Chapter 1: Archwizard

    The young professor sat behind his desk and stared at the ceiling.  He had finished up his last class an hour ago, so he had returned to his office to grade his students' papers and projects.  He had plenty of time to do this, since no classes would be held during the upcoming Tournament of the Magi, but he thought it would be best to get it out of the way now rather than later.  At least, he had thought that it would be a good idea at lunch.  Now, as he actually tried to get the work done, he found himself thinking about the Tournament instead of working.

    'All my life, I've worked to prepare myself for the Tournament.  I studied magic before others my age began school.  I practiced spellcasting when everyone else was playing with their friends after school...not that anyone asked me to play with them after school back then...after all, I was the traitors' son, the worthless little creep that everyone stayed away from.  I was the best in my class, but everyone still kept their distance and taunted me.  I guess that's when I decided to try for the Tournament, all those years ago...

    The traitors' whelp and the future traitor, that's what they called me.  The only way for me to get away from that is to become above suspicion of treachery, and the only way to do that is to become a leader.  If I win in the Tournament, I'll be a Magus, and then I'll no longer be a suspected traitor.  If I can win in a few days, maybe they'll accept me...maybe I'll be included for once...maybe...

    Once I thought that if I was a professor at the university that I'd be considered a good citizen, a worthwhile contributor to society.  Heh...I worked for all those years as a student to become an archwizard, and then shocked everyone by going on to become an archwizard in a second field within a year.  I teach students the concepts of applied magic here, and I conduct the latest research in artificing.  But still...it's not enough...I'm still the outsider, the one everyone talks about under their breath when they think I'm not around to overhear...'

    A knock at the door jolted him out of his reverie.  For a moment, he stared at the door dumbly, not quite comprehending what was going on.  Someone pounded on the door once...twice...three times in all before falling silent.  The professor slowly got up from his seat, and walked the length of the tiny office to where the door was.  He opened the door, and saw before him a young man dressed in the light-blue robe of a student.  The student was leaning against the wall and seemed to be panting rather heavily.  At his side, he clutched a small stack of papers in a death grip.

    "Can I help you?" the professor asked.

    The student looked up, still panting, and said, "Is it...too late...to turn in the paper...for Applied Dark?"

    "I guess I can still take it.  I haven't graded any work for that class yet."

    Hearing that, the exhausted student thrust the stack of papers into the professor’s hands before uttering something that sounded like "Thanks" between gasps.  The professor watched with amusement as his student hobbled off clutching his side.

    'The things that students will go through to get a paper in on time never ceases to amaze me,' he thought, 'They'd do themselves such a favor by not putting it off until the night before it's due...'

    The professor returned to his office and closed the door behind him.  He dropped the student's paper on the desk, marked it "late," and began grading again.  He managed to get through the rest of the grading for Intro to Applied Magic before deciding to head home for the night.  He left the papers where they were on his desk, picked up a book that he had been reading over lunch, and walked out of the office.  Once in the hallway, he closed the door securely and locked it.  He took one last look at the sign on his door, a symbol of his standing in the world, before walking off.  It read:

Professor Deklos
Archwizard of Applied Magic
Archwizard of Combat Magic

    Deklos briskly strode down the barren hallways of the office wing of the university, not taking the time to look at the various announcements related to the tournament that were posted on the bulletin boards throughout the hallway.  At the far end of the hallway, he found the staircase, which he quickly descended.  At the base of the stairs he came across the central hallways of the university.  Deklos took an abrupt right, and walked around the now-empty hallway until he came to the main foyer and the main doors at the southern end of the university's main building.

    Exiting the building, Deklos found himself surrounded by the warm glow of the greenhouse's lamps.  The greenhouse was always a welcome place to walk through on his way home.  It was a remarkable contrast to the main building of the university.  Where the main building was cold and hard, the greenhouse was warm and alive with the plants that the students of applied magic were working with.  Deklos took a few minutes to take in the unusual scenery before leaving the campus completely.  As he left the warmth of the greenhouse, Deklos found himself on the cold street of the grand metropolis of the Dark Lands.

