Chapter 8 : RAVENS

Zoar woke up before everyone else that morning. He checked the time.

6:55 AM.

He suddenly remembered what happened last night. Magic. Blitray. It was all confusing to him but he knew he was going to be able to learn more about it all from Blitray soon.

"Sweet Cyrus! My damn back hurts!" said Maurice who just awoke.

"Ah, you're already up and at 'em, huh?" said Maurice as he looked at Zoar.

"Maurice! You're so damn loud that you woke me up!" said Ami who looked pissed.

"Both of you better be ready to head out." said Zoar.

"Yeah, yeah. We're ready, straight face." said Maurice as he got off the couch.

"Shouldn't you tell Klara we're leaving Zoar?" said Ami.

"I know you have to go." said Klara as she came into the living room.

"Oh!" Ami was surprised.

"Zoar, be careful. Neal is very dangerous." Klara said.

"I will be." said Zoar.

Zoar looked at Ami and Maurice.

"Well, let's go."

"Goodbye Ms.Klara!" said Ami.

"Bye ma'am!" said Maurice.

"See ya." said Zoar.

Klara smiled as they went out the door. Tears went down her face when the door closed.

"Ah, it seems you have friends!" said Blitray who was standing below them on the ground.

"Yeah." said Zoar as they went down the stairs from the 2nd floor.

"Who is that guy?" said Ami and Maurice, in sync.

"The name is Blitray. I am here to travel with you all and teach Zoar more about his magic."

"MAGIC!?" Ami yelled.

"Yeah! What the Hell you talkin' about!?" Maurice screamed in confusion.

Zoar sighed.

"Last night, I came here because I felt someone's magic awaken within them and it happened to be your friend here, Zoar. So I decided to could come with him and teach him how to use his magic efficiently. I have magical abilities myself." said Blitray as he pulled out his staff and made it glow with a  purple aura.

"Holy shit!" said Maurice, scratching his beard.

"That's amazing Zoar!" said Ami, jumping up.

"Yeah. Anyways, this is Maurice and this is Ami." said Zoar.

"It's a pleasure." said Blitray as he bowed.

"Alright, let's not waste time. We should head to Yon. Yon is a small city near Astran. Astran, as you may know, is a huge city. It's home to NEO Earth Tower." said Zoar as he looked at them all.

"Your father's headquarters basically?" asked Blitray.

Zoar nodded.

"Well, let's get going then!" said Maurice.

"Yeah!" said Ami.

"Well then as we walk there, I shall tell you all about magic." Blitray says.

"That's a good idea." says Zoar as they begin their journey.

"Magic was discovered long ago during World War VI in 2070, when twins were born with magical abilities. Their names were 'Jackson Mosk' and 'Jaycee Mosk'. Their magical abilities however were not discovered until they turned 15. The world suddenly knew about it. Their parents told their families and word just kept spreading out from there. The parents were very religious and part of the Highthrone church. A Christian church that was very evil. They believed that whites were the supreme race, they believed the poor were God's castaways, and they then believed that anyone with magical abilities were demons that should be slowly killed as punishment. So, the parents took their children to the church as usual one day but this time, they were tied up with chains. They were nailed onto crosses that day and were tortured. They died halfway through the torture but Highthrone Church believed that they were supposed to make the bodies unrecognizable. They pulled the childrens teeth and eyes out, one by one. They muffled their screams with alcohol drenched rags. There are more things they done but I refuse to say them aloud."

Ami and Maurice looked disturbed.

"That's terrible..." said Maurice.

Ami stayed silent.

"I know... After that, the Highthrone Church was burned due to the public finding out about it's murder. Turns out, the children were not the only people the church killed. Now, back to magic. The world believed for a long time that magic was gone due to the twins dying. Scientists couldn't figure out how they got magic. Their parents had no sign of magic in them. Magic came back in 2090 though. The man who threatened to destroy the world had magical abilities."

"How come I've never heard of any of this in school?" asked Zoar.

