Ignition 1 - Rumia Meallan
A lone black cloaked figure strode the cobbled paths of Godric's Hollow, a small village of no major relevance. At least, it was irrelevant until the little family decided to fight their unknown visitor.
The man was restless, he knew that. Up there before him would be a child, something so new to the world that they weren't yet marked by the fullness of what he had caused. That innocence wouldn't spare his wrath, it hadn't before. What it did, though, was scare the man. How could something so new already be marked as the one who would seal his demise?
The thought drifted through his mind as he found the nondescript, two-story house of his victims. He wanted this to just be over. In and out before anyone caught wind that the greatest Dark Lord to live was isolated. He didn't need his foolish enemies thinking they could work a miracle.
Upon entering the cozy home, he heard a rattling from his sides. Turning to identify the sound, he spotted runestones being transfigured into shackles that were racing after him. With only a flick, the base of the chains exploded, and the spell fizzled as a result.
"Not a bad trap, Potter, but nowhere near good enough." Voldemort sneered. He enjoyed having competent enemies. He enjoyed the looks they got upon his destruction of everything that gave them hope.
That unfortunately meant a fight he didn't have time for. "That wasn't the trap, this-" Fortunately Gryffindors had a prominent sense of foolishness. If not, they wouldn't be Gryffindors. That was the only way Voldemort could justify his hidden enemy revealing his position only to get hit by the killing curse.
One fool parent down, one to go. He may have humored his minion Severus about sparing the talented witch, but she had too many strikes against her, and the Dark Lord knew she wouldn't accept life. She'd already challenged death repeatedly.
Voldemort's footsteps carried him up a flight of stairs towards the sounds of crying. It grated on his nerves. Oh how he hated children and what they made him do. At least it would all be over soon.
Opening the door the noise was loudest behind, he was confronted by a blasting curse. "YOU WON'T TAKE HER!"
The Dark Lord was impressed by the woman's gall. He truly would mourn such talent in the dark recesses of his own mind. Unfortunately that act set the stage for him. With a flick of his wand, the curse flew out. Should the woman dodge it, her child would receive it and his work would be finished. As expected though, the redhead glared him down and took the curse head on, denying him a peaceful outcome.
Now with only his real target left, Voldemort observed what could have been his greatest threat. She was barely a year old with a tuft of red hair and green eyes matching the woman he just killed. He wondered if that meant the child could have had her mother's potential. It didn't really matter, but curiosity deserved being humored on occasion.
The occasion being brief of course, he still had to finish this. Raising his wand, Voldemort said the words of his most infamous spell, granting the child an honorable death that only he would know of. The green light left his wand to trail after the girl, oddly slower than usual. It collided with her forehead where for a moment it looked to work, before reforming and coming back at him far faster than he could react. That wasn't the only mystery to befall him though. Once the spell changed paths, the girl's eyes flashed a brilliant green before she vanished without a sound. That sight would forever mock Voldemort as he felt his body get ripped apart and his soul break free to find a safe place to recover.
Damn that child. He would find her again, and then he'd make sure to properly kill her.
Seven figures cloaked in blue stood on a cliff, the seas below raging as they chanted. Above them the skies were just as fierce, clouds churning in harsh winds while flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder added a backdrop for their spell. The storm above, while fierce had, yet to descend. The mages of Izzet—those dedicated to learning all there was to learn, and creating new uses for the science and magic that dominated their world—were holding it at bay.
"Sir, we almost have the pressure we need to drop it!" One of the younger members of the group yelled over the storm to their instructor and local guild head.
The leader nodded, a blue glow escaping his hands. "Good. Now everyone, let's guide this bolt to the target!" Everyone else nodded, six following in generating a blue glow while the last two's eyes became a bright red.
The sea continued to rage unaffected while above the storm moved. No longer a chaotic mess, it swirled into a cyclone, red sparks building in its now blue clouds. The magic flowing through it guiding the swiftly forming red eye over a previously marked point on a clifftop. A point where three metal spires jutted out to capture and measure the strike about to descend.
Within moments, everyone released their spells, willing the storm back to nature, causing the lightning to crash. A crimson bolt thicker than a human shone bright, making the darkened sky lighter than a cloudless day. As it reached the metal spires, it arced into three pieces, only to reform when an odd vortex appeared at center of their bases. The anomaly drew in the bolt, absorbing the entirety of the storm's remaining magics with it.
