All right! The first chapter is here! Anyway, I have reader reviews up front, unless there's a ton of them. Then they'll be at the bottom. So, here we go!
Tom Valor: Thanks for the support! I'm glad you like what I have so far, and I'll make sure the coming chapters are just as good! Even though the first one was just an intro...
Chapter 1: Can You See the Light?
"Wow! This is great. With just a bit more training, I'm sure we'll be able join the ranks of the warriors!" Two novices, a boy and a girl, were training south of Prontera. The girl smiled at her friend's enthusiasm and brushed back some of her dark brown hair. She held her dagger loosely in her hand and a light wind blew past her, ruffling her hair and clothes.
"Now, come on, Rakthos. We're not that good yet. After all, I'm planning to studying magic, so I'm not the strongest girl around and you're not known for Herculean strength either." The girl scanned the countryside, looking for any easy monsters to kill.
"Hah! Well, that might be true, but we'll be fine!" Rakthos grinned back. "Don't put a damper on my high spirits, Radella." The boy spotted a lunatic hopping not far from where they were. "Come on! Let's go!"
The two children rushed up towards the small rabbit and began swinging their daggers at it. Rakthos's first swing missed the lunatic completely while Radella's slash hit the lunatic, but it didn't kill it. The rabbit, now knowing the danger it was in, bared its small fangs and tried to bite Rakthos. He yelled in surprise and lashed out with his foot. He caught the lunatic straight in the stomach and it flopped back, blood leaking out of the small cut that Radella had given it. It hopped back up and launched itself at Radella, who swung her dagger wildly and managed to stab it in the side. The lunatic's corpse slid off of the dagger and flumped to the ground.
"Yay! We did it!" Radella jumped happily and hugged Rakthos. The boy flushed in embarrassment and scratched his head.
"Heh heh…Come on, Radella…Don't embarrass me like that. Come on, let's go find another monster to fight." Rakthos freed himself from his partner's hug and searched for another creature, hopefully another lunatic. His eyes spotted a poring hopping not too far away. He grabbed Radella by the arm and ran for the poring.
The small jelly creature didn't notice the two novices approaching and continued hopping in its own path. The poring blinked and hopped more, coming closer to the two novices.
"Ha! You're mine!" Rakthos swung his dagger at the unsuspecting poring, but just as the dagger was going to plunge into the poring's body, it exploded in his face.
"Eeuck! What happened?!" Rakthos tried to wipe off pieces of pink goo from his face. He managed to get rid of most of it and turned to his partner. Radella was speechless, staring at something behind Rakthos and her eyes were wide with terror. The boy slowly turned around and faced something he had read only in classes he had taken. Standing in front of him was an abysmal knight, a monster renowned for its toughness and lack of scruples.
Rakthos gulped and backed away slowly, his weapon about to slip from his sweaty hands. The abysmal knight rode closer and closer. The knight's dark-bladed sword lifted above his head and swung down to slaughter the two novices. They both screamed in terror and ran away, hoping for escape. The boy's hand reached for the girl's and grasped it, hoping that they would be able to evade the abysmal knight and reach safety in the town of Prontera.
"Come…on…Radella. It's…huff…a little more to run…" Rakthos jumped over a fallen log and was about to continue dashing when he spotted another black armored figure in front of him. Panicking, he turned to the left, only to see more abysmal knights blocking that way. Spinning around, his terror increasing, he saw that their last escape route was blocked. They were surrounded by abysmal knights and the knight that was originally chasing them rode up.
Rakthos gulped again and gripped his dagger with his shaking hands. He, no, both of them, had to find a way out of this. He felt Radella shaking behind him and tried to comfort her a little.
"Don't worry…I've got a plan." Rakthos whispered into her ear. "I'll try to distract them and you make a break for it, okay? I'm pretty sure I can hold them off…At least for a while." Rakthos put on a brave face, although he felt anything but brave. Turning to face the leader, he waved his dagger around defiantly and yelled at him.
"You think you guys are so tough! Let's see how you fare against me!" Rakthos's grip wavered a little, but he regained his courage and hoped that Radella would be able to escape in time. 'May God grant me strength for this.' As he faced the leader, he noticed that the knight had lowered his sword. He leaned to Radella, hoping to instill her with a little more confidence. "Now's our chance…Radella…Try to escape by going towards Prontera. I'm sure you can make it in time. I'll do the best I can. I'll be right behind you. Trust me."
"Why do wish to fight us when you have no chance of winning?" The lead knight looked at Rakthos. The other knights shifted on their mounts, clearly discomforted from their usual schedule of killing.
"What kind of question is that?! It's so I can protect my friends!" Rakthos faced the knight again, holding his dagger high. "I won't let you harm her!"
