World of Laws and Magic: What's In My Heart

Nick walked to the nearest bus stop where he waited fifteen minutes for a bus that would go to London's central district. Nick sat in the bus with his empty backpack, having left his contract in his dorm room. The bus ride to the central district was only thirty minutes at this time of the day, accounting for morning traffic. The central district was where many buildings that offered public services could be found. One such building was where Nick was heading to, the Companies Office, where he would form a limited liability company with him as the sole shareholder. These days, entrepreneurship was a wide spread practice and so the government made it easy for individuals to form LLC's for their own legal protection and to stimulate the economy, mind you, for every successful entrepreneur, there were one hundred unsuccessful ones.

Nick thought that forming an LLC should be the first step towards completing his contract, well, that's what entrepreneurs in the movies he watched in the past did. Nick got off of the bus and made his way to the Companies Office. State run agencies these days commonly operated from 6 am to 8 pm so Nick saw a fairy long line when he stepped into the building. 

(Maybe I should have done this online?)

That was an option but since this was the first company that Nick was forming, he wanted to do it in person to gain some worthwhile experience. Nick waited in line for forty minutes before he was able to speak to the female clerk:

"Good morning, I would like to form a limited liability company with me as the only shareholder."

The clerk looked at Nick with an unimpressed gaze then took out a stack of documents and explained:

"Fill out these documents and present us with your government ID and we will have your company legally formed in short order."

Nick took the documents from the clerk and found a table to sit at in one of the far corners of the room; Nick spent the next three hours carefully reading and filling out the document. Nick had left the very first question on the form for last because he did not immediately have an answer: 'What will be the name of your company?'. Nick thought for some time and finally wrote down a name that he thought was fitting.

(The Magic Scroll Company.)

Nick felt that the name was boring for sure but it got straight to the point. Nick smiled as he handed in the documents for the formation of his company. The female clerk looked through the documents and nodded before saying:

"Come back to me in one hour and I should have your company certificate and all the other documents ready."

Nick nodded his head and turned to leave the building. Once he was on the street, Nick tried to find somewhere that he could have an early lunch while he waited for the documents to be ready. Nick spotted a fast food restaurant near the end of the street and made his way there.

(Hmmm...this should be very close to Caterbury University where that 'sister' of mine attends. It's been a whole year since I've seen my grandaunt and sisters. Sigh, it hasn't been long enough.)

Nick walked into a restaurant called, QuickChick. Nick looked at the menu and mostly saw fried chicken based meals so he ordered one with two pieces of fried chicken, fries, a biscuit and a soda. Nick picked up his order at the pick-up counter and walked towards a window booth to enjoy his meal but when he got near to the window booth, he saw a person that he knew staring right in his face.

(Sigh, I really do have some kind of weird luck.)

The young woman who was looking Nick in the eyes was his own older sister that he had not seen in a year, Narissa Capitol, eating a meal similar to the one that he had just ordered. Nick wore an indifferent expression as Narissa momentarily looked at the card that was attached to his left breast pocket. Nick wasn't surprised that she took notice of it because there was practically no one who did not look at London's two magic academies with some sort of reverence despite their unwillingness to enroll in them themselves. As Narissa was about to say something, Nick walked past her booth and sat at the booth two booths away from her, facing the opposite direction.

(Out of sight, out of mind.)

Unfortunately for him, Narissa did not seem to want to leave him be; she walked over to his booth and said with a smile, while standing beside the booth's table:

"Brother Nick, how could you just walk past your own sister without saying anything? I know we weren't exactly close while you were living with us but that's no reason for us to be estranged, right? Can I sit with you?"

Nick wasn't even going to entertain her so he gave a simple reply.

"No."

The smile on her face became a little bitter at Nick's response and she spoke:

"Fine, you don't want to talk to me because of how you were treated while living with our grandaunt but I was just playing a part in Irene's play. You know how she is, going along with her bullshit was the only way that I could shift her malice away from me. Can't you understand that? We are siblings and you also have a younger sister; you are the only brother we have, are you really going to have nothing to do with us?"

Nick pretended to think for a while then replied:

"Yeah, that's right. Now, can I get back to my meal?"

Narissa's eyes became visibly watery after hearing those indifferent words but she decided to take out a piece of paper and write down something on it, placing it in front of Nick when she was done.

"This is Tracy's phone number, she also wants to be a Magician despite how dangerous I told her attending one of the academies would be. I know that we were not much of sisters to you, but blood is thicker than water and she is your blood. Tracy will be entering her final year of high school in the upcoming semester; she was only doing the same thing that she saw Irene and I doing, you shouldn't blame her. Please give her a call, I know becoming a Magician is dangerous and I don't want to hear about my sister suddenly dying for no good reason, your help would be appreciated."

Narissa left the paper on the table and walked out of the restaurant. Nick looked at the piece of paper with a phone number on it for quite a while and the picked it up, tore it in two and let it fall to the ground.

