When he finally awoke, Derin groggily sat up. As his senses gradually began to work again, he looked around him. His back wasn’t on a bed that felt like a pile of rocks, he had slept on an actual pile of rocks. His head pounded, the headache assaulting him enough to make him feel like his eyes were about to explode. His nose burned from the smell of smoke, and the crackling of fire was overpowered by the sound of rushing water.

He turned around. A man whose face he had not known stared intently at the fire, as if waiting for something. His concentration undivided, he refused even to blink as his eyes watered from the smoke.

“Now!” He exclaimed as he reached toward the fire. His hand retracted, and finally, Derin could see what the strange person had been concentrating on: a butchered and skewered fish, blackened by the fire and steaming hot.

Derin just stared at him, flummoxed. Who was this man? Why was he here? Why was Derin here? The questions wandered his mind, his thoughts still waterlogged and sluggish.

“Ah!” The stranger finally looked up from his dinner for long enough to notice that Derin had awoken. “Finally awake, I see. That was quite a fall you almost had, you should be glad I was there to save you.”

“Fall?” Derin was confused for a moment. What fall had he almost had, and how does one almost fall? “Oh.” Sudden realization came in the form of his memories. The mage, his escape, his hallucination. It all stopped there - he guessed that he must have lost consciousness.

“Yeah, and it was quite something! I’ve never met a kid with quite your talents.” The man gushed. “I’m Rorick. My friends call me Rick.”

“Derin.”

“A pleasure, Derin.” In spite of Derin’s terseness, Rorick maintained his attitude that seemed just too jovial to be real.

“So, Rorick. Please do tell me - why are you out here, and why did you save me?”

“Why, I’m out here because my friends and I heard quite the ripple in the mana field. Quite hard to miss a new mage’s Awakening, especially one of someone as talented as yourself.” Rorick explained, making wild hand gestures as he elaborated on his presence in the forest.

“Huh? Awakening? What?” Derin was confused. What was an Awakening? Had he unknowingly had one?

“Nobody quite knows what causes an Awakening. However, when someone Awakens, all of the magic power in their body is blasted out into the world around them as their body’s ability to process magic evolves, and the structure of the mana circuitry throughout their body rewires itself. It’s usually all of the unused magic power that has accumulated over the course of more than a decade of a young mage’s life, so you most certainly won’t be able to release such power again for a very long time.”

“And the headache is…”

“Precisely. Here, some fish will help!”

“Ugh, great. Thank you.” Derin took a skewer from Rorick. Biting into the flaky meat was like drinking water after a week in the desert. Tension that he did not know he had was released, and he dropped his shoulders as he ate. Before he knew it, the fish was gone.

“First meal after an Awakening is an experience I’d die to have again. I’m sorry yours had to be something as quaint as some fire-grilled fish.”

“Seconds.”

“Ha! I like the grit o’ your chaps. Don’t ask what that means, ‘cause I don’t know either!” Rorick laughed as he handed over a second skewer. “Speaking of Awakening, I hate to bring it up now, lad, but yours was weird. We felt something before yours, as if a pool of still water rippled before a stone was dropped into it. Say… did something happen with another mage?”

Derin stopped mid bite, and didn’t say anything.

“Dammit, I should have known. If we move now, it might not be too late.” It had been some time since Derin realized that they were right around his usual training spot. He practically raced Rorick to the cliff’s edge, over which they could see the valley.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A column of black rose into the sky, as if consuming the stars above. The only thing illuminating the valley forest below was… Betton. Houses, like torches aglow with flame, spit ash and soot into the night sky.

“No... “ Derin mumbled. “No!” His voice raised into an anguished shout. He ran forward, making a beeline for the cliff’s edge, only to be stopped by the firm grip of Rorick’s hand around his wrist. “Let me go!”

“And if I did, what would you do?” Rorick spoke gravely. “Save them? Stop the Royal Garrison and probably hundreds of their men on your own?”

“I’d sure as hell try.” Derin growled. “I could take down at least ten, maybe twenty.”

“And die?”

“And die with my village.”

