Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

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The Mages of Marlifa were beginning to gather back at their meeting spot. Their dark robes swished noisily upon the dusty ground, creating a scratching melody. Now that they had finished collecting their supplies from the town, they would soon travel back to their Lyceum.

This was a common sight in the town of Welldrop, since the Marlifa Mage's Lyceum was only half a day away on foot. No one actually paid much attention to the mages, Marlifa Mages rarely took any requests from the public. Their personalities tended to be as cold as the colors they wore, always contrasting heavily with the town's brighter and warmer color scheme.

This particular time, there was an imposter in the ranks. A teenage boy named Jaux Ballad had managed to sneak into the group of mages. He was wearing a hooded robe that was stolen from a young mage that he stunned with a nice and heavy stick.

It had taken many months to pull off. Jaux had to observe every coming group of mages, waiting until he spotted someone with a similar face. Tan faces were quite rare among the Marlifa Mages, they did tend to stay shut in their shadowy institution all the time. Even then, he still had to wait even longer until that specific mage showed up wearing clothes that obscured most of the body. Now that golden opportunity had finally been presented, and Jaux took it gladly.

Jaux had always wanted to become a mage, but never had the money to invest in magic books and lessons. Instead, he did his best to observe and duplicate the feats of magicians. Unfortunately the only magic he ever successfully performed was conjuring a puff of smoke between his palms.

All that observation did give Jaux a theory. He had seen many mages cast magic with their bare hands, but the spells were never big or dramatic. The best magic always came from a mage who was holding some type of special object. These objects were usually decorated sticks called wands or staffs. Jaux was sure that the wands and staffs made a magician more powerful, so he was sure he could cast more spells with the help from one of those objects.

All Jaux had to do now was ride with the mages to the Lyceum, take one of those magical objects for himself, and then sneak away. The mages had a few magical moving wagons that acted as transportation, which shortened the journey to only an hour. Luckily, no one questioned Jaux when he got in one of the wagons, so he was most likely posing as someone who was either unsociable or fairly unpopular.

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Jaux had been to the Lyceum a couple times before, but never got anywhere close to the inside. The dark gray stone walls of the Lyceum towered over the land like a mountain, casting a great shadow unto the world. The windows were warded with spells that preventing spying, but had the side effect of making the inside of the structure look darker than the depths of a cave. The entrance to the Lyceum was large, and could probably have the wagons fit through with ease. There was also no door, just a single panel of solid iron that had small runes carved into every inch of space.

The two guards at the entrance greeted the group of returning mages with a simple nod without moving a single step away from their positions. The leading mage then pressed a glowing green gem against the sealed entrance, causing the ground to rumble just a bit. Slowly, the iron panel began to descend into the ground, revealing the glow of the light from inside. This was the closest Jaux had ever gotten to the inside of the Lyceum, and he was doing his best to remain calm.

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That gate had taken forever to lower all the way into the ground. Jaux had almost broken down from the nervous anticipation.

He did it, in the end. He was inside the Lyceum, which was warmly lit by what appeared to be crystalized fire hanging on the walls. The first hall was massive, stretching all the way to the roof. Every floor of the Lyceum seemed to have a dedicated spiral staircase here in the entrance hall, and the opened up design of this single hall gave Jaux a peak at every floor. Each floor of the Lyceum was about twice the average height of a Welldrop house, but there was still enough space inside to have six whole floors.

Jaux could literally get lost in here... Forever.

The mages Jaux had traveled with had already dispersed into the building, he was the only one still standing by the entrance.

Better get moving.

Jaux didn't see the need to try one of the stairs yet, he would just begin with the first floor. Five different halls could be accessed on this floor, and Jaux picked the biggest one first, the center hall. It seemed that this was the most decorated section of the Lyceum, probably made for visitors. The fire crystals here shifted colors gradually over time, going between red and yellow and giving a feeling of motion to the motionless walls. It was an optimistic starting point for Jaux's great search!

Well, it was supposed to be a great and long search anyway...

There was a wand 'shop' just four doors down into the hall. It even had a fancy picture of a sparkling wand on the sign that hung out over the door. The shops were all down here where visitors and new mages were probably going to first visit.

So what, there won't be much adventure or exploration. At least he was here at his goal!

"Looking for a new stave, young one?" said the weary voice of the shopkeeper.

"Uh, yes. Lost mine." Jaux replied, trying to hide his complete cluelessness.

"You need one to store or cast?"

"Oh! Um, I would say..." for just a moment Jaux hesitated in thought, he wanted to cast spells, that was what that meant right? "Cast, please."

