You decide to talk to the mysterious figure, and follow after them as they head to a room that seems to be a small library ... wait why is there a library in your dorm room? Before you can voice the question the figure spins around, and the hood drops from
face. Beneath you find find he has silver hair, and eyes as well as having his face covered in a series of tattoos, and geometric symbols. He hastily pulls the hood back up before you get a better look, and says "What do you want?" His tone is extremely violent, and you barely manage to keep yourself from steeping back from him in surprise.
"Uh .. sorry just don't bother me today alright." With that he rushes off, and you chase after him, but he quickly disappears among the rows of shelves, and piles of books. Tired, and stressed out you just turn, and head back to find your room. It takes a little while as your dorm room is quite large, and appears to be a bit of a maze, but in the end you find a door that has a tag with your name nailed onto it. You push open the door, and find a rather empty room. In the corner sits a fire place with a pair of chairs, and a table sitting in front of it.
On the other side of the room is a dresser, a bed, and a door to closet of some sort. You don't pay much attention to the room as you walk over to your bed, and collapse with your traveling clothes still on. You were exhausted, and the darkness quickly swallows you.
After what seems like only a few minutes you wake up to find yourself back in your room. A small fire crackles in the corner, a owl hoots outside, and you can hear the sound of voices coming from the kitchens below. You sit up, brushing the covers off you, and the bed gives a low creek. 'I really hate that bed.' you think as you pull your clothes on, and give a quick look around the room for anything out of the ordinary. You don't notice anything at first, but just as you go to leave the room you notice the book the God had given you lying on your table with the words 'Book of Truth' written on the front.
"Truth my ass you cryptic bastard." you mumble as you pick it up, and flip it open you find it shows what your wearing, how you feel, everything, including something about magic you don't quite understand. Just as you snap the book closed you hear raised voices coming from downstairs, and wonder if you should go down, and try to over hear them, or simply stay up here, and wait for them.You decide it would be best to go, and try to over hear them, so you open the door, and step out into the hallway ... on the creaking floorboard. Quickly moving off that floorboard, and shutting the door, which closed more, or less silently, you stop, and listen to see if anyone heard you, but the arguing was still going on downstairs. Looking down you start to walk forward, stepping over the fifteen, or so creaking floorboards that litter the upstairs hallway. It takes about a minute, but you finally reach the top of the stairs, and creep down stopping at the door to the kitchen where the voices are coming from. You look through a crack in the door, and see the Magi, your mother, and father gathered around a table.
"Your daughter has been chosen to be a Magi, I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do to change that fact. She will have to come with me to the Academy." The Magi says, but your Mother quickly replies, and its quite clear shes flustered, "I will not allow that, my daughter deserves to have a life of her own. And being a Magi is no life at all! Its dangerous, and most people are terrified of the Magi!" After that there is a moments silence as your Mother stands up, and gets more tea for the Magi, she might be angry, but shes still an excellent hostess. But what if you want to go to the Academy? Did you mother think of that?
Wait do you want to go, and what should you do?
You make your decision, your going, one way, or another, you barge into the kitchen, and say "I want to go to the Academy." Your mother looks at you in a terrified manner for a moment before rebuking "You are not going !!! I will not allow ...", just as she is about to go into one of her rants father places his hand on her shoulder, and she stops mid-sentence as she turns, and looks him in the eye. He nods, and says "Let her do as she wishes. It is not our choice, or our right to keep her from going." with that he stands up, and walks out of the room, shuffling to the tavern to check on things.
Your mother looks at you with tears welling in her eyes, and leaves the room going off somewhere to cry. With that done you take a seat opposite the Magi, and look at him for a moment. He returns your look, and says "Well, I guess that solves that. It's usually alot harder to convince them to come." With that he lets out a sigh, and pulls a pipe out of his sleeve. He lights it up, and continues "Its going to be a long hard path to become a Magi, and many people hate us you know. Now is the time to ask what you wish, and to change your mind. So if you have anything to say speak up." You take a second to think of a reply, before asking "I'm still going, but what would have happened if I refused?" The man took a deep puff from his pipe, and said "You would have died." When you give him a slightly horrified look he laughs, and says "Don't worry I wouldn't have killed you, but there are numerous beasts in this world who feast on magical power, and one would have found, and ate you sooner, or later, so no worries." He takes another puff from his pipe, and then taps it out the window near him, and then hastily puts it away. That done he continues "You'll be learning how to wield, and use the basics of magic in your first year at school, and then you'll be chosen by another Magi to become their apprentice. Once that is done you'll go through the standard two years of teaching, and then head out into the world to leave your mark."
