From the Spiral - Chapter 1-8

"From the Spiral" is a story revolving around a Balance wizard's struggle as he tries to balance his social life, his duty, and his secrets as he and his two brothers try to stop Malistaire before it's too late.

BALANCE - Tip Apprentice

FIRE - Brooke Summersong

ICE - Neil Frost

STORM - Grace Stormraven

LIFE - Calem Lifearrow

MYTH - Ivan Mythblade

DEATH - Samantha Nightspear

KNIGHT - Gizmo Apprentice

THIEF - Garrett Apprentice

This story is inspired by my wonderful friends, who have helped me through the toughest of times.


It's always so cold here. That's why I always grab my favorite purple robe before walking out of my tree. Usually I stayed inside, but with events such as the fate of the Spiral at hand, I need time to ponder to myself with some fresh air.

Merle Ambrose, I believe, has made an error. He isn't putting enough faith in his students, making these three creations of his do all of the work instead. However, I know that, no matter what, without outside help, this trio will fail in their adventure. Malistaire will not be defeated by a party consisting of only one wizard. There's no hope for that.

I've considered sending some sort of message. Leaning against my gnarled, wooden staff, I think to myself of how I could accomplish such a thing. Perhaps through one of my minions? Well, no, that would be impossible... I would have to come up with something else.

Perhaps I could contact Bartleby? He's an old friend, but I haven't managed to get a hold of him lately, with all this Malistaire madness. I shake my head, thinking further. There has to be a way to contact him or someone else, and give them advice…

You see, if I can't tell someone that this trio simply won't do by themselves, the Spiral may be doomed. Because of this… I'd like you to give the message to Bartleby. He will know what to do.

You can do that, can't you?... You can hear me, can't you? I know you can. Say something.

Still choosing to be silent? Speak up, please. I want to know who you are. Who has the Spiral destined for me to guide…?

I cannot help you if you don't speak up. Say something.

I sigh. Perhaps I will piece together who you are as I continue to watch over this adventure. I do not know why you insist on staying silent, but, I hope you can speak to Bartleby for me. Please. If not for me, then for the Spiral.

Thank you.

I enter my tree, praying silently that you will pull through for me.


Unicorn Way's park was decorated with all sorts of colorful balloons, streamers, and misc. decorations, all seeming fit for a grand party. There were plenty of picnic tables set up, and it seemed as if almost the entire student body was here to celebrate and socialize. Brooke and Grace in particular were sitting at one of the tables, enjoying themselves; for a while, they forgot about all of the strange things going on around the academy, with all of the secrets and attacks and undead and such. Now was a time to talk and relax.

Well, it was for them. For Garrett and Gizmo, it was another day on the job. Today, they were residing near the front of the park, keeping somewhat out of sight and watching over the festivities. They had to keep alert in case anything happened and they were needed. Tip would have been there too, but the brothers would rather have it so that he could be with his friends, enjoying the party with them… Too bad he didn't seem to show up at all. Tip Apprentice was nowhere to be seen. Garrett and Gizmo shrugged this off; he did seem a little down when he got back to the dorm last night. Perhaps he was just tired.

While guarding, Gizmo couldn't help but listen in on a certain conversation. Two of Tip's friends, Calem and Ivan, were talking near the entrance of the park, and were also near Gizmo's position; the knight waved his eavesdropping off, reassuring himself that it wasn't his fault; even if he didn't want to hear their conversation, he'd have to go out of his way by covering his ears or something.

"... Yeah, I'm just going to ditch." Calem frowned. "This whole party thing's awesome, but, uh… Not feeling it…"

"Yeah, not feeling it…" Ivan grinned. "C'mon, don't sell me that crap, bro… You're just sad Sam's not here."

"That's not it!" Lifearrow shook his head, flustered. "I-I just don't feel well, I swear! I'm probably just sick or something."

"Yeah, I can tell." Ivan yawned, shrugging softly. "You look like you've got a fever. Maybe you're lovesick."

Gizmo covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. That was pretty witty on the lazy Myth student's part. Calem groaned, lowering his head.

