Chapter 1 : Nucleus of Hope
It was an ordinary day in the kingdom of Doxatos. Everyone was going about their day as usual, except for one particular woman. This woman was about to give birth to a baby, a daughter to be specific. But this was no ordinary baby as she was in line to inherit the throne of Doxatos and continue the royal lineage. Indeed, this baby was none other than the child of queen Miourgia, the twenty fifth monarch of Doxatos.
The queen was using every breath to push out this baby. She was in the care of the best obstetrician that the kingdom has to offer and after hours of pushing, the baby was finally born. The obstetrician handed the baby off to her and asked, “What’s her name?”
She looked at him with a relieved expression and she replied, “Ava.” Thus, the heir to the Doxatos throne was born.
…
It has been ten years since the birth of Ava and she had gotten used to living in the royal estate. Her mother always attempts to spoil her rotten, but she never gives in to it as she always wanted to do things by herself. Her independence is accompanied with a sense of curiosity that made her try out new things by herself, which sometimes led to messy outcomes. Like on one occasion, she wanted to make one of her favorite dishes—beef stew—by herself. Her mother let her do it, which in turn created a big mess in the kitchen. This curiosity would soon reach new heights as she first discovered magic. She discovered it through a storybook that she read. When she read it, she thought that magic was just something that existed in fiction. But she would soon find out that magic was indeed, very real. Her mother was reading to her, when she expressed, “I wish that magic was real.”
Her mother replied, “It is real.”
“Huh?!” she stares. “It is?!”
“Yes, I can show you tomorrow.”
The next day, both Ava and her mother went to the academy of Xorkia located in the district of Myskis, one of the seven districts of Doxatos. This place was renowned for its proficiency in magic and thus, was a perfect location to show Ava the wonders of magic. They went to one of the academy’s courtyard to see a demonstration that was being done by a pyromancer, a fire mage. This pyromancer used fire to create sparks in different colors. As they watched it, Ava’s mother could see the wonder that was in her eyes. She asked, “Do you want to learn how to do magic?”
“Do I?” Ava replied. “Of course I want to.”
So from that day forward, Ava was on the road to becoming a mage. Her mother assigned her a tutor to help her learn the ins and outs of magic. She would start next week and they would spend one day a week learning about magic. Ava was ecstatic as she couldn't wait for next week to come by. In the meantime, her mother started preparing a room for her to learn in.
The next week eventually came by, and Ava was extremely enthusiastic for her lesson. She rushed to go meet with her tutor. They both met each other and started introducing themselves. Ava told him her name and he told her his—which was Tores. She was excited to finally learn all about magic. They started out with the basic fundamentals of magic. He gave her magic’s definition, “Magic is a force that can let us bend reality. It bends the rules of reality, but it can’t break it. For example, you can’t use magic to create an object out of nothing. You need something that you can convert to an object.”
“Like what?” Ava asked curiously.
“Well take cryomancers—an ice mage—for instance,” He started to write on a board.
“They can’t make ice out of nothing, they need water to freeze into ice. This water can be liquid or vapor. So even though there may not be water around them, they could still create ice from the water vapor that’s in the air.”
“Oh, I get it,” Ava remarked. Then, she asked “So where did magic come from?”
He paced around, “Well, that’s still a mystery. People have come up with theories, but none have definitively proven magic’s origin. All we do know is that magic has existed as long as people have existed.”
“Hmm, so can everyone use magic?”
“Well it would be nice,” He said. “But there are people who just can’t use magic. There are cases where people could use magic through extensive training, but those cases are few and far between.”
After he explained the basic fundamentals of magic, he further elaborated on its limitations, “People can use magic by spending bodily energy. It's like the way we use energy to move, we're converting that energy into movement or in this case—magic."
"Huh, so can people get sleepy when they use magic?"
He patted her on her shoulder, "That's an excellent observation Ava." He then explained, "Yes, people can get tired from using magic. It's like if you run around too much, eventually you'll get tired. If people use magic too much, they'll eventually get fatigued. So, skilled mages train to minimize their energy usage when using magic."
They continued along with the rest of the lesson as Ava inquisitively asked more and more questions. Eventually though, their time soon ran out as Teros needed to attend to another student of his. Ava, with her bountiful curiosity, asked him about who his other student was.
He replied, “Oh. She’s actually the same age as you.”
“Wait really? Can I meet her?” She asked enthusiastically.
“Sure. Next week, I’m planning to take both of you to the Doxatos archives to read up about magic. You two can meet up there.”
The lesson ended and Ava went back to her mother while Teros went to attend his other student. She told her mother about all the things she learnt and also Teros’s plan to take her to the archives. Her mother was very happy for her. This event would not only mark the beginning of Ava’s journey through magic, but also her first time out of the estate without being accompanied by her mother.
As the heir to the throne, she would get a lot of attention, but luckily, even though the general public knew that the queen had a child, they have never actually seen what the child looked like. Ava’s mother wanted to keep her hidden away from the public as to retain her privacy. But of course, she wasn’t going to imprison her in the estate. She would let Ava out, but with the accompaniment of herself or a servant, so they’d just look like any other wealthy family in the kingdom. She was excited to finally go out into the wide, open world.