《Magus (dropped)》 Chapter - 1 Lightning crackled from between the mage''s fingers. And his eyes blazed with an electric blue fire, burning with the power of the elemental chaos. His dark brown hair and ice blue mage robes flew wildly behind him, freed from the shackles of gravity by the unadulterated and awe-inspiring power the mage was emitting. He roared his defiance to the Namir hordes. Hellbeasts called forth by the southern dread king. Stones began to rise against the natural order of the world around him and the air began to burn with elemental and arcane fury as he drew in all surrounding mana. Runes flew past him in the wind, detailing forbidden arcane arts of untold power. As the fiends came upon him and began to tear into his flesh Cozis unleashed his collected mana, and the world itself knew fear. For he was Cozis the Blue, lord of both the arcane and elemental planes, subjugator of the Namir and hero of the northern republic. Yes, he thought. I can already hear it. They chanted for him, screaming out his name as they forgot all else in the world, he was their only constant. For what else matters when a being of such power stands before you? "Cozis!" They chanted over and over again. "Cozis!" "Cozis!" "Cozis! Wake up Cozis you''re going to be late!" Shrieked a small girl as she shook him from his bed. "Ugh! Mirana why? I was having a good dream." Yawned out the boy by the name of Cozis, as he pulled his felted blanket over his head, hunting for a reprieve from his sister''s tickling assault. "Big brother Cozis is going to be late for Mage school!" She whined again. Cozis froze, wait what day was it! No, no, no it can''t be! He immediately extricated himself from the straw-filled mattress he had slept in for the past 16 years and furiously began to get dressed. How did I miss my alarm on the single most important day of my life?! He chided himself. Today is the day, today is the day I finally leave this dump. Cozis had lived in the farming village of Orena his entire life with both his mother and sister. Orena was a village famed for its highly fertile lands, a rarity this far north, and its bountiful bronze mines. Used to create the hallowed enchanted rails. The most revolutionary invention of the millennia. Cozis crawled slowly out of bed and placed his feet on the wooden floor of his second story room. Wincing as he felt the chill of a northern winter. He tentatively crept to the wardrobe and slipped on a pair of thick woolen socks. Ahhhhhh, sweet relief. He then threw on his best coat and slacks before thundering into the bathroom, fighting with his unruly mop of curly dark hair. Cozis was handsome in a fashion, with the dark hair most common of the eastern lands from which his mother traced descendence. This coupled with the fair skin, bright blue eyes and strong, manly features stereotypically owned by the northern peoples he cut a rather imposing figure. A dark giant. He reached for a razor before yelling downstairs. "Beard or no beard?!" He called out awaiting a response. An older, more refined feminine voice responded to his plea, from below she spoke. "Beard but trim it, otherwise you look like a savage." She said mockingly. Cozis chuckled as he trimmed the full dark beard he had accumulated in the year after finishing basic schooling. In the northern republic, children were required to perform 10 years of mandatory schooling from the years of 5 to 15, from that point onward they were free to pursue higher education or join the workforce. Most chose the latter. Cozis on the other hand, after you stripped away all of the dreams of grandeur was, in fact, a mage. And it had been his dream to attend the Fyr-Whir Magus Academy since he was a boy. Sadly he would not get this honor. The mage academy was reserved for only noble-born children, and as the son of a deceased cavalry officer, Cozis could only dream of attending. (AN: Don''t worry son, I could feel as the entire audience ripped out their hair in the face of another cliche magic academy story. So don''t worry, I got you fam.) he didn''t let this deter him though, his one goal in life was to do magic. It was his passion and his art. He would let nothing deter him from its practice. He had enlisted in the Northern Republic Magus Core, or the N.R.M.C for short. They were the army''s mage division and was the only way for a civilian born mage to practice magic legally. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Cozis smelt himself before recoiling in horror from the pungent odor permeating his nostrils. When was the last time I bathed! He must have once again gotten carried away reading his father''s old military manuals, a pass time he had developed after leaving school. He stripped before jumping in the shower. Pipes enchanted with elemental runes of water, and fire. Allowing for the direct application of hot water for bathing. They were truly a marvel in Cozis''s eyes. The newly washed and clothed Cozis walked down the creaky wooden stairs and into the living/dining room of his home. His house was made of wood, like most of the village and the only luxuries it held were old. Bought before the death of Covis''s father. He walked into the kitchen and watched as his mother worked diligently over a magi-tech stove, cooking breakfast. He lifted the trunk filled with his meager belongings over his shoulder and made quietly for the door. He didn''t really have the heart to face her today. He had nearly made it. Turning the door handle as quietly as he possibly could before it let out a loud and long squeaking noise that made him cringe internally. "What