AN: Hey guys, sorry to start out with an author note, but I hope you enjoy this story. This story does draw major inspiration from the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane so if you enjoy the basis of Wizardry, do check that series out. My PMs are open to everyone, and I hope you enjoy the story.
The blonde teen closed the door on the boisterous noises of celebration pouring out of the building behind him. The darkness of the night enveloped him as he moved away from the bright lights of Signal, its iconic beam of light piercing the still night sky.
He had known what was going to happen from the moment he had arrived at the event. All his classmates would be called up one-by-one to receive their diplomas and awards certifying them as Signal Academy Senior Students, the final step before becoming Huntsmen-in-Training. They would walk up to the headmaster, smile for their families, exchange a few polite words with their teachers, and then triumphantly walk back to the bright smiles of their friends. All, except one.
Jaune had only gone to the ceremony to cheer for his friends in their moment of success. They all had worked to their limits for the past few years to graduate as Huntsmen-in-training and Jaune wanted to be there to celebrate his friends' success, even if he couldn't his own. Only after all the ceremony was concluded, and the carefully maintained aura of decorum dispelled, had Jaune made his exit. Everyone was at the party, too distracted to notice his exit.
His eyes traced the cracks in the sidewalk and his feet moved on autopilot through the dark streets and alleys of Vale. The light from the streetlights ebbed and flowed and his shadow lengthened and contracted in time. His smile had faded, and his shoulders slumped. He wrapped his arms around himself to ward off the chill breeze rolling in from the harbor. The thin cotton fabric of his suit did nothing to stop it.
He moved into the alleys earlier than he usually did to get out of that piercing gale. This alley was far darker than the one he usually went through; the restaurant owner had lit up that alley and used it as a delivery entrance. This alley had nothing but trash, boxes, and…was that a mugging?
Two large, muscular men in black stood in the middle of the alley, their backs to him. One of them pushed a small, mouse-like man against the brick wall and was gesturing with a knife. Jaune froze. Every kid at Signal had fantasized about such a scenario and had played it out dozens of times in their daydreams. They would swoop in like a majestic angel, destroy the evil-doers, and be proclaimed heroes. Everyone would applaud, and their name would be known by everyone in the city. It was a childish dream and they all knew it, but it kept them going through the hell of their rigorous coursework.
One fantasy that Jaune indulged in often started with him uttering a rousing battle cry and rushing a mugger with his shield, bashing him to the side. He would then use the flat of his sword to push the second guy backwards into the third guy while bringing his shield back around to block the fourth guy's bullets. A flying shield bash later, he would knock the third guy out with another swift bash to the head. Making sure everyone was unconscious, he would turn to the poor victim and give them a dazzling smile and a quick one-liner, often ending with them staring in awe as he helped them up. Liking the plan, and noting that there were only two belligerents (hey, two means twice as easy, right?) Jaune bellowed his battle cry and bull rushed the man closest to him.
However, his rousing cry was more of a loud whimper and the man was far enough away that he could turn and stand his ground. Jaune's shield stopped dead at the man's chest. His momentum pushed him forwards and his wrist folded into the inside of the shield where he had improperly tightened the strap. The strain on the wrist immediately broke it and rolled off the wide man onto the ground clutching his hand and whimpering in pain.
"That was pathetic, kid." The unmoved goon was shaking with laughter.
"Hey, that kid's from Signal." The second goon hadn't moved a muscle while his victim was staring at Jaune, something approaching pity in his eyes. God this was humiliating.
"How can ya tell?"
The second goon nodded at Jaune's sword, which he had accidentally kicked away in his fall. "Too expensive to be a normal defense weapon. Too old-school to be some rich kid's attempt at showing off. Coming from that side of town, probably was at the graduation today, going by the suit."
"Smart-ass." The first goon picked up Jaune's sword from next to his still groaning body, ignoring the boy's weak protests. "What do you think it's worth?"
The second good cocked his head. "Ten percent of my share of the ThaloCorp job."
