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Warlocks & Sorceresses: The Timeless Grimoire

Tyler - Fates of Shadows

Tyler - Fates of Shadows

Jun 07, 2022

Chapter XVII 
∴ ∴ ∴ 
Fates of Shadows 
Tyler 
May 16th, 1907

The journey southwest was long and arduous, taking a few hours to arrive. The road exhausted Tyler, Casey was still asleep, and Victor was almost halfway through the book. Upon doing so, Tyler suddenly surged with the power of astonishment and bewilderment. Victor had a similar reaction. Casey awoke when the carriage lost speed, and her expression changed to that of this being her first time outside Calne. Tyler wasn’t entirely sure where they were on the map, but it must’ve been somewhere along the northwestern coastline, as a huge port sprawled beyond the straining of his sight. 

The place was heaving with activity, with all manner of ships for all manner of trades coming and going for purposes mostly unknown to any of them. People were busy; Tyler could see people in peculiar attire wandering around the place attending to certain duties, while he also noticed parents of children about his age chaperoning potential new warlocks and witches to and from the examination area, hoping to produce a masterful magic worker in the family. Some families seemed extremely pleased and excited about the results they received, while others seemed utterly dejected as they walked back to their families. Not so lucky for them to arrive by car or train. 

In these moments, Tyler suddenly wished his parents were with him, and then he felt more deeply for Casey. He didn’t look at her, though, and instead looked more deeply at the details of the place. 

“Let me see!” Victor demanded. Tyler stepped aside while Casey took the other opposite window. 

Victor got in the way and stared out of the open window, Carrot jumped up and sat on his shoulder to survey with him. He started to describe the stonework of the buildings that surrounded them and suggested real age from an antiquated time; whitewashed stone and grand columns that reached up to hold old rooftops, and cobbled pavements that reached down to the shoreline, and looming over all of it stood a huge coliseum that almost seemed to lack identifiable age. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before; domineering and ancient, it once seemed to command the obedience and attention of many. Now, it seemed more of a husk of its former but was still monumental in its sheer size. 

The carriage slowed to a halt, settling into its designated storage area, and the three of them stepped out, carrying their trunks and backpacks in tow with them. The air was fresh with the scent of the western coast, and a frequent, chilly breeze blew through the many alleys of the docking area despite the warmth of summer. As they checked their belongings, an ageing man in an impeccable uniform approached them. 

“Welcome to the Warlock Union Society Port. W.U.S.P. for short. You must be Tyler Winwood, Cassandra Cardnell, and ... Victor Waltz, correct?” Tyler noticed the man’s hesitation whilst saying his friend’s name and wondered if he recognised the surname from somewhere else. Victor spoke for them all and extended a hand to the man. 

“Yes, thank you for having us,” he said. The man looked curiously at him, and then to his hand, but did not remove his hands from behind his back where they had rigidly rested.

“It is no say of mine for having you, young sir. I am merely a porter, requested to take your luggage for safekeeping and escort you to the examination area. Please, follow me.” 

“Cassandra, really?” Tyler asked, amused. 

“Shut up,” Casey replied, following Victor. 

They were guided to an area just outside the massive ruins of the coliseum. As they stepped beneath its shadow, Victor shared his lessons of local culture and history, and could remember hearing nothing about such a monumental building in England. Tyler stared up at its massive structure, fascinated and intimidated all at once by Victor’s lecture. 

They were quickly interrupted and hurried to sit under a canopy that was attached to the outer walls of the coliseum where the rest of the potential students awaited their examinations. Many of them seemed nervous, others expelled certain brooding confidence. One such person was a girl who Victor sat beside. She was very pretty with short hair as white as snow and crystal-clear silver-coloured eyes, a fair face, and a small frame. Yet despite her build and fairness, she held a certain strength about herself. She studied Victor a while, and her eyes panned to Tyler and Casey beyond him. 

“You seem a little green,” she told Victor, at last, breaking the awkward silence. “Excuse me?” said Victor as he clenched a fist in return. Tyler noted the black choker that was around her neck, but after a closer inspection he recognised it as an expensive Magicloak—a device that conceals the magical presence of an individual. “You seem green. Do you even know any magic?” The tone of her voice was enough to make Tyler a little irked. 

