"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!"

This awful, repeating noise stirred me from my restful sleep. It's coming from outside… I stood up groggily and peered through my window, spotting the commotion. A lone boy stood in the training grounds, a neatly crafted wooden stick clenched in his hands.

He repeatedly struck a wooden post from different angles, using his footwork to move around it quickly in order to gain advantage over his imaginary opponent, slowly chipping away at the pole. I was fascinated and annoyed at the same time, then I remembered that I have to be ready for Lance to collect me.

I changed clothes into a simple tunic, belt, trousers and leather shoes and then sat on my bed, waiting for Lance to arrive. And he did, no more than ten minutes after getting ready did he knock on my door.

"Are you ready?"

I nodded nervously and followed him out of my room and through the corridor. I looked up at the many paintings on the walls, all of them clearly made by great artists. Many of them were noblemen or knights who had helped the order in great ways according to Lance.

"Today we'll just learn some basics about the order, what we do and what magic is, then tomorrow we'll start working on your physical abilities."

Magic, huh? Something I never thought I'd see in my life, but it turns out I might be able to use it very soon. The only instances of magic I've heard of were in children's history books, detailing how in battlefields there were mages who healed the wounded soldiers and mages who fought on the front lines, cutting down foe after foe.

Eventually he led me to a small room with a single desk inside and a chalk board with a small book stand in front of it. Lance looked unfit for teaching, so I assumed somebody else would come in. Turns out he's going to be mentoring me.

He passed me a leather-bound notebook with an ink pen and pot. I haven't written in a long time but it's common for most children to start learning when they become five so I can still write, maybe a bit messily though.

"Now then, the Order of The Golden Angel. The Golden Angel is the term used for the founder, there's a statue of him somewhere in the city that you can see one day." He sounded unimpressed by this, maybe because he's possibly seen it so many times.

A statue? Now that he mentions it, I think I saw a statue when we were travelling through the streets. Perhaps that was it?

"The Order's goal is to create beings who will protect the kingdom at all costs, such as in wars or with famine or anything else that troubles the kingdom. Our Order helps with all of that, be it from behind the scenes or on the front lines."

I've heard the order and how they helped in wars many years ago, that's why lots of people know of them. But I've never heard of them helping with anything else. Maybe it's because the kingdom doesn't have many problems.

"They first rose to power during the civil war and were the force that turned the tide for the monarchy."

"There isn't much more to learn about the order that will be of use right now. Later on you'll learn about the history of the order, but I want you to know the basics of magic first."

He picked up a white piece of chalk and wrote down five terms on the board.

"Discharge is the first and most basic form of magic. This involves discharging magic power, which we call mana, from your body. You've probably heard of mages shooting fire or flying, well that's Discharge. Mana is often unstable in its pure form so it's constructed into other energies or elements, like fire."

Discharge is the most common. I nodded and wrote some notes down in the book he handed me. My handwriting is messy but at least I can read it.

"Charge is the second, it's the natural drawing of mana from the environment. It happens over time and is used to replenish a mage's magic power. Some mages can speed the charge process up, but that's extremely rare."

I nodded and wrote some notes down.

"Think of Discharge and Charge like this; magic is a cup of water, when you pour that water out you're using discharge. But the cup of water is also slowly being refilled, so eventually it's full once more. That's the most basic analogy of magic."

I wrote this down as well and now began to wrap my head around them.

"Compact is the third. It involves gathering magic at a certain point inside of your body to strengthen it. This is most commonly used by knights like me."

He smiled, as if I should be proud of him. I've not even seen any of the knights use magic yet, so I'm not too sure if they're strong or not.

"Fourth is Exchange. This is the state of discharging magic into another living organism or an object, most commonly thought of as enchanting or healing. It's extremely hard to master due to the mana often dispersing too quickly."

"Finally, Aura. This is a combined technique of Compact and Exchange where a mage will exchange the mana into an object, like a sword, whilst also compacting it inside of their body to create an incredibly powerful blow."

Aura sounds like the hardest so far, after all, it involves two techniques. I assumed that was all and began to close my book when he put up a finger.

"Ah, there's one more. Well, it's more of a myth, but there's still a chance of it existing. It's called the perfect magic. From what I've heard, it's where a mage discharges all of their mana whilst also charging mana from the environment back into them. You have to have mastered both of them, if not then they probably die."

Perfect magic? I've never heard of it. Well, I've never heard of any of these terms, so I'm not surprised.

"People say that if you can achieve perfect magic then you have an infinite source of mana. But, like I said, that's just a myth. Now then, I'll go over the most common disch-"

Suddenly, before we could continue with our lesson, the door burst open and a knight walked in.

"Lance, come with me," The man growled. He wore heavy armour and carried a large, impossible to wield, sword on his back. He had a bold head with a grey moustache and beard.

"What is it, Michael?"

I stared at the two of them and raised a brow at the man's sudden panic.

"Another knight has been found dead. We need your search magic to identify how he was killed. No doubt it was poison again…"

That reminds me, they talked about a knight being poisoned when we were on the carriage. It's happened again? What does that mean?

Before I could ask any questions, Lance turned towards me.

"Stay here, I'll be back in a couple minutes."

The two of them left me sitting there, confused and lonely. But I waited, I don't want to go against his orders.

A minute passed. Then five minutes. Then ten. Then twenty. Then half an hour had passed and he still hadn't come back. I was beginning to get impatient and decided to see what was taking him so long.

I approached the door and my chest began to hurt. My breaths became rapid and I stumbled against the wall. I began to sweat and the door seemed to emit a feeling of absolute doom. I walked towards it and pulled it open. Silence.

I exited the room and walked down the extravagantly decorated corridor.

I listened to my footsteps and my breathing, I was calming down. It's oddly quiet, where is everyone? I reached the main hall and looked up at a large painting of the founder and his companions, all donning white and golden armour. Then I heard a footstep behind me and spun around.

Standing there was the boy from the training grounds, drenched in sweat and his hands bruised.

"Did… you… see…"

He coughed and cleared his throat before looking back at the door. "That door was so hard to open…"

He had trouble opening a door?

"Did the door seem odd to you?" I asked him. He nodded.

I approached the door and opened it. The city streets were empty, void of life and joy. My heart skipped a beat and I spun around.

"Something's wrong…" I sprinted.

"Where are you going?"

The boy chased after me. I reached the knight's meeting room and opened it. Empty. Where is everybody? I turned around and looked down the hallway. Somebody's there. I glanced behind and spotted the boy, still following me.

"Somebody's here," I told him.

"What do you mean?"

"Somebody's down there."

I pointed towards the end of the corridor and made my way down there, turning right and finding that there was an open door. All the other doors had been closed.

I walked towards it, my heart beating fast and my palms sweaty. I put one foot through.

I backed away and nearly fell to the ground. What's wrong with this door? I can't bring myself to go through. But I have to. I forced myself through the doorway, only to find myself standing in another corridor. A couple knights in training wandered around, chatting.

The boy also stood behind me. Where did that man go? And what was that place? I need answers.