"Twenty."
"Fifteen. Bet the thing doesn't even have a proper mechashift."
"Fine, done deal. No take-backsies when you cut yourself twirling it."
The second man half-grunted half-chuckled and turned back to the original victim. "Feeling convinced yet?"
The man's eyes widened, and he nodded as much as he dared, the cold steel at his throat discouraging most movements. The first mugger held up the victim's scroll, into which the victim typed a few codes in.
"Hell yeah dude, 10,000 lien! Knock 'em out and let's get outta here."
The alleyway was deserted when Jaune came to. He shook his head and started to get up, only to hiss in pain as his left hand contacted the ground. Oh, right. He slowly got up, feeling the pain in his broken wrist with every movement. His sword and shield were gone, but at least the muggers had the decency to not take his scroll. The glowing, now broken, screen lit up his face. It was about eleven, which meant that he had more than enough time to get home before his curfew of midnight. His parents had taken the opportunity of his absence to go on a date and his sisters would be fast asleep.
At least something was going his way tonight.
Jaune's shame-filled walk back home was uneventful, but his mind was in turmoil. He had not only failed to graduate with the rest of his peers at Signal but had managed to get shut down by two muggers that he had attacked first. It was beyond pathetic!
There was almost nothing that could act as an excuse: he had been training for combat against humanity's greatest enemies, enemies that had plagued civilization before it even existed. He should've managed to get more than one hit in! Wouldn't have mattered, they had basic auras. Even after 2 years, I can't fight worth a damn…
His leg lashed out at a can, bouncing across it the street and rousing the stray dogs in a nearby alley. I shouldn't have taken Crocea Mors for the graduation. My parents were right. I don't deserve it yet.
Or maybe ever.
A breeze kicked up and Jaune had to blink the dust out of his eyes. Tears leaked out the corner of his eyes and he hastily wiped them away. It wouldn't do to be crying out in public. Maybe later, in the privacy of his room he could let out his true feelings.
The rest of his walk back home was uneventful. He quietly let himself into his home, making sure not to make any noise; he had no wish to handle his sisters until his parents got back. He slipped upstairs, his footsteps as silent as he could make them, something he could apply from his Signal education. He dodged into his room and made a beeline for the bed. Not bothering to change his clothes he fell onto his bed, only to shoot straight up as something poked into his back.
He shifted his sheets around to find the offending item: a book, one of the first he had ever read, and which had influenced his life's decisions. It was a book called 'So You Want to be a Huntsman?' and had been bought from a school book fair with money he had saved up for weeks. He had read it so many times he had just about memorized the entire thing. He sat onto the bed rubbing his sore back and smiling melancholically.
It was a children's book, basically Huntsmen propaganda that detailed how awesome it was to be a Hunter and how they were basically saving humanity from destruction daily. It was designed to get as many children interested in the job as possible to get a large pool of potential recruits. Jaune smiled as he stroked the familiar cover depicting a team of Huntsmen standing side by side, fearless smiles on their heroic faces as a teeming horde of Grimm rushed them down. It was cheesy and unrealistic, but that was part of why Jaune liked it so much.
He traced his fingers along the worn pages, remembering the long nights as a kid spent under a blanket with a flashlight. They brought him a sense of melancholy and nostalgia and he gripped those feelings tightly.
He opened the front page carefully, his mind unfocused, which led to him not noticing the changed layout of the title. He kept turning the pages, skipping past the dedication and table of contents onto the introduction. However, instead of finding the exceptionally cheesy introduction to the world of Hunting, he found something…else.
In Life's name and for Life's sake,
I assert that I will employ the Art which is its gift in Life's service alone, rejecting all other usages.
I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened.
To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so —
till Universe's end.
What the hell? He was sure this had never been part of the book. Had he somehow picked up one of his sisters' books in his fatigue? Jaune glanced back at the title of the book.
So You Want to be a Wizard?
