Summary
All from different backgrounds, seven young, magical individuals have agreed to be trained to work for the Irish Sanctuary. Working as a unit, they discover the underlying truths of the different sides of war, all the while becoming a more powerful force against their enemies. However, their never-ending battle, both internally and externally, isn't necessarily all that it appears to be…
So; a bunch of young, wild, unique, power-fused teenagers living in the same space and being trained to be elite operatives. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Collaboratively written, the story's characters are written by their respective owners. Their characters belong to them. Characters from the series belong to Derek Landy.
Written by:
Deri / fletcher-renns-hair
Carol / tried-to-kill-springer
Carlo / sticky-pickle-jenkins
Amber / rainycatrescuesquad
Ceri / ceridwen-rivai
Eloise / thoughtswhilstdrinkingtea
Simon / chinasorrrows
Georgie / tanzanicoiltheelectromancer
Arthur / acidicai
Chapter 1
In the Beginning
The Irish sanctuary was finally settling down after the panic over Argreddion, another Sorcerer who had discovered his true name. It was a little messy, but what would one expect?
He had been found. Loukas Nemain, a very powerful Sensitive with access to what many sorcerers could only dream about. He had been discovered torturing an unconvicted kidnapper. The criminal deserved it, but the Sanctuary thought he had to be arrested. Now they hired him, as an apprentice of course. Loukas was only 14, and yet they were astonished by his powers.
They called him to a room, saying that he had to meet 'other people'. He sighed; he just wanted to train his powers all by himself, and not to have gotten arrested. He took a seat in the corner, and made eye contact with no-one and remained sceptical.
Meanwhile, through the door strolled a lanky, blonde boy with a mischievous smile. He took a seat in the corner and leaned back, his legs crossed over each other. The grin didn't leave his face.
This was Halcyon. An illusionist versed in creating projections of himself. He had been brought here because he was the best, of course, he didn't doubt it for a second. As he looked around his grin spread across his face. He could tell already that everyone here would love him. Right?
A tall, blue eyed boy with pale skin walked in, quickly looking around and surveying the others in the room. A dark haired boy sat in the corner scowling at the ground, and another boy with similar features was looking at him with an unsettling look on his face. Ragnar smiled at the mad one and sat down relatively nearby.
Ragnar Solent plopped down and clicked his fingers, summoning a small flame. He was an elemental, fairly common type of magic but a fun one nonetheless. As the flame flickered in his hand he looked around the dark room, wandering why he had been summoned here in the first place. He'd spent his life so far living peacefully with his magic family, training as an elemental and developing his skills, and suddenly he'd been contacted by the Irish sanctuary to come out for some sort of "secret mission". He'd decided to go out of interest, and his family had seen him off at the airport.
And now here he was, stuck in the one country on earth that was grimmer than England. Happy Days.
The doors were already open and waiting for her to walk through them. Inside she could see eight seats and a table, with nothing decorative on the walls or such. She sighed. Tanzani took a quiet breath and walked in, her hands firmly placed in her hoodie pocket. She looked around the room. Inside; a blonde, stupid looking teen who looked a little older than her, and another teen, a guy who looked about her age, probably older. Another guy had sat down and was playing with a flickering flame in his hand.
She took a seat, making sure it wasn't cramped next to the other seats. If she needed to get the hell out of there, then she needed space. Looking around the room, she raised an eyebrow. "Cozy." She said overly brightly, flicking her blonde hair out of her eyes.
Hester took a moment to breathe. New people, new situations, a new country… it was exhausting. She stood outside the door, taking out her phone, hoping to find a message from her mum, even though she knew she wouldn't. It had been five weeks, and not so much as a text to ask if she was safe.
Hester supposed she deserved that, after everything she'd said.
"Just go in already," She whispered to herself, "What's the worst that could happen?" Then she smiled, because that was exactly the sort of thing people said before something blew up.
Taking a shaky breath, she pushed open the door and slipped inside. There were a few other kids there already, three boys and a girl. Her eyes passed over them without really taking in their features, and she went to lean against the far wall, trying not to draw too much attention to herself.
In hindsight, she probably shouldn't have died her hair blue if she didn't want to be noticed - but, well, new start and all that.
