• I awakened at the age of 16 I guess I kind of figured it out when everywhere I walked things came to life dead flowers bloomed when I touched something that had died it would live again for a few minutes and die again. My family used their life savings, 2 gold coins to send me to get tested for being a mage. The test for mages is held in the city Athens if you passed you were sent to Atlantis to be taught magic, however if you failed it was up to you to find your own way home or make a life for yourself in Athens.
    The test was to be held in the Plato's Academy building. When I made it to the building I saw many people there, rich, poor, young, old, elf , gnome, human, dwarf, salamander, but to me there was one person who stood out. He looked about 6 feet tall short brown-red hair with a nicely shaven beard, he seemed to be one of the many people who lived on or near the Balkans, one of the Greek mountain ranges. Needless to say he was strapping “and cute” I thought, just as I thought that he looked over at me and I wondered “can some people hear others thoughts with magic?” if so he had just heard mine, I blushed furiously becoming beet red. He smiled at me and began walking over towards me! I looked down suddenly hoping that he hadn’t heard what I had thought, when I saw his hand, I looked up. He was standing there and was even more beautiful up close ,I shook his hand “hi my name is Astral of Dacia” I said, blushing then looking down again “Astral that’s a pretty name fit for a pretty lass such as yourself”, he said, my face turned a deeper red. “I am know as Darvin of Argalasti” he said then kissed my hand “I’m pleased to meet you” I said. “The pleasure is all mine” he replied
    At that point a mage appeared out of nowhere with a weird device that he talked through that made his voice louder, “gentlemen and ladies boys and girls the testing will begin now, you will be divided up by age groups a mage will come around and divide you do what they say or we will turn you away for another year”. I felt a tug on my shirt and looked down “excuse me miss your with my group” said a gnome half my size. He also went up to Darvin what appeared to be twin elves although I think one was a male and the other female, a male salamander and a few more humans. The gnome brought us to a room where he told us to wait till it was our turn.
    When it finally got to be my turn, I was third in line, I was led into a room where there was nine mages were waiting. “State what you can do and you will be tested” said the middle mage a middle aged elf by the look of it. “um well when I’m happy wherever I walk flowers sprout, when someone dies and I touch them with out my glove they come back to life for a brief period, I can see ghosts and sometimes when I touch something living with out a glove it will die”. “Well that’s a very weird combination of skills” said one of the female mages, I don’t know what she was but she was beautiful, “but it sounds like life magic or maybe earth magic so we’ll see what you can do with those two” ,she said pulling out two deck of cards. I went up and picked up the cards not knowing what to do.
    The cards looked to be really old and had a weird feel to them as I held them I felt like everything would be ok. I flipped the first card, the illustrations were so life like it was titled angles wings, there were weird symbols at the bottom and the more I looked at them I seemed to be able to read them “fly free on angles wings while others bear witness to your power fly free”, as I said those words wings sprouted from my back and I instantly knew how to fly so I did uncurled my wings and I flew. The feeling of wind in my hair was astounding I felt so free and at peace. Suddenly my wings disappeared and I fell lucky for me the earth mage made me a nice hill of soft sand to fall on, although it did kind of hurt. When my head stopped spinning and I became coherent enough to hear straight I realized they were talking about me “for a girl so young to be able to control magic as high a level as that as well as the ones before her of her age something big is going on but her stamina is horrible so she’ll definitely need to be trained obviously but we should see if she can use any other magic’s besides that of life. They next gave me fire, water, earth, air, space, and time magic and I couldn’t make anything happen with any of them. Then the vampire mage came up to me and said “let her try that of death”, and smiled at me showing his pointy white teeth. “It’s a waste of time” grumbled the dwarf who I now knew by this point was an earth mage, “let her try Grant, you never know what will happen”, replied the death mage calmly, “fine, what ever Charles, just get it over with” Grant said reluctantly. “My pleasure” said Charles handing me a single card. This card was cold and when I looked at the picture it sent a chill down my spine, the illustration was almost an exact duplicate of my hometown and the title of the card was “rat plague”, in it people everywhere were dead. I dropped the card, “is there another cards that wont cause bad things to happen that I can try?” I asked scared he’d say no, “why sure my dear” he said picking up the card I had just dropped and dusting it off, “here try this one it’s a low level but the repercussions are minimal”, I took the card from him this one was titled “ghost sight” “it seems harmless enough” I thought, I started to read the spell “ for those of you who still stay behind afraid to face the light may you be seen to those still on this side of the veil”, the air seemed to shimmer and where there wasn’t anyone before there stood a lot of people but there was something weird about them, and then I realized they were see-through! “What in the bloody hell is this” yelled Grant as he made a warding symbol against evil, “it seems she can use death magic” Charles said chuckling. A few minutes later just like the wings the ghosts slowly faded away.
