I didn’t mention my concerns to anyone. Two days later, my father took me to go pick up my mother, who was just returning from a deployment. My injuries had healed enough that I could comfortably walk, but I still looked like hell. Father insisted that I wear nice clothing, even though I wanted to wear some old sweats, which should have been my first clue that more was going on. The second clue was that he was wearing his favorite expensive business suit.
We took the helicopter to go get her, so when we got close, I was able to see precisely where we were going. “That’s the Wizard’s Tower!” I said as we started coming in for a landing. The Wizard’s Tower is the headquarters of the Bureau of Magic, home to both the civilian Bureau and the Army’s elite Mystic Knights corps, the people in charge of dealing with magical threats in a military context.
When we landed, my mother was waiting for us. She was wearing the black dress uniform of the Mystic Knights. And sure enough, she had the emblem for a colonel emblazoned on her uniform. She hugged me and asked me if I was okay, then gave me a visitor ID badge and we headed inside.
As we walked through the halls, people greeted us as we passed. Some saluted my mother. Some even wished me luck as we went by. I thanked them and tried to hide my bewilderment. Something was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
We entered a large room set up like a courtroom, or maybe a military tribunal. Three people sat at an elevated table on the far side of the room. I recognized one of them as Director Sinclair. My parents led me to a seat in the middle of the room and stood just behind me.
Director Sinclair cleared his throat. “Good. Now that we’re all here, we can begin this hearing.”
Hearing?! What the hell? “Wait. Am I in trouble?” I asked.
“Not at all,” Director Sinclair replied. “You have been cleared of all charges by reason of self-defense. Due to evidence presented to us by the world’s foremost expert on magic, you have been classified as a nascent Sorceress, so your actions were judged only on the merit of the justifiability of having taken them. Since that was the case, no charges stand.”
“I’m a what?”
My father put his hand on my shoulder. “A nascent sorceress, pumpkin. Your blood contains the power to become a sorceress, but it hasn’t awakened, not fully, at least. That leaves you in an interesting position. Either we do nothing and allow your powers to slowly manifest, turning you into a sorceress, or we teach you to harness the power of your blood and you become something else. Something I’ve only heard of in legend.”
“Precisely,” the woman sitting to Sinclair’s right said. “The Archmage’s analysis suggests that you would likely have the aptitude required to become a hybrid of a sorceress and a wizard. We have already asked Congress to officially recognize both sorcerers and this new type of spellcaster, though I must apologize that we decided not to call it a ‘Nethyn Rulebender’.” The archmage?! Of course, everyone has heard of him, but no one knows who he is. All I knew for sure was that he was the most powerful and most knowledgeable spellcaster on earth, aside from the Fairy Blacksmith.
“That’s fine,” my father replied. “That’s just what the Church of the Dual God calls them. What did you end up going with?” Church of the Dual God? Was that some kind of secret society or something? I’d never heard of them, but then again, I didn’t realize my own mother was a colonel in the Mystic Knights.
“Arcanist,” the man on Sinclair’s other side replied. “We felt that had a better ring to it.”
I didn’t want to interrupt, but I couldn’t help it. “So I’m going to become one of these Arcanists?” I asked.
“That’s up to you,” Director Sinclair said. “As it stands, we can’t limit the powers your blood will give you, so you might find that you’re able to access restricted spells. However, if you were to become an Arcanist, you’ll be just as limited as a wizard by the license you obtain. In fact, for all purposes, you’ll be treated as a wizard. You’ll just fuel your spells differently. The choice is yours, but realize that you may not be able to go back and choose differently later.”
I didn’t hesitate. “I want to be a wizard. If this Arcanist thing is effectively the same, then that’s what I want to do.”
My mother squeezed my shoulder. “You’re sure, baby?” I nodded.