The guild members watched in shock and awe as their experiment went wrong before their eyes. The veteran members readied barriers, a must know spell for Izzet scientists, while the younger ones simply reinforced the ones they rushed behind.
In the end it wasn't necessary as no rebound happened. The storm just vanished after the vortex took it all in. Nobody dropped their guards however, not until an object came out of the anomaly. A tiny pink bundle, one easily identified as a child as she cried out into the night.
"Wha-what was that?" The question went unanswered by the youngest member, the confusion mirrored by everyone.
It was the guild leader who recovered first to look at the child. He was shocked at the sight of her. He could feel the magic within her raging with the storm from just moments ago. It all localized within a jagged mark bleeding on her forehead. "... Something nobody could guess."
Niv-Mizzet, Firemind, Dracogenius, head of all of the Izzet guild across Ravnica, one of the city's greatest minds; for all those titles he had no answers for the child before him. For four years, he along with those under his mantle watched as the girl they called Rumia Meallan grew up.
She was one of their greatest mysteries, but also a spot of pride for the whole guild. The storm she absorbed upon what could be considered her birth had physically left her with an interesting bolt shaped scar, and left her hair always standing on end with static. Magically, she was that storm, incarnate. Nobody taught her the simple shock spell—a simple application of red mana that generated a sudden electrical current—but already she was generating a strong enough output to charge one of the smaller guildhalls.
She wasn't just magically energized. The equally dark red and blue haired girl was often found running throughout the buildings, only contained by the fact she knew all the fun stuff was inside those halls emblazoned with the Izzet crest of the red and blue dragon whose wings connected form made a circle. It was that small mercy that helped them with raising the trouble magnet.
The crimson dragon watched the child as she ran about the lower halls of his building, amusement bubbling up inside him at the image. She was a prodigy, and somebody he wanted in his circle when she grew older. That in mind, he decided to make an impression on the girl his underlings had decided to adopt.
The look of wonder in those emerald eyes as the dragon glided his way from the very topmost tower down to her left Niv-Mizzet wondering why he didn't go out more. The answer came readily enough. His extensive study into omniscient magics left him feeling no need to apply direct pressure to the goings on of the city-plane.
This child was different than a guild at large however. She was one figure who already had influence at such a young age. Enough in fact to catch his notice. After thinking on it he realized that personally teaching her would be beneficial to them both. It was just a matter of how to approach a child with such a plane-shaping decision.
Fortunately he had been thinking on this long before this appearance, and as such was merely reminding himself to be simple while the child's wonderstruck face settled.
"Are you Mister Niv?" Niv-Mizzet couldn't help but internally laugh.
"Maybe I am. Why do you ask?" The dragon figured he could make a test of this. See how developed her mind was for one so young.
"Because most the other dragons are with other guilds and I was told only Mister Niv was in this area." The Firemind was pleased with her answer. The girl already gathered knowledge and could connect facts. She would indeed make a good apprentice.
"That's clever of you. Yes I am Niv-Mizzet." Said dragon nodded, enjoying the proud look his compliment gave the girl. It would seem she would be easy to encourage to work hard.
There was an awkward pause for the girl afterwards however as Niv waited for the girl to continue the conversation. He hoped she would be the one to take the step first and not him. The more she wanted to learn, the better this plan would go.
"So what are you doing Mister Niv?" The Dracogenius was satisfied by her way of continuing the discussion. It showed he had her attention, something one her age had very little of normally.
"I've come to see you child. You have potential to be my student." The blue eyed gaze of the dragon settled on the girl, watching her reaction to his words.
He wondered how stunned his guild was going to be at the sound of the reclusive dragon giving a full bellied laugh as a wide eyed girl flung herself at him in joy, blue mana licking at her feet as a guest of wind launched her to hug his neck screaming "PLEASE!"
Rumia was excited and nervous. Her teacher had decided over ten days to double down on her lessons. Something she personally didn't mind, especially when the reward for keeping up was given to her. She was granted ten days off of lessons to go enjoy the Ravnican Guildpact celebrations. The Guildpact was an old treaty the ten major guilds of Ravnica had signed to maintain a sort of peace and balance. In honor of that, each guild was present with their guild leaders or representatives to host and enjoy an event. Each guild had their own day in which to lead the populous, and Rumia had been told that she would be the one to kick off Izzet's goblin races.
