Arcanacraft: The Dual Roses
“Preserve your Arcana. Guard our secrets. Protect the Bloodline.” For generations, these rules have bound the Claymore clan of Mages and warlocks. A mysterious disease will shatter it all.
Schala and Remilia are twins and talented Mages. Schala is studious, snarky, observant, and dedicated to perfecting her Arcana. Remilia is outgoing, calm, easygoing, and a prodigy in Arcana since birth. Ever since their youth, the sisters have shared a bond with each other, but their own bloodline seeks to place them in places of power in order to continue what’s expected of their family.
The Claymores have always contributed something major to progress their generation’s development. The Magocracy of Augurey holds their family in such high regard, they’re considered royalty. This automatically dumps a load of expectations and responsibilities on the twins, but it doesn’t stop there.
Juliana, their mother, dotes on Remilia to groom her into a prominent witch to be used by the Arcana Sanction, who governs the magical dealings of Augurey. Schala, who’s had to work twice as hard to become a witch of the same caliber as her sister, is relegated to watching over their younger sister Casella, a frail Adder (a person born into a witch family who is unable to use magic) who is content to weave at her loom and stay out of trouble.
A duel between the twins which would result in admittance to the Arcana Sanction culminates in Remilia passing the exam while Schala fails by a narrow margin. Schala, whose built-up resentment got the best of her, laments at her lack of self-control and even though she’s consoled by Remilia and her uncle, the Lord Regent of the Arcana Sanction, Schala still downs herself.
Things aren’t made any better by their mother, who seems to only care about Remilia and Casella while casting Schala to the side. It reaches a boiling point when Remilia, a part of a Samhain festival that commemorates the Mages of Augurey and allows them to grant blessings to humans, invites Schala to sit with her. But Schala receives no gifts for blessings.
Her embarrassment is overshadowed by the appearance of a cloaked figure who infects several patrons of the festival with a disease that’s affecting the land: Noct Vein. The twins attempt to subdue the figure but are stricken with horror when the last victim hits home: Casella is the last to be infected, replete with a message scrawled on her wall in blood: “The black creeping holds illimitable dominion over us all.”
Augurey is in upheaval, and the cities are put on quarantine to avoid the spread of this mysterious disease. The twins are called to journey to the home of Master Warlock Aldritch to learn about the ancient forms of magic that predated known spells. They hold the hope of curing Casella, as Adders are more susceptible to Noct Vein than Mages or Humans. Healing the world means they’d be saviors, a feat expected of the eldest daughters of the Claymore bloodline. Schala could finally receive the accolades she’s been denied - their Arcana preserved, their secrets continuously guarded, and their bloodline protected.
