A Girl Named Zero: Camp Coven

Chapter Zero

Imagine if you will, a world much like our own. This world was struck by a meteorite in the early nineteenth century. A great many people died from the strange radiation the meteorite released. The world's population dramatically decreased by at least ninety-five percent. Sadly humanity stopped progressing and those that were left struggled to survive for the next few decades. Then suddenly all the children born had supernatural abilities. The men were stronger and able to carry things ten times their own weight. Girls were now able to cast spells and use different forms of magic. The old tales of witches became a reality and humanity was truly living in an age where gods and heroes walked the earth. Within another hundred years the caste system was formed for men. Upon graduation from high school, men would join an employment caste and women would join a coven. Those who didn't would be exiled from civilisation. These exiles usually became bandits or barbarians. Some though joined the hedge army. A secretive cult for the outcasts of society. Not much is known about them, only rumours abound about them. Some say they are cannibals, others say they use evil and forbidden magic. Nobody knows for certain as nobody has ever seen them and survived to tell the tale.
It may be surprising that Australia had managed to thrive and survive the best compared to the rest of the world. Melbourne was now the capital. A trading hub that exploded in population and economy in the twentieth century. It housed the greatest covens in the world and the most powerful of witches. While Australia thrived a lot of other countries were close to collapsing, and many countries were completely wiped off the map due to powerful witches waging war and destroying everything. Australia was different though, they were managed by the great witch hierarchy and the heroes guild. All covens were tested and given a hero that would report back to their managers from the hierarchy at regular intervals.
The hero of our story is in fact not a hero. She is a Zero. These are people who were born without any abilities. Her parents abandoned her when they found out and she grew up in an orphanage in a town close to Melbourne. When she was seventeen she began to transition into a woman after being assigned male at birth. Zero had always felt different to the other boys and this just made complete sense to her. Transgender people were a realities new thing to the world but weren't completely unheard of. Zero was widely accepted as female by the other kids and the carers at the orphanage. Just a month before her eighteenth birthday she began to display an aptitude for magic. This was completely unheard of and so Zero was sent to be tested by the high council of the hierarchy of witches itself. She went with a carer to the massive skyscraper in Melbourne and met the high witches. They questioned her extensively before running all manner of tests. Every other witch had an aptitude for one or two types of magic. In rarer cases perhaps three. Zero was the first witch ever to have an affinity for all types of magic. The high council believed her to either be a dumb luck fluke or the next evolution of witch. One thing was for sure though. She would need a coven and an exceptionally powerful hero. Just after her eighteenth, she would recieve a scholarship to go to Coven camp. A summer camp designed specifically to help witches to find a suitable coven. The high witches saw Zero as a massive liability and threat and so they assigned a personal hero to monitor her every day. Michalo was an exceptionally well-gifted hero trained to fight powerful beasts and rogue witches alike. He was now her personal hero. Michalo was honoured to be responsible for such a powerfully gifted witch though his colleagues teased him relentlessly for being assigned to an orphan. Zero was now the talk of the town and everybody treated her differently. She couldn't understand why as she didn't feel any different. She began to think that perhaps this was just how all witches are treated. How wrong she is.