The Nocte were an exceptional family. Each of them had a great talent and all of those were different. Family members consisted of seven people, a father, a mother, two brothers and three sisters. However, one of these sisters was the exception in the family. Few people knew about her because she had never shown exceptional talent or got into unusual situations. She was the middle sister who watched the house while the others were out. Therefore, the rest of the family was very happy when she received an invitation to study at the renowned Arcadia Academy. Her name was Natalia Nocte.

Natalia was in her room, packing up before leaving. Her room was beautiful, with a wooden floor and white walls that were almost completely covered by a variety of interests.

There were posters of her favorite characters, rows of shelves containing all the books she had read, all meticulously organized (she was a little obsessive about it) there were also had dozens of dolls, which Natalia herself had assembled and painted.

There was her computer, so loaded with files that it needed an external HD to store everything. A soft bed with blue bed sheets was also there. There was a nightstand on which was her wallet and cell phone, among other things. There was a desk with a chair where she studied. And there was her elder sister, Elidee, who was helping Natalie pack.

Elidee was 16 and she was pretty, with a body of a marathon runner and a smiling face. So much that she would probably have many suitors if most people were not afraid of her. She had light brown skin and dark eyes, with black hair, features shared with almost all family members, including Natalia. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt, especially to make visible the various marks, symbols and images inscribed at the whole skin of the arms and shoulders, but she also had several marks on the back that were not visible. Each of those brands had a story and Natalia knew many of them, but there were some that Elidee refused to tell her.

"It's funny that one of your school books is 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'"  Elidee said, handing the book in question to Natalia "considering it was me that wrote it."

"You're right" said Natalia "so it's good that none of the other family members really like to write books."

"Really!" She laughed "can you imagine how a book written by mom would be?"

They both were silent for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Their laughter attracted the attention of the younger sister, Susan, who came in asking:

"What's so funny?"

"We were imagining a book written by mom" Natalia replied, and they burst into laughter again.

Susan just smiled, she had never been the type to laugh much, but her smile was very beautiful. She was only 10 years old, but Natalia already could see that she would be a beauty at the same level of their mother, once she grew up. 'I can't wait to see the expression of the lines of rejected suitors she will leave behind'  Natalia thought  'well, that came out more cruel than I had imagined. Never mind' she turned her attention to the current situation.

The red sphere in the necklace around Susan's neck shook as she bent to pick up the school schedule in Natalia's bed. Susan wore her hair in the form of pigtails and wore a red dress with complicated embroideries, frills and details in black, along with expensive shoes. Those clothes were much more practical than they seemed, especially considering the skills that Susan had, and almost all of her clothes were similar.

"Let's see ... 'Basic Concepts of Initiation in Magic', 'Magical Artifacts: History and Training', 'Understanding New Technology', 'Short Distance Fighting: Basic Level', 'Practical Psionic Talents', 'Introduction to Fantastic Beings and Environments '... and a few more things."

She lifted her head and looked at Natalia:

"Looks like you've included everyone"

"Yes" she replied.

Elidee closed Natalia's suitcase, after putting the last things inside. Then she looked at Natalia with a mysterious air.

"What?" Natalia asked.

She just smiled, and Natalia noticed that Susan was also acting strangely, she had placed herself between Natalia and the exit door, as if she was trying to stop her from fleeing.

"Who goes first?" Asked Susan.

"You." Elidee replied without taking her eyes off Natalia.

Alarms began to sound in Natalia's head, she searched for another exit, but Elidee had closed all windows beforehand. Had they planned this from the beginning? Knowing them, probably yes.

Susan started walking towards Natalia. Her muscles stiffened as she prepared for an explosive move, if necessary.

"I have ..." she said, after approaching enough "a gift!" She had taken a small box from... somewhere. (Knowing her, it had probably been hidden in an artifact illusion.)

Natalia's muscles relaxed so fast she almost fell on the floor, but luckily she managed to regain her balance in time. It was because of this kind of thing that Natalia always needed to be prepared, they acted exactly the same way, whether to play a prank or to give a gift.

