William awoke, in his own bed this time, and took a moment to stare at the ceiling. What the fuck had just happened? Weird explosion, weird coma, weird prophetic dream from his missing father, weird astral gate network, weird, weird,weird. He sighed heavily, before pulling back the covers and sitting up on the edge of his bed. At least he'd been blessed with two schools of magic, and a rare element. Thank the Nazarene, but then again.. What exactly could he do though with those? Transmute some wood into furniture and then enchant it? Oh yes, everyone fancy's a good enchanted chair. He thought sarcastically. Actually, hold on a moment, what if he put a glyph of heating into the chair, he could make a heated chair. Holy shit Will, you're a genius.
With his lucrative furniture empire now in mind he strode off to the bathroom for a morning shower, perhaps a better idea would come to him then, he always loved his shower revelations. Some of his best ideas for future enchanting projects came to him while he was in the shower, like the Bean-O-Matic. A device in which one inserts a can of beans, it then heats the can to the perfect serving temperature so one can eat them as soon as they open the can. Instant heated beans, truly game changing.
Arriving at the shared bathroom he put his thoughts of beans aside and opened the door. Steam promptly greeted him, as did the startled visage of his elder sister.
"Just can't keep your eyes off your absolute goddess of a sister eh Will?" Stephanie teased while, wrapping the bath towel around her a little tighter.
"Ew no, just no. Now I need to bleach my eyes. Why do you never lock the damn door?" Will grumbled before turning to leave.
"What do you mean ew, you little shit?! I'm an absolute goddess, look at these curves~" She replied, striking a dramatic pose.
"You're also my sister dumbass, just lock the door." He shot back. It's too early for this shit. I haven't even had my tea yet, he thought.
"What if I slip or get stuck though? You can't help me if the doors are locked." She continued with a snicker.
"I swear to fuck Steph.. I'm going now, I need to clean my eyes." He strode back into the hallway hopefully back to his room.
"I’ll fucking clean your eyes you little shit."
He froze, feeling mana of elemental water behind him. She was gonna blast him eh? Well shit, guess he’s getting a bath instead of a shower.
"Water bulle-" Stephanie began to cast, a small orb of water forming at her fingertips as she pointed the soon to be projectile towards William. Only to be interrupted by a yell from downstairs.
"NO MAGIC IN THE HOUSE STEPHANIE!"
Their mother must have also felt the elemental mana, she was a fairly good water mage after all.
"Hmmpt, Fine." Stehphanie sniffed before stalking out of the bathroom towards her room, making sure to punch William in the shoulder as she passed.
William just shook his head and went back into the washroom, making sure to lock the door, before taking a quick shower. Unfortunately, no new ideas came to him. Though, he did reflect on the weird dream he had of his father. What did he mean to see beyond time? What key was he talking about? Unlocking his inheritance? What the fuck is that suposed to mean? He was never really interested in mysticism or riddles like that. He usually had his head buried in primers and notes on enchanting glyphs. No use dwelling on it too much, probably just a fever dream.. but it felt so real though, so vividly real. Finishing his shower he dried off and changed before heading down stairs for some breakfast.
He found his mother sipping some tea as she read the paper.
"Morning mum, anything interesting in the paper?" He asked as he walked towards the stove, finding the kettle still hot he made himself a nice cup of Yorkshire Gold, a fine tea.
"Morning dear, hmm nothing noteworthy. Have any more ideas for enchanting?" She asked, flipping to a new page in the paper.
"Well, actually, I thought of something revolutionary this morning." He replied with a grin, adding some milk and sugar to his tea.
"Oh? Like the Bean-O-Matic?" She asked with a chuckle.
"No, even better than the Bean-O-Matic mum:" He said before sipping his tea.
"Even better than the Bean-O-Matic? That must be truly revolutionary then dear." She said with a bemused smile, still skimming through the paper.