Reagan's olive hands turned over the stone in her necklace, letting the smoothness of the gem on her finger tips sooth her nerves. She didn't really bother looking around the room when she walked in; she'd seen it plenty of times before - in dreams of meeting here. For some reason she hadn't seen the people she was supposed to be meeting, but since when had her powers been reliable?
Curly, dark hair hung down her back, flicking as she walked to take a seat. Once seated, she let her eyes roam over the other people in the room, three boys, and two girls, each reasonably spaced from each other. She guessed no one had bothered to introduce themselves yet, and she wasn't about to be the first. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to meditate. The energy from the people in the room was too high for that to be possible though.
Dainan stepped into the room and pulled his headphones out if his ears while some of the other people stared. He stared back for a few awkward seconds, gave them each a quick smile and put his headphones back in and leaned against the wall looking down at his shoes. He glanced up every now and then, catching someone's gaze occasionally and then instantly looking away. He tried his best to make himself amused, and to liven the group of anxious teens and one insane looking boy up, he slipped on his gloves and began moving shadows around like marionettes.
He plucked the silhouettes of a girl with blue hair, and a rather tense looking boy off of them, and paired them in dance. The tense boy became lively as he dipped and twirled the blue haired girl, he finished their display with a fantastic manoeuvre he had once seen on television, and with a flick of his fingers their shadows were sent writhing back to their owners.
Dainan smiled to himself and apparently only at himself, as no one else had noticed. He ran his fingers through what he could of his short hair and stared at the floor.
The cleavers outside has automatically moved aside for him as he walked into the conference room. His smile was sly as he entered, standing at the foot of the table. "Thanks for attending, everyone. Forgive the short notice, but we didn't want to spend too long waiting. Time's short as it, with the conflicts and all." He explained, his eyes surveying the young sorcerers around him.
"Yeah," Tanzani said dryly, "No problem."
"As you're aware," He continued, "The sanctuary is in, while not in need as such, but would appreciate new recruits. If the training goes well, then you'll be given allowance to stay as an amateur operative." He said, hoping the young mages around him were taking it all in.
"In case you haven't already been notified, we've organised your accommodation for the course. The training won't be held here, but a little further north." He clarified. "You'll be given more information on the structure and the area when you get there, but for now... The accommodation is one big apartment. You're all given separate rooms for the each of you, and 3 bathrooms to share. One kitchen, one living room. Should be plenty enough, given you'll be spending most of the time training."
Sharing an apartment? The mere proposition made the grin slip from Halcyon's face immediately. He gave a quick glance around the room to check out the others. Similar reactions from most.
"I'm going to like…get privacy…right?" He mumbled half to himself, half to the man who had just entered the room. He was ignored.
Tanzani's eyes widened and she perked up, leaning forward. "Wait, we're sharing a place?" She asked, eyes bulging. The idea of sharing an apartment with a bunch of potentially dangerous individuals scaring her a little. "Please tell me we have locks on the doors..." She groaned, leaning back into her chair sullenly.
Loukas couldn't ever do this, no way. He had to stay away from everyone, he was scared. If he had to share an apartment with someone, then that would mean waking up to someone, a random person's screams. He moved here so he could get away, stop subconsciously hurting people, and start anew.
Tanzani turned to the rest of them. "You so much as step a foot inside my room without my permission I swear to God..." She said warningly, really hating trespassers. She had enough of that trouble had home.
With a grumble, Halcyon stretched, "No offence, but I'm not sharing an apartment."He let out a sharp laugh. Glancing at each of them again expecting cries of dismay; when none came he huffed, deciding to stay quiet for the while.
Hester's mum would say that it was a good opportunity to make new friends, but the thought of being in an apartment, of sharing a kitchen and living room and bathrooms with a bunch of strangers was about as bad as it got. She was used to just living with her mum, who respected her privacy. There was no way she was going to agree to living with six other people. No.
Besides, seven amateurs living under one roof? The place would collapse in less than a week. She didn't say that though, because these were new people and she'd rather keep her opinions to herself.
When one of the boys said something about not sharing an apartment, she caught his eye and gave him a small smile, because she couldn't help but agree with him. Even if he was kind of obnoxious.
