Miguel was exhausted; he had two stops before reaching his New York flight that would take him to his new home, Paris. He wonders how his new life would be, and he decides that after all the drama in his life with the betrayal, lawsuits, and mental breakdown that nearly collapsed St. Lois city. Due to all that stress, he decided to start his life anew as far away from the Americas as possible; maybe Europe would be more chill. Also, what kind of artist would he be if he had the chance to live in Paris and not take it? To be fair, Miguel was not just your average artist. He was an animator and had just sold his original animation studio, which had been such a hit. His small team, whom he met in college, made two successful and profitable indie animation films. Miguel was heartbroken about selling part of his company to his former best friend, but he was not leaving empty-handed.
Lutix Studio was a company founded by his friend in college when he was doing his art bachelor's degree. The idea to create a studio came from his friend Lucas, who was one of those trust funds guys who had always majored in business, but when Lucas met him by random chance, It was decided that they should monetize his talent. It was a fifty-fifty co-ownership. It may sound unfair, but it made sense in its way.Miguel would supply the art and story, and Lucas would run the business side of the studio. Miguel sucked at marketing, promoting, and connections, which were all things Lucas had been trained to do since he was just a child. Before Lucas, Miguel would upload his short animations to YouTube, which made him internet-famous due to his fluid animation and originality. Still, even though his videos received millions of views, he earned little revenue. Lucas knew how to make his art profitable. They made and showcased three indie movies at the local indie movie festival. They were such hits that Lucas negotiated to put two of them in actual theaters.
The profits were so high that Lucas quit business school to run the company. His parents thought he was wasting time with such a frivolous and volatile endeavor. They urged him to return to business school. Miguel felt pressure to quit his studies but somehow managed to graduate. They were in the pre-production of the third movie remake, which Miguel was sure would be a hit like the other two he had produced before. Sadly, Lucas was too greedy; he wanted more money and did not like Miguel's carefree management of the art team. He decided to sell the studio to a bigger company for financial backing and his own profits. The problem was his co-ownership prevented him from selling to a third party before offering to him first. Miguel did not want to be a subsidiary of any bigger entertainment company because his animations were not child-themed. Still, for a more mature audience, he did not want to be censured by someone else controlling his creative expression. His work has more blood and violence than a Pixar or Disney company would happily produce. Lucas sold his part of the company and the whole company by tricking him into signing away his part of the studio. Miguel was terrible with paperwork, so Lucas tricked him into signing away his part of the studio in the guise of budget approval.
Lucas sold the studio against Miguel's wishes and refused to give Miguel a portion of the profits. Turned out Miguel got the last laugh. The entertainment company that bought their studio was suing both Miguel and Lucas because even though they bought their studio, the intellectual properties were never registered to the studio. Instead, they were grandfathered and copyrighted by Miguel way before the studio was created. The entertainment company had bought only the rights to the two successful indie movies but not the actual rights to own the characters or story of the Misvart IP that Miguel created during his college years. The entertainment company sued them, claiming the purchase of the studio was meant to be for the ownership of the IPs as this was the actual value of buying their tiny studio. Lucas was losing all his money in lawsuits against the entertainment company. It was a mess, but Miguel was primarily unscathed from the lawsuits as he had given his part of the studio away when he was tricked and was no longer legally liable for the fraudulent transaction of the studio. Lucas was trying to sue Miguel for the IP rights to prevent the multi-million-dollar lawsuit he had on his back.
Miguel was almost bullied into submission to sell his IPs to the entertainment company. Still, Raj stepped up and hired the best copyright attorneys that money could buy. He left it to his friend's lawyers to help him keep his IPs lawsuit free. Lucas ended up in jail due to fraudulent claims of ownership of the IPs when selling their studio.
