September brought in the most beautiful season of the year. Autumn or Fall. The trees were changing their clothes, from green to yellow, orange, red or brown, people were mowing their lawns less frequently as they prepared to swap their lawn mowers for their axes to prepare for the winter and children all around the world were starting their new school year. But not all children and definitely not Jonathan Phoenix.
Jon was sitting in his room, scribbling something in his notebook as he briefly glanced at the group photo of his classroom that hung unceremoniously against the wall in front of his desk. He wanted to throw the photo as soon as he got it but his grandma convinced him to keep it, for memories. And Jon could’ve understood it if they were good school memories, after all, it’s no small thing to grow up with a group of people your age for eight straight years, eight months a year and five days a week. But unfortunately for Jon, his memories were anything but good.
The first two grades, when he was six and seven respectively, started out good. What did they even know then? A bunch of snivelling, whining brats who mostly missed their homes and parents as they slowly learned how to read, write, count on their fingers and learn numbers and most importantly to respect their teachers and learn how to do things on their own without their parents’ help. Then in the third and fourth grades, at ages eight and nine, they were growing quickly but it was still mostly innocent fun, the first crushes were being formed, first arguments and fights, and Jon wasn’t privy to them; there was this blonde girl, whose name was Lara, and she was still missing her first two teeth and Jon just adored her cute smile, so he felt really good about her. It was his first love and his grandma could barely contain her laughter whenever he returned home and spoke excitedly about his first ‘girlfriend’. But all this innocent and pure fun, started to break apart in the fifth grade.
By then, they were aged ten and puberty started to show its beginnings. Hormones ran wild but most importantly, they were able to realize something. Magic. They had already known of magic’s existence as it was everywhere around them, most people couldn’t use it but those who did, made quite the mark around them. What Jon and his classmates realized was that a person’s magical abilities only start to manifest at earliest at fourteen years old and at the latest at eighteen. So they deduced that in a few years, some of them would be able to use special, mighty powers while the the others, the majority of them, would only remain as regular humans with no special powers and abilites whatsoever.
The definite turning point happened in the sixth grade. Lara, Jon’s first girlfriend, had revealed and exposed a secret about Jon’s heritage, which she gossiped to her friends, and naturally, it quickly spread throughout their whole school. While nobody ever thought of Jon’s surname, which was Phoenix, as anything special, except that it sounded cool to have and to pronounce, nobody in their right mind could have imagined that he actually belonged to the infamous line of the most powerful Mages in existence, who were once the Royal Guard of the Solan Empire (the mightiest human empire in history) and later the most despised and reviled group of individuals to exist.
Lara broke up with Jon because she didn’t feel safe with him and soon after, the isolation started. All the parents instructed their kids to avoid Jon and his presence, for fear of their own safety. Jon was obviously devastated and entered a prolonged state of depression. His grandma campaigned vigorously for this barbaric treatment of her grandson to stop but to no avail; even the school authorities were firmly on the parents’ side of things.
And if Jon thought that isolation and being shunned by his peers and former friends was bad, something much worse started to happen in the seventh and eight grades. A whole groups of students were formed with the sole purpose to bully and mock Jon, calling him the ‘Devil’s Son’, a gruesome nickname that stuck with him for the rest of his education. Whether it was attacking him verbally or physically, they made sure that their deranged messages were stuck deep inside Jon’s traumatized mind; he was the outcast and he was never going to be accepted into society as his bloodline was cursed and that he was an abomination himself, prone to violence when he grows up.
Jon’s only hope remained the magic community. He had learned about the U.F.M.A., which meant the ‘United Front for Magical Affairs’, and he grew overjoyed about the prospect of them helping him. His grandma sent them a letter to ask for protection but it was ignored, they never received any answer. Despite this, Jon had hoped that there would be someone out there, whether magical or not, that could help him because even now when he had finished his primary education, he did not know what the future held for him. As expected, no secondary school wanted to even review his application so he gave the notion up; if he was to find a job anytime in the future, he would have to teach himself whatever he wanted or needed to do.
