Chapter 1: Awakening Ceremony

Carter Orion, turned 15 this past weekend, this week he will go through his Awakening Ceremony. Carter lives on the continent of Lagrist, in the city of Ethereum. He goes to school at Standan High and is currently figiting nervously at his desk. Carter's best friend since they were two, Chester Falium, has been watching Carter nervously twitch for the past couple of minutes.

Chester walked closer to Carter's desk and said, "Hey man, why are you so nervous? You know that no matter what affinity you have, you can still join a Magic School."

"I know Chester, but I can't help but think about something I read in a history book in the library."

"What did the book say?"

"It said that there was a guy a couple of hundred years ago who ended up having no affinity with any of the elements and his life was complete and utter hell."

"That was over a century ago, humanity has evolved since then."

"Look Chester, believe me, I get that. It's just that it was in the medical journals from the past that I read in the library, that it said that whether or not you get an affinity is determined by your parents and if they had magical ancestors. That guy a 1,000 ago had parents who weren't magical, and my parents are the same."

"Bro, you know how rare it is to not have magical ancestors somewhere in your family tree, it's a trillion to one right?"

"Yeah I know but. . ."

"But nothing, you'll be fine. so calm down."

Carter took a deep breath and said "Yeah, you're right. I'm just being paranoid."

Right after they finished their conversation their instructor, Mr. Fresik walked in and everyone immediately got in their seats. The instructor stood at his desk in front of the class and said "Good morning class, after this last weekend the last 3 students turned 15 and I can now take the class to the Testing Hall at the Awakening Association to determine your affinities."

A mass of cheers followed his announcement and the instructor had to calm them down again.

"Quiet down, all of you."

They were still loud so he shouted "Whoever doesn't quiet down, will have to wait another year to do your ceremony!"

The room became quiet in an instant. The instructor nodded in approval and said "Now if you will all follow me to the busses, they'll take us to the Awakening Association."

The first Awakening Association was created 1,000 years ago, after the discovery of Mana Stones. Mana Stones where created from the accumulation of magical particles in the atmosphere, when enough particles accumulated in one spot it can form Mana Stone Ore.

The humans and other race's have found Mana Stone mines all over the world in every continent, but not every continent could form the variety of Mana Stones as the Human continent. The continent that the Humans chose to live in, had access to nearly every element that exists. The entire continent was saturated with different elemental particles, which allowed for the formation of Mana Stones of nearly every element.

The Awakening Association used a Mana Syone that was drained of all it's elemental mana and attached it to a sensing device to measure a child's affinities. The Awakening Association was created to monitor all the Awakened peoples on the planet. Branches of the association exist in most areas of the world.

The students arrived at the Awakening Association, slowly exiting the busses and making their way inside. They weren't allowed to enter any room in the Association except the Testing Hall. All the students entered and were told to line up a single file in front of a crystal clear stone with a metal band around it that was covered in many different runes.

This was the testing device, and would glow according to your affinity or affinities. Different colors represented different elements. Dark Blue meant Water, Arctic Blue meant Ice, Crimson Red, was Fire, Purple meant Lightning, White was Air, Pink was Sound, and Earth was Brown. Some other colors were Dark Green, Light Green, Gold, Orange, Dark Grey, Grey, Light Grey, Tan, Red, and Silver

Almost all the students got through, there was one student who showed the color Grey when he was tested. So he had the Magnetism Element. There was one student that made the stone glow regular Red, which was the Plasma Element. Then it was Chester's turn to go he had two lights a Brown, and Orange which is the Earth and Magma Element.

Scholars found out that if you have an element that is a combination of one or more elements then you had a slight affinity for the elements used for the combination as well. And if you practice attempting to separate the elements into their primary elements, you can unlock the affinity.

In Chester's case, he officially has the Magma and Earth Element, and because of this he also has a small fire affinity, as it was used with Earth to make the magma.

