The contract has been sealed.
This is a world born without magic. Yet in recent years, the supernatural has been steadily rising.
People have come from another world, leaking their magic into this reality. As it mixes into the world, it takes a new form, and new magic is born.
As magic rises, it shall be used by various groups; good, evil, and in-between. This is the story of one such group.
Alarms echoed through the building. Guards were everywhere, searching every inch of the place for this trespasser.
They found nothing. The burglar was too sneaky to be caught, too stealthy to be found.
That wasn’t entirely true. He’d like to say he was too sneaky to be caught, too stealthy to be found, but if that were true, Fahran wouldn’t be in this position right now. Surrounded by guards, only hidden by luck, it would take great caution just to pull out. Caution he never had until it was too late.
Fortunately, he was only one window away from escape. Unfortunately, getting to it without getting caught was impossible in the current circumstances. He needed a distraction, and he wasn’t going to be lucky enough for one to happen without his intervention.
He called upon himself; upon the power of fire, and threw it to the other end of the hall. Only a small fire, of course, but enough for all the guards to run over to it. With his side all but empty, he ran from his hiding spot and made a jump for the window. Once he was finally outside, he could see how alert the place was. If it wasn’t obvious before, he got the message as clear as day now: he shouldn’t go back in for the rest of the day.
He wished he could say he got closer to his target today, even by a small bit, but the truth was he was stuck. He had been stuck for weeks now, seemingly caught in an unbreakable loop. It was becoming increasingly apparent that this could not be done alone. He would need a team; a team of specialised thieves who could help him break this cycle and finally get his target.
The bell chimed for the newest hour of the morning. As the eighth ring faded, Fahran discovered he was just in time to see a crowd of potential candidates marching into the beginning of their monotonous lives. They were perfect candidates: they had the spare time to join him without disrupting their normal lives, they had the right mindsets to be taught and, most importantly, they all had innate rebellious natures, ideal for what he needed them to do.
High school students. Most would see them as an unconventional choice for pulling professional heists, but Fahran begged to differ. Their minds were at the perfect age to suck up anything they wanted to learn, yet it was all being wasted and pumped with information most of them wouldn’t care to remember. Perfect for teaching the way of the gentleman thief.
Fahran wandered through the crowd, trying not to stand out as he picked out potential candidates. He was spoiled for choice, but unfortunately not for quality of choice.
There was a cheerful girl who skipped along, happy with the world despite it all; a confident guy who played his guitar as he walked, wrapped in the world of music; and a shy girl who held onto her backpack, looking afraid of everyone around her. She wouldn’t do. None of them would. Most of them looked afraid of something; they wouldn’t have the will to stand up against the powerful. Fahran needed someone who could look evil in the eye, and he could tell most of this crowd would cower before its gaze.
Fahran moved along the crowd, looking everyone he passed up and down, until he came across two more potential candidates walking side by side. One with verdant skin was following the crowd, walking as any other student would, wearing a plain silver shirt to match his hair. Blending into the crowd was certainly a potential strength, but he wasn’t becoming invisible in plain sight, nor did he seem to be making any attempt to. Instead, his golden eyes seemed concerned with doing what everyone else was doing. He was uninteresting. The student he was walking beside, however, was not.
He was a small boy, or at least he seemed small with how he held himself and tried to tuck himself into whatever corner or wall he could find. He was an amateur at it for sure, but it was a good place to start. With a little experience, he could be nurtured into becoming truly invisible. But Fahran needed more than a boy who could hide himself decently well. He needed someone with fire in their eyes and, unfortunately, the boy kept his eyes hidden, pulling on the hood of his hoodie with one hand to hide himself from the outside world.
A hush fell over the crowd and it parted like the sea. Two girls walked through, one behind the other. The girl walking behind’s aqua eyes were focused on the floor in front of her, as if not seeing anyone would hide her from everyone in turn. She ran her scarlet hand through her snow white hair, moving it aside, and quickly glanced at both sides of the crowd as she did before returning her gaze to the ground.