"I see…Very well then." The knight nodded and charged forward. Rakthos trembled at the sound of the horse's hooves pounding closer and closer. Radella readied herself to run, hoping that Rakthos would be behind her, like he said. But instead of sweeping his sword at Rakthos, the knight plowed into the abysmal knight that was blocking their way to Prontera. He turned to the novices for one second before trying to attack the other abysmal knights. "Run, children! Run!"
They needed no bidding. They sped for the gates of Prontera, Radella in the lead and Rakthos behind her. Radella heard a gasp behind her and turned quickly. What she saw stunned her and almost sapped her will to continue running. Rakthos had a black-fletched arrow embedded in his back. He smiled slightly at Radella before falling, his blood seeping through his clothes and armor.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Radella sat up in her bed, clutching her chest. Her breath was coming out slowly in gasps and a cold sweat had broken out over her skin. Looking around, she realized it was only a dream. She was inside her room in the magic academy and numerous books and scrolls were stacked around her. She flopped back down on her bed, calmed slightly. "It was only a dream…only a dream…" Her gaze stayed at the ceiling, unwilling to go back to sleep.
'But that's the third time I've had that dream this week…And it keeps getting more real every time. I can almost hear Rakthos's gasp of pain…' Radella stood up and grabbed her clothes. She slipped into her robes and fastened her cloak around her neck. "I don't need these nightmares now…Especially with the big exam coming up…This might determine if they let me graduate and become a full class mage." She lit a gas lamp that stood on her desk and brushed away the various books and scrolls from the desk. There was only one spell she felt she needed to remember.
"Thunderstorm…" By all means, she shouldn't have been able to cast this spell. And she couldn't. But that didn't faze her. She felt that as long as she understood the workings and the abilities of a spell, she would be able to cast it someday. So she continued her study with this spell, which called for thunder and lightning in the sky and concentrated it in one area, dealing horrendous amounts of damage, not counting burns that might result for the supercharged energy.
When the sun rose, Radella had finished studying the spell. 'I don't think I can cast the spell just yet…But later, I probably will able to. I just need to get stronger in my mind and my spirit.' She closed the book and placed it on a bookshelf that stood at the side of a wall. She unfastened the cloak because it had gotten warmer and stretched her arms. She blinked her blue-green eyes and ran her hands through her hair. Today was a big day for her. The teachers at her magic school required that each graduate-to-be cast one basic spell or at least explain what it was supposed to do. Radella was confident that she would pass. After all, she had spent a lot of her time studying each of the spells.
She stepped outside of her room and was immediately greeted by one of her friends. Niklason was short-tempered, rash, and over-confident, but he was a good friend of hers. They had both been friends when they were studying and training to hone their basic skills. He had comforted her when she had run to the novice's guild, sobbing and crying over the death of Rakthos. Tears sprang into her eyes as she remembered that incident again. Shaking the tears out her eyes, she walked to Niklason and was hugged by her long time friend.
"Haha! It's an important day for you, huh?" Niklason grinned and patted Radella on the back. "Today you're going to become a mage, correct?!"
"Yes, yes, of course, Niklas. Don't worry about me." Radella smiled back at him and grasped the wooden staff she held in her hands. "I'm going to do great! But…Don't you have somewhere to go as well?"
"Huh? I do?" He thought for a while, running through his head for anything he could have missed. He froze and started panicking. "Oh crap! I do have something to do! I need to get to Alberta for my swordsman test!" Niklason started pacing, trying to think of a way he was going to get there in time. "Ah! Uh, do you have a butterfly wing?! Ever since the immortals have started attacking Prontera, it's become impossible for people to go anywhere near that city!"
"Of course, it's all yours." Radella handed two small butterfly wings to Niklason, who grabbed them gratefully.
"Thanks! I owe you one!" He waved them in the air a couple of time and disappeared. Radella smiled at her friend's antics. In addition to the faults he had already, Niklason was absent-minded. He often didn't concentrate on the task at hand if there was something more interesting nearby. But that didn't happen a lot, so Radella just dismissed it as one of his quarks of nature.
The clock struck 8 o'clock and Radella headed for her class. She was one of the four students that would be taking the graduation exam, and she didn't want to miss out just because she was late. She entered the classroom and saw that the other three graduating students were there, all looking extremely nervous. She sat at her seat and ran through the various spells in her mind again. It was until the teacher had called her name for the 3rd time that she snapped out of it. She glanced around the room and saw that everyone was snickering at her. The other three graduating students were looking proud and were decked out in their new clothes, proof that they had passed the test.
