When I was 8 years old I lived in a magic shop, and discovered magic was real the day that shop burned down. Searing heat made my skin feel like wax, my nose filled with the scent of smoke. My eyes were incapable of making out the details of my house due to bright flames licking every surface they could access. My dad’s screaming was overshadowed by the roar of the fire. My mom’s glassy eyes shone in a pale face, black soot smearing her cheek. “Mom?” I remember saying quietly, just looking at her and waiting for her to tell me that she was ok. I waited for her to tell me that we were going to be okay and that this was just a magic trick gone wrong. I knelt next to her and poked her cheek, prodding for some sort of response.
My dad’s hand firmly landed on my shoulder and brought me back to reality, and despite the incredible heat surrounding me I swear his hand was hotter than the fire. I looked up to him, but my dad was staring past me and looking at my mom. His face quickly grew pale to match her own. He didn’t say anything, he just picked me up. Running through the shop to try and find an exit. I don’t remember how he did but he must’ve, because the next thing I remember was sitting outside with my dad as we watched the inferno that was once our family magic shop light the night. When I looked back to my dad I just quietly asked him about mom, and he shook his head without looking back at me. My lower lip trembled and I started to cry, silently, before I turned back to watch the blaze.
One of the walls collapsed, and it was my mom’s corpse crashing through it and falling to the ground in front of me, though not until flying another 40 feet to close the distance. My dad shrieked, yet somehow I knew that was going to happen, so I smiled a little.
My mom was still dead. But she was here now! In front of me, and I summoned her. On her cheek, where I was poking, the soot had changed to a symbol that vaguely resembled the wings of a butterfly dissolving in a symmetrical manner. That’s my mark, that’s my magic, and that happened half my lifetime ago.
- - - - - - - - - - -
“Pops, I’m heading out!” I call out to our small apartment, the silence of my dad meeting me in response. He hasn’t really been too interested in my day to day life. Contrasting him rather sharply was Mrs. Autumn, our neighbor who lives next door all by herself, and is VERY interesting in my life. I leave the apartment, and her face is the one that greets me. Her skin seems almost annoyed with her for having not died yet, as it hangs loosely and gravity appears especially powerful today for her. In spite of the loose wrinkled skin her eyes shine brightly at me, a beautiful shade of blue that’s as sharp as somebody a quarter her age.
“TJ! What do you think that you are doing!” She croons out in a voice that feebly manages to reach me. I put my hands in the air with a giggle escaping me, she plays this game with me every day.
“School madame, and may I just say before I’m on my merry way that you somehow still manage to brighten any place you visit with your beautiful smile and sharp eyes.” The words escape me right as I think them, but they’re totally worth it because the words make a smile appear on her face and give her a laugh to brighten up her day.
“You young charmer you, don’t try to deceive me. I haven’t been a catch to men’s eyes since the 50’s. Far before your father was even a thought!” While she talks, I start heading through the hallway towards the elevator, nodding along to her words.
“Don’t beat yourself up like that Auntie!” I start, a smile on my face. “After all you managed to draw the 7 of hearts!” I mention, stopping in front of the elevator around 20 feet away from Mrs. Autumn. I pull out the deck of cards that I always keep with me and pull the 7 of hearts that she pulled 4 years ago. “Lucky 7 and passionate hearts, you’re quite the catch.” I finish with a slight chuckle, heading into the elevator. “Wish me luck at school auntie!” I call out, waving at her with a smile.
“Yes yes, goodbye TJ! Have a good day in 8th grade, big year! I remember wh-” Her voice is cut off by the closing of the elevator, and the quiet music from at least 1960 soothes me in the elevator as the smile disappears off my face. I fall to the ground and sit against the wall of the elevator, looking at my hazy reflection in the unpolished copper walls of the cramped elevator. I don’t look too great. My white skin and my messy brown hair are all that’s exceptionally clear to see, that and the fact I look pretty tired. School starts at 7:15 AM, I have a 15 minute commute to school, Dad can't make me breakfast or wake me up himself for obvious reasons, so it's all on me. It’s exhausting. You’re probably thinking to yourself ‘What middle school starts at 7:15?’ That is a valid question, and may I just take the time to catch you up a little bit. Hi, I’m Jay Jeremy Jones. My friends call me TJ, because, you know...Three J’s. I’m 16 years old, in my junior year of high school. Auntie Autumn is great, she’s also crazy.
