We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.
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Life goes on many summers, many winters flashed before I knew it I was at age of 16.
I spent the years of my life training and honing my skills with the scythe.
Ever since Marko's passing and Allister Honorson's meeting, I found my purpose was to kill Deadman and destroy The Phantom Order. Their goal is unknown but I know for a damn fact it's not good for this world. In recent years they've obtained new members going around the region causing a ruckus.
Killing and kidnapping young mages to add to their ranks. Affecting many families in the process, mine being one of them. Although losing Marko was a tough loss we bounced back and stayed afloat.
As I grew older I started to learn about the geography of this world.
I am a resident of the city of Kubridge but Kubridge is just a district within the bigger Capitol of Aiz. Aiz geography is split into 4 districts Kubridge in the South, Andele in the North, Nellsport in the West the port district, and Farz in the East.
The center of Aiz holds the Capitol City of Oriana where it holds Aurora Saint Academy and The Federations main building. An academy where young mages from all 4 districts attend for the next 3 years of their lives. The school is named after the Mage who founded this land, Aurora Oriana, a powerful water mage. It was said that her power alone helped create the 5 districts. Most of the mages who graduate from Aurora Saint become successful mages in the future, some even make the rankings of The Federation.
Ever since the death of my father The Federation started to include lieutenants in their ranks. Lieutenants are the right hand of the Captains. I hear that they decreased the number of Captains as well; they went from 10 to 8. I wonder if it were to honor my father. if I could make it into "The Federation" no I will make it into "The Federation."
The morning arrived, it was the first day at the academy. I awake and look at myself in the mirror. As I gazed at the mirror in front of me I started to look more like Marko but with blonde hair. Am not too sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing but anyways I had to get ready. I put my beads together as I tidy up my room.
I put on the uniform for Aurora Saint Academy. It has an elegant and royal feel to it with a collared black coat with gold engravings, a white collar shirt, black pants, and black shoes.
Knock Knock
I head on over to the door.
A girl with medium-length black hair, bangs that cover her slightly, black pupils, and big eyes, with a golden hair piece in her hair was Erielle . I must say she turned into a beautiful young woman not only is she The Maiden Virgo.
"Morning, Val. Wow, that uniform does suit you" Erielle says cheerfully with a smile.
"Thank you. As well as you. " I responded with a normal voice trying to not look at her chest region.
She twirls around. With a similar look, a collared black coat with gold engravings, a white collar shirt, but this time with a matching black and gold skirt, thigh leggings, and shoes.
"Why thank you," she says.
My eyes then examined the lower part of her body. Wow, her thighs got. Is it due to all this training -- I can't distract myself. Gotta keep it cool gotta keep it cool.
"Val you're staring again," Erielle says as she blushes.
"Uh, I'm not just comparing the girls' uniform to the guy's that's all," I said as I turned my head away in embarrassment.
"Sure. It's fine you a guy after all" as she playfully taps my shoulder.
"C'mon let's go to breakfast. Don't wanna be late on the first day" as she grabs my hand and drags me along.
After Marko passed I was down and out for a bit. I would stay in my room but Erielle was the one who kept me going and pushed me to train every day.
She woke me up every morning to make breakfast and help around the house.
There were also some days when we would train together. She's become a very proficient mage. Her rapier skills and magic have become great ever since she became a Twelve Star Mage. I wondered if she did this because she wanted to protect me.
Aside from Erielle 's mother, Vincent, and Elise would encourage me to stay active and get out of my room.
I would hone my skills with Vincent destroying parts of the mansion as Marko did before.
Lila was not happy about that. Elise would teach me a few things about keeping the house nice and neat. I often talked to and aided Lila in whatever she was doing. They play a part in making me move and get some sunshine every day.
This family was a pure 180 from my previous life. I am very thankful for Lila, Vincent, Elise, and Erielle .
We both arrive at the dining hall with Lila, Vincent, and Erielle already present in their seats.
"A news bulletin goes off like a projection screen. Four orbs create a rectangular screen that is displayed above the dining table."
