A young woman with pointed ears and a unique birthmark on her hand looked at the teacher as he began to explain everything in this world, magical and non-magical.

“For instance, students, did you know the 9 Domes in each continent are, in fact, magical realms specific to each god? The one for Sybil lies near the capital in Valdoria. The Man Maker here in Eldoria is near its capital, and as you can guess, all remain near a capital. Can you guess what continent doesn’t have one?”

The young woman raised her hand and the teacher quickly turned and nodded, “The former continent of Tach, now known as the Abyss Waste or Abyssal Waste.” The teacher smiled at her answer. “Good job, Lavender. Ever since you got here 9 years ago, you’ve shown massive improvements from that scared little fairy from the Black Forest, your brother as well. Hells, even your magic seems to have expanded—wordless magic and the mind to come up with new spells on the spot. Having even some of them written down is an achievement among sorcerers!” The teacher yelled, obviously glad at Lavender's achievement.

She quickly pulled out two ragged covered items and unwrapped them, revealing an old sword with a blue half-broken blade. “Can you guess, out of all my teachings, what this sword is?” Lavender began to shake before the blade as it bled magic. Memories of a forgotten past entered her mind. She couldn’t take her eyes off the blade, but once she did, the scenery changed from a school to a fire-engulfed city from strange lands. A man looked at her, eyes widened, he stepped closer, shaking in fear, and grabbed Lavender's shoulder. Before he could speak, Lavender awakened in her room lying down.

Before long, Lavender was at a lunch table with her school friends. One of them, the school's famous young bard, grabbed her. “Lavender, calm yourself, as even I, the Great Eleanor of Yelile, have suffered from stage fright,” Eleanor said as if to try and calm Lavender's worried expression, not knowing that isn’t what’s bringing her down. Lavender stood up and turned around. “I’m just going to return to my quarters,” Lavender said. Eleanor sighed. Her other friends nodded and went back to eating. “I’ll get your work from the classroom.” Lavender nodded and began to walk back to her dorm room.

On her way, she saw a familiar person halfway into a hole. She stood behind them with a slight smile. “Ah, I got it!” The person yelled. They quickly got out of the hole and stood up, not realizing Lavender was behind them. Suddenly, he turned around with a wide smile. “Sister!” the boy yelled, hugging Lavender. She hugged back and looked at him. “What were you doing?” The boy looked over as if looking at someone, then at Lavender. He chuckled nervously, “I just fell while trying to store the thing you asked me to hide.” He took out a half-broken sword with a blue dim glow. Lavender pushed the blade into her brother's coat. “Lukas, please be mindful. You know the rules of the tower: any weapon or show of aggression, and they will send us back, and Sir Grand needs me to be here for magic training.”

Lukas rolled his eyes and threw the blade out through the hole he came from. He proceeded to use magic to recover it as well. “Please, sister, don’t worry. That blade can’t even be cut due to how it's broken in half is pretty old and has been used before. You’re a knight; how can’t you tell a broken and dull blade from an actual dangerous sword?” Lavender rolled her eyes and smacked her brother upside the head. “Dumbass, that blade isn’t normal. Now get back to class,” she said calmly. Lukas groaned and walked away. Lavender looked at the hole’s former location and reached over, but nothing—no strange vision or anything happening. “Maybe I’m going crazy.”

Lavender walked back to her room. Once she had entered it, she laid down on her bed, falling asleep slowly. She dreamt of a burning tower, Sybil’s tower, flames covered it with half of it gone. Lavender walked closer to the edge of the broken tower. She looked over and saw everything being burned down by three flying undead dragons in the sky and countless undead on the ground. She looked closer at the dragons, having thought she saw something off. She was right. On the middle dragon itself was a fleshless creature in the shape of a man with a strange marking on his left hand with the only last bits of flesh. He turned around and stared directly at Lavender. His face and his clothing reminded her of a story her mom had told her, a dark mage fascinated by death and the undead. The creature began stepping closer toward the dragon's tail with its eyes on her. It jumped down and flew through the air, its body expression seemed crazed as it tried to strike but failed as Lavender woke up. She sat up quickly and looked at her hand as she felt a stinging sensation. She looked at her hand and saw a marking representing his magic, necromancy.

Lavender tried scratching it away but caused more harm than good. She felt worried as necromancy was a forbidden form of magic and a sign like this would not be taken lightly. Someone knocked at her door. She quickly looked over, sighing, thankfully it was locked. But quickly she looked around for any clothing she could wrap around her hand. “I’ll be a second!” she yelled as she searched her drawers and desk. She only found something once she looked behind her dresser, and what she found wasn’t all that good. The gloves were older than the school, with very obvious damage when it came to the finger parts as they were completely missing, with more tears all around just barely hiding the mark. The knocking began to get a little louder so she rushed to the door and began to unlock it. “I’m opening the door now, you can stop.” As she opened the door, all she could ree were the person’s feet as she looked down. Her eyes widened as her head moved up, seeing only a skeleton face. “Lavender Greene, born from The Black Forest nomadic Fae,” it said. Lavender began to shake with fear. “Well-versed in most forbidden magics, even down to necromancy.” Lavender bit her lip, “That was one time! My family was in danger!” she yelled. The creature nodded, walking past her and into her room, finding a seat. “I am the 9th Demon Lord, girl, so don’t lie to me. My domain is in forbidden magics and dark creatures who require dark magic to live.”

Lavender clung to her clothing, “What do you want?” The creature looked over to her bed, “I want your support in a war I’m crafting.” Lavender looked at the undead creature curiously, “Who are your enemies?” The creature stood and walked toward the balcony, “This continent then, the next would be ours for the taking.” While his back was turned Lavender clenched her fist, she ran toward the creature while its back was turned, she began to cast a spell, but before she could get any closer she was stopped, by the necromancer grabbing her neck and lifting her midair while his back was turned, he looked at her unamused, “Should work on quieting your soul’s intention.” Like a sword, he impaled Lavender’s stomach with his unoccupied hand. Blood fell from her lips and her eyes widened as the world darkened. He threw her down to the floor where all she could see was the door opening and her brother walking in. He began to fill with fear as his sister began to bleed out. Lavender’s eyes stayed on his, worried about his safety, “P-Please don’t!” she yelled as the necromancer walked toward him. Her mind couldn’t be kept off him as he slowly lifted the boy by his throat as well.

Lavender began to cry, “I beg of you!” she yelled. The skeleton turned toward her; without a doubt, even without a face, he smiled. “Don’t forget you brought this on by not joining me.” Like with Lavender, he began to thrust his arm toward Lukas’s stomach, but before he could, time seemed to slow down. She felt an incredible surge of magic through her. She began to attempt to stand, “Come on girl, stand!” something said with no owner. The voice seemed to come from everywhere, but nowhere as well. She began to run over. “I’ve helped you by slowing time, now you do the rest!” Lavender's arms glowed a blue color. She jumped up and began to impale the creature through both of its shoulders. The skeleton looked over at her as she stopped, “Receiving help from an ownerless voice I see… I’ll take a short break but in one, I’ll return, and you and this continent better be ready.” The skeleton began to slowly dissipate, “Also, enjoy my gift.” its last words were as it disappeared. Lukas fell to the floor and Lavender passed out.