Levi hated horror movies. He wasn’t a fan of gore, but he could tolerate it. Levi wasn’t a fan of psychological thrillers, but he could tolerate them. He wasn’t a fan of dystopian/apocalyptic nightmares, but he could tolerate them. What Levi could not tolerate was ghosts, or spirits, or creepy. Vapor looked spooky, but he had gotten over that fear rather quickly. What he hadn’t gotten over was the creepy children who spoke in a chorus. He hated it and nothing about them was something that he never wanted to experience again. That was why when he heard the creepy chorus, he cursed.
In the dark corner, because of course it had to be dark, stood… floated… existed, the ghosts from before. Kind of. They were not the same exact ghosts but more ghosts that were children.
“You guys again?” Levi said. He looked to see if his team could see them; thankfully, they could.
“You almost seem disappointed,” they said as one. “Why are you disappointed?”
“Cause it’s creepy, why do you have to be in the dark corner?”
“Because it’s creepy,” they replied.
“What’s up?” Levi asked.
“We wanted to tell you more since you happened upon the Capital City, a city we had not expected you to show up to anytime soon.”
“Didn’t get much choice from the dungeon crafter,” Levi replied.
“Sure, you could have chosen a different outpost in the Cloud Plaine Kingdom. Either way, let us not waste time. The history of this city and the Arbors’ downfall are not mutually exclusive. A large nation such as Qu’ant cannot simply ignore a war that could change political and financial ties. The rest of the world saw now suspicious activity, but there was. Perhaps the most suspicious of them all was the betrayal of the Arbor family.”
“Whoa,” Piper said.
“The youngest,” the ghost continued. “Axel Arbor left the city a few years before the war. A few years before any tension had risen. He had come to the Capital City to learn about summoning from Veluvius, specifically. It appeared that the young prince was aware of his affinity to order magic, he wanted to summon more creatures with the order affinity. There was a problem.”
“Summons aren’t permanent,” Levi said, piecing together the information.
“Just so, summons are not permanent.”
“Aren’t familiars permanent summons?” Piper said.
“Technically no,” Levi responded. “A familiar summon is not a summon. It’s technically considered a bond. It’s an active choice by both parties to create a bond through a familiar ritual. A summon is a temporary joining of a world, summons are supposed to return after the task is completed or a certain amount of time, depending on the provided information.”
“Just so,” the ghost said.
“So he wanted to create a work around familiars?” Anna asked.
“That was exactly what he wanted,” the ghosts replied. “Axel was obsessed with being able to get a summon to join on and stay forever despite no bond being established a partnership.”
“Okay, what does this have to do with betrayal?” Levi asked. “He wanted a partnership but was unable to summon one. So what?”
“So he sought other beings that didn’t need a summon but could still be partners.”
“I see,” Levi said, realization dawning on him. “Switching topics but this is kind of on topic, what do you know about order magic?”
“It is a form of magic that is just as complex as chaos. It is focused and intense. Order magic cares little about what it is trying to balance as long as it is balanced. The most important factor about order magic is who uses it the most.”
“Very powerful magic users,” Levi said.
“While magic user is not an incorrect term, it is insufficient to explain the power. The beings of order magic are not simply elementals. Take your familiars for example. What is unique about each of your familiars?”
“They are all attuned to chaos in some way, shape, or form.”
“What else?”
“Umm… oh.” Levi paused as he understood what the creepy children were trying to get him to understand.
“Mind sharing with the rest of the class?” Piper said.
“Each of my familiars are very specific and unique beings, not just a species but being. There are very few aura dragons, avatars of the void, wisps, and mimics. Vapor might be the most basic of them all, but she is far from it. She has a complex history that supersedes her race,” Levi paused to see their reaction, but they still weren’t getting it. “Let’s say I would have used a different set of ingredients centered around another affinity, a less complex one, like fire. There would be a good chance that I would get a fire elemental or a fire-specific being, which is not too uncommon.
