Chapter 1

HANNAH

My eyes fluttered open and I groaned as I remembered I had to act like a normal girl for a yet another day. I clambered out of my bed and saw the horrible dress that my mother had picked out for me. It was a pastel yellow knee-length dress with a 'pretty little ribbon to tuck in my tummy' as my mother would say in her usual condescending voice. I knew I had some modifications to do so I ripped off the ribbon, cut the bottom to come to just below my waist ("I'll put some tights on underneath" I thought to myself) and changed the colour from the hideous yellow to a nice faded blue. I looked at my hand and smiled as the white energy around it faded. I stuffed the dress back in my wardrobe to hide it from my mother.

After putting on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I made my way downstairs to make my breakfast. When I walked into the kitchen I saw my parents sat at the table sipping tea and nibbling on slices of over buttered toast.

"Morning darling, how did you sleep?" my mother asked far too cheerily for someone on a Wednesday morning at 8am.

"Fine I guess." I replied grouchily. I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl and some cereal. After pouring some into the bowl with a fair amount of milk and fetching a spoon, I sat at the table and my father cleared his throat to get our attention. I carried on eating my food and stared at the wall but still payed attention.

"As you know we are having a small gathering in the main hall today," He started "and you are both going to be there to support me as this is a business gathering and could help me confirm multiple deals to help create relationships from all over the world."

He turned and glared at me. "I want you on your best behaviour young lady and you need to look your absolute best so I want you wearing the dress your mother picked out not one of your own! Am I clear?"

I turned and nodded whilst rolling my eyes "Not gonna happen mate!" I said in my head. "Are Kim and Trott coming?" I asked with excitement and hope filling my voice.

Father just rolled his eyes and replied "Yes, Kim and Chris are coming with their parents."

I fist bumped the air and ran to my room to have some alone time before the hell that was about to come into my house. "At least with Kim and Trott there it won't be so boring."

KIM

I always found Hannah's house really intimidating. I looks like a normal stuck-up posh persons house from the outside but when you get inside it looks like a posh persons house got mixed with Hogwarts. Loads of gargoyles lined the halls and there were candles flickering everywhere. It almost looked like some kind of cult.

My parents and I were the first ones to arrive and Hannah immediately sprinted towards me and hugged me in a death grip hug. I saw the dress she was wearing and raised my eyebrow at her.

She replied by whispering in my ear "I've glamoured it to look like the one my mum picked out. Only me, you and Trott should be able to see it properly."

I giggled and Hannah dragged me to her room. We sat down on the bed and caught up on everything that had been happening in each other's lives. Turns out we have pretty boring lives but that's cause our parent's keep us locked in our homes all the time.

We had started watching some TV when there was a knock at the door. Hannah went to open it when burst open and a blurred figure knocked Hannah over. The two started to wrestle on the floor and you could hear some muffled yelps of pain. I just sat in the corner laughing at the scene unfolding before me. After a minute or two, the two finished fighting with Hannah holding the new comer in a headlock. The stranger tapped out and Hannah got off and helped him to his feet.

"Cheap trick Trott" Hannah said to the boy. He stood up and he had definitely changed since we last met up. He was as tall as Hannah now and he had grown to be quite handsome. He had his mousey brown hair gelled back for the night. Actually thinking about it we all had grown up a lot. Me and Hannah had gone from girls to women in quite a lot of ways. We all were in good shape with quite defined muscles. I had my long black hair tied up in a bun whereas Hannah had her blonde locks curled and let down for the night.

"Worth a shot." Trott replied and dragged Hannah into a hug and then came and sat on the bed with me.

We carried on watching the TV until Hannah's mother called the three of us down as the rest of the guests had arrived. We all groaned and fixed ourselves up, taking as long as possible, then unwillingly made our way down to the main hall where all of Hannah's father's associates where.

It was late by the time most of the guests were leaving but mine and Trott's parents were staying in the manor so they were extremely drunk and didn't object to letting us all stay in Hannah's room.

We huddled up under a load of blankets and started talking about generic stuff like popular TV shows and books we were reading and stuff. It was about 1:30am when Hannah asked "So, how have you guys been doing with your powers?"

Trott and Hannah got their powers through their families but the generation before us (our parents) decided that they didn't want anything to do with that life so when they discovered our powers, they were pretty freaked out.

When they spoke to their parent's about it they just said 'It must have just been a dream.' It was only when Trott asked his grandparents about it that he found out and then subsequently told me and Hannah.

Obviously I was extremely jealous about it and when I asked my grandma about it she said that she didn't want to talk about it as it involved my grandpa who had died about 5 years ago. So I started trying to do magic but was unsuccessful. It was when Hannah and Trott we're practising one day in the forest near Trott's house. I was watching those two and not looking where I was going so I ended up falling down a crevice and getting a piece of splintered wood sticking out of my abdomen. Hannah and Trott got me out of the crevice but I was bleeding badly. Trott tried using a healing rune on me and it worked…for a while. When we got back to Trott's, I ended up passing out and eventually fell into a coma.

It only lasted a couple of hours-Hannah and Trott just said I had a migraine and that I was asleep- but the thing that freaked out those two the most is that I was floating and glowing a very bright purple. According to Trott's grandma, because Trott and I had different types of power and he was quite inexperienced back then, when he healed me I ended up getting infected with something called The Flux but that ended up kick starting my powers and giving me new ones.

TROTT

After Hannah asked her question, I stood up and pulled out a small toiletry bag from which I took a blood red orb, a glowing pen like thing, an old book titled "Magia Sanguinem Et Sanguinem Runes" and a small knife.

