Arcane

Chapter 1

The powerful, heartwarming feeling Sora felt when she heard the words she'd been so exhilarated to hear since she was accepted to Malos Institute, she finally heard. The Headmaster, Headmaster Giffin, and his powerful voice announced throughout the auditorium,

"Welcome Initiates to Malos Institute, we hope you have a great three years with us!" When Sora heard these words she had a grand mix of feelings; anxious, nervous, proud, but as well as worried and afraid. When the unique Initiate girl compared herself to who she was this morning and how she felt, she had changed.

The quiet, blue-haired girl was woken early that fall morning as the sun came up untroubled. A lucent tone of voice belonging to her overprotective mother causing Sora to rouse.

"Honey, time to wake up." At first, it had caused Sora to release a groan of distaste until she realized what that day had been.

As soon as her mother had left, she jumped out of bed and hurriedly opened the drawer containing her crisp, new uniform to her new school, Malos Institute. She took in the sight of it once more, something she did almost every day, still astonished to believe she'd somehow managed to convince her parents to allow her to go to the prestigious institute.

The uniform itself was basic; black pants, white collared shirt, and a dark purple blazer with the emblem of the school over her heart on the left side. The emblem, a fierce hawk that looked prepared to attack anyone who came within range of the keen animal. When the bewildered girl put the uniform on, she had two emotions as soon as she looked at herself in the mirror hanging in the connected suite to her bedroom.

The first; realization. It was truly the day this fourteen-year-old girl would be able to learn in a school environment with students like her; ones with umbras. An umbra was a tattoo across the user's arms, neck, and back that grants the owner a single power that no one alive has. Sora was unique though, she was one of the three percent of their population that contained an umbra that had more than one ability with it. She also was born with one which was uncommon but not as rare as her three abilities. That was why most went to Malos, to gain their umbras.

Malos Institute was a school set up by the government for citizens between the ages of fourteen and sixteen to gain their umbra then learn to control and use it. Of course, the government also allowed those who objected to the idea of becoming a warrior or government official to still learn to control and use their umbras and take classes more subjective to Logicae, the path of a simple, ordinary citizen whereas the majority wanted to use their powerful tattoos to become warriors choosing the Actum path.

The second emotion; Her fear and comfort. Sora had never once told anyone about her abilities the only ones who knew were her parents. Even if she had friends she would never dare speak or even so much as hint about her umbra. Why? If the government found out, who knows what could happen to her. It wasn't illegal for her to have multiple abilities despite some of the public disagreeing but her parents had always overstressed to her about the dangers. They would use her as a mutant, force her to do inhuman acts, the one that frightened Sora the most was the rumor of exposure. 

The girl hated attention despite being an only child she would always feel uncomfortable if the spotlight was on her. If she was exposed for her abilities she would carry the stares and thoughts of every citizen not only in her country, the Dark Country, but other countries as well. The thought sent a shiver down Sora's back.

As she spent another minute gazing into the mirror at herself she forgot she had to keep her long, thick, aqua blue hair down to cover her collarbone. Her collarbone had her abnormal umbra resting on it, something that never happened but because of her skill with her umbra's powers; teleportation, mind, and darkness it stretched up both of her arms and was close to meeting and knitting together on her upper back. She was tall, around five foot six and slim which always caused a struggle to find clothes that fit her properly. Her uniform was baggy and she had to wear a belt in order to keep the black pants from falling.