do you think you''re doing Covis?" His mother asked reproachfully with her hands firmly planted on he hips and a fake expression of outrage written all over her face. "I sure hope you''re not trying to sneak out. Because no son of mine is leaving off to mage school on an empty stomach." She came up and wrapped him in a large bear hug as she choked out the words ''leaving'' and ''mage school.'' There it was, the reason Covis was reluctant to see her this morning. Truth be told he wanted to hug her and never let go. She had raised him alone from nothing, she was both his mother and father, she was his everything. And he had lied to her. It would ruin her to know her son was following in her father''s footsteps. ''Going off to become cannon fodder for some high society noble twat." She would always say. So Covis had to lie to her. He had told her that a new magic school had opened up in the capital, one where they train young civilian mages to become magi-tech engineers and healers. It killed him to tell falsehoods to her, but he would not give up on his dream, and this was the only way to achieve it. So he endured her prideful glances and tears of joy as a larger and larger amount of guilt built up in his stomach. He would come back to her, he thought. He would become a powerful mage and then he would come back. And give her something true to be genuinely proud of. He ate his toast as fast as was humanly possible, wolfing down the buttered bread in an attempt to beat a hastier retreat and then finally, when he was so close, just about to reach the threshold of his home he was faced with his greatest challenge yet. His sister stood in the doorway staring at him with tears in her dark eyes and her black hair matted from crying. She broke down in tears as she ran toward him arms outstretched. He crouched down to receive her, holding her against him for several long minutes before she was finally able to croak out a coherent sentence. "You''re going to go away. You''re going to leave me and never come back just like father." She sobbed into his chest. Another wave of guilt and regret hit him. The last time someone in her life had left they had never come back, and to her, it seemed Covis was doing the same. He took her face in his hands and lifted her gaze to his own. "Mirana, I''m going to come back. I promise." He then hugged her as if his life depended on it. They parted slowly, with Mirana still clutching his jacket and her eyes still wet with tears. Covis stood and walked to the door, stepping through and feeling the biting chill of the northern winds before stopping and spinning on his heels to face his family with a mischievous smile. "Mark this moment family, as it is the beginning of something momentous, epoch-making even!" He said throwing his arms out dramatically booming in the deep resonating voice he had inherited from his father. "But seriously, I''m going to make you proud mum." He said far more seriously and softly before turning away. Unwilling to cry in front of them. That was the day he left that day for the train station, for the capital, for the war. For his future. Chapter - 2 The Orenian station was an unsightly mass of metal beams and lumber. No thought of decoration or form had gone into the making of the transport hub and instead, much like the majority of governmental buildings in the far north and away from population centers, the government had tried to cut corners in any conceivable manner. Such as the buildings themselves. The Orenian station was the glorified name for what was in truth, a shack-like ticket house made of a skeletal structure of steel beams and walls of rough-hewn timber. And a planked boarding platform built to house roughly 20 people comfortably. Sadly for Cozis because of the constant export of lumber and the import of goods such as grain from lands further south. This lead to an excess of fifty people currently cramming themselves onto the platform. Cozis waited in the roiling mass of people in line for the ticket booth, waiting patiently as waves of tweed and cotton jackets pressed up and pushed against him, suffocating him in a sea of mass produced and uncomfortably itchy fabric. Cozis reached the front of the line just as the tell-tale booming of projectile enchantments came into earshot. Boom! Boom! Boom! They thundered onward, the noise becoming evermore oppressive as Cozis let his current worries be washed away as he marveled at the power of modern enchantment. Cozis was broken out of his daydream by being shouldered near to the barred window of the booth by an impatient traveler it was at this point that he opted to stop gawking at the train like a hick and instead buy his ticket and get on the damn thing. Cozis peered through the rusted iron bars at the elderly and heavily lined face of a man. He had short blond hair and a graying, blonde beard signs of strong northern descent. The man raised a large bushy eyebrow at the boy in front of him after about five seconds of uninterrupted staring. Cozis flustered and stumbled on his next words in embarrassment. Damn Cozis! Get yourself together. He chided himself before finally speaking. "Uhm, ''ello my name is Cozis, Cozis Matroshka. I would very much like to buy a ticket to the capital." He spoke in his northerly accented voice. The bearded man just chuckled at him before handing Cozis a small stub of coarse parchment and then holding his hand out for payment. "Tickets a buck fifty." The man drawled in the central continental accent that Cozis had always found rather off-putting and unattractive. He then handed