Part I
October 7, 9478
Ethan walked home in the downpour completely oblivious to the fact that he was becoming drenched and wounded. He just kept walking not changing his pace looking at the ground in front of him.
“Today couldn’t have gotten any worse.”He thought as he stumbled along catching himself on a wall.
Flash Back:
Ethan woke up when his mother shouted,
“Hurry up Ethan, or you're going to be late!”
Ethan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he stumbled around the messy living room trying to get to the closet to find clean clothes. After hurriedly getting dressed he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast before rushing out the door.
“Don’t forget that you have to help with the garden this afternoon!’
“I won’t, by mom!”
Ethan ran as fast as he could trying to eat the toast as he went. He knew that if he missed the bus even by a second he would have to run the 2.5 miles to school.
Turning the corner he saw the bus stop but to his dismay, the bus had been early and all of the other children had already gotten onto the the bus.
He got to the bus right before the driver closed the door. He was breathing heavily and could barely stand without the help of the rail on the bus stairs. He was about to climb when another teen about his age pushed him hard enough that he fell out of the bus’s open door.
The second Ethan landed on the ground, the bus driver pulled away and drove off leaving Ethan in a trail of dust.
He got up and dusted himself off, looking around to see if anyone else had seen that but no one else was around. He just sighed and started to run towards the school. (Run Forrest, Run!)
Thirty minutes later he was slowly walking up to the front doors of school drenched in sweat. When he got to the doors he looked up to find the school’s principal staring down at him.
The Principal was an elf that had lived for the last 2000 years all of which he spent running this school. He was a sour despicable man that thought the only real thing you needed to keep kids in line was the stick and not the carrot. He despised most of his students but he absolutely hated humans and demons. Above all, else he despised humans that had no powers. So, to him, Ethan was the greatest stain to ever exist on the name of his good school.
“I see that you are late once again Mr. Serkan,” the principal said with a sneer.
“Sorry sir but I missed the bus.”
“Don’t blame your own failure on the bus.”
“That wasn’t what I was doing sir.”
The principal held out his hand. “I don’t care. This is the tenth time you have been late in such away. I am sorry to say but this plus the rest of your record is grounds of expulsion from this school, goodbye Mr. Serkan,” the principal said as a cruel smile appeared on his face
“But my mother already paid for the full school year!” Ethan shouted.
“Calm down Mr. Serkan or else I will have you escorted from the premises.”
“You can’t do this you -------!” Ethan had lost control of his emotions when he saw the smirk on the elf’s face. He lost his head and decided to wipe the smirk of his face.
Ethan lunged at the elf trying to hit him. To his surprise he actually succeeded because the principal had not been prepared for Ethan to strike him. Ethan hit him in the throat causing the principal to kneel and gasp for air. (Critical hit)
When the Principal recovered, he got up with malice in his eyes and used a spell to conjure up vines that twisted around Ethan’s arms and legs.
“Now, you’ve done it you powerless whelp. Did you really think you could fight me you damn weakling? I’ve been showing you pity since you arrived at my school.” The principle practically growled at Ethan.
“What pity? You’ve only extorted money out of my mother since I came to this school.”
“Yes and I should have done much worse. We can’t have a powerless walking around this campus besmirching the school's good name so I will leave you with a parting gift.”
Right after saying that the principle punched Ethan in the gut hard enough that ethan coughed up a fine mist of blood. With just one punch the principal had incapacitated him.(KO)
“I hope you now see the difference between one with power and one with none, learn your place weakling.” The principal spat on him as he walked away.
Ethan lay groaning on the ground trying to stand up but failing as blood trickled out of his mouth. He slowly crawled to the side of the building waiting for the pain to stop but it never did. Very slowly he began to lose consciousness.
His mind filled with blackness and all around him; shadows swirled and mixed with blood red and sickly green lights. Out of the darkness Ethan could hear voices. It started as a whisper but soon grew into a dull roar. It sounded like thousands of people all chanting at once.
“It is almost time, soon you will join us, soon you will be apart of us.”
“What, what are you?” Ethan shouted out nervously.
“We are you and you are us, we are the legion, for we are many, but we are one.”
“What do you mean, What legion?” Ethan asked even more confused.
“It is almost time, soon you will join us, soon you will be apart of us.”
The voice grew louder and louder. Ethan tried to shrink back but they were all around him. No matter where he turned, he heard the voices growing louder and louder until they seemed to be right on top of him. His heart started to race when he heard another voice cutting through the darkness driving the other voices away.
“Ethan, Ethan can you hear me? Wake up Ethan!”
