“Uhm… so what do I do?” He just stared at the orb in front of him. 

“Place both hands on top of it, and just hold them there.” Atlas Thorn responded impatiently.

When he placed his hands on top of the orb, time seemed to slow down as he watched it—waiting to see what it would do. He could feel his mana being pulled into the object, it firmly, yet gently guided his mana inside it’s core. Minutes passed and it seemed like nothing was going to happen until a dim light appeared in the middle. 

First the light was nothing but a flicker, but a quick second later the orb was glowing a bright red. He looked around to see the faces of his professors, but by their blank expressions he couldn’t tell if what he was seeing was good or bad.

“See,” Daren arrogantly sighed. “Just a regular fire affinity nothing special—”

He was interrupted by a swift change in the orb. Its former bright red dimmed to an almost blood-like color—black swirls could be seen floating inside. Jordan’s breath caught in his stomach. 

“I can’t believe it… “ Atlas was the first to speak.  

Salem’s eyes were wide open, shock written on her character. The slight shift in Phoenix's moments told all you needed to know that for the first time; he wasn't calm. Daren was staring at Jordan with his usual disgust, but now something different—distrust. 

Jordan took his hands off the orb, and stared at them. This power was inside of him. What did this mean for him? Would he have to fight in some war like the past avatars? Would he be forced to some god's will? Jordan shuddered at only the thought. 

“You are the avatar of Chaos… “ Professor Reed said, an unexpected emotion crossing his face. His face wasn't frightened, nor was it filled with distrust... instead, he appeared to be interested; not negatively at-least. 

“I hope you all remember the oaths you made at the beginning of this meeting.” James' tone cut through like steel, “Because if word gets out about this—I’ll know where to look, and I won’t be happy.” 

Jordan wanted to hug the man right now, but forced himself not too. He’d been scared the headmaster would cast him out—leave him, but no. 

“I hope you don’t expect to let this boy continue staying here,” Daren looked towards Jordan, his stance stiff. 

James crossed his arms, “I don’t see why not?” 

“You idiot!” He marched up directly in front of James, “You letting him stay here puts us all at risk, you can't be serious right now.” 

“You’re right,” James sighed, “This is a big risk, but what kind of headmaster—no person, would I be to just kick someone out who needs help. I refuse.” 

“I agree with James,” Professor Nix walked up beside him, hands on her hips—grinning. “I’ve known this old man for a long-while; if I know anything, it’s that he’ll never leave someone behind if they need help.”

“I must say I agree as-well.” Everyone's head turned towards Professor Phoenix, “I may not have known the boy for long, but he is still my student. As a teacher, it is my duty to protect and I take this role very seriously.” 

Professor Reed nodded, “Yes, Phoenix is right.” 

The last two of the professor’s agreed, leaving Daren the only one who objected. Looking around the room, he truly felt grateful for his professor’s and the headmaster. Daren was tense—Jordan watched his movements very closely. He was sure Daren wouldn’t let this go, he knew from experience people were very dangerous when they didn’t get their way. 

Daren eyed the room and spat, “You people are delusional. When this bites you in the ass, I will say I told you so.” He finished before storming out of the meeting room. 

A wave of relief washed over Jordan now that Daren was gone. But he couldn’t sit and delay the inevitable—what would happen now?

Wanting to get this over with, he asked, “So what happens now?” Daren’s words echoed in his mind, guilt started to form from within. “I don’t want to be a burden… I think Daren is right, maybe you should—”

“No.” James stood tall, determination held on his face, “You aren’t going anywhere I—no we will not abandon you Jordan. Whatever happens we will face this together.” 

Jordan didn’t understand. Why did this man seem to care so much for him? 

“You barely know me,” He gripped his pants. “How can you be sure I’m worth the trouble?”

The headmaster waved him off, “You’re right I have only just met you, but I knew your parents.” He paused looking away for a moment, “I owe them this—I owe you this, as your headmaster. Now enough of the self-pity—” He turned towards the rest of the room, “Here’s the plan, we continue as normal. Jordan will proceed with going to class—though I do ask everyone to keep an eye on him. Every couple days Jordan, you will come to my office after your classes where we will practice on your control—don’t worry, this will become your power; you will not be a pawn, I swear it.”