"Just in Boundara's three leaders will have a word about the recent attacks from the Phantom Order" a voice speaks.
Three young mages appear on the screen.
"They look pretty young." I say aloud.
"They're supposedly our age." Erielle says.
"The leaders of their nation at our age are crazy."
"Well, nothing crazy has been done before in the past. However what makes them more credible are those three Twelve Star Mages" Lila comments.
"Eri, that could be you." I point out.
"Yeah, I am not really a leader type or someone to lead a group." Erielle says.
"Have confidence my daughter" Vincent says.
"You haven't even tried yet, maybe going to school will help with that." Elise says with a kind tone as she smiles.
"If you can put your mind to it you will do it and make it a possibility Erielle " Lila comments.
"Give it a shot you got it" I say with enthusiasm with a thumbs up.
"Thank you guys." Erielle says with a smile.
"Do you have any idea where they might target next? We have a theory they may be headed to the capitol city of Oriana" the girl says in the news report.
"What!" we all look up in shock.
"Now this is breaking news are you sure your theory is correct?"
"Not 100% but were working on it" she responds.
Everyone in the dinning room with a look of concern on there faces as they stopped eating "It's just a theory they could be way wrong. Like the weather, you can never predict the weather." I add.
"You're right but still this is "that" group. The group that." Erielle stops her sentence.
"It's okay you can say it."
"Murdered Sir Marko."
The room goes silent.
"Come one everyone this is still food too eat" Lila encourages everyone. "Lets change the broadcast"
BZTT
"Popular rising star Tay Le Flore will be making a surprise stop in the Capital City of Oriana has planned has changed in one of her tour dates."
"Wow wow Tay's actually going to a place near us?!" Erielle says with excitement.
"Tay Le Flore?" I question myself. "Who's that?"
"Valerus you dont know shes one of the most popular singers and musician everyone loves her. Plus her songs are catchy."
"Ohh she's like a Taylor Swift of this world." I say to myself.
"Maybe we can go catch one of her shows" Erielle asks.
"Yeah we can"
"Great."
We continue a good breakfast with laughs and smiles.
Vincent and Elise turn to both me and Erielle and wish the best on our first day. Lila stands and walks on over to both myself and Erielle and hugs us both.
Lila pulls me aside "Valerus your father would be proud and happy to see you on your first day" as she straightens my collar and tears begin to fill her eyes.
As we both hug one another I stare at Marko's picture. I swear I'll avenge you Marko and put a stop to the Phantom Order.
We both exit the mansion and head off for the first day at Aurora Saint Academy.
From Kubridge we take a teleportation circle near inside Transportation Zone spots that are located all around Kubridge and can teleport you anywhere within Aiz in seconds. The layout is like a subway where people are lined up as they stand and wait for a teleportation circle. We first located the room to the location we wanted to head to. Then within that room, there are 20 circles with 10 transportation circles on each side of the room. It was a purple hue as Erielle went before me and disappeared from my eyes. It was my turn I stepped on the circle and closed my eyes. As I opened them I was greeted with a magnificent site.
The school campus is wide and it has 6 3 4-storey buildings all designed in white with engravings of gold. The steps to enter the school looked grand as it was surrounded by gold bars At the entrance stood a tale sculpture of a woman this is definitely Aurora Oriana.
I turned and looked around my surroundings as other mages began to pop in left and right. Coming from the teleportation circles like me and Erielle . Others arrived here using their own abilities and others just walked here cause they live in Oriana.
ZIP
STEP STEP STEP
BUMP
A guy bumps me from behind "Hey what the hell man?!"
The brown-haired mage turns around "Sorry didn't see you there" he says sarcastically as he walks away and waves his right hand he has bright yellow eyes.
"That punk I thought to myself".
"Val relax it's our first day," Erielle says in a cool and calm voice.
"But he had all this space to-"
"I know I know but are we really going to let him ruin our first day cmon" Erielle says as she tugs my arm.
"Yeah your right" as I exale and calm down.
Walking past the sculpture we head into the school. In the middle of the school, it held a giant mana pool of holding another sculpture one I was unfamiliar with.