Ethan felt someone shaking him as he regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes he saw a half elf girl about his age shaking him to wake him up. At first his brain couldn’t comprehend the situation, but then it seemed to work again when he recognized her as the girl he had a crush on.
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“Ethan, can you hear me?”
“Yes Annabeth, I can hear you just fine. Please stop shouting in my face.” Ethan said trying not to let the pain he felt show in his voice.
“Thank the Goddess when I heard that the principal had physically disciplined you. I was worried that he might have accidentally killed you.”
“Thank you for the concern but it takes a bit more to kill me than a punch.”
“Yes, yes you see that pest there is like a cockroach.” Someone behind Annabeth said.
When Ethan looked behind her he saw a sight that made him want to vomit. It was a boy just a year older than him. This boy was about a head shorter than Ethan but at the same time he had about twice as much muscle. He had flaming red hair and brown eyes.
“What do you want Jake?” Ethan asked almost spitting out the name.
“Nothing with you. I came to pick up Annebeth.”
“How come?” Ethan asked worried about what the response would be.
“Not that it's any of your business but my parents and Annabeth's parents are arranging a marriage proposal for us.” Jake said with a smug look on his face his smile growing with sadistic glee at seeing the despair that soon filled Ethan’s eyes. (mwahahaha)
Ethan was angry enough to start throwing punches but he didn’t since he probably would die if he fought in his current condition.
“Come on Annabeth let’s go, it seems he is fine.”
“Sure, just give me a second to cast a healing spell on him.” She said
“No, it’s fine. Go with Jake.” Ethan said pushing Annabeth away.“I’ll be fine. No point in wasting your mana and time. Bye.”
Ethan slowly walked away supporting himself by resting a hand on the wall, grimacing in pain with every couple of steps. He slowly walked away from the school and through the streets trying to get home as dark clouds rolled in.
End Flashback:
As he walked some more he saw a store that he had never noticed before. The exterior looked old and worn, the paint was flaking off the sides, and the windows were covered in a thick layer of dust. He could barely make out the the faded sign but from what he could see it seemed to say something about a new life. Shrugging his shoulders, he decided to go into the store since he didn’t have anything else to do and it would get him out of the rain.
When he opened the door a small bell rang announcing his presence but no one came out to greet him. The first thing he noticed about the shop was its smell. It didn’t smell bad, it was quite the opposite. The place had a fragrant herbal smell to it.
He looked around the dimly lit shop. Jars filled with powdered plants and other things lined the wall, while dried plants hung from the rafters and a rack in the back was filled with leather bound books.
Ethan looked around to see if there was anyone there, but it seemed liked he was alone. He walked around the story when he felt a curious pull leading him to the bookshelf. He looked over all of the books. Some of them seemed very old with dry and cracked leather covers. As he looked over the books, he felt the pull grow stronger until he spotted a book bound in all black. He unconsciously reached his hand out to grab it when a voice stopped him.
“What are you doing lad?”
Ethan jumped around and saw an old man dressed in a black robe with a snake twined around his arm standing in the shadows.
“Sorry, I just came in to look sir.” Ethan said politely trying to find a way out.
As he stood there, the man let the snake slither of his arm and onto a tree stand.
“Well, if you were looking to get that black book I can tell you right now that it has nothing to do with magic.”
Ethan was confused at what the old man said since he had never thought the book had anything to do with magic.
“That’s ok. I can’t use mana so it doesn't matter.” Ethan told the man as he tried to leave but the old man stopped him.
“Wait a second lad. Are you hurt?”
“Maybe, why do you want to know?”
“If you're hurt why don't you just use your ki to fix your body.”
“Because I don’t have any ki. Can I go now?”Ethan said getting very annoyed at the curiosity of the old man. What gave that old man the right to question him?
“Hold on, if you don’t use mana or have ki does that mean you're a psyker?”
Ethan almost exploded at the old man
“No I’m NOT a psyker, nor do I have ki and I can’t use mana! I’m powerless! Is that what you wanted to know!”
Ethan was a bit surprised at his outburst. He had never blown up like that before but the old man’s questions combined with what already happened just pissed him off.
“Sorry about my outburst.” Ethan said remorsefully.
The old man just laughed.
“It's alright, why don’t you come with me and see if we can’t fix you up.”
The old man turned around and then walked into a back room. Ethan didn’t know what else to do so he followed the old man into the room.
The room looked like an old doctor's office. There was a medicine cabinet to one side and in the middle of the room was a wooden table with a thin mattress on top of it. The old man was crushing something in a mortar with a pestle.
“Sit on the table please and remove your shirt so I can see what's wrong.” The old man said without turning around.
