Writing a book, flame away if desired

So, first paste. I'm a newfag and blah blah blah if you want to go there. But I apparently don't spend enough time in the right places. So if you want to read a novel written with an intent to be a serious publication for a YOUNG MAlE AUDIENCE (I'm not going to try to be pretentious this is a superhero story in novel form.) I'll figure out a way to get feedback if you want more. Till then, I hope for the best. Ya'll do your shit I'll do mine. Hopefully you will enjoy.

P.S. there are bold parts and italics that don't transfer. Sorry about it. I write in a separate place then copy/paste it here. I accept any allegations of writing myself into the character. I am a little guilty of it, however I feel it is a good story nonetheless.

The Iron Lens
A Fable of Worlds
The Ring-world Trilogy Bk. 1

Prologue
	My name is Peter Krowley. My life has been, different. But that is why you are reading this story isn’t it? I begin my story, an average teenager on Earth, living a fairly humdrum high school life in a Wyoming small town. However, I am privy to a closely guarded secret, something that my father forbid me to tell others, even my relatives. My family can use magic. From the age of eight my father taught me the way to write runes upon a surface and draw forth the energy that lay within me. I wasn’t as proficient as my father, but I had started to use it in my daily life to secretly guide things in a better direction. My story begins in mid-May during baseball season at my school.  And on the day when I first started accelerating towards my destiny, I had a dream.
	I was dreaming of a large room, lavishly decorated and flooded with light and sound. I was watching two people converse while people hurried and scurried around them. One was a woman dressed in burnished metal armor, with jet black hair and sharp eyes of a matching color. On the left hip was a mace of sooty looking metal and wicked tips. The other, a man seemed the polar opposite of the dark haired woman. He had bright hair that was a mash of color and eyes that seemed to fit a smile. His clothing however was a deep brown leather padding under a sapphire blue cloak. On his back was a pack. It seemed he was going on a trip. The dark haired woman was speaking, “My lord, the others all left as well. Who knows? They are all perfectly capable of handling themselves. Not only that, but the sheer number! Fifty-seven people? I doubt they will be taken out.” But the bright haired man shook his head with a sigh, “No, they all fled deeper into the Empire. The threat is not the White Shield itself, but the result of this war they are waging. The world is about to fall apart and I have to leave before anybody can know. I have to go somewhere that has never seen this place, heard of it, or even come into contact with a speck of dust from Ferayn. Now please-”. Suddenly the world shook and multicolored hues took over my vision as flames licked walls, and ice froze floors. The ceiling began to crack and shadows began to appear in midair. The man continued, “Hmm. Time is about run out. Looks like I’ll have to abduct you to safety.” He grabbed the woman by the hand and dragged her through a glowing portal that opened up in front of him. They emerged into a cave and the woman sighed, “You’re lucky. If I weren’t so used to your antics I would have made that task a lot harder.” Then she paused, and asked, “Where are we? How far did you jump?”
	He turned to her, serious and stern. “I jumped out of the Empire, it was a sinking ship and there was no way that I could stop it as is. We are on a world where we will never be followed.” She got a curious look on her face, “How? They are masters on par with the Guardians, they can follow you no matter what world you travel to.” The man shook his head with a smile, “But they will never come here. You see, I have been taking humans here for the past five years, believe it or not there are actually natives that look just like us. And we discovered something, this world sucks the Kyreth right out of you. In fact you will find that your power here is barely enough to even lift a pebble. We will be safe here, and so long as the portal I constructed still stands, we can bide our time, then go back and stop that foolish war from happening.” The woman walked towards a light, the exit, with the man following behind. They emerged in a landscape of rolling hills covered by forest. “What will you name this world?” The woman asked the man. “It already has a name.” The man said, “Well, I am only borrowing the name from a particular group of locals that I met, on the other side of the planet too, but I suppose it will work just as well as any.”
	The woman rolled her eyes, “You and your technicalities. Just give me something. I’d rather not call my home ‘this place’ for the rest of my life.” The man wrapped an arm around her shoulder, “Welcome to Earth.”

CHAPTER 1
	I awoke to a thud. I shot up out of my bed to slam my head on the bunk above me. Then I heard another bang from the other side of the room. Simultaneously three groans began. "What just happened?" I asked. A voice from right next to me emerged, it was slow and slightly unsteady, but familiar. "I fell off the top,” he paused to groan from discomfort, “and, it seems, I started a chain reaction." I sat back against the wall the bunk was pushed up against and surveyed the dark room. "Well, it's still dark out, are you all right Dan?" From the other end of the room one of my older brother Daniel spoke easily, "Yeah, I just spazzed out from being startled and slammed my foot into the wall." Well, I thought, at least he's alright.
	Not two minutes later the alarm clock went off in our room. Dan, as usual was the first to get up and when he turned on the light I caught sight of Michael, my twin, laying on the floor where I presume he had fallen. Daniel lightly kicked him in the side, "Come on Mike, we need to go to school. It is the last day then we are heading to the cabin, remember? We only stayed for my baseball game." Michael waved his hand in the air in a 'go away' gesture and said, "Well I don't have to anymore. I'm dead. I just died there a few minutes ago. You're talking to a corpse." Dan, who I might add is 6'3" and 19 years old with a physical build from participating in multiple athletic teams. He, like Michael and I had dirty blonde hair but with a slight red tinge and, unlike us, a pair of sapphire blue eyes, his arms, tensed with the corded muscle that lay just beneath his skin, picked Michael up with ease by the scruff of the neck and dragged him to the shower.  Michael, and I are both three years younger. We are alike to our brother in every way, except that we are 5’7”, far less muscular, do not have the red tinge to our hair, and have bright green eyes. I should inform you though, that despite Michael being my identical twin we both have distinct personalities.
	Michael, who had been thrown in fully clothed walked in half a minute later dripping wet and scowling irritably, "I fall off the bed and hurt myself and what does he do? He throws me in the shower!" I got up and slapped Michael in the back, "Well, with your current demeanor I'd say your fine." He grabbed a nearby pillow and slung it at me beginning to crack a smile. "So I need to work on my acting eh? Well, you need to work on your aim." I slung it back at him, missing. "Just because I missed once doesn’t mean you’re right!" I grabbed another one of the pillows in the room and tried again, with the same results. Shaking my head and, smiling at my own lack of skill, I began what was soon going to be an interesting day.
	I ended up being the last one done. After my shower I continued my morning routine with my standard food, whatever unidentified breakfast cereal I grabbed first. I ran out the door to follow Mike and Dan. We piled into a blue sedan that was slightly on the old side, and with backpacks in lap we trundled down the road the ten minute drive to school. Now, my school wasn’t very large. Howard Newton High had a total of seven hundred ninety-five students scattered across four grades. I also was a member of the gray area between being kind of known, and straight up popular. My brother, a senior and the school baseball star was definitely popular. And Michael, a known trouble maker before getting to high school, had managed to garner a reputation as a guy who could get you anything for a price. He also had uncanny ability with gambling and guessing games. I was the guy with a few friends riding the coattails of my brothers’ collective fame and infamy.
	I didn’t have talent I could show off, like Daniel. And I wasn’t particularly charming like Michael. However, I did benefit from looking exactly like Michael a few times when a girl would mistake me for him and give me a, gesture of affection. But it was doubly bad when he pissed them off. So while my brothers looked forward to continuing their stardom and basking in the glory, school was just another thing for me.
	After Daniel parked the car and we all got out I began to talk to Michael about something that had been troubling me. “Hey Michael, I had another one of those dreams again. It’s weird, this is the third night in a row.” Michael looked at me with a look of mixed boredom, pity, and curiosity before he replied, “That is definitely weird. You should talk to Dad about it. He knows more about those dreams than us.” Suddenly he perked up, “Oh! Did you learn anything from it? Like this one time I had a dream that he was teaching some kid how to use time magic, and I found out the rune for time! It is so useful!”
	Suddenly things in my world clicked into place. My faithful moral compass set off warning lights in my head. “Michael, have you been using magic to help yourself get ahead?” He nodded enthusiastically and pulled out a small square of paper, obviously pre-prepared. He looked around to make sure nobody was nearby then pulled me to a nearby car so he could write on the trunk. He began by drawing a right angle attached to a squiggly line and a dot. “This is the Polick rune for time. It isn’t as effective as the high imperial but he was teaching a beginner so this is the only time rune I know. As you know, because it is Polick that affects the modifiers and I am not as talented at blending as you are.” After that he surrounded the rune with a perfect equilateral triangle and three more runes I had never seen before. They were a colon with a squiggle in the middle. “And this is the Polick rune for future,” Michael continued. “Now if you put this all into a sight frame” He enclosed the previous symbol in a small circle and then encompassed that with a series of double loops underneath a straight line. The standard Polick for inner sight. “You have a spell that lets you see the future. Here, let me put time and location modifiers on this, then I have to include... Okay, how many hours do we have until third period? Wait, never mind…Here we go! One future sight spell. Go ahead and take a moment to memorize this. I won’t teach it again.”
	I looked at the small square paper card in my hand. I had memorized the base rune and the initial modifiers a long time ago. I had that talent with magic. I was exceptionally gifted at memorizing runes and structures. So far, I knew about seven runic systems from my father. Though I only knew the runes of three. They ranged in difficulty and power but they each had their uses. Polick was a fairly basic system with relatively few modifiers that would help to guide the spell towards the intended purpose. Next were the Imperial systems. There were three systems: low, standard, and high imperial. I only knew runes from the low and high classes. Low Imperial is the best example of quick and dirty magic that you can find. It has a total of twenty modifiers and generally consists of only a base rune and a single modifier. This is different from Polick in the fact that Polick does about half the work. With Low Imperial, it relies almost solely on the caster to guide the spell towards the purpose. This is the exact opposite of High Imperial. High Imperial has thousands of modifiers and each spell generally takes more than forty runes to complete. However, it becomes something more akin to a tool. Once the spell is set up all the caster has to do is put in the required energy and the runes guide the spell completely.
	I wasn’t very powerful with magic. In general I couldn’t do much more than lift a spoon. However, that didn’t restrict things like inner sight magic where it played a vision inside my eyes that only I could see. Deciding that I had looked at the paper for a convincing amount of time I activated the spell. I gathered all the energy for the spell from my aura, the energy someone naturally gives off at any point in time. It took about a second to get enough energy, but once it activated I simply sent the energy into the card and watched the result. The card and rune was too flimsy to survive more than one spell so it disintegrated as the energy flowed through it. A vision overlapped my normal vision. It was Michael, writing a spell rune. It was in Polick, his favorite. I instantly recognized the light rune and the sight frame. He was cheating by using a remote viewing spell on the smartest kid in the class. Bobby Heath. I watched as he copied the answers changing one every eight answers.  My job was done, so I released the spell.
	My normal sight returned to me as if a mirror was defogging. Michael was grinning at me, “Cool huh? I use it to see who gets what answers right and get a perfect score. Though I usually change a few answers to throw away any suspicion.” I shook my head and gave him a chance to back out without repercussions. “You know that Dad doesn’t like us using magic to help our normal lives. You really should stop cheating.” Michael laughed, “Yeah, but doesn’t Dad also say that we should use this ability if we are blessed with it? I’m just using the tools that I have been given.”