"Hey, what is that?" I ask Erielle . "I dont know I was going to ask you the same." she shrugged her shoulders. We both continued to walk and saw the mana flowing under the walkway as the middle of the floor tiles were translucent. Me and Erielle walk together towards the auditorium as we follow fellow mages as we examine the school in awe.
We continued walking from time to time I would hear whispers. "Oh look at her hand". "She's one of the" These whispers pertained to Erielle the symbol on her hand was the talk of the town. With one of the whispers, I heard "Wow there's a lot of twelve stars.?" another mage said.
"This year? That's strange I thought they were rare. How is it that there is a lot let alone they attend this school? I brushed it off and thought nothing of it for now.
"Wow, Ms.Popular here" I tease Erielle .
"Ugh I hate this attention," Erielle says covering her left hand embarrassed.
"Your as popular as Tay Le Flore"
"Oh shut it" Erielle softly hits me.
We both laugh.
—-----
Headmasters Room
"Look at all the fresh faces coming in. Can't believe that was just us a year ago. Ahh time flies." A girl says.
"I hope there ready for what I have in place for them." A male says.
"You should be ready Issac we spent all this time prepping for it."
"Though we should be cautious there's alot of interesting mages this year they might be able to beat our plan" a young man with glasses speaks.
"Cmon Axel you have to lighten up. No need to be all serious." the girl responds.
"That's Student Council President Faith."
"Okay. Student Council President." Faith says in a mocking voice.
"Tch just call me president."
"Faith please dont give Axel a hard time. He already has been through enough in fact we all have." another girl says.
"Got it Luna"
"Also He's right we should be more serious about this opening ceremony for this year. We have the Providence Sisters, a mage who was handpicked a chosen by our headmaster, A Dragonclad, and two Twelve Star Mages." Luna says.
"Let's go. Starting Soon" Another young man says with a soft raspy voice.
"Let's head too the Auditorium the five mages leave the room."
—---------
We enter the auditorium. It begins to fill as we are located on the far right side with the rest of the first years. It was sectioned off into three parts. My guess the second years were in the middle with the first years on the far left. We both take a seat next to each other as we examine the podium and long table before us. A giant seat is a right slab in the middle with engravings on it.
"That must be the Headmaster's chair," I thought to myself.
—--------
A couple rows above them.
"Look you guys one of the Twelve Stars." a girl says.
"Hopefully she's less of a earful than the other guy"
"Yeah he was so obnoxious and annoying."
"What do you think Rose?"
"We'll just have too see if they live up to her name." Rose says a she looks to her left.
"Who's that guy?" Rose asks.
"Ohh he is cute. Am not too sure."
"I believe he was chosen to be here"
A student with a hood overlooks everyone else.
"Hey can you please head to your seat."
"I prefer watching from up here." the young man says with a cocky voice.
"What did you say?." He puts a hand on the hooded student's shoulder.
"Hey isn't that the Dragonclad guy."
"Whats he doing with that mage."
"Tch" he walks away.
Suddenly the lights go out.
We are greeted with a fireworks show as sparks fill the sky. Flashing colors fill the sky. As the labels 1 2 and 3 appear in each section.
The Headmaster arrives and a man with a grey cloak, eye glasses, grey hair, and staff takes the podium.
"Welcome to Aurora Saint Academy I am the Headmaster Alfred Dawkins pleased to meet you" as his imposing voice fills the giant auditorium.
A round of applause throughout the auditorium as Headmaster Alfred Dawkins takes the podium.
"Yup, this guy is the typical old but powerful troupe. He even got the staff and beard and everything" I thought to myself as I tried to pay attention to his speech.
"So that's the Headmaster so cool" Erielle says next to me, not being able to contain her excitement.
"Welcome all to Aurora Saint Academy," Alfred says. He has an all-encompassing voice that echoes throughout the auditorium.
"I am Headmaster Alfred Dawkins. Here's for three more successful years. That is all from me. The staff and I hope you enjoy your years here. We will now hear from your Student Council " Alfred says as he walks off the stage.