"Ok. Hold up. What is going on?" Jaune spoke aloud in disbelief. He put the book down and took a few deep breaths to wake himself up. This was 100% his fatigue, he was just hallucinating after the mugging. A part of his mind was still struggling with how he would explain the loss of Crocea Mors to his parents tomorrow, but he ignored it and went back to the more immediate mystery of the book.
The title still contained the changed title. Jaune rubbed at the text, half expecting it to come off and be revealed as one of his sisters' pranks. It didn't budge. He opened the cover. The same, altered, title was on the title page, but much more brilliant. It shone as if it was more than new, glowing with an inner light that mesmerized him. He flipped a page onto the table of contents, which was filled with topics beyond anything he had ever seen.
Chapter 1: The Speech
Chapter 2: Compression of Worldlines and Introduction to Wormholes
Chapter 3: Determent of Geodesic Vacillation
Chapter 4: Thermodynamic Conversations
Jaune squinted at that last one. Maybe it was a typo? Maybe they meant to write 'conservation' or 'conversions'? That was something taught in school at least. He scanned the page, noting the 8 or so chapters listed along with their page numbers, then flipped the page.
It was another page of contents. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise and he continued to flip through. Each heading was more fantastical than the last, with topics that seemed to have no clear pattern but grew more and more specific, if their title lengths had anything to say. It was clear by the fifth page that there was no way all the contents listed in the table were in the book. After all, the book was a mere 100 pages and the third page of contents went to Page 323!
He closed the book in a hurry and stared at it. From the outside it looked much the same as it had for the past 5 years of his life, worn and dusty (though he preferred 'well-loved'). Except for the change in the title, Jaune would have thought it the same book.
Jaune decided to humor his waking dream and reopened the book near where he had left off. Rather than showing the table of contents where he had left off, it had a completely different page, with text appearing in front of his eyes.
Hi there! You must be mighty confused right about now. Allow me to introduce myself before we start with the explanation. I'm your Wizard's Manual. What is a Wizard and why do they need a manual? Good question. A Wizard is a sentient being tasked with the task of slowing down the increasing entropy of the universe, through whatever means necessary.
Some of the easiest methods are simply causing the least chaos. After all, entropy is a measure of the chaos and disorder in a system. Paying your taxes, following rules, and being friendly are all ways one can minimize the local increase of entropy in their everyday lives. There are also other, harder ways to do so as well. All of these include fighting the machinations of the Lone Power, either indirectly or directly.
The Lone Power? What…?
Forgive me, I got ahead of myself there. Of course, you don't know about the Lone Power. We'll get to all that later.
Jaune's grip tightened on the book. How did it know what I was thinking?
Excuse me, your grip is quite uncomfortable. Would you mind relaxing it?
Jaune almost dropped the book.
There, that's better. Anyways, as I said, I'm your Manual. You'll understand what's going on once I get through this explanation. Anyways, as I was saying, as you've undoubtedly read in the Wizard's Oath, your job is to protect life in all its forms for as long as you can, delaying the death of the universe as much as you can.
Um, what if I say no?
That would be perfectly alright. Being a wizard is a choice, and no one will force you into a role that you do not wish to occupy. Especially not one with danger such as this, or the energy investment that will go into you.
"Hold up. Energy investment?" Jaune spoke aloud reflexively.
You don't necessarily need to speak out loud, I can understand you just fine. As I was saying, yes, an energy investment. Wizardry is a gift, but more than that it is an immense investment of energy. Energy that could have been used elsewhere, in our endless combat against entropy. Wizardry is only offered to those who are deemed to be trustworthy enough to be given such a responsibility.
"Given? By whom? Is there a council or something? God? Gods?"
The book seemed to flutter slightly. If it wasn't an inanimate object, Jaune would have suspected it of laughing.
They have been called that, by many millions of civilizations across the eons. They are however not gods in the way that you think. They are closer to being the universe itself, in a way.
"I'm not sure I understand."
