Maybe you've never heard the story of Percy Jackson. Maybe you don't know who Carter and Sadie Kane are. Maybe you'd be confused if I were to talk about the seven heroes of Olympus. If so, I commend you for being able to live under a rock for the past decade. Unfortunately for me, I had to live with those stories as history.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning. My name is Ajax Faust, but please, call me AJ. I'm fifteen years old, pretty tall for my age, with black shoulder-length hair that I usually keep in a bun and emerald green eyes. Oh yeah, and I'm a renegade magician being hunted by the House of Life for practicing illegal magic.
Of course, that's not all I am, but that's what this story is about.
It started on an average school morning in late May. It was surprisingly warm, like summer had already begun, but I didn't mind the heat. What I did mind was having to be stuck in a place worse than the Underworld… public school. Seriously, have you ever met a high school linebacker? They smell worse than a jackal.
My dad had left almost a year ago on some super-important mission or something. He wouldn't tell me where he was going or what he was doing, which was a first, but in the mean time it meant I had to stay at my great aunt's house, and not draw any attention whatsoever. Ugh.
All the classes had already had their final exams, so I was surprised when the teacher in my first period class, Mrs. Quentino, announced that we had visitors from another school. I wasn't really listening, but apparently it was something about "strengthening the bonds between us and our sister school." Whatever the hell that meant. The girls Mrs. Q was introducing, however, were definitely worth paying attention to. One was tall and slender, with lithe but obviously capable muscles. Her blonde hair cascaded down to the small of her back, her bangs swooping over one of her gorgeous amber eyes. The other wore her dark brown hair in a short bob that came down to her jawline, framing her eyes that were a startling silver color. She was much shorter than the blonde, but just as athletic, and her skin was almost an olive color. Both girls wore orange tee-shirts with Camp something-or-other written on them. The blonde wore hers with yellow converse and jean short shorts, which I was surprised the teacher didn't seem to care about. The brunette had a silver windbreaker and black skinny jeans and combat boots.
"Class," Mrs. Q said, "This is Saria Fotia and Wynne Tanawan. Please make them welcome here. Girls, go ahead and take any open seat." The blonde, Saria, scanned the room. She tried to hide it, but I could tell that she had focused on me for a split second. I tried to tell myself I was imagining it, but she walked directly to the back of the room where I was sitting, and took the seat next to mine. She didn't look directly at me, but I could tell she kept me in her peripheral vision. Wynne sat a couple seats ahead of me. I tensed a little, wondering if the House of Life had finally found me.
Perhaps I should explain a little more on that point. You see, all those things teachers taught you about Eqyptian myths? Yeah, turns out, "myth" isn't exactly the right word. More like history. Actual, real-life history. All the gods, all the monsters, all the magic… all real. I should know, my dad has been training me since I was six years old how to cast spells. The thing is, a couple millennia ago, the House of Life-the authority on magic from Ancient Egypt until now-outlawed a specific branch of magic, called the Path of the Gods. They viewed the gods as selfish and dangerous, so communing with them to gain their power was definitely out of the question. My family, descended from Ramses the Great, has kept with the traditions of the Path of the Gods, becoming outlaws from the House of Life. I'd heard some rumors that the House was under new management and was encouraging the Path of the Gods, but my father suspected it was a trick to lure renegades like us into the open. So yeah, there's the short version.
So there I was, figuring a couple of young magicians had found me out. I could tell this much, they definitely weren't regular humans. They had some pretty strong auras about them and, against my better nature, I lowered my vision into the Duat.
The Duat is the sum of the magical world which is connected to our own. Imagine a sea of ever deeper layers. It's where the gods came from, the path to the Underworld was, it olds the route Ra traveled on his nightly journey… Yeah, fun stuff. Anyway, magicians can learn how to see into the Duat. It can be a rather dizzying experience. Picture wearing 3D glasses, seeing multi-colored auras around everything, but it was all constantly shifting and changing, and the auras didn't always match the shape of the object they surrounded. As I glanced at the strange visitors, I had to stifle a gasp. Saria was glowing so brightly, I couldn't look directly at her. It was almost as though she were made of sunlight, and it seemed like her aura was a little too big for her almost. Wynne's aura was strange, it was pale gold, but streaks of bright silver seemed to flow along her major veins and arteries. I had no clue what that was about, but one thing was clear, these girls weren't here to learn algebra.
I shifted in my chair, gripping a curved piece of ivory concealed in my jacket. If a fight broke out-unlikely, with all these innocents around, but still-I'd need to have my wand out in an instant.
You should just kill them, said the voice in my head. Oh yeah, I suppose I should introduce you. Readers, meet Set, Lord of Chaos, Lieutenant of Ra, Pain in my Butt. You see, I didn't just follow the Path of the Gods, I was a godling. A mortal host for a god. Egyptian gods can't maintain a presence in the mortal world without a host, and so I made a pact with Mr. Evil himself. Although he's not so bad most days. Of course, he usually left me with just a fragment of his power, preferring to hang out in the court of the gods. But every so often he turned up with sage advice such as "Kill them," or "Maim them," or the ever-popular "Wipe them and their family off the face of this measly world." See? Great advice.
I'm not gonna kill them, dude. I don't know if they're a threat, I responded with exasperation.
Look at them, they're obviously here for you. Take them out before they take you out, that's what I say. Two quick lightning bolts. Bam! Bam! Done.
Not until I find out more.
You're so boring sometimes. Alright, deal with this on your own then.
Thankfully, nothing happened during math class, as I'd expected. Next set was gym. Don't ask me why the made us run around so early in morning, but I hated it. For the last few weeks, the gym class had been having a kickball tournament, and I'd always found a reason to bow out. This time, I wasn't in the mood for faking an injury, so I just slipped away once I got outside the doors to the football field, rounding the corner of the brick edifice and leaning up against the wall, trying to relax my muscles.
"Aha!" a female voice said, breaking me out of my reverie, "We found you!"