"Now that Miss Radella has snapped out of it, would you please come to the head of the class?" The teacher motioned impatiently with the staff that he carried in his hand. Radella flushed red and headed for the front. She stammered out an apology and stood in front, a feeling of failure sweeping through her.
"Now, would you cast these spells? Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Thunderbolt, and Sight in that order, please?" The teacher motioned to a practice dummy that they would be able to use their spells on.
Radella nodded and concentrated on the first spell, Firebolt. 'This spell uses the power of fire to consume and destroy things in its path…So, to harness the spell, you must know the feeling of the spell…Whether it is a spell of destruction, courage, anger, or foresight. I've got to focus on this spell. The spirit of fire has always been known as an angry being so…' She balled one of her hands into a fist and when she opened it, a small orb of fire was floating above it. She tossed it into the air and it formed a spear, which plunged into the dummy, setting it ablaze.
"Good work, Miss Radella. Ice Bolt, if you please?" The teacher jotted down notes on a piece of paper and he examined her spell casting.
Radella closed her eyes and remembered another lesson she had read about. 'Ice is cold, unfeeling…Its one focus it to insure survival, nothing else. To harness the power of ice, one must be as cold as the ice that he is summoning.' Her eyes snapped open and she moved her hands so that they resembled someone shooting something out of them. The air around the next dummy chilled and a pillar of ice formed in the sky and crashed into the figurine.
"Excellent job. Now, Thunderbolt?"
Radella was elated. She had already completed a half of the spells that she was supposed to perform and the teacher said that they were good. Radella controlled her excitement so she could focus on the next spell. 'The power of lightning is strong. It takes people of courage to brave the threat of lightning, which is always erratic and never predictable. I just need to control this force for a couple of minutes.' Her hands moved again. However, this time, her left hand was above her right. A small lightning bolt traveled from her left hand to her right. In complete coordination, a lightning bolt erupted from the air and crashed into the third test dummy.
"Perfect form. Now, for the last one, Sight."
Radella nodded. Out of all of the spells, Sight required the most concentration. However, there were no gestures or words that one needed to say in order to complete the spell. 'Sight requires one to open his or her mind to see the spirits hidden in the shadows. The power of foresight, which this spell confers, is all someone needs if they wish to explore the hidden realms.' Two balls of light erupted around Radella and rotated in a steady pace, shedding light around the room. Her gaze followed the lights and she spotted a shadowy figure. The figure smiled and waved at her. Radella couldn't help but notice that the figure looked very familiar.
"Perfect job, Radella. I'm glad that my top student was able to pass. Now, your mage clothes are lying on the desk. I hope you'll become a successful worker of magic. And don't forget to give homage to The Source. Some people might dismiss that as legend, but in this school, legends have a way of coming true. So don't forget about The Source, as someday, you might find it."
Radella picked up the bundle of clothes that marked her as a mage. She held them to her chest, smiling brightly. 'I finally did it…I can't wait to tell Niklason!' She left the room and she noticed that the shadowy figure from before was following her. She increased her pace a bit and entered her old room. Now that she had graduated, she would have to move all of her books out. Not that she had many, though. The only three things that she truly treasured in her collection was a book about old legends, one explaining the theories of magic, and the final one was an old photo album. She placed them all in her sack and changed into her new clothes. She put on her cloak again, feeling that the outfit was a little too revealing and turned to leave.
'I'll miss this place…It was fun studying here.' Radella looked up and saw the figure standing in her doorway. She stopped in surprise and glared at the figure. The Sight that she had cast was still in effect and the balls of light continuously rotated around her head, giving off an aura like a halo. "Who are you?!"
The figure moved closer and smiled. "Ah…Radella…Can you see the light?" The figure pointed to a small ball of fire that seemed to move of its own accord.
"Well…Duh?! It's above your head now! But stop stalling! Who are you?" Radella grasped her staff, which had been imbued with magic power ever since she had graduated.
"You can see it! You're more interesting than I though, young lady. We shall meet again." The figure bowed and vanished, like it never existed. Radella scratched her head in puzzlement and shrugged.
"It was probably just an illusion…" Radella picked up her meager belongings and left the magic school, where she had finally become a mage. Now she wanted to meet up with Niklason, in Alberta. She grabbed her last remaining pair of butterfly wings and waved them, disappearing in a puff of wind.
"She will be most interesting indeed." The figure grinned at the glowing ball of light, which moved up and down, mimicking a nodding gesture. "Ah, you agree! Let's see where she will head next, my friend." The figure and ball of fire disappeared once again, the only witnesses being the air and sky.
How was that? I sure hope it was good enough. And yeah, I made a different graduating procedure than in the game. But hey, this is a different type of world, so I thought that it would work in it. The next chapter should be up by the end of this week, hopefully.