	We walked into the school after that, chatting about more normal things. Like Michael’s latest girlfriend, a girl who was debatably the hottest girl in the freshman class.  I usually didn’t concern myself too much with matters relating to my twin but sometimes, when I deemed that things had gotten out of hand I took it upon myself to be Michael’s moral compass. Or at least his police. I did it rarely enough that he still told me all of his dirty little secrets. And that was the best part, because if I ratted him out on all the small stuff I wouldn’t be able to nail him for the huge stuff like cheating on a test, or girlfriend. There was also that one time he used remote viewing to spy on girls as they showered. I have got to say, it was so fun to watch Dad as he kicked Michael’s ass up and down the street for an hour when he found out about that.
	I thought about it for a while but decided to let the infraction slide. I, of all people, knew how painful it was to be unable to use magic in any meaningful way, and how tempting it was to abuse it. So I shifted my mind to planning for the future. I had developed a habit of gathering up my energy over the course of a day, as an exercise in controlling large amounts of power. But I quickly realized that when I did things like that I could start to use magic for more impressive feats, things that only our father was able to do. Things like heal injuries or increase my physical prowess. And I had begun to experiment with new things.

	I had finished school. The day was simple and boring. Michael cheated on the test, I listened to lectures, and had meaningless discussions with my various friends and acquaintances. Michael was on a date before we left for the vacation, and Daniel was with the baseball team preparing for the big game that night. I had been saving up all of my energy for the entire school day, that was only the third day I had been able to hold that much. I quickly headed home and when I got there I yanked off my ring. It was a simple thing, made of aluminum but it wasn’t the band that was special. It was the runes that lined the inside of the ring and the stone that capped it. At my last birthday my dad gave Michael and I matching rings. They were made of metal with the runes etched in them so that the spell could be used multiple times (Metal and carvings are more durable mediums then graphite and paper). The spell encapsulated within the ring gave the bearer the ability to summon a sword of blazing fire. The spell was powered by the small, ruby red stone of pure fire magic that capped the ring.
	I had discovered the week before that I could transfer energy into the stone and it would grow in size. Every day after the discovery I had placed all the energy I could into that stone. The process was difficult but I did it anyway, as if it were a ritual, and the once tiny stone was now double the size it had once been. If it hadn’t been for an extra enchantment that made the fitting expand and contract to fit the stone it would never have worked. But I did it.
	But I didn’t put all of the energy into the ring. I decided to use half of my power to do something I had only done twice before. Using a spell of light from a stack of ready-made spells I had hidden in the back of my closet, I created an image inside my eye. It was a five square foot hologram of the city. And inside the map, every detail was replicated in one hundred percent accuracy. I could zoom in and out as I pleased and see any place in the town that I wanted to. The first time I had done this I had accidently witnessed a, rather intimate event when I randomly spied on an office on Main Street.
	So the second time I had set parameters, I had the map highlight areas that I had specified as dangerous or potentially harmful. I had forgotten to exclude kitchens, police officers, and other places because the entire map lit up with red as visual alarms of guns and knives popped up all over town. I quickly adjusted and the town quieted down. Until a warning popped up. It was two miles from my house. In a patch of wilderness just off the road to town there was a girl, and a mountain lion.
	The girl in particular was a fifteen year old girl named Bethany Treach. She was cute enough if I had to say whether she was attractive or not. She had shoulder length auburn hair that she wore in a ponytail usually and she had blue eyes. Her face was soft with gently curved features. I had known her for a long time because our families had a close relationship. It was a massive increase in the risk and blab factor if I revealed myself to Bethany, but I had a plan. I had spent a lot of time in crafting the spell to change my voice. And I had even created a costume to hide my identity. With that in place I wouldn’t need to worry about having my identity revealed. I snapped the map into a compass on my wrist that would point to the danger. Then I checked how much energy I had left, it wasn’t a whole lot. I would have to use the ring.
	I ran to my bike and shot off. Following the red arrow of my tiny, hologram compass. The ring on my finger felt heavy and my stomach was under attack by a horde of angry butterflies. But I rode on getting to the scene within minutes. Bethany was still happily walking through the woods, unaware of the danger silently stalking her. I pulled up right next to her, and when she saw me, her face lit up. “Hi Peter! What are you doing out here?” It was then I had realized, I forgot to change clothes. I was about to tell her the danger, but decided that if I could get her out of the woods and away from the lion without incident that would be better. So I lied, “I was just riding my bike. Crazy running into you in the forest like this.”
	She nodded, “Hey, Peter, do you want to join me? I am trying to make a scenic path through the forest by walking the same route every day. More feet would help.” I bobbed my head in thought, I had to admire the dedication. But that just meant it would be that much harder to get her to leave. But it was no use. The lion, either seeing that I was going to remove her, or seeing that the prey had doubled, took that moment to spring. The hologram compass on my right wrist exploded in red and I leapt off my bike, tackling Bethany to the ground. The lion jumped right over us as it had aimed for where our torsos where.
	I reached out mentally to my aura and the ring, activating the runes embedded within the metal and the sword flame leapt to life in my right hand. I found that the flames became semi solid and I was able to grip them as if they were an actual hilt. I rose from my position over Bethany and faced the giant cat in front of me. I had no idea how to hold a sword or use it, but thankfully a giant flame was enough to unsettle the cat. It was obviously unnerved so I took the chance to swing the blade towards the animal.
	The lion jumped back, growling at me. But I held the sword steady, pointed towards the cat. It growled and hissed, but it slowly backed off. And the danger warning on the compass faded as the lion turned tail and ran off. I let the sword disappear and checked on Bethany, who had been on the ground the whole time. She was fine, in fact, began to clap happily. “That was so scary Peter! But it was cool too. That glowing thing on your wrist was super cool. I bet you found me because of that lion. But when it came out you were like, all heroic! Just ‘out of the way I’ll save you’. You know what I mean? And that flame sword was super cool! How did you do that? I think I’m in love.”
	I was slightly taken back by the torrent of words that she spewed out. However, I had known that she had a crush on me for years. So her saying that was no real surprise. She would say something similar pretty much any time we met. And so far I had shut her down every time. “Well,” I said, “I am glad that you are okay, and be careful of the suspension bridge effect. It’s not love just confusion and an adrenaline high, But, I do have to ask you for one favor.” Bethany shot up from the ground and grabbed my hands in hers, her eyes shining and a huge smile on her face, “I will keep your secret Peter.” She said instantly.
	I felt as if a weight lifted off of me. But it all came rushing back when she uttered one word. “But,” My heart jumped to my throat and my brain locked up. All I could think was Oh crap, here it comes. Her face had gotten a sly look on it, “I may just let the secret loose if I ever feel, lonely. After all, what could get people talking more than a magic wielding hero?”
	I resisted the urge to place my palm on my face and groan. “Fine Beth, I will take you on a date. How about next week?” She placed her left hand on her chin and looked up as if contemplating, “WELL, I guess I can be nice and accept your offer. I will let you know when and where. See you later Peter.” She gave me a peck on the cheek and walked off through the woods humming to herself and skipping along. I grumbled to myself, “Great, I gave my stalker blackmail ammunition.” I screamed in frustration. “But I couldn’t just let her get killed! Ugh. I guess I’ll just have to figure out how to deal with this later.” I dragged my bike out of the forest and rode it home. Waiting for my brothers and father to get home.

Chapter 2
	“Well, I can’t really say that I am disappointed in you. Saving people is one of the best ways to use this gift we have.” My dad was talking to me at the moment. I had gone home and told them all about the incident the second they all got back. At the moment we were sitting at the dining room table under the golden glow of the afternoon sun as it dipped towards the evening red. My father’s name was William Krowley. He was a patient, forgiving, and generally nice guy. He treated everyone around him fairly and helped others when they were in need. It did help that all the people who would have caused trouble had a healthy fear of him. Despite the fact that he was slow to anger, those that did manage to get him going found he was a force to be reckoned with. He was six feet and four inches, just slightly taller than my brother Daniel though he was starting to shrink with age. His once blonde hair had faded to a brown that was now beginning to be touched by the silver of age. Despite being in his late forties he worked out continuously and was muscled and fairly lean for a man of his age. His blue-gray eyes, which were usually crinkled from smiles were serious and thoughtful. My mother was currently out of the house on a business trip.
	“But, I do have to say, your timing and choice of person to save were absolutely terrible. First off, you had to do this the day before the quarterly meeting. Not only that but it was Bethany. And there are two reasons she was a terrible choice. First off, she is crazy about you, and you having a secret gives her the ability to blackmail you into going out with her, but not only that, she is part of the Treach main branch.”
	Daniel got a curious look, “Wait, Dad, why does it matter that she is part of the main branch?” My dad sighed, “Boys, I want you to use your heads here. I learned magic from somewhere, and if the ability is genetic, that means.” Michael shot up, “You learned it from your dad!” My father nodded. “Exactly Michael, before your uncle took over as the next head of the family. All of the siblings were equally privy to the knowledge of magic. But the catch is, only the main branches of the Treach and Krowley families are allowed to teach their kids magic. The stated reason is so that we can make sure all magic users follow a code of laws and don’t use it for evil.” My father shot a meaningful glance at Michael, then Daniel, then me. “But there is another reason, magic doesn’t come from this world boys. It isn’t supposed to be here, and if the concentration of free magical particles gets too high, bad things could happen. That’s why we keep it under such tight wraps. As long as we don’t abuse the power it dissipates over time and fades into things. Like light, heat, and various forms of matter. Well, there’s all that, and the fact that we would probably be ruthlessly exploited by governments for economic, scientific, but mostly military purposes. So, in conclusion I completely disobeyed one of the biggest laws in the book because I thought it was unfair that you would never be allowed to reach your full potential. If the other’s find out about this, they could do anything from wiping memories, to killing you, or stealing your magic.”
	We sat in silence, our father had warned us before about using magic, but because we had never done anything blatantly, provably magical we had always been able to slide our way out of this talk. I looked at my brothers, and I saw a tad look of guilt on their faces. And that is what shocked me, Daniel was usually a clean soul, even more guided and righteous than me, almost annoyingly so. My father continued speaking, “And the second reason that it was a bad choice is because it was completely unnecessary. If you haven’t figured it out yet, BETHANY CAN USE MAGIC. In fact she is probably more powerful than any of you three because she is able to…” my father trailed off for a moment. His eyebrows crinkled in thought. “I feel bad using this knowledge, I mean. I could justify training you boys, to them at least, as a contingency. But…that would be practically like outright rebellion. No. It has to be done.” He looked at us with a steel in his eyes that I had never seen before. There was a hardness in his features that showed that he would brook no nonsense and spoke of an inner strength I had only guessed at.
	“Boys,” He spoke, voice heavy, “This speech may get a little bit tiresome. But just know that it is extremely important that you listen and understand what I say. What I am going to have you do is something that I wanted to avoid. Following through with this will put you neatly into the palm of entities that probably only have their interests at heart. But it is the only way to make sure you three are powerful enough to escape if this blows up in our faces.