"Yes! Exactly. Since I have the prime element I can control plants and wood right? And I have transmutation so I can shape it, and enchant it too! So I figured what if I made some furniture right? Like a chair for example, and then enchanted the chair seat with a heating glyph so the chair would always be warm." He explained enthusiastically.
"That's actually a good idea Will." His mother paused, looking up at him from her paper. "..and what are you going to call this warming chair?" She asked back.
"Hmm.. you know I haven't really given it much thought." The pause knitting his brows. "Oh! I know, I'll name it the Toasty-Bun Chair." He proclaimed with a knod.
Hearing the ridiculous name, his poor mother nearly choked on her tea. "How do you always manage to have such weird names for your inventions dear?" She laughed.
William shrugged, having a sip of his own tea. "What do you propose then?" He asked, brow raised.
"Why not.." His mother paused in thought. "Yes, why not call it a heated seat?" She offered with a pleased expression.
"That.. that doesn't sound too bad. Heated seat huh, alrighty then." William nodded in agreement, maybe he should ask his mother for names more often.
"Did you message Alex yet about dinner tonight?" She asked, returning to her paper.
"Nope, not yet. Right after breakfast I'll shoot him a message." He replied before fishing out a can of beans from the cupboard. Pausing he glanced at the cupboards for a moment, as a thought came to him. What if he made cupboards with glyphs of cooling? Nah, that was probably a dumb idea..
----------------------------------------
Alex stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow after finishing his hundredth squat. It was time to wrap things up with a hundred sit-ups. He'd been doing this routine for about a month now, starting his morning routine with a ten kilometre run at 6am followed by one hundred pushups, one hundred squats, and ending in one hundred sit-ups. Supposedly a super strong transmuter from Japan came up with it, Saetamj? No.. Seititi? No not that one either.. Saitama! Yes that was it, magister Saitama attributed his incredulous strength to this simple routine. If it was good enough for him then surely it would work for Alex as well.
"Just need to keep doing this and I'll be the best transmuter ever." He told himself between huffs of breath.
Even though his dream of becoming a gold mineral mage transumeter had crumbled before him, he couldn't be too upset. After all, he did awaken as a prime mage. His father had told him that something like this hasn't happened in his family for several generations. Even the main branch of the Lin clan could only produce a prime mage every five generations. It just so happened to be that time as well, he may have some cousins in the main branch who also awoke to such a blessing. Nonetheless though, he accepted who he was now, a prime mage conjurer. It was still possible for him to become a transmuter though, and he planned on it. Elemental affinity was not as easy to pick up as another school of magic, and that in itself was not easy, so he was content with prime for now. Alex believed though that through enough gains he would eventually pick up on transmutation. Bark skin wouldn't be too bad, not as cool as a shiny gold body, but still cool.
Ring
Pausing in his sit-ups he glanced over to his message device. No one messaged him except his parents and Will. Both his parents were home so that must mean… ah definitely a scammer. He continued his sit-ups, there's no way it would be Will, he'd been in a coma for almost a week now. Poor fucker, how do you even manage to blow up an awakening stone, that shit was so messed up even the data slate got all glitched out. There's no way there would be two prime mages just like that, and the hell did space mean, there's no space element. Right? Yeah that'd be weird. They learned there were only 27 elements theoretically possible. Prime, negative, positive, the four base elements, the four parallel elements between them, and then the eight positive versions and eight negative versions of the base and parallel elements. When drawn out it formed a crystalline shard not unlike an HDM. Not all of them have been found yet and documented by the mageocracy, but they should exist by the current theory. All the para and quasi elements have been found, it's the para-quasi though that have been elusive.
