsciously being drawn towards the object in his hand. The large amount of energy started to become less orderly and more chaotic in the blue orb, leaving some of the purple electricity to escape and emit small sparks, which zapped the wet ground near his boots.
Poof!
Stephen glance to his left to find a collection of maroon-colored sparks appear out of thin air. As soon as they had come, they vanished. In their place was a girl with short and straight black hair. Her bright and innocent grey eyes and her light skin was all that was visible of her, since her entire outfit matched the color of the darkness that was still around all of them, although he thought that he saw small patches of navy blue in the mix.
“Jacqueline,” Stephen whispered.
“Ah, little Jackie,” Jonathan said in an affectionate tone. Stephen glanced at him to see that his face now showed a very big and childlike smile.
The girl didn’t acknowledge them as she looked up for a second, raised her arms, and began to wave them around elegantly. In front of her, a bright, maroon Balance symbol began to take shape. When she stopped moving and the symbol was completed, the light was strong enough to be considered blinding to Stephen. But when she waved her arms swiftly away from the symbol, it vanished.
A warm gust of wind came over all of them and tousled their hair as a golden bubble appeared from the ground and swiftly surrounded the entire arena. The rain immediately stopped, and instead, golden lights fell softly from the edges of the bubble. Stephen began to feel powerful energy flowing through the air and in him. And when one of the golden lights fell on his cheek, it was absorbed by his skin and an even bigger rush of energy rushed through his veins.
“So this is Power Play,” Jonathan stated, his eyes showing great curiosity
As the wizard called Jacqueline was patting her hair, she her head to him and gave him a big grin.
“Yep,” she answered him cheerfully.
Jonathan chuckled.
“Interesting. I don’t see too many Balance people use it.”
“That’s because it helps the enemy also. That's never good,” Jacqueline said while pouting.
Jonathan rolled his eyes and his smile grew wider.
“Well, it looks like I gotta go. See you back at home Jackie.”
“’Kay then,” she replied while waving at him.
He nodded to her. He then turned his attention to Stephen again. Even though his expression wasn’t threatening in any way, Stephen still noticed a feeling of anger inside of him when he looked at him.
“I’ll see you around then?” Jonathan asked.
Stephen stayed silent as Jonathan was engulfed in grey and white lights and vanished from sight. When he was gone, Stephen and Jacqueline looked at each other.
“You’re not the kind to just randomly appear where her brother is,” he said to her, not as a question, but a statement.
Jacqueline blinked as though confused.
“Really? I would have thought sisters did that a lot. Doesn’t Victoria do that to you occasionally?” she asked innocently.
Stephen stayed silent, vacantly staring at her. He patiently waited. After a while though, her smile fell from her face and she softly sighed.
“Geez, I can’t lighten the mood now?”
“I want to know why you’re here,” he said calmly, ignoring her question.
“I think you already know, Stephen," Jacqueline said, her expression suddenly becoming serious.
Stephen stayed silent, which gave him an exasperated sigh from her.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was? I could feel the tension all the way from Olde Town. It might not have seemed like much if I was the only one to notice it. You know Stephanie Star? She was all the way in the Commons and she was Whispering to me, wondering why she felt like a storm was coming. And Nora was nearby and she started to get jumpy when she began to feel the electricity you were releasing in the air.”
Stephen bowed his head slightly and stared at the ground in front of him in case his face showed the slight embarrassment that he felt. He said nothing as he slowly bent over and picked up his blue hat, which was still in a puddle. The water was still cold when some drops dripped from the hat to his hands.
“Hmm, I didn’t know Necromancers were jumpy people,” he said.
Jacqueline rolled her eyes.
“Well, I think she was kind of pulling my leg on that one, but I'm pretty sure that she was still worried…”
Again, Stephen didn’t reply. Instead, he looked up and stared at the golden lights that were still cascading from the edges of the glittering bubble around them. But even though the spell shielded them from the cold rain and strong wind, he could smell the scents that came from the weather outside.
“Look, Stephen,” Jacqueline suddenly said. "I know he can be creepy, but he really does mean well. I don’t know what he said to you that got you upset, and you don’t have to say anything about what you two talked about with me. But just give him a chance, okay?”
For a second, Stephen was too shocked from her request to breathe, which woke him up from his semi-trance. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he tried to relax his muscles that were now stiff again. When he finally calmed down, his eyes turned towards Jacqueline.
---
Jacqueline could think of many emotions that she thought that she saw in Stephen’s eyes: Depressed, angry, nervous, bitter, conflicted—and yet, at the same time, they looked very dull. She couldn’t decide. But no matter how she saw it, for some unknown reason, his gaze made her feel scared and a little helpless. This didn't bode well for her, and she was worried about his response to her question.
“Tell me something: How does it feel to know who you really are?”
Jacqueline blinked. She did not expect Stephen to ask her such a—strange question out of thin air. At the very least, she believed that she would have to endure a nasty argument with him. But the lack of anger, along with the odd question that he asked her, left her utterly confused. And to make matters worse for her, she was so surprised that she was left completely dumfounded and unable to respond.
“Because if you think about it,” Stephen continued, seeming to ignore her silence, “you would probably say that you feel pretty good about having this knowledge. Or maybe you’d say that you never thought about it and are completely indifferent about the fact that you know your name, where you came from, who your family is, what you love, what you hate, what kind of morals you were taught when you were young—” Stephen seemed to notice that his voice was becoming considerably louder with every word, so he stopped himself and rubbed his temple “—I could keep going on.
“But I don’t have any of that. At least, not much of it anymore.”
Jacqueline woke up from her state of semi-shock after hearing Stephen begin to talk. She tried to ask what he meant, but was interrupted by him.