"They don't teach kids about magic because of how unbelievable it sounds and there is barely any proof it exists now. Only a select few people around the world have magic I believe. We cant be the only ones."

"This damn poor ass government! Hiding all this from the people!" said Maurice, kicking a rock.

"How do you know all of this information though, Blitray?" asked Ami.

"I have my connections."

They were now at the entrance of Nighfenn Tunnel. A tunnel dug into a mountain that stretched from Dandilato to Yon. It had 2 roads that went opposite directions and a pedestrians path beside the road.

"Looks like we're out of Dandilato now." said Zoar.

"It seems so. Now then, I have finish telling you all the history of magic. Now it is time to tell you about the rules and power of magic. Magic has three forms. The most confusing part about magic is it's name. Magic has a specific name, but no one can read the book that holds its name. The book is split into two different languages. 'Maaunff' and 'Sailagonaya'. The first half is in Maaunff and the second half is in Sailagonaya. We have already deciphered Maaunff, but no one knows anything about Sailagonaya. The first part of the book mentions something about mysterious powers that only a few people could control. Scientist believe that what the writer of the book is referring to is magic. Scientists have made a theory that more information on magic lies within the second part of the book. So as of now, we call the three parts of magic something else. So first we have basic magic. Basic magic is the simplest form of magic. It gives you the power of an element. There are many different elements and variations of them. For example, my element is DARKNESS and Zoar's element is SPEED. Now, this next part of magic is way more complicated. We call it special magic. It is a unique magical ability that is one of a kind. It takes lots of training to master some special magic but others can be learned simply. For example, my special magical ability let's me create animals out of my DARKNESS ability. Now, the third. We call this custom magic. Custom magical abilities are very hard to create. Custom magic is something you manipulate to extist. It's hard to explain. I do not have any custom magical ability, so I cannot help you understand."

"Man... what a mouthful of information..." says Maurice, scratching his head.

"Even I haven't processed it all... Bitray's DARKNESS, Zoar's SPEED, basic magic, special magic, custom magi- There's so much!" said Ami while counting with her fingers.

They were about a third of the way down the Nighfenn Tunnel. Zoar was amazed. Magic was fascinating. It was still weird that he had it himself.

"So Zoar, I'm thinking we should take a break in this city we're heading to and I can teach you some more hands on things with magic. Sound good?"

Zoar nods.

"Yeah."

"We're almost out of the tunnel now." says Maurice.

The sunlight gleaming in made it almost impossible to see outside.

They got closer and it got brighter.

They stepped out and saw that they were on a big hill.

They looked down and saw the city.

"Wow!" said Ami, gazing at the sight.

"Somethings strange..." said Blitray.

"Huh? What is it!?" said Maurice.

"I see it too..." said Zoar.

Zoar and Blitray both see the same thing.

All the cars on the streets were stopped and no lights were on anywhere.

"It looks like the power is out but that doesn't explain the cars..." said Blitray.

"Oh I see it now! What the Hell!?" said Maurice running up a little closer.

"That means an EMP went off there!" said Ami.

"Well, let's get down there and see what's going on." said Zoar, beginning to walk down the hill.

•••

They make it into the city and see a young woman with puffy orange hair, light blue tank top, black boots, black gloves, and dark green shorts that went above her thighs.

"Excuse me ma'am, could you tell us what's going on here?" Blitray asked.

She turned around and with curious eyes.

"Oh uh, yeah... Let me get my Uncle..." she said then ran off in the other direction.

They waited there for about 30 seconds and saw the young woman approaching them with a man that looked to be in his early 30's beside her.

"Hello there! My name is Daryl Goldenart and this is my niece Kasstia Goldenart!" said the man.

"Greetings sir, my name is Blitray."

"I'm Maurice Falcon!"

"Ami Solitaria!"

"My name is Zoar. Zoar Malite."

"Nice to meet you all!" said Daryl.

"What happened here?" asked Zoar.