"I can't, no, no, no, no..." Loukas repeated to himself, he was rocking in his seat, then stopped and looked downwards and started chewing on his nails and patting his foot.
He had to measure out his karma so, keep it neutral so that he would not emit a white light for being too good, or red light for being too bad. Keeping it neutral would stop the sigil on his chest from hurting anyone in the near proximity. But the more important thing was, him hurting the innocents. No way could he do that.
Erskine raised an eyebrow at the young mages. "You're all old enough to start being independent. I highly doubt living in the same few metre radiuses as another human being won't kill you, will it?" He said, bemused.
Tanzani shut up, feeling a little stupid. "Okay, fine." She eventually said, trying to act a little bit more positive. "But..." She muttered, turning again to everyone. "We gotta set ground rules. Really."
'This is going to be brilliant', thought Ragnar, 'Providing I don't get stuck with crazy eyes.'
Erskine sighed, gathering up his reports into a neat stack. "You can discuss that on the way there. For now, unless you want to forfeit the training – which will make you highly powerful by the way – I suggest you try and get along." He said, raising his other eyebrow.
"Oh, a few more things." He continued just before he exited the room. "This training should be kept classified, so no going around shouting it to the world. First, no one cares, and second, we have spies all around the country, trying to gain information on our recruit status." He said dryly. "Also, the pack at the apartment contains, as well as other things like keys, seven debit cards you have one each of. Those are to be spent only for essentials. And lastly," He said as he exited the room for good. "Your lift down arrives in 5 minutes."
Tanzani watched the man leave, and raised an eyebrow. "Is this training just for us as individuals, or... Are we, like, a unit?" She asked thoughtfully to those in the room. "Would be cool."
Ragnar could hardly contain himself. He'd never shared a room with someone before, and they were getting not only their own building but debit cards too! He looked around at the people who surrounded him, surprised by how many people of his age. He went over to a boy playing with shadows and introduced himself.
"Hello!" he began happily "I'm Ragnar Solent! Who are you?"
Reagan let her eyes flutter from person to person in the room, each appearing to be in varied states of panic at the prospect of sharing an apartment. One boy was cheerily introducing himself to another, but Reagan didn't pay much attention - there was too much on her mind.
In all honesty, she didn't think sharing an apartment would be that bad of a thing. She hadn't stayed with anyone since leaving home and although she could barely admit it to herself, and wouldn't never even dream of telling these strangers, she was lonely.
Still, the idea of getting closer to these strangers was worrying and something Reagan hadn't anticipated. The closer relationships she formed with these people, the more their futures would appear in her visions. It almost felt like an invasion of privacy.
A peppy boy with blue eyes surprised him with a greeting, and Dainan couldn't help but smile back. He was a little intimidated by some of the sterner or disappointed people in the room, so a friendly face was nice to see. He held out his hand and pulled himself off of the wall.
"Hey there, uh, I'm Dainan Chicanery". He said with an Australian tinge to his voice. He pulled of his left glove and after mustering up enough courage he held out his hand and kept eye contact, "and can I just say how much I love your accent, makes me feel a little more at ease." He chuckled under his breath and hoped his hands weren't too cold. It was always something he thought of after shaking someone's hand; but he tried not to make it too obvious and kept his smile.
Ragnar grinned. "Thanks. Nice accent yourself 'mate'!" He said jokingly. As he shook Dainan's hand he felt his icy cold skin, quickly realizing he was speaking to a necromancer.
"Necromancer, eh? I thought people of your discipline stayed in temples for most of their lives?"
Dainan regretted taking his glove off, and held in his small amount of shame. That was the downside of drawing power from death, you take on a few traits of the dead; paleness, cold skin and a stereotype that he's a shut in. He brushed it off and chuckled.
"Not this one, I'm from a place where the sun actually does shine; and I hope I don't come across as somber." He tried to give a broad smile, hoping his shattered demeanor didn't show through.
Well, she was going to be living with them, so she might as well attempt to make some friends. Even though she wasn't very good at it. And she would probably just end up embarrassing herself. There were two boys, both fair haired, talking a few meters away; one of them was a necromancer. Hester didn't like Necromancers. They gave her the creeps.
She took a few hesitant steps forward and smiled, taking a deep breath.
