Chapter 14- Chosen

Rowan

I'd been at Ravenwood for a whole week, and things were going great. I had already progressed to Journeyman Necromancer, the fastest person to ever do so since Malistaire, the previous Death professor. My incredible talent for the Death school was getting me noticed though, and I'd already been challenged more than once in the PvP Arena. My current opponent was a cocky Storm wizard named Wolf Skyhammer, and as far as I could tell he was only Initiate.

I drew a Dark Sprite from my deck, and hurled the card at him. The dark sprite was summoned, and hurled its magic at Wolf. He was thrown back several feet, but he stood up without a scratch. He drew a card and waved his wand, and before I knew it the Arena was flooded and a Storm Shark was swimming toward me rapidly. I scanned my deck for a shield, but found nothing. I braced myself for the shattering blow to come.

The shark lunged at me, bringing me to my knees. When the spell receded, I was severely scratched up and bruised. I struggled to get to my feet. I glanced through my cards, and smiled wickedly. I drew the Death symbol in the air, and my spell jumped to life.

A pitch black coffin rose from the ground in between us, and fog pooled out. The coffin opened, and a sickly vampire sprung out, sucking the life from Wolf. The vampire then flew over to me, and healed my wounds. Wolf was defeated.

He pulled a potion from his cloak, and drank it in long gulps. The scratches on his face disappeared, and his skin regained its color. I walked over to him and helped him up.

"Good game," I said, smiling. He scowled at me.

"How did I get beaten… by a kid?!" he screeched. I shrugged and walked back to the lobby. The first time I had received a response like that, I had been extremely upset, but I was used to it by now. I glanced at the large clock on the wall, and headed over to the cafeteria for lunch. I was stopped, however, by the headmaster himself.

"Rowan, may I speak to you for a minute?" he said in a hurried voice. I nodded; it was a Saturday so I didn't have any classes or anywhere to be. He led me into the tower, which was basically large round room crowded by bookshelves and miscellaneous stacks of books. The highlight was the large glowing model of the Spiral in the center of the room. I immediately searched for Marleybone amongst the drifting worlds. I found it, a small chunk of land with tall dark buildings settled on top of it. I could even see Big Ben, Marleybone's famous clock tower, from here.

What I did not expect to see was the cluster of students peering over at me. The group from the cafeteria was there, including Dylan, Caleb, and the girl with the fiery hair, Keena, I thought her name was. There was also a boy I didn't recognize there. He was a little shorter than the others, and wore green and brown robes. His eyes were a pure grass green, and his soft black hair hung in his face.

I immediately felt out of place, since I was clearly the youngest one there. "Rowan Shadowbrand, we called you here today because you have shown exceptional talent in Necromancy. We think you might be a missing member of our team." The boy, Dylan, spoke up. "Ambrose? The book..?"

Ambrose shuffled over to a pedestal by the wall. I recognized the book laying on it to be the Book of Secrets. He waved me over, and I peered down at the blank pages of the book. "Rowan, place your hand on the pages, and then, if I am correct in my assumptions, we will explain everything to you."

I placed my hand palm down on the page, and for a moment nothing happened. I glanced up at Ambrose, to ask him a question, when I felt a searing pain. It felt as if my palm was on fire, and I snatched my hand away from the book, shrieking. I cradled my hand in the other hand, and Ambrose peered down at me. "Show me your hand." He said coolly.

I uncovered my palm, and stared down at it. A shimmering black symbol sat in my hand, which I was certain had not been there before. It had a swirl on top, which then straightened out into a sort of box. It was the same symbol that I drew in the air every time I casted a spell, it was the symbol of Death. I gasped.

"So you are one of the Chosen," Merle Ambrose smiled. "I'll let them explain things to you," he said, leaving the room. I turned to face the others, who were all grinning.

"That's a relief." Caleb sighed. "I dunno what we would have told you if that didn't happen."

Dylan rolled his eyes and turned to me. "Let me explain, you must be really confused." I nodded. "First of all, we all have that mark, well, for our respective schools. No need to worry. Just… Don't try to wash it off. It doesn't work. Learned that the hard way…" Keena snickered and he glared at her. She rolled her eyes. He sighed, and showed me his own palm. A maroon symbol that looked like a scale was drawn on his hand. The Balance symbol.

"So, anyways… Where do I start…" he muttered.

"Tell her what you told me," Caleb suggested. I just stood there patiently, surprisingly calm for a person who had absolutely no clue what was going on.

"Okay… So about a month ago, when I got here, Ambrose came to me because he thought I was special. I had a natural knack for Balance, you know? Well, he brought me over to the Book of Secrets, and the same exact thing that just happened to you happened to me. Except, since I don't belong to a Spirit or Elemental school, I'm Balance, I'm destined to be our leader. You see, we're part of a supposedly prophesized group, the Chosen, as Ambrose calls us. We're kinda supposed to vanquish all evil from the Spiral."

"Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that I'm part of some 'Chosen' group of wizards destined to save the Spiral." I gawked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Keena sighed.

"Cool, right?" the boy in green said.

"Wait, so is there a 'Chosen' for each school? And I'm Death? Or is it something else?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, like I told you, I'm Balance, Keena's Fire, Caleb's Myth, and Digby's Life." Dylan said. The boy in green must have been Digby.

"So where are the others?" I asked. They all gave me blank stares. "Well, you're missing Storm and Ice, who are they?"

"Oh," Dylan said sadly. "You see, we haven't found them yet. No one has displayed any impeccable ability in either school, so we're still searching."

"Oh…" I said. "So what's this all got to do with me, what am I supposed to do?"

"Well, you can help us keep an eye out for the last two Chosen, and help us with the Malistaire project. Wait…" He looked like a thought had occurred to him. "We haven't actually introduced ourselves, have we?" I shook my head. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm Dylan Dreamstrider, Magus Sorcerer."

"Keena Rubycatcher, as if you didn't already know. Master Pyromancer." Keena said snootily.

"Hi, I'm Caleb Legendtamer, Magus Conjurer," Caleb said, smiling and shaking my hand.

"Digby Froggiver. Yes, Froggiver." He shot Dylan a look. "Adept Theurgist."

I smiled back at them. "I'm Rowan Shadowbrand, but you already knew that."

"Great." Dylan said.