That sounds bad. She just has a terrible memory, which is why we’ve gone through that same conversation every day for the last 3 years. The first year conversation we ever had was me introducing myself as TJ, the new neighbor in 8th grade. I’m impressed that she’s remembered she drew the 7 of hearts. The very same 7 of hearts floating just above my hand, my magic mark resting on the back of it. “Ughhh.” A groan escapes me as the elevator dings, and I stand up while taking the card and shuffling it back into the deck. I can’t afford to be tired, today’s huge. Today is a massive day. Because today, we’re taking a test.
Not a hard, mentally testing, stupid little school test. No no no, it’s a test that will assure I live like a king for the rest of my life.
One short hop skip and bus drive over to school and first period is delayed, for the aforementioned test. “Good day, good day, good day,” I can’t help but whisper with a bright smile on my face. I sit down in the bleachers of the gym, and I can assume my tired face lights up with excitement. Pretty much everybody else is looking at me, annoyed. They weren’t going to pass the test, and they knew that. They also knew I was going to pass the test, because I was the only person in the state that has an Emblem.
My Emblem is my magic. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but once I pass the test I’ll be accepted into the U.S.E.F. and my whole life is going to turn around. Girls? They’ll love me. Guys? They’ll envy me. I’ll be the talk of the town for centuries.
Principal Adams walks out to the center of the gymnasium, stopping in front of a microphone and holding a small green crystal. “This is Vein.” He says lightly into the microphone, my cheer being the only noise in response to him.
“Whoo! Woohoo! Ye-yeah…” My vigor was quickly interrupted by the silent glare of the rest of the school. They’d forgive me when I got the town a few million dollars though.
The Principal coughs into the microphone, before he continues, “Vein, is a sort of core of the world that baffles scientists to this day. All information on it is highly secretive, however what we are allowed to know is that if you have an Emblem you will know after interacting with this crystal. An Emblem, of course, is a power certain humans are born with, and awaken after certain trauma or testing. The evolved are more than willing to accept anybody who can prove they have an Emblem into their ranks, and in doing so offer near unlimited money and power to the person in question. Of course, this does come with some detriments. You will be forced to join the E.E.E. squad of the Evolved, operating as a leader of their private armies. Now, does anybody want to try-”
I’m stunned I’ve sat still this long, especially when it was Principal Adams' bland monotonous voice echoing throughout the gym saying words most people knew. “SIR I want to! I have an Emblem!” I exclaim, pulling out my deck of cards and suspending them under my hands in mid air. Principal Adams sighs, and gestures for me to join him. I clap and in doing so gather all my cards, running down through the bleachers 3 at a time and putting my cards in my pocket. The entire school has their eyes on me and the clanging of the bleachers as I move is the only real source of noise in the gymnasium. It felt super cramped in the bleachers but as I step out onto the gymnasium floor my situation flips and I feel extremely open. A little bit too open. Regardless I take my place next to the Principal, and hold out my hand for the crystal. Or a handshake, either works. “Junior, TJ.”
“Yes, I’m aware, Mr. Jones.” The Principal responds, with a sigh escaping him, obviously wanting this to be over in a very different way than me. He drops the crystal into my hand. It has a dim green glow that emanates from it the second it comes in contact with my hand, and there’s no way that I’m not going to be smiling. It isn’t heavy at all, if anything it doesn’t feel like I’m holding anything at all. Looking at my thin reflection in the crystal, I come to two realizations. I look a little better right now, with my brown hair getting under control and a distinctive lack of bags under my eyes. The second realization, which wasn’t quite as egotistical, was that I have no idea how to use Vein to pass the test.
“First, I’d like to take a moment, thank you guys for your time and support while I’ve been a student here. Honestly it’s been pretty cool, and I do appreciate-” I started talking, really with no outline in my head and just letting words flow out of me as if I was breathing. Of course, it was to try and buy time while I figure out what to do with the Vein, but to my surprise I really meant everything I was saying. I am going to miss this school, and people have been really cool here. “So, basically, what I’m trying to say here is...Thank you. You all have been a huge and irreplaceable part of-”
“SHUT UP ALREADY!” My friend Allie calls out from the bleachers, a smirk on her face. “Just pass the test and leave, dork.” She adds lightly, before the rest of the school slowly starts joining her.