"HimynameisHester," She said too quickly, and felt herself turn red, "I'm Hester. Elemental. This sucks, huh?" Oh, yeah, "What're your names?"
That could have gone a lot worse. Then again, it could have gone a lot better as well.
Ragnar smiled at Hester and stuck his hand out. "Ragnar Solent, at your service. " He said happily. "And you are?"
"Hester Adamant" She responded, shaking his hand. Suddenly there was a rush of air between their palms and Hester frowned. She tried taking her hand away from the shake but she couldn't. Ragnar grinned.
"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to tug her hand away.
"Nothing" Ragnar said mischievously. "Just creating a small vacuum of air between our hands."
Hester suddenly reached her free hand above Ragnar's head and a second later a puddle of water fell on Ragnar. He released the vacuum and slipped on the water, laughing as he fell to his back.
"Ah, another elemental!" He said as he got up "Nice to know I'm not the only one." Ragnar stood up straight and looked at them both, before shaking his head and spraying water all over Dainan and Hester.
Dainan looked at the girl and clearly relieved, at finding someone as awkward as he was. He gave a big grin and went to stick out his hand; but pulled back and slipped his glove on first.
"Don't worry, I'm sure once we get to know each other things will start livening up. But for the time being, I'm Dainan. Sorry about the glove, the ol' touch of death tends to surprise people.' He was clearly trying to sound as friendly as possible but finding it hard to keep a sincere smile.
"Yeah, necromancy. Right," Hester smiled, her hands moving awkwardly towards her pockets, before realizing that Dainan was expecting her to shake his hand. Even though she was fairly certain nobody her age had ever shaken her hand before, "Always found you guys super creepy," She said, the words just sort of coming out without any control whatsoever, "Sorry. It's nice to meet you Dainan."
Loukas had to leave, get out, run away, anything to not get to close to these strangers. He walked out, avoiding the peppy boy talking to someone that had just taken a glove off. He walked out into the hallway, going straight past the Cleavers and turning the corner, away from his future room-mates' view. Their view. He didn't know what to do. They seemed like nice people right?
Loukas started spinning his dark – nearly black – hair around his finger and began pacing back and forth, turning constantly, feeling the terrible lurch of panic and anxiety in his stomach. Tears began to form in his eyes, being the cause of pain on innocent people was not what he wanted. And now, because of Erskine, it was an inevitability.
When the boy with the dark hair left, Halcyon glanced around, gave him a mocking laugh.
Tanzani frowned and watched the sceptical looking guy walk out. The way his foot was tapping had sounded nervous. It was to be expected, she supposed. She herself was nervous about this entire thing. "Hey, dude!" She called after him, pondering his sudden walk out. She sighed, starting to walk after him.
When she balanced it, she was becoming more used to the idea of sharing an apartment. She had gone on school trips in the past, and those were quite fun. To be honest, it was the fact that they were strangers, who happened to be dangerous, that freaked her out. Providing they give her her space, and appreciate each other's respect, it'd actually be kind of cool.
But then again, from her experience of being around other people, that sort of stuff didn't happen. Not often.
She walked out after him, looked down one corridor then the other. She frowned when she saw him pacing. "Hey," She said slowly, approaching him. Her steps weren't fast and her tone wasn't hard. "Hey, you alright?" she asked. "I... I get that this whole apartment thing might be, y'know, odd but... We're gonna be fine." She said, assuming he was acting strangely for the fear of being in danger.
"No... I'm not okay I'm nervous and scared and a danger to everyone..."
Tanzani sighed impatiently, but tried to keep it more restrained. Being impatient won't get very far. "Okay, well, what's up?" She asked, trying to get him to open up.
"I... I can't say much, just that it's something to do with me, and involves... Screaming." Loukas looked down, trying not to feel guilty.
Tanzani frowned a little, but her expression softened. "Look, we're gonna be doing training for, like, another year or something now. Whatever your training is, it's cool enough that Erskine wants it to be perfected."
Loukas looked at her, with his wet eyes, and continued. "I don't want to hurt any of you... Well, not without a reason."
Tanzani raised an eyebrow. "I think that goes for the rest of us, to be fair." She said, and looked thoughtful for a bit. "Is it, like, something you can't control, or..?" She asked slowly.
