After speaking to Nor, Preat returned me to my Pa, I didn’t know what to expect when I saw him, I hoped for joy and maybe pride but instead all that lay on my father’s face was the emotionless mask he seems to constantly carry with him.

Preat explained the situation of me attending the Arcana to my father, I say explained but it was more like a statement that I would be going regardless of how he felt about it. I feel like it should upset me that my Pa was been spoken down to like this but in the end my excitement overcame any anger I felt.

The walk home was a silent one and when we got home he still hadn’t spoken a word to me other than that he will come help me pack tomorrow.

He called Ma and they went into their room, for the next 10 minutes or so I heard both of them yelling, I don’t know why they even bothered to go in their rooms if they were going to yell at the top of their lungs.

My Pa seems to be resolute in the decision of doing whatever the Mages want him to do while my Ma seemed scared, whether about the Mages, that I’m leaving or maybe even of me, I’m not sure.

I got over listening to their arguments that just continued in a loop so I headed to my room, it was getting rather late and due to the excitement I didn’t have much of an appetite.

Before climbing in too bed I looked at myself in the mirror, what stared back at me was a skinny body with nothing worthy of note and a plain face with dark blonde hair. The only thing worthy of note on me are my eyes they’re a deep azure blue, my Ma said they remind her of the ocean. I’ve never seen the ocean but I definitely will someday.

I take one last glance at myself attempting to picture what I’ll look like in one of those dresses or robes as Nor called them and I head to bed.

“in just 3 days ill finally start on my journey.” I mutter to myself finally giving into the sleepiness that crashed into me at the end of a long day.

The Day of Jaxs Departure

I love my Ma and Pa but they worry so much, after giving me a lecture on to behave myself, stay safe and to visit home whenever possible they eventually gave me one last hug then pushed me away gently to move toward the Tower.

I took one last look at my Ma and Pa and then turned around and walked toward the guards at the gate. I assume they were told to expect me as they ushered me inside and told me to wait in the entrance of the Tower.

Upon entering I see 7 other kids like me waiting around, 3 of them were grouped up and the rest just stood by themselves.

The other kids looked toward the entrance when I entered, most going back to what they were doing after seeing me. As I was looking around I made eye contact with one of the boys who, when meeting my eyes scowled at me and turned away like I had offended him in some way.

I didn’t pay him much mind, so far I haven’t had a real friend. Sure I’ve hang out with other kids and played games with them but I was never close to anyone and a lot of them seemed to only invite me to play because they needed numbers.

I’m taken out of my self pity after hearing the familiar voice of Preat saying “That’s all of you then.” He did another quick once over of the room upon making eye contact with me he gave me a slight bow of the head which did not go unnoticed by the boy that scowled at me just before, who decides to glare at me and as if I feel a pair of eyes on me I turn to him but as soon as we make eye contact he does the same thing, scowling and looking away.

“What’s his problem?” I think to myself.

“Follow me” Say Preat about turning around without checking to see if were following before leading us into what he called the Nexus. He gives a brief explanation about how it’s a large network of portals that can connect to all other ‘nodes’ placed around the country.

Needless to say all of us were amazed, well almost all of the us.

“Haha, I am not surprised that something so common would fascinate commoners and lowborn.” a voice calls out from the rear of the group.

I turn around and see its old scrunchie face that had called out, my parents always told me not too cuss but this guys a real asshat.

“Oh please, Gil stop acting like you’ve seen or used a portal before.” A girl from the group of 3 people I saw earlier said.

“My Father uses them all the time! as I’m so young there has been no need me for to use them but if I had wished it, obviously it is something that would be allowed to me whenever I wish it. You however Aria would need to book ahead and wait like all the other low born” He says with a sneer on his face staring at Aria as if asking her to challenge his statement.

I don’t know Aria, I know absolutely nothing about her but I have decided she gets points just for talking back to Gil, code name Scrunchie.

