Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

I walked down the familiar street on my usual route home, observing the changing colors of the trees. Most people don't think of trees when they think of New York. They think of the bustling city, the millions of people, Manhattan Island. No one really bother to think about the rural towns in this area. Hell, some people probably think Manhattan is New York, or that all of it is like that. It's not. Most people also think that most rural communities are exclusively home to rednecks and farmers. They'd be wrong, too. Because while I am a farmer, for now, I'm also something else. Some call us wizards, some call us witches, but I prefer the term Magus.

I'm what the "proper" magus in the Clocktower of would call a first generation magus. Whatever I am, what I do know is that I am not a typical practitioner of magic. I learned my knowledge of magic from a family friend who I discovered using some sort of spell, and was immediately sworn to secrecy, but in one condition. He had to teach me to be a magus. After much arguing, magical threats, and pleading, he finally agreed to teach me. Although if I couldn't keep up, he'd quit teaching me. He later told me he thought i'd quit in a month or two. 12 months later, 12 year old Xavier still hadn't quit, and my teacher seemed to have stopped wanting me too. He always got me new books to study while he was on his "business trips" to England. I learned when he was here and practiced when he was gone. I also had to do all this while working on the farm and going to school. It was rough, but I was not going to give up on magic, no matter how difficult it was. I wanted to shoot fire out of me hands, fight great battles, be a hero. I was petty naive then. I didn't understand, I knew, but I didn't truly understand what came with being a magus, with fighting as one. I got what I wanted I guess. I asked for a battle. I got a war.

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I approached my house, finally home from the last day of school for the rest of my life. My eighteenth birthday is in four days, and with the money I saved from work over the years, I'm going to move to England to "go to college." It's sort of the truth. I'm going to London to learn, to finally join the Clocktower as my teacher's official apprentice.

"Honey, is that you Xavier?" Called my mother from inside.

"Yeah, mom, I'm home!" I say as I walk inside. "I'm done with school, FOREVER!" I yell, jumping in the air, fist raised high.

"You mean until college, right" She asks, sounding slightly worried.

"Yes mom, I've already applied to college in London, and I I'm leaving with Jonathan when he heads back on business." I drawl.

"Good, good, just making sure you hadn't changed your mind. We don't want this life for you, you know. You need to go to college in this day and age, no matter what your father says." She says

"I know, I know, call me for dinner, I'll be in the barn, bye!" I say as I speed my way to the door and outside.

Moonlight shines in through the barn window as I aim my hand, palm forward, towards a target I set up. Surrounding the scorched target are a dozen buckets of water. The area in front of my palm begins to get hot and generate heat as I say "Pyraht!" When the word leaves my lips, a small but intense ball of fire forms in front of my hand. Then, it launches toward its target at a blinding speed. It collides with the metal target with a burst of flames. The target, being in the middle of the barn, was away from anything flammable. Of course, that's what I thought. The explosion was bigger than I anticipated, and the flames started to ignite the right side of the barn. "Damn it." I say as I extend my other arm toward the fire, palm facing down, and say "Caquol!" Jets of water shoot from the buckets toward the fire, twisting in the air so the streams all impact the burning wall at the same time. As they hit, the fire goes out immediately, and water splashes everywhere, and drenches me. "Great." I mutter under my breath. As I grab a towel, that I apparently wisely brought, and begin drying off, my phone begins to buzz. I grab it with a now only slightly damp hand and answer with an unenthusiastic "Hello?"

"Hey kid, how's the training going?" He says with an audible smirk.

"Jon, what's up! How's the Clocktower?" I ask.

"Aww, straight to work, and after I been gone for so long?" He whines.

"Hey, I said 'what's up' first! Plus, you know I always want to know more about the Clocktower, and when-"

"-you'll get to go there and learn to be a better magus, I know, I know. You know, I could take offense to that."

"You're a bad teacher and we both know it. A good magus, but a bad teacher."

"Yeah...I know, I know, you tell me all the time! By the way, stop saying it so much! He yells. So, uh, there's something I need to, um, tell you."

"What is it?" I ask skeptically.

"I won't be coming home for awhile. There's some things I need to do, and I won't be home for a month or so. So that means we're gonna have to postpone the move to the Clocktower just a bit." He says sheepishly.

"So, only by a month or so, right?" I ask tentatively.

"Yes! It's not long, and then we'll head to the Clocktower. It'll be you and me buddy, and it'll be great. Trust me. Just wait for me to get back, practice, and then we'll go. Okay?"

"Yeah, I can wait a bit longer." I say after a minute. "What I want to know is what's so important that you have to do for a month."

"Oh, that? It's nothing, just magus stuff, a contract, short, simple, I'll be careful. Look, I gotta, client waiting. I'll call you when I'm finished, okay? Oh, and one more thing. If anything ever, you know, happens to me..."

"Don't say that, you said it was a simple contract! You'll be fine. It is simple, right?"

"Yes, of course!" He stammers. "I just mean in general. If I ever die before you, you need to know where my will is. It's in the chest in my garage, in the binder.

You'll know what to do next after reading it." He says, suddenly serious.

"Wait, why are you telling me this now? What are you about to do? Really." I demand.

"It's nothing." In the following silence he can feel my glare. "Okay, it's a bit serious, but you can't come and you can't ask what it is, because I won't tell you. Just, if I don't come back, read the will. It'll have everything you need to know in it. If I survive, I'll come and tell you myself, so you get to know either way. Win win, right?" He says cheerfully. I wasn't feeling the cheer. "Oh, don't try and open it before you're supposed to, you can't, it'll only open after my death! I know you were already thinking about breaking into my house, you cheater. Well, sorry, but I gotta go, i'm being called for. Bye!" He hung up before I could say anything in response. I put away my phone, the buckets, and hid my target in its usual place. As I headed back to the house, mom started calling me for dinner. Sitting down for dinner, I only had one thought on my mind. When am I breaking into that bastards garage.