Finally, it was Carter's turn. He went to the crystal ball and put his hands on it. Carter was always a studious person and loved learning anything and everything about magic, but one thing he had an intense facination with was Runes. Seeing the Runes on the testing device, made Carter more excited and his heart was beating even faster. In Carter's eyes, time seemed to slow down. He saw his colors as Purple and a color he had never seen before showed up, but only for a second. It looked like a galaxy of stars but with four stars shining explicitly, the stars twinkled one at a time in the colors of the 4 Primary Elements.

Carter was really confused but no one else saw it so he attributed it to just seeing things because he was nervous. Chester was happy for Carter and walked over and put his arm around Carters' shoulders.

"Nice job man, you got the lightning element. That's one of the strongest elements, you could probably beat my two no sweat."

Looking focused because he was still thinking of whether he was seeing things or not, Carter said absent-mindedly, "Right, I got just one element."

As it happens, Carter was the only one in this batch of students to get the Lightning element, and he will have to experiment with it to get his affinities with Fire and Air But he could swear up and down that he saw another color appear. That is a determination he will have to make in the coming weeks.

Carter, being the last student to get his affinity tested, signaled the end of the Awakening Ceremony. Mr. Fresik had the students head back to the buses and head back to their school.

Upon arriving back at the school Mr. Fresik had the students go to the school's garden which had different spots dedicated to each element where they could try to sense the elements.

Each student was told that there were three basic levels to becoming an official Sorcerer. They would be at the Element Awakening Stage after awakening their element/s. They will reach the next level immediately after they are able to sense the elemental particles in the air, this is the Element Sensing Stage. The final stage is normally the hardest for most to get past in the early stages. Until passing the final stage one can only be a Sorcerer Apprentice and not an official Sorcerer.

The third and final level is called the Element Condensing Stage this involves pulling the elements into you to strengthen your body. This is required for you to be able to safely channel your element/s through and out of your body. If this is done incorrectly or you don't evenly strengthen your body, it can cause irreparable damage to your internal Mana Veins and make it insanely difficult, if not impossible to channel your magic. After all this has been achieved one can officially be called as a Sorcerer.

Mana Veins exist in every being that has awakened an element. These Mana Veins are the pathways in the body, much like the blood stream, that a person would channel their mana through.

The first thing Carter noticed when he had sat down is that he was having a hard time isolating the Lightning Element because for some reason the 4 main element particles were attracted to his body and were rushing around him it was almost as if they were vying for his attention to be the one he condensed into his body first.

This confused Carter to no end because he didn't have an affinity to the 4 main elements but they are acting like he already had an perfect affinity for them, moving according to his own will without being directly connected to them.

Carter eventually just made a point to get back to this weird occurence later and went to the spot in the garden dedicated to the Lightning Element.

Carter was sort of expecting this after his last experience with the other elements, but the Lightning elemental particles followed the same thing as what happened before. it seemed as if it was becoming a trend with him.

He didn't believe it was related to the Lightning Element itself because he got that same reaction from other secondary elements directly related to the main 4 elements. This only further cemented the fact that the parts of the main elements were attracted to him. Because of the Fire Element in the Lightning Element, it was reacting in almost the same way as the Fire Element itself was.

While the students were trying to sense the elements Mr Fresik walked in and called their attention.

"Ahem, Students. For the next 3 months you are to stay home and continue to try to sense the elements. After which time you will come back and we will check your progress. Although most of you know, the magic schools Entrance Test is in 5 months so if you haven't made any progress in the time I have given you, you might as well just drop out now and look into getting a good job to support yourself."

The students all had looks of determination and they head out the classroom. Chester saw Carter walking through the hallway lost in thought. Chester ran to catch up with him.

Carter was completely oblivious to his friend rushing after him, he has been in deep thought about what to do about what he had experienced while attempting to sense his Lightning Element. Not only was he able to sense it immediately, which is supposed to take even geniuses at least 3 weeks to do. He also was able to sense the 4 base elements as well. This is something that must be kept secret at all costs or the possibility that Carter will be taken and experimented on is almost certain.

Just then Chester arrived at Carter's side and nudged him on the arm and said

"Hey Carter, do ya want to go with me to Sensing Station?"