"Eh, screw you… I'm just gonna go." He sighed. "What are you gonna do?"

"I've got important business to attend to." Ivan grinned. "Fate-of-the-world shit."

"Riiiight…" Calem rolled his eyes. "And by that, you mean you're gonna go off to take a nap somewhere?"

"Maybe." The Myth student shrugged. Calem took this as a definite 'yes', and the centaur shook his head. Of course.

"Welp, see ya." Lifearrow waved, rushing out of the park.

Gizmo took this as a chance to check the scene. He hadn't been watching, as he'd been keeping his eyes to the park, but as soon as he checked where Calem and Ivan were…

Ivan was gone, too.

… Weird.

The knight shrugged it off. Must've been a teleport spell.


Samantha walked through Ravenwood, her menacing scythe in her hands as she checked around, noticing how empty and quiet it seemed now. There was some sort of celebration going on in Unicorn Way for all of the recent 'heroic deeds' done by students, and she'd be damned if she was going; however, it seemed literally everyone else disagreed. Ravenwood was quiet and empty…

Well, quiet, at least. Samantha noticed one person on a bench, reading his Ice textbook silently. Yeah, of course Neil Frost didn't go; he probably felt the same way about all of this 'party' stuff. It was so, so dumb.

The Death student checked around for anyone else. Near Bartleby, she did notice someone, out of the corner of her eye… Or, at least, she thought she did. Samantha walked over to Bartleby, checking around, but not finding a soul. She shook her head; maybe it was her imagination…?

"You." Samantha suddenly heard a voice, looking up. Was that... ?

Bartleby seemed to be looking down at the Death student with his one good eye. The tree, based off of his expression, seemed… Distressed. As if something horrible was happening.

"Please, wizard… This celebration, it was a mistake." Bartleby spoke, his booming voice seemingly breaking in fear. "A creature known as Lord Nightshade is using this as an opportunity to attack. Go find some friends. Go to the Haunted Cave. End this."

"What?" Samantha stared, unable to process this. "Lord Nightshade? What in the hell are you talking about?"

Only Samantha Nightspear would be so disrespectful to one of the gods of the Spiral. But Bartleby took no offense. He said nothing more. The Death student shook her head, trying to get her thoughts in order… Before feeling a pat on her shoulder. She turned around quickly, seeing Neil there, pushing his glasses up.

"We need to go." He frowned. "Calem should be here any second. We can go there with him."

"What? What makes you say-" Sam was about to question Neil's logic, but, suddenly, Calem Lifearrow entered Ravenwood, noticing the two and running up to them.

"Hey!" He grinned, happy to see his friends. "What's up?"

"... You clever son of a bitch.." Samantha mouthed to Neil, who simply shrugged the comment off. She had no idea how he did that; sometimes, it was as if the Ice Wizard just knew what was going to happen… Well, then again, he was like that. He wouldn't be a good strategist if he couldn't predict things.

"We need to go to the Haunted Cave. This isn't over." Neil spoke quickly, looking over to Calem. "Have you seen anyone else outside of the party?"

"What? Um… Well, Ivan, but he's probably off sleeping somewhere, uh… What do you mean it's not over?" The centaur raised an eyebrow.

"Something's going to launch some kind of attack. Bartleby told me." Samantha informed. "It's crazy. But we should go check it out."

"You saw no one else?" Neil made sure. "If we could get another person, we'd have a full team for this."

"Well, I mean… I didn't see Tip at the party." Calem realized. "I bet I know where he is. I can go grab him while you guys get a head start to the Haunted Cave?"

"Sounds good. Get moving, horse boy." Samantha nodded to him, running off. Neil followed, leaving Calem behind.

"... Why do I have a crush on her…?" Calem groaned, annoyed by her nickname, but running off anyway.

As the three ran off, a figure who had been hiding slowly became visible, glancing around. Heh. Well, that worked exactly as they hoped. With that push from Bartleby, they were doing exactly what the figure wanted.

