The Hand's Threat

"What did your prophecy magic say about Uri?" The headmaster asked his wife as they worked together, pouring over the pages of ancient texts, "Any details you can give?"

"He will lead us to a new beginning with an end."

"How so?"

"I saw him kill again and the black armor," Benjamin looked up from the pages and made eye contact with his wife, "Yes, that black armor."

"He will use it again?"

"Probably," Damia admitted, "I wouldn't want him to ruin his life again."

"I haven't asked him much about his magic in a while, the last time we spoke he admitted to not having tried it since it ruined his leg."

"Fear is a great motivator," Benjamin nodded in response to Damia's claim, "He had an incident that sent him to the infirmary today."

"What happened?"

"According to the report, he hit someone weirdly while practicing for the Mage Games and blacked out."

"Is he hurt?"

"Not at all, based on his claims, he just had very wide eyes as if he had seen something horrific."

"Maybe he did," Damia stopped and looked up at her husband confused, "He did dream of the Oik attack after all."

"He is an interesting child, this academy will never be the same after he has passed through it."

"Now that is an understatement," The two laughed as the moon continued its slow drift across the sky, "Good few first weeks."

"Let's hope it stays that way," Damia replied before yawning.

The young life mage lay on his bed, eyes open as his mind scoured for the meaning of Krono-Pontis, if it was a place then it would have to be somewhere. Or maybe it wasn't a place and he was just going crazy or had been stunned by the hit enough for him to imagine things.

Day after day, Uri began to think that everything was becoming normal and maybe that the Hand of Reality had simply let him be. He had been able to meet more of his ancestors thanks to his Oik magic and learn valuable lessons about the old magic his tribe once used but that had been lost to time. His grandfather, who called him "Little Geldic" had shown him the way to powerfully cast the spirit of the beast with proper gestures and effective chants. Bit by bit piece by piece, Uri was learning his spellbook and was approaching the mastery of the Oik spells in addition to his year three life spells. Life was slowly settling into normality.

However, everything changed when he entered his room on a day in the middle of the second semester. A note had been placed on his desk by someone and it wasn't Kelly, nor was it the headmaster, it was a writing he couldn't recognize. It was a taunting message as well as being a threat, "We have not forgotten, Oik, we will twist the strands of reality if it means getting your power, Krono-Pontis will be our gateway to shattering your world," He mumbled the words to himself before realizing that his vision was correct, the hand of reality were waiting for him in a place called Krono-Pontis. The young mage rushed to look through his notebook that had become filled with any information about a place called Krono-Pontis, whatever the Hand of Reality was doing it was problematic and could be worse than anything he could think of.

After a few minutes of searching through his notes and another stolen library book, he found a solution, a portal spell to create a link path from any plane to Krono-Pontis. It was a plane, a plane that had been kept secret from the general mage community for reasons that Uri hadn't found out. He quickly wrote a note that would indicate where he was and what he was doing before beginning to cast the portal spell. It would be the first time he was casting such a powerful spell, strong enough to link planes and transport someone from one to the other. The spell was so powerful that a terror seemed to hit all of the academy as it opened in front of him. The young mage stepped through without hesitating, saving his world and defeating the Hand of Reality was all he could think of.

"What was that?" Roger asked an automaton as his students looked around with panic and confusion.

"A large magical disruption has caused a tremor in the academy."

"Call a lockdown, bring these students to their dorms," Roger ordered as the automatons spread the message to one another and the warning bells began ringing, "A large magical disruption can't be good," He took his things and rushed to the headmaster's tower.