Foundations Prologue

Prologue)

Ai Yuki is a Magic. She didn’t always know it, but that doesn’t change the truth. Ai Yuki is a Magic.

But what is a Magic? Is a Magic a superhero?

Yes, but mostly no. Magics are just as they sound: magical. While anyone can be a Magic, almost no one is. After all, no one can choose to be a Magic. It wouldn’t be a choice made lightly, either.

To remove one’s ability to use all other forms of magic just for one overpowered spell, with no choice on what that spell might be, the cons seem quite clear.

So, how do Magics even exist? There’s no magic on Earth!

This isn’t a story about Earth, at least for now. The world of Ngash is a magical place, and the continent of Rungaard is a fountain of magical energy. But just because the world is full of magic doesn’t mean everyone must conform. Rine is one of those strongholds against it; Rine desired everything but magic.

Built upon the ancient city by the same name, the sprawling cityscape boasts a mechanical and scientific architecture aligned with the demon influences that made the city great. Rine was once the demon’s pride and joy, a testament to their conquest of the land above.

But their reign didn’t last. Only Rine remained, now occupied by the very humans who drove the demons back. Much time has passed since then, and the demons have long disappeared. So why does Rine detest magic so much? Or perhaps they just detest Magics.

In the end, does it matter? Rine is not a magical place. The rhythmic hum of machinery quells any suspicions of magical assistance as soon as one enters the gates.

But this isn’t a story about Rine, at least not yet. And it sure isn’t a story about demons, at least not yet.

This is a story about Ai Yuki and Magics.

This is a story of beginnings, redemption, downfall, and intrigue. This is a story about foundations.

This is the story of Ai Yuki. One of the last remaining free Magics in Rine, but she doesn’t know it yet.

\/\/\/

Let’s start at the beginning. Not far enough to spoil the world's mysteries, but just far enough to set the stage.

         Ai Yuki was a girl like any other. Her skin may have looked different, and her eyes were far from average, but she was normal. By all internal accounts, she was normal.

            So why did the world view her so differently?

            “Ai…Ai!” Ai’s first memories saw her father’s smiling face.

            There was nothing for Ai to do but smile back.

            “Ai, we love you! You’re beautiful!” He chuckled, almost shaking the room.

         “Van, don’t scare her,” her mother, Ai’s beautiful mother, joined in beside him. She gave him a tight hug from the side as they smiled at their daughter. There was joy all around.

            If only that moment could have lasted forever.

          Ai was a girl like any other. She had been told as much. After all, that’s what it seemed like at first. That’s what her father taught her.

\/\/\/

            “Ai! Sit nice…” Ai’s father huffed, glaring across the dinner table.

            “Yes, father…” she smiled, shifting in her chair.

            “Thank you!” He grinned with her obedience. “How was your day?”

            “Ai?” Her mother stared Ai’s way. She looked encouraging.

            “Oh…” Ai shrank in her chair. She hoped her father wouldn’t ask. He always asked though. She should have known.

            “Did something happen?” Her father figured it out fast. Of course, he did; he was her father. He was the smartest person she knew.

            “It’s alright, Ai!” Her mother grinned, reaching for Ai’s arm. She squeezed it warmly, giving her an emotional push.

            “Th-the boys…at the playground…” Ai’s head fell.

            “Huh? Some boys?” Her father’s attention shot towards his wife.

            “Ai…it’s alright!” Her mother continued.

            “They said I looked weird…”

            “Bah!”

            “Van!” Her mother hissed at her father’s reaction.

            “Ai, look at me.”

            “Y-yes…” Was he mad? She couldn’t tell.

            “What did they say? What’s wrong? You’re beautiful!” He chuckled.

            “W-well…” her eyes glanced to her mother, who smiled encouragingly.

            “Y-yesterday they were so nice, but today…they…”

            “Yes?” Her father waited.

            “They laughed at my eyes…”

            “By the steam!” He hissed.

            “Van…”

            “Ai, look at me. Look at your mother.”

            “Yes, father.” Ai followed suit. She knew those faces well. She loved them.

          They were warm and encouraging. She had seen them in so many different states: happy, mad, sad, and even pained at times. It didn’t matter how they looked, though; she loved them. They were her parents.

            “Are we weird, Ai?”

            “N-no…” she shook her head.

            “Are we any less than normal?”

            “N-no…” her head lowered.

            “So, Ai…” her father caught her attention. “Why would you be? You are not any less normal or beautiful than your mother!” He started to laugh, directing Ai’s attention to her mother.

            “R-right…” Ai stared at her mother’s smiling face.

          “Ai…” she stooped down on the floor next to her chair; she held Ai’s hand tightly, smiling at her. “Your father’s right! You’re beautiful, you are so, so beautiful!” She leaned in, giving Ai a firm kiss.