Aria opens her mouth as if to retort when Preat decides he has no time to listen to them argue saying, “Enough of your childish bickering, you are wasting my time, once the link in the Nexus is formed enter the portal and await instruction on the other side.” After saying this he places his hands on a pedestal in the room.

After Preat spoke up Aria glared daggers at Gil while he just had a smug smile on his face as if he had won some great battle.

My attention was pulled from them as I felt a sudden gust of wind and what looked like a big door with a glowing blue outline. Looking through the door I could see what looked like a clearing in a garden.

“Step through the Portal.”

We did as he commanded and surprisingly when I stepped through I felt nothing, I expected to maybe feel disorientated or sick like sometimes when I rode with my Pa on his carriage.

I was looking around the clearing when the portal closed at which point another Mage I presume by his red coloured robe appeared and spoke harshly to us.

“Listen well children, you have all been examined and found to have at a minimum great talent.” At this comment almost all of us straightened our backs, lifting our heads in pride.

“However! Talent while a requirement is not all that makes a great Mage, and you will do well to remember this. You. Are. Not. Mages. Yet! Never forget this.” His little speech killed a lot of the excitement we were all feeling.

“Now before I take you all inside I need to teach you the basics of the etiquette that will be expected of you. I will make the assumption that you are not all blind and have noticed that Mages wear similar robes generally only differing on the outside, aside from the personal enchantments inside the only variety’s will be the colour which depicts the level the Mage has reached and been acknowledged of and then for the Mages of high position a symbol over their hearts.” He says all of this in a monotone voice as if he has had to say this on multiple occasions.

“First you are all students, you have no rank, no authority and no say. While you are at the Arcana you will wear the students robe which is white and will be given to you shortly.”

“If you graduate you will become a 1st Circle Mage which while they are the weakest of us, will earn you power and respect wherever you travel. They wear the colour of Light Blue.”

“Ah… To make this short the colours from lowest Rank to highest are as follows”

Student – White

1st Circle – Light Blue

2nd Circle – Dark Blue

3rd Circle – Green

4th Circle – Red

5th Circle – Black

“If you speak to any Magus you are to at a minimum address them by their rank being, the 1st – 3rd circle as Magus, the 4th as Lord Magus, the 5th as Arch-Mage. If you encounter a Magus with a symbol on his robe you are to address him as his title, for example Tower Lord Nor from Reigar. Certain Magus will not hesitate to punish you on the spot for failing to show the proper respect, Tower Lord Nor was notorious for this. Do I make myself clear?” he asks irritably as if he had some place held rather be.

As a chorus we all reply “Yes Lord Magus.”

I couldn’t help but think that Nor, or Tower Lord Nor seemed incredibly friendly when he spoke with me and even encouraged me to drop the titles. Maybe he has changed.

“Now let’s get a move on we need to assign you accommodation and give you a basic tour.” Saying that he turned and strode away, it seems like Mages are really impatient and don’t like to wait for people.

We all follow along silently eventually he leads us to our accommodation and I must say I was quite pleased with my room.

We are each assigned a room to ourselves with Aria being the only female of our group being put into the female wing with the other new students who have arrived.

He tells us to throw whatever we brought with us into our room then form back up outside so he can get the tour over with.

Needless to say the tour was awful and I’m scared that I am likely going to struggle to find my way around this massive building for the first few weeks.

At the end of the tour he takes us to a class room telling us that we are to be here prior to 8am tomorrow with that he departs and leaves us to make our own way back to our rooms.

We depart in two groups excluding Aria who went a separate way. 3 of the boys follow Gil, from the sound of it they were going to check out the recreation room.

I was walking along in silence with the two other boys when one of them decided to break the silence.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“So what affinities did you guys have in your examination? I had what he said was a greater affinity with Fire a lesser affinity with Wind and a minor affinity with Earth. Oh and my names Jake nice to meet you.” Both the boys I’m walking with were the ones with Aria before we left the city Reigar, Jake was tall and lanky with brown eyes and messy brown hair that was all over the place.

