Location: Unknown~

"Sir, we've completed the analysis," the man reported, his voice steady but cautious.

"And?" came the reply—calm, calculated, and cold.

"The data is in. This generation is nearly a failure. Only three percent show potential. The rest are…ordinary."

A pause hung heavy in the air. "Disappointing," the second voice finally said, almost indifferent. "Initiate the final stage. Monitor for anomalies. If nothing surfaces, terminate the program and report back."

"But him.....let him be—and any of his little friends. I know his value." you could hear a sinister smile forming from the shadows

"Yes, sir."

Orphanage~

I've always had this strange dream—a dream of a girl with hair so white it outshines the clouds, and eyes so blue they could rival the sky itself. Her gaze is sweet, disarming, a warmth that could make even the hardest men falter. Those eyes hold me, care for me, as if they know me.

But she has no name. No face. She exists only in fragments, lingering in the shadows of my mind. I'm haunted by her—a stranger I'm certain I've never met, yet somehow, I feel like I've known her forever. As if she's calling out to me, lost, reaching through my dreams, begging me to...

"Maddox, you better make sure this floor is polished spotless!" Miranda exclaimed.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied snapping out of my day dreaming.

My name is Maddox, and this is Huels Orphanage, better known as the House of Huels. This orphanage was founded to house orphans kids that had no where else to go.

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 3 simple rules we needed to follow

The first was that all chores assigned needed to be done.

The second was to follow all laws set by the caretakers without question.

The third was to run if you ever saw any monsters don't be a hero this rule was put in place at the home a couple 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 was really pretty. She 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 straight 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 the rocks is actually bewitched with a spell that makes it slowly get hot. Then we all place them in our pockets, and your job as the one with the bewitched rock is to lie and exchange your rock with someone else's one 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 one the players will try finding the Hot Pocket and form alliances with those they trust the importance in 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 explodes 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 in the orphanage are given a wand when they turn five and immediately begin their training.

Wands are a tool used to harvest or channel your spark into a more controlled stream, allowing you to manipulate it into spells.

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 said.

"OK, we need to make a decision or swap rocks," Ross said.

"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.

A bell rang loudly.

"Children, it's time to come inside. Magnus would like to speak with all of you."

We gathered in the main hall of the orphanage and sat down. The main hall was the biggest part of the orphanage and had six large rows of long tables where everyone would sit and eat.

"Good evening, children," Magnus said.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't like Magnus Wyrmsbane. He seemed off to me. Magnus was the head caretaker of the orphanage. He was older, with long white hair that went down his back and a long white beard that stretched all the way down to the floor. He had piercing red eyes and a grin that sent shivers down my spine. He felt like a wolf in a den of sheep when he looked at us. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I kept my distance whenever I could. Magnus was an extremely famous wizard known for his impressive accomplishments, or so I was told.

"Children, I've told you many times that that game of Hot Porcupine is dangerous and should not be played."

The children let out a bit of a giggle.

"Silence!" Magnus exclaimed. "On to more important details. Tomorrow is young Ethan's graduation. He has reached the right level in his magical abilities to leave us and join the others at the magical academy Lux in the big town west of here."

"Wow, so lucky," one of the orphans exclaimed.

"Congrats," another said, slapping him on the back.

"We're going to miss you," another added.

Lux was a school orphans were sent to when they became strong enough or if they turned 18. It was a huge honor amongst us orphans because this was a great step to making a name for ourselves. Since we were abandoned by our families and had no names, this was like our second chance to prove to the world that we could become something.

"That will be all, children. Make sure to keep practicing, and you too will be able to go to Lux."

"We condemn the founders and repent to the mother," Magnus exclaimed.

"We condemn the founders and repent to the mother," we collectively said.

Later that night~

It's so cool Ethan is so lucky Ren said as he took a huge bite of chicken

We sat at the dining table in the main hall as we ate the dining area had long benches and tabels that we sat at

Yeah it's been a while some we have had any one reach graduation rank

Graduation rank was achieved by those who manged to gain enough magical control to cast basic to advanced spells

At the orphanage This was rare most of the children here couldn't use magic and those that could had weak control over it

"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 said slyly.

"Yeah for some one who wears glasses you're not living up to the stereotype Ren" ola said giggling

"Stop and I don't need glasses anymore I'm cured Madoxx" 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 house 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 and began reading.

"To those who come after, I'm sorry. Why, Sina? You have cursed us all. The gift of the tree, you rejected from greed, and now we who come after are cursed to wither and die. Why, Sina, mother of lies? Please, God, shine on us once more."