Natalia reached for the box and took it "Sorry, I didn't have time to wrap it" Susan said, but the box was already beautiful on its own merits. It was a box of white wood, the size of a ring box. For a second Natalia had a strange vision of Susan asking her in marriage and almost laughed again.

So she was surprised to see that in the box there actually was a ring. Obviously it was not a wedding ring, it appeared to be one of those things that people wore to show off. But if it was, it was a very tasteful one.

Both the ring and the jewel were the same color, a silver that shined as if it had just been polished, the jewel itself was round and very well crafted, but the part that left Natalia sure that that was not a simple ring, was the fact that the whole piece, ring and jewel, seemed to be a single thing. It did not seem like a gem put in a ring, it seemed that the gem and the ring were parts of the same thing.

"Wear it, please." Susan asked.

Natalia put the ring on the index finger of her right hand. And suddenly she realized exactly why that ring was so special.

"This is an Artifact..." Natalia realized.

"That's right." Susan comfirmed "It's called Eye of Light. Try using it."

Natalia focused on the ring, and closing her eyes, she could see something that could be considered a button, metaphorically speaking. She focused her willpower and metaphorically pressed that metaphorical button.

The jewelry lit up like a lantern with low battery, it was a light that would be small even in the dark, and in a well lit room like that, it was almost imperceptible.

"Perfect!" Susan declared with uncharacteristic joy "It was very complicated to find an Artifact suitable for you. That's a light Artifact.".

Natalia hugged Susan "Thank you!" she said "I loved it."

Susan hugged her back, and then they parted "You'll have to train hard to be able to improve your skills with this" The smaller girl said.

"I'll try." Natalia replied, making a victory sign.

"Now it's my turn" Elidee said, while removing her gift from an indeterminate place as well (Elidee knew all sorts of tricks), and hers was bigger than Susan's, being a little larger than a table tennis racket, and it was wrapped in a red paper with white dots.

She handed the package to Natalia and motioned for her to open it. Natalia undid the package and opened the box, which was a cardboard box, to discover what was inside.

It was a knife, a dagger to be precise, and it was held in a holster similar to those seen in Western movies, made of black leather, but appropriate to the shape of the dagger, Natalia took it from there to look at it better.

The dagger had two things in common with the ring, it was a single object instead of connected parts and seemed to have been made by a craftsman of great skill. Its color was light gray and the handle was cylindrical and had a surface that was not rough enough to hurt, but it made the dagger easier to hold.

The guard was circular and solid, and the blade was straight and triangular, and so sharp that you could almost hear the sound of cutting just by looking at it. Natalia put the dagger back in the holster, that thing was dangerous.

"And here's the best part!" Elidee declared, and Natalia looked at her "This is a Lightning Iron Dagger!"

Natalia's jaw dropped "You mean ... meteor iron?"

"That's right" she nodded.

Natalia's chin reached the ground, Lightning Iron was one of the legendary ores, capable of completely blocking the flow of magic, it was very difficult to find, and even harder to keep functional.

"I had to use some favors to get the ore and an antificer good enough to use it..."

Natalia didn't let her finish and silenced her with a hug "Thank you. That's really amazing." She said.

Elidee was silent for a moment and then grabbed the dagger along with the holster "Let me put it on you" she asked.

Natalia unlaced her arms from Elidee's body and she knelt to tie the holster around the right thigh of her sister. A hidden place, because Natalia wore a knee lenght skirt. Then Elidee got up.

"Spin a little" she asked.

Natalia spun in place.

"Perfect. It's very well hidden." Elidee judged

Natalia decided that it was time to ask a question.

"Well..." She started "I really liked the gifts, but why now? It's not my birthday." She asked.

Susan said "It's because you are going to the great Arcadia Academy. It's going to be the first time you go to a school, and it is one of the largest schools in the world. You are going to be alone there."