“Of course, I do,” he finally told her. 

“You don’t seem so sure.” She grinned. Tyler wasn’t sure if it was a friendly grin or a malicious one. “I’m Emma Blackthorn. Who are you?” 

“Victor. Victor Waltz.” He extended his hand in greeting, but Emma refused. 

“Waltz? Like Gareth Waltz?” she scoffed, laughing with a sort of mocking confidence. 

Tyler was eager to interrupt their conversation to protect his friend, when he remembered the surname. He froze. He realised this was Victor’s fight, but more importantly, the consequences would impale his very future in the academy. 

“What’s your problem?” Victor asked her directly with a voice of confidence to rival her own. “You don’t like my uncle or something? What did he ever do to you?” But before Emma could respond, another girl had appeared in front of him. 

Timid and quiet, she had raven-black hair that curled down her back. She was well dressed, and her narrow, soft face was covered in a pair of thick, round glasses. She seemed very familiar to Tyler, but he couldn’t place where he had seen her. 

“Here comes Miss Chinglish,” Emma chuckled. 

“Excuse me,” she said to Victor. “Did you say your name was Victor Waltz?” Victor was already feeling quite standoffish and gave a sharp response. 

“Yes. So what?” The girl recoiled a bit as Emma scoffed again and turned away. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said the new girl, almost as if she were on the verge of tears. At the sight of such, Victor softened his expression again. “It’s just that I know your name. My mother mentioned you—” 

“Your mother? What do you mean? Who?” As Victor spoke, a tall, slender woman walked up behind her. She, too, had long, jet-black locks that fell down her back into delicate ringlets. Her face was stern and neutral, yet her eyes were warm. She was dressed immaculately in a dark vestment, and a familiar tome hung from her shoulder by a chain. 

“Professor Wolflight,” exclaimed the three of them at the same time. 

“Hello, Victor. It’s good to see you finally decided to take the entrance exam for the Academy.” She gave a small smile to him, breaking her otherwise authoritative appearance. “I have no doubt you will pass.” She turned her gaze to the others. “Casey, Emma, Tyler, you’re friends already, I see?” Tyler and Casey smiled back at her. Emma, on the other hand, crossed her arms, huffing into her privacy. “Mostly,” the Professor added, giving a restrained chuckle, covered by her mouth. 

“This is my daughter, Bethany. Perhaps you will all be friends later,” she subtly suggested. 

Bethany went bright red, her eyes darting down towards the floor. They smiled at her, and she managed to shoot one back at them. 

“I had best get on, Bethany. See you after the exam. Lovely to see you again, Victor. Good luck with the exam today, everybody. I am excited to hear from you all once you are finished.” She gave them all one last smile before guiding herself and Bethany into and through the swathes of people who rushed around the area. 

As the two disappeared into the crowd, another elderly gentleman in similar attire to the porter approached the gazebo with a piece of paper in hand. He called out to the group in formal tones. 

“Would the following students please follow me into the coliseum to take part in the theory examination? The practical examination will be taken immediately afterward. Present yourself in an orderly line if you hear your name.” He looked at the piece of paper and narrowed his eyes, looking over the tiny spectacles that rested on the end of his nose. 

“Emma Blackthorn. Lumira Butler. Cassandra Cardnell. Christopher Cooper.” As he spoke, each student rose from out of the gazebo, lining up as instructed. Emma went first, slumping herself along in an exasperated fashion, and Casey reluctantly followed behind her. The man continued, “Aiden Rodrik. Victor Waltz. Tyler Winwood. Finally, Bethany Wolflight.” The old man gave a smile to Bethany as she rose, seemingly already familiar with her. At the sound of their names, Tyler and Victor fell in line with the rest of the prospective students. “Come with me, please.” The old man marched forward in an almost comical way, clearly taking some manner of exuberant pride in his duties. 