The book was strange. I'd never seen it before. It was littered with magical runes, shapes, and languages I'd never seen. What was this person talking about? I couldn't read anything else in the book, but I was going to keep it. Maybe someday I could decipher it.

I held the book tightly, letting my spark hum to life. The air shimmered faintly, and with a practiced thought, the locker appeared—a flicker of white light floating just in front of me. I slid the book inside, the glow swallowing it whole before fading back into nothingness.

Every mage with even a scrap of control over their spark could manage a locker. It wasn't fancy or special—it was just there, like a summoned backpack you didn't have to carry. Convenient, sure, but nothing worth bragging about.

"Hey, Madoxx," Eliza said, walking into the room.

"Hey, Eliza. What's up? Thanks for taking over my chores today, by the way."

"No problem, but by now you should know that I don't do things for free," she said smugly.

"What do you want, Eliza?" I said comprehensively.

"Down to the east, near the woods, there is 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 are going to get in trouble. It's just a storage cabin," I said.

"Madoxx, don't you think things have been... off lately? So many of our friends have gone to Lux, but they never visit. We don't hear from them—not even a letter. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

"I…"

"Just help me, please, Madoxx," she interrupted.

"Fine," I replied unenthusiastically.

Eliza looked at me with a smug grin on her face, as if she were waiting for something.

"Wait, you mean right now?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it's now or never. Let's go," she replied.

"It's the middle of the night. We can't wander through the forest this late," I said.

"Yes, we can. Now let's go," she insisted.

The forest was quiet at night, the only sounds being those of animals and the crunching of dried leaves and branches beneath our feet. The sky was gray and cloudy, the air smelling like it did before a rainstorm. We could barely see in front of us as the moonlight was hidden behind the thick, dark clouds.

"Eliza, you do know the way, right?" I said, breaking the eerie silence.

"Yeah, I remember. Just stay close behind me," she whispered.

We approached a broken-down shed with a red door. It seemed out of place, just plopped in the middle of the forest. Fresh footprints coming and going from the shed were visible. The shack was small, barely large enough to fit anything of value, and the door was shut tight.

Eliza tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge. We walked around, looking for any other entry points.

"Hey, El, there's a small crawl space here. We can squeeze through."

"Nice, good job, Madoxx," she said.

We crawled through the space and landed in a dark room.

"I can't see anything," Eliza said.

"There are some stairs over there," I said.

We climbed down the stairs that seemed to go on forever until we reached a large steel door propped open by a stone. We entered and found a long corridor that stretched for miles, followed by a foul stench of rotten flesh.

"That smells terrible," Eliza said, scrunching her face and covering her nose.

"Eliza, I think we should leave," I said, uncomfortable.

"No, we made it this far. Let's keep going."

The dead silence of the room was broken when banging echoed throughout the corridor.

"Help me, please help," the voice sounded weak and broken but, most shockingly, familiar.

"That's...that's Ethan," I said, my voice trembling.

We ran down the long corridor that opened up to a huge room. In the center was an altar, and tethered to it was Ethan.

"What is this?" I muttered, unable to believe the horrors in front of my eyes.

"Ethan!" Eliza cried.

"Help me, please," he said, tears falling from his eyes before crying out.

A white stream of particles seemed to be sucked from his body, going toward a statue of a woman.

"We need to help him!" Eliza cried out. "Madoxx...Madoxx!"

"What? Yes," I said, breaking from my trance.

Ethan was tied to the altar, his hands and feet harnessed by thick chains.

"Eliza, wait!" I said as she charged forward to help him.

Surrounding the altar was a huge circle of white sand.

"If we step over that sand, we'll probably trigger some sort of alarm," I said.

"How do we help him then?" she asked.

"Hold on, do you hear that?" I said. "Someone's coming. Hide!" I grabbed her hand, and we ran to hide under a table in the corner of the room.

"This one put up a fight," a deep voice said.

"Yeah, they all do. 'Help, help,' they shout. 'Why are you doing this?'" the man mimicked in a condescending voice as they both laughed.

"So, how much longer will this one be up there?" the man gestured, pointing at Ethan.

"He's about done," the other man replied.

"Oh, I guess I can have my fun then," the man said, pointing his wand at Ethan. A bright flash of white light shot from it, striking Ethan in the head.

His body immediately went limp. I'd never seen anything like this before, but i could practically see the life leaving his eyes. Tears began flooding down my face as the fear and shock locked me in place, unable to move or breathe. All I could feel was the tight grip of Eliza's arms clenched around me. She too began crying.