    The great metropolis of the underground had no proper name.  Since times long forgotten, it was simply known as "the City" or perhaps "the Great City."  The reason for this is that there are no other cities in the Dark Lands, only scattered villages and towns that produce the goods that the denizens of the City need.  The City was home to most of the citizens and great institutions of the Dark Lands, including the archmagus, the magi, and the Archmagus' University.  Most of those who lived in the city either worked for the government or in the service industry.  A few tradesmen still plied their craft here, though most left ages ago to work in the smaller towns where their handiwork was better appreciated.

    However, Deklos paid no mind to the intricacies of this city.  He had lived here for as long as he could remember, and to him this place was home.  He walked down the dimly lit streets of the city, deftly navigating the streets as only a native of this place could.  The light barely revealed the outlines of the buildings, making the streets weak paths of light among a city of shadows.  At night, this great city became a place of incredible mystery, where even the secrets of the ages were hinted at, yet nothing completely revealed.  As the professor traveled the streets, he saw dark humanoid forms traversing the dark streets as well.  Some hurried along at an incredible pace, as though they were afraid of a horrible fate if they arrived at their destination too late.  Others walked at a leisurely pace, like they had nothing at all to do but enjoy the night air.  Some, like him, walked alone.  Others walked in pairs, and there were even a few traveling in packs.

    At last, the professor came to the familiar street where his apartment could be found.  One of the lamps flickered briefly as he walked by, momentarily casting the area into complete darkness.  Still, Deklos traversed the street paying no mind to such inconsequential events.  The lamps were all vulnerable to the occasional flicker, but never did they go out.  During the working hours, both the bright and the dim components of the lamps shone, and during the sleeping hours only the dim component of the lamp glowed.  They were kept in working order by a group of wizards that the government employed for the sole reason of maintaining the lamps of the city.  At last, Deklos came to the building where his apartment was.  He ascended the stone steps, and disappeared into the cozy gloom of the darkened building for the night.

* * *

    When Deklos awoke in the morning, his apartment was lit with the light of the city's lamps in all their glory.  He owned a small apartment with a kitchen, a bedroom, and a living room.  His bedroom was relatively spartan by most standards, for it contained merely a bed, a dresser, and a wardrobe.  The kitchen was also mostly empty as it contained merely a small stove, an icebox, and a table.  The living room, however, was luxurious.  Two of the walls were covered with book cases, and the book cases were mostly full.  He owned tomes of every sort, from literature to spellbooks, though the majority of his books were works on magic theory and spellbooks of every discipline.  Those that saw this incredible sight oftentimes said that Deklos must single-handedly keep the scribes of the city in business.  In addition to the bookshelves, he had a modest desk along the wall not covered by bookshelves, and an overstuffed chair in the corner.

    Deklos slowly got up from his bed, and got dressed.  Today was his day off, and he intended to use it to ready himself for the upcoming tournament.  He threw on one of his dark blue robes, and headed to the kitchen.  There, he prepared a small breakfast of toast, hot cereal, and hot tea.  He downed this while reviewing a book on intermediate combat magic techniques, and headed out when he had finished his meal.  He locked his apartment behind him, and descended the stone stairs of the apartment building until he came to the street below.  The streets of the city were far different in the waking hours.  Instead of being drab and shadowy, they were bright and full of life as the citizens went about their daily business.  He walked down the lively streets toward the university.  As he walked along, he saw several businesses open their doors for the day while many other people locked up the doors of their homes before they went to work.  The streets were alive with movement and sound; people greeted each other and visited as they walked to their destinations.  Deklos stood alone as he walked through the crowded streets.  He had been alone since he was a child, and the passing of years had done nothing to fix the situation.

    At last, he came to the doors to the university's greenhouse.  The place was still as inviting as it had been the night before, but the brighter light of the cities lamps lessened the contrast between the garden and the city.  As Deklos walked down the path toward the main foyer of the university, he noticed that there were far fewer students in the greenhouse today than normal.  It was likely due to today being a day off, but even so there were usually more students slacking off, studying, or doing research out here.  As he passed by a few groups of students, he noticed that most of them were talking about the tournament that would take place tomorrow.  He paid little attention to this, mainly because almost the entire city was talking about the tournament, and walked into the main building of the university.

    The foyer was as cold and empty as always, but something at the far end hallway, on one of the central walls, caught his attention.  It seemed to be a giant banner of some sort, and beneath it was a massive group of students.  As he got closer to the event, he saw that the students were clustered about several small tables, and every once in a while one of them would point toward the banner.  Finally, Deklos got close enough to read the banner.  It said in rather large letters:

Bet on the Profs in the Tournament!