One name for their collective is the Powers That Be. They were not created nor destroyed, for the definition of existence must have a domain. They came into existence along with our universe, and set about exercising their powers, molding the virgin spacetime however they saw best. Some created matter, others created the interactions between matter and energy. Others created clusters and seeded them to produce beautiful neutron stars. Others created life of all kind across the universe. Amongst all of creation, one Power, the Lone Power, different from everyone else, sought to create something to stand the test of time.
It watched and waited. It saw all of creation and decided upon a invention that would have consequences for every single Power forever. His creation was ingenious in its simplicity. A single sentence. Entropy Always Increases. Three words, and the Lone Power created death, disease, ruin in one fell sweep. Misery and jealousy, harm and sorrow all followed in suit and the utopian universe was forever marred. He created the concept of an ending, and in doing so doomed the universe.
"So he basically infected the universe with a virus?"
That is a…very simplistic way of looking at it, but yes, he introduced unwanted code into the source of the universe in a way that caused issues for the users. If that's what you meant, then you are correct.
"Wow. I need a minute to think about this. Can I get some privacy?"
Go ahead. Put me down and take all the time you want.
Jaune set the manual down and lay on his bed, mind moving a thousand miles an hour. If what the manual said was true, then Wizardry sounded an awful lot like becoming a Huntsman. Both their ultimate goals were about protecting life from whatever threatened it, with Wizardry seemingly having a much larger scope. Half of the scientific talk the Manual had expressed had gone over his head, but what he understood was simple. The Lone Power had apparently screwed the universe over, and Wizards were created as a response, to increase the lifetime of the universe and reduce suffering.
More importantly, Wizardry would give him power. Jaune hated to be so selfish in the face of what his manual had been telling him, but after what had happened today, a wish for more power just wouldn't leave his mind. He had to get more powerful to become a Huntsman, and if Wizardry could give him that power, he would take it. In the end, both seemed to be just counterparts of each other. Defeat the baddies and save the world. Couldn't be that hard, could it? He sat up, new confidence flowing through him.
Ready to take the Oath? There is no harm in denying it. Wizardry is not for everyone, and you should not accept it with doubt or second thoughts in your heart.
"None whatsoever. I'm sure of this."
Open the book, any page will do. You will find the Oath there.
Jaune flipped the book open and stared at the words on the page, making sure of the pronunciation before beginning with a deep breath. "In Life's name and for Life's sake…"
As he spoke the words out loud, the universe leaned in to listen. His words seemed to make the air itself tangible and he could swear he saw the vibrations in the air. The light from outside grew brighter and brighter and his mind whirled. He couldn't move and couldn't stop reading. The universe grew closer and closer, the light grew brighter, everything swirled around him, and he felt lighter and lighter until…
"till Universe's End."
He spoke the last word, something clicked, and everything snapped back to normal. Jaune blinked and waited for something to happen. He didn't know what a sudden activation of magic powers felt like, but he was 100% sure that it didn't feel like you were the latest victim of a practical joke. The page he was on was blank with no sign of the Oath he had just taken. He closed the book to the cover, and in bold letters was:
So You Want to Be a Huntsman
Jaune flipped through the book, only to find that the entire thing was exactly as he remembered. There was no mention of Wizardry, no magically appearing words, no seemingly infinite table of contents. Just his old, dog-eared, unassuming children's book.
The hope he had built up crashed around him and he threw the book at the wall. It landed on his dresser inexplicably closed, but Jaune had already burrowed himself into his covers, hoping to lose himself in the void of sleep to escape the disappointment of reality.
His dreams were chaotic, wild, and confusing. He tried to run from unseen threats, through darkness and flashes of light. A whale of pitch blackness tried to drown him, only for him to escape into a thicket of trees where the sky tried to fall on him. The ground opened up under him and he saw silver animals scurry about in their burrows. His fall became horizontal and he was flying away from a flock of black birds that seemed to merge and split into more by the minute.