The three people on the tribunal whispered amongst themselves for a moment. Director Sinclair cleared his throat. “Lyriana O’Halloran, please stand.” I did as he said. “In light of the Archmage’s recommendations, it is the judgment of this tribunal with the full support of the President of the United States that you are hereby granted a graduated ‘Class S – Unlimted’ license. You will begin at ‘Class B’ and attain higher ranks at times determined by your instructor. Be sure to listen to him at all times, since he holds one of three ‘Class S’ licenses in the entire world.” He smiled. “Actually, I guess that’s four, now.”
My knees felt like they were going to give out on me. I had a Class S license? And he said only three people in the world had them before? I knew that the head of the Bureau had one, as did the leader of the Mystic Knights. That meant my tutor couldn’t be either of them, based on how Director Sinclair had said it, since it was someone other than him and the general in charge of the Mystic Knights was a woman. It could only be one person.
The Archmage himself would be teaching me?! Holy crap!
Out in the hallway, my parents gave me some big hugs. “We’re proud of you,” Mama said.
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work,” Daddy added. “But I know you’re up to it. You can be pretty amazing when you put your mind to it.” I’m sure he was just saying that because he’s my father and that’s the kind of thing they’re supposed to say, but it made me feel good to hear anyway.
A man in a business suit pulled Daddy aside as we walked past. After a few moments of talking with the man, he returned. “Something wrong?” Mama asked.
“This is why I don’t stop by here more often,” Daddy replied. “It’s not a big deal, but apparently the quantum computer’s drawing twice as much power as normal and they’d like Juiz and I to look at it to see if the VI has spontaneously gained self-awareness.” He sighed. “No matter how many times I try to explain to them that the standard design of quantum computers isn’t fit to house an AI and that you need a properly designed blue box, they still worry.” He rolled his eyes. “Sorry,” he said, looking apologetic.
Mama hugged him. “Go ahead. I’ll take Lyriana to go meet the Archmage.”
“Thanks,” he said. He gave me a quick hug. “Good luck, pumpkin.”
Instead of taking the helicopter, Mama took me for a ride in one of the new Mark III Night Witches, the top of the line fighter-bombers manufactured by my family’s companies for the US military. We actually got clearance to do a low orbit flight. Apparently we were traveling across the country, but it only took a couple minutes. The g-force was pretty strong, but tolerable due to some kind of magi-tech inertial damping.
I didn’t even know Mama could fly a jet, much less one of the most advanced planes in existence. I was learning a lot about my family. Her fondness for Wagner barely even rated as a new discovery, though I’m not sure what music it was that played when we were in orbit. I should ask sometime.
We touched down on a tower in the center of some kind of campus in the woods. “Welcome to the Violet Citadel, center of Dalaran Academy,” Mama said.
I was instantly suspicious. “Dalaran Academy,” I repeated.
“Your father paid for the place, so he got to name it.”
“Oh.” Yeah, I guess that made sense. We owned everything else. Why not some top secret magic academy? At this point, I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn we owned all of Australia. Though as much as Daddy talks about the “horrible, bad, no-good” critters that live there, I doubt he’d want to own it.
We entered a large door and stepped into a long hallway whose walls were monitors of some kind. On them were displays of tranquil images from nature, mostly waterfalls, though there were also images from space. Music was playing, a curious tune I didn’t recognize that was being played by an orchestra.
“Yet fleeting is the reverie,” a voice whispered in the hallway. I stopped and looked around, but I couldn’t find the source. I could have sworn it had been right next to me, but there was no one there. Perhaps it was one of those directed speakers they use for private advertisements in malls now?
“Who said that?” I asked. Mama just shrugged.
We walked further. “When moon from shadow has egressed,” the voice said again. I stopped and looked around again. There wasn’t anyone there, and I couldn’t see any speakers. So we kept walking. This hall was much longer than it should have been, based on the outside of the building. “Guided forth anew by light made manifest.”
Someone had to be messing with me. I just kept walking like I didn’t hear it. After a time, we finally reached the end of the hall and found ourselves before a door. The door was made of something that looked like artificial ivory and was inset with a full tapestry of carvings. It was too much to take in all at once, so I focused on the words.