Natalia looked down. It was true, she had never gone to school before, and never had much contact with people who were not family. But now she was going to another country, far away from her family, to a place where she would meet many strangers. Natalia was concerned, would she be able to make friends?

"We all decided to do this today to remind you that we are always with you." Elidee said, before making a sound of recollection "Oh and I almost forgot, don't place the knife in your mouth, Lightning Iron is very poisonous." She spoke with the air of experience.

Natalia disregarded the last part and looked at Elidee, she could feel that there was something they were not telling her. Natalia then looked straight into her eyes and asked:

"Is that the only reason?"

"Of course it is!" Elidee replied quickly, but Natalia kept looking straight into her eyes, and the older girl started to seem uncomfortable.

Natalia continued to look straight into her eyes, trying to figure out what they were not telling her. This went on for a few seconds, but eventually Natalia decided to give her sisters the benefit of the doubt.

Natalia stopped with that piercing gaze, and the Elidee's relief was almost visible.

"Then I'll talk to the others." Natalia said.

And she left her room.

She walked through the corridors, dodging various service robots flying from side to side at astonishing speeds. The room closest to her was the bedroom of her younger brother, Aleksei, but she met with him before even getting there.

Aleksei was a seven year old boy who seemed to have come from the distant lands of Roksoi, this was because of the clothes he wore: An extremely simple light gray monastic robe. Aleksei had several of these robes, most of them in neutral colors such as this. Aleksei had always liked the country where he had been born, and this included the clothes. His name was also in the style of that land, in the same way as the names of his brothers and sisters were in the style of the countries where they had been born. Their parents had always traveled a lot.

His physical appearance was also very normal, with curly hair and a friendly face. Natalia would like to joke that he would never get a girlfriend like that, but he was already engaged to that Amazon princess. Who knew a children's fight could turn into something so serious?

Natalia ended that line of thoughts, approached him and started talking:

"I'm almost done already."

He gave her a big smile, Alexei always liked Natalia a lot, ever since he was very small. She had spent a lot of time babysitting him.

"Come with me." Aleksei said, before stating to walk, Natalia followed him.

She thought that they would be going to his room, but Aleksei went downstairs and headed towards the entrance hall of the house. Halfway there, she noticed that his feet were not touching the ground.

"Aleksei, stop floating." she demanded.

"Ah." He had not even realized what he was doing, and returned to the ground, embarrassed.

Once past this momentary interruption, they reached the entrance hall. There was a delivery man, and next to him a rectangular box that was bigger than Natalia. Aleksei walked up to the delivery man and signed the clipboard he was holding.

"You're just in time. Really good." He said.

The delivery man said nothing, but bowed, taking off his hat for a moment, then he turned and walked out the front door.

Aleksei turned to Natalia.

"I have a present for you!" He said, pointing to the box with both hands.

"Susan and Elidee told me about it." She replied.

Immediately his face became disconsolate. It looked like he was counting on it to be a surprise. Natalia ran a hand through his hair.

"All right, let's open and see what's inside." She said

This quickly cheered him up again, and Alexei repeteadly made several gestures, rushing her. And usually Natalia would go slower, as a joke. But this time she was anxious to see what was inside. So she broke the seal of safety and removed the lid, letting the four sides fall, and revealing...

Another box.

This time it was a square box, and much smaller than the box that contained it. 'What is all this extra space for, then?' She thought before opening this new box.

Revealing yet another box.

Natalia was getting impatient, so she began to open box after box quickly and efficiently, and they were getting smaller and smaller to the point that the remaining package was even smaller than the ring box from Susan. She took a deep breath and said:

"It's time!"

And there was another box inside.

Natalia put her palm on her own face, in a sign of exasperation, she did so for two whole seconds before opening (this time) the last box.

What was inside was a sphere smaller than Natalia's fingertip, with a consistency similar to that of a precious stone, but the color was a nebulous turquoise. The smell was the strangest part of it, being a ferrous aroma with traces of chemicals that Natalia could not identify, and a very faint smell of an unknown person.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"What is this?" She asked.

