. . .
Gold Miltiades fidgeted anxiously in her seat in the train, surrounded by hundreds of other kids on the train. She'd never been around teens her age before. No, correction, she'd never been around
teenagers, period. Not that she'd ever had the need for the kind of company, but her lack of experience made it highly disorienting at the moment.
Especially so when
he was standing right there.
He'd appeared before them, all pomp and pride and smiling. The sight of him sickened her, so much so that she felt as though she would hurl if she stared at him too long, a feeling that was not helped by the ridiculous speed that the train they had boarded was going at.
The Headmaster Niccolo. Archemage, world renowned spell-caster, and murdering thief of the lowest kind. He put of this facade of amicability, but Gold knew the truth. His spells were focused on
Analyzation, a branch many mistook as one belonging to Creation or Existence - they were wrong. The Analyzation Branch of magic, unique and belonging solely to the Headmaster, was a branch of
Destruction. Furthermore, it's powers were only useful for one thing:
Spell-stealing. Perhaps for lower-ranked mages with spells only a nobody would cast, it might not seem so severe, but it was one of the most heinous crimes that a mage could commit. Spells and magic were the lifeblood, the very reason of existence for mages! The carefully crafted formula's, the painstaking hours they committed to each word and enchantment, and the amount of literal and metaphorical blood spilled by them all went into the development of their magic. The results they gained were due to the effort they had put into it, and the only time they would ever feel joy when used by the hands of another was if that other person was their Apprentice, hand-picked and carefully raised as the next successor to the magic!
And the Headmaster could invalidate
all of that. He
has invalidated it. Several times. Several, bloody, atrocious times.
Perhaps what was even more painful than the fact that the man had murdered her father and mother to steal their spells, was the fact that they were probably no more than a footnote to him. They were just another in a long, long list of victims on his rise to power. Power that only other Archemages could curb, and power they were slowly starting to lose.
It was why she happily agreed when Archemage Miltiades sent her on this mission. Asides her personal grudge against the Headmaster, she was also nothing short of grateful to Miltiades. The man had taken her in the night her parents were murdered - they were once his disciples, and he had planned to visit them to see how they were doing. He had taken her under his wing ever since. He taught her more magic, and raised her for five years. When she turned fourteen, she assumed his first name as her own.
Details of her parents murder were given to her, though not easily. She had prodded him relentlessly for years, and was rewarded with only got bits and pieces of information before finally having the full story.
Now she was sixteen. The other Archemages have had enough. For years, Archemage Niccolo was impenetrable, always fighting on his own terms, on his own grounds - with no one able to wrestle the advantage away from him. This time, things would be different.
Bringing down an Archemage was no simple task, not even when one or two worked together. But it could be done. And it would start with her.
