Introduction/Explanation/Prologue

Author's note: Nice to meet you all. I originally started writing a few books at one point and a another person who I had met suggested I look into things like this to build an interest in what I am writing or to correct parts of it. So in the end I welcome questions, comments, and criticisms. With that here is the prologue of something I hope will advance further. I am still tentatively working on the title but for now lets call it The Magi of Hiketes.

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There is often a power guiding the world. Most of us would say that that power is God’s own power, divine, unable to be seen, unable to be known. Certainly while that is something that can never be denied, for He is always there, there is in fact another power, one that can be wielded by humanity. Some of us call it thaumaturgy or miracle making while others who do not enshrine it in such awe uses a far more simple word: magic. It is something mysterious. Something that is beyond the grasp of most of humanity. Something that only exists to most humans in fairy tales. Something that other humans can control.

     Yet in a way it is an illusion, a dream. It is something that defies reality. Yet at the same time it is reality. It blurs the line between dream and reality and that means it is something that can be exploited by those who so desire. That is why there as those of us who use it for their own gain yet others use it to aid people in their own small ways.

      Where this magic comes from we do not exactly know there are those that claim it's a gift from God, others who think it is just that we evolved to be a superior people. But regardless of our origins the term thaumaturgy and thaumaturges have fallen out of favor in favor of terms such as magic and Magi. Of course being a true Magi means being part of a family, a family established many many centuries ago. Those families we call Tribes based off of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribes establish Refuges where we can pursue our magic to its fullest, as well as serving as a place where most of the Tribe members live. A Tribe for many of us is something that you and your descendants are part of for all time. In them old bloodlines run deep, very deep, magic is only capable if you have the blood for it after all.

      Different Tribes are often at war because some seek the power the others have while the rest defend themselves from the ones who seek power. These wars can last for centuries as neither side considers negotiation for they are often too proud. Despite a near constant state of war all the various Tribes have one rule that all abide by: the Covenant. A pact all Tribes, all Magi actually, aligned or unaligned to a Tribes, agreed to uphold. Normal humans fear things they cannot control, such as magic, so we must keep out activities hidden by any means necessary in order to ensure our lives are simply led. One who breaks the Covenant finds themselves hunted by every other Magi in the area.

      Thankfully Tribes and Magi are typically isolated, content to live in their Refuges and study their magic or go out and do God’s work quietly. But this does not stop the fact that the Tribes and Magi are always present in the big cities and countries right down to small towns and islands such as the Island of Hiketes where I live.

      Hiketes, a nation resting solely on an island in the Atlantic Ocean by the same name, the island is fairly large so there are some small farming villages, a couple small cities, Neo-Antioch and Neo-Nicaea, and one big city, our capital Neo-Constantinople. Of course Neo-Constantinople can only be called a 'big city' when you compare it to the other cities and villages on the island, all are fairly small. This island is largely self sufficient due to its fishing industry and magic operating in the shadows so we are largely left on our own, we have nothing to offer to other countries after all. And the place in crawling with Magi and several Tribes, many of them are longtime residents for generations, they are always here for Hiketes exists thanks to them and Hiketes is a center of strong magic.

      Yet Tribes can die out sadly. I am Valerius Solomon, The Last of the Tribe of Olderen. A teenager, an orphan, a candy maker working in a shop where I am the only employee, a soldier, and an older brother. The Tribe of Olderen was a Tribe who were mostly scholars and historians, while not the oldest Tribe ever to exist we were... are... certainly a very long lived Tribe even going so far as to predate the Birth of our Lord Jesus. We had no lust for power, though it is generally agreed despite our nature we had massive amount of it due to our history. We were keepers of knowledge and we recorded so much history, but, despite our powers, we decided to become observers. And that knowledge we kept proved to be our undoing in a way.

      Unknown to all but my cousin Silvia, a fellow Magi who is not aligned with any Tribe despite her heritage, and a select few others I was a survivor when the Tribe of Saryana, a Tribe of monsters and madmen who seek only power by any means necessary and who are often right on the edge of violating the Covenant, attacked us. They sought the knowledge we kept under the misguided thought that fighting us would enrich them. The fighting was brutal beyond imagining with both sides suffering heavy losses in the fighting. My grandmother, a senior member of the Olderens, was ordered by our Grandmaster to try and get the Apprentices and Neophytes out yet it was far too late for most, the Saryana got to us before she could. By the time she got there only me and a couple others were still alive. The others died of their wounds before we could stabilize them. So Grandmother teleported the both of us out. We were the only survivors. The rest died fighting to the bitter end.

  Grandmother died a couple years later leaving me alone. Her death has made me the Last of the Tribe of Olderen. I live alone with my younger twin sister, Adina, our parents having died long before our grandmother did. With grandmother’s death I run the family business, a simple candy store and cafe in Neo-Nicaea held by my family for generations. Grandmother finished my magic training and she taught me how to she would run our store with magic, a specific magic which can create food. I do the much the same. It is how I run the business as she and all my ancestors did. Magic. Without it me and Adina would no longer have a home and our people would no longer have a country.
I know much more magic, an extreme amount of magic truth be told, yet I don't need to use it. Yet on the horizon things grow to be much worse. The Saryana continue to hunt for new power in their bid to dominate all others and everyone who stands in their way are crushed. They want power and they want Magi who can use that power so they search for them. People who don't join them are crushed without mercy. Eventually I may be found out and the Saryana or some other Tribe will come after me. And when they do they will see that the Olderen's flame has not died yet, that our power is still nothing to sneeze at despite there being only one left. Fortunately none have come for me. The reason being quite simply that nobody suspects a simple candy maker.