	At the Big House, there are those two hills and a lake. You’ve been there before so you know what I mean. On the far side of the hill where the water flows from there is a cave. Inside that cave there is a crystal pillar and a pond, avoid that at all costs. What you will be looking for is at the far end of the cavern. Trust me, you will know what you are looking for when you see it. Also, you each have to go alone or you can’t get the subject done. You will be making a pact there, and that pact is something sacred and secret between you and your benefactor. Now go do your homework. I have a movie I want you guys to watch after dinner.”
My brothers and I all got up and started to leave smiling, movies were good. We liked them a lot. But as I was leaving my father stopped me. “Peter, hold up. I want to ask you a question.” Dutifully obeying I turned around to face him. My Dad got close to me, leaned in and spoke quietly, in his ‘this is totally confidential’ voice. “Peter, I know you and Beth have had a complex relationship in the past. But don’t think we are forcing you to deny her affections. I mean, this would all be solved if her blackmail was, well, not exactly blackmail.” He creased his brow with his left head, “I was never as good at the emotional stuff as your mother was. What I mean to ask is, do you have romantic feelings for her? None of this liking crap. Do you want to do that mushy stuff like kiss her or date?”
I sat still for a moment, there was a possibility that I did love her. I mean, I knew I loved my Dad and my brothers, but if I had to quantify the feelings I couldn’t quite describe it. It was simply something that I knew, a constant fact. I hadn’t ever really gotten involved with a girl before, so I couldn’t really give a one-hundred percent sure answer to my father. But I gave the best one I could. “No, I don’t really have any special feelings for her. She is just, a girl to me. She is attractive but that doesn’t mean I really like her.”
My Dad nodded to himself, “Alright then. Stick to your guns and don’t give in to her Peter. I will make sure you three get out of this unharmed. I just can’t promise that you three won’t be exposed to skeletons that have been buried by the family for a long time.”
He turned away and cracked open a book he had been reading for a while. It was painfully obvious that he was done talking. With an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach I left to do my homework that evening.
	On the day of the gathering there was a quiet silence over my house. A calm before the storm of sorts. My brothers had slightly sterner expressions which was interesting, Daniel was usually serious while Michael was totally carefree most times. Our father made us a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, then we packed some light provisions, extra clothing, and hopped in the car for the Big House.
 We rode in silence with our father to the cabin, or the Big House.  Though cabin really wasn't the best word. The whole place was gigantic and the only thing that even caused us to call it a cabin was the fact that it had a wooden exterior. Overall I believe the total square footage of the interior was around twenty thousand five hundred square feet. But when you house seventy people in one place, it has to be that big I guess. Of course, it was still a fairly tight fit. With the top two floors being nothing but rooms that were a pathway between beds cut into the wall, these beds also had one drawer on the underside which allowed us to store clothing. In total there were eighty-six of these "guest beds" with another four rooms being master bedrooms for the main families. Then, the whole place had a total of ten bathrooms, one game room, a kitchen, a library, and a grand living area. The Big House had all of the latest in comfort and quality and was ultimately nestled in a wooded property spanning 16 square miles with 2 hills with a small river feeding a medium sized pond.
	It was sort of a family reunion setting. The area was shared by two different family trees, both very close to each other (And sometimes converging as someone from one family married a member of the other). But over a course of three hundred years it had only happened about six times. The families were the Krowleys (my side) and the Treaches (Bethany’s family). Four times a year all of the members of the family that were within four relations to the main line were invited to the Big House. It was something that I found to be slightly annoying. I knew some of those people from school. And the difference between those who were recognized and not was like night and day. With those who were closer to the main family holding more lofty positions in town. The families who were not Krowley or Treach were almost treated like sub-class citizens. A behavioral trait my father had conditioned my brothers against. And as a result we didn’t entirely fit in with the snobbery of the other kids, even the ones who were further detached from the main line than us, who were first cousins to the current heir to the Krowley throne.
There were usually fireworks and a barbeque but that's beside the point. (The family was rather powerful. Rich even. Though besides coming here I barely saw a lick of it in my daily life thanks to the humble nature of my father.)  And despite the crossings, I was fairly safe in my assumptions about certain girls on the Treach side being fair game to court. It took us an hour and a half to get there in our car. And when we did it seemed like an interesting occasion was in store for us.
	My uncle Zachary, one of my father's five siblings, is a small, weasel-like man with receding gray hair and a gap-tooth smile had already caused havoc by letting a group of wild rabbits loose in the cabin. The distraction was enough that my brothers and I decided to go towards the cave. The cabin is nestled on one hill of the property while the pond is in the middle and the river that feeds it snakes up the other hill where a tiny opening in a large chunk of rock lets it out from an underground spring.
	We had reached the lake we were pretty stumped. “Hey,” I said, “Dad said the cave is on the hill where the river comes from, but I haven’t seen it before. Where do you guys think it,” suddenly a large crack resounded in the air on the far side of the hill. We all instantly rushed around the hill. Michael noticed the signs of the landslide first.
"Hey guys," he slowly said, "Aren't there more of those white rocks here than usual? I mean those ones that match the rock face on the top of the hill here." I took a look and around and easily noticed that he was right. "Yeah," I said, "I think there may have been a break in the rock face or something. If rain gets into cracks then freezes, it can push rocks apart and break them. We had a cold winter so maybe the rock finally gave way. Maybe we got lucky. This might help us find the cave." Hah, looking back at it all, luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. But that’s beside the point.
	With Daniel leading the way we made our way up the Far Hill and up to the top. As we went more and more rocks filled the area and signs of fallen trees and flattened plants were everywhere. The rock face was gone. And by gone I mean that there was now a gaping hole in the side of the hill. There was just enough sunlight to see into the new cave. Altogether the cave appeared to be more of a temple then a cave, with pillars of rock jutting up in just the right places to support the ceiling and the floor being unnaturally smooth. Up through the grey-white stone was a straight streak of stone with colors ranging from one end of the rainbow to the other. The river ran alongside it and came from its source a two foot deep and about 5 foot in radius circular spring. In the center of the spring was a pillar of clear stone in the shape of a hexagon standing out about two and a half feet above the water.
	At the back of the cave was a doorway of sorts, leading down into the darkness. From it, I could feel an energy pouring out and wrapping around me, drawing me in. Thoughts flickered across my mind that I couldn’t say were my own. And sounds like whispers were in my ears.
	Daniel, Michael, and I entered the mouth of the cave and we were stunned by the sheer awesome of it. "Now that." Daniel said, "Is cool." It was my day to play the role of Captain Obvious though so I said to my brother’s, “This is the cave Dad was talking about. We should only go in there one at a time. And remember that he said we need to stay away from that crystal.”
	However, in the infinite wisdom that was my teenage self I decided to go take a look and see what the stone was anyway. I mean, as long as I didn’t touch it I was okay right? I walked up to the stone and slowly stepped in to the pool of water after removing my shoes and rolling up my pants. As I waded over to the stone my body began to feel all tingly. I waved the others to follow and so they did.
As we all entered the pond we began to notice the sensation. On a whim I decided to try and use my magic without even drawing a rune. And electricity easily arced between my fingertips as I willed it. Something very different from my normal concentration requirement. Daniel and Michael noticed as well and replicating the results with fire from Daniel and a little frost from Michael they were both dumbfounded. “Hey guys,” Michael said with excitement, “Maybe we should like, bottle the water and save it. Because then we could drink it when bad stuff happens and become like, superheroes or something. Wouldn’t that be awesome?” I nodded my head. That was actually the first thought that had popped into my head. It must be because we are twins. Daniel however was more cautious, “Guys, we don’t know if this is a bad thing, it could potentially be corroding our bodies, or it could become addictive or something. We should slowly investigate this.” But Michael and I just rolled our eyes and waded in to the pillar.
When we reached the pillar in the center of the clear stone suddenly sank down and changed color until it was a three dimensional symbol resembling an abstract elephant with no feet or stomach. "Whoa." was all I let out. I recalled the warning of my father and almost turned away. But imagine a fishhook in your brain, it was almost like that, a tug that brought me back to the stone. I reached out to touch the symbol but was quickly stopped by a strong hand grasping mine. It was Daniel, he followed up saying, and “I'd rather not push the magic button Peter. We don't exactly know what will happen if we do.”
Michael, of course did the opposite, "Yeah Pete. Don't push the button. Let me do it!" In a single motion Michael reached his hand up and slapped it down on the pillar. The symbol glowed with a pulsating light but that was all that happened. "Well," I said, "That was anticlimactic." Daniel just grabbed Michael as well and dragged us back to the edge of the spring. "Just be glad it didn't summon a terrible monster that kills our family or something. Me? I'm perfectly fine with finding a glowing rock. As long as it's safe I'm cool with it." Then he dragged Michael right in front of him and gave him a look as if he wanted to throttle him. "And you, what would you have done if that thing sucked you off into some hellish wasteland? What if it had exploded or something. Don't just do whatever the hell you want! At least Peter makes up for all the times he get sidetracked by listening."
	Michael just shrugged, "Yeah, and what if it opened up a vault full of gold? What if it gave us superpowers? Like, beyond this magic stuff. I mean REAL superpowers. We wouldn't have known unless we tried Daniel. You have to take risks in life if you ever want to do something great. Stop being such a pessimist." Daniel pulled back his fist as if he was about to start fighting Michael, and I stepped in. "Ok guys, break it up. Daniel, you are right to be cautious. It could have been dangerous. But Michael was right as well, it is just as likely that is was something useful or cool. So why don't we all just calm down and realize that one of you is angry for taking a risk and the other is angry for not getting a reward."
	The two of them stopped and looked at me for a second, then Michael just put on his shoes and started walking. He turned around at the entrance of the cave with a huge grin on his face. “Alright! We can’t forget our mission. To go deep into the darkness of the cave and make some sort of deal. I vote we go in age order! Daniel, you take the risk, if it’s good that means I still get the perks before Peter!”
	Daniel had an impish smile as well. And I quickly figured out that my brothers were ganging up on me for breaking up their fight. “Hey!” I protested, “Michael and I are the same age here. We were removed surgically! We don’t even know which one of us was actually born first.” Daniel put his hands up as if he couldn’t do anything about this, “Hey, it’s two to one on the age order. So, it sounds like you’ll just have to deal with it.” He then turned and charged through the doorway and into the depths of the Earth.
	Michael and I waited about fifteen minutes in relative silence only broken by irrelevant small talk before Daniel emerged. I looked at him and I swear he literally had fire inside of his eyes. But not more than ten steps into the actual cave we were in the light died. He walked past us, “Go on in Michael. It’s safe, I just need to test this out by myself for a bit.”
	Michael shot up faster than I had ever seen him move, no surprise seeing Daniel like that. And so I was left by myself with nothing but the cave to study. My eyes were drawn to the water surrounding the monolith. Is was a shimmering, pure pond. With water constantly pouring out and feeding the stream that ran down to feed its larger cousin. But upon closer inspection there was no obvious source for the water. No cracks in the bottom and no areas where I could feel a current pushing against my fingers except at the edge where it flowed out.
	I studied the area around the crystal itself, and noticed the air changed. It felt pure and clean in some spots and in certain areas my hair would stand on end as if near a static charge. The pond itself was interesting as well, because near one side the water was steaming and on the other there was a light frost at the edge. The ground outside the pond was strange enough as well, it was smooth stone with streaks of metal running in a symmetrical pattern. Altogether, it gave the appearance of a natural structure, but I couldn't accept that. It felt too constructed.