Aleksei clasped his hands and then opened his arms dramatically like a master of cerimonies presenting his attractions, and he began speaking "That, my dear, is a legendary..." He paused for a moment, Aleksei knew how to be dramatic:

"Sphere of Emotions!" He declared

Natalia was not sure, but she thought her eyes widened at that moment. A sphere of emotions was a solid mass consisting of extremely compressed emotions. It was a very dangerous thing, because the explosion of one of these was able to render almost all living beings in range unconscious. And it had a pretty big range.

"Yo... you..." Natalia stammered.

"I asked one of my friends to get it." He said.

"Okay." Natalia said, starting to calm down "But how... I'll be able to carry this?"

Instead of answering, he picked up the sphere and said:

"Open your mouth."

Natalia did what he asked, and he reached inside to put the ball in her mouth. She realized what he was doing and relaxed.

He put the ball in the corner of her mouth, near the gum, and the ball got stuck there when he removed his hand.

"This will prevent it from being activated by accident. But this thing is still very dangerous, so you should only use it in emergencies." Aleksei said.

It was as Natalia had imagined. She was still not completely convinced that it was worth the risk, but she could not refuse a gift from her brother. She licked the ball, figuring that she would probably stop being aware of it after awhile.

"What do you think?" Aleksei asked.

She hugged him. And then started spinning him in the air.

"I don't know if I'll need something like this." She spoke while spinning him "But thanks, it must have been very difficult to get."

Natalia put Aleksei the floor and he smiled brightly.

"Satoshi is waiting there in his room, he also has a gift to give you." He said.

She thanked him again and went back up the stairs, this time going to the third floor of the house, where Satoshi's room was. The corridor of the third floor was different from the second floor. One difference was that there was far fewer robots flying from one side to the other and performing inscrutable tasks.

Another was the fact that the ceiling of this floor was much higher, at nearly twenty feet tall, and yet another was the fact that the decor in that part of the house seemed much more personal. Huge windows with equally massive curtains, upside down stands with several trophies in glass cases adorning the ceiling and various trinkets of all shapes and sizes on the walls were just the beginning of the many personal touches throughout the corridor. A decorator would probably consider it exaggerated, but Natalia considered it perfect for her parents, and their room was also on the same floor.

She crossed the hall almost without looking sideways, and reached the door to Satoshi's room. It was easy to recognize, being a heavy metal door.

Natalia knocked on the door, and a voice told her she could enter. She firmed her feet and pushed the door, opening the way to the room of her older brother.

There was a simple way to describe her brother's room, it seemed to belong to two different people. One side of the room was full of bars, sandbags (and bags of other things), and several other, more esoteric, training instruments. An important thing to note is that there were no simple weight lifting machines, but only instruments of serious martial training.

The other half of the room, on the other hand, was filled with a ridiculous number of video games, video game controls and especially games, all meticulously organized thematically and alphabetically (this part was Natalia's fault).

In fact, the only thing that showed that this was the room of a single person was the single bed where her brother was sitting.

Satoshi was 19 years old, and had the body of a martial artist. He didn't have bulging muscles, but every piece of his body was perfectly toned by years of training and fighting. His face was also handsome, and he had already gone through several girlfriends, not surprisingly. Satoshi was wearing white pants and a black sleeveless shirt.

"Hello Natalia!" He waved, calling her closer.

"How are things going?" She asked.

"Same as always, having to deal with students who think they know what they are doing, encourage students who are not doing so well and help students solve the problems they have with each other." Satoshi said.

"You seem to be having fun with it." Natalia said.

"And how are you feeling about finally entering Arcadia?" He asked.

"Excited. I'm going to learn many things there." She said. 'And maybe make some friends.' She thought.

"By the way. I have something to give you" He reached out to grab something under the bed.

Natalia looked, she had an idea of what he would give her, but she was still curious.

And he grabbed... a book. It seemed that she was right. It was wrapped, but it was clearly a book. After the drama of the other packages, such a simple thing left Natalia feeling strangely relieved.