"I managed to find a book that goes into a bit more detail about some of the rituals and magic but I don't have the space the practice any of them." I explained with a hint of annoyance in my voice. "But I've been practising some of the runes that I found in the book and if Kim had her accident today I'd feel pretty confident I wouldn't put her in coma again."

"Trott, do you still feel bad about that?" Kim asked with a sad look in her brown eyes. "You don't need to. We moved on and if you didn't do it I would've been dead by the time we got back to your house."

I look down at the floor as I feel tears forming at the bottom of my eyes. I sniffle and wipe my eyes before carrying on with my explanation. "I've practised the runes for things like strength, speed and agility but also tried runes that involve locking doors and letting me see through solid objects. They are pretty cool!"

Hannah had been staring inquisitively at the pen like thing during the explanation and finally asked "Trott, what the fuck is the glowing thing in your hand for?"

"Ahh, I was just about to come on to that." I replied and putting on a salesman-like voice carried on "This my dear friends is called a stele. You can buy one today at your local supermarket for the reasonable price of £9.99." ending my sentence with an extremely cheesy grin

Hannah and Kim giggled at the fake sales pitch. I joined in for a minute before continuing in my normal manner "I found out how to make it from the book. It only required a small ritual and a stele is how I can draw more advanced runes and draw runes on myself and other people."

I sat down on the bed with my stuff and then stared at Kim saying smoothly "So what's been happening with the Flux Fairy?"

KIM

I stood up off the bed and explained that I hadn't had a lot of time to practice as me and my parents had been travelling around the world and I had to spend a lot of time with them. However, I hadn't been completely inactive. I found that I could create a kind of goo which had controllable properties like its shape and whether it was a liquid, solid or gas.

After explaining this, I bit my lip and asked myself "Should I tell them about it?" My question was answered by Hannah. She being her perceptive self noticed I was anxious about something and enquired what it was that was bothering me.

"Umm… This is going to be a bit awkward but I need to show you something." I said hurriedly. They both nodded and sat up now intrigued by what was about to happen. Slowly I reached down and pulled my shirt over my stomach to expose where I was stabbed in the abdomen. Hannah and Trott gasped when they saw what was happening to my body. "It showed up a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know what to think at first cause it was only small but ever since it appeared it's been spreading and I'm slightly terrified"

I looked down at my midriff and saw what had been troubling me over the past few weeks. My skin was slowly being turned purple and glowing intimidatingly. It almost looked like there were tentacles reaching out and pulling it across my skin.

"Oh my god, Kim! Why didn't you message us about this ages ago?" Trott demanded

"In case you weren't paying attention, I've been travelling the world so not a lot of Wi-Fi access."

Hannah ran over and hugged me after I pulled my t-shirt back down and mumbled in my ear "We'll find a way to fix whatever's happening."

I sat back down on the bed and Hannah started to explain what she'd been up to.

HANNAH

I was still watching Kim with a hesitant look in my eyes but eventually I told them about what I'd learnt about my powers. "So… I have been practising my glamours and I feel pretty confident I can keep one up for an hour at the most."

Trott burst out laughing at the innuendo. Kim and I just sighed and have him a death stare which made him shut up.

"Sorry... but I couldn't not laugh." He said wiping tears from his eyes.

I shook my head and carried on. "I also realised that I can… create things… It'll be better if I just show you."

I stood in the middle of the room and closed my eyes focusing my power into my open right hand. Kim made an involuntary noise as I slowly opened my eyes and she saw they had turned completely white. A swirl of white energy had been floating in front of my hand and as I reached out to touch it, it became solid and started forming a long, thin shape. When I closed my hand around the energy, my eyes returned to their normal blue colour and in my hand I held a rapier.

I swung it round a bit and then chucked it up into the air where it fizzled out of existence. I turned back to Trott and Kim, who then started clapping, and bowed as if I was a magician in Las Vegas.

I flopped back down on the bed and sighed.

"You know this would be so much easier if we had a place where we could practice and ask other people for help." Kim said with barely a whisper.

"Yeah… It would help if we could keep in contact with Rythian cause he's like an ultra-mage. His parent's accept that they're magic and help him learn." I replied

"Shame him and Smith couldn't come tonight." Trott moaned

"I don't think my father would let Smith in. And mine and Rythian's parents fell out because of the whole 'We don't want to do magic' thing." I said whilst sitting up on the bed.

"You know what?" I questioned

"What?" Kim answered wearily

"I think we could make a group." I said quietly. Kim and Trott gave me blank looks but were clearly paying attention. "I've been playing a lot of WoW with this guy called Lewis, he prefers to be called Xephos for some reason, but he said that he and his friends have been having mostly the same troubles because they don't have anywhere to practice without getting seen."

"And what does this mean for us?" Kim enquired

"I'm getting on to that woman!" I said. "Lewis said that he can create permanent portals that we can travel through so if we can find a building that we set up a main portal hub kind of thing, we could maybe make places for practising and just hanging out with people who are like us so we don't have to constantly act normal."

"That sounds amazing!" Trott exclaimed "Are we going to do it then? I mean who would be in it?"

"Anyone that we and the others know who have powers. Smith could come and we could ask Rythian to invite some of his friends." I replied with excitement in my voice.

"Only question I can think of is when the fuck is it starting?" Kim squealed

"Guys, calm down. We need to be quiet and not let our parents know about it." I scolded "I'll talk to Lewis tomorrow and see what he says!"