“Oooo cool! I wanted Fire, I have a Greater affinity to Darkness, and a strong affinity to Earth.” Although he stated he wanted Fire he seemed very smug about the ‘Greater’ affinity.

They both look at me expectantly and I recall what Nor had told me.

“Whether it is that we lack the ability to test you properly I am unsure, however as far as we can tell you have a complete affinity to every Element Jax…. This is unheard of and I do not suggest you start telling your fellow students this. For starters they likely wouldn’t even believe you but on the off chance they do it will likely leave you segregated. If asked I would suggest you pick two of the elements you are willing to focus on when in the presence of your fellow students. In terms of your affinity they’re rather simple.”

Minor

Lesser

Normal

Strong

Great

Greater

Supreme

Complete

I had previously thought of if I could only train a couple of the affinities in public which ones I would rather spend the most time on so I say.

“Hi I’m Jax I have a Greater affinity for Water and a Great affinity for Darkness.” I obviously toned it down a lot but I didn’t want to be seen as average.

Pete looks at me with Wide eyes and says

“No way so unfair, Jake has an affinity for three elements and you have a Greater AND Great affinity? Man you’re lucky what bloodline are you both from?”

“I am from the Mid Blood line of De’Krat” Jake says proudly standing straight.

Pete seems to become a little shyer after hearing that and his reply is a lot quieter than before.

“I am from the Low Blood line of Lum.”

They both stare at me intently, I don’t know how to react Nor or Preat never said anything about bloodlines all I’ve ever heard about it is when my Pa said that Mage households pride themselves on the standard of Mages they produce and rank themselves on it.

“Umm… I’m from the Farrst line.” I say timidly.

“Farrst? Never heard of that line, have you Jake?”

“Nope, never heard of that line, is it a high blood line?” Pete says excitedly.

“I have no bloodline my Pa is a merchant.” I say barely above a whisper.

“Huh what was that? I couldn’t hear you.” Jake asks.

My temper flares from the embarrassment, I don’t know why I’m feeling embarrassed, I may not come from one of these fancy bloody lines but my Ma and Pa are good parents and I’m proud to be a Farrst.

“I said I have no bloodline and my Pa is a merchant!” I yell and run away too my room. When I reach my room I lock the door and lie in bed and cry.

“I just want a friend.” I whisper to myself.

The next day

I arrive at the class room, Scrunchie and his pals are all sitting close together, Aria Jake and Pete are also together and there’s quite a few other people in here as well I assume from the other cities.

I stand there awkwardly at first wondering if I’m going to have to sit by myself.

“Hey Jax come sit with us” Jake yells from across the class.

Him yelling drew everyone’s attention to me and I pause stupidly thinking about how I thought I ruined the chance to be friends with them when I stormed off last night.

I walk over and take a seat.

“About last night, sorry we didn’t mean to be insensitive it’s just well, it’s very rare for commoners to have the talent so we just assumed you came from a bloodline.” Jake says with a serious face as I sit down.

“It’s okay I over reacted as well I’m sorry.”

“So friends?” Jake asks glancing at Pete and Aria

“I’ll like that.” I say

“Hi nice to meet you Jax, I’m Aria.”

Aria was a short girl for her age, with rich blonde hair, light blue eyes and a pretty face.

“Nice to meet you too.” I smile shyly.

“To think a commoner would be given admittance to the Great School Arcana… What is the world coming too?” Gil says loud enough that it carries from across the room while staring right at me sighing at end of his little speech.

“Oh piss off Gil! I’ve heard all about your ‘great talent’, you should be glad you’re even here, I’ll say Jax has more right to be here than you!” Aria yells back.

“What was that you little mid blo….!?” Gil starts to scream at her.

Before the bickering could escalate a Magus of the 3rd rank wearing a Green robe enters the class room grabbing everyone’s attention.

Aria, Pete and Jake quietly chuckle while Gil seems to be fuming that he was interrupted before he could retort properly.