Derin’s last remark earned him a backhanded slap to the face. “Do you realize how stupid you sound?” Rorick yelled. “You’d throw yourself away, just like that?

“It’s too late for your village. By now, they’re all either dead or in chains. You would end up no different. You’d be used as nothing but a tool to squash their last hope. You would be the final nail in their coffins.”

“I already am the final nail in their coffins!” Derin cried. “If I had just obediently laid down and died, this would never have happened!”

“If you had obediently laid down and died, you would be gone with nothing to show for your life. They were trying to show you to that Court Mage to get him to take you along with him, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But nothing. All that they wanted was for you to be something. Now, you can fulfill that wish. Let us help you. Join the Red Tide, Derin. To honor their memory.”

Derin stopped pulling. “You say that as if there is no hope left for them.”

“There isn’t.” Rorick sighed. “They are already gone. Their final gift to you was your life, and to throw it away is the ultimate disrespect.”

In the warping wisps of smoke that towered over Betton, it seemed to Derin as if he could see their faces looking back. “Alright,” he said, taking in a deep breath. “Tell me what I have to do.”

“You’d best get some rest, first. It’s been a long day, and you’ll need it.” Rorick said. His earlier anger had dissipated, and the only expression that remained on his age-worn face was one of sorrowful concern.

----------------------------------------

The next day came sooner than Derin thought it would. It felt like as soon as he closed his eyes, he opened them again and was greeted by the bright blue sky peeking through the trees. He went to the fire, where Rorick still sat. A pot that he couldn’t possibly have been carrying was hung over the fire.

“Hey, where did you get… that?” Derin asked, pointing at it perplexedly.

“Oh, don’t mind the small details. Please sit, we have a lot to talk about.” He gestured at the ground next to him. Derin obliged, awkwardly sitting closer to Rorick than he was really comfortable with.

“Now, I’m sure you want to know all about the Red Tide.”

“Sure…” Derin was hesitant. Rorick was awfully enthusiastic about it, which was almost as confusing as it was off putting to him.

“The Red Tide, see, is a motley bunch of people like you. Like us.” Rorick started. “The King took magic away from the common people of Tyradna in much the same way he took your home from you. We’re going to get rid of him and take it back.”

“Take it back? What does that mean?”

“The King that took magic away from the common folk used an old relic to do it. We will find it, and we will destroy it.”

“But how will destroying it- “Are you in, or not?” Rorick interrupted. “Whatever happens, we will free Tyradna from him. Do you want to let them keep burning down villages, or do you want to save your people?”

Derin took a deep breath. Destroy a tyrannical government? He didn’t know if he had what it took. Regardless, “I’ll do it.”

“There it is!” Rorick excitedly shouted. He waved a hand, and with it, pitch-black obscured the midday sun like a sudden eclipse. The forest around them receded into nothingness, and the sound of water and lingering smell of smoke faded away.

“Wha-!” Derin stammered and jumped to his feet. “What did you do?”

“Welcome, Derin,” Rorick theatrically spread his arms, and that suspiciously jovial smile seemed just a bit more genuine. “To Shadowsun.” Behind him, a titanic building towered above. Stone columns and lightless windows blended into the inky black sky.

“Rick! You’re back!” A voice called, but no matter how hard he tried, Derin couldn’t pinpoint its source. It seemed to come from all around him. “And with… who’s this? Should I know them?”

“Hahaha! No, this is the new kid I went to pick up. Alora, meet Derin. Derin, Alora.” Rorick explained, putting a hand on Derin’s head and ruffling his crimson hair, much to Derin’s displeasure.

“Uh, Rorick…” Derin whispered after pushing Rorick’s hand off of his head. “Who are we talking to? And, err, where are they?”

“Don’t bolt your carabiners, kid! You’ll meet her soon enough. That’s Alora, and she’s responsible for keeping this whole place running.”

“Hey everyone, Rick is back!” Another new voice. This one came from the now open front door of the tower, where a boy who seemed about the same age as Derin stood. Behind him, nearly a dozen silhouettes appeared at the doors, talking excitedly among themselves.

“Derin,” Rorick grinned, “allow me to introduce you to your new family.”