She took the gift and opened it, revealing "The Book of Five Rings", an instructional tome about martial arts. Natalia had expressed interest in it when she went in a bookstore some time before. And Satoshi was there to listen.

"So? Do you like it?" He asked.

She turned around and hugged him. Satoshi returned the hug and began to spin her in the air.

"Ahhhhhhh!" she cried playfully.

He put her down.

"You will take this training seriously, won't you?" He asked.

"Of course. It will help in my combat classes." She said.

He ruffled her hair.

"Dad's running through the halls, looking for you." He informed her.

Natalia thanked him again for the present and went out of the room, again needing to firm her feet to pull the door.

Knowing that her father was looking for her, it would not be hard to find him, she just walked down the hall until she heard the familiar sound of metal clashing against metal. She turned and waited for her father.

Calling the machine that was coming toward Natalia a "vehicle" would be extremely charitable. Personally, she would say "death trap". It was like a little scaffold surrounded by a floating metal ring beating on the walls without breaking anything, and with a soft sound. The same could not be said from inside, with which the scaffold clashed constantly, being the source of the noise she had heard.

And that was it, there was no rope, belt or ring holding the person who was on top of the scaffold. The person needed to use his or her hands, and occasionally the feet to stay in the death trap, while the scaffold was moving at speeds that would be reckless on a highway. That person was the Natalia's father.

He was not a particularly handsome man, but he was not ugly. His features were serious, and his body was not as muscular as the son, but he was not skinny. He was wearing a lab coat over a coat and black pants. He was the only member of the family that had white skin, but his features were very similar to that of his sons. His name was Nicolas.

At the sight of Natalia, he lifted his leg and put the sole of his foot in the bars of the scaffold. Then he braked.

The scaffold stopped almost immediately, so violent a slowdown that would have thrown her father out of the machine had he not pushed to the other side with his foot. In the end, the ring of the flying scaffold stopped just inches from her face. It would have been scary if she wasn't already used to it.

Nicolas came down from the scaffolding.

"It seems that the others have given you their gifts." He spoke.

"Yeah, there's just you and mom left." Natalia confirmed.

"In this case..." He put his hand in the pocket of the coat "It's time for my gift."

She looked at him. Unlike the rest of the family, she had only a vague idea of what he would give her, but the set of possibilities greatly diminished if it were something that would fit in his pocket. Natalia tried to guess what it was.

She failed.

He pulled out a pair of extremely stylish white gloves, resembling opera gloves. Natalia grabbed them and and put on after taking off the ring from her finger. The gloves had a similar consistency to velvet, and were very comfortable.

She was admiring how nice the gloves looked when her father spoke:

"Let the other fingers straight and press the middle finger and the ring finger in your palm"

She did what he asked, with both hands, and immediately felt something strange. It seemed that she had suddenly become lighter.

"Try to lift the ring." Her father instructed.

Natalya put both hands on the ring of the death trap and tried to lift it up. And to her surprise, it rose easily, as if it wasn't more than three times her weight.

"They are dynagloves. While activated, they increase your strength considerably." He explained.

"They are so... beautiful..." Natalia spoke after having lowered the ring, once again admiring them "But how do I go back to normal?"

"Just do the same thing as before." He explained.

She folded her fingers the same way as before, and felt her weight return to normal. Then she turned and hugged her father.

"Thank you so much..."

He caressed her head lovingly. After they separated he said:

"Your mother should be arriving soon, go there in the garden to see her."

"Okay, but can you take this to my room?" Natalia gave her new book to him.

"Okay." He accepted.

She walked out, waving as he turned to climb on the death trap, and went down the stairs, putting her ring back on the finger over the glove and going to the lobby.

Natalia walked through the door and went to the garden. Different from what one might imagine, this was a perfectly normal garden, and very beautiful. She felt a twinge of pride, as she helped Susan care for it.

This led her to think about Elidee's garden, which was very well hidden, since it would be very dangerous to anyone entering there by mistake. The line of thoughts about gardens stopped when Natalia saw a black dot in the sky. She squinted, and realized that the dot was her mother.