They grinned, leaving Ravenwood. Bartleby watched as the figure walked off, still with a huge question floating around in his head…

What was that person's connection to Grandmother Raven?


Tip was riding on Calem's back, holding on as he rushed through Trident Avenue. The boy certainly wasn't expecting this… He had been picked up at Golem Court, where he was hiding away from the big party. He hadn't felt like going after what happened yesterday, and, now, it seemed that was for the best. Now he could help with whatever was going on here.

"S-So Samantha was told by Bartleby that there was someone ordering around the attacks?" Tip frowned, trying to piece this together.

"Yeah! Some guy called Lord Nightshade!" Calem called out, keeping a decent pace through the stormy street. "If we can defeat him, this will all be over!"

"Really…?" Tip's eyes widened. Honestly, for the Apprentice, things would not be 'over' once Lord Nightshade was out of the picture, but… Knowing that he could help the group take another step forward was nice. It filled him with a certain kind of optimism he couldn't get anywhere else.

The only problem was that, once again, it seemed his friends would have to be put in danger.

Garrett and Gizmo weren't here. It was only Tip and three of his friends. If they lost this, there was no doubt that they would be killed by whatever this creature was. If they failed…

Tip grimaced. They couldn't fail. They had to win, and then, he'd make sure nothing like this happened ever again. It'd just be him and his two brothers after this. It had to be.

But for now, he simply had no choice. He and Calem were already almost there, and it seemed his friends were determined to help; there was no changing their minds or trying to get someone else to help. It was now or never.

The two arrived at the broken gate to the Haunted Cave. There, Neil and Samantha were waiting quietly, examining their weapons.

"Alright! Got him!" Calem grinned, gesturing to the Tip on his back. "Now, what's the plan?"

"I checked further down the cave. There's tons of undead in there… I don't think we can take them all out." Samantha frowned, looking over to Neil. Neil nodded, confirming this.

"We need to get past them." He frowned. "Calem, how fast do you think you can run with all three of us on you…?"

"Uh…" Lifearrow thought to himself for a moment. "Still pretty fast, I guess… You guys are light. Why?"

"You'll see."


Calem was surprised this was working.

With his three friends on his back, they surprised the undead, running straight past them. Calem was swift and agile, avoiding the undead and going fast enough that none of them had time to even think about making a WDC to stop them. Samantha had fun with this, hanging her scythe off to Calem's right and cutting a few undead down around the way.

"Haha! Damn, I could do this all day!" She grinned, watching the heads of a few ghouls roll.

The Haunted Cave was a very fearsome place, even if the four were making quick work of it now. It was dark, with only remnants of a past street there. There was also a large, sole tower at the end of the street, and that, if anywhere, was certainly where Lord Nightshade was going to be.

Calem made quick time to the tower. Finally getting past the crowd of ghouls and banshees, the four made it to the tower, and the centaur stopped in front of the door. Neil got off and quickly opened the door, ushering the other three in. Once they got inside, he, too, stepped inside the tower and shut the door behind him, using a bit of Ice magic to freeze the door shut.

Neil had everyone set up teleport locations right outside of the Haunted Cave. This was done so that, once this battle was over, they could get out of the area without having to go through a massive crowd of the undead again. Their mission was to kill Lord Nightshade and get out. The rest of the undead would scatter as soon as their leader was gone.

Hopefully the rest of this would go smoothly. Neil turned around, examining the room.

It was dark in here. The only lights around were from the dark red flames shining from candles that filled the room. In the center of the tower was a large figure in a cloak, holding a scythe. As the students looked closer, they realized that this creature was a Wraith, a powerful undead being. Its skeletal form pierced their hearts… Well, actually, it only pierced Tip's heart, as the boy was trying his best to hide behind a centaur right now.

"Visitors so soon…? You didn't even give me time to prepare… I like that." The Wraith grinned, floating back to give himself some room. "Maybe this will actually be a challenge."

"Do you really think you stand a chance? You're outnumbered!" Calem glared, pointing his crossbow at the creature.

