Codex

1 - The Order of Mages

"Please consider joining the Ord–" I slammed the door in Aldis' face, for the fifth time this month! What a hassle! I yawned, sifting a little languor through me.

What time is it? I wondered.

"Eric, why don't you give it a go? You can always quit if you don't like it."

You too? I asked, thoroughly fed up of hearing about the Order of Mages time and time again. Oh, by the way, that person speaking in my head is Donna, a ghost who set up viable real estate in my mind and moved in when I was dumb enough to open a strange magic tome in an even stranger cave when I was eight.

She was apparently a knowledgeable mage who passed away many years ago, and thanks to her, I learned a hodgepodge of magic spells. "It'll be fun, don't you want to go? You can make actual friends!"

You bitch. I have friends!

"Your parents don't count."

Why does everyone want me to go so badly anyway? "I couldn't care less," I muttered to myself, ending the conversation. The sun had only just risen when I looked outside. No wonder I felt like complete shit. I'd usually awake around noon. But this time the roosters sang the song of their people. I returned to bed and woke up my normal time, when my brain was actually functioning.

Suddenly, I was jumped by the door slamming closed. "That's the thirtieth time! What do you want from me, you hooligan?!"

"Some silence, Flynn," I shooed him away with a flick of my wrist without averting my eyes from my book.

"You, little," he stormed towards me, clenched his fist and brought the wrath of his knuckles down on my head, "shit!"

"What the hell? You tryin' to kill me?! You old, washed-up bastard!" I complained.

He used a spell to harden his hand. The miniature Ice Wall I cast to protect my head broke apart and I felt the blow a little. Usually, he'd just hit me without any spells.

"I've never seen anyone, anyone," he stressed, "outside the Order progress as fast and far as you did!" He paced about angrily, as if he wanted to demolish his own house with his footsteps. "The Order actually wants you to join! Any sane person I know would eat up that opportunity the second it appeared!" he grunted. "But you... Ugh! Stop being such a condescending, uptight piece of shit!"

I closed the book, "How about," just about slipping past my threshold of tolerance, "you tell me why I should join?! Huh?! How about that?! They have nothing to offer me! But they gain more prestige with every good mage that joins them!" I stood up, "How do you not see that?!"

He grabbed my shoulders, "You absolute idiot!" turned his back and began pacing again, "You become part of that prestige when you join them too! Your life becomes a million times easier! Isn't that what you want?! You lazy shit!"

I sighed, wondering if I should put forth the daunting effort of arguing these points for the millionth time, "O wise father, my responsibilities to the Order will only hinder my development!"

"They have a library!"

"That is only accessible after twenty years of service! Twenty goddamn years!" I wiped my face from the forehead to the chin, as if to cast away my growing irritation, "By that time I'd have learned way more by myself!"

A loud clanging broke our attention to each other. It was the real man of the house, stopping us once again with a ladle and pan, "Lunch is ready, boys. I'm not going to eat alone."

My father sucked his teeth, "Yes, dear, just give me ten minu–"

"Now, please," she said with an ever-pleasant smile on her face, but we knew better the demon that laid beneath that carapace of deception. She was a mage charged with the protection of individuals in court procedures, hence, she wasn't someone to oppose. She was a line we wouldn't dare cross.