CHAPTER 1

"Damien would you hurry up?" Aerden calls out from in front of him.

The eldest of the infamous silver-haired twins leads the trio, scaling the side of the Academy wall, with his younger twin, Andreas, in tow close behind. Andreas and Aerden look back to their slowing companion and flail their arms impatiently, ushering Damien forward. Rubbing his eyes clear again, Damien quickly moves to recover his lost ground, taking careful care as to not damage his uniform. The threesome regroups at the top of the wall overlooking the courtyard where their peers spar fiercely with their Kleyves moving carefully against one another.

"You know we shouldn't be doing this Aerden…", Andreas softly mumbles to his fire-eyed older brother, "If one of the Priests catches us it'll surely be bread and water rations for all three of us. Or worse if one of them catches us after…" Andreas gestures to the group of strong-built boys, obviously of noble birth.

"You know what Andreas? You worry too much. This plan is flawless." Aerden responds in his usual confident tone, once again brushing off his younger brother's warnings.

He looks back to make eye contact with Damien in the rear of the group.

"You don't have a problem with the plan, do you Damien?" Aerden asks, his flare-colored stare holding their gaze. Caught off guard, Damien shakes his head no.

"See? Damien is a true believer in the campaign, maybe he should have been the twin!" Aerden jeers to his younger brother, "Besides, if you really didn't think we shouldn't be here you wouldn't have come."

The remark quickly silences Andreas, leaving him to a blushing frustration in the face of his brother's revealing insight. In truth Andreas did want this, despite what his careful personality had him saying, but Damien didn't care for this sort of thing. For him, this was just pointless theatrics to seek revenge for childish words. But nevertheless, the boys were in blood pact as loyal orphans to one another against those who were fortunate enough to be wanted by their families.

"But," Damien begins," Your brother is right. It would be a lot of trouble if one of them caught us. We should have made time to come up with a better escape route."

Aerden looks back at Damien in mid-climb and glares. Damien knew better than to doubt Aerden's antics to his face. But, after Aerden turned around without a single word, Damien knew that Aerden did hear the wisdom in his words despite not acting on them. Finally after some careful maneuvering across the wall, the threesome position themselves overlooking their targets, a group of obviously older and stronger peers in the Strahz, the Guard of the Cathedral City Structure and the Priesthood's own private army. Now seeing them all together, Damien's previous opposition to this plan faded away as the memories flooded into their place.

All too clearly, he can remember the dark hallway as the five figures surround him, pressing him against the wall. He rubs his arms, remembering the bruises from the strikes of a blunted Kleyve against his body. Mercilessly being attacked, hearing the sneers and harsh remarks against the orphan who was accepted into this most prestigious of positions, all these done ritualistically to remind the outcast of his place in the world. A reminder so that he could not forget what he is: alone and unwanted.

"Damien," the voice calls out to him through the fog of his mind as a hand's touch on his shoulder pulls him back to the world.

Damien looks up to meet the grey-green gaze of Andreas as he looks in Damien's eyes knowingly. Another hand grabs Damien's other shoulder as he looks back to see Aerden looking at him with the same gaze as his brother. The gaze of souls who experienced the same atrocities. The look of brothers bonded in hardship.

Aerden motions ahead to bring Damien's attention to the bench next to the group's sparring field. Andreas taps Damien's shoulder and pulls out a clear piece of Nehmacite from his uniform pockets. Aerden and Damien's eyes shoot open in surprise at the sight.

"How did you get your hands on that?!" Aerden gasps, rightly so; despite the fact that the magic ore was a vital piece of their plot, the sight was still shocking.

"Don't worry about it. I figured that, in the spirit of such a momentous event, I should employ all my brilliance into getting prime Nehmacite for Damien to use in our revenge," Andreas responds with a level of energy that contradicted his usual, mature attitude.

Still, Damien couldn't help but show his surprise, such pure Nehmacite was only reserved for the Katadral-Strahz elite. The shard's clarity looked like hardened water in Andreas' hands save the edges that shimmer as they capture the tiniest bits of light, cutting out its sharp lines around the slightly distorted world refracted through it.

"Well," Aerden says, breaking the awe-inspired silence,"Nothing's gonna get done by staring at it."

Snapping back into reality, Damien cautiously takes the shard from Andreas' hand, unsure of what to do with so much potential. Damien was definitely the most adept magic user of the group, and probably the most adept of the whole Strahz Academy, but he never had an opportunity to work with Nehmacite of this quality before. He stares at the shard in his hand for a moment.

"So do you have any idea how you're gonna do this Damien?" Andreas asks his seemingly hesitant friend.

Gripping the shard firmly, Damien looks back into the eyes of his companions with a level of confidence that puts all their doubts at ease. He knew exactly what to do. Damien extends his hand and begins to focus his mind. He closes his eyes, his breathing slow and controlled, feeling the Hayze flow around him. He could feel the flow of energy surging around him like never before, the Nehmacite giving his body heightened access to its flow. He then turns his mind to gathering the energy into his body, feeling it course through him as if becoming his own life's blood.

Opening his eyes, he focuses his gaze on the patch of grass behind the rest bench of the group sparring below him. Once again, he closes his eyes as he expands his mind, his consciousness becoming linked to that patch of earth. Energy flows into it, its streams expanding the space between the grains of dirt, distancing them apart, saturating the area below the surface with Hayze.

Finally opening his eyes for the last time, Damien once again looks to the same patch of ground. The twins follow his gaze eager to see the product of his handiwork. But soon looks of confusion take over their faces as they fail to notice any change to the area.

"What'd you do?" Aerden asks Damien, speaking to the confusion of both the twins.

Damien simply smiles in response as he captures a glimpse of a ripple traveling across the surface of the ground. He would simply let them wait and watch.