“Thank you” I quietly whisper to Aria

She smiles brightly at me and says

“It’s always a pleasure to annoy that stuck up arse.”

I don’t reply other than a just as large smile.

“Good everyone’s here then let’s begin, I am Magus Aran and I will be taking you all through the basics of the Arcane and its uses and eventually through basic control training.”

“When people think of Mages they tend to picture people shooting fireballs and having great magical battles, while we are able to do this of course we are also far more versatile.”

“One of the most common and useful abilities we have is inscription. This plays a huge part in battle between Mages and also in everyday life of us and the common folk.

“Upon graduation all of you as a minimum will be able to inscribe runes for basic things such as heating, light and other sorts of everyday things and also things such as inscribing a sword so that it will always be sharp without the need for constant maintenance. This is one of the largest reasons why Mages are given such a large amount of respect, other than the fact that Mages are immensely powerful.” Aran says laughing to himself as if he told a great joke.

“The reason why inscribing is useful for battles is simple, using the Runic Language of Old or Runes for short if I inscribed say my staff here with Fire Ball being two runes linked together one for Fire one for Ball” A staff appeared out of nowhere into his hand stunning the class”

“I am able to channel my fire affinity imbued Mana into the inscription like so” as he said so a ball of fire appeared atop the stuff instantly heating up the room several degrees, while he didn’t seem to be phased by it at all.

After a few seconds the Fire Ball disappeared like it never existed the only evidence remaining of it is the higher temperature.

“As you can see, it forms the spell I inscribed. Now however if I do it without the staff.” The staff disappears to who knows where leaving the class once again stunned.

“I am currently attempting to channel my Mana imbued with my fire affinity like before to form a Fire Ball but as I’m sure you can all tell, it’s not working. That is because Magic is reliant on Runes, without them the elemental imbued Mana cannot take form, this has caused endless speculation as to the reason why but we still do not know why this is. Now I’m sure some of you are thinking that without the staff then that I am unable to use magic, that is where you would be wrong.

“Fire Ball” he speaks not loudly but loud enough to carry across the room and once again a Fire Ball appears above his out stretched hand not burning him the slightest.

After a few seconds he once again gets rid of the fire ball and says.

“You would all have heard me say Fire Ball which is a requirement to cast magic without inscribed runes but the largest factor is the picturing of the runes and the effect you want. When I cast the Fire Ball I was picturing both the Runes for Fire and Ball linked together, there are a few flaws with this form of casting magic which is why we are so dependent on inscriptions. First the most obvious being that your enemy would be able to hear you say what spell you’re going to cast. Second it takes longer to cast than channeling mana through an inscription. The biggest flaw however is the mental strain, with an inscription you simply channel your mana into the runes, when you free cast however you need to picture each of the Runes perfectly whilst at the same time holding the picture of the actual form of the spell. At first it may not sound difficult to you as you only have to remember a picture but you will find your mind under great strain trying to hold the form of multiples runes eventually causing enough drain on you that your spell fails and you suffer a back lash.”

“But before you can even think of inscribing or free casting you need to learn control, to do this we utilize our Pure Mana without an affinity imbued into it. The task is simple.

“For starters I want everyone to create a ball of Mana, to do this focus on your mana core and concentrate on your mana leaving your core and forming above your hand. It may take you a while to learn this so for the next week class will be focused on everyone being able to have a basic control of their mana, remember the Arcane is heavily influenced by your thoughts if you concentrate hard enough on it, it will happen, you just need to be patient.

“Magus Aran I thought you said that without knowing the runes we won’t be able to use the Arcane?” a random girl at the back of the class asked

“Ah I was wondering is anyone would pick up on that, unfortunately no one has been able to figure out why but Mana without an Element does not require Runes at all. Some Mages have come up with theories as to why that is but as of yet no one has any definitive proof.”

“I see, thank you Magus Aran.”

