Eager, the late boy and his younger brother took their seat at the small and packed amphitheater, brimming with like-minded boys and girls wearing a distinctive purple coat. At this isolated outpost, masterfully hidden in the mountains at the edge of the lawless Broken Land, they would have their first class about magic. They would study for years and years about the fascinating subject with one single purpose: to learn how to kill mages. The Order of Kalidor never forgot the reason why the powerful and ancient Kalidor Empire had been burned from the inside out, the mighty state’s once thriving cities now ruins, its fertile lands now scorched husks.

The world had gone on, but the most loyal survivors of the Empire swore never to forget, never to forgive. Kalidor, in its glory, had dedicated itself to the study of the most advanced magics, researches unlocking more and more of the secrets of mana. At the beginning, magic was used for the good of people, making the Empire flourish and expand, as it annexed its neighbors, among them the lands that would later splinter into the Realm to its east. Kalidor was for a golden age, without a doubt, the most powerful entity in the world.

This, the boy had already known. His family was of the old stock, from the founders of the Empire, and they had never wavered from their conviction, even with all the difficulties they had faced. The Broken Lands were now ruled by countless petty warlords that endlessly squabbled to achieve slightly better positions in the arid wastelands that once were the proud heartland of Kalidor. Murder and mayhem all around them, they had survived by the strength of their will, like many of the others that were seated around the boys. The boy could taste the anxiety in the air, and there were a lot of quiet conversations going on.

“Erst,” his brother poked him, whispering, “do you think this will take long?”

Erst looked put out at his shorter brother that had the same red-colored hair as him, and whispered back, “Don’t embarrass us, Zai, come on. This is serious!”

Zai grinned back mischievously, unrepentant. The boy didn’t take anything seriously, and that preoccupied Erst, as it had their parents as well. The younger sibling was already ten years old, but he still hadn’t acknowledge how important was their sacred duty to join and excel as members of the Order of Kalidor.

The conversations came to an end as two paladins entered the room, positioning themselves to the sides of the door. The pair was followed by the Grandmaster of Kalidor, a raven-haired noble man that was one of the last of the bloodline, a man whose lineage hearkened back to Great Emperor August himself. They could see the man’s importance by the way he carried himself alone, never mind the ceremonial white robe of the Order’s Grandmaster he wore for the occasion. Proudly, the man walked to the small stage at the front of the amphitheater, sitting behind a beautiful mahogany table, the newest aspirants’ eyes glued to him the whole time.

“Greetings, young kalidorans. You all know the reason we’re gathered here today. This is the day you will make your first vow to join the Order of Kalidor. Can one of you remind us why?” the man asked kindly.

A handful of boys and girls raised their hands, as they had been previously instructed to do - Erst among them. However, the Grandmaster chose a blonde boy, who swelled in pride as he answered, “Because of the wizards and the warlocks, Grandmaster!”

“Yes, but I want the fundamental reason. You,” the Grandmaster picked another of the bolder kids that had raised their hands before.

“Magic, Grandmaster.”

“Yes, wise girl. What’s the problem of magic?” He asked, gesturing for Erst to answer.

“It corrupts, Grandmaster. Always, sooner or later.” Erst spoke, conscious of everyone’s eyes on him, but not letting himself be intimidated by the attention.

“Always, boy?”

“Yes, Grandmaster. The Kalidor Empire, and many other before and after it.”

“Precisely,” the man said, slapping the table for emphasis. “Magic is the root of the biggest disasters in the story of the world. Mages are corrupted, then their Orders are corrupted, and then tragedies ensue. You all know of this, you live in the ruins of the greatest Empire the world has even known. But even our forebearers’s precautions weren’t enough. And so, generations of Kalidorans have taken the vows you will intone this day, and given everything to avoid another one of these events.”

Erst clenched his fists as he heard the impassioned speech, his anger stirring. They had all been taught that there was both good and bad in the world, but only one thing had dragged down the Kalidor Empire, and even older prominent civilizations before it - unfettered magic.

“One of you has pointed out the Warlocks and the Wizardly Order. But there’s even more treacherous groups besides then. We will eradicate them, one by one. We are the descendants of Kalidor, and we will save the world, even if takes our lives, even if we have to do it as they all scream, curse and oppose us. This is what means to become a paladin of the Order of Kalidor. And I hope all of you live and pass through training to strengthen our Order and our sacred purpose,” the Grandmaster said, now inflaming their pride.

“Now, you’ll say your vows. Raise your right hands, and repeat after me…”

All the ones present stood in attention, or as close as they could get, and raised their hands as commanded. The paladins took their closed fists to their hearts. Even Zai did it, though he was picking his nose with his left hand. Erst’s discreetly stepping on his foot made a stop to that, though his brother gave him a nasty look, silently plotting his revenge.

Erst snapped back to the solemn moment when the Grandmaster began, “We shall not fail again. We shall be the shield and the sword, the protectors and the avengers…”

What a glorious first day, Erst thought as he recited the vow.

***

At the next day, they began the first step of the training course. The aspirants were formed into a line, and one woman, covered from head to toe with white clothes, a red sash on her arm, looked them over.

“My name is Orsa, and I’m a proud member of the Order, though the Order is not so proud of me. Do you know which unit I belong to?” asked the woman whose expressive brown eyes were nearly all they could see. If someone knew the answer to the question, they opted not to reveal the knowledge. Erst was confused at the introduction. His father had briefed him on a lot of things, but he’d never mentioned people with this kind of uniform to him.

“I’m from the Tainted, the magical arm of our Order.”