"Magnus is going to be pissed off. Why'd you do that?" the man said.

"It's fine. He was about to die anyway," he responded.

"You're twisted, Matt," he replied.

"Come on, Lucas. You know you wanted to kill this pig too," Matt said smugly as they both laughed.

"It seems you're having a good time down here," Magnus said, walking into the room.

"Sir," they both said, saluting him tensely.

"What happened here? Why does this one have a hole in its head?" Magnus said annoyingly.

"Well, the ritual was completed, sir, and I disposed of it," Matt replied.

"I've told you many times, Matt, do not do anything without my permission. This one was a dud, but one day you may dispose of something important," Magnus exclaimed.

"Yes, sir. I understand. It won't happen again."

"Take it to the others," Magnus ordered.

"Sir," they both exclaimed.

What do they mean by "it"? They just killed a human, a child. What do they mean "it"? I clenched my fingers into a fist out of rage. That was a life, and they snuffed it out. For what? What did Ethan ever do to anyone? My throat felt tight as a sharp pain coursed through my chest.

They untied him from the altar and placed him on a rolling table, then rolled him out into the corridor.

"We...we need to leave, Eliza," I said, my voice cracking.

Eliza sat there frozen in fear, her face looking as if all the light had been sucked out of it. She was pale, and her fingers trembled.

I pulled her by the hand and guided her out. We ran back to the entrance. As we ran, I saw the room Matt and Lucas had gone into. There, I saw mounds of bodies piled on top of each other. Daniel, Sasha, Todd, Mathew. We kept running, crawling through the crawlspace back into the forest.

We ran through the forest, my lungs burning and my feet hurting, but we didn't stop. We ran faster and faster, trying to get away from that place until Eliza fell, tripping on a large stone.

"We need to keep..."

"They killed him, Madoxx!" she screamed, tears flooding her eyes. "What is going on?" She looked up at me, waiting for an answer.

"I... I don't know," I said. "But we need to keep moving."

"Why? So we can be next? We need to get out of here."

"What about Ren and Ola and everyone else? We can't just run away. We need to do something."

"What can we do, Madoxx? That's our own caretakers. That's Magnus, one of the strongest mages in the world. How can we fight that?" she said, defeatedly.

"I don't know, but we will figure it out. I need you to be strong, OK?" I said, walking closer to her.

"The lives of our friends are in our hands now. We have to be careful about what we do next," I added. "I need you to be strong right now, Eliza, please."

She sniffled and got up off the ground, her whole demeanor changing.

"I'm sorry. You're right, Madoxx. I just got a bit too emotional there. What's our next move?" she said.

One thing I admired about Eliza was that she was brave I could tell she was scared but she pulled her self together so quickly that it was almost scary.

"For now, we need to figure out how to escape safely—with everyone. There are 79 of us at the orphanage, and about 20 are little kids. We have to act normal until we find a way to get everyone out alive."

"Yeah, that's a good plan for now. Let's head back, and we can figure out the details."

We made our way back through the forest, every sound and shadow making our hearts race. When we finally reached the orphanage, the first light of dawn was breaking over the horizon. We quietly slipped back into the building, trying to blend in.

As we entered the main hall, we saw Ren and Ola whispering in a corner. Their faces lit up with relief when they saw us.

"Where have you been?" Ren whispered urgently. "We've been worried sick!"

"We need to talk, but not here," I replied, glancing around nervously. "Meet us in the library in ten minutes."

Eliza and I went to the library, our hearts still pounding. Ren and Ola joined us shortly after, their faces etched with concern.

"What happened?" Ola asked.

"We saw something...terrible," I began. "Ethan is dead, and Magnus and the others...they're behind it. They're killing us."

Their faces went pale with shock.

"What do we do?" Ren asked, his voice trembling.

"Their killing...us?" Ola stuttered "what do you mean what's going on Eliza?" She continued

Madoxx and I went to a cabin we found in the wood to explore it but we found this strange altar where Ethan was tied up she said her voice creaking and tears forming she explained all we saw.

"So what do we do now?" Ren said his voice shaking.

"We need to act normal for now," Eliza said, her voice assertive. "We can't let them know what we know. But we need a plan to get everyone out."

"We need information," I added. "We have to find out more about what they're doing and why.

I looked into Eliza's eyes and saw how deeply this had affected her. Her once bright, optimistic demeanor was gone. She was suffering, but for her sister's sake, she was holding herself together.