Arcane Error

1: Memories of Home

Ace's Perspective

Ever since I was young, I have been able to do things my mother told me were 'Extraordinary'. We lived in an old village community, filled with others like us. We all lived in a secluded island that was filled with forests, not jungle. Nothing tropical at all. If anything the opposite, during summer our days would be pretty hot, but the nights would be chilly. Our winters hit hard, so we were accustomed to the cold habitat we had thrived in for many centuries.

My family was everyone who lived there, we were all a clan of spell casters (spell casters are what we called them). A clan was a group of people who had descended with the same teachings and magical talent or skills. Certain clans of spell casters could perform certain techniques, while others had no specialties at all.

Our clan? We were actually very close to nature. Our Clan Name, which everyone who lived there shared, was Saol. We were all of Celtic descent, of course, and leaving the island was strictly prohibited. Then again it was for our safety, so I never really thought too much about it.

When I had been younger, we allowed for an outsider to gain entry into the island. He was an odd man, with platinum white hair and golden eyes. He had tan skin, and my mother told me that he had been a spell caster of great importance.

When my Mother and my Father met, my Father told my mother that his name was 'Demetri', but he refused to tell her his Clan's Name, so I'm unsure as to what half of my blood comes from. Internet was a new thing as well, he brought it to our community through the use of many parts and knowledge of how to create a generator for electricity. Usually we would just store electricity by casting shock spells upon special crystal containers that sealed spells within.

All in all it was a lot easier, and the island was becoming more modern- but the village elders dislikes this change, banning this new technology while claiming that it was 'unsafe and distracting'. I never really cared for the banned technology, but I never really met my Father either.

He died of mana poisoning when I was still inside my mother's belly. Mana Poisoning is when a spell caster takes in too much Mana, not allowing their body to have anywhere to store it and blocking up all of the flow of your Mana. Its a rather interesting concept. I wonder how my life would have been if he had of never died.

Our Clan, the Saol Clan, has the unsettling ability to take in Mana from the world around us, which we must expel every once in a while or else we suffer from Mana Poisoning. At the same time, Mana Poisoning works differently for us. Instead of poisoning our bodies, it poisons our minds.

It causes schizophrenia in some cases, but mostly it causes us to become enraged once we've bottled up our emotions for long enough... so being very outgoing and sharing is how my clan kept themselves healthy. Nobody had secrets. Everybody got along, even if they did not agree with another person's beliefs. Now that I think about it, it was rather peaceful.

As the spawn of a Saol Clan member, and a Non Clan-Related member, I was looked down upon by my piers and the adults. The Elders accepted me though, and my mother always told me that I was 'different' and that 'being different is the best way to be, being normal sucks'.

My Mother.. she was always so caring.

As a child, the island elders held competitions for us young spell casters. This was a way to show off what you had accomplished and learned over the school year (yes, school year. We had school, it just had different names for different grades).

Everybody was showing off their newly learnt spells. One kid from my class, a popular boy with black and spiked hair, manifested a small orb of flames that circled around him. Granted he used no magic circle, which signified he was enhanced for his age, but he still had to use a wand.

Wands and Staffs were essential for spellcasting without magic circles, they were the only other way than casting with a circle that you could manipulate Mana effectively.

After the fireball act, the boy dispersed the flame and left the stage, scoffing at me as he walked by. But, I payed him no attention. Unlike my clan, who showed their emotion quite clearly, I disliked showing anything towards anyone other than my Mother. Everyone except for her for the same bored tone of voice, along with the same lazy facial expression- always making it seem like I was disinterested.

It was my turn, so I walked up onto the stage, turned to the audience and gave them a slight bow in honor before standing up straight. My looks were mostly from my mother, I had pale skin from her, and my body was slightly more feminine (I have a butt, which other guys can't say much about, huh?), I inherited my father's Platinum White hair, along with his broad shoulders (that didn't really show since I was so young), for some reason my eyes were a Violet Purple color- which didn't make sense because neither my Father nor my Mother had purple eyes.

I closed my eyes, focused incredibly hard- ignoring the chatter and giggles from the croud, there was no magic circle in place below me, and I had no wand or staff, so doing this was literally impossible. Yet I dared push on.

I opened my eyes, and watched as everyone gasped, seeing my eyes become a glowing Amethyst Purple. The wind picked up in speed, swirling around me as the wooden stage below me shook. In front of me were 40 lb rocks that I had set down prior to beginning my act, these rocks floating into the air slowly and swirling with the small vortex around me.

Without realizing what I was doing, but trusting myself I began to stop the flowing wind and began to imagine the rocks being effected by erosion. The rocks then becoming sand that swirled into a small statue of the village elders.

Once the silence become slightly scary, I let go of the spell and the sand fell to the ground, me taking a breath and blinking to reveal my normal Violet eyes.

The Clan was so still that I thought somebody had cast a time stopping spell- but suddenly one of the village elders began to clap, afterwards the whole Clan slowly followed along.

That same night I was called into the Elders Council Hall, them giving me a talk about how my abilities shouldn't be taken lightly, even if they just shook the floor and eroded some rocks. They were impressed by my odd skill, and I was kind of proud of it... I never should have awakened that skill though, for it led to....

Suddenly, I woke up in my dorm room, sitting up- I had the top bunk but the ceiling wasn't all too low, allowing me to sit up. I had been sweating, that dream was nice until the end.

I look over to my alarm clock, realizing it's 6:12am, I frowned and then looked up at the ceiling. "Goddess, please give me the drive to get through today."

With that, I climb out of my bed, down the little bunk bed ladder, and began going through my dresser for clothes- I had classes today.