    The rest of the sign dealt with the specifics.  Since a good number of professors were going to be in the tournament this year, it appeared that one enterprising student decided to organize a betting pool based on gambling on how far the various professors would get.  Deklos merely shook his head at this and continued walking.  That is, he did until he heard a group of students discussing which professors were likely to win.  He heard them talking about how likely the combat magic professors were to make it to the semi-finals, but then heard his own name mentioned in an offhand manner, along with several of the theoretical magic professors.  At first, this caused his anger to flare.  How dare they dismiss him as having an low chance of winning!  Then he remembered that most of them only knew him from his classes on applied magic, and probably thought of him as a mere artificer when in reality he was also an archwizard in the discipline of combat magic.  How little those fools knew...

    Deklos left behind the gathering of students, taking the hallway to his right to get to the library.  The rest of the hallways were mostly empty, though from the smell of smoke and the sight of several windblown students leaving the southeast wing of the university, it was fairly obvious that the magic labs were being used today.  He chuckled to himself at the thought of how many of his artificing assignments had likely caused spectacular accidents in the magic labs.  He continued to walk through the hall until he came to his destination: the northeast wing of the university, the library.

    The entrance to the library was unimpressive, it was a simple wooden door that had quite a few protection spells embedded in it.  Once you got past this, however, the true glory of the university's library shone forth.  Upon entering this wing of the university, your vision would be filled with bookcases stacked end to end.  Each shelf was stuffed full of tomes on every imaginable subject.  In the center of the library was a spiral staircase that reached from ground-level all the way to the third and fourth floors.  The bottom floor of the library held the librarian's desk as well as books pertaining to the general education classes that the university offered: language, history, mathematics, and basic magic theory.  Considering that the basic courses tended to require quite a bit of research, books related to these subjects alone managed to cover the first level.  The second level of the university held books pertaining to advanced studies in the fields of combat magic and tactical magic, and the third floor kept books for advanced studies in magic theory and applied magic.  Advanced books on language, history and mathematics were not kept in the main collection, but rather were preserved in the basement archives.

    After taking a moment to look at the list of titles newly added to the library's collection, Deklos headed for the staircase, and ascended to the second floor.  Once there, he browsed the section on combat magic.  He managed to find a few useful books that he could occupy himself with today.  One was on the traditional use of effect magic in close quarters magical combat.  Another was on new theories and techniques in the use of effect magic, and the last was on the various uses of defensive magic in duels.  Pleased with his choices, he descended the staircase again and headed over to the front desk.  He took a moment to check out the books under his name, and then left the library with his newly found treasures in hand.

    Deklos took a right again when he came to the central hallway of the university, and walked along until he came to the north wing where his office could be found.  The main door was locked today, so he put down his books to find his keys.  Upon finding his keys -- which took some time considering how many concealed pockets his robes tended to have -- he unlocked the main doors, picked up his books, and entered.  The administrative wing was oddly dark and quiet today, such a contrast to the constant activity and noise of professors and administrators working to keep the university operating smoothly.  Rather than turning on the lights, he cast a simple light elemental spell, causing a small orb of light to form and levitate above his head.  Now that he could see clearly, Deklos walked down the hallway to the stairs, and went up to the second level where his office was.  Once he came to the second level, he took a left and walked down a few doors until he finally came to his office.  Taking his keys again, he unlocked the door and entered his private on-campus sanctum.

    The interior of his office was simple and very familiar to him after his three years as a professor here at the university.  The desk sat against the wall to immediately to his right as he walked in, and it was made of a very common wood, as was his chair.  A second chair sat in the corner of his office, and bookcases covered the other three walls.  Papers that still needed to be graded lay scattered across the face of the desk, with a few books on modern magic theory acting as a paperweight.  He set his newly acquired books down on a relatively clear spot on the desk, and sat down to read.  He picked up a book from his pile that was marked "The Modern Magic Duelist," opened it up, and began to study for the real world exam that would take place the following day.  After about an hour of reading, Deklos' sight began to blur and his arms and legs began to numb.  He tried to stand up, but found that he could not.  Deklos put his book on his desk, face down, and tried to use his arms to force himself out of his chair, but to no avail.  His eyesight continued to blur, until he couldn't see details at all.  Then, everything grew dark and he felt himself falling.