(Out of sight, out of mind.)

Slade was seemingly amused:

[Don't you care about what happens to your family?]

Nick replied coldly:

(Those people are not my family. I was born and lived among them but they persisted in harming me for no good reason. The fact that I'm not planning to butcher them is a show of my 'care'. Sigh, many of these people just don't understand the consequences of their actions. They scarred me for life and now that my situation is better, she thinks a cheap apology and crocodile tears can remedy the hurt. That's laughable. I'm not naive and this isn't a television drama; anyone who chooses to harm me of their own volition deserves to die, I don't care about their reasons. I will help whomever I see it fit to help but I will damn whoever goes against me or returns my kindness with enmity.)

Slade laughed manically at Nick's rant:

[Ha, ha, ha...]

Nick was confused.

(Why are you laughing?)

[Remember when I said that you had the devil inside of you, kid?]

(Yeah, but I still don't get that. I don't know if I'm necessarily a good person but I'm definitely not evil.)

[Kid, what I said has nothing to do with being evil. Where I come from, a 'devil' is simply a Magician who has extreme ideologies and religiously lives by those ideologies; the hypocritical Magicians who abhor such ideologies call those Magicians who embrace them demons or devils. These so called demons are unrestrained and merciless in their actions and are often at the center of turmoil and tragedy, in the name of some goal. While I was alive, I was such a Magician and that is ultimately what led me to my death.]

(Oh, so are you going to convince me against being extreme in my thoughts?)

[Hah! Of course not, I was born with nothing, given nothing for free and was mistreated by the entire world while I was powerless just like you so I can understand your feelings. Because I was alone and could only rely on myself, I focused on my goal of becoming one of the strongest Magicians with absolute obsession and my life up until my death became a very satisfying journey despite the pain. I'm not trying to tell you how to live, you can only become a truly phenomenal Magician deciding that for yourself. I'm just making you aware, you probably won't be able to get along with anyone else, not really, if you continue with your extremeness and you'll probably be alone for a very long time but in exchange you may reach greater heights than everyone else. Are you willing to make such a personal sacrifice for goals that may well result in your death?]

Nick looked at his meal and thought about Slade's question:

(Am I willing? A friend would probably be nice, maybe a girlfriend, a family. Becoming the strongest Magician isn't very likely but having some loved ones is very possible if I put in some effort. With my status as a Magician alone, I can probably get a girlfriend right now; that seems better than moving endlessly towards an unreachable goal.)

As Nick was having these thoughts, he remembered the lone figure made of golden light that walked on a never ending road in his mindscape and his intuition poked at him. Nick immediately started internally chanting his meditation and entered his mindscape, being careful not to cause a commotion. Nick's consciousness appeared next to the walking figure of light as it stepped forward on the never ending road. As the figure walked along, Nick couldn't help but ask, not expecting a reply:

"Why continue to walk?"

Unexpectedly, the figure of golden light stopped walking and turned to look towards Nick's consciousness as if reacting to his question. The figure pointed to the left side of its chest as if to indicate something and somehow Nick understood its meaning:

"Because this is what's in my heart."

The figure turned away from Nick and continued walking. Nick's consciousness left his mindscape and he ceased chanting and slowly whispered the answer he received from the figure:

"Because this is what's in my heart."

Nick felt a trace of inspiration and rushed to the order counter to ask if he could borrow a few pieces of blank A4 paper and a pen. Nick got back to his seat, ignored his food, and wrote down, in Nickel, possible additions to his existing meditation:

"My lonely road."

"The rules of it are determined by me and only me."

"Not even death can restrict this devil's heart."

....

For the next two hours, Nick wrote down additions to his own meditation and when he finally lifted his head from the papers that were glowing a dull red light, Nick felt satisfied with himself.

(I can't wait to properly merge this with my existing meditation.)

Suddenly, Nick felt something amiss, he looked around and there was a whole restaurant of people looking at him as if he was a crazy person as he had been speaking to a glowing piece of paper for the past two hours. As Nick put the papers into his backpack and got up, the other customers saw the ID card attached to his left breast pocket and their eyes filled with realization. Some of them seemed to want to speak to Nick but he quickly exited the restaurant and made his way to the Companies Office. He went inside, walked up to the same female clerk that he had interacted with before, presented his government ID and received his company documents, stuffing them into his backpack.

(The Magic Scroll Company has been born!)

Nick thanked the clerk and left the building, going to the bus stop where he boarded a bus heading to the academy. Nick thought back to the inspiration for the additions to his meditation throughout the thirty minute bus ride. Nick got off of the bus and walked to the academy gate. He stepped through it, feeling a similar pressure come over him then disperse, like the first day that he had arrived at the academy. He walked to the guard post and handed in their student ID card to the male guard stationed there. The guard looked at Nick and said almost sarcastically:

"Welcome back."

Nick replied with an earnestness that the guard had never seen before coming from a student:

"It's damn sure good to be back."