Miguel's dreamy contemplation of how he ended up on this plane that eventually would lead to Paris was interrupted by the flight attendant who asked him if he wanted more champagne. He thanked her and checked his itinerary because he was arriving in just an hour. He tried to concentrate, but his mind wondered about the luxuries he had now compared to his childhood when he usually starved until a meal was available. Sitting in the first class, having enough solvency to move to Paris and set up a company with no partners or co-owners, just himself. To be truthful, his new company, Dragon Tooth, will not be just his, as he would technically own only 48 percent of the company. He would still run it as he wanted without anyone's interference. HE Corporate, the conglomerate with filthy paws on every industry, owned the other 50 percent. The King of the Mexican Kingdom also ran HE Corporate. Miguel was involved in the schism against the King in the secret revolution, and sadly, he was on the losing side. The rebels had been executed or branded and watched if they were too helpful. He was too valuable to be completed, so he was sent to the United States and unofficially banished until further notice. It was not exactly the worst consequence. They sent him to one of the more dangerous cities in the United States. Still, they did pay for his college education after the lawsuits and his later decision to move to Paris. The King of Mexico feared he would lose control of him. So, the King offered him a deal that he could not refuse. The King would have given him nearly limitless funding to set up his animation company if H.E. had been the majority holder. This way, the King had access to all of Miguel's financial assets to monitor and control him. HE would not oversee or interfere with the art of the company, only its economic side.
Miguel accepted the chain-and-ball partnership because the King only cared about power and had no interest in animation projects. The King would probably have him killed or kidnapped by his Court of Assassins regardless of whether he took the deal. He decided that limitless funds and a gigantic corporation helping him run the business side of the company would be useful. As he boarded the last plane and was heading to Paris, he decided to read his info on who was picking him up. His childhood friend, Raj, had helped him hire a man named James Williams to act as his personal assistant/bodyguard. From what he read on his tablet as he stepped out of the plane, he tried to look for James at the airport. It should not be difficult to spot him as, according to the file, he was a late middle-aged black man with an exoskeleton leg. The butler of Raj, a former MI6 agent recommended him. Miguel needed a personal assistant who could keep secrets even though sparks were now public knowledge; no one knew what he was. He was too dangerous to let people know his former secret identity or his abilities. James Williams had accepted the job because he no longer wanted to have a stressful and secretive job but struggled to find a well-paid position with his kind of skills that is relaxing with tons of vacation time to support and visit his ex-wife and son back in England.
“Bienvenue, Mossier Aguilar, je suis James Williams, votre aide personnelle. Souhaitez-vous voir les hébergements que j'ai faits pour vous?” James stated with a flawless French accent, as he offers him his hand to shake it.
Miguel was confused, thinking James did not speak French, but he guessed the secret agent must have language training. He should practice French instead of cheating now that he lives in France. Miguel shook his hand and had no idea what the man was talking about.
"Sorry, my French is terrible. Do you speak English or Spanish?" Miguel asked, hoping he had not made a terrible mistake moving to France.
"Ah! Yes, sir. I am British, and I speak English. I also have linguistic skills in Spanish, German, and Arabic," explained James as he took his luggage and asked if he wanted to see his new accommodation.
"Yes, that would be great. I am a native Spanish speaker, but I also know English. So, let us meet in between; you prefer English, and I am fine with English," stated Miguel as they took a taxi to Miguel's new residence.
A penthouse that had a direct view of the Eiffel Tower, which was extravagant and extremely expensive, but Miguel, who grew up in misery, could not avoid giving himself every whim he wanted. He supposed if his friend Sofia or her brother would psychoanalyze him, he would say that he is trying to fill his childhood traumas of lack of love, safety, and shelter with his extravagant lifestyle. He guessed now that he was set up in his apartment with James giving him his schedule for the week. The week would be jam-packed with interviews with animators, artists, and other creative people to see who to hire for the many positions needed to run a studio. He also had to go to the office near the industrial area where his multiple buildings of DragonTooth company had been bought. He would have to deal with some business matters now; even though most was done by HE-hired staff, he still needed to approve their processes and policies. He dreaded all the work that involved hiring people, running the company, and especially delaying the research on Misvart lore.
