As I reached the middle, a huge stone wall appeared in front of me. There was a circle in the middle, glowing purple, revealing purple magic curling on it. I bit back the thought of grasping the magic directly. No gift comes without a price.
Unsure what to do, I pressed one hand against the stone wall, in the circle, and suddenly felt as if a hundred volts of electricity passed through my body. Flickers of not the purple magic, but my own dust-like magic curled in my fingers. I finally realized it wasn't pulling itself out. It was pulling me in!
"Magic," I breathed, "magic so old for even me to forget."
I concentrated on my magic, allowing it to pull the purple magic out. Magic, I thought, magic flowing in every vein. And, slowly, purple curls of magic regained in my fingers.
Let me out, a deep voice sounded inside the stone wall, release me!
I moved my fingers slightly as all of the magic was withdrawn from the wall. Uncertain, I took off my hand as I watched the purple curls of magic dance on my fingers amazingly.
It is true, I thought, I finally have a stronger magic.
I had no idea how strong the magic was.
* * *
A normal teenage sorceress would be in Arenyal Academy at this time. But, firstly, I’m not a “normal” teenager at all standards. For a person who has been directly refused by Arenyal, nothing could be normal. I kept fighting monsters who came to me due to my powerful sorceress’ essence while the other teenagers study magic in their safe little bubble in Arenyal Academy, where monsters are kept out by the magic boundaries. Even though they study enough theory, but I’ve been out fighting monsters since I was eleven. I have theories and personal experience.
If you really want to know why I got kicked out, the reason is because I’ve fought some damn monsters in the Academy and showed my powers a little bit too soon and the damn principal decided it was safer for me out of his school. It was a breakout when I was at Elementary, when I was ten. The magic boundaries collapsed and monsters surged in. And ‘for the greater good’, I was involved in the fight.
As I crept out the cave slowly, I met Percy Billow standing in the front, waiting for me. He had already graduated, and couldn’t get a job if his life depended on it. Percy had been a fifth-grader with slightly above-average skill and a heart for achieving fame. To be honest, I learnt many skills (e.g. flying) from him. As a fifteen-year-old sorceress, I wasn’t anything behind average fifteen-year-old sorceresses.
“How’s the adventure, Hecate? Was it worth it?” Percy asked urgently.
“I think so,” I said, looking at the strange purple magic dancing on my fingertips.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Good,” he let out a breath, “because we have more things to deal with at the moment. We’ve been tracked.”
I caught the last word. Tracked. The great Hecate Allison, being tracked? Things don’t happen the way they should.
“I know it sounds stupid,” Percy said, as if reading my thoughts, “I know you put on lots of advanced protection spells on us to make sure we’re not being tracked. But this signal—I’m almost sure. Maybe ninety-seven percent sure she’d gotten us.”
I frowned. Did Percy just say she? I put on a spell especially to keep out genius teenage sorceresses. Sometimes males are more negligent than females. That just means the person—the girl was even better than me.
“It’s beginning to be more fascinating,” Percy said. Okay, I take back my words. Maybe he is reading my thoughts. An average fifth-grader could do that. “The person seems to know all your footmarks. And from her status now—” he looked at his invisible watch, “she’s coming for you.”
* * *
On normal circumstances, I would have been afraid if Percy told me that someone had already tracked me and was going after me personally. But just have released an ancient kind of powerful magic, I wasn’t afraid at all—partly because of self-consciousness, partly because of real ability. Sincerely. I mean, I’m not bragging in spite of my magic, but about my personal experience and my fighting techniques.
I told this to Percy. He just rolled his eyes. Partly because that maybe there are too much words for him to comprehend, also because he just thinks what I’ve said will affect nothing on the fight. And even though I’m not afraid, I can tell from his eyes that he’s entirely afraid.
But this isn’t normal circumstances and I need him to be brave.
Suddenly there’s a flash, and someone landed on the floor with an expertise superhero landing. I’m not a fan of superhero comedies, but I don’t reject handsome superhero landings either.
Then, a girl about the age of fourteen stood up. She looked at me cautiously. She had long blond hair and red eyes.
“Hecate Allison. My friend here, Percy. Pleasure to meet you. I suppose you must be the person who tracked me,” I did a self-introduction.
“Emma Crisla.” She didn’t take my hand, so I put it back in my sorceress’ black cloak. Talk about awkward. “Fourteen, Arenyal Academy.” I should have been surprised that an Arenyal kid would track me down, but I wasn’t. Almost all of the wizardry world sends their children to Arenyal. There’s nothing as a wizardry world, to be honest.
“Fifteen,” I said, then I told her about how I get kicked out of school. She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. “So, now I suppose we’re officially friends.”
“Friends…” she muttered, “I already have two. But honestly, I was surprised when I found out your complicated spells set on you and your partner. I’ve never met a person almost as accomplished in magic as me. So, yes. I guess we’re officially friends. Temporarily.” She half smiled, half frowned.
I didn’t like the ‘temporarily’, but I accepted the offer. “As you wish,” I mumbled, making sure not letting her hear me.
“Miss Crisla,” Percy said, holding out a box of green magic twirling in the box, “Hecate asked me to send it to you as a gift of our first meeting.”
Emma looked, astonished. It was also a kind of valuable magic I collected on my adventures, but not the most dangerous one. Emma reached in and grabbed some of the magic, allowing it to twirl against her fingers while she looked at it, fascinated.
“Some Restonren magic,” she muttered.
“Took that on ‘The History of Sorcerers’?” I took a wild guess.
“Yes,” she blushed, “is that a problem?”
“Nothing.” I said superficially, nothing if you stop acting like a know-all, I thought. The I blushed, realizing I’ve been acting like one too.
“What?” Emma asked, obviously looking at me blush to myself.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, “from now on, we’re allies.”
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- Find answers to these questions in the continuing chapters!