He stands up, looks at the window, and then makes a series of complicated gestures in the air. Once he finished a pigeon flies through the window, and lands on the table, strange thing is no pigeons live within fifty leagues of your town. The man scrawls a message onto a piece of parchment, and attaches it to the pigeon before tossing it out the window. You watch the pigeon fade from view as it flaps into the distance, and then return your focus to the man. You wait another moment as he puts away the quill, and ink bottle, which seem to disappear into thin air, before he finally talks again.
"My name is Newman Hinesberg, most people call me New, and I work for the Academy as a recruiter. I can't sense Magi to be born I simply wander around until I find one, and try to convince them to come with me to the Academy. You bring my total number of those recruited to five, and total number of those found to fifty-eight." At that he pauses, and looks at the window, and you think 'Fifty-eight found magi, and none, but five joined? Something is off about that, but should I ask him about it? He doesn't seem to like the subject very much either from the look he has.' Despite seeing that the topic is a sore one you ask him "Are the Magi really hated that much?" Newman looks out the window for a moment as if gathering his strength for the coming conversation. After several minutes he finally answers "Yes, most humans hate us, because of the power we wield. They believe we are abominations, because we are the children of the Exiled God, and for that many of them hunt us. For you see what they fear is that one of us shall once again fall from the path, and challenge the Gods, and their Forefathers, the Titans. You see Katrin, some of us Magi can wield such power that we ourselves become Mortal Gods. These Magi appear in groups of nine every century, but all nine have never survived to become the Circle of Magi."
He stopped, and sighed as he idly stirred a cup of tea without even touching it. All is silence for many minutes as you are to absorbed in pondering that which he had said. He clears his throat, and you give a jump before looking over at him. He is holding in his hand a book not to different from yours, and he says "Now I must tell you a very important rule. You must never tell anyone the name of your book, its name is only ever meant to be known by you, and your Artificer. Do you understand this?" "Why can I not tell anyone my book's name?" You ask him, and Newman gives you a cold look before replying "Anyone that knows the name of your book may tap into your magical powers, and use them as they wish to. If anyone knows your book's name they can use your own magic to destroy you, and others will simply believe your magic has backfired, and killed you." You look down at your book which lies on the table, the name in plain sight on its cover. As you scramble to hide it Newman begins to laugh, and doesn't stop for a while. After he finally stops laughing, and you give him an odd look he says "No one, but the owner, and others who already know its name may read the title of your book, so there is no need to worry about it."
With that said you tentatively place the book back on the table, and ask him a series of questions " "What is an Artificer? What's so special about this book anyway? How many Magi are there? What makes the nine magi who can become gods so special?" He looks at you for a minute, and flips his own book open, and then close a couple of times before replying. "Lets see your first question, an Artificer will be your companion for life, they are the only being you can ever truly trust as a Magi. Artificers take on many forms, and none are the same, but each is a reflection of your power. The stronger you are, the stronger the Artificer but keep in mind their power will flow with yours. You will gain your Artificer during the Exams in your first year at the Academy, but keep in mind the Academy is not impenetrable you will be safer there then elsewhere, but no matter where you go you will always be in danger."
He pauses to take a sip of tea before continuing "As to your second, and last questions you'll have to find out yourself, but I can answer your third. There are currently about five hundred fully trained Magi, and maybe three hundred students at the Academy. Now if that is all the questions you have its about time to leave. Is there anyone you want to talk to before leaving ?" "I'll say goodbye to my parents, and visit the town shrine before we depart." You reply, and stand up, the sound of the chair scrapping against the floor is deafening compared to the silent thoughts of your mind as you leave the room. You spend about a half an hour gathering your things, and saying goodbye to your parents before setting out to the town shrine. When you arrived at the shrine you walked inside the light grey stone building, and bow before the altar that sits in the middle of the room 'Gods please give me guidance, and protection upon my journey.' you think, and look up at the ceiling of the shrine seeking an answer.
"They aren't going to give you an answer you know. The gods hate the Magi, but dare not to raise a hand against them as they fear it would start another war. You have been abandoned the moment you became a Magi." A voice says from behind you, and you jump turning around in a quick spin, but you see nothing. The voice speaks again, but you can't tell where it comes from "You are quite interesting I think I'll keep an eye on you for a while.", and with that you feel a heavy presence disappear. You walk out of the shrine mumbling "What the hell was that about?" Then you raise your head to the sky, and set off at a jog to the front entrance to the town.