He flew over featureless landscapes that looked both blasted and unshaped at the same time. Great plains made way to oceans and his flight curved upwards into the moon. It seemed larger than it did in reality and filled his vision, growing brighter and brighter, blinding him with white, it sung to him, he must fly to it, it called him…
Jaune….Jaune….
"JAUNE!"
Jaune bolted upright. He was still in his bed; the brightness was simply the early morning sun angling into his room. He squinted around his room to see his dad in the doorway patiently waiting for him to fully wake up.
"I'm up, it's cool." Jaune mumbled as he rubbed his eyes. "Give me five minutes."
"Alright kiddo. I just wanted you to know that your mom and I are taking your sisters to the park. You want to tag along? I know you've had a pretty late night."
Jaune smiled blearily. His dad understood him like no one else. Any other day he would've happily gone with his family, but his dad knew that he would like some time alone to think over recent events and his future. Of course, he didn't know about the mugging or about losing Crocea Mors…
What am I going to do about Crocea Mors?! Jaune almost had a panic attack right there but kept it together enough to shake his head no.
"Breakfast is on the table. Blueberry pancakes. Get 'em while they're hot!" His dad walked off, eager to return to his favorite breakfast. Jaune waited for his footsteps to retreat down the stairs before leaping out of bed and shutting the door. He had to be calm and think methodically. It was what was drilled into them at Signal after all, and the only thing he was remotely passable at.
Step One: Identify the Goal. Easy: getting Crocea Mors back in his possession.
Step Two: Identify potential roadblocks. Easy: getting murdered getting his sword back from trained criminals.
Step Three: Eliminate the roadblocks in your path. Difficult. Very difficult. He would have to fight them or trade them for it. He had no money and very questionable ability to face them down.
Step Four: Execute. Not remotely possible.
Jaune huffed and sat down with his head in his hands. This would not do. He had to get his sword back within a few days. He could delay his parents from finding out for a week or so max, but anything beyond that was risky territory. They would get suspicious, and the later the truth came out, the worse it would be for him.
Maybe I could just tell the truth now and hope they're not too mad?
He almost laughed out loud. No matter how much they loved him, they would be mad and disappointed in him. He felt it whenever his exam results came back, no matter how much they tried to hide it behind words of encouragement or offers to train him themselves. He declined them every time. The only subjects he was good at were the theoretical subjects, like History or Strategy. He was hopeless in Personal Combat and that was really what everyone went to a Combat School for.
He had to start to become independent sooner than later and having his parents hold his hands while in a Hunter Prep school was less than optimal. His gaze roamed his room and settled on the book he had thrown the night before and something twisted in his gut. Everything had seemed so real yesterday. He couldn't have imagined an entire conversation with a book, could he? Especially not the Wizard's Oath; he wasn't nearly smart enough to come up with that subconsciously.
Feeling like a fool, he got up. Feeling like an absolute moron he moved to his dresser and picked up the book. Hoping against hope he flipped the book over.
So You Want to Be A Huntsman?
Jaune felt something fall inside him. No, there was no way. All of it couldn't have been an illusion! His hands tightened on the book and warmth spread across his body. His shut eyes did not notice the pulse of energy that traveled outward from him and through the walls, much like a magical strum of a guitar. All he could feel was his refusal of the situation. There was no way it was all fake; some of it had to be real!
He sighed and tried to move back to the bed but couldn't. His body felt like it had been frozen, trapped in invisible ties. He felt his body grow hotter, his hands clammy, and forehead sweaty. Drops rolled down his face and into eyes as he felt something surge inside him, starting at the base of his feet and travel through him to his head where it pooled. His skull strained as if holding back an explosion and before he knew it that pressure behind his eyes dissipated and his temperature fell back to normal as if nothing had happened. His shaky legs gave out under him and he fell to the ground, still tightly clutching the manual.
Congratulations, Jaune! A voice spoke in his head. You are now a Wizard!
AN: Reviews, PMs, criticism, praise, discussion, etc are all dearly awaited dear readers. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any ideas for the cover art of this story I'd love to hear them. Or any of my other stories to be honest haha.