The only uniqueness would be their personalities. In general, though, elementals come in all shapes and sizes. Each of my familiars does not come in all shapes and sizes. They come precisely how they are. If someone else were to have summoned Crystal and Willow, they would have gotten them exactly.”
“But why did you?” Anna asked.
“Chaos,” the ghosts answered.
“Each of them have an affinity for chaos, which meant a larger pool would be much smaller because of my affinity,” Levi said.
“Okay, what does this have to do with order magic?” Anna asked.
“Because, that means any summons Axel or whatever makes will be strong and unique. All because of the nature of order magic. It is only used by those who are well beyond normal scope. This means any summons with an affinity to order magic could be a crazy, crazy scary monster.”
“Exactly,” the ghost praised.
Levi sighed, “do the two cancel each other out when they clash?”
“In a way. If chaos is too chaotic, then it will beat order. If order is too orderly, then it will beat chaos. Not many have created perfect harmony with either of the elements, but you have with chaos; this will make order magic extraordinarily difficult to beat you.”
“In summary,” Levi said. “Axel somehow betrayed his family and became obsessed with Order Magic summons, which I have some thoughts on. Then he learned the history of Order Magic and learned that the summoned beings are immensely powerful. This leaves me with two questions that I know you will not answer,” Levi said to the ghosts. “First question; was he ever trying to form a familiar bond or trying to find the right ritual for a specific summon. Second question; did he use an order summon to dethrone his parents?”
“We have shared more than enough information,” the ghosts said as their light started to flicker. "When you return to Arvendon, come see us in the same place. We will have a gift prepared for you there once again. Goodbye, Levi Winters, until next time.” With a swirl and a cold breeze, the ghosts were gone.
“Well,” Tycen said. “That was a lot… Good luck. I have a date to prepare for it. Let me know what you find.”
Levi scoffed, “If we find anything. Have fun on your date, Tycen, seriously. Don’t worry about us, and we’ll figure things out and fill you in.” Tycen gave a small smile. He nodded and then left the area they were standing in.
***
Izzy Avington was working at her family’s library like every other day. The Avingtons, much like the other big four houses, were far and widespread. The ones who owned the library in which she worked were distant cousins. Regardless, it was still her family. Izzy wanted to earn her money so that she could attend a proper guild. She was still undecided, which was highly unusual. Izzy was late with everything, she wasn’t born with inherent magic so she had to have a magic ritual done with an essence.
This set her back a couple of years as her parents wanted to wait and see. Well, waiting and seeing had her gotten her a big pile of wasted time. It was two years after the usual beginning time for magic users. Which, of course, was a big delay. She was 20 when she had the ritual done. At twenty-two, Izzy was still deciding what route to take. Well, that technically wasn’t true. Izzy knew precisely what she wanted, and the issue was the state of the world.
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Izzy wanted to do nothing but be a ritualist. Someone who could create magic formations as either traps, monsters, large complex spells, or anything of that nature. That was something that had fascinated the young lady. However, summoners were few and far between. Summoners were the best at ritual magic due to the magic (rituals) needed to summon creatures. She was reading a book about ritual magic when she noticed a few people that she had not been able to keep her mind from wandering back to.
There in the doorway to her library, standing tall and mighty, was Tycen. The straight-up handsome avian was with his team. She looked at his arms, observing the tribal tattoos on his arm. She wondered what they meant or what tribe she should ask him about it. However, now wasn’t the time to do so.
Izzy recalled the conversation she had with her sisters after her encounter with Tycen.
“An avian?” Jenna, the eldest sister, asked. “Is he sexy?”
“Jenna, gross,” Bekka, the youngest sister, replied.
“Oh grow up Bekka you’re almost 20 yourself,” Jenna said, rolling her eyes.
“He is very attractive,” Izzy responded. “He also seemed like a smart man.”
“How does one seem smart?” Bekka asked.
“The way he carried himself, how he was dressed, and how his team interacted with him. It’s not an exact science but I just had a feeling that he was smart.”
“How do you plan on proving your theory correct?” Bekka asked.