Narrowing his eyes, he felt a surge of anger as he looked at Lara, who was standing right next to their homeroom teacher in the group photo and had an innocent smile on her. Her teeth were fully grown and bright white now, her long blonde hair styled into twin pigtails, her dark blue eyes shone with their unique sparkle and the teacher’s dear pet couldn’t be faulted for the optimism that oozed from her. She was the best student in the whole school and was also the one responsible for finding out and spilling the secret about Jon’s heritage, which Jon himself never knew, since his grandma never told him. While he had since forgiven his grandma for not telling him about his parents’ real reason of demise (she lied that they had contracted some kind of fatal virus and died), he still wondered how Lara found out about his secret. That was a mystery that had messed with his head ever since.
Turning down the photo so it faced his desk, he closed his notebook as he stood up. Glancing at the window, he noticed the golden rays of sun peeking through and the notion of a warm and sunny day put some sort of comfort inside him. This was the perfect weather for taking long walks alone as that was the activity that Jon liked the most.
But his planning for a long walk got disrupted as he heard shouting from down bellow. While someone did knock loudly on the front door several minutes ago as Jon was looking at the group photo of his class, he dismissed it as the mailman or something like that as he had heard his grandma open the door. But now it seemed that this visit went longer than expected. He pushed his chair underneath the desk and went outside his room. Even in the hallway, he could clearly hear the shouting from downstairs:
“I swear, I will call the police, go away, Mister!” His grandma’s old and weary voice sounded high-pitched whenever she raised it.
“Even if you called them, Mrs. Warren, they would have no jurisdiction here. This is official U.F.M.A. business and, according to the 1787. Agreement of Magic and Non-Magic relationship, it’s protected from non-magical interference and that also includes law enforcement. So once again, I’m requesting that you call down your adopted grandson, Jonathan Phoenix, and bring him down, I have something important to tell him.” A deep, male voice retorted from the outside.
Jon felt his heart starting to beat harder in his chest. That acronym, the mention of magic... was this finally the answer to the letter his grandma sent? But why was she now speaking negatively to the man outside? Jon didn’t want to wait any longer, he leapt downstairs and quickly found himself in the hall, standing behind his grandma, who was wearing an old dress and a wimple and he saw the man standing at the door.
He was a tall and broad-shouldered man, wearing a black suit with a white button-up shirt with no tie and black leather shoes and he also held a black suitcase in his left hand. His skin was fair with a rugged complexion, there was a large horizontal scar on his wrinkled forehead. Large gray eyes were piercing straight from his eyesockets and he wore a black boonie hat above his bald head. When he noticed Jon coming from upstairs, his gruff expression that was directed to his grandma softened and he nodded towards the teenager.
“Jonathan! I apologize if my loud voice brought you down, I hope it doesn’t ruin my first impression on you. My name is Boc Rak, and I work as a Recruiter for the U.F.M.A.” Rak took off his hat with his free hand and bowed as he seemed to ignore the elderly woman’s intense stare on him.
This was really happening. A man associated with magic, with Mages, with all those things that Jon had hoped would help him escape this miserable life was standing right in front of him and he was speaking with him like an adult, with the utmost respect and with no sign of malevolence.
“I... uh... yeah, I’m Jonathan but you can call me Jon. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Rak.” Jon nodded back at him and stepped forward to shake Rak’s large hand and he was now standing right next to his grandmother, who was shorter than him.
Rak frowned at the old woman as she shook her head and at last decided to sit down on an old wooden chair that laid in the hallway as Rak didn’t take his eyes off her.
“Since you won’t invite me in and I don’t really have the intention to enter, even if you did invite me, frankly speaking, we’ll do it here.” Rak spoke as he cleared his throat and reached into his suitcase, opening it up and pulling out a piece of paper which he unfolded and looked at it.
“According to the Recruitment Act for Education, Article 8., Paragraph 26., I, Bok Rak, a certified and legally appointed Agent of the U.F.M.A. with the rank of a Recruiter am hereby using my privileges to formally inform you that the Ashford Magical Academy has officially sent an invitation letter to Jonathan Phoenix, son of Graham and Maria Phoenix, for enrollment in the 2024./2025. school year. As his legal guardian and only known relative-albeit adoptive-Mrs. Mathilda Warren, you are required to fill this form so please read it in its entirety before making a choice.” Rak took a step inside the house but Jon went first to him, grabbed the letter and then swiftly brought it to Mathilda, who accepted it with a heavy sigh as she started reading it. As she read it, she kept shaking her head repeatedly.