“Come on TJ!”
“Snap snap, bro I’ve got classes to sleep through!”
“Let’s gooo! Sooner you pass sooner this town becomes rich!”
The entire student body that occupies the bleachers stands up and starts teasing me, almost all of them smiling and matching my own grin. “Haha...Yeah. Sorry guys, be back sometime!” I call out with a chuckle escaping me, and wiping my eyes with the back of my arm. They were just a little itchy, that’s all, I swear. “Now, behold!” I exclaim with some bravado, managing to make myself heard over the noise of the student body. I like to think it’s because of my incredible charisma, but in all honesty it was the microphone that did the heavy lifting. I mark the crystal with my magic, all I have to do is make direct contact with something and wish to mark it. Then I toss it in the air lightly. I try to make it float in mid-air, only for it to disintegrate in the air while a sudden tornado of wind takes its place.
My cheeks sting and my clothes billow about me, my hair whipping around in the air. I look over to Principal Adams, who’s probably happy he doesn’t have any hair to get caught up in the wind. The roar of wind lingers and fills my ears, drowning out everybody else in the gym. Slowly it starts to die down, before completely disappearing and leaving me standing alone with the Principal in a now completely silent gymnasium. “So...Ah...I take that to mean I’ve passed?” I ask Mr. Adams.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Another moment of silence passes, which seems to last a thousand years as my stomach continues to flutter about and gets tied into a knot. When the silence is broken it’s again by the student body, “GOD-DAMN RIGHT THAT’S PASSING!” Shouts my friend Harrison, and cheers erupt from the bleachers again. Which was fair, that was pretty awesome.
Trying in vain to calm the students down was Principal Adams at the microphone, and when he realized that wasn’t working he walked over to me specifically. Scarcely, I make out his voice from the encore of screams in the gym. “Mr. Jones, please report to the office. I already called the organization before school today, there should be somebody there who watched this from the cameras. I do believe you’ve passed, good luck.” He’s forced to shout into my ear just so I can make it out, before taking my hand and firmly shaking it. I look up at him, smiling excitedly.
“Come on, don’t give me that formal snazz.” I murmur with a laugh escaping me, before I jump him and pull the Principal into a hug. “Good luck dealing with the school!” I shout back at him, hopefully being heard, before I get out of the gym.
Now, it was actually very difficult to get out of the gym, because students were flooding the doors. I got pulled into several different hugs, a variety of handshakes, and a very surprising kiss from my homie Jerome. I was shocked, but hey, given that I saw him getting paid significant money afterwards I’m assuming it was a dare and not an impulsive action for love. Eventually, I channeled my inner Moses, and parted the student sea, managing to get into the hallway. From there it was a simple walk that took less than a minute, which led me to the office.
“Oh my god…” I lament to myself, a nervous grin appearing on my lips and a bead of sweat falling from my cheek. I look down at my hands that are slightly shaking from the remnant adrenaline coursing through my body. “Jesus Christ, this is real.” I whisper to myself, running my fingers through my hair in effort to calm myself. Pinching would be the action most people would expect, because you know...Dreaming. But I’m a little bit cooler than that, and draw the king of clubs from my deck of cards. I run my finger along the edge of it, and with a sharp sting a splash of blood escapes my hand proving that this is real. “Damn.” I shake my hand loosely, before sucking on my finger to get rid of the blood. “Guesh today’sh the day.” I call out to myself even as my finger gives me a lisp.
I open the door in front of me to the office, and I’m greeted by the familiar room of Principal Adams. Papers flood the desk in an unorganized cluster, and a bookshelf taking the majority of space in the room is filled with trinkets and novels that I doubt Adams has ever read. Sitting on top of his desk, with their legs crossed and an indifferent expression on their face, was somebody I’ve never seen. They have sandy brown hair that’s cut short, but still somehow seems to be messier than mine. His skin is a tanned, and his eyes are an icy blue that stare sharply at me through an apathetic face. He shoves off the desk and towers in front of me. He’s probably a foot taller than me, and I’m 5’8”. Not to mention he’s pretty athletic, and he has quite the intimidating aura about him. He doesn’t even look like he's much older than me, maybe he’s got 9 or 10 years on me, but he's not the old office-worker I was expecting to meet!
I hold out my hand for him and smile broadly, “Hey! Nice to meet you, I’m Jay, call me TJ, are you from the U.S.E.F.?”
