“A long time ago there was a barren land where its only residents were starved, tired, irritated and powerless beings who were crushed under the forces which they used to destroy themself. There once was a beautiful land before the barren one, where magic was abundant. The place was like heaven, where everyone was provided with everything necessary for their survival. Everyone was happy and friendly, and they helped each other to grow and prosper. They all were thriving under love for each other and used their powers to help one another.
However, as soon as people found the potential of their powers, things started to go for the worst. Instead of using one’s powers to help weaker people, the people with abundant magical powers use it for themselves and treated the less powerful in inhumane conditions. Soon, the people wielding the most magic, like kings, queens, and other royalty or affluent people, got too arrogant and powerful and used their power in a negative way. The people with a lot of magic would exploit the weaker, and some even stole magic from the others. Some even used magic to manipulate the happenings of the world by making things favourable to them and adverse for the others.
So, the elders of each primary magic source, that is Fýsi, Qamar, Agni, Aqua, Taiyo, Ciel, and Cosmo, were greatly displeased and used the powers the people exploited and attacked all of them and removed all the magic in the world. Soon, the ones who were the most powerful were crushed under the forces like dirty insects. The once affluent were now begging to live another day. Soon they all had lost everything: their pride, power, ego and mainly hope.
Among all the beings who lost hope, there was a mighty daring little girl named Stella who believed in a better life. One day, as she was searching for her supper, she came across a peculiar stick hidden beneath the soil. She dug it out and found that it was a staff made out of an alloy of moon silver and sun gold. It was decorated with magma crystals, pearls of the ocean, hail stones which are frozen in time and beautiful flowers none as she had ever seen. This staff was powered by a celestial diamond which was one of a kind.
The staff brought out new hopes for Stella, and she set out on a quest for magic so she could give a better life to her people. With high hopes and an encouraged spirit, she crossed the heat of the day, the chills of the night, the depths of the ocean, the burn of the flame, the dense jungle and the turbulent winds to retrieve seven magical artefacts of each domain. On her way, she met many people who believed in her cause and helped her. At last, she built a shrine of magic and called it the cosmological summit, where anyone can come to solve any magic-related problem and cast a spell- the first spell, the spell that gave the world a second chance for magic…
Soon the beautiful world once seen was restored, and the people learned from their mistakes. Soon the people needed stability, so they divided themselves into seven countries on the basis of magi, namely Chóra-fýsis, Balad-alqamar, Agnideshah, Aqua-patriae, Taiyō-kuni, Pays-ciel and Comos. The countries had their own government, and all countries’ leaders kept their meeting point at the cosmological summit. The cosmological summit became a meeting point where the leaders could discuss alliances, international problems and necessities. Each country provided something for the other countries, and it was like a give-and-take.
As magic was created with it also some evils were also created. One of the most powerful evils was the witch of war, Era. She was powered by the chaos and anger of the people. She generated her power by making her two sons, Phobos and Deimos, create chaos and confusion among the people. This got so out of hand that they imprisoned her in a Cosmic prison, and to guard it, there was a line of warriors called the Order of the Cosmos who would guard Migica from every evil.
All was peaceful until the guardian of Taiyō-kuni, Taiyo-No-Gasdian was assassinated all of a sudden. The people blamed the people of Balad-alqamar, but confessed that they were innocent. But they did not believe Balad-alqamar. So, they waged war on, and this war by fluke clashed during the week of mourning at Aqua-patriae, which should be a time of peace.
So, they sent a message to Aqua-patriae to stop the war by requesting them kindly, but failed to convince Taiyō-kuni. Therefore, Aqua-patriae tried to ally with Agni-deshah to stop the war by force, as they had been long-lasting allies in every major problem in Migica. They had once signed a contract to help each other through anything. However, Aqua-patriae’s requests were denied as Agni-deshah didn’t want to start an unnecessary fight with both countries, since Agni-deshah had already had border problems with Balad-alqamar and they didn’t want things to escalate. But for Aqua-patriae, this was a sign of betrayal from Agni-deshah and with the help of Pays-ciel, one of their other faithful allies, Aqua-patriae waged war upon Agni-deshah. If they win, Aqua-patriae will give half of the territory they win. To defend Agni-deshah sought help from Chóra-fýs, and in return, they would help Chóra-fýs with any problem they face. But during that time, Pays-ciel betrayed Aqua-patriae by stealing all of their ammunition, which was provided to them were provided and used it to attack Aqua-patriae. At the last moment, Aqua-patriae spread a rumour that after defeating Aqua-patriae, Agni-deshah would betray Chóra-fýs and rule over them. This enraged the people of Chóra-fýs and made them attack Agni-deshah. In the end, all countries in Migica were at war. So, the queen of Cosmos Astraeus brought all the rulers of the six countries to the cosmological summit.
