A New Dawn Ch.1

Chapter 1

Raijin

         My brother and I are twins and I believe my name should have been his. We were found by Hálogi, also known as The High Flame. He told us we were abandoned by our parents because they couldn’t afford to raise us. Growing up we found out we had abilities. I share the name of Raijin, the Japanese deity of thunder and lightning, but it is my brother Darius who can manipulate lightning and I am a rare kind of witch. I am not totally sure if Raijin is even alive or any other deity in that matter. I’ve only seen four of them and they live here in Zora, the realm of deities.
         Ever since The High Flame found us, we became servants. My brother would say that we are treated better than servants at least we get an education. I do appreciate that but we have to start our morning serving breakfast, then clean certain parts of the castle, then go to classes, then serve dinner, and then bed, but before lights out we have to find time to study whenever we can or we do not get to study at all that day. I feel so cheated. The children of these deities are treated as royalty, as for us we are treated like slaves. I want to know why Darius and I were abandoned and who our parents really are. I just get so angry thinking about it.
         AHH! I can’t keep getting distracted like this! I shook the cobwebs out of my head and slammed my hands on the oak desk. This ritual spell needs all of my concentration. In order to win my match in class today I need to be prepared. The first thing I need to do is make two duplicates of this gold ring, that I swiped from Samuel, the most privileged of the children here, and placed the ring in the center of the table.
         “Multa Effingo!” I said with authority.
         There was a small flash of stunning white light where the ring was placed on the table. After the light faded there were a total of three gold rings laying in front of me. A quick peek around to see if I was still alone. Nothing outside the windows other than sequoias and pine trees, the leaves casting shadows on the study’s carpet. Nobody in the doorway, and the keeper of the books was still on lunch. With a long exhale, I was still alone.
         I picked up the two duplicate rings. Now I need to return this ring without Samuel noticing.
         “Revertere!” and the ring vanished.
         I stood up and grabbed the burlap sack, with my ritual preparations, from the holder on my left hip. I took out some chalk and started to draw the ritual’s inner circle. There is a lot of mathematics that goes into a ritual circle, trigonometry, geometry, and discrete mathematics. I finished the ritual circle with a lemniscate in the center of the inner circle. Placing the gold ring in center circle, I hovered my hand over it my palm facing the ring and began the ritual.
          Heat began radiating from my hand as I poured my magic power into the spell. The ritual circle began glowing a dull golden brown, but the ring shined a brilliant gold. The colors dimmed and I cut the flow of power to the ritual then placed the ring in my second burlap sack.
         I placed the other ring into the circle and started again. I have to say, everyone was surprised about what I am able to do as a witch. There are multiple kinds of witches, elementals, ritualists, spellbinders, potion brewers, and spell slingers. I can do all of those. I guess you can say I am a “First Witch”. The first witch that can do all sorts of witchcraft. HAHAHA! Oh yeah, I also have a healing factor, most witches can heal others, but they cannot heal themselves, I on the other hand can heal others and myself.
         Dammit! I’m not concentrating. The mahogany bookcases in the study started shaking and the books fell off the shelf. Feeling drained due to my power leaking out and not flowing into the proper channel to the ring.
         “This is bad.” I said.
         Getting lost in my thoughts while doing a ritual is the worst thing I can do. Too much of my power is outside the channel causing a magic overflow. Books crashing in the background and the glass from the windows beside me vibrated vigorously. If I don’t get the flow of my magic under control, the windows will shatter. If I cut off the flow of magic prematurely the magical power will combust. The door behind me swung open, making a loud banging noise as I hit the wall.
         “Raijin! What are you doing?” the voice yelled from the opening.
         I turned to see Darius, my brother. His amber eyes wide with shock. He came running past the keeper’s desk towards me. My concentration broke and all of my magic flowing into the ritual ceased.
         Oof! I fell to the ground, my brother over top of me as if he was shielding me from something. What in the world would he be shielding me from? Just then an explosion wafted over us. My ritual exploded! Ugh! The fire burning the oak desk as we sat there and watched.
          “What the in... God’s name are you doing?” Darius asked. I wasn’t sure due do the ringing in my ears, but the way his mouth moved I want to believe that is what he said.
          “I was getting ready for the fight in class today. Just a ritual to help me out. Nothing too overzealous.” I said smiling.
         “Class that’s right!” he said. “We are going to be late for class if we don’t hurry up.”
          I grabbed my burlap sack and placed it into the holder around my right hip and ran to the door and turned my head back to the desk I was working at. The desk was turned to ash. Great I am probably going to have to make another desk to replace that one. On the bright side I didn’t have to erase the circle.
         Running down the hall of the castle I caught up with Darius.
         “Thanks back there.” I said. “I got distracted and it got out of control.”
         Darius snickered and rolled his eyes, “What would you do without me?”
         I didn't say anything, just smiled and kept on running.
         We ran through the main gates towards the training grounds. The bright light from the sun shined over us and the late summer air filled our lungs as we ran through the forest. I love the outdoors, the sun, the sky, the trees, and the different types of animals. All of which are fascinating.
         We made it to the field as we slowed our pace to a fast walk. A wooden gate blocked the entrance to the training grounds. We walked up to it when a hand grabbed my shoulder.
         “Running late, are we?” Samuel said with a crooked grin. He had a light accent where his t’s sounded like d’s.
         “Just preparing that’s all.” I said.
         “What do you need to prepare for? You never win.” He said with a laugh.
         “We will see today. It is a new year and a new training season. So that means a new me.” I grinned.
         Samuel laughed as he opened the gate to the training grounds. My brother and I were not far behind him. We gathered in a half circle around Metatron, our training instructor.
         “The six of you have returned to my training sessions this year. From your performance last year, I am surprised that some of you have returned.” Metatron said running his fingers through is dark haired beard. Well it wasn’t all dark, his beard was dark but with a mix of grey hair too. He has to be at least a half a millennium by now.
         I rolled my eyes. I know that remark was shot towards Darious and I. We went the whole year without a win. This year though we prepared and trained our minds as well as our bodies. We will win, at least today we will.
         “Alright ladies and gentlemen let us start.” He said. “Samuel, choose your opponent.
         Samuel brushed the hair from his forehead and his dark blue eyes met mine and said, “I choose you, Raijin.”;
          Wow, what a shock. It’s always me, I’m the easy win for him but today I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I won’t go down so easily. An Archangel versus a Witch. His cocky attitude annoys the hell out of me. I don’t care if he is the Prince of the Archangels and the son of Nāmaka, the Polynesian deity of the sea. I am going to humiliate this cocky bastard.
         “Just so you know this is not going to be an easy win for you.” I said, walking towards the center of the field.
         “Raijin, since you have been challenged, you get to decide the kind of fight you want. Choose from the three, ranged combat, weapons combat, or simple hand to hand combat.” Metatron said.
         “Weapons.” I said with no hesitation. “Weapons of choice, swords.”
         “Ah, a classic duel.” Metatron was intrigued by the choice I’ve made, or he could have said that with sarcasm, it’s hard to tell with his monotone voice.
         Samuel and I were handed bamboo training swords. We faced each other, holding the hilts of our swords at chest level.
         “Are you ready for an embarrassing defeat?” Samuel asked.
         “You wish.”