	It didn’t take too long for Michael to emerge, but I was too interested in the cave to notice him before he tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped in surprise. Michael chuckled to himself a little bit, “Hey, I just finished up in there. It’s, pretty cool. Just, don’t be surprised if spooky stuff happens okay?”
	Ugh. I don’t like spooky stuff, never have and never will so I was understandably nervous about the door leading down into the bowels of the planet. But I steeled myself and took the journey. It was a winding, descending, and very narrow tunnel that was lit by a dim omnipresent light that threw off my perception. On the way down I felt heavier, and the thoughts and whispers began to press upon me more and more. By the time the tunnel evened out and opened up into a large room it took all my effort to keep the thoughts out and keep my brain my own.
	In the back of the Cavern were thirteen stalagmites of different substances eight circled around four. Then inside of the four was one central pillar much larger than the rest. The one in the center led my vision up to notice that there was an exact mirror, of stalactites on the ceiling. But they were made of a different, somehow more foreign substance. Curious, I approached the circles. The pillars on the bottom lit up and above each of them was a different High Imperial rune for an element. I recognized them immediately from the runes, the red one glowing with a fierce light matched the stone on my ring too. That let me put the pieces together. I was standing in front of enormous lumps of solid magical energy. I could recognize, all of the eight elements, but the inner five I didn’t know. The eight outer elements were fire, wind, water, electricity, metal, ice, earth, and force.
	The whole area was now lit up, but before I could do anything my brain exploded as thoughts more oppressive than before flooded my brain. The thoughts were words, something was speaking to me, and it came through in a booming and powerful voice.
So, the second of the outlier has arrived, rounding off the five. You come seeking power, but you do not know what kind of power you seek and why you seek it. Will you use your power to gain knowledge? Will you use it for power, fame, glory, or wealth? Or will you use it for the benefit of others? Life is a series of choices, so it is only fair that we give you three choices, the first in a series of choices. You may choose one of eight. The outer ring lit up more intensely with the runes flaring brightly. And you will immediately be granted power as you are bonded to the element of your choice. You may choose one of four. The inner ring of four lit up more intensely in a similar display to the outer ring. And you will move down the path to even greater power. But these arts are not lost for a reason. The road to discovery will be yours alone and it will be long and hard as you quest to discover secrets that have been hidden for years.
Or, you may choose to be the center. The inner stalagmite lit up more intensely than all the others before it before dying down. But to be the source of all will take a focus and determination unparalleled. The center pillar had a rainbow effect, shifting between all the others before it until settling on a middle crystalline color. Then the voice was squelched by a new one. A silky, smooth voice that instantly brought to mind a charismatic speaker. Or you can choose to be the balance to it all. Suddenly all the light in the cave turned to darkness, and then that darkness was replaced by something that I can’t describe as anything other than a not-light. From the ceiling the stalactites were glowing in a way that cancelled out light below. Each of the spires from the ceiling were the exact opposite of the one beneath it.
For every weight there must be a counterweight. For the brighter the light, the darker the shadow appears. For every force there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Choose to balance the world and all of the corruption that smiles in the face of the light. But be warned, this path will be the toughest of all. In order to use this power you must first learn to balance yourself lest you be consumed by it. No one can teach you the secrets that lie at the end of this path. No amount of searching in the world will reveal a dusty tome full of the knowledge to master this. You must make it on your own.
With that, the voice died and silence reigned. My only companion the glow. But my mind had already been made up. If the power of my family was what made my cousins the haughty jerks they were, if the power I had was what made people like Bethany feel like blackmailing a guy into being her boyfriend was acceptable, I didn’t want any part of it. “I choose the fourth option.” I said, as firmly and as loudly as I could. The glow died out. Then the second voice spoke again. Very well, but you must find balance yourself. Choose one of the others as you must have a positive to every negative. “Then I choose electricity.” Was my reply.
	If that is your choice so be it. We will make our pact and you will be entitled to all the power within my domain. I do not ask for service like the others, I do not seek to expand my authority over others. However, you must know here and know that if you choose this, your life will be changed. Should you succeed the best you can hope for is that you will lose your life as it is. All you know is only a product of one side, you must be reborn again, and freed from your current bonds to become truly balanced.
I nodded my head, “I accept these terms.” A wave of energy washed over me, I felt as if I was stripped to the bone. My aura vanished completely and I felt extremely sick and weak. Then step forward and place your hand upon my face. Let your destiny, that which has always been true, be set in motion. Uncover the secrets and balance the darkness to the light.
I walked past the crystals and they glowed at my passing. As I reached the middle two lit up. The giant stalactite in the center, with its not-light, and a golden glow from the stalagmite of electricity. I reached out my right hand to the stalactite. Just before I touched the skin all of the other runes lit up with the Polick symbols of their element. And in front of me, a double diamond with a circle half filled by a central dot flashed on the central stalactite. My hand brushed the edge, and a cold, foreign sensation ran up my arm. I felt energized but as if this energy was making me tired at the same time, the crystal was neither cold nor warm, and was truly absent of any descriptive qualities. But as I reached my hand down the side and touched the bottom of the crystal...A sharp pain took me by surprise and I pulled my hand back. Something had cut my palm. I pulled back and took that as my cue to leave. The voice in my head, that strange one spoke to me. You have made your choice, Lightning will be your secondary before you come to accept our power. You carry destiny on your shoulders. And a new one spoke, this one with the voice of someone normal, and regular. By the way, your brother chose the center.  I hurried out of the cave and didn't look back, not even questioning, which brother?


CHAPTER 3
The trip back was uneventful, and when I approached the cabin we saw they were having a barbeque. My father saw me and motioned for me to come over. He was, a pretty good cook on the grill, which is what he was doing at the time I showed up. "Hey Peter. I want you to go talk to Uncle Zach. I know that he did something with the food and I don't want to cook anything until I find out so I cooked up a little to get the smell. Tell him we are all eating and find out what he messed with." I gave a mock salute and wandered into the house to find my uncle.
	I walked inside the house to find my uncle inside the laundry room tied to a chair. I buried my face in my hand and just sighed. "Uncle Zach, what did you do to deserve this? I mean, they are all outside eating peacefully and you are sitting in the laundry room, with the lights off no less, tied to a chair. You had to have done more than just let some rabbits loose." The man threw his head back and laughed. "Hah! Peter, and I know it's you because Michael would have congratulated me, I also changed all the locks on the doors so when they locked themselves in to change for a swim they got stuck! It was great. But then they forced me to get them out...." I shook my head in exasperation. He's such a jerk. I thought. I decided to play the nice card, "Alright, well I'll get you out of here. But in exchange for that, tell me if you've done anything to the food." He howled in laughter and stomped his feet on the floor in glee, "You're a smart one kid! I just have to say, don't trust those hamburgers. You never know what they put in that ground beef!" As he started a wheezing, breathy laughter I halted halfway through untying him. "Thanks. Now think long and hard about what you've done while I tell my dad not to cook those." And with that done, I turned and walked out of the room. All the while Zachary was shouting, "Hey, that was pretty dastardly of you! Not bad kid! That was a smooth double cross you did right there! I expected it from Michael but not from you!"
	I walked outside and saw my dad talking to my brothers. "Hey, he messed with the burgers. The other ones are clean." My dad just nodded and turned to grilling while listening to their story of the cave. I was hoping they wouldn’t tell him about the crystal, but just in case I moved on to find some entertainment and stay out of the firing line. I began wandering around the area and ran into my cousin Samuel and a member of the second family Nicole. Samuel was almost as tall as my brother but he had a brown-red appearance to his hair and his eyes were a slate grey. He was sort of lanky or as he called it, wiry, he was thin as a rail either way, and what he did have on his bones was all corded muscle. Nicole, on the other hand, was slightly shorter than Michael and I with shoulder length brown hair and matching brown eyes. She had a slim and toned physique, she had well shaped, if slightly small breasts, and a matching bottom. Together they were good friends from the main line of the two families. My brothers and I were one generation removed from the head family on the Krowley side.
	 They were out on the dock that jutted out into the lake. They were wearing swimsuits and seemed to be doing something strange. Intrigued, I hung back and watched it all. Samuel was standing about halfway out onto the pier and Nicole was standing at the edge. Samuel was wearing bright red swim trunks and had a metal pole in his right hand. It was about shoulder height and looked like it was made out of steel or iron. Nicole on the other hand, had nothing in her hands and was wearing a purple one piece suit with flower designs on it. Her hair was tied up and she was in a fighting stance. I sat out in the bushes away from them so I could watch what happened. What is up with today? Everything is just weird. Are they actually sparring or just messing around?
	My question was soon answered though when Samuel charged Nicole. He picked up his pole and swung it at an angle with his hands about the level of his face but the other end at Nicole's legs. She jumped over the pole and while it was swinging around delivered two blows to Samuel's chest in rapid succession pushing him back. They repeated this exercise twelve times. Each time Samuel would move in and attack in a different way and Nicole would either dodge or grab the pole then deliver a counter. After these repeats I decided to come out of hiding. "Hey guys!”
	They both jumped in surprise and Samuel, who had been balancing on the edge of the dock after a counter, fell in the water. I made my way across the edge of the pond over to the dock. As I reached it Samuel was pulling himself out, dripping wet. Now, despite my attempting to get along with these two, I didn't like them. And I was sure they didn't like me. The main families treated the others as if they weren't good enough to live or something. Like they were in some exclusive club that we couldn't hope to join. Out of my nuclear family only my father (once part of the main family before his elder brother created the next generation and became the head of the family) seemed to get along with them. But he was still far more humble than them.
	Samuel glared at me and gave me an insult. Something I had come to expect, "So, if it isn't a second tier. Do you need something? Oh, I forgot, you need a brain, and some actual talent, and what’s that third thing…social grace?" Now, I admit, the insult wasn't great. But it still stung. So, I swallowed my pride and answered back, "I came over here to say that you guys were pretty cool there. Do you take martial arts classes?"  Nicole stepped in this time, with an air of haughty derisiveness. "You don't say? I never would have guessed that if I had seen two people sparring for six minutes.” I was a little startled, "You saw me? I thought I was doing a pretty good job." She snorted, "Well, sure you were doing a pretty good job standing there, but when you crash through the forest like a drunk buffalo it'd be impossible to hide."
	I was done, if they weren't going to play nice I wouldn't play at all, I just growled to myself and walked away, feeling their victorious stares burning intro my back. One day, I swore, One day my brothers and I are going to show you two pricks that just because we weren't born into the privileged family doesn't mean we can't beat you.
	I walked back to the house and saw Michael and Daniel standing off near the house having a quiet chat. Which was odd, because even though my brothers usually tolerate each other they would almost always refuse to talk near or to each other for extended periods of time. And after what had happened today I had a feeling they had done a lot of talking to dad in the half hour we had come back in. But they were standing in the shadow of the house nestled into a corner of the wall and muttering in low tones. I couldn't tell what they were saying until I closed to within a foot of them. They noticed me and nodded at me in greeting, "Hey Pete," Michael said, still speaking in low tones, “So after finding out that the main line of the family are magic users too, have you noticed anything else strange about them?” I nodded in response and, offhandedly remarked, "Yeah, I found out Samuel and Nicole are masters at martial arts. I was watching them spar out on the dock from the trees."
