Chapter 1- Good Morning Brother

Summary[]

In this Chapter Zorian is woken up at home by his sister rudely jumping on him. He heads downstairs and is mocked by his mother for dressing poorly and is pressed and refuses to take his sister with him to the academy despite his mother's requests. Ilsa, a teacher from Cyoria academy, comes to speak to Zorian about his classes & mentorship, after which he will be ready to enter the third year as a student at Cyoria's Academy for Magical Arts. She then gives him the unfortunate news that he'll be mentored by Xvim, a horrible mentor. Soon after arriving at the train station, & having reminisced on his dislike of crowds and his brothers Fortov, & Daimen he takes the train to Cyoria, and rides in the compartment with a turtle necked girl, & four boisterous underclassmen After getting off he informs a misinformed first year about the mana shaping, thinks about the location of Cyoria, and then helps a young girl retrieve her bicycle from a creek with magic. He gets very wet in the rain and registers for the school at administration, and then goes to sleep in his apartment.

Plot[]

Location: Cirin, Kazinski Residence[]

Zorian is awoken by his sister, Kirielle, who proceeds to inform him that his Mother wishes to speak with him. He then briefly comments on pay back for the rude awakening she gave him, but is brushed aside with inquisitive comments in regards to 'Academy', & insistence that he will never be awake before her to get revenge. He diverges on an internal dialogue about how insufferable she has been this last year, & his mother's distinct lack of motivation in regards to controlling her, claiming that Zorian is nothing but a bookworm who had read all summer vacation. He attempts to get her to change her pestering target to their elder brother Fortov, but instead she barricades herself in the bathroom.

Zorian is irritated but sets it aside to pack noting that Kirielle did not disturb his things. His packing concluded swiftly as he never unpacked much, however on packing his school supplies he notes that some of his writing supplies, & textbooks are missing. He briefly ponders why she sees fit to resort to thievery when their mother would likely procure the items she desires. He retrieves his textbooks & with his packing concluded goes downstairs to see what his mother desires of him. He diverges in thought as he descends from his second floor room, his reasoning for always sleeping in (& denying himself revenge on his sister) being that he appreciates silence while eating where the rest of the family finds meal times to be the perfect time for conversation.

His descent from upstairs was noted by his mother who proceeds to berate him for his attire, & lecture him on family honour, despite the ineffectiveness of her arguments in lieu of her previous attempts at this same tactic, he returns upstairs to appease her so that she will give him peace, as he does he muses over the pointlessness of the exercise as the majority of the day will be on a train. Even though he did as she asked his peace was not given to him & he is glad of his fathers absence as otherwise he would also need to 'deal with' him. There is cold porridge waiting for him downstairs, Zorian suspects this is a ploy to gain his goodwill in preparation of a favour, though it is ineffective as he both neither likes having his meal prepared for him nor porridge. His mother rambles for a time, while he tunes her out, musing that tuning out people is a survival skill as both his parents are similarly long winded, doubly so as he is the 'black sheep' of the family. He maintains silent disinterest for a time before inquiring into the purpose for her behaviour and stating his irritation is partly caused by Kirielle's particular style of waking him, and barricading herself in the bathroom.

Her only response is amusement, & he pockets an apple for later before listening to her justifying Kirielle's behaviour as childish play, before comparing him to his Father, which promptly serves to anger him confirming the logic behind his desire not to dine with anyone. His mother brushes him off to comment on how his father & her intend to go to Koth to visit his eldest brother Daimen. He ponders his parents affection for his eldest brother, which the rest of the children received in far smaller quantities. As it will be a longer trip his mother wishes him to take care of Kirielle while they are gone as she is only 9 and unable to care for herself, he states he is only 15 & hardly able to care for a child as he has his studies to be concerned about. His mother argues that she married his father when she was at his age. He attempts to convince his mother to have Fortov take care of her only to be shot down as Fortov has already refused, & is notably irresponsible. In the end he flat out refuses, telling himself that he has dealt with his sister long enough & he deserves the same rights as his elder brother Fortov in refusing.

He also suspects that this is a plot by his mother to set Kirielle up to spy on him in their absence. Kirielle comes downstairs to the tail end of the argument & Zorian attempts to slip past her to reach the bathroom, only to be stopped by his sister, she will not let him past until she hears an answer for what they were discussing previously. Thankfully before another argument begins there is a knock at the door.

A mage from Cyorian's Royal Academy for Magical arts is at the door to discuss his certification with him, at first he pales as he does not know what he has done wrong, she quickly assuages his fears, Introducing herself as Ilsa Zileti, & aplogizing for her tardiness. They settle in the kitchen, and his mother takes his sister to market to give them privacy to discuss school matters, Ilsa hands him a scroll that he opens after brief pondering with some magic skill passing Ilsa's small test of his abilities.

They then go on to discuss other things -noting that his official mage badge was expensive & he might be wiser to wait until he had more funds available to him- such as his housing, to which he responds that he intends to stay in the dorms. She then proceeds to give him an odd key tuned to his mana signature,though his curiousity is stirred he sets the key aside. She moves on to discussing his mentor and electives after explaining his key to him. Despite his excitement regarding his mentor, he receives the most widely acknowledged worst mentor Xvim Chao. She then moves on to his choice of electives presenting him with a rather daunting list. As he has not used the restroom due to his sisters interventions, he politely excuses himself, rather embarrassedly, to use the restroom before he decides his electives.