A smirk manages to pierce through the indifferent expression on his face, and he shakes my hand calmly. “Yeah. It’s nice to meet you TJ, I’m-”
“WAIT!” I exclaim, taking my hand back and holding up my other hand to stop him. I reach into my pocket and pull out my deck of cards, shuffling it before holding the deck out to him. Can’t believe I almost let my giddiness let me forget something so important! “Pick a card for me! Please and thank you.” I smile at him.
“Hahaha!” The man laughs brightly after pausing for a moment, a full grin on his face now and a weird glimmer shining through his blue eyes. “Alright, alright.” His eyes flicker across the cards that I’m holding face down to him, and he seamlessly moves to pick out one. He takes it and looks at it, before looking back at me. “Do I...Just show it to you?”
“Yessir! Also, you can tell me your name now, sorry about that. Little habit of mine, haha!” I hold my hand out to him, waiting for his card while apologetically smiling.
“Alright.” He says quietly, a look of amusement and strange familiarity on his face as he examines the card. He’s probably a little caught off guard by my habit, but I’ve done it with everybody I’ve met and talked with. “My name is Leonidous C. White.” He says casually, placing his card back in my hand. “And I guess I’m a joker.” He brings up with a small smile.
“Woah...That’s cool, I’ve never seen anybody pull a Joker before! Would you wanna...Pick again?” I ask, shuffling the card back into the deck and offering the cards to him with a slight nervous smile. That seemed to really amuse him, and when I offered him the deck he moved fluidly to pick a card again...And he redrew the Joker.
“Look at that...guess I’m just cool.” Leonidous says with a smirk, giving me back the joker. I’m not going to lie, that was totally cool. Maybe I’d seen somebody pull a joker once before to be perfectly candid, I can’t remember, but I know for a fact I’d never seen somebody pull it twice! I couldn’t use my signature card reading on somebody who drew a joker, which in its own way was awesome.
“That’s, SO cool!” I exclaim, taking the card and shuffling it back into the deck. I know I’m pretty much playing to the beat of my own drums but I don’t even care, this guy is fascinating and from the U.S.E.F.!
“At any rate TJ, you’ve got an Emblem. That’s why you’re meeting with me right now.” He brings up, putting a hand on my shoulder and walking out of the room. “Let’s talk in the car. We’re going to be heading out. Do you need to talk with your family before you leave for boot-camp? It’ll be two more years of school, where you live there with other Emblem users. Granted, most of them have been there since they were born but hey…” His blue eyes flash with a knowing light, “You seem like you’ll catch on quick.” He finishes, as he heads out into the halls of the school and starts to the exit. I’m breathing heavily, which I didn’t notice until now, from the raw adrenaline in my system. I jump up softly and fist bump the air, before chasing after him.
“Yeah we don’t need to talk to my dad he’ll be fine, I told him about this the other day.” I did not tell him about this the other day. “What car do you drive? Is it cool? It’s gotta be pretty big, do you-” I’m cut off by my jaw going slack, because when he opens the doors to the school there’s a crazy sports car I’ve never seen before sitting in the parking lot.
“Well, it’s custom made for me. So I guess it’s pretty big, yeah.” Leonidous brings up casually, walking to the car and unlocking it as though it was no big deal.
“DUDE! This car is AWESOME. Are you serious!?!” I shout while running over to it. It’s got a pitch black paint job that’s decorated with deep blue trimmings around the windows and wheels, both of which are as black as the car. He opens the passenger door for me while rolling his eyes and with a small smirk.
“Well, she’s a little slow for my liking. She gets the job done though.”
“Slow?! Come on, how fast can this car go? It’s at least 180 mph.”
“Oh, don’t underestimate dark lightning here. She can get up to 280 without much issue, and accelerate from 0 to 170 in a second or so.” Leonidous responds casually with, as I enter the car. Before he shuts the door on me I stop him.
“THAT’S SLOW!?” I exclaim with my eyes basically popping out of my head at this point. He snorts before shutting the door on me and walking to the drivers side. It gives me a chance to look around the inside of the car, which matches the outside. Black seats with blue trimmings and buttons where the radio typically is that glow a soft white. Basically, this car was ripped out of a James Bond movie.