Ring
Damn scammers sure are persistent, I'll give them that. Alex grunted, feeling his abs burn, twenty more sit-ups and he'd be done. Then he'd check his message device. Or maybe a protein drink first then his message device. Well maybe a quick shower, then a protein drink, then his message device. Wait did he do his laundry yet.. Okay maybe the laundry, then a shower, then…
----------------------------------------
William stared at his message device, why was Alex taking so long to reply? He usually replied pretty quick, maybe he was stud- Nah he was probably working out, but still even when working out he usually replied after a few sets. Oh well, nothing to be done there, might as well start packing my things. Blazer, shirts, pants, socks, underwear, shoes. Wonder if I’ll need bed sheets,maybe they’ll have some there. Lets see…. What else.. Rummaging through his closet Willliam pulled out a tin of Yorkshire Gold and placed it into a nearby box. He’ll definitely be needing that, can’t go without tea now can we. William without tea was like a fish without water. It was his life blood. Hell, if it was possible to awaken as a tea mage he probably would have, but instead he was a prime ma- Wait a minute. Tea is a plant. He could be a tea mage. William smiled at this, chuckling to himself before finishing up his packing.
Ring
“Oh?” Looking up from his packing William walked over to grab his message device, it seems that the muscle-headed friend of his had finally replied.
[Alex: HOLY SHIT WILL WHEN DID YOU GET OUT OF THE COMA?]
[ALex: YOU OK BRO? CAN YOU STILL CHANNEL? WHAT DID YOU AWAKEN AS?]
[Alex: ALSO WE ENDED UP BEING ROOMMATES AT THE DORM AND WE HAVE A THIRD DUDE WHOS KINDA WEIRD.]
[Alex: HELLO??!?!?]
[William: Calm down man, also I think your caps is messed up.]
[Alex: Nah bro, I was using that as emphasis since I can’t yell at you over a message.]
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
[William: You could just call me, but anyways I’m fine. Woke from the coma last night, just finished packing for the dorms.]
[Alex: You’re fucking lucky bro, you got blown halfway accross the damn court yard, glad you’re alright though.]
[Alex: That aside, spill the tea Will, what’d you awaken as?]
[William: Guess :D ]
[Alex: Water? ]
[William: Nah, but close.]
[Alex: I thought since your mom was a water, mage.. oh well.]
[Alex: How about uh..Space? ]
[William: That's not even a thing dude why would you guess space? xD ]
[Alex the data slate the proctor dropped said space and prime but it looked pretty fucked up, all cracked and stuff, so probably wasn’t right.I smashed it a little more trying to fix it, but it just went black after that.]
William froze. A cold chill running down his spine. How? That doesn’t even make sense. There is no space element he even saw his astral soul, there was no gate fo- The weird sigil. It must have been the weird ancient sigil, but that was a school of magic not an elemental affinity right? William rubbed his eyes, the fuck was going on with his life.
[Alex: Maybe a stink mage since you’re always in a bad mood lol.]
[Alex: Will? Hello?]
[Alex: Don’t be upset bro I was just joking. You’re definitely always in a good mood.]
[Willam: Sorry Alex, got distracted by something, but yeah I actually awoke as a prime mage like you. As fucking rare as that is. Still shocked to be honest.]
[Alex: NO FUCKING WAY DUDE, I CALL BULLSHIT ON THAT.]
[William: Nah man I swear, must be all the tea I drink..¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
[Alex: . . . bruh]
[William: Yeah I know right? xD]
[Alex: At Least we can save ldms on study notes now haha]
[William: That’s only if we’re the same schools of magic, what did you get by the way? Transmutation right?]
Alex shed a single manly tear as he read WIlliam’s question, the wound was still too fresh.
[Alex: Nah man, got conjuration, but I’m gonna rush transmutation as my next school though. .]
[Alex: What’d you get? Enchanting right?]
[William: Yup, and transmutation o3o]
Alex’s eyes nearly popped out of his head reading William’s response. Not only did William get his desired school of magic, he got two. FUCKING TWO. The worst part was that the second school was TRANSMUTATION, THAT MOTHER FUCKER. He greatly resisted crushing his message device in his fist and throwing it out a window. He did some breathing exercises to calm down, at least it was his bro, not some fucky rich twat.
[Alex: You lucky fucker.]
[WIlliam: Anyways you said something about a weird roommate?]