Almost everyone was shocked - they had been taught to hate magic since they were young, how could the very Order that preached that teaching have mages in its ranks? Esrt’s eyes hardened at the woman, while Zai just scratched his head after the revelation.

The woman chuckled at their surprised and betrayed faces before continuing, “Yes, I know. Magic is evil. That’s true. But what magic also is, is damned powerful. Our paladins are mighty, but a treacherous mage could wipe out a squad, or lock himself in his Tower of power and laugh at us. That’s why the Tainted exist.” She said, looking seriously into their eyes.

“We’re damned for using magic, children. But we do for the good of the Order, and with plain conscience of our violations. The tainted are only allowed to act for a dozen years, and then we burn our mana channels so we can never wield it again. The Sealing, we call it. It’s often fatal.”

Wait, they are actually sacrificing themselves for our cause? , thought Erst, regretting his early judgment of Orsa.

“And the robes exist for a reason too. A tainted might be corrupted, even at the field of battle it has happened before. It will be your duty to put them down then. We use our robes so that our Kalidor brethren doesn’t have to see our faces if that ever happens. Never forget that duty,” Orsa went on, not a speck of humor on the whole cavernous room they were in now. She started walking from side to side, natural holes in the top of the room worked as skylights, and beams of light reached down to the floor, where the Tainted Orsa treaded on them.

“We’ll test you all for magical potential, and if you have it, we will have to have a serious conversation…”

After the introduction, the testing began. Groups of five followed Orsa behind a curtain, and after a time, they came back. Sometimes less than five returned. The returning students were a lot more tight-lipped than Erst had been expecting.

A long while passed until Erst and Zai were finally called forward with other boys. The brothers traded glances, Erst showing his worry, while Zai was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. All the children sat on chairs as they were bid by Orsa, of the Tainted, at one side of the little room that had one canvas-enfolded enclosure at the other end. Orsa tiredly walked to the center of the room, and turned back to the soon to be tested aspirants.

“Which one of you would like to go ahead first?”

“I would!” declared Erst, before anyone had a chance to raise a hand. But he gulped as he realized that he actually wasn’t looking forward to that, and so he decided to stall. “But can you tell us a bit about the Tainted before, Miss Orsa?”

“Hm? You’re the first one to ask, most just wanted to get the hells out of here as fast as they could,” She said approvingly, and Erst nodded as if that thought had never passed through his head. Zai badly disguised a giggle as a cough as he saw it – he could see right through his brother.

“All the Aspirants have to go through the test, and if they are found to have the taint, or magical potential as the mages call it, they have to join the Tainted, or they are sealed. Trust me, you don’t want to be sealed, it really shortens your lifespan.”

“Magical potential?” Zai asked, deciding to help his brother’s delaying gambit, for a change.

“Yeah. Magical potential is what we call when someone has the means to accumulate mana on their bodies. Most people are inert to magic, it just passes through them like most living creatures - we call them normal. The damned mages have other terms, they call normal people demeaning things like ‘ordies’, ‘lesser’, ‘normies’.”

“Are there big differences between the strength of the Taint?” asked a girl of the group, emboldened by the brothers’ questions.

“Yes, it varies depending on the number of Taint Points, or rather, Mana Ingress/Egress Points. Those terms are a mouthful, so people simply call them Mana or Taint Points. What these Points are, I won’t reveal to you just now, there are plenty of theories. But you should know that there are different types of Mana Points, but that’s not only what defines a mage or a tainted’s strength – the Mana Channels play a part there…”

Even Erst’s eyes were beginning to glaze over, and the tainted stopped when she realized that.

“I guess that’s enough information for now. You’ll learn everything at the Academy, specially if I found you are to join the ranks of the Tainted.”

This time, she didn’t give an opportunity for volunteers, and she picked Erst to follow her into the enclosure.

Shit, he silently cursed.

On that sealed enclosure, the canvas-like material sewn around a mana reflective material that was often used to imprison and torture mages, she began testing the nervous boy. She was surprised to find a big number of Mana Points, and she got right onto the Awakening process, giving no warning beforehand. It was a good thing that the enclosure was warded against both magic and sound as well. The screaming would have frightened all the others.

***

“Damnation!” Zai yelled, pacing from one end of the room to the other after they were finally taken to their new quarters and left alone. The Awakening process had been very taxing to both brothers, and they had been stuck on the sickroom for almost a whole week.

“Calm down, brother, it’s not that bad,” Erst told him, lying on his bunk. There were two of them on the cramped room they would have to share with another two of the tainted aspirants. The walls and ceiling were a badly smoothed mountain-rock. The Order of Kalidor didn’t believe in cuddling its aspirants.

“Why should I calm down, Erst?! Did you hear what the healer said? They will train us on using magic, and discard us if we get too good at it!”

“Brother, how long do you expected to live if we became paladins? All of the work on the Order is dangerous, its only more obvious to you now. Besides, they can seal us if it gets to that.”

“Don’t you remember what Orsa said? Sealing is also used as a form of torture against mages, the blocked mana will rot us from the inside!”

“Maybe. But we have a duty, brother.”

“We’ll even have to use those damned robes!” cursed the youngest in anger.

The usually calm and laid-back Zai punched a wall in frustration, earning cuts and scrapes for his trouble. From that moment on, it was clear to Zai that his and his brother’s path would diverge from that moment on. The younger held nothing against the Order, but he was not devoted like the elder, and didn’t believe he should be forced to suffer only because of the taint, of magic. Maybe they would never see eye-to-eye again on this matter.