	Daniel cocked his eyebrow, "I'm not going to talk about how weird it is that you watch people from hiding spots, but that is possibly relevant information. When we told Dad what happened, he got this mysterious look on his face, then said he had to talk to Gregory and Olivia. I think he has some plan now that, well, we did that pact stuff." For those uninformed, Gregory and Olivia are the patriarch and matriarch of the Krowley family and the Treach family. The Krowleys being the patriarchal and the Treaches being the matriarchal. They were the parents of Samuel Krowley and Nicole Treach (Starting to see a potential connection?).
	At this point Michael cut in, "I bet that it's some family secret they have been guarding ever since they settled on this land. And that we somehow triggered it, and by doing so will be exposed to the secret of the main families. And that will cause Nicole and Samuel to resent us at first then accept us through many trials and tribulations. Which, will then allow Daniel to score with Nicole, who we all know he has been pining for since eight years ago." I gave him my best 'what the hell are you talking about?' expression. While Daniel got a little flustered and started blushing profusely. Michael, being Michael, just grinned and shrugged, "I know, it was stupid. But it would be...so...cool." I shook my head, "Nah, I don't think I ever want to get all buddy-buddy with either of those two. They aren't the nicest folks around."
	Daniel sighed and leaned back against the wooden structure. "I would say that we should look for answers, but I won't. Not only for the reason that they won't like it, but because I think that unless they tell us themselves, we'll never find out. Dad is our best bet, so we will have to wait until he decides to tell us. But if I had to place bets, I would say this is all related to that guy in our dreams." I stroked my chin in thought. That was fairly sound reasoning.
	It just so happened that it was about six o'clock in the evening. The families were sitting out on the grounds and enjoying a nice meal. I didn't mind being left out, when seventy people are sharing a meal, it's understandably easy to miss someone. Either way, my hand was not bleeding anymore so I slapped a Band-Aid on the wound and slid into the supper crowd and ate a delicious meal of baked ziti and some left over barbeque. I sat down with my brothers and father to eat.
	At that point Daniel noticed my cut hand, "How did that happen?" he asked, indicating the hand. I was about to tell him, but my tongue stopped moving and sound stopped coming out of my mouth for a second, and suddenly, against my will, I lied. "I tripped on the way down the hill and scraped it. It's no big deal."  My face was a small smirk and my eyes were rolling in my sockets in an 'I know' expression. I was a stupid teenager, but those voices had scared me. And if this pact thing was sacred I wasn’t going to let myself get obliterated by the magic gods.
	I finished eating and decided to try and join a game of beach volleyball that was going on nearby when I was sidelined by Bethany. “So, Peter.” She said, batting her eyelashes. “Want to go for a walk?” I turned to her and flatly responded “No, and I don’t care if you tell people about my magic. Because I have enough control of it to know a fellow user when I see one.” It was a blatant lie, but she seemed to believe it. A look of shock crossed her face, then it was replaced with an angry scowl. “Fine, then prepare to have your secret revealed. Unless you would rather let all the other non-magic users die.”
	She quickly ran off into the woods, I tried to chase after her but she was inhumanly fast. She must have used some sort of spell to go as fast as she did. I gave up and turned back to the Big House. Now, this is one of the choices I made in my life that I seriously regret. I should have told my father she had threatened everyone’s lives. But I didn’t. Whether I was overconfident in my ability or I didn’t believe Bethany I honestly can’t say. But the choice had its consequences.
	I was in the middle of playing volley ball with my cousin Vance. We were getting our butts handed to us by the unlikely combination of Samuel and Daniel, united by their superior sports skill. When an unearthly roar ripped across the area. Everyone stopped dead and turned to the direction where it was coming from. The area Bethany had run off to. The roar was followed by three others and that was when the adults sprang into action. “Everyone inside now!” Gregory shouted. Olivia, Zachary, my father, and their siblings quickly led the effort to move everyone inside. It was proceeding smoothly, leaving only those from the main families and the siblings capable of using magic outside. Including my brothers and me. The adults, and Samuel noticed we were still outside as the last of the others were heading inside.
	“Hey you idiots! Get in the house!” Samuel called. I ignored him, fingering my ring and watching Michael do the same. Daniel had knelt on the ground and was drawing runes in the dirt with his finger.  The other adults noticed our suspicious behavior and began to move in and drag us back when the roars erupted again. This time very close. My father appeared right behind me. “Way to stick to your guns Peter. If you are going to use magic to defend people, you can’t be picky about who you save.”
	Confidence swelled inside of me at the praise. I hadn’t been able to get a hold of my aura all day as it was shorting out oddly, so I thanked my lucky stars for the ring and reached out to it. Prepared to activate it at any time. It took another minute or so, with the other members of the family quickly figuring out that we were magic users thanks to the runes Daniel had drawn. Besides a few glares though they put it aside to deal with the threat at hand.
	But what surprised me the most was when a scream was heard from the trees. “Help!” It was Bethany, just barely making it past the tree line when behind her emerged one of the vilest quadrupeds I would lay my eyes on for a long time. It has thick scales of olive green covering most of its body. It had the hind legs of your standard canine, still covered in scales, but with sharp claws emerging from it. The tail was lined in spikes and I am fairly sure that if it farted those would have been lethal as well. One of the scariest things about the creature though, was that it had hands. The arms, if they weren’t scaled, could have come from a human. But the nails, not being cut, were sharpened and gleamed wickedly in the late evening sunlight. The head of the beast resembled a frog. It opened its jaws to roar and I saw inside. The leathery sack was lined with sharp barbs but weirdest of all were two hammer like bony structures that were attached to the top of the mouth. They resembled a dull praying mantis arm.
	They creature quickly gained ground on Bethany and behind it a swarm of others burst forth. I activated the ring and charged forward as the flaming sword leapt to life in my hand. I sprinted with all of my might and watched Bethany, who had a smirk of satisfaction on her face that only I could see. Behind her the beast grabbed her and she slapped her hands against her aggressor, which was soon punctured by water, gushing from the hose in a thin stream at immense pressure.
	That stopped that particular creature, but behind it was a torrent of other beasts. I raised the fire sword in my right hand and was suitably satisfied when it chopped off the front part of the next creature that came my way. But just as I felled that beast, another one popped up. It was a good thing that these creatures were only about chest height on me. They weighed a few hundred pounds but they were perfect cutting size.
	One of them grabbed my sword hand, and I thought that I was done for, but Samuel came to my rescue, stabbing the creature in the skull with a spear before moving back to the others. I decided that my best bet was to stay in formation so I grabbed Bethany and tried to drag her back to the others.
I was scared as hell. But it was weird, my dad’s words kept running through my head. And all I could think of was, I have to save them. Then a voice sounded in my head. It was the normal sounding voice that spoke at the end of the cave. Ah, then allow me to help with that. I felt a tugging sensation in my right hand at the point of the injury and the feel of my ring became heavy. My sword changed from a fire blade to a vaguely sword shaped clump of something, then a dark flame emerged that stole the light from the air around it and chilled me. It was completely alien to me. I could also feel, that it didn’t like anything around it as the air became thin and when it touched the ground where it had gone simply disappeared.
	With this new weapon in my grasp I just charged forward. Hacking and slashing as best as I could, my weapon disintegrating all that it touched. Those that managed to dodge most of my blade for a nick were quickly devoured by some sort of poisonous aftereffect. In a brief lull between monster slaying. I turned to check on Bethany, when I saw the creature. Let’s just call it Alpha.
	While the others were covered in olive green scales, Alpha was a bright red, luminescent creature. I instantly got the feeling that this guy was magical, and he didn’t like my new toy. Alpha’s mouth sack swelled and the glow inside it intensified immensely. Alpha reared back and moved his head in a spitting motion a half-second before a burst of energy spewed out of it. “Beth! Look out!” I screamed, and pushed her aside as the attack approached over the forty foot distance. The stream of glowing liquid was viscous and a nasty red-purple. I swung my weapon towards the stream and neatly bisected the stuff to either side of me, causing wails of pain from creatures on either side of me.
	Alpha just got mad. He lowered his body and charged right at me and Bethany who was keeping the other monsters away. “Dodge!” I shouted. And Bethany turned just in time to see it. We dove to the right of the creature. Alpha tried to grab me with his left hand but I used the sword to block it. Unfortunately Alpha had some sort of magical armor that prevented me from slicing the hand right off. But a repulsing shock came from the contact of the sword and the armor and sent me flying further. Alpha swung his tail at me this time.
	This time it was Michael who saved me. In each hand he had a sword now, he had figured out some trick to get the ring to spit out two swords. Except one was ice. I noticed that the gem on his hand was half snow-white. He must have been channeling energy into the ring just like I had done. Both of Michael’s swords crashed down on the tail at the same time. Causing a burst of energy in the form of a pink-red light. This only lasted for a brief moment before they punched through the armor and sliced off the tail.
But that didn’t stop the creature. It roared in pain and quickly swiveled around. Alpha then pulled one moved I never expected. His tongue lashed out and wrapped Bethany in it. Pulling her within its jaws. As she was standing right next to me I got a clear picture of her emotions. They cycled from concentration to surprise then outright terror as she got pulled towards Alpha. She faced me, her eyes pleading to be saved as a wordless mix between a sob and a scream escaped her.
Then the jaws shut. And I heard the sound of the hammers battering her and muffled screams from within. I was filled with anger. I charged forward, raising my sword high. The world slowed, and the voice within me spoke again. You are a balance, if there is too much strength on one side take it for yourself. I will help you this time, but it will damage me. If I save this girl you will lose my aid and after this, your path will be much harder as you must learn to do it for yourself. I growled and thought back NO. I made a decision. If I am going to save people I have to save everyone. Even psychotic stalkers. My mind suddenly expanded. Imagine being able to see the entire world around you in all three hundred sixty degrees. You know everything about everything, heat, energy, the taste, sight, smell of every single object within this range. I could feel the auras of all my family, I ignored them, and I felt the auras of all the creatures around me. I felt an unseen hand reach out and grab the aura of the creature closest in its entirety, including something more substantial that rooted the aura within the body. A whole creature’s worth of energy flooded me and it was all guided towards my black sword.
The blade turned from a seething mass of energy to an actual, physical substance blade in a fraction of a second. All the creature that I had taken the power from dropped dead, a lifeless husk that was once filled with energy and life. I leveled my sword at Alpha. The blade glowed wickedly with its not-light as I leapt forward Alpha reached out his hands to grab me but he was too late. I curled up my right leg as tight as I could and my right foot landed on Alpha’s snout. I plunged the blade deep into his face and I felt all the energy push out of me, up the sword, and into the monster in front of me. Even the sword itself was included in this push as it dissolved in my hand.
My momentum spent, I fell backwards off my foe and landed on my back as a ripple of that alien force flowed through him and he just disintegrated into nothing. Without the Alpha the rest of the creatures began to panic and scurry all over the place, the adults were able to finish them off more easily. Bethany, bloodied and bruised fell to the dirt from where she had been inside his mouth. The voice spoke to me in my head. That is what you are capable of you will take strength and give it to the weak. But you will also need to give life over to death sometimes. And, thank you. For your choice. I wish you luck-. The voice became static and a scream erupted in my head, somebody in pain. Immense pain.
