Prompt: In a kingdom of elemental magic you gain the ability to control all four elements through an ancient artifact. But this newfound power comes with a price.
Austyn Merritt woke to the sound of the morning bells. He groaned, flipping over and trying to sleep, knowing his efforts were useless. Reluctantly he got up, and after halfheartedly trying to pat his hair down, he opened the blinds and headed out the door.
As he walked through the sun-filled hallways he spotted Flynn and they headed toward the cafeteria and talked about what they should do for their free period. Flynn had been Austyn's first and only friend since he joined Excerin's. After quickly shoveling the remaining pancakes, he sprinted up to his room to get ready to go to the professional tournament in the city.
The main entertainment in the city was mostly comprised of mages doing duels, sometimes it was one team against another but most of the time it was just one on ones. As soon as Austyn entered the room he could tell something was off. The dust that had been still before was swirling around the room. The dust only swirled around the table, which could have easily been calmed by an air mage or that meant the mage was still there and didn't have enough time to calm it.
He looked at the table and saw an item on the table. It was perfectly circular and had the four symbols of the elements on each side of the circle. It was made most likely out of bronze, the best metal to conduct magic, and had a multi-colored eye in the middle. He touched it hesitantly and as soon as his finger brushed it, he was transported to another world.
It took him a second to realize that this was the...thing's mind. He looked around and found himself in a huge space tinged slightly purple. The only thing that he could see was a huge glowing sphere with multiple rings rotating around it, with a golden hue illuminating the area.
It spoke as he stepped forward, "I've been expecting you Austyn, what took you so long?"
"What are you?" he questioned, taking another step forward.
The thing tsked in disappointment, "You consider me a thing?"
"Well, you don't look remotely human or like any animal. So what do you...do?"
"I like to consider myself a charm. One with the ability to give you all four elemental powers."
His eyes bulged out in surprise, "All four?" The thing nodded and returned me to where Austyn was standing before. Before he had the chance to think further on the subject, Flynn knocked on the door impatiently and he quickly brushed his teeth and put the charm in his pocket, and opened the door for Flynn.
"You ready?" he asked. Austyn nodded in reply and they headed out. When they arrived in the city you could tell that the stands were packed full of people. While Flynn went to get our tickets Austyn pulled out the charm and tried out its powers.
After trying all four separately, Austyn combined all four making a mini hurricane and added chunks of earth into the mix.
He had just added fire when Austyn spotted Flynn coming over, "They sold out." He looked disappointed as we headed back.
"What's that?" Flynn asked pointing to the charm.
"Just something I found," Austyn said defensively ready to protect it at all costs. As soon as he looked away the anger faded and he wondered why he had just protected it instead of telling him about it and giving it to the mages.
When they got inside Austyn said bye to Flynn and headed straight to the library where he immediately started researching old artifacts that could give the user multiple elements to control.
After finishing the book Austyn also found that most people claimed it carried bad luck and that you became addicted to the item the more you used it. Disgusted with how he had used such a horrible item, he closed the book and headed outside. He quickly made sure no one was around and threw it into the ocean and walked away.
Austyn wasn't even halfway when he quickly ran back and found it laying in the sand, waiting for him. He sighed wishing he could stop my addiction to it. He managed to only stop using its powers. Afterward, he decided he should try to tell Flynn as quickly as he could about the cursed item. As soon as he opened his door he quickly spilled everything out about what and how he found it.
"That's a lot to take in," he commented as soon as Austyn was done. Just then Austyn cramped over from the pain in his head. Flynn quickly assessing that it had something to do with the item quickly tossed it into his room, locked the door, and dragged a struggling Austyn behind.
Since Austyn's head was still blossoming with pain Flynn easily dragged him towards the hospital wing and re-told Austyn's story to the nurse. Austyn was dragged into one of the beds and the healers came in a tried to figure out how to stop it.
Meanwhile, Austyn was trying to form a plan on how to actually destroy the thing. So slowly, a plan formed, interrupted by another blast of pain.
"I need the artifact," he gasped, and while Flynn hesitated for a bit he knew Austyn had figured out a plan and he quickly rushed and grabbed the cursed artifact, being careful not to use its powers or touch it.
Austyn grabbed the artifact and quickly started to use all the elements to slowly chip away and finally destroy the thing. With the artifact's last sherds of power though, he dragged Austyn towards the point of obliviation and they both fell into darkness.
A glowing light brightened as he slowly opened his eyes, not expecting to be alive after he had...died. He kept walking towards the bright orb and saw memories flashing by, some were his and some from the perspective of others.
As soon as he touched it, his eyes in the actual world flew open and he was congratulated by Flynn and the other healers for destroying the artifact and surviving even after it had killed him. Austyn smiled to himself, knowing that a silly artefact wasn't going to stop him.
