Lucas was woken by the sound of church bells. Just like every day at the academy, the top of the tower rang with both magical and church influence, filling his mind with the noise of gold and copper vibrating.

"Still hard wrapping my head around that," he laughed to himself. He had learned so much since he came here.

Taking his robes out of the lavish wardrobe on the side of the room, he wore them. Dyed black and blue, they told the other mages he was a student at the academy. He had an early morning, so he opened his door and leapt down the stairs with no regard for grace.

On the way he almost bumped into one of his only friends, the same student with glasses he had met on his first day.

"Chipper this morning, Lucas?" Aaron pushed up his lenses to see more clearly.

"As much as I can be in this place!" he tapped Aaron on the shoulder, then looked around, "where's Evellyn at?"

"Looking for me?" just like Lucas, she leapt down the stairs, bumping into his shoulder on the way.

"Damn you, I at least try to not hurt you two," he laughed. She was an odd one, the only girl at the academy, and she was just as alone as he was there.

"It's your fault for not moving," she laughed back. Aaron shot them both a look.

"Yeah, not appropriate behavior for students, we know Aaron. Let us have some fun, not all of us were nobles before this," Lucas shot back, but Aaron scoffed. He looked annoyed, but said nothing more after shaking his head in resignation.

All three of them headed to their table together to eat breakfast. It was on the far side of the room, near a part of the wall where the marble bricks had been chipped away. The table itself was in no better shape, it smelled faintly of mold and the fine wood had hundreds of scratches on all sides.

It reminded Lucas of home, which he guessed was why the rest of the students stayed away from it.

The food always tasted even better than it looked. Magic infused foods that months ago he didn’t even recognize filled every table. But today was special, it was the first mission day for the new students to the academy. Himself, Aaron and Evellyn included, and so their table in particular, along with a few others, had roast ducks and pigs, stuffed with vegetables and leaves of every variety he knew.

Evellyn and Lucas both chatted while eating, while Aaron was taking his time. In between each bite he huffed at them.

“Neither of you know any table manners, do you?” he asked, but after they both shook their heads, he laughed just the same. Lucas knew he needed them as much as they needed him.

Aaron had come from too noble a family to respect becoming a wizard instead of a knight or getting married for some political alliance. And he was the only one in their entire history with the talent, as far as he could find. Yet Lucas always found a smile on his face when things got hardest, and he liked that about him.

Only minutes later they were already done, and headed to class with the quickness of excitement. Reaching it a few minutes early, Aaron opened up one of his books, and they all sat together on the benches with the book in front of them.

Months ago Lucas would have said the room was huge, it was twice the size of his house and filled with benches and desks for the students, along with a small lectern at the front of the class where their teacher would stand and speak to them. But now, he just focused his attention on what Aaron was saying. Explaining to them the same thing he did every day, what each letter was called, and how to read and write it.

Soon enough, the bell rang again, and a man entered the class along with the rest of the students. He was an older man, in his forties, Lucas thought, but his energy was more youthful than most, and his body rounder. He stepped over to the three friends and spoke in a quiet tone.

“Tutoring them again, Aaron? You know you should use your time for better things,” he spoke to him alone.

“Sir, even if I am your apprentice, I believe I can decide how I should spend my time here,” Aaron had a smile on his face and looked back at the man.

For a moment the air was still, and Lucas’ heart was beating faster than usual, then the teacher laughed, and walked away.

“Of course, my boy, that’s exactly why I took you as my apprentice!” he said. Lucas knew his name was Berg, that’s what Brand called him, and he was the head of the academy. But to everyone besides Aaron he was a mysterious and terrifying figure, who said nothing but the worst, and ran the academy from behind his dark desk.

“Don’t worry too much Lucas, it’s fine,” Evellyn whispered to him. Her own mentor, the head of the wing of war, was one Lucas had still not met. And worse rumors about him floated.

“I’m glad I got Brand,” he said to himself as much as the two others. Somehow, they all laughed just the same.

“Ahem,” Berg started, “you all know today will be the day of your first assignment. Some of you have shown great potential, so as a special case this year we will be allowing the top ten in this class to go on an ordinary patrol of our order. The rest will go to a nearby mine to pick up some supplies for our coming classes. Your scores have already been decided based on your classes and personal mentors, if you have one, so there is no place to argue. Is that perfectly understood?” there was silence, then he read off the names.

First was Aaron, he cheered but to all but him it was obvious. Second, third, and fourth went to some of the other nobles in their class. Those who had magical education even before any of their talent was discovered.

"Evellyn," he read the next name casually, then there was a pause. He put on a pair of glasses from his coat pocket and looked at it again, "well, Aaron, perhaps your tutoring did more than I gave you credit for," he laughed, but it was one of contempt.

Lucas was overjoyed, at least one of them had gotten on the list, and he turned to her to congratulate her. Evellyn was just as excited, mumbling a thousand words at once, but there was clear excitement in her voice.

The rest of the class looked on in surprise, just as sure it was a mistake as their teacher. But after a few more normal names the calm had returned. Eventually, they reached the final name, and Berg paused for a minute before saying it.

"Last one to pass is! ...Lucas," he almost whispered in something nearing frustration, "damn Brand and his apprentice," that was more clear.

