Chapter 1

October 13th, Year of Our Savior 1236

"FUCK I'M DOOMED."

A frightened blue bird flew out of the trees next to him, but Ezekiel didn't care. Any minute now, he was going to be summoned to the headmaster's office and expelled.

He was pissed, even though he never wanted to come here in the first place.

But his father said that heirs to the Duchy always go to Union, and that was that. The private and expensive Union Academy is the top Academy in the surrounding 3 kingdoms, hence the name. 1200 years ago, The Savior united the Three Kingdoms, and his only child established Union Academy to maintain the Alliance. Naturally, the nobility from all around sent their best and brightest (and heirs) here.

Still, Union was better than he expected. Ezekiel had made friends now, and it would be a pain to leave.

Which, if any, will still be his friends now that it has been revealed that he had magic? He never understood why people of noble class hate magic and shun mages when the commoners think magic is a blessing. This hatred made even less sense after his cousin Elspeth was exposed as a "witch". There is nothing wicked about Elspeth. Poor Elspeth, disowned from the family, condemned to a life as a commoner.

Now it will be "Poor Ezekiel."

Even Union's ranking system wasn't as bad as he'd expected. The theory is sound: Acting as a servant for seniors teaches humility since even the highest-born must learn to serve instead of being served. The seniors in turn learn to exercise authority and to be responsible for those beneath them. It's like a rehearsal for being lords of their respective estates.

Since the system can mean that younger boys are bullied by the older ones, he relieved to be assigned to Lord Jermaine the first year. He was the easiest and most likable of the seniors and had graduated last year. I'd assumed our paths would cross in the Pantheon eventually. Not now, though. Not if The Duke disinherits him.

Though his other seniors didn't measure up to Jermaine, they've been tolerable. That changed this term. His current senior, the Dante the Napoleon, is a brute. He didn't just demand that his juniors polish his boots, he would often try to whip them when they made him angry. Which confirmed the tales of abuse at Union and similar schools, the Zeke had heard before coming.

Not that he dared raise a hand to Zeke since he grew so much over the summer. At 6'2, he's taller than most of the other sophomore boys.

Though Zeke had heard from younger boys that he was brutal to them when there was no one around to interfere, it wasn't until this morning when Zeke realized just how fucked up he really was. Zeke was passing by Dante's room when he heard a horrible muffled cry, like a wounded animal.

Should he have walked away? If he had, he wouldn't be waiting for expulsion. But he couldn't ignore another human in that kind of pain. He wouldn't be able to sleep if he had.

He was horrified to open the door and see that Dante had bound a boy's wrists to his bedpost and was beating him with a riding whip. His victim was the youngest of his juniors, also named Dante, a shy little fellow who never causes trouble. Sir Dante was out of control, drunk, lost in his rage as he swung the whip with all his strength.

Zeke was so angry that he lost control just as bad as Dante. His magic didn't appear until after he had started at Union. Up till now, he'd been able to conceal it without a problem. Aside from private experiments to understand his capabilities, he hadn't ever used magic for any purpose.

It hadn't even been that long since he'd awoken. One night, he was having a bad dream. In it, he was fighting a masked knight. All he had were two short swords, and despite having great mobility, the knight was faster. So much so that he couldn't even see his axe moving. He just kept getting cut. Eventually after feeling the wounds accumulating, his hopelessness burst out of him, and he pushed the axe, and the knight along with it, back into the darkness. When he woke up in a cold sweat, only to find that his bed was in the air. Since that day, he noticed a new energy in the air that was connected to him. He could manipulate this energy to make things move, and had been practicing in secret ever since. Mostly with books and furniture in his dorm room, But nothing like this.

Before he even realized it, he had lifted the huge bronze statue of the 2nd Savior off its pedestal in the middle of the school yard and crash it through the window into Dante's dorm room. His original intention was to free little Pasty Stevens, and maybe scare Dante a little bit.

But his fury seemed to connect with the magic inside of him, igniting a rage like he'd never felt before. His power erupted like a volcano as he untied the ropes binding Pasty Steven's wrists to the bed post. As soon as he was free, he smashed a fist into Dante's ugly face. The snap of his nose being crushed was clearly heard by all 3 boys. The satisfaction Zeke felt was only surpassed by his anger.

He managed to resist the desire to pound him again. Instead, he half-carried Pasty Stevens across the room to the corridor.

Dante was screaming threats when the massive statue hurtled through the window and crashed down on the bed where he lay bleeding like a pig. Glass and pieces of stone exploded through the room like shrapnel.

For an instant, all Zeke felt was fierce exhilaration from the rush of power. That was followed by silent contemplation as he realized he had lost control.