Chapter One:The Codex~
I have always had a dream about a girl calling for me. Her calls are sharp and afraid, reaching out as she flies by me. I wake up in pain—not the normal pain of a cut or broken bone, but a real, deep pain that no medicine or bandage can take away.
In this dream, I reach out for her and scream, but no sound comes out. I stretch and fight to reach her as a black shadow rushes toward her. The shadow reaches her far faster than I ever could. Just as it takes over her body, covering her in darkness, I wake up. Tears fill my eyes, and pain grips my heart. This dream has plagued my sleep for as long as I can remember.
Today, I was on mopping duty—a very tedious and annoying chore, but someone had to do it. Unfortunately, today, that someone was me.
The orphanage was not all that big or fancy to begin with. Most walls were aged and peeling, the orphanage was filled with old furniture, and rooms had one too many beds stuffed into them. Even with its modest size, it housed many orphans and was filled with laughter and children having fun. The orphanage was located on the outskirts of town and was surrounded by a huge forest. The fanciest part of this orphanage was the huge, grassy backyard where most children would go out to play.
The orphanage has three simple rules we needed to follow:
All chores assigned needed to be done.
Follow all laws set by the caretakers without question.
Never go into the forest alone. This was the most important rule of the three. This rule was put in place a couple of years ago when a girl went missing and was never seen again.
"Hey, Maddox, what's taking you so long?" a girl said.
"Oh, hey, Ola. It's nothing much, just can't get these stains out. I've told you guys to take your shoes off when you come inside," I replied annoyingly.
Ola had long brown hair that went all the way down her back toward her knees. It was long and beautiful and had this almost gold look to it when the light hit it just right. She also had freckles on her nose and across her cheeks, but what really got me were her eyes. She had green, emerald eyes that had this intensity to them but also this kind and warm look.
"You do this every time it's your turn to clean, Maddox, and I swear I've never seen you take your shoes off either," Ola said mockingly.
"Well…"
"Hey, Maddox, hurry up! We are about to play Hot Pocket again!" Soren interrupted.
Soren had blond hair, light blue eyes, and wore glasses. But lately, he discarded them since Bethany called him a nerd, and still won't admit he can't see, even after the fourth wall he ran into.
"Every time we play Hot Pocket, someone's pants catch fire or end up ruined," I said to him dryly.
"Just hurry up," he said, running back outside and hitting the wall on his way out.
"I'll come out when I'm done here, Ola," I turned to say.
"Yeah, OK, Maddox," she said, skipping after Ren.
"Same old boring kid, huh, Maddox?" another voice said.
"Oh, what's up, Eliza?" I said dryly. "And I'm not a kid. We are basically the same age," I added.
"Hey, as your big sister, I will not tolerate disrespect," she said.
"You're not my big sister, Eliza. How many times do I need to tell you that?"
"Well, true, not yet. But once you marry my sister Ola, I will be," she said mockingly.
"I told you to stop that, Eliza. Stop saying dumb, stupid stuff like that!"
She laughed as she came closer.
Eliza looked a lot like her sister, just she had curly gray hair. She had no freckles and blue eyes. But besides that, it was almost like someone had made a photocopy of Ola and pasted it; then you had Eliza. Unlike Ola, Eliza was a bully to me, and I didn't know why.
"What do you want, Eliza? I'm trying to do my chores here. You're dirtying the floor with your face," I said.
"Oh wow, almost a decent burn there, Maddox. But you do know if you're calling me ugly and I look like Ola, you're technically calling her ugly too," she said.
"Well, no, I mean, no, you're actually…what do you want, Eliza?" I said, flustered.
She laughed. "Go play with your little friends. I'll do your chores for you," she said.
"Really?" I said, delighted.
"Yeah, I like cleaning," she said.
"Thanks, Eliza, you're the best," I replied. "Also, you're not much older than us, so stop acting so much more mature," I added.
"Whatever, kid. Go before I change my mind," she said.
The orphanage was in the middle of a flat green field surrounded by a thick forest of red, blue, and purple trees.
"Did you actually finish your chores?" Ren said excitedly.
"Yes, of course I did," I lied.
"OK, let's start then," Ren said.