“Archmage KluYa,” I read aloud.
Mama patted my back. “Go in. He’s expecting you. Follow the stream.”
I entered a massive room – it had to be bigger than the building we were in allowed for – that looked more like the outdoors than the inside. The vaulted ceiling looked like the open night sky and there was a babbling brook that flowed past the door and through the wall, which wasn’t there, only the door.
I followed the brook through a sparse forest, past a copse of trees and into a green meadow. From there, I could see a hill, atop which was some kind of stone gate. That seemed like the right way, so I went up the hill.
At the top, I found a courtyard. Seated on the ground in the middle was a meditating figure with his back to me. He was wearing a wide brimmed hat and a duster. Both were purple and the coat was covered in silver stars shaped like constellations. I recognized it from somewhere, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I often really wish I had inherited Daddy’s eidetic memory.
“So, at long last, the sorceress comes to meet me. I knew this day would come. From the day it was realized that you were an Aasimar, I knew you would be coming.”
An Aasimar? I had the blood of angels? I immediately thought back to those conspiracy theories about my parentage. Could they be true? “I was told that you would teach me to harness my powers to be a wizard.”
“If I must, then I will. But I suspect you’d find more enjoyment elsewhere. I have read your file. You lack the discipline required to be a wizard. Go be a fighter pilot or something.”
Give up on my dream of becoming a wizard? No, that wasn’t going to happen. “If you don’t want to bother, then fine. But I’m not giving up on this. I’ll find another way. I’ll join a school or find some other tutor. If I’m such a waste of your time, then so be it. I’ll prove you wrong.”
“You’ll find no one as powerful as I am to teach you.”
I was getting really angry. “You think you’re hot stuff?! Well, you’re nothing. There are those stronger than you!”
He turned to face me. He was an old man with a long white beard. He had the audacity to laugh in my face. “More powerful? Name one,” he cackled.
“The Fairy Blacksmith, for one.”
He laughed so hard that I thought he might be unable to breathe. That just made me angrier. “That third rate sorceress? You might as well have said that you were going to dust off the corpse of Merlin to teach you, for all the good she could do.”
“Third rate sorceress?! How dare you! She defeated Merlin! We all watched it.”
He laughed again. “Oh, how youth is wasted on the young. You think that was the Fairy Blacksmith? You think Rhoslyn Silverdew did that? That wasn’t her. That was ME! Observe!” He snapped his fingers and his form changed, becoming that of a half-elven woman. Then again, and this time he was someone else. And again, this time becoming an orc. And again, becoming a gnome before finally returning to his natural shape.
He made a point. It was certainly conceivable that someone with that kind of shape-changing magic could have done it. But how would he have known what she did? Perhaps he had just talked to her beforehand? But still, that attitude. I wasn’t sure I could deal with learning from someone like that.
“Point. But I just don’t know if I can learn from someone like you.”
“So you’ll give up on your dream that easily?”
“NEVER.” Not in a billion years.
He cackled. “Well, then, if I can’t convince you to give up, then I guess we’re stuck with each other. Time for your first lesson.”
“What’s my first lesson?”
“Simple. SURVIVE!” He cast a spell and suddenly there was a very large red dragon standing next to him. It looked hungry.
“You don’t expect me to believe that you’d actually attack your student, do you?” I began to ask, but I only got to ‘expect’ before the dragon swiped at me and I jumped back reflexively. “What the shit?!” I shouted, diving down the hill at full speed, looking for a place where I could bottle neck the beast and defend myself. I also kept an eye out for a weapon, though I didn’t see anything in my immediate area.
I dove headlong through bushes. I could feel heat from the dragon’s breath behind me. I managed to avoid directly being hit, but the trees and bushes didn’t. A quick glance over my shoulder told me that the greenery was aflame.