He found himself scared to have gained the wrath of that man, even if Berg laughed heartily just afterwards, "well, off you go! Not much time left if you want to get to your patrol on time," he left with that, not even bothering to address the other students.

Lucas felt ready. For almost a month day in and day out he would practice maintaining magic through the ever collapsing academy, learned to read and write, and made his accelerated throws of various rocks far more precise than he thought possible. Now, they had been put on two carriages behind a group of mages on horses during patrol, supplied with no weapons. No one expected anything to happen during that time. Yet, it did anyway.

Suddenly, they stopped. Him, Evellyn, and Aaron fell silent from their chatter instantly. Lucas grabbed some rocks he had brought from his pocket, but Aaron waved him to put them back.

Noises came one after the other, the sound of crossbows firing with a twang of metal and wood entwined by higher forces, then shouts of pain and the cries of battle.

Without thinking, Lucas pushed the others to the side and leapt out of the carriage. A bolt faster than any he could imagine barely missed him, landing inside the cart. Looking to his left, he saw a man with ragged clothing charging at him with a woodcutter's axe. He ducked, and the man hit where his head had just been.

Blood splattered on the ground, and the man fell, a bolt had hit his chest. Then there was a shout, "get back in the carriage Lucas!" it was the voice of the teacher escorting them. But the young mage could not abide while they were all in danger.

To his left there were two more, each with weapons and clothing even more damaged than the prior. And to his right the one knight among the mages fought a desperate battle against four men with spears.

Single rocks fell from Lucas' pocket into his hand, then they were thrown towards the four spears. In a single thought his emotions flared up from the anxiety, and they closed the distance in the blink of an eye.

One's weapon was wrenched out of his hand by the force of the rock as his right foot had advanced, but the rest only shook in place. Lucas hoped that was enough, because behind him the two were now charging him.

He felt a hit come from behind, Aaron and Evellyn had jumped down, bumping into him.

"Give us those stones, Lucas!" Evellyn shouted. He passed a handful to both, and with a smooth movement she threw two at the bandits charging all three.

She, unlike Lucas, didn't aim at their weapons, and a sick crunching sound was heard as one of them fell to the floor. Both stones hit his face.

Aaron grimaced, and Lucas wanted to slap her, but it was not the time. Instead they both threw more stones. Soon enough, the rest of the bandits were disarmed and escaped or were unconscious. Depending on who had hit them.

"Fine, if you so want to get yourselves killed, come with us to the village nearby, it might also be under attack," their teacher, Graham scolded them. But he and the slightly injured knight took off to the south.

The three students looked at eachother, then nodded in unison and followed. Nobody spoke, and the only sound that was allowed was the heavy footsteps of what mages had been left uninjured by the attack. Leather struck dirt and pebbled stones. Around them woods stretched out in all directions. Lucas kept looking at them, seeing strange eyes and ambushes where there were none.

Slowly, a single noise grew, screams telling them of a bigger conflict ahead. The road and woods gave way to an artificial clearing filled with rows of small hunter huts and simple houses. On the edge of the town to the east there was a church, it's windows destroyed and a few men were inside. In the streets a brutal battle was engaged, men with improvised weapons against more of the same, with women and children fleeing in every direction.

"We'll clear the main battle, you three protect the church," Graham barked an order, and they knew there was no debate.

Evellyn moved first, running to the door and entering the temple. Lucas bolted to do the same, leaving Aaron to watch the outside.

The inside was just as grand as the church in his hometown, but the benches and decor were wrecked and one of the bandits held a knife to the priest's throat. Not sure what to do, Lucas looked the priest over. He wore large robes, being a young man of some weight and his skin was slightly yellow.

"Don't move another inch or I'll kill him!" the bandit shouted, and started moving violently backwards with the priest dragged behind.

Lucas and Evellyn then both froze, they wouldn't let a priest die just to protect the church.

"Good, stay there and nothing will happen to this priest, you damned mages!" the bandit had an expression on his face that Lucas found insane. He was smiling happily, as if he wasn't holding a knife to another man's throat.

"Why are you doing this?" Lucas asked, he couldn't comprehend how the man could enjoy any of it.

"They burnt my village to the ground, every man, woman, and child," he waved his knife around, and for a second it was away from the priest's throat. But before Lucas could react the bandit put it back, "one of you filthy dogs killed my son, right in front of me. I wonder who's son I'll kill in revenge today!" he smiled, and once again he moved his knife, pointing it towards Lucas and Evellyn. This time he didn't get the chance to return it.

A sick sound of flesh and bone being torn was heard, and his two eyes were gone. Evellyn had thrown three stones from behind her back slowly, then moved to let them pass by her. She had a smile on her face, like her experiment had just succeeded. Lucas puked where he stood, and Aaron rushed inside.

"I think the rest of the bandits are fleeing, are you two ok?" he looked around to see the strange silence between them all. Not knowing what to do, he walked to the priest, who had put on a calm expression. Despite that, Lucas knew he was horrified.

"Are you ok?" Aaron asked softly, "what's your name? Do you know where the other priests are?

He breathed slowly to calm himself, then spoke, "my name is Johannes, and I'm the only priest here."