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Just two weeks of work, yet Miguel was already livid. He had spent so much time hiring people and running the business that he had no time to read the ancient books from which his lore came. The problem with Misvart, his most popular animation franchise, is that most people assumed that all the plots came from his head. People of all ages were impressed by the originality of his work and the fact that he developed a nonexistent alien language that his movie uses to help enhance the immersion. Critics even claim he was the George R. R. Martin of animation, but the problem was that the plot did not come from his head. He decided to stop reading the history books, but instead, finally, see Paris and go to a local coffee shop near the Eiffel Tower. He went to a beautiful, friendly bakery and requested his pan and a coffee.
“Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas anglais” said the barrista with apologetic smile.Of course, they did not speak English. Miguel had little to no time to learn any French. So, he decided to cheat.
"Reba ugnal odo,"
Miguel chanted under his breath, which caused a sharp but quick disappearing pain in his head, also a little fatigue as the spell activated. It was a universal language spell. Miguel then expertly requested his baked goods and coffee in fluent native French. He enjoyed his pasties until a young man, probably in his teens, barged into the bakery. The young teen looked disheveled, probably homeless, and his sleeveless hoody at the shoulders seemed cinder off. The teen was skeletal and panicky; he was holding a costly purse that he had probably just stolen, and the police were perhaps chasing after him as he looked distressed. A female cop enters the bakery, ordering the man to surrender and come quietly. The teen screamed to get away from him. It was not safe just to leave him alone. The cop went to grab him and cuff him when suddenly the teen's arms lit a fire, and he screamed in pain. Miguel cursed. He forgot to check if Paris was an active ground for spontaneous wormhole portals, which cause residual Kiosks Radiation, which with severe trauma actives dormant spark genes.
"Rev odo" Miguel said under his breath chanted.
It was a spell that allowed him to see all the internal bodily functions of people near him. Just as he suspected, the body was full of radiation, and his veins were also full of something else, maybe cocaine. It made sense most sparks who are too young or do not have a mentor tend to self-medicate with sedatives to prevent the activation of their spark. This kid probably had his spark awakened after a traumatic accident. When young people have their spark awakened, their families abandon them because they believe they are evil or some other nonsense. The kid looks like he was starving, too. Another common method to prevent spark activation is if the body is too tired trying to keep you alive; it does not have the energy left for the spark. The teen seems petrified by his spark of pyromancy, meaning he had his spark recently awakened. The policewoman took out her gun, which caused the patrons to panic more than they already were.
“Lisent gamin, je ne veux pas te tirer dessus. Arrêtez, votre étincelle. Vous savez qu'il est illégal d'être actif en public," the policewomen proclaimed, which surprised Miguel, not the fact that in France it was illegal to use your spark in public as many countries passed similar laws, but the restrain to warn the teen instead of just shooting him. He guesses he was just used to how American and Mexican cops just shoot first and ask questions later mentality.
“Je ne peux pas, je ne sais pas comment! Aide-moi..." the young teen cried out and started to reach for the policewoman as if she could help him. The policewoman shot him right in the right shoulder, and that is when Miguel decided he had to intervene.
When Miguel saw the policewoman was about to pull the trigger for her second shot, he yelled,
"Oto!" a single-word spell that was meant to cast the gun useless. As the policewomen tried to continue shooting, the gun malfunctioned.
Miguel, at once, after casting the spell, felt instantly nauseous; the spell had taken too much of his life force. It was reckless to cast that spell, as mages should avoid one-word spells at all costs because they are way too unpredictable. The more words used, the better; magic incantations need to be specific to have their desired effect. The problem with common magic languages is that they only have verbs and nouns, not anything else. Magic languages require the sentences to make some sense and thought directs your specificities to the desired effect. That is the main reason one-word spells are so dangerous. Fewer words mean the need to mentally concentrate on the effect that you want the word to cause. Otherwise, a catastrophic effect can take place. Another problem is that many magical languages carry multiple meanings for most words. For example, Oto means both hole/opening, broken, everything, and isolate. The Oto spell could have caused horrible unintended effects. It could have sunk the whole bakery, caused all electronics or organ systems to malfunction or stop, or worse, created a vacuum in space that would pressurize the air in the bakery, killing everyone instantly. But that was not the only reason, as the spell took a lot of his life force; that was because he cast the gun. Magic and metal do not mix. Directly casting a spell into the gun drains him. There are more ingenious ways to stop a gun from firing, such as affecting the oxygen around the gun or immobilizing the hand of the gun holder, which would cost almost no life force. This would require preparation and anticipation, which Miguel had none of as this was unexpected, so he acted on instinct directly on the gun.