The way you played Hot Pocket was simple: all the players stand around in a circle and you take a random rock from the pile in the center. One of them is actually bewitched with a spell that makes it slowly get hot. Then we all place the rocks in our pockets, and your job as the one with the bewitched rock is to lie and exchange your rock with someone else's rock before it gets too hot and explodes in your pocket. The role of the other players is to try to guess who the Hot Pocket player is. If they guess correctly, the stones in their pockets turn to sand and the Hot Pocket will explode immediately. While the explosion is harmless most of the time, it still stings and makes a hole in your pocket, and if you're really unlucky, it sets a flame to them.
The game works in rounds. Each round, the players try finding the Hot Pocket and forming alliances with those they trust. The importance of forming alliances is that at the end of each round, you need to swap stones with one player in the game or vote on who the Hot Pocket is. If you vote incorrectly, the normal stones take the place of the imposter's Hot Pocket and explode, leaving the original Hot Pocket untouched.
Magic in this world was still relatively new, so not much was known about it. Those born with magical affinities go through training when they turn fifteen.
Spark is another name for mana.
"OK, so grab your stones," Ola said.
Everyone grabbed a stone and immediately placed it into their pockets.
"I think it's Maddox," Ren shouted.
"You always do this, Ren," Ola said.
"Yeah, hey, why do you think it's me?" I said defensively.
"You look suspicious," he said.
"Nuh-uh, I don't," I said.
"Yeah, that's just his face, Ren," Ola said, defending me.
"That's not helping, Ola," I said, hurt by that conclusion.
"I actually think it's Ren," Bethany said. "He squints when he's lying or hiding something," she added.
"That's because I'm not wearing my glasses," Ren said. "I'm not the Hot Pocket."
"It has to be Ren," Ross added.
"Yeah, it is," I seconded.
"Yeah, probably," Ola said.
"Hold on," I said. "Ola, you're being way too quiet. You only get like that when you're lying," I said.
"Hey, I defended you, Maddox! Stop being mean," she argued.
"Mmm, very suspicious, Ola," I said mockingly.
"It's not me!" she shouted.
"OK, we need to make a decision or swap rocks," Ross added.
"Let's stick with Ren," I said.
Ola began flinching and tossing about slightly.
"Or we let the rock heat up a bit more," I said.
"No, no, we go with Ren," Ola said, flustered.
"Yeah, it's definitely Ola," everyone agreed, laughing.
The stones in our pockets turned to sand, and Ola's burst.
"No fair!" Ola said. "How'd you guys know?"
Everyone just laughed.
"You're such a bad liar, Ola," I said, still laughing.
"Yeah, you're right," she said, laughing as well.
Later in the dorms~
"Hey, I'm going to head to the library," I said to Ola and Ren. "You spend way too much time there," Ola said. "Yeah, man, it's kinda weird." "It's only weird because you can't read, Ren," I said jokingly. "Hey, I can read," Ren replied slyly. "Yeah, for someone who wears glasses, you're not living up to the stereotype, Ren," Ola said, giggling. "Stop it! I don't need glasses anymore—I'm cured, Maddox," he said dismissively. "Yeah, sure," I said sarcastically. "And you're looking at Ola," I added.
The orphanage had a library with many books donated by the capital town of Veloria. It wasn't very big or home to a large selection of books, but it was peaceful, and I could read and relax there.
As I walked through the library looking for a new book to read, scrolling past all the familiar ones, I saw a book I'd never seen before, which was a shock. It was old and withered and looked out of place on the shelf. At the table, I opened it.
"Hey, wanna hear something odd?" Eliza said, sneaking up behind me. I let out a scream that was way louder and more embarrassing than I'd hoped.
"Now why would you do that, Eliza?" I said, my cheeks turning red from embarrassment.
She laughed and sat down next to me.
"So, do you wanna hear it or not?" she said, ignoring my question.
"Sure, what is it?" I said, happy to move on from my cowardly reaction.
"Down to the east, near the woods, there's a cabin I've been trying to get into. I followed Magnus once, and he seems to go there quite often," she explained.
"I still don't get what that has to do with me, Eliza," I said.
"Well, I'm too scared to explore it by myself, so I want you to go with me."
"Eliza, you know we aren't allowed to go anywhere near the forest. We're going to get in trouble. It's just a storage cabin," I said.
"Look, I took over your chores today, so you kinda owe me one," she said, smiling cheekily.
I looked at her dryly. "Fine, we can check it out," I said, defeated.
"Thanks!" she said, laughing. "Now, look on the bright side—you learned a valuable lesson today: I don't do things for free," she said, standing and flicking my forehead while laughing.
I turned back to the book, which started shining as words began to etch themselves onto the pages.
"My name is Loo, and I am the Codex."