"Oh, I stand more than a chance…" The space within Lord Nightshade's eyesockets began to glow red with bloodlust. "You fools… Enjoy these moments. They will be your last!"


You… Did what I asked?

If you're so compliant, why won't you talk to me?

You're a strange one. But I think I can trust you. I will need you to help me with some other things as this adventure goes on… Do you think you can do that for me?

… Right, of course. You won't respond. Well. I'm going to go back to watching over the heroes…


The WDC had started. Neil was first, followed by Tip, Calem, and Samantha, then Lord Nightshade.

It seemed like it'd be easy at first. Neil simply motioned for everyone to proceed with caution, not knowing exactly how to combat this enemy just yet.

"Legion Shields!" He called out, causing shields to appear, which would protect him and his friends.

Tip, meanwhile, kept in mind that he couldn't use any of his more powerful spells here. If he did… Well, he wasn't getting let off so easy. He'd have to be careful. Trying to reassure himself, the Balance wizard summoned green, yellow, and black blades above Samantha; Spirit Blade would boost someone's next Life, Myth, or Death attack. It should work with her Death spells.

"Alright, I'm stickin' to support." Calem shrugged, seeing no reason to attack just yet. He shot a crossbow bolt into the middle of the WDC, causing a light green charm to appear above his head. It had the image of a shining star on it; this charm was called 'Divine Light', and would cause Calem's next healing spell to become more effective.

Samantha decided to play it safe, just like the others. She summoned a dark blade above her; it was called a Deathblade, and it would help power her next spell. The triangle in the middle of the WDC shifted to point at Lord Nightshade.

He spun his scythe in his right hand, grinning. "We'll see how you fools like this!"

He summoned a strange beast into the WDC. It wore dark, steel armor and had a heavy, menacing-looking axe. It stood up straight, seemingly humanoid, but had fur and antlers… Was this a deer of some sort? It looked threatening, yet so strange at the same time… It had a menacing glare as it swung its axe around, spinning with it, and hitting all four of the wizards with a wide swing; it was a good thing physical damage wasn't felt in the WDC, or they might all very well be dead…

The summon disappeared, and Neil's shields were gone. They were all down to yellow health.

"Calem, hold off. Save your power for a stronger attack." Neil advised, placing down more Legion Shields. If that was really what Lord Nightshade was opening up with, it wasn't too impressive… Granted, it would've done a lot more had it not been for Neil's shields, but the Ice student still wasn't particularly threatened.

"Sir yes sir." Calem grinned. After Tip placed a Balanceblade on Samantha, he passed, not using any spells but, instead, opting to prepare himself for more powerful spells. Samantha, now with three boosts on her, grinned, preparing her scythe.

"I'm going to cut you up bad…" Samantha's eyes glowed a dark purple color for a moment as she cast her spell, sending herself in the WDC.

Her boosts disappeared as the Death student raised her scythe, glaring wildly at the wraith. She slashed from her right, then from her left, then from above, then went for another slash to the right, then to the left, up, right, left, right, left, up, right, up, left…

After a few more slashes, she backed off, disappearing back into her spot in the WDC, thoroughly satisfied.

However, looking at what damage she'd done, she frowned. Lord Nightshade was in the orange, but that was only half-way. The creature laughed, using a Deathblade on himself.

"That knight from before… Did you know he heals me depending on how much damage I do?" The wraith revealed. "Next turn… I'll just undo everything you've done to me! Isn't that fantastic? We could be here until the end of time!"

Neil's eyes widened. He looked over to the others. "We all need to attack. Now."

"Wh-what!?" Tip seemed taken aback. "C-can we really, I mean.. Samantha just hit him really hard, and that only took him half-way…!"

"It's the only chance we have." Neil glared. Tip was frozen for a moment, wanting to argue more; of course, he had to, because…

"Wait! Tip can't attack!" Calem grimaced. "He doesn't know any attacking spells!"

"What!?" Samantha interjected, caught off-guard. "What kind of wizard doesn't know a single attacking spell?"