“You may all begin when you wish, if you have any questions feel free to approach me to ask so that we do not distract the students.” He stated taking a look around the room to see if there would be any more questions before sitting in a seat and watching the class.

I look around the room and see some students with their eyes closed, some with scrunched up faces and some with a care free look on their faces.

“Ah that was surprisingly quick, what is your name son?” Magus Aran asks out of the blue and to everyone’s surprise a boy sitting by himself near the rear of the class already has a beautiful small glowing orb of light blue Mana fluctuating above his upturned palm.

“I am Zar of the Argon line, Magus Aran, I was taught this by my Father prior to attending” he says with a smug look on his face.

“Argon huh, so a High Blood Line, well good for you, you will have to wait for the rest of the class to finish before we can continue so for now unless told otherwise for the remainder of the week you are to study Runes.” He states while making a large book appear out of thin air then giving it to Zar.

“Of course Magus.” He says still with the prideful look on his face as if he was looking down on everyone else in the class.

“It might be too soon to judge but I think him and Scrunchie are going to get along well.” I think to myself.

Speaking of which I glance at him and he seems to be frustrated, probably because he wasn’t the first to succeed.

Focusing on the task at hand I remember the feeling of my Mana Core and the feeling of Mana leaving my body when I took the examination. I focus on my Mana pooling above my hand forming a ball.

I begin to feel the familiar feeling of my Mana moving but this time it flowed down my left arm to my upturned hand.

Then ever so slowly a dark azure blue ball of light forms above my hand, I never noticed before because I never had anyone to compare too but my mana is a different colour to Zar’s I wonder if it’s just him or if everyone’s Mana is different than mine.

As my thoughts stray, so too does my control, the slow trickle of mana leaving my body like a crack in a dam becomes a small hole instantly causing my ball of light to expand into a huge ball that looks about a metre wide and tall.

I hear the sound of chairs falling over along with the students besides me, I quickly focus on controlling my mana and then cutting off the Mana supply to the still slowly growing ball of Mana, resulting in it disappearing.

I look around the class room Jake and Pete both fell from their chairs and are on the ground staring at me with wide eyes while Aria is standing staring at me with her mouth agape.

“My oh My, that was impressive, not your control, that was awful but the Density and the purity of it was amazing, what’s your name?

“I am Jax Farrst, Magus Aran” I say nervously.

“Ah Jax, I heard many things about you.” He says with a big smile on his face like he knows a big secret.

“While you achieved the task I set your control was certainly lacking so do keep trying and try to keep it under control so you don’t distract the other students. Now are you two going to get up or is the floor more comfortable than your chairs.” He says staring at Jake and Pete.

They both hurriedly stand up and sit back down on their seats.

“Let’s try continue without any more distractions everyone.” Magus Aran says before continuing to study the class.

I hear Gil sniggering, with all his buddies leaning in close trying to hear every word that comes out his mouth as if he’s the funniest Bard in the world.

“That. Was. Awesome” Jake states staring at me

I chuckle softly “really?” I ask shyly.

“Did you see the size of that thing!? Well obviously you did you made it but man it was like thisssss big!” He says stretching his arms out wide.

“It scared the hell out of me, a little bit of warning next time please.” Pete says laughing quietly.

“It was definitely impressive” Aria says agreeing with Jake and Pete.

I smile happily thinking that I’ve found some nice friends.

Like this we turned up to class for the whole week with everyone being able to form the ball of Mana by the end of the week. Magus Aran eventually acknowledged later in the first day that I have sufficient control to form and disperse the ball of Mana and gave me a book filled with diagrams of the ‘basic’ runes and descriptions of what they do and what effect they are known to be able to provide when inscribed.

At the end of the week he told us that the next week is all about expanding control of our Mana and that we are all going to have a turn putting on a ‘Light Show’ for him.

He says that we are not required to be in the actual classroom as we prepare because he doesn’t want any sneak peaks to what we come up with.

And so ends my first week at the Arcana.