No plan, up against a superior foe, things turned out as they were probably destined. I found myself with my back to a cliff and a hungry dragon advancing on me. Nowhere to run, I struck back, unleashing my power. Black motes covered the dragon, but it didn’t seem to bother it.
I braced myself for the end, but a winged figure swooped from the sky and stood between me and the dragon. I could only see the figure’s back, but it had the clear shape of a woman and steel skin. A glowing halo and wings of steel feathers told me that this was some kind of angel. The dragon looked at the figure and obviously decided that it was no longer a good idea to attack, instead flying off.
The archmage was standing behind the spot the dragon had been before. The angel woman marched over to him and lightly slapped him upside the head. “What is wrong with you?! You summoned a dragon to attack a novice?”
He rolled his eyes. “I can’t summon a dragon. It was an illusion. See?” He snapped his fingers and the dragon in the sky disappeared.
“We’re going to have a talk about this later.”
Her voice sounded familiar. But that couldn’t be right. “Mom?”
The angelic figure turned around. Her skin and wings returned to flesh and feathers, but the glowing halo remained unchanged as she hugged me to her. “You okay, baby?” I could only nod.
Sudden realization dawned. I looked at her, then at the archmage. The height was right. But that was impossible. No, it couldn’t be. It absolutely couldn’t be. There was no possible way. It just had to be false.
But the archmage winked at me. “You know that anime everyone thinks is a complete fabrication based on conspiracy theories? Turns out it’s about ninety seven percent accurate,” he said with a grin. He pulled off his hat and suddenly my father was standing there. “And I call this… THE ARISTOCRATS!”
It was too much for my mind to process. “A da bwah. Hibbe gah,” I stuttered eloquently. Then I fainted.
I woke up a couple minutes later with my head in mama’s lap. “You okay?” she asked, her halo thankfully gone. I was still feeling a little unsteady.
“I think so.”
“Good. Your father would like to apologize for scaring you with the dragon and making you faint.”
“What? The dragon didn’t make me faint. That was SO COOL!”
“Wait, then why did you faint?”
It blew my mind. How could she not see? “You’re… YOU! My mom comes from another planet! My dad flew through space on the back of a monster! You’re an ACTUAL angel! He’s the world’s most powerful wizard!”
Daddy laughed. “Technically, your mother’s an Aasimar. The angelic blood of her ancestors peeks through. And truth be told, so are you.” I wasn’t sure if he intended to rhyme on purpose.
What? “Me?”
“Yes. Remember your ‘mutations’? That’s your celestial blood. Interestingly, your dominant celestial traits appear to be tied to a different kind of celestial than your mother’s traits are.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Your mother shows a subdued version of traits associated with archons, celestial beings of law and order. You, on the other hand, have traits more attuned to those of a peri, celestial descendants of fallen angels who work tirelessly to fight evil as penance for their ancestors’ sins. It presents in your affinity for spicy foods and is also evident in your eyes.” My eyes? They were just a normal deep green. “Actually, I’ve been keeping their true nature hidden with magic,” he said, answering my unspoken question. “They kinda glow in the dark.”
“Aww, I bet that looks really cool.”
My parents exchanged a glance. They did that sometimes. It seemed like they could hold entire conversations with just a few seconds of eye contact. “He could stop hiding them, if you want,” Mama said. “Just tell everyone it’s a side effect of your magic awakening.”
“Can I also get cybernetic hair color implants?”
“On your eighteenth birthday,” they said simultaneously. Obviously they had already discussed that one.
I knew that if they were in agreement like that, there was no arguing. Time to change the subject. “So, what was the purpose of the dragon, anyway?”
“I wanted to see what your instincts would be,” Daddy said. “Would you try to take on something too powerful for you, panic or try evasion while searching for a more advantageous spot to fight from? Also, I recorded it for Youtube.”
I think he was joking about that last one. I hope he was joking about that last one. “Okay, then one more question. What’s the point of that other dragon?”
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