My vision swam and my body ached, I was actually covered in scratches and bruised but that was the least of my worries. My stomach felt like it was doing a quadruple backflip and my head was splitting. Every time my heart beat was a surge of pain through my body. I turned on my side and threw up. My vomit, dark and putrid dissolved the ground as it touched it, leaving a small hole.
	All around me the adults swarmed, taking down the rest of the beasts. I felt a hand on my back. Then an electrifying energy, followed by a soothing warmth and a slight itching all over. My vision cleared and my headache and nausea went away. I was again conscious enough to notice all my injuries healing. I looked to see my dad hovering over me. His expression grim. One of his brothers, Timothy called out, “Good training you gave your kids. You should be proud.” My father nodded, and whispered to me, “Next time, you should hide that special power of yours. Strange new things are something of an ill omen among the magic community.”
	He helped me to my feet and I saw Gregory standing some feet away glaring at us. “William, take your boys to bed. I have put all the others to sleep already. We need to talk about these boys of yours.” I was willingly led inside by my father and one of the Treach sisters. I was exhausted and it was an effort to even breathe. I was unceremoniously dumped on my bed and I instantly fell asleep.
But when I woke, it wasn't to the sunrise. Five men and three women were standing outside my bed-cubby. And they dragged me out, gagging me and tying me up with ease as I was still weak, and not to mention extremely sore after that recent battle. They put a bag over my head and someone began to carry me away, where I did not know as I heard the faint scuffles being repeated twice.

Chapter 4
	I was dropped on the ground roughly but I couldn't make more than a slight moan with my gag. I heard voices muttering in the distance and then I felt two bodies being shoved against mine. We were wrapped up with something and with that we were completely helpless. I was still extremely weak, but still conscious enough to be sweating bullets. What the hell? Ah, man! Dad was right about the repercussions for pissing off Bethany! Our family must be some sort of demonic cult or something and they are going to sacrifice us to whatever that voice inside my head is! I sat in silence as my heart pounded and my mind raced. I can't say how long I sat there but I know it was for more than a few minutes. I was jolted back into the situation when the bag was ripped off of my head violently by a man I had never seen before. The man undid my gag next, then untied my wrists. He looked to be in his mid-thirties with short cropped red hair and eyes of silver. He looked as if he were as tall as Daniel, maybe a little taller. His skin was a dusty light brown. As if he were from Central America. But strangely, his eyes appeared Asian.  He was a hodgepodge of all different ethnic traits from around the world. But despite being the strangest human I had ever seen it was obvious that he was human.
	He inspected me closely, eyeing every part with a stern gaze. Then he moved on to my brothers, repeated the process of untying them, then he told us to stand up. We complied and moved as a group to our father who was standing apart from the others with a slightly angry expression. We were in the cave from before. But now there were lights hanging from the ceiling to light the place up. My uncles were caught between outright anger and a small smirk of amusement. Next to the men were the women of the Treach family. All together they looked pissed but the matriarch, Olivia was actually smiling, but it wasn’t a nice smile. I continued to look around and saw Nicole, Bethany, and Samuel standing off to the side whispering. Nicole saw me looking and flashed a toothy grin and waved sarcastically. I ignored them. By this time the strange foreign guy was done inspecting us. He stood near the adults and spoke in a sharp accent, "I will hold my opinions on them until you are almost ready to decide. This is, as far as you know, your matter, not mine, I only showed up because the beacon was activated. I want to see how harsh or lenient you are." Gregory stepped up and patted the man on his left shoulder while nodding his head. "Thank you John. We will definitely want to hear it later. Now, are we ready to begin?"
	Gregory turned to the other adults and they nodded moving forward to surround us. Olivia began, "The eight hundred and fifty first Council of Blood shall be called into session. The reasons being the activation of the emergency beacon, the discovery of our sacred duty by a member of the family who was not in the line of succession, and the fact that one of us broke the rules and taught children, not of the main line, Kyreth. Do any wish to deny William support and punish him?" I was thinking to myself what the emergency beacon could have been and then it hit me, the crystal with the symbol in the cave. My brothers and I were idiots.
	Nicole spoke up, "Yeah! Mom, we should definitely hurt them or something. I mean, not only did they come here, Peter completely disobeyed our rules when he went to save Bethany from that mountain lion! And they know how to use Kyreth!" Gregory snapped his head towards her and growled menacingly, "Be quiet girl. This is a matter of the council. And simply because you are privy to our secret does not mean you are one of us. And besides, being in the line of succession isn't something... permanently exclusive. There are a multitude of factors that could bar you. And stealing your memories and replacing them with a horrific experience of an abusive headmaster at a boarding school is one of many options." Nicole's mouth dropped open and she took a step back in fear. Gregory smirked and turned back to my brothers and me.
	"I would never allow it," Olivia muttered, "But that was a nice job getting her to shut up. Are there any ADULTS who would deny William support?" Zachary snorted when nobody raised their hands. “Let’s face the facts people. William is letting us hold this council. He alone is strong enough to stop us from doing anything severe. Especially if John withdraws support from either side. And if he taught his boys Kyreth as well, there is no way we can get away with more than the equivalent of a wrist slap. I mean, you left the enchanted rings on two of them when you brought them here. Those flaming swords could easily overwhelm Samuel and Nicole. Not to mention whatever Daniel could cook up. So let’s just skip to the boys okay?”
	The council was silent for a while. Some kind of shuffled their feet and avoided looking at my dad directly. Wow, I thought, Dad must be a badass. I hope he doesn’t let them do anything too harsh to me. I mean, I did break his rules as well. My dad leaned in towards us and whispered, “One time, we got into a fight over a girlfriend of mine in the past, I cleaned their clocks. All at once too. The only way things could go bad is if John takes their side. And I have a secret weapon against that too.” Gregory cleared his throat, “Well then, with that matter apparently settled does anyone propose a punishment for the boys?”
Only Zachary raised his hand. "State your case," Olivia replied. Zachary began his short speech, "Well, I really don't think we should bother inflicting pain or discomfort. I say we just change their memories, seal up the cave, and send them on their way. It will be the least hassle. And besides, do we want the possible power struggle between the boys and Samuel? I say we just seal any memory of them knowing the main family can use Kyreth as well. They seem to be doing a decent job of helping people if what happened with Bethany is any indication. Though I would suggest their father help the boys use their gift in more subtle ways." I saw Gregory scowl and two of the women bobbed their heads in agreement. It was starting to look like things would be okay if Zachary was the only one to say anything.
	My brothers and I, were way too scared to say anything, and besides that they wouldn’t have listened to any defense we tried to put forth. So we sat silently while what our father had warned us of quickly seemed as if it was going to happen. Olivia spoke up again, "Do any wish to lend these boys support? State your case Timothy." My uncle Timothy, a medium sized man with rather nondescript features and an average build, began his case. "I say we ship the boys off to learn with John. Potential power struggle be damned. Look guys, Gregory only has one child while Olivia has two. Where are the contingencies? How long will it take for us to be too senile to remain on the council? Twenty, thirty years? We have to be wiped clean before we let the secret loose. As much as I love the townsfolk one internet or news video in the wrong place…and we have more publicity than we can handle. That will just leave the three of them, possibly with no children of their own yet. They could be driving together and WHAM! We have no more knowledge. What then?" I saw Olivia looking thoughtful, my father was smiling and a few others were looking potentially swayed.
	But that was not the end of the council. Olivia finally called upon the impartial, "John. If you would like to enlighten us as to what you have seen with the boys?" The man nodded, and stepped into the midst of their circle. "Before I give my opinion I want to give a quick lecture to William about how stupid it was to have your boys form a pact without going through an activation ceremony. But for the sake of that, I have to agree with Timothy’s proposal.
Especially since they are also my grandchildren. William, did you think that spell of yours would fool me? Their eyes and hair are not their natural color as well, though why they look like a normal denizen of Earth I don’t know. They are obviously children from Sadrin. And moreover, I recognized a very special component from my bloodline within them even though you tried to hide it with that little charm of yours. So tell me. Why are there children with my bloodline here? And why do you treat them as your own?" Nobody said anything. I looked around and saw Nicole and Samuel just staring at John with their mouths agape. Then it hit me.
	"Whoa! What are you talking about?" I blurted, “I am one hundred percent Earth born human! Nothing creepy about my brothers or me. Why would anybody think differently?" My dad turned to me, "Um, about that Peter..." I didn't know what to say. I mean out of the hundreds of things that went through my head at that time the only thing that I remember thinking, and I thought it OVER and OVER was WHAT THE HELL?!?! Michael did though, and so did Daniel. Michael began first, "Wait, so does this mean we are some super powered people who like, live forever? Sweet!" Daniel ignored Michael, "Dad, are we actually your kids? I mean, did you, you know...with mom."
	My dad scratched his chin, "Um, yeah. That's the thing. Your mom died just after Peter and Michael were born, just like you remember. But it wasn’t an accident. Certain, things happened at the time. I don’t want to read into it too much but just know that she died to save Peter and Michael.” He sighed, and took a deep breath, “It, it was painful. I couldn't bear the memory. So I erased everyone's memory of her. Including the people from her home world, Sadrin. Mine as well. Nobody knew I had ever married. I didn't actually know your kids’ mother wasn’t from Earth until tonight.”
My father turned to me with a curious look on his face. “You don’t understand what you did I bet, but during that fight when you took out the alpha male, you broke some old spells that were lingering around here. But that’s not important to you, Peter, or Michael. Daniel, I will tell you, that you never had your memories changed. So any memories of a childhood mother when you were three, are your actual mother Daniel." My mind had become a ball of yarn that a kitten had its' way with when I heard that I wasn't from Earth. When I heard my dad's story (I am really glad that he is actually my father) the tangled mess got lit on fire. While my sanity was slowly burning to bits, the meeting exploded.
	My dad had obviously undone his memory changes because suddenly the other members of the council, and John, were spouting his name. "William!" Gregory shouted, his voice filled with rage and spittle flying as he spoke "How dare you change my memories! I knew that hussy Tara was bad news for us. And now because you couldn't help but do what was forbidden, again, we have a problem. I could ignore the fact that you did all this with your boys, but two? That is too much, it shows you have no respect for this council and that is a problem.  Why did you do it? I know that memories are painful. But you sure as hell didn't erase the other memories from our childhood. How, tell me, how is it that killing your best friend after he betrays you is less painful than losing your wife?"
My father stared at the ground as the rest of the council turned accusing glares at him. "You have never lost your one and true love. I would not expect you to understand. I do not ask for your forgiveness either. I only ask for theirs" he motioned to my brothers and I, "And his." My father motioned to John.
	John nodded to my father, eyes glistening with tears. "I understand. Losing my Tara. She was my favorite you know. I knew I was giving my daughter to a good man when I let you two get together. I was so happy on your wedding day. And losing her. I made a fool of myself, begging you to change my memories. And helping you change the others. How were you to stand under that weight when the rest of us crumbled? No. You need not ask for my forgiveness. I should be asking for yours."