    “It seems obviously you are a mage, you have a weird combination of powers never before seen together however, but none the less you have qualified you will be taken to wait with the others who have passed and when the tests are over you shall be sent to Atlantis to strengthen your powers and learn how to use them”. said the life mage Altera. “thank you, thank you all” I said so happy that I would be allowed to become a mage, and I hadn’t let down my family I was relieved.
    The same gnome who had led us into the room came to take me to another room where I saw Darvin again I was really happy that he had passed and judging by his smile I think he was glad I had passed too. He came over to me and congratulated me by kissing my hand again this time lingering a little longer than the last time. “I’m glad u passed Astral” he said ever so sweetly. Suddenly the gnome brought in another boy that I think was in my age group, his hair was the color of a red sunset so beautiful and vibrant. He came up to me and took my hand in his “hello beautiful, we meet again it must be due to destiny, let me introduce myself, I am Flare of Lemnos, the newest fire prime earth second mage”, “um I’m Astral of Dacia” I said taken aback by his lack of manners. Darvin came over and gently wrapped his arms around me and moved me away from Flare. “I’m sure the lady is glad to meet you but next time you need to use your manners when addressing her”, he said as he slowly let go of me. “Astral may I inquire what magic you can use?” asked a girl elf I had seen with another elf “oh forgive me my manners I am Lief of the Teutoburg Forest and behind me is my twin brother Lark, I am a space mage prime and a time mage second, where he is a life mage prime and a earth second” she said with a voice that sounded of leaves rustling in the trees on a windy day. “oh well they told me that I was a life mage prime and a death second” I said feeling embarrassed remembering how the teachers had said how peculiar that was. “Oh” Leif said looking embarrassed for asking, “really?, that sounds cool” said Darvin making me like him even more, “what’s your’s” I asked him “earth prime life second.” “Really” I said glad that we had something in common.
    As I said that the gnome who had taken us in to take the test and those of us who passed to the room we were in returned and said “You have all passed I extend to you my congratulations, now we must leave for our destination of Atlantis please all hold hands and create a circle around me and what ever you do don’t let go of the person next to you.” We did what he said he then started chanting and the ground just disappeared I was so startled I let go and as I did Darvin grabbed my hand and smiled at me as did Flare on my other side. And as soon as it all came to an end we were back on solid ground. I looked around me and what I saw was amazing, there were so many people and there were thirty-six different buildings and in the middle of them all was a collection of statues, I knew some of them like Hephaestus god of fire, Gaia god of earth, Undine goddess of the sea, and the goddess of life Aurora. “Well, here we are the great city of Atlantis where you will live from now on except when you are allowed to leave for visitation and after you’ve graduated to your fullest ability what ever that may turn out to be” said the gnome “um excuse me”, I said “what’s your name I’d like to know since you’ve been so kind to us” “Oh, well no one’s ever asked my name before when I’ve done my duty” he stammered “my names Shermin of Atlantis I’m a level five mage of space and a level two of time” he said. “well its really nice to meet you Shermin I’m Astral of Dacia” pleased to meet you” he shock my hand and said “hope to see you around” replied Shermin before he disappeared into think air just like he had appeared when we meet him.
    As soon as he disappeared the other age groups appeared with everyone who passed, there was less than half left then those who went to try, our age group seemed to be the biggest. After they showed up the mages who were there to test us showed up also in a circle around the mage of space, and if I recall it right I think it was Scavos. When they stopped being partially fuzzy Scavos said “congratulations to all of you who have made it here, you will soon be divided again and taken to your new house, your house leader will be here shortly to get you please wait till then by the statues of the nine gods, thank you” and then they all left. We all went over to the statues and little by little people were taken away by the head of their new households. It was soon down to Flare some the five other fire-earth mages and Darvin and the earth-life mages and me. A few minutes a rude little man came over and took the fire-earth mages with him, and soon the same happened to the earth-life mages, and as he left Darvin said “don’t worry sweetheart you’ll soon be with friends I’m sure of it” he said with a sweet sincere smile. I sat there by the statue of Aurora waiting and waiting when it started to rain. I was glad for the rain it his my tears, I had never felt alone before like I had now. I looked up at the statue of Aurora and prayed “dear goddess please watch over me and stand with me” I then felt a weird feeling pass over me. it was as if the holy mother Aurora herself had entered my body. Everything went black.