“We aren’t in the lab anymore. Can we stop talking like that?” Jenna said. “Proving theory, exact science, girl, it's not that hard. Do you think he’s cute? Yes or no?”
“Yes I do,” Izzy said. “Very much so.”
“Then why not gather the courage and ask him out on a date.”
“You know why,” Izzy said. “You’re just now getting back on his good side after dating that elf.”
“Oh I know,” Jenna said. “You date one being that’s not a human and suddenly you’re a a disgrace to the entire family. Our family is huge, how is that even possible?” She took an exaggerated deep breath. “Anyway who cares?”
“I care,” Izzy said. "I love Dad, but I do not want him to go after me or Tycen if we end up going on a date. I don’t want to have to choose between one or the other.”
“Are they all Avians?” Bekka asked.
“Nope,” Izzy said. “Three humans and Tycen, he’s the odd one out at least in terms of race.”
“Just join their team,” Bekka suggested.
“What?” Izzy asked.
“Do you know what guild all of them are?”
“No, actually, I didn’t. If I ever seem them again, I’ll be sure to pay more attention. But we both know there is no way that is going to happen.”
“Not with that attitude,” Jenna said. Bekka pointed empathically at Jenna in agreement.
“You’ll see him again,” Bekka said. “I have a hard time believing that fate is that cruel it would only introduce you once.”
“It’s not,” Jenna said. “She’ll probably see her today.”
“Ooo let’s make a bet,” Bekka responded.
“Deal,” Jenna said, thoughtfully looking down at the floor. If you see him today, then I will do my chores for a week. If you don’t see him, then I will do your chores for a week.”
“I hope you like doing assessments, because after I win you’re only chair will be to do my research assistant notes,” Bekah said.
Jenna laughed, and her other two sisters joined in shortly afterward. The Avington sisters were daughters of the head of the Avington Capital City branch, Lloris Avington. Each of them had a specific job tailored to their dreams, goals, and skills. Bekka, the youngest, was attending the sorcerer’s guild along with being a research assistant at the guild she attended. Her skills were to be a healer, in research this was important as it was helpful for cleaning up any failed experiments. She loved cleaning and knew that magic could help her clean better along with providing a healthy working environment.
Jenna was also a sorcerer, although she was focused on inventions. Jenna worked in the laboratory that their mother ran and operated. Jenna focused on creating runes to do specific tasks to help the day-to-day non-magic user have a better quality of life. The current project that she was engaged in was a new form of transportation. Currently, they only use animal-drawn carriages or normal coal ferries. Which is not efficient for the day to day travel; it is also much slower. She and her research team had been at it for several months, and they could not seem to find a material that could act as a good fuel source. It had caused her many sleepless nights.
That left Izzy, of course. Izzy was a fighter, but through the complexity of magic, not just simple attacking spells but bigger spells that require a complex ritual with a lot of materials. She loved how something could be so simple and then it could also be so complicated, it brought her joy to figure out the pattern of ritual magic. At least, she hoped it would, but of course, she had to find a teacher. Izzy returned to the present when the dark-skinned human walked up to her.
Izzy was thinking back on all the events that led her to where she was right now—in her room with her sisters, preparing for a date.
“How did you even get to the date? You still haven't told us that yet,” Jenna asked.
“I’m telling you,” she said. “The creature was something of nightmares. I froze for a second, it was the most terrifying yet beautiful creature I had ever seen.”
“What was it?” Bekka asked, interested as ever.
“It was called a mimic,” Izzy said. Bekka and Jenna both frowned.
“I have never heard of it,” Bekka said. “Is it strong?”
“I have no idea,” Izzy said. “It did have a strong presence. I think the stupidly beautiful girl called it a World-Conquering Organism or something like that. That girl also looked very familiar, but I honestly couldn’t place the face.”