Location: Cirin, Train Station[]

Zorian & his family arrive at the station whereupon his brother Fortov joins his friends & he feels his mothers gaze mocking him. While he waits for the train, which is late, he is distracted by his inner thoughts about crowds & their effects on him: causing him to grow woozy, weighing down upon him, giving him headaches & at times causing him to lose consciousness; in response to his 'behaviour' around crowds his parents have ceased to encourage him to attend church. His thoughts diverge and he ponders his father's saying -despite his discontent with the man and his humour- that both he & Fortov each received half of Daimen, 'Fortov his charm, Zorian his competence'. The train arrives and Zorian briefly ponders convincing the operators to let him have a look at the new hybrid magic technology engine before casting the idea aside for another time & taking a seat in an empty compartment.

Location: The Train, En-route to Cyoria; Cyoria Proper[]

After attempting to sleep on the train he is awoken by the train announcer. As Korsa is a larger town & likely to contain many students going to Cyoria, he entertains to idle hope that none of them enter his cabin even knowing it is futile. He is soon joined by a turtle-necked girl, as well as 4 chatty & boisterous underclassmen. The turtle-necked girl & him proceed to be mutually annoyed by the 4 boisterous girls but in the end pay them little mind. He moves close to the exit when he notices the train approaching Cyoria. There are a number of first years by the door, chatting about their misconceptions regarding magic, they do not understand that the first year will be basic control mostly with no great amount of actual magic. They inquire as to whether or not Zorian is capable of showing them some magic, Zorian bluntly refuses due to the warding in place to stop mana shaping. One of them does not know what mana shaping is and inquires what it is, Zorian baffled by her ignorance explains, though not completely, & a bit rudely, the girl back-pedals.

They arrive at Cyoria, Zorian disembarks from the train and muses over the massive scale of the trains station before noting he has enough time buys some bread, & heads to the central plaza to eat & relax, en-route he ponders over the fame of Cyoria. He is startled out of his thoughts by a group of rats in his path to the plaza, they are strange in their behaviour & the top of their skull is missing leaving their brains exposed. He turns & flees to avoid the brain rats, detouring into a nearby park in an attempt to reach the plaza by other methods. In the park on the bridge leading to the plaza is a little girl sobbing hysterically, he calms her down enough for her to eventually communicate that her bike has fallen into the creek running beneath the bridge. He levitates the bike out of the creek, she thanks him, & he departs giving up on his relaxing day by the fountain as it is beginning to rain, he joins his peers on a long journey, empathizing with those whose load is heavy as his brothers also did not warn him of the arduous journey to the academy. On his way to the academy he absorbs mana from his surroundings and levitates the apple he had in his pocket, musing over magic's lack of efficiency as he does not know the rain barrier spell but it would serve the same function as an umbrella but does not require years of magic education to do so. As it begins to rain more heavily he begins running.

Location: Cyoria, the Academy[]

Zorian marvels over the rain barrier around the academy, as it was not there previously. On his way to the administration building he muses over the schools repairs, & appearance modifications in comparison to its previous state. After two hours 'wrangling' with the girl in the administration building he completes the necessary paperwork, & inquires after his class schedule which, he is informed, will not be ready till Monday. He is given a rulebook & heads toward his room # 115. Upon arriving he is pleased with his room, & collapses onto his bed deciding to go to the academy library in the morning to expand his spell repertoire before going to bed.

Skills, & Magic[]

- Upon being awoken by his sister, Kirielle, Zorian note with displeasure that he had forgotten to Arcane Lock the door, & set up a basic Alarm Perimeter.

-Upon noting the missing school supplies he ponders casting a Locator Spell.

-Upon finding the porridge cold he utilizes a Heat Water* spell on it, a slightly modified version of it thus displaying mastery of the basic to such a degree that he is capable of tampering with it.

-Upon finding the seal Ilsa gave him difficult to break physically he utilizes Mana Channelling to open it .

-Upon finding the brain rats in the stairwell he briefly ponders whether the Spook Animals spell would be useful against them before discarding the thought entirely.

-Upon finding the bike in the creek he Levitates the bike out of the stream for the little girl.

-Upon journeying to the academy he supplements his depleted mana reserves by Absorbing Ambient Mana.

-Upon restoring his mana to reasonable levels he uses Raw Mana Manipulation to Levitate an apple above his palm.

*asterisk detonates modified version[]

Mentioned Skills, & Magic[]

-Warding- Can be used to disrupt mana shaping on Cyoria's trains to prevent vandalism.

-Combat Magic- Could be utilized to eliminate, or frighten the brain rats.

-Cleaning Spells- Used to clean items, notably mud coated children's bicycle.

-Rain Protection- Can be used to protect against the rain during a storm, the magical equivalent of an umbrella.

Mentioned Knowledge, Locations, Creatures, & Artefacts, []

Locations[]

-Cyoria -A large city containing the mage academy Zorian attends. Cyoria is one of the worlds largest & most developed cities world-wide, with an interesting culture, & unique architecture, its fame is due to the location of the only known Rank 9 Mana Well, & a very formidable dungeon entrance. The Cyorian train station is large & enclosed, with 4 separate branching tunnels, this is evidently unique to Cyoria, & impressive for it. The Cyorian central plaza, contains a relaxing fountain. It is roughly an hour & a half journey from the train station to the academy. Housing is considerably expensive in Cyoria as such even noble children may live there.

-Koth- another continent in which his eldest brother resides

-Cirin- Lacks a mage tower, has a church, & the Kazinski Residence.

-Korsa-A city on the way to Cyoria, has at least 6 stops.

-The Great Northern Forest- An infamous & dangerous location close to Cyoria

-Techno-Magic Engine- the newest model trains they are run not by steam but by crystallized mana, their engines birthed a hybrid of magic & technology.

-Mana Wells- A phenomena that produces large quantities of ambient mana from the underworld, the large Rank 9.

-Brain Rats-A race of magical creatures that inhabit Cyoria, they have their raw brains exposed.

-The Hole- The entrance to Cyoria's dungeon, & mana well very close to Cyoria's Royal Academy for Magical Arts.