the man 1.5 republican marks before heading forward to the train platform. The wooden walkway creaked under Cozis''s large frame making him question the integrity of the structure on which he now stood. The booming grew louder and louder as Cozis used his large body and intimidating looks to jostle his way to the front of the platform, eager to get first pick at the cabins. The bronze behemoth that was a modern-day train thundered into the station trusting the enchantments written along its sides to arrest its forward momentum. The doors slid open with a satisfying shunk sound and Cozis and the other passengers began to board. Modern trains were shuttles of wood and steel coated in an outer layer of bronze. This was because the steel would act as the strong basic framework for the machine whereas bronze is a metal famed for its unmatched ability to hold enchantments, thus being an ideal building material for the metal monstrosity. Trains ran along iron rails, propelled forward by great and intricate enchantments written along the back of the train. The basic premise was that there was one set of enchantments whose purpose it was to suck in air and then compress it for further use. After this, the air would then be transferred to another set of enchantments and then expelled suddenly, eliciting a jump in forward momentum and the stereotypical ''booming'' sound that people had come to associate with travel. Cozis walked the wooden halls of the train looking for an unoccupied cabin, his roaming eyes catching one in the next hallway over. Cozis never liked traveling with people as he had found that they hated silence almost as much as he loved it, filling the peaceful air with unneeded jabber and ruining an otherwise pleasant mode of travel. As such a very determined look passed over Cozis''s face when he met a pair of girls walking toward the same two-person carriage, he was heading for. They locked eyes and the race was on. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. It was a race of both politeness and cunning in equal measure as they both jostled for position while taking care not to run and cause a scene on the crowded train they were forced into an awkward looking powerwalk. They both reached the door at the same time and yet another game started to form from the grave of the old one. This time Cozis was to fight for his life in a match of verbal combat. "Thank you, sir, for opening the door for us, but we can take it from here." Spoke a young and beautiful northern girl, with bountiful curves and cascading blonde curls as she gestured for him to open the door for them. Cozis''s polite smile wavered for a second as they played the gentleman card on him, they were good. But Cozis was better, and he had a trick still up his sleeve. "I am so sorry to have to ask this cabin of you fine ladies but I need it for my sister. She''s sick you see, the pox. I had to come up here to afford enough for her medicine and I have it with me." He said gesturing toward his trunk. "But as you can see the trunk is quite cumbersome and would take up the remaining room in this cabin, bar that required for myself of course, and as the medicine is delicate and precious in equal measure I wouldn''t feel comfortable leaving it in the baggage compartment. So please I ask once more. May I have this cabin?" Covis asked in his weakest voice, attempting to imitate a person who had been forced into hard labor. The girl''s previous triumphant expressions fell at this and they were all too happy to forgo their chance at comfortable travel in the face of this man and his ailing sister. The result was a foregone conclusion and about ten minutes later Cozis was alone in his cabin being lulled to sleep by the slight rocking of the train and the voice of the conductor informing everyone that they were headed toward the capital of the Northern Republic. Cozis drifted off as he watched the beautiful vistas of a snow-covered north flash by at amazing speeds, his measured breathing fogging up the glass of his compartment. Thud! He didn''t know how long he had actually managed to sleep for before being rudely awoken by a loud thud that rocked the train. Cozis shook himself awake and then sleepily observed his surroundings, searching for the offending object or person that had deigned to ruin his peaceful slumber. His search was in vain as he found the cabin exactly as he had left it before drifting off. Empty. He shook his head once more in annoyance before leaning against the fogged glass window in an attempt to sleep once more. Thud! Hell and all its demons, where in the blazes is that noise coming from! He raged internally at his predicament. The trip to the capital was at the least five hours from Orena and that was without any stops. In the middle of winter while the tracks are still partially frozen and the train has to travel at cautious speeds he could expect a nine or ten hour-long journey. It was at this time that his window began to clear and he caught a glimpse of the outside. What he saw shocked him. For there, running adjacent to the train was a smaller, sleeker mana powered vehicle. And currently extending from its body toward the train were several long gangplanks and on these planks currently, balencing precariously were several men wearing the burnt orange uniform of monarchistic rebels. They were armed, they were angry and as Cozis had just then realized, they were robbing the train. "They''re robbing the train" He muttered in disbelief before yelling out to the greater area in case no one else had noticed. "The train is being robbed!"