“According to this book,” Bekka said. She had gone to the bookshelf in their room to find more information. She had pulled a book that discussed apocalypse monsters. “There are three different stages of mimics. The first is a drone. These are the soldiers of a mimic army. They are smaller and have an orange glow. The second is called an Alpha. These are the officers of the mimic drones, they are larger and have a blue glow. The alphas are said to have a power called chronokenisis… some kind of temporal magic. If a drone in its command is killed it can learn about how that drone was killed. The final stage is the omega. Omegas are the birthing center of alphas and drones. It’s form of chronokenisis is that it can restart a day if an alpha is killed. They are beings of chaos.”
“Huh,” Izzy said. “A being of chaos. No wonder it looked scary.”
“Wait so which kind did the guy have?” Jenna asked. The three of them were all genuinely curious and not at all afraid.
“An alpha, it had a blue glow,” Izzy said. She furrowed her eyebrows and tapped her chin. After some time, she put her hair up in a ponytail with the same expression. Her sisters did the same thing. For those who had interacted with the Avingtons sisters, they would recognize this was their deep-thinking posture. It was when there was a problem they weren’t sure how to solve; they would assume this posture and figure out how to solve it.
As they were all thinking in silence, a knock sounded on their door. In walked a tall, athletic woman with long dark brown hair, tan skin, and blue eyes—the spitting image of the three girls in the room.
“Oh,” she said. “Are we trying to solve a problem?”
“Yes,” Bekka said. “It appears that the guy Izzy is going on a date with, his teammate has a world-conquering organism that has a heavy chaos affinity.” The woman stared at the comment and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?” she asked Izzy.
“I wouldn’t have said all of that information at once like that,” Izzy said. “But what she said was true.”
“Of course it was accurate, I don’t lie,” Bekka said.
“A date…” the woman said.
“Yes mom a date,” Izzy replied.
“Why so hostile Iz? Have I ever been judgmental of your previous suitors?” her mom asked. Jenna and Izzy both scoffed.
“Yes you are very judgmental with anyone who wants to court us, mother,” Bekka said.
“Very?” she asked.
“Very,” Jenna said.
She chuckled, “Perhaps but I believe no man or woman is good enough for my precious daughters. You all are exceptional.” She walked over and started brushing Izzy’s hair. “You’re all intelligent, driven, and of course beautiful. Only the best should have the opportunity to be with you three. What else could you expect from mothers?”
“Letting us see for ourselves,” Jenna said.
“Oh Jenna please,” their mother responded. “Your version of seeing for yourself is seeing taken or married men. Hardly appropriate.”
“They all told me they weren’t, I just have bad luck.”
“Or bad taste,” Bekka said. She dodged a brush that was thrown her way. Their mother, Teresa Avington, laughed at the exchange. She adored her daughters and wanted nothing but the best for them. She was intentionally judgmental for the reasons stated. Teresa wanted the world to know that if they wanted to date her daughters, they had to come correct and act with respect. She looked at her middle daughter, Izzy, and smiled. She kissed the top of her head.
“This man is lucky to be going on a date with you. I didn’t even know you were talking to someone.”
“I met him yesterday with grandma. He and his team showed up to the library today, then he asked me out. I said yes.”
“What is his name?” Teresa asked.
“Tycen,” Izzy said. “I didn’t catch his last name.”
“The avian?” Teresa asked. Bekka laughed. Jenna’s mouth fell agape.
“How in the world did you know that?” Izzy asked, shocked.
“A mother always knows,” Teresa said with pride. “I’m just kidding. There have been many people talking about the new strange team that has come to the city. Especially Suni, remember her? She works at that restaurant that the Calders are obsessed over. Apparently she had a run in with your old flame and the team was kind to her. Suni told me and her mother that they had an avian, who was very attractive, along with two princesses and some random dark-skin guy.”
“That’s who she is!” Izzy said, her realization dawning. It’s Princess Anna Onyx and her best friend, Piper Vendular.”
“Two Princesses of the Onyx kingdom… in the Capital City. why?” Teresa asked. “What business does the Onyx kingdom have with us?”
“They aren’t here for the city, as far as I know they were just passing through,” Izzy explained.
“We shall see about that.”