Thankfully for her, keeping out of everyone’s attention was easy when she walked behind the devil herself.
Her hair was like fire and her eyes were a cold, bright blue, piercing through all they stared at. Whispers would grow throughout the crowd and then immediately turn to silence with just one look from them. Even Fahran hid from them despite himself, though he stared back at her with fire in his eyes.
“Sunset Shimmer,” a voice from the crowd said, full of contempt and fear.
She looked in the voice’s direction, seeking out its owner. Everyone cowered away, but no-one came forward. She huffed and moved on. Despite everyone’s obvious disdain for her, no-one moved to interrupt her path, instead feeling content to whisper among themselves. More people parted as she walked through the crowd, crushing against each other to create a path for her until someone was forced out, stumbling into the open space. The boy in the hoodie.
“Let me through.” The boy looked up to see Sunset herself staring at him, the aqua eyed girl behind looking at both of them, and everyone else standing clear of them. There was plenty of space to walk around him, but Sunset didn’t care about that.
Fahran looked at the boy’s face. He could finally see the emerald eyes under his dark hood, staring directly at Sunset herself. There was great fear inside them like there was in everyone’s eyes, but the boy kept his gaze on her, his look hardening as he kept staring.
“I said let me through,” she repeated. “Do you know who I am?” The boy finally cowered and joined the other side of the crowd. “Good to know you know your place,” she remarked before continuing down the path. While she ignored him, the scarlet girl following her kept her eye on him until they both passed him. Some distance behind them, the crowd started merging again, and eventually everything seemed normal again.
Fahran didn’t care about that. He was satisfied with his choice. He moved through the crowd, darting between people until he found the boy again, and then he showed him the door to the castle.
Devon stumbled outside the crowd, catching his breath and clutching his chest. He could feel his heart pounding without his hand on it. His knees felt like they were ready to buckle; he was surprised he could stand at all after that. He cursed his legs for being rooted to the ground before and feeling so weak now.
He couldn’t see Alec anywhere, not since he had been pushed to the other side of the crowd. Knowing him, he was following it and was already in school by now. He’ll have to meet him in class.
Devon stood straight, taking a few last calming breaths before he moved on. He could hear the other students as they passed him. “She thinks she rules over everyone in the school,” one said.
“She’d probably rule over Canterlot if she could,” another added. Devon thought he heard a weird noise in his pocket.
“I swear she thinks it’s her Kingdom or something.” Devon heard another noise from his pocket. It sounded like a voice.
“Someone needs to take her down a peg.”
“Are you that someone?”
“What, take down Sunset Shimmer?” Devon’s pocket made another noise. “No way. You know what happens when you cross her.” The voices faded away as the crowd continued to move into the school.
He took out his phone and checked it, but nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary. He sighed. The crowd moved on without him until those who couldn’t see the encounter caught up, and those who had were in the building. Hopefully, by the time he caught up with them, it would be old news and no-one would care about him. The thought of everyone’s eyes on him made him feel lightheaded.
He pocketed his phone and looked up to see a whole new world. What was once a looming school was now a looming castle, somehow managing to look even more imposing than it did before. It stood taller with many spires and large wooden doors opened wide enough to effectively create an arch inviting everyone inside. Even the sky itself had darkened, yet despite this, no-one seemed to notice. They all continued into the castle as if it was still their school.
Devon shook his head as if that could get everything to look normal again. It was too early in the morning for this. He must have been dreaming or gone crazy. The rational side of his head told him otherwise; he couldn’t be dreaming (when does one ever correctly figure that they are?) and no-one just turns crazy to the point of hallucinating. But there was no way this could be explained rationally, so Devon accepted the explanations and rejoined the crowd walking into the castle. He thought he heard someone calling him, but ignored it.