At the cosmological summit, Queen Astraeus enforced a law that no one in the seven countries should cross their borders, even with the ruler's permission; this law is punishable by death. After this law was passed, all countries made magical borders that signalled an alarm when someone passed through and deported all people who were not a native of that country. All was peaceful, but every country was enemies of each other, and if anything wrong ever happen all Migica War would break out.”
“But why”, I thought, why should Migica be separated. I thought of this as I read “The Clashes of Magic”, a book in the restricted section of the Megáli-vivliothíki. I was researching the First War of Migica, which led to the total separation of our world. It took place eight thousand years ago, and now magic is weaker than ever. I was finding a way to reunite Migica, as once in my dream I got a prophecy telling me that something bad is going to happen on New Year’s Eve of the year ten thousand, and I need to find a way to stop it by uniting Migica.
Well, let’s set that all aside; oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Hi, I am Evanthia, an avid bookworm and the crown princess of Chóra-fýs. I love everyone regardless of who they may be, and I believe that there is good in everyone. I also have an herb garden of my own, and I tend to it every day. I know everything about every plant species all over Migica, and I also know how to use them in potions. I made it a home for any injured animal, and I would heal them. My powers mainly consist of healing and making potions. I can heal anyone and anything. I also have growing magic, which helps me to increase or decrease the speed of growth of any plant.
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I really want to unite Migica and you might be thinking ‘why, Evanthia this is a humongous problem which no one could solve so why are you wasting your time’ well to understand why I think the isolation of all countries of Migica not a good idea was all magic forces are interrelated like the sun needs fire to blaze, the moon needs the sun to shine, the tides need the moon, the earth needs water and sunlight and so on and as there was a barrier between all magic, magic got weaker year by year and once a year magic completely fades away. Aside from magic, there were many other problems too. Balad-alqamar depended on Agni-deshah and Chóra-fýs for food grains and other agricultural products; similarly, Balad-alqamar provided fuel to them, or even Pays-ciel provided all countries with electrical energy. Like this, the countries were economically and magically dependent on each other.
So here I was in my reading nook when my holo-com buzzed. It was my mom calling, probably about the festivities today. I picked up, and my mom said, “Hello, Evanthia, where are you? You’re going to be late for the royal supper” To this, I said I am coming cut the call the I ran out of the library and dashed to my car, where my virtual driving instructor guided me. It took me half an hour to reach the palace.
Today is the day of the royal banquet, and people from all over Chóra-Fys were coming to the feast. It was also the festival of Thesmophoria, so there would only be girls there. The entrance was adorned with beautiful flower arrangements my friend made. As I entered, I saw the hall was arranged to celebrate the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The palace was decorated with flowers, and the statue of Demeter stood tall with offerings placed at her feet for a good harvest.
I went up to my room to put on my light green dress, which I wore for special occasions. As I was heading to the ballroom, I saw my sister Tera still training in the arena for her battle performance after the ball.
Tera was smart. Even though she is my elder sister, she did not want to become the queen, as she did not want to rule but to protect. She was training to be the crown guard from a very young age, as it was always her dream, and she would practise every day, and I believe she would be the best crown guard in the whole of Migica. She is also very hardcore and would not even spare a fly if it did something wrong, which I do not like at all. She is smart and clever in strategy, but she could be easily angered. Her powers mainly come from the land and things that are related to it, like rocks, soil, mountains, etc and she specialises in all the combat skills related to Fýsi. She cared for me a lot, but she can also be very! Very! Overprotective of me and sometimes that suffocates me. She resented non-Fýsiks, that is, people of other countries, which I don’t like.