Natalia watched as she got closer and closer, and noticed when she spotted her and started waving, already close enough for Natalia to distinguish the clothes her mother was wearing when something happened.

She fell. She just fell from the air as if gravity had suddenly realized that something was wrong. It was as if an eagle had magically turned into a stone. The fall couldn't have lasted more than 5 seconds and she hit the ground like a missile, raising a cloud of dust. As Natalia was close to where her mother had fallen, the girl had to shake hands to remove dust.

"Darn." Said Natalia's mother, in the midst of the dust cloud "Why did I have to think of Icarus just at that time?"

The dust slowly lowered, and Natalia could see her mother closely.

Simply speaking, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Okay, that was Natalia's opinion. But the fact was that every time they went to a public place, she attracted the eyes of many men and women.

Her appearance was not thin like a model, she was curvy and full-bodied, with a wide waist. Her arms and her legs did not look delicate, but that was to be expected, considering her work. Her hair was smooth and perfectly accentuated her beautiful face, especially in contrast with the black eyes. That's because her hair was white, very white in the way that a sheet of paper would envy. Her name was Bianca.

The clothes she was wearing were baggy pants that went to the ankle, a white shirt with symbols written in Cyrillic, that Natalia could recognize but not understand, and a brown overcoat that was not closed. She wore no shoes.

She knocked on her clothing with her hands to dust off, and small multicolored sparks jumped every time she made contact. She finished it, looked at Natalia, raised her arms in the air and shouted:

"I have ariiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiived!!!"

Immediately, dozens of small fireworks exploded around her, forming images of home, food and other family members. A rainbow appeared over her head. And finally a huge explosion roared several meters behind her, creating a cloud of red smoke.

Bianca was always happy when she came home.

And before Natalia could welcome her, her mother had run towards her and wrapped her in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground.

"Ugh." Natalia said, trying to breathe.

Bianca's strength decreased slightly, allowing Natalia to hug her too.

"Glad I made it in time!" She said, putting her daughter back on the floor.

"Yeah, everyone did." Natalia said.

She looked at Natalia's gloves and smiled.

"And it seems that your father has given you your present." She said.

"Yup." Natalia confirmed.

"Then it's my turn!" She declared.

She turned and put her hand palm up. A burst of light shone in her hand, and then a package appeared.

"Here it is." She handed the package to Natalia.

It had been wrapped with multicolored paper, at least three layers of it. But it was still clearly a book. Natalia had imagined what would be the gift from her mother, and it seemed that she had not been wrong.

She undid the exaggerated wrapping and looked at the cover of the book.

It was a heavy hardcover book, which seemed to be secondhand. Or maybe seventh hand. It seemed like a book that had witnessed the changes in the world. The book was solid, and smelled of knowledge. The cover said it gloriously: Tome of Spells Outside the Schools of Magic.

Natalia looked at Bianca, in disbelief, she knew that this would be something related to magic, but get such an obviously rare book was something she was not expecting.

Natalia's mother took advantage of her confusion to wrap her in another hug, gently this time.

"I love you. Never forget this." She spoke in Natalia's ear before releasing her "Now go finish packing your things."

"Thank you." Natalia said, waving at her and going back into the house.

Natalia ran back to her room, Elidee and Susan were gone, but the bag was still there, with Satoshi's book beside it.

She quickly put the two books in the trunk, and then went to the mirror to check her appearance one last time.

Natalia was satisfied, her appearance would always be more similar to the Elidee than with Bianca, but she would not want the extra attention that came with that beauty. Natalia was wearing a black skirt and a red short-sleeved shirt. On her head was a white beret, and her hair was long enough to reach her shoulders. The gloves had not ceased to be fashionable since the last time she looked, and in her feet were black combat boots with white socks. Satoshi would find it better if she wore galoshes like him, but she preferred those boots.

Natalia smiled and turned to pick up the bag, it was time to go to school.