Chapter 1
You were a little shaken after this morning’s dream. You hated it when you remembered your past. Well when you remembered what you could of it. You had absolutely no memory of your life before you were six. Your earliest memory was of the dream you just had and life wasn’t all sun shine and roses after that. Not even close. You were forcibly taken in by a brute of a man. His name was Luxord and to this day you still despise him with a fiery passion. You were held captive by him for four years by a binding magic that would not allow you more than fifty metres away from the magic circle carved in your run down Midgar apartment which gave you just enough leeway to get to the corner shop and back. If by chance you were to step outside your fifty metre radius, unbearable electric pulses would be sent throughout your body. Unfortunately that did happen on occasion. Access to that store was very important to your survival as Luxord had a habit of disappearing for months at a time. Every time he returned from his ‘business trips’ or as you liked to call them, failed gambling matches, he would be reeking of booze and trailing thousands of dollars in debt, of which you were left to deal with. At the age of eight no one could beat you at poker. You were a champion, though you never got to see any of the money as it would either go towards covering Luxord’s many debts or he would simply take it to fund his next ‘business venture’. Your only saving grace was the book store that opened up just within your fifty metre radius. Whenever you had spare cash you would go and buy books on magic and the art of combat. Whenever Luxord was out of town you would spend your days practicing magical arts and studying up on combat training. Who said you couldn’t learn how to fight from a book? Cause you sure as hell did. You took to magic like a chocobo on a grassy plain. Your talents stemmed from dark magic and you specialized in shadow manipulation. Sadly dark magic, commonly known as demonic magic, is majorly frowned upon in today’s society and by majorly frowned upon you mean use of will lead to your imminent death. Oh well, you can easily use elemental magic as well though for some reason white magic has never really been your thing. You have discovered ways to heal yourself via shadow manipulation however it is nowhere near as peaceful as white magic. In fact it hurts like hell. Anyway, at the age of ten you were fed up with your confined lifestyle and finally learned how to overpower the binding spell with your own magic. You spent a year making a living by sneakily taking quests as people under the age of 18 were not legally allowed to accept quests. When that failed you could always count on your legendary gambling skills. It was on your eleventh birthday that the war started. That is ‘the great mage war’. Many dark mage’s were angered by the laws against dark magic use as most mage’s could only use one style of magic so the majority of dark mages took up arms against the government. You personally couldn’t care less. That was until you found out the dark mage’s were using their powers to destroy whole towns, killing millions. One day during your travels you stumbled upon a battle between the two sides. You remember a whimpering child huddling in the cold and that’s when you decided. This war had to end. You began fighting against the dark mage’s at first you hid your dark magic but soon you were discovered. Much to your surprise the government didn’t care as long as you were on their side. With your dark magic you wiped out hordes of dark mages. Too many to count. You did many things during that war, a lot of things you weren’t proud of. You were dubbed a few different titles like ‘the council’s demon’, ‘Angel of Death’ and ‘executioner’. Many rumours spread claiming you were a ‘demon’ or even ‘death’ itself. But you didn’t mind… much. When the war was over the government Council decided to sweep your existence under the rug. Dark magic was once again banned. The council decided to put a sealing spell on your magic. Preventing your use of black magic however to you that was easily broken. Though you weren’t about to make the council aware of that. Soon your war reputation turned into rumour and then faded to legend. There was one good thing that came out of the war and that was you finally had a home. Auron, a man you had fought alongside of during ‘the great mage war’ offered you a place to live and for the past three years you have been living together in a house on the outskirts of Bevelle. Life is more peaceful, happier but you are still haunted by memories of your bloodstained past.
“------, are you up yet. I have matters to discuss with you.” Auron called from the other side of your bedroom door.
“Give me a minuet,” you huffed as you willed yourself out of bed.
“You have five. Don’t waste them,” Auron replied before stomping off down the hall. You groaned as you looked at the alarm clock on your bed side table. 7:24. Too tired. You had been up until three am reading a book on ancient magic and you need more than four and a half hours sleep to survive. Grumbling under your breath you walked to your wardrobe to get dressed. A lot of your clothes required a bit of time to get into so you opted for an easy outfit of black ripped jeans and a plain, fitting red tank top. It hugged your curves nicely showing off your voluptuous figure. You finished the outfit with a few black wrist bands and your signature garnet pendent necklace. Walking over to the mirror you couldn’t help but moan at the mass of tangles in your normally stunning [hair colour] hair. You brushed all the knots out of your hair and finally headed out your bedroom door with a yawn. Much to your surprise Auron was standing outside waiting for you. Auron was known to be very serious. He always wore a serious expression on his battle worn face. He had a large scar going over one eye and his dark hair was greying at the sides. He was in his late forties but with his serious, battle worn face he could easily pass for fifty something.
