Charles king lonely hope part 1

September rolled into October, like a pumpkin down a hill, and equally disastrous too, and like a pumpkin splattered into bits, scattered all over the the place, my life has become similar. Since my reveal day, I have found out I am the only dark mage in the world, which comes with the wonderful perks of being hated and loathed for something I did not choose! And the joyful experience of grown-ups attacking me has happened four times up to now. The first time I was walking to the guild, I had left the transmission station, still in my school uniform after a long day of dirty looks and name-calling, it’s gotten gradually worse because a rebellion has decided I’m the face of the operation.

“Charles!, Kevin!” Terry shouted the small guy from the guild. “Move out of the way” We had jumped to the side and Terry flung himself forward and caught a magical sword that whizzed past me.

“You have to die dark mage” said the crazy man “People are dying because of you!”

“I didn’t do anything!” I responded. “I didn’t choose this”. Terry hit the crazy man with a spell that made his legs become jelly waving about like a balloon wearing a jacket in a tornado, a second later Terry hit him with another spell, and he began running on the spot.

After that, I began getting an escort from the transmission centre to the guild and waited for Mum and Dad to come back from whatever mission they were on, their recent missions have been on animals or monsters that have been stolen and brainwashed into doing the bidding of evil teams. The other attacks were easier to fend off, especially with a guard now, Tracy froze two women on the spot. Mr. Bridges made a man run into a wall and finally, a group of 10 decided it was time to go big and made the mistake of doing it on the day that Dad and Marvin were picking me up, a quick fight, very quick! One guy’s hair still won’t go down, Marvin saw him recently and said he looked like a 90s punk rocker. Three of them had no eyebrows, and one had no hair, and she was fuming about that. It’s calmed down now, thank God no one has tried to attack me in two weeks, outside of school, inside has been well, different to how I imagined it would have been. I’m the only student in my year who hasn’t had a practical elemental lesson. Kevin has been using his electric magic to turn on light bulbs of different voltages, Grace has been trying to make her fingertip glow. No idea what Charlotte, Ethan or Tori are doing, they haven’t spoken a word to me.

Lincoln has been making waves, playing his part in the school team Scorpio, he was in a game of capture the flag against team Taurus, and Tim captured the flag for a team Scorpio win, most students would go up in the rankings if they had won but Lincoln doesn’t need the help, he is currently ranked #1 out of all the second years. And speaking of Rankings Kevin is #1 out of the first years. I was #11 I got it on a piece of paper the next school day after the royale. I like being #11, for one, it’s not public knowledge, only the top 10 is and since I know I am thanks to my piece of paper, and I have shown Kevin and Grace it and now we laugh when anyone claims to be #11.

On a lighter note, I got to go visit the animals in Alvin’s shop, but I mainly spent my time with the dog in the cage, it’s become a lot friendlier wagging it’s tail so fast when it sees me., I haven’t got a name for it yet and more good news, Grace’s mum has gotten a job at the guild she works behind the guild with Madam Morris, she seems a lot happier and has put on weight, now she looks healthier, and the even happier person is Grace, she loves being around the guild, they even moved into one of the flats upstairs, I snuck her the light mage grimoire that my Grandparents bought me, I slide it to her during our form class lesson and told her.

“You dropped this yesterday” She was very confused and then she realised what was going on and thanked me for picking it up.

Today I am looking forward to school, currently sitting here listening to Mr. Ridgewell, talk about this week’s ongoing at the school, wishing he would hurry up because today I have my first practical elemental lesson.

“Team Cancer is taking on Aquarius, its a a magic gauntlet, a timed event, if you want to know what it’s all about go check it out on Wednesday, also the school’s annual Halloween event will be on Halloween this year, it’s free to attend, almost everyone dresses up and the school team but on events for entertainment, last year was a haunted house and a few other things” the bell rang, and the class was dismissed. I said bye to Kevin and Grace as they walked to their classes, I was heading the opposite way, my class was opposite the nurse’s office on the second floor, it has changed a few times, and so have the teachers. I had a teacher called Ms. Manor, she was nice but nervous I don’t know what I had done but my next lesson was Mr. Turk, he only lasted a day too, after that headmistress Simmons took my lessons from that point on. I liked that but at the same time, It’s hard not to take it personally that teachers are uncomfortable teaching me.

I got to the room and looked in and Simmons was sitting on a table, she saw me looking through the small window and waved me in. I opened the door and walked in, I think this was a science room, with wooden desks stretched across the middle of the room with sinks in the middle.

“Hello Charles,” said Simmons, he has a maroon suit on today. “Take a seat” I did, and she pulled out a plant pot from behind her that had a flower in it. “Do you remember our previous lessons? And how to use elemental magic instead of neutral magic?”

“Yes miss,” I said, remembering our previous lessons “Neutral magic is everyday magic and magic that everybody can use given enough training, elemental magic is personal to each individual, more difficult to use on purpose but with training, it can become a second nature, literally”.

“Very well done, now this flower I would like you to use your dark magic, by pushing it into this flower”.