She knew her teacher trusted her to take his place, and suspected he had her do it to spite the other guild heads, be free to do his own work, and test her on her understanding of the interactions between the various powers within the city-plane. The fact the dragon chuckled in his own way as the thought left her lips yesterday only proved she knew her teacher well enough to anticipate. If only she could use that to beat him in a game of chess.
The first day of the celebration was the Azorius. The lawmakers of Ravnica, a stern and mostly fair group that Niv told Rumia to treat well. They used their time to open the celebrations and keep the initial kick off calm, yet exciting. The way their magics worked intrigued Rumia as she was proficient with the chaotic element of electricity, and had mastered countermagics since her teacher demanded she know how to defend herself at a young age. Azorius magic was, while not her opposite, close enough to be worth looking into. They used the white mana to bend light and bind objects and people in place. Something controlled and tame as opposed to her wild storms.
Nothing else exactly happened that day, but Rumia did return to her room within the main guildhall with a few notes on white mana and how to access it for simple detainment spells. She knew her teacher would be pleased to know even while on break she was making an effort to learn. Also that her clear curiosity in the other guilds made her seem less arrogant and more approachable by the more patient guild leaders. They decided to humor the young girl and quickly came to realize why their colleague in Izzet had taken an interest in the child.
The next day was less interesting magic-wise than the first. Orzhov were in charge of finances, and the Obzedat Council never left their ghostly quarters for anything but collecting debts. They annoyed Rumia with their persistence on collecting, and she knew they were a major limiting factor on Izzet research. They kept most scientists poor enough that their great ideas could not be tested.
That limiting of funding frustrated Rumia. It meant nobody could really get another test off the ground to figure out what happened the night she came to be. Rumia dwelled more on that personal mystery than the days events. That night she unfortunately had very little to report to the Firemind. She was shocked to find that he actually wasn't shocked at that fact.
By day three, Rumia's constant need for knowledge led her to wandering the streets. It didn't help that the day of Dimir, the guild of shadows that might have faded into nonexistence, or have been so efficient in their task as to have vanished entirely, was a dull day. The guild never appeared, directly or indirectly as far as anybody knew. It always made the day awkward as no one knew how to celebrate an enigma.
Rumia used the calmness of the situation to visit with Agmund Sarv, head of Azorius' law enforcement branch. The man was clever and insightful, but Rumia had to wonder about what her teacher had told her of the man. He was apparently a great tactician without ever having fought. Being taught by a dragon definitely skewed her perspective, and Niv made sure she was aware of that fact, but even still, it didn't make sense that one could be good at something they never did before.
In the end it didn't matter as the man mostly spent time teaching Rumia about white mana and the simple spell pacifism. It calmed a target for a few hours to the point they refused to take any aggressive actions. The workings of the spell were odd, but Rumia wasn't going to deny learning new things.
That night's report amused her teacher to no end as she cast the spell on one of the goblins running about in preparation for the following day.
On the day of the races, Rumia prepared herself to meet the masses. Izzet knew her, the rest knew of her. Some had broken the ice the last few days with the Firemind's apprentice, but everybody held their opinions for how today went.
She exited the guildhall for the stadium the event would start at in her apprentice robes. She refused to overstep herself, and went with the blue lab coat with red embroidery of the Izzet symbol. Underneath she had trousers and a sapphire hued shirt. A humble appearance that matched how she felt.
The onlookers seemed to agree. She did appear to look like any other Ravnican minus the crazy coloration of her hair and eyes. The red and blue strands were up in an intricate braid Rumia had to seek professional help to get done, that merged the two colors into an almost violet color that clashed with her startling green eyes.
Rumia was glad Izzet wasn't on the first day. It gave her time to be used to the looks and brush aside the comments as Niv-Mizzet told her she'd have to do. It was annoying, but at least she didn't hear anything too bad.
That thought mentally brought her up short, but she kept approaching her destination. She knew people had been having less than kind thoughts of her. Ever since her teacher took her in, she'd been made aware she made enemies. This complacency she was hearing was off, almost like an illusion.
The only question was, who cast it?
Notes: I have returned publicly. Quick note, Hunter's Log will continue and will span all special events that have happened while away from it. Otherwise, this story, Anomaly will also be updated as chapters come. I have another work, Woken Horror that my friends have banned me from uploading until it is complete due to it being larger than this planned to be 50 some chapter fic, and Log's unprecedented amount of content. Now that I have graduated from college, only regular life stresses can interfere and those aren't enough to stop the stories from finally ending. So, do as you please, but most importantly have a great life!