Magic Of Wizards And Magic Of Mages
Chapter One: Knights Of The Book Of Darkness

Hayate

It was late at night and I was reading another one of my American fantasy novels on my bed when suddenly the book I'd always had on my shelf, the old brown one with the golden cross shape, suddenly burst open as the chains broke. It rapidly flipped through its pages, all of which I noted were blank, and spoke in a language I didn't understand. From the sound of it, I assumed it was German. A glowing blue orb of some sort was pulled out of my chest. Then appeared two women, one with short blond hair and another with long pink hair pulled into a ponytail, a man with what appeared to be dog ears, and a red haired girl who was probably a little younger than me. They all wore the same skintight black suit-things. Another thing I found odd was that they were all kneeling, their gazes averted as if I were some sort of great deity. And what was with the strange glowing purple-ish circle in the background? Or the book? Silently, I hoped that I had fallen asleep reading and this was all just a bad dream or something.

"Book of Darkness startup has been initiated." The pink haired woman spoke, her gaze still not meeting mine. I immediately dubbed her Tall Pink and Stoic.

"We come for the gathering of the Book of Darkness; we are the Guardian Knights and our duty is the Master's protection." The blond haired woman continued. I called her Lady of the Rings.

"The Clouds that gather under the Master of the Night Sky." The white haired dog eared man added, who I decided to call Mangy Mutt.

"We are the Volkenritter." The redheaded girl finished, and like the others, I decided to give her an unflattering nickname: Short Stack. "Please, give your command.

At that point, it was all too much to take (because this just kept getting weirder and weirder) and I passed out. When I woke up a while later, the man, women and girl were still there. I rubbed my scar (an odd lightning bolt shaped scar I'd always had), sighed, and asked them to tell me their names. The pink haired woman I called Tall Pink and Stoic was Signum. The blond woman I dubbed Lady of the Rings was Shamal. The man whose nickname was Mangy Mutt was Zafira. Finally, Short Stack, the small redhead, was Vita. And apparently I was their new master.

I told them about needing to go to the hospital for a checkup, and they took me there.

Dr. Ishida wasn't convinced that they were related to me. I couldn't blame her; they looked nothing like me, and Zafira had dog ears.

Not to mention, there were the strange outfits they were dressed in. I floundered for an excuse, and then almost smiled as I came up with one.

"Well you see Doctor, I know it's strange, but in a manner of speaking they are related to me. Shamal, Zafira and Signum were friends of my parents, you see." I lied, hoping that Signum, Zafira, Vita and Shamal would play along. "And I guess Vita and I played together when we were younger. Of course, I don't remember that, but I can't see why they'd lie about it. When my parents died, I guess someone told them that I died too, but somehow they got word that I was alive. They wanted to spend my birthday with me, so they got dressed up in those costumes to surprise me." I smiled sheepishly. "But it worked a little too well and I got a little too surprised."

Thankfully, they played along and Dr. Ishida seemed mostly convinced.

For a while, everything went well. Nothing much really happened. My Knights started showing more emotion and (mostly) lost their emotionlessness. Signum was still Tall Pink and Stoic though. She and Shamal became like the mothers I'd never had, and Zafira, a father. Vita was my hotheaded little sister. I told Signum that I wanted her to forget about completing the Book of Darkness, because that would trouble a lot of people.

But then, I had an attack. Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira seemed really shaken up by it. After that, they started going out a lot, disappearing to the Sankt Kaiser only knew where (I picked up that particular oath from my Knights, who used it all the time). I wondered if they were secretly trying to complete the Book of Darkness without my permission or something. Once after they were all asleep, I took a peek at the Book of Darkness and saw that, sure enough, some of the pages were filled, despite the fact that I told them not to. Was it because of the attack I had?

That certainly did explain the dreams I'd been having lately. You see, I suspected I had a magical gift: I could see into the past and present. I'd never seen the future, I knew that much, but I had seen the past and present more times than I could count.

I decided that because they probably had a good reason and chances were they didn't kill anyone (I eavesdropped on them once and I heard Vita say that she didn't want to taint my future with blood) so I let it go for now. However, that didn't stop me from feeling a little resentful that they didn't tell me. If they just told me why I would probably understand.

A few months after I had my first attack, I had another one. Partly so that Signum-kaa-san, Shamal-kaa-san, Zafira-tou-san, and Vita-imouto-chan wouldn't worry and partly because I was still mad at them for not telling me about collecting magic for the Book of Darkness, I didn't tell them I had an attack and instead just told them I fell and pulled a bunch of muscles in my chest.

They didn't seem to believe me, but let it go, at least for now.

They took me to the hospital and insisted that I stayed there for a few days, to 'run some tests, just to be on the safe side to see if the disease was spreading.'

Personally, I wanted to call bullshit, but since I had no proof and couldn't very well confront them about filling the pages of the Book of Darkness in front of Dr. Ishida, I let it slide.

After they checked me in and reassured me that they'd be okay for a few days, they left to go get me some clothes and a few books, so that I wouldn't be too terribly bored.

The next day, Suzuka and her friends, Alisa, Nanoha, and Fate came to visit me. I had to clamp down on a startled gasp when I saw Fate and Nanoha, because they were the same girls I had seen fighting against my family in my dreams— they, and the association they worked for, the Time Space Administration Bureau, didn't want the Book completed for some reason. As I talked with them, I put my well-used multi-tasking skills to work and contacted Shamal, who I could sense right outside the door, telepathically.

Dr. Ishida, my primary doctor, had noticed her hovering outside the door and wanted to know what was going on. It was strange to see her just hovering out there, after all. Shamal was nearly freaking out, trying to figure out what to tell Dr. Ishida without mentioning magic or the Book of Darkness, or the fact that they weren't really human and were from a completely different world entirely.

"Tell her it's an old family feud with Fate's family." I suggested. "Since you obviously can't tell her that they're trying to stop you from completing the Book of Darkness."