“I need to talk to,” He said in his constant serious manner.
“Yeah, well I have morning breath,” you pushed past him and into the bathroom where you began brushing your teeth.
“------, this is serious,” He said.
“So is morning breath,” you mumbled, toothbrush hanging out of your mouth. Auron shook his head and sighed.
“Meeting at the dinner table as soon as you’re done,” he ordered before walking toward the kitchen. You immediately knew something must be up because Auron would only ever call ‘meeting’s’ when there was ‘serious’, serious business. This isn’t a good sign. You quickly finished up in the bathroom and walked into the kitchen to join Auron.
“This better not have anything to do with me cause I’m running on four hours sleep this morning,” you told him making your irritable mood very evident as you began going through kitchen cupboards.
“------, this is important,” Auron said.
“Just let me have a coffee first,” You said pulling your mug out of the cupboard and walking over to the kettle. Auron just shook his head at you and sighed. When you moved in with Auron the setup had always been that you were just roommates but you could always tell he thought of himself as more of your guardian. You normally didn’t mind unless he started trying to make decisions for you. You sat down at the table across from Auron and sipped your coffee. “So what’s up?”
“I have been offered a job at Radiant Academy and I intend to take it,” Auron stated simply.
“Okay, sounds good,” You replied taking another swig of coffee.
“The Academy is in Hollow Bastion,” Auron continued. Bevelle is where you currently live which is a city on a world known as Spira. Hollow Bastion is actually on a completely different world.
“Oh, so are you moving out then? Don’t worry about me I can survive fine on my own,” You replied with a smile.
“We will be moving there,” Auron said.
“You and who?” you asked not liking where this was going.
“You and I,” Auron replied. Oh no. There he goes trying to make decisions for you again.
“Yeah I don’t think so,” You shook your head slamming your coffee mug on the table.
“Just listen,” Auron began trying to make you both remain calm.
“There you go again trying to make my decisions for me,” You yell slamming a fist into the table.
“Oh -----, Just listen to what I have to say and then decide what you think about it,” Auron yelled in his stern voice he reserved for whenever you got into your ‘I’m too upset to listen’ mood.
“Fine you can talk, but whether I go or not is my decision not yours,” You huffed folding your arms and slouching back in your chair like the moody teenager he always forgot you were.
“Fine,” Auron gave a nod of agreement before continuing. “We have been offered a placement at Radiant Academy. I have been given the position of a history teacher and the principal has asked that you come along.”
“What for?” you asked. You were too young to be a teacher and there was no way in hell you were going to be a student. You got all the knowledge you needed from the books you read. You didn’t need a teacher to test you on it.
“There is a class group at the school that… needs some help,” Auron replied.
“And what does that mean?” You asked raising an eyebrow.
“There is a class in the 17 year old cohort that show amazing skill and potential however there attitude is lax and reckless. The principal is hoping you will be able to get them under control.” He told you.
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” you asked.
“By posing as a student,” Auron replied simply. You knew it would come to this.
“No way,” you huffed. “Isn’t that supposed to be their teacher’s job anyway?”
“Yes well the principal believes with your… abilities you will be able to… tame them,” Auron picked his words delicately.
“So in other words he wants me to scare them into submission,” You replied flatly. It’s not like you wouldn’t enjoy scaring the socks off a couple of disrespectful teens. Then again it could be said you were a disrespectful teen. But to you, you never actually had a childhood and therefore you had the worldly experience to not be a disrespectful teen and more of a crabby old lady. Yep you felt like you could pass for a crabby old lady at the ripe old age of sixteen. “Anyway I refuse to be a student.” You huffed.
“Knowing you, you probably didn’t realise that Radiant Academy is a government school.” Auron continued.
“Of course I know it’s a government school,” You replied.
“Well the at teachers at government schools have access to ‘S’ class quests that can’t be accepted anywhere else.” Auron finished.
“But I wouldn’t be a teacher,” You pointed out.
“You are a special case and there will be an allowance made,” Auron informed. Okay so now you were tempted. You hadn’t had a good fight in ages and you were just itching for a good battle that you just couldn’t find in local pub quests. You sighed giving in.
“Okay, I’ll meet with the principal and he can give me the rest of the details and then I’ll decide,” You told him making sure he knew this wasn’t a definite yet.
“Good, the gummie ship leaves at twelve. Be packed and ready to go by eleven,” Auron ordered.
“Aye, Aye,” You called with a mock solute before walking off to your bedroom.
A/N: So what do you think of you? You’re a little attitudey but I like it any way. You do feel older than you are cause of all you’ve been through and what not so you don’t take anything from anyone but oh well. Now there’s plenty more where this came from so stay tuned~