Miguel was just about to pass out; he wanted to throw up. He still needed to deal with the fiery teen, so he did a smaller spell to get a clean getaway.
"Albnie remach olda,"
Miguel could barely whisper and hurdle himself towards the teen as his spell created a dense mist inside the bakery. It was so thick that it blinded everyone inside the bakery.
"Laisse-moi t'aider, ne lâche pas" Miguel ordered the teen as he grabbed him
and took him out of the bakery. People were staring; the teen was surprised and hysterical, worried that Miguel was burning; his hand was pulled from his fiery arm. Luckily, that spell did not just cause mist but made Miguel fireproof. Miguel felt he was about to lose consciousness.
"Rev ratcu odo orbor," Miguel struggled to spell, casting a spell of ignoring us. It works as an invisible spell, but not more of a do not look that poor person invisibility. Miguel thought that he should practice magic, just like any muscle; the more you use it, the less it hurts. The more you are adept at spellcasting, the less it will cost. The spell-casting cost is the same, but less energy is wasted with practice. All spells have a specific energy cost. Magic is all about energy. Untrained magicians like Miguel, who could do magic but rarely used it, waste unnecessary lifeforce because they exceed more than the necessary energy needed for spell casting. It is a process; the more you practice, the more efficient you become. The teen was surprised that no one was stopping them as soon as they got to an ally. Miguel helps him through his spark deactivation.
"Écoute gamin…"
Miguel said, trying to catch his breath; then he looked directly into the eyes of the teen and continued.
“
Vous devez vous calmer, vous contrôlez ce pouvoir, le pouvoir ne vous contrôle pas probre”
Miguel tried to reassure him that his spark is his to control that he only needed to relax
.
"Inspirez et expirez lentement,"
Miguel asked him to slowly breathe in and out. As the teen concentrated on respiration, his fire slowly started to diminish.
“Oui, c'est ça. Maintenant comptez jusqu'à dix, faites-le avec moi. Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq ... oui, vous voyez que c'était facile, n'est-ce pas?”
Miguel helps him by counting with him from one to ten, but by the time they reached five this spark was deactivated.
“Est-ce que chaque fois que vous sentez que vous êtes sur le point de perdre le contrôle”
Miguel recommended that he do this every time he was about to loss control and activate his spark unconsciously. Miguel was exhausted; he was way pushing his limit. He was not much of a spell caster; he could do magic, but he seldom did anything out of his specialty magic. The magic one specializes in extraordinarily little life force. Still, general spells cost more if you are specialized like he was. Miguel looked at the gunshot injury of the teen. The spark flame cauterized the wound so he would not die from the wound.
“Voici ma carte si vous avez besoin de mon aide, maintenant courez, je ne peux plus garder notre emplacement caché ...”
Miguel gave him his business card, feeling his spells vanishing. He urged the teen to leave the area so no one could trace him to the bakery. He felt his nose wet and felt liquid flowing.
“Merci, je ... je ... je suis reconnaissant ... êtes-vous déjà? Votre nez saigne."
The teen was thankful but asked if Miguel was okay as his nose started to bleed. Miguel covered his face; he was about to pass out in less than a few minutes before he was out cold.
“Je vais bien, ne t'inquiète pas pour moi. Allez, courez, cachez-vous!”
Miguel urged the teen to run and reassured him he was fine. The teen considers staying to help his savior, but Miguel pushes and shushes him away, reassuring him he will be fine. As the teen was out of sight, he called James on his smartwatch through voice command, and when James answered, he asked for his immediate help.
"James, I am bleeding out. I do not know France's emergency number. I am about to pass out. Tell the doctors that I need blood, not IVs. Otherwise, I will die,"
Miguel tried to explain to his PA/bodyguard as he dropped to the floor and lost consciousness.