	I felt torn. My life, despite being real and whole, was not everything it seemed. I felt as if I wasn't who I thought I was. But at the same time, nothing had changed. As the identity crisis played out in my mind the others were deciding my fate. The council was silent. Gregory was still pissed. "THIS CHANGES NOTHING! William changed the memories of another without permission multiple times. And to make things worse, these people were council members!" John, still near tears, and standing next to me barely whispered, "Shut up Gregory."
But Gregory, lost in his rant, kept going. "I move that the council enact articles three through five. We will punish him with by removing his connection to Kyreth, and then his sight and speech will be stolen." By this time even the others were protesting, say things like: Isn’t that a little much? Or, come on, it’s not like they murdered somebody! John was a little louder this time, and more forceful, "Shut up Gregory." But Gregory still ignored John, "After that, his children will be subjected to the same punishment and they will be banished from the family after having their memories changed!" Just as he finished his sentence the lights went out.
A howling wind swept through the place and I felt frost starting to collect on my pants as the temperature dropped severely. A white-blue glow began to appear. Then, in the inky darkness, it outlined his figure first, then I could make out all of John's features, then the light from him lit up the others, then the room. His eyes were like flashlights, and his hair, standing on end, was like white fire. His breath instantly froze and fell to the ground as ice was slowly spreading along the floor from his feet. When he spoke, his voice was level, and deadly. "Gregory Krowley. Recall the fact that I just remembered my favorite child is dead. I am not exactly in a bargaining mood right now. IF you so much as vaguely mention harming my son or my grandchildren again, I will give you three fold what you propose. And you understand that is no idle threat."
	But Gregory would not back down. A dark brown light began emanated from him and his eyes changed to a deep earthen brown. "Do not try me old man." He began. "Olivia, Zachary, Timothy, back me up here." The others hesitated, but soon had different colored glows surrounding them too. But John wasn't scared, he looked to my father, "William, I know that you are the strongest of the council, and they want to hurt you. Do you want to do the honors? Or shall I put them back in their place?" My father waved John on. "Be my guest dad. I would be honored to see our former master at work." John tilted his head back and laughed. "It's been a while Gregory, but I guess I can teach you one more lesson before taking my leave of you."  From my left, Timothy loosed a ball of fire, it hurtled towards John but he just blew on it like a candle and it disappeared. Zachary had a bow of light but before he could begin to shoot arrows, but he was silenced with a mask of ice over his head.
	The Treach women had run out of the cave, leaving Olivia and Gregory. Olivia, who was limbed in a kind of shimmery effect rather than an aura of light, warily circled John, "You don't want to fight me John. I am the first Force wielder in a century. You had not seen the likes of me before." If John's smile could have gotten any wider it did. "You forget dear Olivia, you are the first Force wielder in a century. I have lived for forty." He snapped his fingers and Olivia suddenly became a statue of clear ice, with a hole over her mouth to breathe, surrounding a conscious, and very angry, but immobile, woman.  John wasted no time on Gregory, wrapping him up from head to toe in icy strands and walking over to stare him in the eye.
	"Gregory," John began, clucking his tongue in disappointment. “You may be the first born, but you forget that William was the most powerful of you all by a factor of two. Not to mention the fact that he trained day in and day out for six extra years on Sadrin. But despite your family being the most powerful collection of Kyren in the known multiverse, I could trounce him any day!” A brief smile flashed across his face,” Most of it is thanks to years of practice at using the art though, not particularly strength.” Then he got a glassy look in his eye and his train of thought jumped tracks and reversed direction. “But if there were stronger people what would they be like? How much stronger? Are there actually safe ways to artificially enhance power? Maybe…”
	My father coughed a bit, bringing my grandfather back to the present. “I think I will put Bethany on probation, she will accompany me back to Sadrin. I feel that I should watch her a little closer. As for the rest of you, I will erase your memories of this. I daresay the embarrassment may kill you otherwise.
	My grandchildren will probably be as strong the both of us combined when they have fully developed their skills, though I am guessing it will take about twenty years before even they can even use their raw power to match come close my experience. I am going to take them to Sadrin, their father will become the new head of the council. Because after all, I set the whole thing up. And I make the rules.
	However, I will show you some amount of mercy, if you absolutely must know what we are doing send the two that are cowering in the corner behind you. I'd rather have teenagers who know their place then a forty year old man who thinks he is ten times his age." And with that, John turned around, undid the ties on my brothers and me then helped us to our feet.
	He was smiling from ear to ear. "Well, I guess if one good thing came out of all this, it is that I get to enjoy some time with my grandchildren and I get to skip the bratty years. You three up for some ice cream?" He snapped his fingers and a glowing door frame appeared that faced a pink shop with bright neon lights labeled in a language that I could not read. "I know just the place." He finished. While my mind was still busy exploding he gently took the three of us by the shoulder and pushed us through the portal to a world that would become my home for the next few months.

Chapter 5

	The ice cream was delicious. In fact, better than anything I had ever had on Earth. It was smooth and packed full of flavor that almost made me want to cry with delight. Eating the ice cream gave me the time for my mind to reset. I could deal with most of the stuff. I mean, whether or not my mother was an alien from another world changed nothing. I didn't have a mother to begin with that I could recall. My father was my father, and in reality, the only thing that had changed was I had gained a grandpa with super powers that looked like a thirty year old man. But I still had plenty of questions in my mind. Before I could ask them though, Daniel and Michael beat me to the punch.
	Daniel was the first, "So, let me get this straight, you are our grandfather right? So, that means what? Do we have some sort of dual citizenship between dimensions or something? Because whatever this Sadrin place is it sure as heck isn't Earth. And, if alternate worlds really do exist why did the family have to hide all this?"
	John set down his gigantic platter of multihued ice cream (The man could really pack it down) and folded his hands in front of him. "Well," he began, "now that you ask I should probably bring that up. You see, we are in a sort of predicament. You three, have a very specific magical signature that denotes you as being part of my family. So we won't have to worry about anyone not trusting your origins. However, you should know something about Sadrin, it is in an alternate universe. And there are more.
	Anyway, you may want to go off and take a grand tour of all the catalogued worlds, but the problem is, except for a cluster of eight surrounding the Earth universe all of the hundreds surrounding us are unreachable, there is some sort of barrier surrounding them and we can't breach it with our current levels of spell craft and technology. There used to be a multi-dimensional Empire a few millennia back. They were technologically superior to any today, and were skilled in the arts of Kyreth, or as your father called it, magic. Unfortunately... certain, events happened and the empire collapsed leaving behind a collection of rugged and dangerous worlds, filled with bandits, and hazards caused by the extreme magical residue. So you wouldn't want to visit those even if you could. I hope that answers your first question.
	Now, as for why the family hid it all? Well, reasons of pure practicality and safety. Over time the head families have gotten a bit of an ego...but hopefully my appearance tonight has helped stop that. We asked they didn't share it as much as possible because of the risk of a whole lot of mouths suddenly talking and exposing Earth to our multi-dimensional culture before it was ready. Without the ability to use Kyreth Earth needs to develop the ability to hop across dimensions with science. And that is still a far way away. Now, as for the reasoning behind picking your families. When I set up the whole thing, your family had already been living on Earth for a while. They had developed their own culture and were well on the way to becoming what they are today. But I needed their help. Your family is extremely powerful. And you help us out here on Sadrin. Your families act as a sort of S.W.A.T. team that spends time here on tours. But we will get to that in time."
	Daniel fell into thought, but as opposed to his serious question, Michael jumped in acting like an eight year old, "Hey, do we get a power up too? That was so cool how you beat the others in that cave. It was like: OH SNAP! YOU DID NOT JUST MESS WITH ME!" John raised his eyebrows then sighed while a slight smile flickered on the left side of his face. "Well, I guess I should be glad that one of you three inherited my youthful exuberance. In case you don't know what I just said I mean he's energetic. But in answer to your question, yes. You will not get 'superpowers' or anything of the sort. Those are from a different sort of source.” My mind flashed back to the cave when Michael had pressed the crystal, John had been listening then? “However, you will learn to use Kyreth better." Michael tilted his head a bit to the left and had a "What?" expression on his face.
	 John explained, “Now, before I delve into the mechanics here, allow me to explain some things about the world as it is. First: It is complicated. There are many universes, in fact Earth has an infinite number of parallel universes. But these are all based off of the same template and they haven't drifted incredibly far apart in terms of being closer to the next collection of universes. So in essence Earth is one bubble of similar universes.  These collections of parallel timelines are called multiverses. Think of them as a many layered cake. Now, each layer on that cake can only connect with a layer of the same height on a different cake. And that is how the travel between universes is able to be managed. If we could skip timelines....ugh, I don't want to imagine. Anyways, the multiverses all float around in an even larger bubble we call the omniverse.
	Now, for the universes that are populated by humans that call their home planet Earth there is a secret, a secret you already know. You can use a form of magical energy called Kyreth. Your father seems to have taught you about it mostly, but in case there are any gaps I’ll just give a brief explanation any ways. Only problem is, there is a deficiency of Kyreth on Earth(s). However, that never stopped the closest universe bubbles which I will call multiverses for simplification. Any ways, out of the different multiverses only about one hundredth of a percent of these reject the mystical energy known as Kyreth. Kyreth is the link that binds all universes together in a compatible manner, there are other magic types and worlds that provide superpowers, but the only bits we know that are really useful come from scraps of ancient writings and movies from an old inter-universe Empire. It had barely reached the level of space travel though, so it was still sort of one dimensional in terms of its potential. The largest expansion that we have record of is a station orbiting a star about as far out as Neptune is for Earth.
	The problem that you three had just encountered was that you found yourselves touching an area of the Earth multiverse that had been stretched out and pinned to the closest multiverse to Earth, here Sadrin. Now, all that stretching wears down the boundaries between these worlds and while Earth did not have Kyreth the others did. And so it happened that Kyreth is able to be used with greater efficiency within around one hundred fifty miles of that stone.
	From what I gather, the only reason your family and I could use it back on Earth was because we were near that stable portal where Kyreth leaked through into your world. That was combined with your family’s initial other worldly origins, you should have had dreams about your ancestor."
	Michael shot up with a grin, "Awesome!" By this time, the whole world was starting to level out and the shock of it all was fading from my mind. After I had thought for an hour I came to terms that this was not some strange dream and that it was indeed reality. So, gathering my wits, I asked my new grandfather a question. "Will we be going to school for this stuff? I mean, I don't feel very...magical right now. And I can’t even read the sign for what flavor ice cream I want. You had to do all the ordering." John, who I will now call my Grandfather or the Old Man nodded towards me, "Thank you for asking that question Peter. I was just about to answer it actually. I estimate that you will need about six months to acclimate your bodies to your new strength from making a premature pact. Once that is achieved I can take you to the area where, after a ceremony your bodies will begin to generate larger amounts of Kyreth. It won’t be instantaneous, but after about ten years, you should be far more powerful than you are right now. Then I will personally train you for a few years, just like your cousin Samuel and your father. Until then, I guess I should put a charm on you so you can read, write, and speak almost any language you come across. Hold still."