“Into a flower? Why?”

“Dark magic is rare and very little has been documented about it, and this is the first stage of what I have come up with”.

“What have you come up with?”

“Well first, we proceed with trying dark magic out on objects and see how they react and affect them, and in doing so increase your control on your magic too, let’s begin” The plant slid closer to me, and the sense of stop asking questions and just do it!” I pulled the plant to the front of me and got comfy on my stool, and then hovered my hands over the top of the flower and then decided against it. I Pinched the stem with my index finger and thumb and relaxed my breathing then focused on using only my dark magic, remembering my previous classes.

“Separate your magic” Simmons said to me, “elemental and neutral magic feel different, remember the feeling of both and it will become easier to use “.

Cold magic coursed down my arm this is the feeling I have known as my elemental magic, my dark magic, it flowed into my finger and thumb then left into the flower, Simmons leaned forward when I did too, and I let go of the flower and we both looked at it for a moment and nothing happen.

“Sorry I thought something might happen” I said.

“Don’t be silly Charles, this is your first practical lesson, you’re in the same boat as all others first...” Simmons trailed off and turned her head to the flower. It was bending over slowly. She lifted it and we saw black spots where my finger and thumb were, suddenly Simmons cut the flower apart with her finger like a hot knife through butter, just above the black spots. She placed the flower down and we had a look at the insides of the flower, my dark had travelled across from each side and met each other from either side.

“Interesting” Simmons muttered and then pulled out three more flowers and then asked me to do the same thing, I did. But the results weren’t the same, one flower instantly got a visible black spot that travelled up the stem, the petals of another flower fell off and finally another one didn’t react at all.

“What were you thinking when you added your magic to the flower?”

“I wasn’t, I was only concentrating on actually putting the magic into it”.

“That makes sense” The bell rang and startled me. I didn’t expect it to go off. “This will be the first time I will be giving you homework, your homework is to continue this, get some flowers and practice your magic ideally at your parents guild, okay?”

“Yes miss”

“Okay, Good, go on to your next lesson” I said bye and lifted my book, and I went to my next lesson it was a maths lesson not exactly the most fun lesson after that one but what I can do,

“I need to get a lightning mage” Kevin said during our first break “To oversee me a bulb, he pulled a box out and then pulled out a bulb from inside it.

“I need a light mage” Grace said, sitting down with two plates of food one for her, she likes to eat! Oh, my word if I have learned one thing since I met Grace she loves her food, and the other plate had sandwiches on it for Kevin and me.

“The guild has a few,” Kevin said through a mouth full of cheese sandwiches.

“I got elemental homework today, I need flowers to push magic into, and to do it at the guild” Kevin’s face look like he was hit in the face with a fish, super confused as to why.

“Flowers? Why?” Kevin asked,

“No idea,” I said and then had a cheese sandwich, and that was that it wasn’t spoken out until our basic magic lesson, we are learning the spell to turn light switches on and off, harder than it sounds, a few people have put holes in their fake light switches and the tables they are sat on.

“But why flowers” Kevin leant over and asked me, he then set his whole switch flying across the room narrowly missing Ms. Manor, she has to teach me in this class, she is the same size as most of the first years, even in her heels, in a skirt and white top.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t told”.

“Charles” Tracy shouted, “what ones?” we were in a flower shop that was on the way to the guild from the station, I told her about what I needed, and Grace and Kevin came with us. Tim, Yasmin, and Lincoln already went to the guild.

“Any in a pot I think” I said. Tracy bought 5 potted flowers and we left for the guild. Kevin has got his dad to watch him try and light up a bulb. Grace had found a guild member with light magic, and I had formed a group, and everyone was giving their opinion on what was happening to the flowers.

“Are they crumbling?”

“No, you idiot! They are melting”.

“What he is not a fire mage”.

“They are poisoned”.

“No!!”

“All of you shut up,” the guild master said. He picked up a flower, “Interesting!” the doors banged open, and Mum and Dad walked in, Dad was covered in mud and blowing steam like a kettle,

“I hate minotaur’s” he proclaimed walking in slowly, Mum shrugged her shoulders and gave Madison a hug who had become really good friends with the red-haired girl she met on her first day, Justene her name is. “Stupid things have only gone and got brainwashed by the bad guys, hey son what’s with the flowers” dad tone suddenly changed,

“Elemental homework,” I said,

“Oh, that makes sense” Dad said and picked up the flowers and examined them, “explains the decay in the flowers” Like a lightning bolt through the skulls of everyone around me, they all realized what was going on and scrambled to pick up a flower. “You made it rot from the side son, basically killing all the cells from the inside, a cool ability if you can do it regularly.”

“Decay?” Simmons said the next day in elemental class when I told her what Dad said yesterday. “I see now, he is right, that is a good ability to have, it means no one can come close to you in a serious fight, for fear of being caught, how many people know about this?”

“Us and the people in the guild”.

“Keep it that, do not tell anyone, Charles, this way this will be your first arrow in your arsenal and a deadly one to anyone who doesn’t know about it”.