    Darvin
    I was really sad I had to leave Astral all alone, I wish I could have stayed with her. When we made it to the dorm it was huge it was a huge mansion with 300 or more rooms in the basement it looked like a training field with a lot of earth and plants, I saw one mage bring a flower to life and make it talk which kind of freaked me out. There were so many things happening that I didn’t expect to see I was so confused. Thankfully we made it to our rooms. I was put up with 2 dwarfs and a gnome. The gnome’s name was Agborde while the dwarfs were Simon and Shane. We each had our own room with in the room it was weird I wasn’t used to something like this. There was a kitchen where there was a stove made of metal and a strange white box that when you opened it, it was cold. Everything was strange and new but somehow I managed to fall asleep with the image of Astral in my head. The next day we were all woken up and taken to a building that I had missed the day before where we met all the mages who could use earth. One of the mages who stood out to me was a skinny dwarf mainly because, well he was skinny and a dwarf . The other dwarfs were making fun of how he was skinny when suddenly out of nowhere buckets of water fell on all of their heads. Everyone was laughing, I even found myself chuckling I went over to him to introduce myself because I liked him and as father said “always make friends Darvin because then when your woman gets kidnapped by the dragon you will have ally’s to call upon”. As I got closer I realized that he had black hair with a few silvers in his beard, when I was nearly right behind him he turned around and said “What do you want do you need to be taught a lesson too?” taken aback I replied “no I was amazed by what you did, my names Darvin, Darvin of Argalasti, what’s your name?” “my name is Zigfreid of Gaul” he said in a hearty voice, “its nice to meet you lad”, “you must be new” he continued “let me introduce you to a nice youngin her name is Tira of the Sarin family, you know of the Sarin family if your from Argalasti they own the mines don’t they?” Zigfreid said. When I saw Tari I was quite surprised, she was a elf most of the Sarin family were humans and they co-owned the mountain with my family. “um hi” she said In a timid voice “aren’t you the oldest son of Grunitle?” “yes I am but I don’t think we have met before” I replied. “oh we haven’t met before its just my older sister talks nonstop about you and how handsome you are and how one day she will marry you and he said he will talk to your father about the arrangements before I left” Tira replied so quietly I could barely hear her, it took a lot of effort not to show on my face how surprised I was by this news “you don’t say” I said trying to figure out a good excuse to stop my father from agreeing to the conjoining of the family’s, if I told him about Astral and tell him that I love her he might listen, but he’d be more willing to listen if there is some way she can be useful to the family, I had to find out more about her. ”Yo lad you ok?” Zigfreid asked wavering his hand in my face. “Huh oh yeah sorry I must have been spacing off huh?” I said, I then realized that he was standing on a block of earth that hadn’t been there moments before. “NEW RECRUITS FALL IN LINE NOW” screamed the dwarf who was in the testing room. “hello y’all I’m Grant and I’ll be your earth magic teacher. If you call me short or make jokes behind my back I will know and I will punt u 30 miles away and I guarantee that you will be hurt, I give you this warning only once. Ok now new recruits while you are here at the academy you will all be given a uniform one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen it will be sized to fit. You will be given seven it is your responsibility to wash it, yes even you men” he said as one of the males raised his hand “if I find out you aren’t doing your own laundry you will be punished, if you lose them you will be punished, if you forget or don’t wear then, yes you will be punished. Every two weeks after you have been here for three months you will be allowed to leave for the weekend to visit loved ones or just to get away from the academy. If you don’t come back on time mages will be sent to get you and when they get you and I assure you they will you will be punished. That is all, please line up to receive you uniforms” Grant said.