"I-It's true! I'm sorry!" Tip grimaced, realizing this victory may be lost due to his incompetence. He looked ready to burst into tears, but Neil offered another solution.

"Just boost Calem." Neil shook his head. "We'll have to hope for the best…"

The Apprentice looked down; he wiped his face free of tears, pulling himself together for a moment. As much as he wanted to cry and whine… There wasn't anymore time. He needed to keep going, even if he was on the verge of an overwhelming despair.

"O-Okay…" He grimaced. Neil nodded, casting an Ice Spell.

Unfortunately, it wasn't anything spectacular. A large bolt of ice appeared in the center of the WDC, aimed at Lord Nightshade; it shot right into him, dealing a moderate amount of damage. But he was still in the orange.

It was at this point Tip got an idea. He… He could get away with something here… If he could just…

"Spirit Blades!"

Tip was never the type to call out spells, but this was for a special purpose. As the blades appeared over Calem, the Apprentice's eyes shined as he realized they had no noticeable difference compared to the earlier Spirit Blades…

But the ones he just used were incredibly different. They were a mastered form of Spirit Blades, which boosted for far more than the base spell. Balestrom dubbed this and the Elemental Blades version with the appendix 'X', as if that would make them sound really cool. Spirit Blades X. Elemental Blades X. Balestrom was not good at naming things.

Tip watched as Calem shot a bolt into the middle of the WDC, trying to have some confidence that the centaur could muster an attack strong enough to defeat Lord Nightshade.

Calem Lifearrow appeared in the center of the WDC, not expecting this to work too well, but mustering a strong try. He aimed his crossbow directly at Lord Nightshade, glaring.

"Take this, you bastard!" He cried out, shooting a bolt directly into the wraith. Much to everyone's surprise, Lord Nightshade's concentration dropped to the red.

"W-wha…" The monster stared. He looked up to see Calem reloading his crossbow with a grin.

"See you in the next Halloween clearance sale, freak!" Lifearrow laughed, firing once more. Lord Nightshade's red mark had disappeared. The WDC dissipated, leaving a standing, shocked wraith.

"..." He stared for a moment… And only for a moment. With nothing more to say, the undead creature clutched at its chest, breathing softly.

After just a couple more seconds, Lord Nightshade was gone. His bones dispersed, and suddenly, his body became ash, and the undead leader was left as a pile of waste on the floor.

"I-I can't believe it.. How the hell did I do that!?" Calem grinned, turning to the others. Neil and Samantha were just as surprised, though Tip only had a big smile on his face.

"That was amazing! I knew you could do it!" He praised, beaming. Neil, shaking his head, was still a little dumbfounded, but managed to shake it off; after all, they were in a near-death situation… A sudden burst of magical ability could be expected…

"I'd be more impressed if it weren't for that shitty one-liner." Samantha waved off, turning her head. Calem's mood dropped because of this.

"O-Oh come on.. Ivan and I came up with it together, it's great!" Calem assured, sticking up for the terrible one-liner. Tip giggled at this while Samantha scoffed, still seeming somewhat disgusted.

"Well, anyway… He's dead. Let's get back to the Commons and tell someone what happened." Samantha crossed her arms, side-stepping the topic of Calem's one-liner for now.

"I've never felt so justified for not going to a party before." Calem chuckled. "But, yeah! We got those teleports set up, right?"

Neil nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. Calem grinned, snapping his fingers and, in a flash, the centaur was gone. Samantha used her own teleport spell and, soon after, Tip used his with a smile on his face… Leaving the Ice Wizard, who stared at the pile of ash at the other end of the room.

… He couldn't have been defeated that easily, though… Something was up. This wasn't over.

Perhaps the attack on Wizard City was over, but… Neil felt this wasn't just a single battle for the city. This was something bigger. Lord Nightshade was connected to Malistaire somehow, and, that meant…

That meant that this wasn't just a battle; it was a war. Many more worlds would be affected…

Neil closed his eyes, using his teleport spell silently. He knew this wasn't over. This would never be over until...

Until that Fire Titan is sure to remain sound asleep…