Arcana Academy

0 - Prologue

In a small town in North Carolina, a young black teenager named Zay was on the bus, heading to school. Everyday was the same for Zay, he would keep his head down and would not speak unless spoken to. He was antisocial but not by choice. He wanted friends, but no one ever acknowledged him.

One day in between classes, Zay was at his locker grabbing his things when his bully approached and slammed his locker shut.

"Look, I am not in the mood to deal with you today, so just leave me alone," Zay said.

Zay was going through a lot that day. His parents were heading down the path of divorce, his grades were dropping, and he was at a late family member's funeral a few days prior.

"Or what? What you gonna do?" asked the bully. "Oh, right. You can't do shit to me! Hey, tell your mom she can come over to my place. I'll treat her better than your bitch-ass daddy did!"

That comment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Zay's anger got the best of him. He looked at his bully in anger, Zay's eyes glowed gold. Zay was about to slap the bully, but the swing of his hand sent the bully flying down the hallway. Zay's eyes returned to normal as he was assessing the situating. He knew his hand never connected with the bully's face, and he was wondering what he did all day.

Later on, Zay and the bully were in the principal's office, where they were watching footage of the situation from one of the school's security cameras. From the angle of the camera, it looked like Zay slapped the bully, but Zay protested that he didn't touch the bully at all. At the end of the conversation, the principal gave the two a week of detention.

The next day, during class, Zay was sitting on his desk, and the teachers had stepped out of the room. While the teacher was gone, a balled-up pieces of paper was flying around the classroom. Zay got annoyed when the paper was getting closer and closer to him. On instinct, Zay began to swat the paper away. The piece of paper hit the bully. He turned in anger and asked, "Who threw that at me?"

Every student in the room pointed at Zay. The bully got up and approached Zay.

"You got a lotta nerve throwing that piece of paper," said the bully.

"I didn't throw it at you," Zay replied. "I was swatting it away from me, and it so happened to hit you. Stop making a big deal outta it, or do you want a repeat of what happened yesterday?"

"I don't care how strong you are, I'll still beat your ass!"

Zay's eyes glowed gold again as the bully raised his fist. When the bully punched Zay in the face, Zay sat completely still, unaffected by the punch. The bully, however, was in excruciating pain from the punch.

"Jesus! What the hell?!" the bully cried out.

Zay, for some random reason, notices a tiny mustard stain on the bully's shirt.

"Yet again, you're in pain. Damn, that's a huge mustard stain," Zay joked.

The stain on the bully's shirt suddenly was larger, taking up the entirety of the shirt. The entire class started to laugh at the bully, causing him to sit down in shame.

After school, Zay went home, feeling accomplished about stopping his bully. Although he felt great, he also wanted to learn more about how he was able to do those unexplained things. He sat in his room and looked at a glass cup.

"I was able to throw people without touching them, so can I do it with random objects?" Zay asked himself.

He stared at the cup, focusing heavily on it, "Lift it up, don't make it fall. Go from the window to the wall."

His father, Elijah, stood in the doorway and saw the cup fly across the room on its own.

"Did you just...?" asked Elijah.

"Dad, uh... I-I can explain!" Zay said nervously. "I-I was angry, and I threw the cup, yeah!"

"You don't have to lie to me. I just saw you use magic to throw that cup?"

"Magic? Magic doesn't exist!"

"Yes, it does."

Zay looked at Elijah with confusion in his face.

"Zay, there's something I gotta tell you," Elijah said. "Come with me to the living room."

Minutes later, Zay was sitting on the couch, Elijah sitting on his left.

"There's no easy way of saying this, but..." Elijah took a deep breath. "Zay, you're not fully human. You'rev an half-elf, a human-elf hybrid."

"I'm not fully human?!" Zay asked in shock and slight anger. "I look human, I feel human."

"That's because half-elves have developed more human features over the years, but as you get older, you'll gain more elvish features. When you reach fifty, your ears will be more pointy, and when you reach a hundred, you'll get elf skin. By the time you reach 150 years old, you'll look like a true half-elf."

Zay became more confused after hearing the drastic increase of age, "Can we just start from the beginning? Where did we come from?"

"So, to my knowledge, there are two realms: the human realm and the magic realm. We live in the human realm, where real magic doesn't exist. When magic-users learned about this realm, they began to travel here. A couple hundred years ago, elves traveled here and enjoyed humans so much that they started to live here; some got to the point where they wanted to have families with humans. Half-elves has been around for hundreds of centuries," Elijah explained. "Over the years, half-elves were gifted with the ability to use magic. With that gift, your ancestors were able to help both full humans and full elves. Nowadays, half-elves are not as common. To our knowledge, our family is the last half-elf family in the human realm. There might be more, but we're not sure. As far as us, I am fully human, while your mother was an elf. But now that you're a magic-user like your mother, you need to learn the basics of spell-casting. After that, you will be attending a new school in the fall, Arcana Academy."

"A new school?" Zay repeated. "But we just got here!"

"Well, this new school is for magical beings. This school teaches many how to cast spell, create potions, how to fight, things like that. And you can always visit me at anytime... as long as it's not during class."

"What do you mean? I'll be staying with you, right?" Zay asked.

"Arcana Academy is a boarding school, so you would move into your own dorm," Elijah explained. "But trust me, you'll enjoy the magic realm. Treat this school like a, um... like a college!"

"Okay, I guess..." Zay sounded a bit confused and uncomfortable about the idea. "But you said my mother was an elf. What happened to her? Why haven't she been around?"

"Your mother went back to her home place to visit family, but... she never returned. But she did tell me that if anything were to happen to her, I should watch over you until you're able to use magic. It was your mother's plan for you to attend Arcana Academy."

"Well, while I'm there I can learn more about what happened to her."

Elijah gave Zay a soft smile, "You will..."

Over the months, Zay has been training with his parents to harness his magic. As he was training, Elijah noticed Zay's golden eyes when he used magic.

When it came down to Arcana Academy's Opening Convocation, Zay was in his room, packing his suitcase with clothes and hygiene products.

"Need some help?" Elijah asked as she entered.

"Nah, I think I got everything," Zay responded.

"Not quite. Here, take this."

Elijah handed Zay a tiny gift-wrapped present, telling him not to open it until he gets to his new room.

After packing Zay and his parents are in the living room, a full-length mirror was standing where the coffee table should be at. Zay was instructed to walk through the mirror, and it would send him to his new school. He said his farewells and slowly stepped through the mirror. Seconds later, Elijah pulled out a pocket mirror and spoke to it like a phone.

"Hey... Zay just left Arcana... Thank you..." he said before ending the call. "Zay please be safe... and have fun."