It was pitch black outside, with clouds covering the sky, in the middle of the woods, a large portal opened where two older magicians walked through wearing a black uniform with red trim all around it that brushed the ground. One was a tall man who had silver hair and wore a round pair of glasses. The other was a woman with black hair with streaks of grey in it; she wore an emotionless expression as her eyes glowed with the space affinity. The older man expressed some restlessness to the woman: " I wonder if there are any young magicians in this backwater village. It's getting troublesome; we haven't found any young mages." He waited for her response; there was none, except for her marching toward the town. He stood there asking, "How did I get paired with this crazy lady for the exams." as he caught up to her, he walked with her to the village, arriving right as the sun came up. Embermire was a farming town, so most of the people were already awake before sunrise, and today wasn't any different, or that's what the vile boys were thinking.
Kael woke up as usual and got his brother Draven up, the two boys went to breakfast with Ms. Baker, where they had a large meal and were prepared to go to Gideons early to finish their work for the day as they were going to practice their new artifacts with Jera. That was their plan, at least. As the boys left with their artifacts strapped on, they began to walk to the shop where Kael was back peddling in front of Draven, talking to him about the things he was thinking about with magic and their artifacts, when he suddenly bumped into the two magicians that had come out of the portal. The old man scoffed and grabbed Kael by his shoulder, saying, "What have we here?" he noticed the magic coming from the boy's artifacts. "Look, Ms. Nez, the first people we run into here are two young magicians; it's our lucky day!" The usually quiet teacher was astonished as she felt a stir deep down. She felt a kinship to the boy, and she looked at him and caught the v behind his ear, the same place hers was, except it was the Infernal rank and not the Ignis rank she had. She muttered, "Infernal." The Tall professor gasped and released his grip from the boy, where Kael jumped back to Draven. The man said, brimming with joy, "An Infernal here! It can't be." She asked Kael where his parents were, and Kael replied, "What is it to you, lady?" Draven tugged on Kael's arm, saying to him, "Be careful they are strong." Kael looked back, acknowledging Draven, just as he did, the lady now known as Ms. Nez activated her space affinity in her hands and sent tendrils of mana that wrapped around the boys, and the boys immediately felt weak as if they couldn't feel a connection to their magic anymore. This was her spell called Nexus Tendrils it cuts off all connection to a user and their magic, making it a perfect spell for capturing magicians. She told them, "Calm down we are not here to hurt you, we've come to help you." Kael couldn't help but trust her he felt like he knew her, and she had the softest voice he ever heard, almost like the words were carried right into his ears from her. She released her magic and asked her question again. Where Draven answered this time, saying, "We are Brothers, and our parents died in a fire a few weeks ago, we stay here in the inn and help at the herb shop." The Tall man then introduced himself as Professor Slims, a Teacher at the Nexus Academy. The two boys shot looks at each other with excitement in their eyes. Professor Slims then began to tell them they were looking for magicians to take the upcoming exam as the entries to every exam got lower and lower, they started having teachers search in pairs for groups of students to take the exams. Kael spoke up, "How do we get there?" Professor Slims answered, "We will take you, we will leave immediately, now that we found you two." he looked to Ms. Nez, saying, "We could skip the parent's talk and all that with these two as well, isn't that great?" Ms. Nez elbowed Mr. Slims hard and turned to the boys "Is there anything we need to tie up here before we go?" Draven told Kael, "What about Jera and Gideon.? Do you want to leave with these strangers without saying goodbye?" Kael turned to the two magicians and blurted out, "We know another magician, her name is Jera, and she is better than both of us." Draven gasped as he never thought those were going to be the words to come out. Professor Slims was immediately intrigued, so he said, "Let us go meet her then what's the hold-up."
Kael then led the two Nexus Professors to the herb shop, where Gideon and Jera were inside prepping the shop for the upcoming day, little did Gideon know that it was going to be his last day with help around the shop. Draven and Kael explained to the two professors who Gideon and Jera were before they got there. Professor Slims didn't pay much attention to anything around him, as the two boys could tell he was from a much larger place than Embermire. Draven was curious about the two magicians, so he asked right before they got to the shop, "Where are you from, Mr. Slims?" Professor Slims answered confidently, "I was born in Nexus and grew up in the tower." Kael, with a confused expression, questioned it, "From Nexus? Grew up inside the tower?" Kael said the only words that could form, "What kind of place is Nexus?" with wonder-filled eyes, but Ms. Nez immediately cut off the talking as they arrived in front of the shop where the two boys went inside, and the professors followed suit. Gideon smiled as he saw the boys, but his expression changed to fear when he saw the two well-dressed professors that were behind him. He could never forget her face. It was the space magician who had taken him to his exam for the tower. He dropped everything he was doing as he greeted the honored guest like Royalty had just walked in. Gideon spoke first, "Who blesses me with the honor of being in front of such powerful magicians?" That is where Professor Slims blurted out, "Finally, someone shows us the respect we deserve, I like this guy. We are here for any young magicians to take with us to the Nexus exams." Gideon, Confused, replied, "I don't remember professors gathering people for the test, finding the test locations was part of the test when I took the Exam." Ms. Nez took over from there, "You are right this isn't the traditional method, but as years go by, fewer applicants apply, so that is why we are here." Gideon sighed, looking at the three young magicians, feeling an overwhelming sense of worry for them as he knew what was coming ahead for the three. The Nexus Exams