"We were attacked by The Ravens of Reinstom last night!" Daryl said.

"The who?" said Ami and Zoar in synch.

"Those guys are just a bunch of nuisances from some abandoned city that annoy people! Although lately their budget has significantly gone up on their attacks." Maurice said.

"Yes, that's correct..." said Kasstia.

"Last night they dropped an EMP bomb off here after they got done screwing with us for hours. The bomb went off after their helicopter flew away." said Daryl, as he looked into the distance.

"Do you know where the EMP bomb is? It might be the kind that constantly sends a signal, if so I can deactivate it!" said Ami, stepping forward.

"Oh yes, follow us it's this way!" said Daryl as he and Kasstia began walking into the city.

The group followed them. The city had lots of it's people sitting outside with fires, cooking food over them.

Zoar saw a big machine looking thing in the middle of a road that he guessed was the EMP bomb ahead of them.

"There it is." said Kasstia.

"Whoa! It is a type-67b!" said Ami, running up to it.

When they all got up to it, Ami began working. She began by ripping a panel off the side of it. Then she simply cut a green wire and a blue wire. She connected them.

"Done!" she said.

"Holy shit!" said Maurice.

"Why thank you so much young lady!" said Daryl.

"Why isn't the power on?" asked Zoar.

"Oh yes, we cut off the power after the EMP went off so when the EMP shut off, it wouldn't cause the power to override itself by having it all come back on at once." said Daryl.

"I'll go turn it on!" said Maurice.

"You don't even know where it is!" said Ami.

"I'll go!" said Kasstia.

"You're coming with me blondie with the sword."

"Zoar Malite."

"Yeah, come on Zoar!"

Kasstia grabbed his hand and pulled him with her. They headed south in the city and Zoar saw that the cars were working again.

"You can let go of my hand now." said Zoar.

She let go.

"Sorry!" Kasstia said.

They walked in silence down the street to the power house. The city wasn't your typical city. Only a few buildings reached 3 stories and the houses all looked exactly the same. The streets were small with stop signs, rather than traffic lights.

"My father is part of The Ravens of Reinstrom..." Kasstia suddenly said.

"What?" said Zoar, confused.

"He joined them about a year ago after my mother died. He left me here with Daryl and went off to Reinstom to join them. He heard that The Ravens of Reinstom were rich and he was tired of living a poor life. So he just left... I guess the pressure of my mom dying affected him badly." said Kasstia.

"That was no excuse to leave his daughter behind and become a criminal." said Zoar.

"Yeah... I know that... but, he's my dad and I love him... but..." Kasstia stopped talking.

They were now at the power house.

"Looks like we're here." she said and unlocked the door. She walked in and Zoar followed.

"The power switch is down here, I brought you along because it's pretty hard to pull down." Kasstia said.

"You're leaving something out." said Zoar.

Kasstia stopped. She stayed silent.

"Did something else happen last night when The Ravens of Reinstom came?"

"Yes..."

She turned to Zoar, tears rolling down her face. It surprised Zoar.

"I asked them about my father... He killed himself after 3 days of being there..." Kasstia said and fell to her knees. She was bawling now.

Zoar was slightly embarrassed but he felt bad for bugging her about it.

He kneeled down to her. He didn't want to do it but he patted her head.

"Hey. It's gonna be hard to get over it but you can't break down when you're needed. I'm sorry for pressuring you about it. Let's get this power back on and you can go home and cry where you'll be in peace if you want." Zoar said, awkwardly.

Kasstia looked up at him. They stared for a few moments.

"So, uh where is this switch at?" Zoar said quickly standing back up.

Kasstia wiped her tears away and stood up.

"Down the stairs on the the right."

Zoar went down the stairs and saw what seemed to be the switch. He pulled it down and realized Kasstia was right about it being hard to pull. Zoar heard a slight rumbling that grew loud.

"That's the power coming back on." said Kasstia, who was right beside him now.

"Right." said Zoar.