[Alex: Yeah, one of the Von Wolke twins.]
[William: ??? ]
[Alex: It’s better if I introduce you in person, he’s also a conjurer, rich fuck already has a spirit.]
[William: wow, what kind?]
[Alex: It’s better if you see it in person.]
[William: Right.. Anyways you coming for dinner?]
[Alex: Dude I’ll be anywhere if there’s food, what time?]
[William: 5ish? ]
[Alex: Sounds good, see you then.]
William sat back, against his bed, there’s no way he had space magic right? That's not a thing, there’s only eight schools of magic. That's what they were taught, and one was outlawed, necromancy, for obvious reasons. Maybe they just didn’t tell you about other schools until you reached a higher level of mageraft. He had heard something about sword mages in the east but always thought it was just a folktale, but maybe there were sword mages. Oh well, thoughts for another time. For now, he needed to move these boxes downstairs and stack them neatly.
----------------------------------------
Ding-dong, dong, dong, dong, dong
The chime of the mantle clock rang out, announcing that it was now five in the evening.
KNOCK KNOCK
Shortly followed by two very loud and heavy knocks on the Godwine’s door. The poor thing shook in its hinges. It seems Alex had arrived right on time, he was always very punctual, never wanting to be late.
“William! Get the door dear!” William’s mother called from the kitchen as he ran down the stairs. He had already known to come, give Alex a time and he'd arrive within a minute of it.
Reaching the front door, William unlocked it and swung it open. He soon found himself in a suffocating bear hug as Alex wrapped his beefy limbs around him.
“Holy shit dude I thought you’d never wake from the coma, it's good to see you’re alright.” He said as he squeezed. William’s rib’s creaked in protest, threatening to snap from the over enthusiastic embrace.
“Thanks Alex, I really appreciate the sentiment, but can you not crush me like a walnut please.” William managed to weeze out, his lung struggling in his very compressed diaphragm.
“Haha sorry Will, got ahead of myself there.” Alex replied, taking off his shoes and leaving them at the door with the other shoes.
WIlliam shook his head with a grin, it was good to see his friend, Alex always managed to put him in a good mood. The two walked back towards the kitchen to check in on the food. William's mother was busy stirring something on the stove while Stephanie peeled potatoes at the able.
“Hello Mrs. Godwine” Alex greeted the woman, smiling brightly.
“Hello Alex, congratulations on your awakening young man. I heard you are also a plant mage?” She replied with a cheerful expression, pausing from her pot stirring.
“Yup, just like WIll.” Alex nodded.
“Oh, and I bet you got transmutation too right?” She followed up, returning to stir the pot.
Alex held back some salty tears at that question. Didn’t Will tell her? He glanced over at WIll who shot him a shit eating grin.
“No Mrs. Godwine, I awoke as a conjurer.” He replied with sullen shoulders.
“Conjuration? I could have sworn you would have received transmutation. Conjuration is still very good though.” She remarked.
“What time will dinner be mum?” William aked, renewing Alex’s vigor.
She pursed her lips. “Mmm perhaps around six?”
“Sounds good, can Alex and I practice magic in the living room? I promise we won't make a mess like Steph.” William asked.
“Sure dear, just be careful you two don’t over channel.” She replied
“What?! Why do those two get to use magic in the house and I can’t?” Stephanie protested.
Alex laughed, drawing a scornful glare from Stephanie.
“Those two get to practice in the house Stephanie because they are both prime mages. You on the other hand are a water mage, and everytime you practice magic you get everything soaking wet.” Their mother replied calmly.
“Hmph, Fine then.” Stephanie replied, turning back to angrily peeling more potatoes.
Alex let out another laugh, slapping William on the back. Stephanie leveled her eyes at him, staring daggers at him.
“Shut up muscle head.” She said in an icy voice, peeler brandished in hand.
William chuckled, leaving the kitchen with Alex. They walked over to the living room before settling on a couch. William grabbed a primer he was reading through earlier from a nearby side table, and a wooden ball.
