“Please consider joining the Ord–” I slammed the door in Aldis’ face, for the fifth time this month! What a hassle! I yawned, sifting a little languor through me.

What time is it? I wondered.

“Eric, why don’t you give it a go? You can always quit if you don’t like it.”

You too? I asked, thoroughly fed up of hearing about the Order of Mages time and time again. Oh, by the way, that person speaking in my head is Donna, a ghost who set up viable real estate in my mind and moved in when I was dumb enough to open a strange magic tome in an even stranger cave when I was eight.

She was apparently a knowledgeable mage who passed away many years ago, and thanks to her, I learned a hodgepodge of spells and buffs. “It’ll be fun, don’t you want to go? You can make actual friends!”

You bitch. I have friends!

“Your parents don’t count.”

Why does everyone want me to go so badly? “I couldn’t care less,” I muttered to myself, ending the conversation. The sun had only just risen when I looked outside. No wonder I felt like complete shit, I’d usually awake around noon, but this time the roosters sang the song of their people. I returned to bed and woke up my normal time, when my brain was actually functioning.

Suddenly, I was jumped by the door slamming closed. “That’s the thirtieth time! What do you want from me, you hooligan?!”

“Some silence, Flynn,” I shooed him away with a flick of my wrist without averting my eyes from my book.

“You, little,” he stormed towards me, clenched his fist and brought the wrath of his knuckles down on my head, “shit!”

“What the hell? You tryin’ to kill me?! You old, washed-up bastard!” He used a spell to harden his hand. The miniature Ice Wall I casted to protect my head broke apart and I felt the blow a little. Usually, he’d just hit me without any spells.

“I’ve never seen anyone, anyone,” he stressed, “outside the Order progress as fast and far as you did!” He paced about angrily, as if he wanted to demolish his own house with his footsteps, “The Order actually wants you to join! Any sane person I know would eat up that opportunity the second it appears!” he grunted, “But you… Ugh! Stop being such a condescending, uptight piece of shit!”

I closed the book, “How about,” just about slipping past my threshold of tolerance, “you tell me why I should join?! Huh?! How about that?! They have nothing to offer me! But they gain more prestige with every good mage that joins them!” I stood up, “How do you not see that?!”

He grabbed my shoulders, “You absolute idiot!” turned his back and began pacing again, “You become part of that prestige when you join them too! Your life becomes a million times easier! Isn’t that what you want?! You lazy shit!”

I sighed, wondering if I should put forth the daunting effort of arguing these points for the millionth time, “O wise father, my responsibilities to the Order will only hinder my development!”

“They have a library!”

“That is only accessible after twenty years of service! Twenty goddamn years!” I wiped my face from the forehead to the chin, as if to cast away my growing irritation, “By that time I’d have learned way more by myself!”

A loud clanging broke our attention to each other. It was the real man of the house, stopping us once again with a ladle and pan, “Lunch is ready, boys. I’m not going to eat alone.”

My father sucked his teeth, “Yes, dear, just give me ten minu–”

“Now, please,” she said with an ever-pleasant smile on her face, but we knew better the demon that laid beneath that carapace of deception. She was a mage charged with the protection of individuals in court procedures, hence, she wasn’t someone to oppose. She was a line we wouldn’t dare cross.

After lunch, my old man was back in my hair, despite us getting along so well at the table. “What do I have to do to convince you to join us?” he asked.

Is he actually willing to come to a compromise? “Requests are piling up, right? Tell you what,” I sat up from my slouched position after that heavy meal, “get me unrestricted access to their library and I will pour all the rewards from those requests back into the Order,” I smiled wickedly, “I’m sure they’d like that.”

He rubbed his chin after giving me a weird look, “That, may not be a bad idea, but you’ll have to prove that you’re worth it. The last time you showed them anything to be impressed about was when you were… Uh, ten, I think?”

What a pain. What a friggin’ pain. This is exactly what I didn’t want.

“Stop complaining,” Donna said, “just go have fun for a change. All you do is read and train anyway.”

Well that’s all I care about. Though, I guess it’d be nice to stretch my legs a bit. Maybe test some spells I’ve been working on, like Purist.

“Just make sure they keep their end of the bargain, and I’ll do it.”

My father smiled, just smiled. He didn’t utter another word, just smiled and left.

I left shortly after to check on my best buddy, August. He was in his backyard, slamming away at an axe with a blacksmith’s hammer. “Hey,” I said and bumped fists with him. He was engrossed in sweat, his muscles were getting huge even though he was just fifteen, like me.

“How’s it going? You got through with Division yet?” he asked, his curly hair tied up with a dirty ribbon.

I took a seat on one of his workbenches, “Nah, pretty close though.”

“C’mon, man, you been at that for, what, five years now? Don’t you think it’s impossible?” he quenched the smouldering hot blade and the hissing sound drowned out my answer. “Sorry, what’d you say?” he asked again because he didn’t hear clearly. He had a habit of doing that.

“How about you stop putting weapons in water every time someone’s gonna say something? Sheesh!”

“Well,” he grinned, “isn’t that a,” he began pounding away again, “very nice way,” he hit the blade once more, “to talk to a guy with an axe?”

“I’m way faster than you so it’s all good,” I shrugged.

“Oh yeah? Wanna test that out?” he asked, but I was staring at the road behind him.

“Hey, August, who’s she?” I pointed with my chin somewhat.

He gave me a silly beam, “Interested, are we?” he teased and sat down next to me, wiping away his sweat with a towel, “She got pretty popular around here lately. She’s kind, helpful, generous, hardworking, plus she’s a total beauty. I’d like to pluck her feathers.”

I guffawed, “Who says stuff like that? But me too, dude, me too.”