"Yes, but I don't want to get into it..." He replied sadly
She sighed, looking around, a tad nervously. "C'mon..." She said, almost pleadingly, "We're gonna be sharing an apartment, along with five other people. I'd rather know what you're capable of than be, I dunno, at the very most killed by it and I never would know why." She reasoned. "Besides, maybe we could even help you with it. Bottling stuff up won't help you."
"Yes, but It won't help me if I let it out either. If I do it now, everyone will hate me, and turn on me, and If I try not to do it... The result is the same either way."
Tanzani frowned. "I don't tend to judge people on their power. I've heard of this dude who can read minds, right? Doesn't mean I'm gonna go hating on him because he can potentially read my mind." She, again, tried to reason. "Tell me, come on."
"I can't, but I'm guessing you'll find out later..."
She sighed, finally giving in. "Okay, fine." She said, and peered at him. "Oh, I'm Tanzani by the way. I didn't actually tell you."
Blinking the looming tears away, he replied. "I'm Loukas Nemain..."
Grinning, Tanzani shrugged. "Cool. Wanna go back? We still have, like, a couple of minutes to go."
He looked around, and saw nothing to do here, so he chose to follow along, but kept his sceptical attitude sharp. "Sure. But, I'm not really big on talking, so take that as you will."
"I'll count on it." She smirked, and walked back into the room.
No-one was talking to him, this was going awfully already.
He crossed his arms and huffed as he stood up. "Fine.", he grumbled to himself. Halcyon took a deep breath and breathed out, as he did an exact copy of him stepped out of him, a grin appeared on the 'reflections' face and he turned to Halcyon.
"Alright good lookin." Chuckled the projection.
At this Halcyon laughed and glanced at the copy with a chuckle, "Your hair looks amazing today, may I add." They continued this conversation with each other in the corner, perfectly happy to continue this way until someone 'real' came over.
Reagan's eyes were eventually drawn to a boy in the corner, currently talking to himself.
Literally, a double stood opposite and they were conversing as if everything was perfectly normal. Well to them, it probably was.
They were fascinating really. They had the exact same thin, tall build and blonde hair, not a single difference she could see. Not like anything she had seen before, not like siblings or even twins.
She had never heard of this kind of magic, and couldn't help herself from speaking out. "Do you finish each other's sentences too?" She called from her chair, not bothering to move. Two of the others had left the room, and she was sure none of the rest were paying attention.
The boys turned to her, and brightened immediately. In perfect synchronisation they said, "Oh, hello!" One turned to the other and scowled, "I do the introductions! You're not even real!" In a moment they were both arguing about who talks and who doesn't. One grabbed the others arm and literally pulled him inside him.
After a brief fix of his shirt he turned back to her and laughed, a smile playing at his lips, "Ignore him… me… Y'know…"
That was alarming. She didn't let that show on her face, instead she smirked, the corner of her mouth turned upright slightly. "So, is that the real you? The original ... what's your name?" Before he could answer she held up a finger to silence his response and focused her breathing. Flashes of a future flashed quickly in her mind. "Halcyon. Nice."
At this, the boy froze, the smile slipping slightly from his face. "Y-yeah..." he stuck out a hand for her to shake, glancing at her quickly before looking away before she guessed anything else, "...and you are?"
She glanced at the hand for a second, before actually reaching forward and shaking it. "Reagan. Reagan Havoc." Her smirk widened slightly at the cheeky look on his face falling, feeling she might have just 'one upped' him.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. And Hester had to admit that it was nice being around other sorcerers her age; she was sick of having to hide the truth from her friends. With all of them living together, they'd be free to do whatever they wanted.
Hopefully not whatever they wanted. There were boundaries, right? Hester had been on a camping trip with school a few months ago, and was certain that Steve and Beth had been doing more than just cuddling when they ended up sharing a tent.
Hester looked around when she felt a disturbance in the air currents, and saw that the door was open. There was a Cleaver stood outside- she couldn't help wondering when she was going to stop getting chills whenever she was near them.
"Looks like our lift's here," Hester said to Dainan and Ragnar, indicating the Cleaver by the doorway.