“So you can actually channel?” Alex asked, taking the book and glancing at it.
“Hughbert’s Essentials on Prime related spellcraft.” He read out. “You’ve already been looking for spells? Why am I not surprised you book worm.” He laughed, looking through the pages.
“You know me man, always studying new stuff.” William replied holding up the wooden ball. “Check this out,” He said, the hand holding the ball became enveloped in an olive-green mana.
“Shape wood.” William uttered, as the wooden ball that he held flattened out into a wooden disc, the mana fading. He held it out toward Alex, grinning like a schoolgirl.
“Holy shit dude, you’ve litterly been concious for just a day afer awakening and you can already cast a spell, you’re fucking insain.” Alex just looked dumb founded.
“I can only really cast it a few times before I start getting light headed and need to rest though.” William scratched his head, putting down the wooden disc. “I need to practice more so I can hold more mana.” He replied, then gestured towards the book in Alex’s hand. “Why don’t you give it a try, turn to page 83, there’s some conjuration stuff in there.” He offered.
Alex nodded turning to the page William suggested. “Chapter four, essentials in conjuration.” He read aloud. “Lets see here..” Alex skimmed through the pages, looking for some interesting spells. “Vine whip, creeping roots, conjure flower, morning glory, spore bolt, seed bomb..” He continued to flip throw the pages.
“Maybe conjure flower.” William suggested. “I’m not sure we’d want a seed bomb going off in the living room.” William commented with a worried expression.
“Sounds weak, I want something with more power.” Alex replied, flipping through the pages. He paused, studying one of the spells. “Ethereal Fist.” He said with a large grin. “Now that’s my style.” He laughed.
“Just don’t punch a whole in the wall dude.” William said while rolling his eyes.
“Yeha yeah, I got this bro don’t worry.” He shrugged off William’s remarks, studying the mandala and its glyphs illustrated on the page and the spells description.
Ethereal Fist
Conjuration 1
Sematic, Voice
Range, 10 meters
Concentration
The user summons an ethereal fist, the more mana used the larger the fist grows in size. The fist can be controlled to punch targets and is controlled by the gestures of the user.
Alex concentrated, forming a fist in his right hand and drawing mana to it. He pictured the mandala forming on his knuckles as he concentrated the mana at that location and chanted the spell.
“Ethereal Fist.” He spoke sternly yet calmly.
An olive green mandala materialized over his fist, rotating slowly, as a half meter olive-green translucent fist appeared in front of Alex. He grinned wildly at William in his triumph.
“Holy shit you can actually read a spell book? I thought you could only work out dude.” William laughed. “That’s awesome man, you did great. Took me like three tries to get the mandala working right.” He said, shooting Alex some finger guns.
“Woooow Will. I can do more than just pump iron you know. Man I guess I should study more, this is kinda fun.” He replied with a chuckle, waving his fist around and watching as the ethereal fist moved in the same way through the air before him.
“Don’t push it though, we don’t have much mana right now, and I heard spell burnout is a real bitch.” William warned.
“Yeah yeah, fine.” Alex said, dispelling the fist. “So Will, I’ve been meaning to ask.” Alex began.
“Shoot.” William said.
“Can you use that black mana too? But like, without exploding this time?” Alex asked with genuine intrige.
“I.. I don’t know really, I haven’t tried.” William closed his eyes and concentrated. Trying to remember how he felt that day, how IT felt. He could only remember pain really, and something else.. He channeled his prime mana, gathering it in his hands. He felt something, yes, on the edge of his consciousness, prodding at him, he reached out to it. Cold, utter coldness seeped through him, like jumping into a glacial lake, it poured through his mana channels pooling in his hands. He gasped, opening his eyes, and the once olive green mana in his cupped hands was now pitch black. Motes of purple and gold glittered in the black abyss, rising up like embers in a fire before dimming into nothingness.
“Holy fuck.” Alex swore. “You’re not feeling explody are you?”