After several minutes you arrive, and see Newman leaning on the wall of an abandoned house. "About time you got here. Lets get going." he says, and takes a step forward. As you come to stand beside him you hear him begin to talk in a language you don't understand, and you feel power begin to gather around you. Before you can say anything to him you find yourself in a completely different place. In front of you lies a massive eight story building that made the forts you've seen seem like tine hovels. It was made out of a white stone of some sort, and the grounds were covered with intricate statues, benches, stone walkways, small covered areas, and flower beds.
Newman speaks, and you snap out of your trance "Welcome to the Academy. This place shall be your home over the coming years, and your sanctuary in times of need. Now lets go I am sure the Headmaster would like to meet you." With that he sets off towards the front entrance, and you follow, but your attention remains on your surroundings. As you look around you realize the Academy is not surrounded by any walls, nor do soldiers patrol its perimeter. It is simply the grounds, and the towering building that is the Academy. It is not long before you enter the building, and are hit with the full scale of the Academy's size.
Inside small groups, of what you assume to be the students, are walking about, or sitting in alcoves talking to each other. The entrance hall towers taking up three floors, and going on for what you can only guess to be half the building's actual size, but before you can go walking down through the hallway Newman steers you up a staircase you didn't notice was there. He leads you up to the top floor, and stops in front of a set of towering oak double doors.
"Here I must take my leave Katrin. May the Exiled God bless us with another meeting." Newman said, and before you could say anything he was gone, and you were alone standing in front of those foreboding doors. 'Should I go in? Should I knock? Or should I wait?" you ask yourself as you start to pace back, and forth. You decide it would be best to push it open slightly, and dropkick the door open for a grand entrance, but as you go to open the doors they swing open, and a group of angry looking Magi come barging out, and knock you to the floor. You jump up, and got to hit the one that knocked you down, but you feel a hand on your shoulder restraining you. You turn to see who is doing it, and find a very old looking man holding on to you. "Who the ..." you begin to say, but are cut off by him "I'm the Headmaster now come in, and sit down. Its been a couple of months since we have gotten a new Magi to join the Academy, so this is quite exciting. The others are waiting inside." With that the Headmaster turns, and quickly walks into his office.
You turn, and follow him, but are surprised to see his office is relatively small, because most of it is taken up by bookshelves, loose paper, and piles of books on the ground. You carefully walk through a small space that seems to have been cleared to make a alleyway to the Headmaster's desk. Once you arrive you take a seat in a high back chair next to five other students. The one to your right is also a girl, she is about your height, brown hair, almond eyes, and, for some reason, pointed ears. The two sitting to your left seem to be twin boys, both have straw colored hair, and green eyes, though they seem to be about two heads shorter than you.
The last one sitting farthest away from the group is wearing a hood over their face, and you can't quite tell if its a guy, or a girl let alone their appearance. With your observations you turn to face the Headmaster, and find him holding a book, the writing on it shimers, and shakes, so you can't read it. Before you can stop yourself you blurt out "Is that your book Headmaster?" He looks at you, and breaks into a grin as he says "So Newman has already told you some of the rules young one. I expect nothing less from one of our top recruiters. Now to answer you, this is indeed my book, and by the looks of it yours is in your hand as well. For those of you that don't know one of the most important rules a Magi must follow is that they must never tell anyone the name of their Book. If someone else knows your Book's name then they can use your magical power, and your life force to use their magic. The only exception to this rule is your Artificer, which you will learn of later."
He takes a break to sip at a cup of tea, and take a deep breath before continuing "Of course the full rules will be taught in your first class tomorrow, that was simply one that had to be said. Now on to important matters. As you all know this country, Illlania, is currently at war. thus, this country being one ruled by the Magi we are its head protectors, and in time, I regret to say this, but I must, you will be called into action to fight. We are not at war with an other country, but with the demons that hunt us as their food. They are flocking to our country in great numbers, and some have begun to organize into an army like structure. This is the price we pay for our power, we shall forever be hunted, but we shall pay it willingly. Now we have that covered, I would like to say welcome to the Academy, and if you need any help just ask the staff."
With that he stood up, and placed his Book onto the table, before speaking again "Now it is time you go to your dormitory. have a good day." And with that you find yourself in a massive room with the the girl from before, the twins, and the hooded figure. The room is simple enough with a couple of tables, and chairs scattered about, and hallways to what you assume are your bedrooms. 'What should i do first? you think as you take a seat to think, and the others begin to wander off elsewhere.
I will have the beginning of Part 2 up soon enough, but I need to write up a bit of extra stuff for it, so you get the basic rules of the Academy, what stats do, etc.
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Topic: Circle of Magi I:T.R.o.M.;Chapter 3: Once a Saint ... (Read 27410 times)