Leonidous enters his side of the car and turns to me with a smirk, “Watch this.” He says, before he turns the car on. Luminescent lights glow to life throughout the car as though they’re veins keeping it alive, and a voice echoes through the car in a very soft Russian accent.
“Leo, pleasure to have you back. Where are we going today?” It asks, and I was already on the verge of losing my mind before the car was revealed to have an AI system. Leo looks at me and puts a finger on his lips, winking as he does so.
“Rasp, would you please take us to the launching site for the U.S.E.F.? Play some music for us if you wouldn’t mind as well. Whatever you’re in the mood for.”
“Of course sir, right away.” It responds, before some smooth jazz starts playing in the background.
“LEO, dude, I’m losing my mind here man! Do I get a car? Where are we going? Do you have an Emblem? How does this car have an AI? Did-” He quiets me by putting up his hand.
“All in good time TJ. Now’s as good a time as any though, so let’s go through the checklist I was given.” He says casually, leaning into the back seat and picking up an iPad. “Real quick as for the car questions, I doubt it. I got this as a present from my uh...friend...when I was 18. The AI is named RASP because it’s a Really Awesome Science Project.”
“Rasp...Haha almost like Rasputin!”
Leo doesn’t even look up from the iPad when I commented that, “I should’ve thought of that, and given it a Russian accent. Foolish little me.” He says sarcastically to himself, and I can’t help but chuckle. “At any rate here we go. Are you ready for the speech?” He asks, looking up to me as the car starts moving.
“Oh my god the car has an autopilot.” I blurt out dumbly. Obviously if it had an AI it could drive I was just...It’s a lot to take in! “Anyways, yes. Yes I’m ready.” I say, meeting his eyes with my own.
“So, this is a great honor being inducted into the U.S.E.F., blah blah blah. Consider yourself blessed to join the lucky few, whatever whatever. The gist is that we can’t just let you join without any education, so you’ll have to attend a boarding school until you’re 18. It’ll educate you on your typical core courses but also have a few extra classes about Emblems, Vein, and combat training. You’ll be a little bit behind the majority of the class, especially in Emblem and Vein classes. Luckily, Vein classes are only taken the final year so you won’t have to deal with any of it for a while.” He pauses and then glances out the window. “Oh, yeah. I should probably catch you up so you don’t freak out when we get there. The facility is on a rather elaborate flying island.”
Those words spilled from his mouth casually, his face without a care in the world as he dropped on me the legendary fact I’m about to go to freaking never-land from Peter Pan. “Just a, small detail? One you almost forgot to mention?” I’ve got a huge grin and my chest feels bubbly. “Nothing big? Just another AWESOME thing?”
“Sure, sure.” Leo says with a shrug, looking over at me with a flicker of devious light in his blue eyes. “I’ll give you 5 bucks if you can guess how we get there.”
All signs pointed to us ascending through something akin to a jet, but I like to bet on the minority. “A giant glass elevator! Like from Charlie and the Chocolate factory!”
“Hahaha, yeah no.” Leo says with a smirk and slight chuckle. “There’s a kid named Jasmine, she’s around your age. Little younger actually. She has an Emblem like you, but hers is way more useful. She can connect any 16 things she touches, and allow anybody who comes across those places to basically teleport to one of the other 16. It’s a very useful power, she doesn’t have to go through the same training as you guys because of that. She just chills as a support to us truly evolved.” Leo says, as the car stops in front of an airport. “Unfortunately, there’s no mark in Nevada. We’re catching a flight to LA.” As he finishes talking the doors of the car both open, and Leo pokes my shoulder prodding me to leave.
In a trance I head out of the car. Unfortunately, my brain is slightly overloaded with awesomeness. As such, I barely notice as we head towards a terminal and basically speed run getting onto a plane. It’s only when we’re taking a seat in first class that I think to ask, “What about the car?”
“It can drive itself to my house.” Leo says indifferently, as he pours some apple cider into two wine glasses and offers one to me. “Congrats by the way. Cheers to the U.S.E.F.?” He asks, raising one glass to me and placing the other down on the table between us.
I take it gently and tap it against his glass, the bubbling yellow liquid inside swirling around lightly. I take a sip of the glass and realize this is real. The apple cider burning down my throat, the comfy seat of the plane I’m sitting in, all of this is real. I’m not even dreaming. I have no idea, absolutely NO idea what’s going to be waiting for me at the boarding school of the U.S.E.F.. But I can’t wait!