            Sure, they weren’t wrong. She was beautiful. But was she normal?

            Her father said so. But he seemed to be the only person who thought that.

            But what did some boys know? They were young like her.

            Ai’s father was old. He was big and strong. He had an important job in the city.

            He knew people, people unlike him. Unlike Ai. Yet he still said she was beautiful, and he said she was normal. That’s all Ai wanted. But was it true?

            Ai struggled to believe it. Was she normal?

            Based on her neighbors, she was normal.

            Everyone on their floor of the Wall looked like her. It was a haven for Dark Elves.

          But when she left home, when she left the Wall, when she went to school no one looked like her.

            The boys laughed at her. The girls avoided her.

            Until they didn’t.

\/\/\/

            One day, the attention flipped. She was no longer weird or unusual. She wasn’t the odd girl out.

            She became the enemy.

            She became feared. Loathed. Hated.

            It all happened at once.

            It was fast, too; she hadn’t even adjusted to being weird, and now she was the devil.

            Everyone seemed to learn what she was on the same day. Perhaps it was all due to one particular class. Or maybe some rumors. It didn’t matter really. They treated Ai differently.

            But she was closer to normal. Being feared seemed better than being weird.

            One boy even talked to her.

            “So, how does it feel?”

           “Huh?” She hadn’t expected someone to address her. She sat alone in the school field, waiting for lunch to end.

           “How does it feel to be a Dark Elf?” The boy stooped before her. He was close. He was only a foot away.

            “Who are you?” She didn’t recognize him. Was he new?

            “I’m new here!” He smiled wide, answering her question in line with her thoughts.

            “R-right…”

“Father says we’ll be out of here within the month…” He glanced around the schoolyard. It was small, but to Ai, it was large enough. The Lower Strata rarely afforded much space. A place like this could never exist on the Wall. There would be no field to speak of.

            “Are you rich?”

            “Sort of!” The boy smirked proudly.

            “Huh…” How was she supposed to respond to that?

            “You aren’t?” He cocked his head.

           “Me? Rich?” she had no idea. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Dark Elves couldn’t leave the Wall. There was no point to riches. At least she didn’t live below. The Lower Strata would be much worse.

            “I just assumed, you know…”

            “Because I’m Dark Elf!” She grit her teeth, standing to her feet. She gripped her empty lunch. The boy got on her nerves. She hadn’t spoken to someone her age in some time, and it was starting to show.

           What grounds did he have to make such assumptions? He was new, but he was just like the other boys. It didn’t matter what other Dark Elves had done; Ai wasn’t benefitting from their actions now.

            “Huh?” He smiled confusedly. “Because of your father.” He stood up, looming above.

            “M-my father?” Her anger dipped.

            “Our fathers work together!” He smiled broadly.

            “Huh?”

            “That’s why we’re rich!” He laughed.

            “Oh…” she stared blankly. Was she rich?

            “I’ll be out of here in a few weeks. My father will find an estate further up. Then I’ll go to a proper school!” The boy smirked.

         “Why’re you talking to me?” Ai lowered her head. She didn’t care about whatever boast the boy made. It didn’t change Ai’s fate.

            “Let’s be friends!” The boy’s hand shot out.

            “Huh!?” She was shocked.

            “I’ve always wanted to meet a Dark Elf…and now I have!” His smile refused to waver. It was splotchy. He missed several teeth, like he had just been in a fight.

            “Right…” It was still all about her race.

            “Wanna be friends?” He continued to smile, holding his hand out at the ready.

            “Okay…” she hesitantly slapped his palm, accepting his proposal.

            “Our fathers will be friends too, I’m sure!” He laughed.

            “Maybe…” she knew nothing about her father’s work. Who knew if what he said was true?

            “So, how does it feel? To be a Dark Elf?” The question resurfaced.

       “Well…” she glanced around her. The answer seemed clear. But, she had never experienced the alternative. She could only assume her pain was unique.

            Ding! Dong!

           Just as she gained the confidence to answer, the school bell rang. It was time for class.

            “Tell me later!” he chuckled, stepping back.

            “Okay…” she nodded.

            But she never did.

            He never asked again.

          The boy was right, he was gone within the month. He was Ai’s friend to the end, giving her a moment to breathe—a chance to see the light ahead.

            He made her feel normal for just a month.

            Then he was gone.

\/\/\/

            Pwoom!

            The front door slammed open, nearly tearing from its hinges.

            “Ai! Ai!” Her father’s voice carried through the home.

            “Pa?” Ai set down her knife, leaving the cooking on the counter.

            “Ai!?” He tore into the kitchen, wearing a wide smile.

