Guardians Of The Arcane Chronicles

Chapter 13: Moving Forward

When the snow dissipated into the summer night, Gaius found himself standing on a skyscraper overlooking the cacophony of neon lights that stretched out almost indefinitely. Sirius City was large, to say the least. And that was no surprise, since it was the capital of the richest country in the world, Surone.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Would that his burden be shared amongst his people, even if it were merely for a brief repose."

Gaius looked grimly at the Mage looking into the distance. Though still adorned in his impressive looking presidential robes, President Cosmo Benedictus looked wearier than usual. He turned to the boy.

"Before anything, I'd like to apologise," Benedictus said. "I haven't been able to find out anything substantial about this spellcraft."

"Substantial? That means you did find out something at least, didn't you?"

"Clever boy. Though I do hope you're not expecting too much." The Mage put his hands behind his back. "I managed to trace the magic back to the Angelo syndicate. Titus and Lucia Angelo, to be more specific. I'm sure you've already met them; Alcaeus and Elpis have been reporting to me."

"They're metas, aren't they?" Gaius queried. "Metas cannot activate spellcrafts; what use is it to them?"

"You were a meta as well, weren't you? And how did you become a magi?"

"You mean... They are trying to use the spellcraft to give metas the ability to wield arcani?"

"That is one possibility, yes." Benedictus nodded. "Though I can't fathom where they would have gotten the knowledge to do that in the first place. But enough about me, did you manage to find out anything about Alcaeus?"

"Other than he's trying his best to help society, nothing," Gaius said frankly. "The last remaining tome is not in his house; I've checked it thoroughly. And he claims that a magi dressed in all white took the book during his mission."

"Nonsense." The Mage waved his hand dismissively. "He told me that lie before too. No magi can wield magic from all classes with such proficiency, unless he draws power from reality itself like the wizard class. Which last I heard, went extinct some two hundred years ago."

"Or like me. The magical energy that dwells within me is ancient reality magic, is it not?" The Sorcerer folded his arms. "It works on the most fundamental principle of arcani: Reality manipulation."

"I see you have been making good use of my library, Gaius." Benedictus chuckled, before his expression turned serious again. "It will be bad news indeed if it's true that the spellcraft can grant metas the ability to use magic. The balance of this world will be upset beyond recovery."

"Speaking of which, I'm beginning to think there's a lot more to our world than what I have been told." Gaius was glaring at him. "Our schools haven't exactly been teaching us the true history of the world, have they? General Theodore Faustus is a lot more than a mere general, isn't he? Why did you alter our syllabus?"

There was a dangerously long pause.

"Truly nothing gets past your incredible perception, does it? I chose right to make your acquaintance." The President let out a short, dry laugh. "Order and chaos are natural laws of the world, my boy. I only did what I needed to preserve its delicate balance."

"By fulfilling the General's pact in his place and maintaining magi superiority?" Gaius' voice was rising quickly. "Is that why despite all these years, metas have known nothing else but more and more hardship?"

"There's always a reason as to why things settle down the way they are. To challenge it would be to risk chaos." Benedictus remained calm despite the boy's outburst. "Think for a moment, what would happen if metas found out that the magic we wield originated from the murder of their kind. What will metas do, after being oppressed for so many centuries, once they regain their superiority over non-metas?"