The room was filled with murmurs of agreement. 

Hours passed, and as everyone exited the room, he’d remember what he wanted to ask. “Hey uhm, James?” The headmaster turned to face him, “Do you think you could maybe get me a watch? It’s just annoying always having to look at the clocks in the hallway—I see other guys with them.” He waved his hands in dismissal, “But you don’t have too—I mean—you already done a-lot for me—”

“It’s no problem, Jordan.” The tall man smiled warmly. He went to turn but stopped, “I can imagine how exhausting today was, get some sleep.” He winked before turning back around, gathering some papers. 

Thanking him, Jordan left the room and headed towards his dorm. James was right, today had been draining. He would be a liar if he said his bed wasn’t calling to him. Reaching his dorm, he swiftly threw his clothes in the closet before jumping into the bed—a deep sleep awaiting him. 

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

School was especially boring today. It was only his third period yet he constantly was stopping himself from falling asleep. He moaned—turning to look at the clock on the wall before remembering the watch he wore. This morning when he awoke, a watch was left on the kitchen counter, with a note. 

Hopefully this resolves your annoyances -James Hywell

He could practically hear the headmaster’s voice through the note. Anyway, the most exciting part of his day thus far was in his second class Herbology. Apparently there was a fall festival happening in a few weeks; he could only imagine what that would look like. He'd never been to a real festival before and had never really wished to go, but in the midst of this new magical world, he was practically itching for it. He meant—what would a festival of magic look like? He could only imagine. 

The familiar bell rang—he hopped up, ready to leave. As he made his way to his Protection and Enhancements class, he couldn’t help but to feel nervous. Jason was there yesterday—he saw everything. Would he be terrified to talk to him? If he saw someone do what he had… would he still be friends with that person?

Either way, he wouldn’t blame him. He would walk in there and try his best, but he wouldn’t force anything. Approaching the door, he took a deep-breath and marched in.

The room was still a-bit empty. Making his way to his usual seat, he sat down. The time to class started ticking down—he forced himself to stop twitching his leg. A minute later Jason walked in. He caught his breath, he really didn’t want to lose the only friend he had. His eyes stayed glued to his textbook, and he wasn't sure if he trusted himself not to stare. The sound of the chair moving beside him made him stare harder at his book, the pages becoming the most captivating thing he had ever seen. 

“Hey what’s up?” 

Huh? 

He looked towards Jason, wondering if that was it. He studied his face for a moment—he truly was serious. He let go of his breath in a sigh. 

“Are you good?” A half-worried look on Jason’s face.

“Wait—are you not freaked out or l-like scared of me or something?” 

“Uhm why would I be… “ Jason paused, about to pull out his textbooks—then resumed. “Oh! You mean about yesterday? That was sick if you ask me, what type of magic is that?” He continued pulling out the materials he needed.

Welp, it's official. This kid is crazy. 

“Yes about yesterday!” He forced in a loud whisper, “People could’ve gotten hurt—I couldn’t control it.”

“Oh… well it was still badass, I’ve never seen anything like it. Is that why the professor was acting a bit weird after?” 

“Look,” Jordan glanced around the class. “I’ll explain everything later, meet me in the library’s second floor after dinner.”

Seeing his serious expression, Jason replied, ”Oh this is something serious then. Ok, I’ll meet you there.” He nodded. 

“Alright class, today we will practice a small protection spell—please turn to chapter 3.” Professor Salem said, instantly silencing the class. 

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

“Welcome, go ahead and take a seat on the floor.” 

Today was the first day of his practice sessions with the headmaster. Shuffling in the room, he made his way to the middle of the room. Would he even be able to control this power? Guess he’ll find out. 

“Today we’ll just do some basic exercises.” James said, moving to the chair right across from Jordan. “First, we’ll start every session with a 15 minute meditation.”

Meditation? Although he knew about meditation, he certainly had no idea what was about to happen.

“Go ahead and close your eyes Jordan,” James grinned, stifling a laugh. 