I entered the room and said, “Tera, Mom has called for us; we must go.” Tera, waving her sword, said, “Yes, I am coming, but first let me finish this routine.” As she was done, I thought of getting her in on my plan. Even though she is not very open-minded, she is a good strategist and could help me in finding a way to stop whatever is going to happen. So, I said, “This new year is going to be the ten thousandth anniversary of the cosmological summit, so I was hoping that you’d let me go there.” To this, Tera said in anger, “The cosmological summit, are you crazy! You know very well that you are not allowed to cross the borders as if it were a garden” “But Tera, this is our only chance of peace, as said in the clashes of magic.” I responded, but after hearing “the clashes of magic”, Tera’s anger turned into rage. She flung her sward across the room and said, “the clashes of magic, this is a book from the forbidden section of the library, so you could have got it only if you had entered the forbidden section, this section has book of antient secrets which brings nothing but false hopes to people and peace in Migica is one of them” “Peace in Migica is possible, if stella gave upon a better life then we wouldn’t have levitating cars or phones, we’d just be Mear powerless being crust under our own power.”
Tera tasted those words. Is Stella to attain peace? She thought there was no diversity; even the economy was falling, and crops were failing due to a lack of a good water source or good sunlight; however, the voice in her head said something changed her mind. Her expression hardened, and she said. “Evanthia”, she said, “you are never to leave Chóra-fýs in your entire life. As long as I am alive, I forbid you from leaving, as there are many dangers….” “What dangers?” “Non-Fýsiks; they are dangerous, and you must stay as far away from them as possible.” “Why do you hate them so much? They did nothing to you.” “Evanthia, they did nothing to me, but they hurt our ancestors.” “One's fate cannot be decided by the mistakes made by their ancestors. I mean, I know someone from Balad-alqamar, and he is not that bad; sure, he could be weird sometimes, but not all of them are bad.” But then I realised what I said, and I cannot take those words back. “Wait,” Tera’s voice settled to a calm tone when one’s anger boils too much “You know someone from the land of the moon?”
“Um, I would have meant something else.” “Some non- Fýsik lives here,” I revealed too much. I revealed my best friend’s secret. I have a friend named Ijan who’s an illusionist from Balad-alqamar. He is an extremely smart, serious, tall and handsome man of the age of twenty. He came to live in Chóra-fýs for a better life. His magic is mainly related to illusions or the properties of moon silver, which allows him to either create an illusion or see the truth. His magic also evolved reflection, refraction, dispersion and all of those light bendy stuff. He was extremely smart for his age, as he, from a very young age, could solve complex problems in his head. He always had an interest in arithmetic’s and physics, and he wanted to be someone who solves big problems. However, he was oblivious to human emotions and acted robotic all the time; therefore, he had only me as his friend, as there was no one else who understood him. He also had major trust issues from his past and kept his sorrows to himself and didn’t even share them with me.
We both first met near the border when we were kids. I was picking wildflowers, and suddenly a group of kidnappers tried to abduct me, and I was so scared. I thought I was never going to see my family again, but suddenly those kidnappers were stopped by Ijan, who had just entered Chóra-fýs. He used moon magic to stop them by distracting them with an illusion of guards coming for the kidnappers. Then Ijan covered himself with an illusion of a young nature boy, took me towards the royal palace, and dropped me off there. As he was leaving, I gave him a big hug, which he tried to escape from, but I held him tight. And since then, we were best friends for life. In a few years found out Ijan’s true identity, but instead of ratting him out, I helped him keep his cover. He lived over here for six years, and I covered for him as he helped me in finding ways to unite the countries. Tera, oblivious to the real face of my friend, teased us about how cute we looked together and how we would win couple of the year, but Ijan just grew uncomfortable with these jokes.
But now I risk his safe place. I must salvage this or else he will be killed. I stuttered as I said, “he does not live here; he is my pen pal; we use really complex magic to break the border.” “Do you have any idea how much danger you are posing to our country? You don’t know if he has any malicious intention against you.” “I am so sorry. I will listen to you from now on, but please don’t investigate. I know he is truly a good guy, and this may destroy his life, please.” “Fine, but you must listen to me.” I nodded my head and left in a hurry. As I was leaving, I heard Tera say in Fýsik, “Oh Athena, give my little sister some wisdom.”
The ball was nice; however, most of the time I was staring at Tera, who was weirdly whispering something to Mom. I was afraid that I would be caught. So as soon as the ball ended, I dashed out of there. I rushed to Ijan’s apartment, which was near the palace. I knocked at the door and in a few minutes, Ijan opened it for me. He stood there, handsome as ever, tall, lean and looked a bit young for his age. He had pale skin, long straight lilac hair and amethyst eyes, one of which was covered by his hair. He had a tired expression on his face. He looked down at men and said, “Greetings, Evanthia, I was awaiting your arrival.”