    I hadn’t realized before but everyone but the people who were at the testing the day before were wearing uniforms they were white with a gold trim made of silk much like a robe although the girls had only one strap I wonder what Astral would look like in it…. No I shouldn’t think of that its not fair to her innocence, and other males will be looking at her too. That thought made me a little angry and possessive I then realized that I wanted to be the only one to see her smile or to see her exposed shoulder I had fallen in love. “ Lad pay attention its your turn to get fitted for your uniforms stop staring off into space if you keep that up when you are on the battle field you will be dead, real soon .I guarantee that” Grant yelled at me. I took my uniforms and went over to the next table where we were to get our deck of spells. The girl passing them out was a gnome she was small with green eyes. “what’s your name” she asked “Darvin” I replied “oh, wow you get a deck of level five that’s unusual for beginners.” She said seemingly surprised. “Well here’s your deck of earth tomorrow you will be taught to use it and if u don’t understand anything yet its ok you’ll learn fast” she said winking at me. “Hurry up and move slow poke” said the guy behind me. I moved and on my way past her she said “good luck, you’ll need it while you are here”
    After everyone got their uniforms and spell decks Grant told where everything was, and where we would have classes for our other magic types. Life magic 101 would be held by the statues in the middle of the academy. I couldn’t wait till that class I would get to see Astral again, but class didn’t start until after lunch so I would have to wait.

    Astral

    I awoke in a white room on a soft mattress “Oh you’ve come to” said a young pixie “ I’m Amara Lee, I am the school nurse” she said all cherry like. “last night after you got here someone found you passed out by the statues he brought you here, come out, don’t be shy” a young human boy of who looked to be 12 or so. He came out and hid behind Amara Lee, which is a feat to do considering how short pixie’s are. “No one know’s his name or where he came from” Amara Lee said “late one night on the coldest night in winter 2 years ago I was walking along the shore practicing my water magic when I saw him wondering around with a wolf as soon as I saw him the wolf disappeared. I took him here but he couldn’t speak so we don’t know where he came from but he’s real nice, isn’t that right Lynner” Amara lee said ever so sweetly. He poked his head out from behind her looked at me smiled shyly and hid again. He was really cute like my younger brother who had died 4 years ago. “ Hi Lynner my name is Astral I’m really glad for what you did for me” I told him getting out of bed and kneeling down before him. He looked out at me and hid behind her dress again. “well I hope to see you around Lynner” I said and smiled at him. Amara Lee told me where to go to get to my first class which was life magic 101 it was apparently where I had been found the night before.
    Lynner escorted me to where class would be held. On our way there some mages came up to him and started to use what I think was wind magic against him. He was getting cuts but he just stood there and took it. I felt really bad for him so I tried to stop them I took off my glove and touched them all I don’t know what I did but they all fainted. I asked Lynner if he was ok and when I went to help him up all his cuts healed when my hand touched his. “tha-thank you” he said and once he did he looked confused. “Did you just speak ”I said really confused because of what Amara Lee had said that he couldn’t speak. He also seemed to be confused “u-u-um I think so” he said sounding really confused. I hugged him and told him its ok and then I asked “do you know how to check for a pulse?” he nodded. He went over to the guy’s who had passed out and looked at me again “they are alive but I think just barley I’ll go tell Amara Lee” he said and ran off. I had almost killed someone again why does this keep happening to me. I blacked out.

    Lynner
    As I ran off towards the nurses office I remembered that it was really far away and by the time I got there they would probably be dead. I turned around to go towards the nearest life magic house which was towards the way I came from and as I approached where they were I say Astral faint. Her body flashed a bright white and I felt a calm wash over me. I watched her touch the guy’s who would die soon as she did so I saw their souls return to their bodies as they did so flowers appeared in a 3 foot circle around her it was as if life its self sprouted from her. While I looked at her it was as if I could see Aurora herself embodied in her. I realized then that it was Aurora who was in Astral. I fainted.
    When I woke up I didn’t know where I was I was surrounded by birds all around me I was flying over the academy everyone was so small and so far down I felt so at peace and so free. I belonged here I wanted to stay here forever this is where I was meant to be. A female who looked just like the statue of the goddess of air in the middle of the academy. “Hello my dear child” she spoke in the voice of an angel “I am the goddess of air Aura, you seem to have met my older sister Aurora” she said smiling the gentlest smile I had ever seen. “I have been watching you for a while and I have decided that if you want I will lend you my power” she said “if you accept I will share your body with you and help you survive what is to come.” “you can share my body if that is what you wish goddess” I said ready for what came next. She smiled and entered my body, as we became one I could hear the voices of the wind and all animals who lived in peace with the wind. We were all connected as one.
    As I woke up I saw the light that had surrounded Astral slowly fade away as she fainted again.