Ethan didn’t respond, he just took off his shirt and sat on the table. When the old man looked at his chest, he saw a large read splotch that was in the same area where the principal had punched him. The old man came over and quickly looked the wound over.
“Hmmm... There seems to be some internal bleeding but nothing that dangerous.”
He muttered as he went over to the table and started picking different herbs that hung from the ceiling. He then put them into the mortar and began to crush them up. After crushing them, he placed them on a white cloth over a jar and poured some boiling water over them. This caused a tea like liquid to form in the jar.
After that he plucked a mana crystal from a formation growing on the wall and dropped it into the jar. The brown liquid in the jar began to glow and turn red. Curious, Ethan asked the old man a question.
“What are you doing?”
“Hmm...oh I’m making a healing potion for you.”
“Really? Thanks!” Ethan said cheerfully now that he didn’t have to explain his injures to Sanguine. Yes she was his mother but sometimes she could get really, really scary. Then, Ethan thought of something and his smile quickly faded.
“Wait, I can’t afford a healing potion.”
“Oh be quiet. I’m doing this as my one good deed a century.” the old man said sounding amused.
“Well I can’t except that.” Ethan said as he got up grabbed his shirt and made for the door.
“And why not.”
“Because I don’t want to be in your debt sir.”
“Well, You won’t be in my debt because after this you're going to be working for me.” The old man stated as if it was a decided fact
“What…... what do you mean by that?”
“Sit down or I’ll tell your mother you got kicked out of school.”
Ethan immediately sat down and waited for the old man to explain.
“First off, my name is Alexander Mot, what's yours?”
“My name is Ethan Serkan.”
“Ok Ethan, let me explain. You see, I have been looking for an apprentice to learn my craft but no one was ever drawn to it. No one that is, until you showed up…”
“What do you mean by an apprentice? I don’t even have a power.”
“First off, don’t interrupt me Second, you not having powers is a good thing for it is required for my craft. So, from now on you will be my apprentice. This means that you will come to this shop every day as if you were going to school. For the first part of your training you will learn alchemy. Then, when the time is right you will start to learn my craft. Agreed?”
Ethan sat there and thought it over. “If I agree to this, I will have an excuse for Sanguine and I will gain a power over a certain craft it seems. The only thing I don’t like is that I don’t know what the craft is. Damn it, who cares. It will be better than any future I have.” (Unlimited Power!!!)
“Alright master, I will become your apprentice.”
“Good. Your first job will be to take this book home. Don’t open it until the new moon of the winter solstice.”
His master gave him the black book that he reached for before.
“Now, go home.” The old man said as he ushered Ethan out the door
Ethan got home right as the street lamps turned on. His house was pretty small. It only had one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room, but it was still home. He tried to sneak in but the moment he opened the door he heard his mother yell from the kitchen.
“Ethan, is that you? Why are you coming home so late?”
“Sorry mom but I went to go find a job after school and it took longer than I thought.” Ethan shouted back
“Oh really, did you find one?”
“Yeah. Its at this small alchemy shop in town.”
“That's just great dear, but remember I want you home before dark okay?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Ethan navigated his way through the mess of a living room they had. Even though his mother was a maid, the house never seemed to be clean. He left his school bag and the book in the living room and headed towards the kitchen.
When he entered, he saw his mother standing over the stove cooking something in a pan. She looked like a twenty five year old women but in reality she was around two hundred and fifty years old. (Great Scott!!)
“What are you cooking?” Ethan asked as he looked into the pan.
“Your favorite chili.”
“Really? How come we almost never have meat.” Ethan asked surprised at what his mother told him. Ever since the reawakening, meat had been something only the rich and nobles could eat.
“Well, you see, the Ignatius house had some left over that would have gone to waste so I took it.” his mother explained cheerfully.
Ethan on the other hand became more gloomy at the news since it reminded him of what happened this morning.
“So, how was your day at work mom?” Ethan asked trying to change the subject.
“It was ok but that girl was being a spoiled brat again.” She said
“Do you mean Kaitlyn Ignatius?”
“Yes, she made me clean her room three times claiming that I just made it dirtier every time, which made me late to cleaning the dining room so the mistress became upset.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It's alright just go set the table for me, ok.”
“Yes mom.”
Ethan took out a two bowls and some silverware and went to go place them on the old rickety table that sat off in a corner of the kitchen. After doing this, Sanguine took some of the chili and served it to each bowl before storing some of it to eat for tomorrow.
When they finished dinner, Ethan cleared the table and cleaned the dishes. He then went to the living room and pulled some blankets out of the closet and set them on the couch.
“Night mom.”
“Night.”
After saying good night, he laid down on the couch and fell asleep right away.