"Alright then, right over here," the shopkeeper directed, leading Jaux to the rightmost side of the wall, "any particular spells or attributes?"

"No, anything would be fine really."

The shopkeeper paused and raised an eyebrow at that. Had Jaux made a mistake? If that was the wrong answer to give, Jaux was ready to dash away. He locked eyes with the shopkeeper, but his leg was pointed at the door and prepared to sprint.

"Well you're a rare one. No favorites or specialties?" The shopkeeper finally asked.

"Uh, no sir."

"Oh, well then, I've got a rare little gift no one has taken notice. Give it a try!" The shopkeeper took a pitch black wand off from the wall, and handed it to Jaux.

Jaux gripped it cautiously. The handling end was perfectly smooth, but the other end was jagged, ending on a needle-like point. It felt a little cold, like it was made from ice. His hand didn't seem to be warming it up the slightest bit. It was a strange feeling. It was clearly some kind of black wood, but it did not feel the way it should.

"Never seen one before huh? That there is a demon root, very rare." The shopkeeper explained, a little grin pasted on his face. Jaux widened his eyes in surprise when the shopkeeper mentioned demon, was this an unholy object?

"Oh don't be frightened," the shopkeeper chuckled, "the wand itself isn't cursed or anything. If curse magic is of any interest to you though, that wand is perfect."

Curse magic? Well that just sounded completely bad. Yet, strangely enough Jaux felt intrigued enough to want to keep the wand. "How much for it?"

"Aren't you going to try it out first?"

"No, well. Don't know any curses, to be honest."

The shopkeeper laughed, with more volume than one would expect from his thin frame. "Oh you are quite a character, young one. Buying a wand you don't have any way to use? Why don't you head down to the library then, get yourself a spell book with a curse or two. I'll remember your face, so just come back when you're finished!"

What a trusting old man. Jaux smiled and said his thanks, before he headed back into the hall.

If spell books or magic lessons were anything to go by, this wand wasn't going to be cheap. Jaux definitely would not be able to afford it anyway, but he managed to get away with it through sheer dumb luck. Now he was playing around with the curious little object, tapping it on his palm and waving it around.

How did you cast spells with this thing? Since the only magic Jaux knew was to summon a bit of smoke using both his palms, he was a bit stuck. On a whim, he decided to funnel a small amount of his raw magic into the wand, seeing if the wand cast anything automatically.

Suddenly, from the tip of the demon root a black mist was fired off. It flew through the air and splashed into one of the fire crystals. For a moment nothing else happened, but then the crystal cracked and exploded, sending flaming shards flying through the air.

In blind panic Jaux ran off, fleeing into one of the nearby hallways and as far away from the broken crystal as he could. Getting caught now would be a disaster, he was surrounded and trapped within the Lyceum. At the edge of his vision he saw an open door to a dark room, and immediately turned to hide in there.

As he shut the door Jaux found himself in pitch black darkness. He could not see anything, but was sure he was alone and well hidden. After catching his breath, he found himself with a bit of a smile. He had managed to do something with the wand! That wasn't conjuring smoke, it was a new spell! Wands really did make magicians more powerful, from the looks of it.

After all the excitement, Jaux had just started to notice that the demon root was feeling... odd. It felt warm to the touch, instead of the cold feeling from before. It also seemed to be pulling Jaux into the darkness, like it was leading him somewhere.

Still pumped from the accident and the discovery of new magic, Jaux decided to follow the wand's pull. He walked deeper and deeper into the pitch black room, bumping into a few things along the way. Everything he bumped into was rigid, like it was bolted to the floor. Nothing fell over, and Jaux only had to walk around the objects to continue following the pull of the wand.

Then there was a tap as the wand collided with something, and the pulling stopped. Jaux felt what was in front of him with his free hand, and immediately recognized the feeling of glass.

Without warning, the demon root became hot to the touch, forcing Jaux to let go of it. He did not hear the sound of the wand hitting the floor, so it seemed it did not fall.

Then Jaux could see again, for the demon root had begun to glow purple. It illuminated a black statue that was behind the glass, which depicted a young girl with smooth purple gemstones for eyes. The gemstones began to glow as well when the wand's light touched them, a brighter purple glow that began to fill the entire room.

This room was filled with glass displays, and every item in each display had some sort of purple gemstone. Every gem in the entire room was glowing by now, almost blinding Jaux with all the light.

Then, when the room was as bright as could be, Jaux felt his body lock up, paralyzed.

In the very next moment, he felt his whole body burn.