	I sat perfectly still while three fingers on his left hand began to glow, then the thumb and index finger on his right hand. As they drew near I noticed it wasn't the finger that was glowing but a small runic symbol that was on the finger. He placed his fingers over my mouth, ears, and eyes. Suddenly there was a white light in my mind and I felt a cool sensation fall over me. I looked around the store and found that I could actually read the signs that I couldn't before. "Wow" I said, quite amazed, "That is freaking cool." Grandpa John nodded, "Yes Peter, it is cool. It was even more useful back when the Empire was founded. In fact, I believe that the spell still has archives of the languages of those lost worlds. Though, I have never been able to test that theory myself."
	The Old Man then repeated the process with my brothers and when he was finished he began to ask us questions. About nonsensical and trivial things, our favorite colors, our favorite foods, etc. But it was nice. We had a great night with him after that. He took us to a magical/sports game that was known as Lockdown. The game was divided into thirty rounds. It is played in an arena that is approximately one hundred cubic meters, lain out as a giant maze. The objective is to fight your way past other teams by “locking” which is really just dealing damage to their uniforms which stiffen, locking them in place, to the center of the arena and then activate a beacon that shuts down all of the opponent’s suits. The team with the most “locks” wins the match. Then he took us to his home, a rather large mansion on a hill overlooking the city we had been in.
	Now, allow me to explain a few details I skipped out on in the summary of the evening. Details that no doubt helped my transition to the new surroundings. First, Sadrin is so much like Earth in style and culture I didn't really see the difference between the two worlds at night. Second, the people are a strange bunch, with traits like purple hair or eyes, all brought on by mutations from Kyreth. Third, the level of technology was similar and everyday use of Kyreth was fairly low so that was helpful as well.
	Now, when we entered John's home, I was surprised to see three people waiting for us. Samuel, Bethany, and Nicole. Scowling and surrounded by luggage. I was surprised to see that their features were changed now that they were on Sadrin. Samuel now had a rusty orange hair streaked with a steel gray and similar eyes. His skin was also tinged a bit grey, but only slightly. Bethany had hair with a blue tint to it. Her eyes had become deep sapphires and the color of her skin reminded me of ocean foam, a creamy white. Nicole on the other hand, was still a brunette, but her hair slightly shimmered and moved as if a breeze were flowing through it. Her eyes were a marble streaked with blue and purple.  I had to comment on it, "Well, you guys look different. Is it the altitude?" Samuel just glared at me as Nicole answered, "Ha, ha. Very funny, why haven't you changed? All Kyren develop traits associated with their elements. Why don't you three have any special traits? You look like normal humans to me." That caught me by surprise, "Wait, can you rewind that? I thought you said normal humans. Are there people who can't use Kyreth here?"
	Samuel rolled his eyes, "Duh. Can everyone swim? No. Only about ten percent of the population can use Kyreth. And most of them are only strong enough to light a candle every other day. ANYWAYS, I guess I should be slightly courteous, for our Elder’s sake, and explain why we are here. We are here to watch how you three progress in your studies, both mundane and magical. We will help instruct you while John is working at his job. But I have to say, I doubt you guys could even learn basic martial arts. Never mind Kyreth. But if John says so... I guess we can trust him."
	At this point John was moving out of the room with a sly look on his face, but I was not paying attention. I was getting a little mad at Samuel and Nicole for their classic V.I.P. act. And apparently, so was Daniel. "Yeah," he began, his voice absolutely drenched in sarcasm, "You have a real way in showing courtesy. Maybe you should find a job in the hospitality business."  This time, Nicole jumped in.
	"Ok, here's a challenge then. Show us you have what it takes and we will show you respect. In fact, when your training is done we will do whatever you ask if you can beat us. But, do know one thing, I am resting easy because I know that you three together could only beat me on a day when hell is frozen over." As if waiting for a cue, John walked back into the room with a huge smile on his face. "Well, that sounds like a bet. However Samuel, I think you will be surprised by the amount that their father taught them." Samuel shook his head, a wry smile on his face, "And I suppose that this will be enforced by blood contract. I will agree if I can get a term of my own, if they lose they can’t be taught anything else and they won’t be able to join the counsel." Michael, always the rash one, spoke for the three of us, "Done. But trust me on this Samuel, I don’t care about your ambitions for the counsel, and I don't care if your hair looks funny now, or if you have some sort of crazy training. Give us one month after we get our full power and I bet that we can beat you two."
	Bethany, who had been sheepishly standing in the corner, she had calmed down a lot since the fight. Suddenly perked up, “Wait, what about me? I’m still here! Am I not included in this?” Daniel, Michael, Samuel, and Nicole all simultaneously looked at her a shrugged her off. “You can be Peter’s opponent if you want.” She looked like a scared rabbit caught in a trap when they said that. She even let out a small “Eep!” She turned tail and tried to run out of the room, but my grandfather was faster.
	John violently slapped his right hand on the ground and a glowing red pattern emerged in the room under our feet. It was large and complex with symbols ranging from the size of a square millimeter to one large overlapping circle twenty feet across. As soon as the symbol appeared, I felt a constricting within my chest. A dull pain began in my right hand, then it suddenly shifted over to my left. It grew until it was a white hot line. I looked at my hand and watched as the skin split apart and a single drop of blood ran down my palm and dripped onto the floor.
	As the blood hit the floor a red mist began to spread. The same thing was happening with the other four. The mist filled my mouth and I breathed in the fumes. The mist pulled into my lungs and as it did so the runes on the ground dissolved. The process took about ten seconds and when it was done, my body ached, more profoundly than it already did. A series of runic marks pulsated on my body once, then disappeared. “It’s done." John said. "Even if you do not want to follow the contract you will be forced to do so anyway. So I suggest you five get your hostility out now. Bethany, just…cohabitate okay? As for the rest of you, you will either be permanently separated by a boundary, or be stuck together for a very long time." And with that he sharply turned around and left the room. A few seconds later he poked his head back around a corner, "I hate to ruin my dramatic exit, but Samuel, would you mind showing the three of them around? I never exactly got the chance." Samuel rolled his eyes and smiled as if this was common around John. "Sure thing, alright you three. We can always compete later, but just in case, I guess I should practice getting along with you. Follow me."
	I woke up the next morning in a large and fluffy bed. Surrounded by sunlight and with the smell of something delicious reaching my nostrils. I got up and looked around, the room I had been given was large but sparsely decorated. It had a really nice bed, a plain desk, a chair, and a dresser. But that was it. On the desk was a set of clothing that I grabbed and walked out of my room with. I found a bathroom with a shower and cleaned myself. Then, I put on the clothes. It was a green long sleeve shirt, brown pants, a new pair of sneakers, socks and underwear. I looked at my hand for the first time that day and grimaced. Where I had cut myself there was a single black diamond pattern with a hollow circle inside something about it called to me, my mind recognized the symbol as a beacon of power. I remembered how the symbols above the pillars changed from high Imperial to Polick just before I made my choice. I now knew, it was the Polick symbol for void, or at least one of them.  The veins in my arms around the central pattern were starting to turn black too.
	I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle the power, but if John hadn't said anything it was probably nothing to worry about. He could tell things about people, and he probably knew I had chosen void for my element. Although he may not recognize the element. I would guess that most of my family never made it to the final option, and that most people on Sadrin couldn’t even guess about the element as a choice to bond to. I left the bathroom and walked down the central staircase towards the smell. It led me to the kitchen, a rather large place with all the amenities that a chef could want. I found my brothers, both wearing fashionable outfits of purple and a light grey tone. The other three were wearing outfits that matched their new hair and eye colors.
	I looked to John, who was cooking something that looked like eggs, with an apron that said, "Don't piss off the cook!" I shook my head and moved over to sit on one of the barstools that lined the counter framing the interior cooking area. I realized that I was hungry as John put a plate of the stuff in front of me. I grabbed a forkful and...Almost spat it out in surprise. It was eggs alright, the texture and color were right. But the flavor was a strange beast that was something akin to a blend of mustard and carrots.
	"What the heck is this?" I asked John, while scraping off whatever remnants of the food were on my tongue. John smiled, "I get the exact same reaction from every single person out of Earth. It's like you people expect things you've never eaten won't taste strange. But to answer your question, those are the eggs of the buoqewr. A large lizard that has been domesticated on Sadrin. It is commonly used for its hide, eggs, transportation abilities, fangs, claws, and venom. Altogether, it is a pretty useful animal to have around. I have ten in the pens underneath my house. As well as a few hundred other assorted animals."
	I just sat back on my stool and reevaluated my grandfather. How rich does a guy have to be to live in a mansion and talk about keeping hundreds of animals in a farm underground with ease? I didn't really care about the exact answer, I just enjoyed the fact that I was going to benefit from it.
	But just after a tiny musing a thought popped into my head. "Hey, what are we going to be doing during the six months that we wait in order for us to use Kyreth?" John looked at me with a blank expression, "Uh, well, poor phrasing first off. I mean, it’s not like you can’t use it now. You already do. But for what you’ll do… school I guess?" Michael groaned and I hung my head. So much for a crazy adventure of awesome. But I guess this place isn't all that different from Earth after all... "Of course," John said, "Daniel, Samuel, and Nicole are all old enough that they don't need to go to school. So they will be working with me in the ACD."
	"Wait," I asked, "What's the ACD?"
	"Well, that will take some explaining. So let me start from scratch. You use Kyreth. And you power your spells using the surplus energy you give off, your auras. On Sadrin, people who are able to use Kyreth can go through a process where they pump themselves so full of Kyreth they essentially pop and they start to produce extra-large auras. This is called overcharging. The ceremony generally takes place within a few years of hitting puberty. As for the general knowledge of Kyreth I’m sure your father has explained but I will do so as well for comprehension purposes. Nobody knows what it really is or why and how we use it, and the closest we have gotten to define the force with science is a series of guidelines that Kyreth follows MOST of the time. Unless the user is extremely skilled there is generally a five percent chance of an anomaly occurring in a spell without a failsafe, or the more common multiple failsafe systems. Anyways, that five percent chance of a change occurring is pretty risky. Normally it is just something such as a spell failing or a fireball becoming a pebble. But when cocky or particularly foolhardy Kyren (Kyren is the name for a user of Kyreth) doesn't put a failsafe on his spell he is asking for trouble. And that trouble can be anything from the spell failure to turning him into some hideous monster that devours the souls of the living.
	So there is the Anomaly Containment Division their job is to hunt down and fix whatever happens when Kyreth turns bad. It ranges from sealing off an area to let the energy dissipate to killing monsters and turning entire cities of rabbits back into human beings. We also act as a police force at times. We try to minimize risks by providing ready-made spell runes and the like for Kyren so they don't forget to put a failsafe. We also prevent risky or unethical use of Kyreth."
	"Oh," I commented, as the light bulb went off in my head. "You guys are like the Red Cross and Magic Police rolled into one then." John sat back for a moment. Pondered that comparison, then agreed. "I just want you and Michael to know. I am still sending you guys to school, but that's only because the ACD won't train anyone below the age of eighteen. If anything comes up, or if I feel that you need to go do something dangerous, I will make sure both of you get at least some real training before you go. “He shot a sly look at Samuel and Nicole, and grinned. Samuel glowered, obviously having hoped he would be able to give us subpar training so that he could win the bet easier.
	That made me feel much better about all this. I was slightly afraid of being left behind in this strange new world that I found myself in, but now I was confident that John had our best interests at heart. "Thanks! So about this school thing...."