            “P-pa!?” she stumbled backwards.

            He was soaked to the bone.

            It wasn’t raining, but he was soaked.

            “Van?” Ai’s mother appeared from the hallway.

            “Lina!” He smiled, throwing his head around to see her.

            “Wh-what’s wrong?” She stepped forward, touching his jacket gingerly.

            “She’s in! I got her in!”

            “H-huh!?”

            “Ai! I got you in!” His eyes darted back towards his daughter.

            “Wh-what?” She had no idea what he was talking about.

           “You’re going to King’s Academy!” He launched forward, wrapping her in a tight hug.

            “What!?” Ai’s arms dropped to her side.

            “You’re accepted. I got you in!” He laughed, shaking her with his bellow.

            “I’m going to…King’s Academy?”

          That wasn’t possible. People like her never went to King’s. She was a Dark Elf. Her kind wouldn’t even be allowed on Governor’s Island, let alone through the gates of King’s Academy.

           “Van! You did it?” Her mother stepped forward, wrapping her arms around her family.

            “I-I don’t understand…”

            Ai’s life was about to change. It made no sense.

            She wasn’t normal. She wasn’t like anyone else around her. She was the enemy.

            But somehow, Ai was going to King’s Academy.

            The most prestigious school in Rine should never accept someone like her.

            “What’s the catch!?” Ai pushed her way free from her parent’s arms. She stared up at her father seriously. There was no way this opportunity was free. What did he have to do?

            “Well…” His voice dropped low as he traded a glance with Ai’s mother.

            “Van?” She sensed the weight in his voice.

            “You have to work with me.” A subtle smile spread across his face.

            “Huh?”

            “Van!”

            “Lina, I know that…” He spun to face her.

            “Van, you said she would never…”

            “Lina, Lina!” He fought off her slaps. She was beyond angry.

            “Van, you promised me!” She pulled herself back, looking beyond troubled.

            “Lina, it was the only way.” He was disheartened.

            “There’s no way she’s going then!” her mother growled.

            “Wait…” Ai spoke softly.

            Her parents turned her way.

            “U-uh!” She wasn’t ready for all eyes on her.

            “It’s up to you, Ai.” Her father smiled.

            “Van!” She looked ready to kill him.

           “Going to King’s…” Ai mumbled. She didn’t think it could be possible. She didn’t know her parents even wanted that. But now that the offer was on the table, Ai saw something she hadn’t before. She saw an opportunity, a chance to be normal once more. She had to take that chance.

            “Ai…” Ai’s mother buried her face in her hands. She was on the verge of tears.

            “Will I be…normal?”

            It had been five years since she had felt that way. It had been five years since that month of freedom. She was ready for another taste.

            The Lower Strata had failed her. But that boy escaped up top. Maybe she could, too.

            Maybe she could be normal one more time.

\/\/\/

            Ai wasn’t alone in feeling alone. There was one other in Rine who felt abnormal. Perhaps there were more?

            That’s the question that Quine always asked herself.

            She spent countless nights staring up at the night sky, wishing for the sight of stars, even a glimpse of something more out there.

            Ever since she learned what she was, Quine had been alone.

At one time, everyone knew her name. Everyone knew the name Quine Dale around the Harbor District, but one day, they didn’t. All at once everyone seemed to forget. They forgot her as if she was never a Dale in the first place.

            She had no choice. No choice in her powers, no choice in her fate, and no choice in her family name.

            She would always be Quine, but her father was ready to denounce her as a Dale. He seemed ready to disown her. She would no longer be a harbor master’s daughter. All because of a little ice.

            It was one mistake. Any child could have made it. But of course, it was her.

            Her life was good; it was joyful, rich, and normal.

            Until it wasn’t. She was just starting to feel grown up when everything came crashing down.

            Rine wasn’t a city of magic. Quine had never been taught magic. No Dale had ever cast a proper spell.

            Yet, there she sat, one morning, staring down a frozen bowl of soup. It had just been hot. But something had changed.

            Her father noticed immediately, but it took her a moment.

            Her father’s attitude changed in that moment, but it would take her a long while to recognize it.

            But she would eventually realize it, no matter how much time it took: Quine Dale was no longer normal.

            By the time it set in, she was alone.

            She was no longer enrolled at school, no longer allowed outside of the house, and no longer allowed to speak to her father.

            All she had were the stars. Though they only existed in her head. Like magic, Rine didn’t have stars. Nothing was allowed through the gates of Rine unless approved first.

            Once, she thought she had spotted some, but it was just snow.

            She had enough of that. She had enough snow.

            But in time, that changed, too. Quine learned fast and hard: everything changes eventually. But maybe that wasn’t so bad.