“Anyway, she’s way outta our league. And since she’s got those robes on…” he commented on the white robes adorned with metallic-like linings that the Order of Mages wore. Judging by her looks, she was probably around our age, hence, a mage trainee.

“What’s her name?” I inquired, since I just might’ve been joining.

He stopped looking at her and glared at me, a lot. I knew at this point, I was doomed. We knew each other inside out so I could tell that he knew something was up. I’d never inquire about someone unless I planned to get involved with them later on, ever! Or at least, I might casually ask about someone just in case there was a probability I’d run into them that I wouldn’t be totally ill-prepared for whatever our meeting might be like. He knew all of these things about me. Perhaps he even knew me better than myself.

I scratched my cheek under the pressure and gave a little shrug.

“I knew something was up! You’re joining the Order?!” He shouted, as if he wanted the whole damn city to know.

I put my finger to my lips in hopes of having him calm down.

“What led this on? Huh? Don’t tell me you saw her and decided to join just then.”

“Hah, no way! Dad and I had a little deal. If I could get into their library without wasting twenty years of my life, I’d work for free.”

“Ooh, sounds like stuff you shouldn’t get into. You’ll do anything for knowledge, won’t you? Isn’t Donna enough?”

“Guess not. I’m just curious to see what’s in their library. Hope I’m not disappointed.” August was the only person I told about Donna. I knew the guy since I could remember. Apparently, we randomly met each other in the streets as kids and started playing immediately. From then on, we were inseparable.

Just like time had flown so quickly, it did the same that afternoon. It was already well into the night when we decided to go out drinking. We were underage, but managed to hold our liquor way better than most of the folks at the saloon. But that night, we sure did overdo it.

The next morning, I woke up exhausted, hungry and thirsty.

“Eric, honey, it’s time to wake up! Get ready!” Mom shouted at me.

“Huh? Why?” I wheezed the words out, a terrible headache slamming me.

“Your father is waiting for you at the Order. And there’s a case I have to attend this morning so let’s leave together.”

“Mom,” I rubbed my eyes, “water.”

“Goodness,” she conjured some chilled water into a cup and gave it to me, “you were drinking again, weren’t you? Flynn doesn’t even drink so much. This family is totally backward.”

She dropped me off at the Order and continued on her way to the court. The building was unnecessarily huge and made me feel like hurling. Or was it the mead? Who knows? I entered the huge grounds, almost getting lost, but thankfully, someone pointed me to the information centre.

“Hi, I’m looking for Flynn Archibald,” I told the young receptionist and she showed me the way to a teleportation plate. There was a map close to the magical plate and I only had to choose my destination and step onto the plate. I was teleported there in just a few seconds.

There was a giant notice board to the side with dozens, if not, hundreds of pages hanging onto it. A lot of mages, both young and old were in the hall going about their business, but then, “Eric! Over here!” my father called out to me from the next end of the room.

Everyone stopped chattering and looked at him, then inevitably turned their eyes to me. This goddamn old man! I’ll kill him! Man, this is embarrassing! I scurried over quickly, but even when I closed the gap, people still stared for some reason.

“Is it just me, or do you also think he told everyone you’re going to join?”

Nah, no way!

“Did you tell anyone I was thinking about joining?” I asked, my voice low to avoid the dozens of shameless eavesdroppers.

“Everyone!” He proudly admitted, without batting an eye.

This man! This damn man!

“Here we go…” Donna said, knowing I was about to blow a fuse.

Why, does he always... “Goddammit, Flynn!” I grabbed his collar, “Can’t you just shut up?!”

“You got a problem with that?” he returned the gesture and grabbed my vest, “You wanna go, you little shit?!”

“Yeah! I’ll close that mouth of yours myself, you moron!” I bit back.

Suddenly, an awfully familiar voice made its way to my ear, “Now, now. I’d really like you two to play nice,” she said, appearing out of nowhere. That invisibility spell she used, even to this day we could never pick up on it. Well, dad could, but not when he was busy fighting with me. Mary, the man of the house, as I called her, calmed us down, with a smile.

“Yes ma’am,” we said in unison, and like that, she left.

“She really knows you two like the back of her hand, eh?” Donna joked.

A girl walked up behind us, “Good morning, professor,” she greeted dad, then turned to me and nodded. I could hardly believe it!

“Ah, right, Eric, this is Dawn, a model student here. Dawn, this is Eric, my son.” He introduced and we shook hands and exchanged common pleasantries. This was the same girl August and I saw in the market yesterday! She was even prettier up close, but something about her seemed, rigid.

“Anyway, we’re all here now, we’ve got our mission, so let’s go,” he said excitedly and they began walking off.

“Eh, mission? What’s this about a mission?” I asked, without moving one step. “All you said was that I had to show them that I was good enough to join, but now you mention a mission? I’m having second thoughts here, Flynn.”

“Don’t do this, Eric,” he warned in a deep voice.

“Oh, I’m doing it!” I replied. He made two steps and passed his hand over my face, using a sleep spell. I fell over onto his shoulder and he began walking off with me, but I already had Dispel and Discharge in motion. Dispel weakened his sleep spell and Discharge shot a jolt of electricity about a foot around me. He was stunned and fell down stiffly, like a body afflicted by rigor mortis. We both ended up on the ground. I had minimal control over my body and he had none. In a few seconds, the spells began fading and we could move again.

“Oh, I forgot to mention,” mom reappeared out of nowhere, “I asked Dawn here to tell me how many times you two fight today. That is all,” and disappeared again. A chill ran down my spine.

We stood up eventually, a little shaky, “Truce?”

“Truce,” he agreed and we shook hands.