“This is madness, he’s just a kid, his parents died because of this, this is a grave mistake.” Mathilda’s voice was quivering. All this stuff about magic and Mages, it brought flashbacks of that haunting and painfully long day and night, when she helped Maria deliver her son through a several-hours long birth, and ultimately passed away, as anyone who procreates with a member of the Phoenix family-dies, whether it’s the female who was married into the family or if it’s a female who is a born member of the family. Such was the terrible price that was paid to ensure that the enormous amount of raw and unmeasureable magical power and ability remains within the newborn baby.
Jon looked at his grandma with a sullen look; during his fourteen-and-half years of living with her, she had grown very attached to him. This connection and bond was extended even further because of two things: one, Mathilda and her late husband Bill tried for many years to have children but to no avail, they even tried adopting one but since they were poor and lived in a weary and old house, they didn’t fill the requirements to adopt the child. And the other reason, which Jon could only wonder and suspect what it was, was the cruel fate of the boy. His father had grown deranged ever since his mother made her pregnancy public. Graham, Jon’s father, had warned his wife, Maria, repeatedly not to have a baby because she would die. He explained to her in great details all about his long bloodline, which was now cursed and reviled by nearly everyone and he himself wanted it to end with him. He was tired of being called the ‘Last Devil’ but he wanted to ensure that that nickname would last with him and not get passed onto his newborn child. Maria ignored him and still went ahead, too much in love with him and her desire to be a mother far too great. She believed, valiantly, admirably but ultimately and tragically false that somehow her immense and immeasurable love for her unborn child would allow her to live, at least long enough to raise and nurse her child for some time, but it wasn’t meant to be. She died without ever seeing her child.
“Grandma... please, you know how much I’ve suffered here, in this town and at my previous school. There is no future here for me and you know it too, even if you refuse to admit it to yourself. Going to this magical school or whatever it is, it might be the new step in my life that might finally mark a new page for me and my future, to prove to everyone that just because I’m a member of the Phoenix family that I am still my own man and that I’m not the devil or the demon that everyone thinks me to be. I want to prove them all wrong.” Jon affirmed himself as he held his right fist clenched in front of him. His efforts were highly ambitious and he could tell that Mathilda didn’t really trust him completely as she judged him with her sunken and ancient eyes but to his utmost shock (and to Rak’s utter bemusement), she glanced at Rak and asked for a pencil. He gave her one that was in his breast pocket and she signed down her name and surname in large and uneven letters at the designated spot for signatures in the lower right corner and handed the Recruiter the letter.
The atmospshere felt much lighter now as Jon beamed with joy at both of them. Did this really just happen? He was actually going to leave this miserable little town?
“Thanks grandma, really, I don’t know what to say.” Jon bowed his head a little.
“Your father and his friends, they made me promise this. That I would allow you to go to this school. As your legal guardian, only I can permit you to go and sign the invitation letter. They explained that you’d be thought how to defend yourself there. If that’s really the case, then so be it. If this is truly what you want, then I will support you, child.” Mathilda raised her head as she smiled at her grandson, her eyes getting wet.
Jon leaned down and hugged her. He then looked at Rak who had just stuffed the pencil and letter in his briefcase.
“Wise choice, Mrs. Warren. Now, young Jonathan, you should go and pack your things. I’d suggest the largest bag you have as you’ll be needing quite a lot of things since you’ll be staying at your new school until the winter holidays.” Rak gave a deep bow to the old woman as he smiled at Jon.
He didn’t need to be told twice as he leapt upstairs and basically ran into his room, rummaging around for the largest bag he had, a dark-brown one made of leather, which could easily fit all of his clothes. Circling around his room, he packed all of his clothes with such swiftness that one would think he was held at gunpoint to finish as quick as possible. During all this commotion, he briefly glanced at the upside down photo of his previous class and scowled. Not even them could ruin this special moment for him. After packing all of his essentials, Jon looked around his room and spotted the only heirloom he had from his extinct family. A silver necklace with a little keychain in the form of a small phoenix made of pure gold. He picked it up from his desk and put it in his pocket. His grandma had given it to him for his fourteenth birthday which was in March and she did so because his father had instructed her to do so. For whatever strange reason, Jon felt that this could, sometimes in the future, come in handy.