Right. He closed his eyes. How was this supposed to work? The only thing he’d known about meditation was that his thoughts were supposed to be clear. His thoughts were never clear. He’ll try regardless, controlling this power was at the top of his priorities. He’d seen how destructive this power could be—he was scared, but he couldn’t help being a-bit excited. A lot of people would be jealous of this sort of power; he would never let it get to his head though, and try to not hurt anyone.

After the meditation, he had to try to conjure some of the power with his own will. He constantly failed, and was starting to get irritated. The practice was to fill a little orb with the chaos energy. Something that appeared to be so easy was draining the life out of him, and he hated it. 

Sweating dripping down his head, his eyes twitched, “Forget this—I’m done, I’ll never control this. I can’t even feel anything.” He almost threw the orb, but instantly stopped himself—placing it on the mat. 

“Patience, Jordan. You can’t expect to use this power on your first try.” The headmaster tried to reassure him; it didn’t work. “How about we call it a day? Try to get some rest early tonight, you’ll need the energy.”

Getting up, “Yeah I’m drained.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead, exiting the room. He still had time before he was meant to meet with Jason, he’d take a quick nap before. 

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

He met Jason in the library, sneaking off to a more secluded section—no one needed to overhear what he was going to say. The smell of old books, and dust filled the air.  

“Hey man you alright? You look like a ghost.” Jason met him at the entrance of the library’s second floor. 

He waved him off, “Yeah yeah I’m just”—he yawned—”tired.”

Making their way to the table he began, “I’m going to tell you everything, but you have to promise you won’t say a word.” Jordan said, keeping his voice low—looking around.

“Of course man, I won’t snitch.” 

“Alright,” He sighed. “My parents are Alison and Richard Grace.” 

“What!” Jason blurted. 

“Shhh,” He slapped his hand over Jason’s mouth. “Keep it down man, jeez you almost gave me a heart attack. 

“Mhmhm.” Oh right… he removed his hand from Jason’s mouth, blushing. “Bro you can’t just lay that on me—your parents are literally famous.” Jason forcefully whispered. “Hey could you get me an autograph, I mean I would love to—”

“They’re dead.” 

“Oh,” Jason’s face turned red. “I’m sorry man, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, really. They died when I was younger. Also… ,” He said, desperately trying to change the direction the conversion was heading in. “I’m also from the mortal world.”

Jason chuckled, “I knew that man, you didn’t think I wouldn’t catch on to your confusion about every little thing. I mean—you even asked me what a spatial bag was.” He horribly tried to keep his laugh down. 

Rolling his eyes, “Haha so funny. A week ago I didn’t know magic existed, now I’m in a school of magic; what are the odds? Anyway, yesterday at the field I was freaked out. I didn’t know any magic—by the way you were awesome—so I tried to do the simple flame spell I learned in Beginner Spellcraft.” A grim look appeared on his face, “That obviously went wrong. Something… took over me, I couldn’t control what happened.”

“Took over you? What do you mean by that?” Jason said. 

“Fuck it. I’m just going to rip the bandaid off,” He sighed and took a deep breath. “I-am-the-avatar-of-chaos-and-I-have-to-learn-how-to-control-my-powers.” he said quickly, staring at Jason in anticipation of his reaction. 

“Oh.”

Jordan gaped at Jason with wide eyes, “Oh!? What do you mean oh?”

“That is certainly insane, and if you told someone else who wasn’t there they would never believe you. But I was there. I’m not scared of you Jordan.” Placing a hand on his shoulder, “I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.. You're my friend and I’ll stick beside you.”

“You don’t think I’m dangerous? What-if you got hurt… I wouldn’t forgive myself.” Jordan looked down.

Jason snorted, “If I had that mindset I’d still be locked up at home away from the world. The world is dangerous Jordan—magic is dangerous; yet here we are. I’m not afraid.”

As he gazed at his friend, he caught a glimpse of the expression on his face. Clearly, he was serious. 

“Thank you man, It's an honor to have someone like you as a friend.” 

“That’s what friends are for,” Jason said, patting his back. 

Jordan left the library feeling better than he had entered. He was happy to have someone he could trust—someone who could have his back. His shoulders felt lighter as he walked back to his dorm, determined to succeed and conquer these new-found abilities.