Everyone applauds throughout the stadium. As I and the first years are left in shock we slowly clap in confusion.
"Wait what" a voice says behind me.
"That's the headmaster of this school," another one says in front of me.
"What a joke," someone else says.
A collaboration of voices leads to an uproar from the first years.
Me and Erielle both show faces of disappointment and dumbfounded
"I take all my comments back," Erielle says with a regretful face.
"Yup," I simply nodded.
Suddenly the uproar subsides as the lights go dim and a spotlight shines on the stage. A spotlight beams as five students emerge from the shadows onto the stage. One takes the podium as the other four fall into line close behind him. A white magic circle appears around him as he speaks. So they used magic circles to amply their voice as well but the Headmaster didn't need one. It just goes to show how powerful and prominent he is.
"Hello, fellow students of Aurora Saint Academy, it's a pleasure to meet you" the student says. He has a calm but stern voice to match that he has eyeglasses, proper prim black hair, black with gold engravings on his uniform, a Roman numeral number 2 on his collar, and a gold armband that reads student council.
"If you know me welcome back if you don't am the Student Council President Axel Friedman"
"Woah looks it's the beautiful Vice President Luna Divine Solace" a voice speaks behind me.
I looked past Axel there and I saw a beautiful young girl with a cute face, long purple hair, twin pigtails, and blue eyes, with the signature black and gold uniform with a skirt but I can see it was altered a bit as the top part was more cropped to make it a unique style.
The other three I could hardly make out but there silhouettes I could tell one girl and two males. I should see them all eventually on campus.
"How about another round of applause for our Headmaster Alfred Dawkins for keeping the message nice and short," Axel says as he claps as the rest follow.
"Now let's cut to the chase. Over the past years the magic guild known as "The Phantom Order" has been running a muck in this world.
I hear many students mummering.
"Am surprised they bringing this up here"
"With that being said, how about a show and tell in front of most of the student body? To see what kind of future mages can change the future and help us fight against these forces"
Where is this going? I thought to myself.
"What is he talking about?"
"As many of you may know these past couple of years gave light to too many Twelve Star Mages. One of which is our very own Secretary Faith Alexander or should I say the Water Bearer Aquarius the 11th star mage." Another girl steps forward with a hat, short teal-blue hair, black eyes, black shorts, black with gold engravings knee-high boots, a jacket, and a black coat.
He's just going to blatantly say that I thought to myself. As I look at Erielle .
"I got a weird feeling about this Val" she whispers to me.
"Yeah let's try an-"
"Ms. Erielle from the Agnello family, would you please head on to the stage please."
"Fellow students we also have The Maiden Virgo The Sixth Star mage amongst us this school year." The second and third years applaud. As the first years are confused but follow their lead.
"This is getting kinda weird ain't it," a voice says near me.
"There clapping in unison"
I stand up and take Erielle 's hand as we start to head out of the auditorium.
"We're leaving something wrong here."
"Are they being controlled?" I thought to myself.
"Man, what is this!" a loud voice speaks up. It was a familiar face from earlier. "Hey it's that dude that bumped into me earlier," I said to Erielle .
"Alright you tell me what's going on around here now or you going to get me ticked off" the student speaks up.
Axel? begins to look up and speaks.
"Oh, another-"
BOOM
Axel gets punched in the face by the male student who was fast, really fast.
A dark magic circle disappears from his body.
"Alright, who else is getting controlled over here?"
All the first years begin to scatter as the 2nd years and 3rd years begin to disappear.
"Was it all an illusion?" I thought to myself.
"Because I Ezekiel Agnes from the Agnes Family won't let my first day be ruined by some lame-ass mages come get some" his right hand revealing that he too bears a mark.
"Val that" Erielle points out his hand.
"The Roar, Leo The 5th Star Mage," I said to myself.
WHOOSH
Ezekiel dodges the water "so they're controlling you too huh Aquarius?"
"C'mon, we gotta help," I tell Erielle .
We both rush towards the stage to help Ezekiel.