Before leaving his room, he stopped briefly in front of the large mirror that was laying against the wall opposite of the window and looked at his own reflection. He was of average height, never the biggest nor smallest in his previous school, with a lean constitution. His blonde hair was slicked back and reached just bellow his ears. He inherited his mother’s aqua eyes and the fair skin color of his father, his blonde hair wasn’t as pale as his mother’s, and his face overally was a mix of his father and mother. Before this whole lineage thing got spilled to the public, Jon was highly regarded by girls in his class and was considered quite handsome but after all the disaster of his ancestry, it was as if he had suddenly become a whole other person with another body.
Shaking his head to divert these ugly thoughts from his mind, he picked up the huge and heavy bag and barely half-carried and half-dragged it downstairs to the front door. It landed with a loud ‘thump’ on the floor in front of Rak and went over to the rack on the wall and grabbed a light brown jacket which was ideal for this type of autumn weather, as even though it was warm outside, the weather could turn sour at any moment so it was best to be prepared in advance.
“So... this is it then? You’re really going, kid?”
Mathilda had risen up, with difficulty, as she looked up at her grandson. Jon’s face mellowed at her old face; while she could be harsh on him and strict, she was still the only person in his life who hasn’t betrayed him, even though he was sure that she witheld many secrets about his parents from him.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back, before Christmas, I think.”
“That’s almost four months from now on...”
“Oh come on granny, you’ll survive it, you’ve lived through tougher times. At least nobody’s going to pester you about me anymore, you’ll get some time to breath normally.” Jon had hoped that this argument would especially work on her since many of these dubious journalists and other ‘researchers’ would sometimes arrive to ask Mathilda questions about Jon and everything regarding the Phoenix family but she never budged, all of her secrets remained with her and her only.
After hugging her, he didn’t even notice that Rak had already picked up his traveling bag and was carrying it across their yard towards the carriage with which he had arrived. As he stepped outside, he looked around his neighbourhood and could see some folks peeking from behind their windows, with looks of either repulsion or fear directed at him, a fourteen-year-old boy, who was demonized for something that he couldn’t affect or have any influence on.
“Jon! Wait! I almost forgot...” Mathilda called as she went inside her own room to bring something. Meanwhile, not wanting to be seen by this many prying eyes, Jon went back inside and closed the front door. Surprisingly quickly considering her age, she came back and was holding a small box in the shape of a miniature pirate treasure chest. It was so small that it could easily fit inside Jon’s right palm. He inspected it for several moments and then tucked it in his pockets.
“What exactly is this?” Asked Jon, feeling especially intrigued.
“A heirloom from your family. Your father left it to me and told me to only give you when you turn fourteen but I didn’t really understand why. I had already given you that necklace for your birthday but now I realize that he probably meant when you where old enough to go to this magical school, since you’d be fourteen by then, which is right now. Before you ask, I don’t know what it contains, or what it does but please, as with all things magic, please be very careful.”
Jon nodded as he hugged her again and left the house again but this time he closed the front door behind him. He knew that his grandma couldn’t walk or stand for longer periods so he spared her the effort to look after him but also because he didn’t want to make her any more sadder than she already was. No matter what she may have felt, this was what he wanted to do and he had hoped that in the future she would be more supportive of his goals.
Down the street, more and more people started turning up, looking curiously at both the horse carriage and the man that was standing there. When they noticed Jon, however, their curiosity instantly turned into disgust as they squinted their eyes at him and some of the more daring ones even mouthing words like ‘Devil’, ‘Demon’ and ‘Monster’ at him. He usually ignored this but at this moment, since he would be gone soon, he turned towards them and shot them a highly satisfying grin made of both arrogance and disrespect. He didn’t really know how magic worked yet but he had hoped that by the time he returned for the winter holidays here, he would learn a spell or hex that would turn these despicable neighbours into frogs or insects or even-
“Have you done admiring your delicate neighbourhood, young Jonathan?” Rak startled Jon with his sudden intrusion and a mysterious smile on his face.
“Delicate... right, hah, let’s go then.” Jon nodded as both he and Rak climbed into the carriage and the driver shook the saddle and the two horses in front, one chestnut and one white, started galloping ahead, away from Jon’s house.