“N-no I don’t think so.” William shuddered, how was this possible, what was that weird glyph doing to his mana. It was supposed to be olive green. “Hey Alex, can you still feel the prime element in me.” He asked.
“Yeah, but it’s muddled, like it's being distorted or.. Transformed maybe?” Alex suggested. “That shit’s weird dude.”
Rattle Rattle Rattle
“The fuck was that?” Alex asked, looking around the room for the source of the rattling noise.
Rattle Rattle Rattle
“I don’t know man.” William said confused, scanning the room as well. ”It sounds like wood I think? But also metallic..” William mused.
Rattle Rattle Rattle
“Yeah, like something metal hitting a wooden box.” Alex offered.
Rattle Rattle Rattle
“Yeah exactly.” William said, losing concentration and dispelling the mana.
Silence.
“It stopped.” Alex said, looking more confused now.
“What the fuck dude..” William scratched his head. “Why did it stop.” He thought aloud.
“I don’t know man, I’m as confused as you are.” Alex shrugged, standing up to look around the living room.
William looked down at his hands. “It’s almost as if it stopped when I lost concentration.” He said.
“What?” Alex looked back over his shoulder. “Concentration on what?” He asked.
“When I stopped channeling that weird mana.” William said, a shiver going down his back.
Alex turned around and stared at him. “Try channeling it again.” He said.
William nodded, channeling first his prime mana and then searching for that feeling again, finding it he reached out to it and the coldness returned. As he opened his eyes that silky black mana rose from his body once more.
Rattle Rattle Rattle
William and Alex locked eyes. It was the weird mana, but what the fuck was it rattling. William got up and stood in the center of the living room. Searching with cautious eyes.
“Trying drawing in more.” Alex suggested. Walking nearer to where he thought he heard the source of the sound.
William drew in more mana, the coldness making him shiver a bit. His eyes now silky pools of black with gold and purple speckles, his irisses a deeper violet than normal.
RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE
“The clock!” Alex exclaimed as the mantle clock above the fireplace shook violently, threatening to fall from the mantle and crash to the floor.
William cut off the mana, the clock instantly settled. The two boys exchanged a glance and nodded before slowly approaching the clock.
“Should I pick it up or do you want to.” Alex asked.
“I mean, you could throw it if it starts doing weird shit again, so go ahead.” William replied.
Alex nodded, carefully reaching out and picking up the clock. It was wooden, a nice dark oak, with gilded glass fittings. It had a white enamel clock face with golden hands and numbers. A dwarven glyph marked the maker of the timepiece near the bottom of the clock face. A soft whirring sound of cogs could be heard along with the tick-tock of the internal mechanism. On the back of the clock was a small service door with a little latch.
“Try opening the door.” Alex suggested to WIlliam as he cradled the clock in his arms.
“Sure.” William replied, reaching out and lifting the little golden latch, then swinging open the door. Inside a dwarven masterpiece of fine cogs and mechanisms whirring away like clock work, and on the bottom rested a key. A large black key, absolutely plastered with glyph work. A key in a clock that didn’t have a keyhole. William shuddered, why was this key in here. He reached in and pulled it out. It was cold to the touch, and heavy. The material felt like some strange cross between metal and crystal, and the golden glyph work reflected in the bright lumen light of the room. The key was about a hand length in, well length, and about a pencil’s width in diameter. It was an older styled key, with a pattern attached below it’s shaft at the tip, and an open looped handle at its other end.
“Now that's a fancy key.” Alex remarked, setting the clock back on the mantle. “Looks a little too nice just for winding a clock.” He said, scratching his head.
“The clock has no key hole to wind.” William muttered, staring at the key, then glancing back up at the clock. His eyes drifted higher, to the portrait of his father above it. He met those purple eyes, and then remembered. He remembered those words he heard in the fever dream.
[You must look beyond time to find the key to your inheritance William.]
“..Will?” Alex asked worriedly, as his friend stared blanklly into the abyss.