1 Chapter 1: Her Glyph

Talia expected to wake up on her thirteenth birthday the same as she every other birthday, to her mother's delicious french toast with strawberries. Unlike many kids around the world, Talia didn't have high hopes for her birthday, she didn't stay up until midnight anxiously to see what glyph appeared on her wrist. In fact, she wasn't expecting to get a glyph at all.

On their 13th birthday, many kids awaken glyphs on the inside of their dominant wrist. The glyphs they awaken would greatly impact their future. There are four glyph possibilities: he glyph of defense represented by a square, the glyph of agility represented by a zigzag line, the glyph of endurance represented by a heart, finally, the glyph of strength represented by a circle. A person can have up to two glyphs. The reason this is so important is the fact that only those with glyphs can use magic and the type of glyph determines what their magic is best at. For example, someone with a defense glyph and an agility glyph would be most suitable for using their magic as a shield or to help them move around. Someone with an endurance glyph will expend less energy using magic, by itself the glyph doesn't help much, but paired with another glyph, it becomes very useful.

The strength of a glyph is fully dependent on the parent's glyphs, if one's parents both have strong glyphs, they will have an equally strong glyph, or an even stronger glyph. If one's parents both have weak glyphs, they will have an equally weak glyph. If one has one parent with strong glyph and one with a weak glyph, they will have a mediocre glyph. However, not everyone awakens a glyph. If both parents don't have a glyph, there is no chance of their child having a glyph. Such is the case for young Talia Dalaby. Her parents are poor farmers without glyphs. Thus, it was useless for her to hope to awaken a glyph, she knew that much. Truth is, Talia's parents had high hopes for their children and scraped up enough money to send them to school, they hoped they could learn about the world and enter a high-paying field. Unfortunately, most high-paying jobs rely on magic. Regardless, going to school is how Talia knew the specifics about awakening glyphs and knew there was 0 chance of her awakening one.

"Talia, sweetie!" Talia's mother called from the kitchen "come down! I made you a special birthday breakfast!" 

Birthdays are a big deal in their village because no one ever knew what day would be their last. There had been too many cases of villagers going missing, never to be seen again. The village is right on the outskirts of a small city, on the edge of the city Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is an area with no magic beasts surrounded by a Magic Sanctuary Border that protects the city from magic beast attacks. Their village lies slightly off, so if they're not careful, they could walk right into a magic beasts territory. Luckily, the soldiers deployed to this area have confirmed there aren't any very threatening or hostile magic beats nearby. However, when you don't have any magic to protect you, you stand no chance against even the weaker beasts. Many of the village hunters had gone missing while out hunting rabbits because they were not careful enough.

"I'll be right down, mom!" Talia called back, throwing her blankets off and running downstairs. She was wearing a long sleeve nightgown, part of her wanted to pull the sleeve of her right arm back and check her wrist, but she didn't bother, knowing it wasn't possible for her to have a glyph. She hopped down the stairs of their small family cottage excited to be treated like a princess by her brothers, even if it was only temporary.

"Hey, birthday girl, hurry up and sit down so we can eat."

"David! You have to be nice! If we're nice we don't have to get her a present!"

"Oh. Right. Your Royal Highness, if you please, sit down so we can eat." Talia's older brother, David mocked from the far side of the table

"I.m here! You can eat!" Talia sat down with a huff between her mother and her younger brother, Dylan

"Oh, oh, sis, have you checked your wrist yet!" Dylan asked excitedly as he loaded whipped cream onto his french toast. He was only 7, and he had not entered middle school so he could learn the specifics of glyphs. As far as he knew, it was up to chance, anyone could awaken a glyph.

"Uh," Talia coughed awkwardly, not wanting to be the one to crush his littledreams of being a mage "there's no reason to check because I don't have a glyph." 

"Taliaaaaaa!" Dylan whined "If you don't plan to check your wrist I'll do it for you!"

"I already told you-" Talia's protest was interrupted by her little brother grabbing her arm and pulling back the sleeve, gaping at her wrist in amazement.

"Hey, you're getting syrup on me!" Talia complained, pulling her arm back. But when she did she noticed something strange. A gasp left her mouth. There on her wrist was a circle follwed by a heart.

 "A-a glyph?"