Unsurprisingly, the inside of the castle looked like the inside of a castle. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of stone with uneven tiles, though the floor was kept flat and had a red carpet running through it. Banners decorated the walls, yellow and red clashing for dominance throughout all of their fabrics, and the windows were all stained glass, though Devon couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to depict.
Despite this, none of the other students acted any differently than they normally did. Devon looked around, confused, until he saw Alec following the crowd. He ran over to his side, squeezing through whatever gaps in the crowd he could find. There was someone else familiar next to him, but Devon ignored them, focusing on Alec who hadn’t noticed him yet.
“Alec?” he said, but Alec gave no response. Gingerly, Devon pulled his hood back, revealing his amber face and black hair. “Alec?” he called again, but he still got no response. He waved his hand in front of Alec’s face, snapped his fingers and called one more time, but Alec ignored him.
What’s going on? he wondered. He racked his brain, but couldn’t think of a single logical reason for anything, and too much of it was stacking up to ignore. No-one else noticing the school becoming a castle, Alec ignoring him, and someone in the corner of his eye.
Standing besides Alec, crouching slightly, was a hooded student, and under the hood was a familiar face. He pulled down the student’s hood; he was a perfect reflection of the boy he sees in the mirror. Before Devon could retreat to the walls to panic, his counterpart changed. He stood more normally, and his face became pale. The hood disappeared and his hoodie became a plain shirt.
Looking around, everyone else was similarly changing, their skins becoming pale and hair darkening to brown and black until everyone looked almost exactly the same. He would have lost Alec and his clone self to the now identical crowd if he wasn’t still walking next to them.
The crowd finally spread out, going into different rooms and leaving him standing alone, shell-shocked and trying to process what just happened.
“Who are you?” Devon was snapped out of his stupor by a loud, authoritative voice. He turned around and saw a knight standing over him, suited with armour and all. Behind him, the hall was littered with similar guards. Devon wondered how he didn’t notice them before. They all wore silver armour with plumes on their helmets, some with blue feathers and some with white. Combined with them all holding spears, the scene truly looked as if it belonged in medieval times.
“Don’t make me ask again!” the guard snapped, once again breaking him out of his state.
“I-I-I D-D-D-n,” he stuttered. His breath was short, and his body was shaking.
The guard shoved him to the ground. “Who are you?” he asked again. More knights surrounded Devon and he couldn’t bring himself to speak. “Very well. Take him to the dungeons.”
The guards weren’t gentle picking him up and dragging him around. So many surrounded him, he couldn’t figure where they were going except for when they went down some stairs. The guards were even less gentle, giving him a landing in his cell. He grunted as he hit the stone floor, aching where it struck him. “Bring the Queen here,” the guard said, slamming the cell door shut. “She’ll decide his fate.” Devon heard two sets of boots march up the stairs.
He sat up, not daring to stand before the rest of them. He looked around the dungeon. It was like a cave with cells carved into the sides, and the cells themselves were little more than a few indents in the walls with bars stuck in between the ceiling and the floor. The bars looked old but strong, and dug firmly into the stone. He didn’t feel like testing them.
The guards were scattered around the dungeon, leaving only one standing at his cell door. The guard stood still, staring at Devon as if waiting for him to make a move. He couldn’t tell if he was blinking under his helmet or not, but he felt like he wasn’t.
He imagined the ceiling collapsing on the guard. He didn’t expect it to work, but if this was all a dream, it would be a good start to an escape. Of course, life was too unfair for that, and all that ended up happening was him staring at the guard for longer than he should have in the pursuit of ‘just in case’. He sighed and stared at the floor, hoping that perhaps if he couldn’t bury the guard, he could imagine an escape tunnel beneath him.
A sense of impending death was in the air, sending shivers through his bones. He tried to calm himself. He didn’t want to give up yet; while the guards were being unreasonable, perhaps they were just overly zealous and the Queen would show him mercy and spare him, or at least give him some answers as to where he was and what was going on before she had him killed.
His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a new, but familiar voice.
“And who do we have here?”