The wide entranceway, flanked by huge antique statues of templar knights in ancient robes and bucket helmets on either side, opened to reveal the large inside area of the coliseum beyond. As they marched behind the guide, the area seemed to open up beyond limit around Tyler, and his eyes darted everywhere they could, measuring the unimaginable size. It was, for the most part, empty, and yet there was a certain majesty and mystique still maintained amidst the ruins. With a seemingly limitless open top, the sides of the coliseum reached out into seating areas that could seat hundreds if not thousands of people. Yet, every seat that could’ve been occupied was instead entirely vacant except for where a small assortment of men and women sat with a long desk placed in front of them. Tyler guessed they were to facilitate the exam. Placed in the centre of the open coliseum were several empty individual study desks. At the front of the desks, stood a small table. He wondered how fast Nora passed the entrance exam. 

“Please find your name. They are in alphabetical order,” called the guide as he went to retrieve a stack of papers from the group of men and women observing. After Tyler, Victor, Casey, and the rest took their seats, the old man placed five bound sheets on each desk. As he did, Tyler couldn’t help but feel the silence in such a place was eerily deafening, and suddenly the pressure sunk in of not having luck with anything about casting magic in the past weeks. The theoretical part was going to be a son of a biscuit, but he stared blankly at the front of the paper and dreaded what was to come. 

The man called out into the stale silence, announcing that they could start whenever they wished, and activated the small clock that sat on the front table. “You have fifteen minutes,” he called. 

Those fifteen minutes seemed to drag on for an eternity. He stared at each page over and over, answering each topic with ease. Victor stared at him from afar, as if somehow the terms seemed utterly alien. It must look like convoluted scientific terms for him. Some sort of maths formula that his teachers at school had tried to enforce, except much worse than that. Victor’s hand started moving. Best guess is that he decided to take a wild guess anyway and hoped that it would give him at least some kind of positive result. Tyler held little hope for his friend. Tyler finished on time and was distracted by Carrot sitting on the corner of Victor’s desk, watching curiously at his actions, and frequently glancing around the area to see what was going on elsewhere. Suddenly, the little clock’s bell rang, a little louder than one would expect, and after carefully observing them all in stony silence for the last fifteen minutes, the old man at least broke his statue-like stillness, taking each paper away and giving them immediately to the facilitators sitting to the side. 

“Now, everyone, please stand.” All the potential recruits did as the coordinators ordered. “We shall now commence the practical examination.” He raised his hand above his head and clicked his fingers once. Immediately, the desks upon which they had sat only moments ago suddenly disappeared into thin air. The group whispered and chattered with excitement and astonishment, and Carrot leapt into mid-air as the table vanished under her little feet. Victor grinned and chuckled to her, changing joyous looks with Tyler and Casey. 

“Silence, please,” said the old man. “Now, I would like you all to demonstrate to us your skills in magic. Show us anything, in your own time, anything that you are capable of.” 

For a moment, there was a long silence as the teenagers all considered what to do. Victor looked sheepishly over to Tyler, and then to Casey. But Emma decided to act first. Holding a peculiar stance, she dramatically aligned both of her hands and then performed a fierce snap, subsequently, a bright flash of white-royal-purple-mixed fire seemed to protrude almost from nowhere and extended into a rough spiral-like-shape before fizzling into a tiny spark again. Emma furrowed her brow, but the old man congratulated her. 

“Excellent mirage, Ms Blackthorn. Please make your way to the instructors by the desk and be sorted into your coven.” 

“Coven?” Victor whispered. 

Tyler moved quickly as the old man wasn’t paying attention and went to stand next to Victor. “Casey already explained that each student of Darklight is classed into one of two covens. The Dawn Coven... and the Nightfall Coven. I thought you remembered?” Tyler replied. 

“What is the difference?” 

“Doesn’t matter.” Casey moved to Victor’s other side. “Tyler and I without a doubt were born to serve the Dawn Coven,” Casey said. 

Victor shrunk his shoulders in defeat. Emma walked silently towards the tables, passing them as she did. She gave them all a sour look and whispered under her breath to them. “Let’s see you do something as good as that, losers.” Her voice was laced with spite and hubris. Tyler scowled at her.
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A dark fantasy where the lives of nine people meet in the midst of an interplanetary battle between wizards and alien deities set in the Edwardian Era.

Note: This story is an extended preview of the actual novel, "Warlocks & Sorceresses: The Timeless Grimoire". The original novel was completed and published in digital and paperback print edition in April 30, 2021.
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Tyler - Fates of Shadows

Tyler - Fates of Shadows

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