The Sensing Station is right next to the Association building, it's entire purpose is for Awakening Stage Sorcerer Apprentices to attempt to reach the second stage. Reaching this stage is the prerequisite to take the entrance test to be accepted to one of the Magic Schools on the continent.

Even though Carter was already in the Sensing Stage he still agreed with Chester. After all he can still attempt to figure out the problem with all the elements.

"Sure, let's go."

Chester and Carter, arrived at a large three story building. The building was seperated by colors. The first floor was Red in color, the second was Yellow, and the third was Green. and there was a long line wrapped around the building leading inside the double doors.

Chester was super excited and started pulling on Carter's sleeve. It was as if Chester thought that he could get inside faster by shear excitement.

"Come on Carter, we have to hurry to get the best rooms."

"Chester, the line has over 70 people in front of us, just wait."

Carter and Chester finally arrived inside and marveled at the mass amounts of color they saw. Each floor was differentiated by Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Elements.

The first floor was meant for the 4 Primary Elements and it had forested areas corresponding to each element. There was a Completely Crimson area where all the trees, dirt, and even sky were almost looking like a world of blood although it was still beautiful.

Another area was Dark Blue, it was as if the area was submerged in the deepest parts of the oceans. The trees and leaves twinkled with blue light. And the floor looked like a picture showing still waves on a perfect day at the beach.

There was an area that looked like fresh snow covered forest untouched by man. Everything was glowing a bright White it was almost blinding. The clear crystal trees and leaves made Carter wish he had an air affinity just so he could appreciate it's beauty all the time.

Carter turned his head to see the last area that was supposed to contain mass amounts of Earth Element in shock. Everything was rock, intricately carved trees and leaves made entirely out of stone it was surprisingly completely smooth with no jagged edges sticking out. It was almost as if time was unable to ravage the rock keeping it as smooth as marble.

Unfortunately for Carter, he didn't have an affinity for any of these because despite being able to sense the 4 base elements he could also tell that there was something stopping them from getting close to him. Almost an unseen barrier that had to be passed before they could meet the one they had been waiting for in contemplation for millenia.

"Carter, I have to stay on the Earth floor for a little bit once I've stayed for a couple hours, I'll meet you in the Lightning area."

"Alright, I'll see you in a couple hours Chester."

Carter went to the second floor made to support the Secondary Elements. He went to an area that was surprisingly dark. Then just as Carter thought he was in the wrong spot a light flashed giving Carter a glimpse at the Lighting area and it took his breath away.

Following the flash Carter saw a forested area like the previous floor but each tree, leaf, and even the ground was flowing with Blue Lightning, coursing through the transparent area like veins in a body. He could see lightning flowing through clear trees and leaves and could see an entire ground that looked an incarnation of Lightning.

Carter had made a new determination that this was the most beautiful area, maybe this was partly because of his affinity, but he was still stunned for a good 5 minutes before he went to the counter near the area to talk to the receptionist.

"Miss, I want to enter the Lightning Area."

The receptionist looked Carter up and down and said

"Very well, without the flashes it is pretty dark so take this to help light the way to a comfortable spot."

She had handed Carter a clear crystal ball around the size of his fist and told him to shake it and throw it in the air.

Carter followed her instructions and to his surprise the ball started glowing a bright golden light and started to fall down. Carter went to catch until he saw it just started floating in the air like well.... magic. He could guess it had Runes on it that were imbued with the Air and Light element.

Over the years, when humanity needed a little help they actually started to lean more towards technological innovation, than magical power. And were able to combine technology and magic through the use of Runes. Runes were characters, that depicted the symbols of each element they wanted to use and as long as they wrote them onto objects, they could give them elemental properties.

Much like the lights that exist in most modern houses the Light Element was imbued on a small crystal which allowed light to flow through the house. This crystal ball, seemed to be imbued with the Air element as well as the normal Light element which allowed it to float off the ground.

The receptionist looked towards Carter and handed him a purple card and said, "This is your card that registers you to enter the Lightning Area and is good for 6 hours. It is connected to the crystal to make it follow you."

Carter nodded towards the receptionist and headed inside the area where he be spending the majority of his time for the next few months.