“You wanna know what I meant by that,” he said matter-of-factly, his eyes becoming cold. “Well then fine! I'll tell you."
Jacqueline watched as Stephen fell silent for a moment and his feet shifted nervously. She knew that whatever it was he was trying to say, it was tough for him to get it out. After a while, he huffed to himself and began to talk quietly.
"Because of an… accident that happened to be before I was ten years old, I can remember almost nothing from my past. Nothing at all. Back then, I didn’t know who my parents were, and I still can’t recall anything about them no matter how many times Victoria tried to help me remember; I couldn’t remember what I learned besides basic necessities like my language and social manners; I couldn’t remember the history of Mooshu, the homeland that I was once apparently proud of—!
"Heck, I couldn’t even remember who Victoria and Nicolas were when I woke up from the incident! I probably would’ve left them behind because of that. No, scratch that. I did try to leave them once! The only thing that stopped me was the fact that Victoria kept pleading for me to stay with them. I'm pretty sure that I never saw her cry so much before…”
With a quiet zap, his wand disappeared from his tight grip. He then began to grip his hat with both of his hands, which were starting to visibly shake in front of him.
“As you can imagine, I don’t feel just one emotion over this— this amnesia. I’m angry at whoever or whatever caused me the memory loss. I don’t know how it happened, since no one will tell me. Probably because they knew that I would try to tear them to shreds...
"I also feel so agonized because I feel that it’s a great dishonor to my family that I lost the memory of every one of them. I’m always confused because I have no idea if I’m still the same person or not. It might not seem important to others, but it is to me.
"But you know what the worst one is? The worst part is that I feel completely guilty about the fact that I almost left the last of my family behind. All because I thought that they were total strangers! It especially didn’t help me that during the year after my accident, no matter what I did and no matter what I said that possibly insulted them, Victoria always stuck by me. She took care of me even when I told her to get lost, and she always stood by me and comforted me no matter how many times I tried to punch her in the face…”
Jacqueline gulped when she felt that her throat had gone dry.
“But that’s what sisters should always do. They should always be by their siblings’ side,” she responded weakly to him.
Stephen chuckled, although it seemed forced and creepy to Jacqueline. Even from the distance between them though, she could hear Stephen let out a staggered breath. His face was still wet from the rain, but she thought that she could see a stray tear roll down his pale cheek.
“I’m sorry Jacqueline, but even if your brother was genuinely trying to comfort me, I don’t want pity from him,” he said bitterly. “If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that when it comes to my past, I despise pity from others. That is something I can’t stand.
“…Besides, I don’t trust him. I don’t care if he’s your older brother or if he’s one of Victoria’s friends, because I don’t trust him—” Stephen’s eyes suddenly became very dark “—And I hope I never will. There’s just something that just doesn’t feel right about him. Something evil…”
The tingling sound of the falling golden lights around the two was all that Jacqueline could hear after Stephen fell silent, who was staring at the hat in his now bone-white hands with the same dark look. But she knew that she probably would have been unable to take anymore of his harsh and sobering words. Her mind was far too full of abstract thought. Some of them involved her contemplating the things that she realized that she had taken for granted until he had spoken up. Now that she thought about it, she realized that if she had no idea who she was in life, then life itself would be meaningless. But mostly, her thoughts involved feeling pity and sadness that she now felt for Stephen, knowing full well that he would never accept them, especially from her.
“Stephen…”
Jackie!
Jacqueline jumped and squealed out of surprise.
What the-!
Jackie , the voice continued, where’s Stephen? My Whispers aren’t reaching him. Do you know why he isn’t responding to me?
Who is thi...? Oh, Victoria. Hang on a sec, she responded.
“Yes Jacqueline?” he asked questioningly.
“Your sister’s wondering why you’re not responding to her Whispers. Did you block them out of your head or something?”
Stephen sighed. She thought that she heard him mumble "I can never get enough peace around here." He closed his eyes, and as soon as they completely shut, he grimaced.
I guess she’s pretty upset with him.
Jacqueline chuckled to herself when every few seconds, Stephen would flinch slightly, probably due to the fact that Victoria was yelling in his head. But after a few moments, his lips began to curve upwards, and he started to chuckle to himself. The sight began to give Jacqueline a warm and comforting feeling inside of her.
He really is lucky. Now I know why Victoria is so protective when it comes to hi. She might act a little strict with him, but at least it’s because she loves him to death. I don’t think he truly realizes how fortunate he is to have such a person in his life. I wish my family was more like his…
“Jacqueline!”
She blinked a couple of time to wake up from her thoughts, and then turned her head to acknowledge Stephen’s presence.
“Victoria is still complaining about the fact that Tyler still calls her ‘Ed.’ She wants you to tell him to quit it. Apparently, he’s taking great pleasure in bugging her with the nickname still.”
“I don’t think I can do much about that,” she said, shrugging. “The little bro can be hard to convince.”
“Oh, how pleasant for me,” he responded sarcastically, but still chuckling. “Well, I have to go now since she won’t take no for an answer now. See you later, Jackie.”
Purple and yellow sparks enveloped him with a loud poof! When the sparks vanished, so did he, leaving behind a confused Balance girl.
“Um…”
How did he get so... Cheerful all of a sudden? And did that kid just actually call me “Jackie?”
Running her hands through her black hair, Jacqueline sighed.
Stephen Darktalon, you’re one strange young man.
A second later, maroon sparks surrounded Jacqueline and like Stephen, she disappeared.
The Power Play spell around the arena stayed active for a few minutes longer. But eventually the golden bubble and all of its bright lights faded away, leaving the harsh storm to batter the ground with its chilling drops and the howl of the wind to penetrate the silence once more.
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