Alune and I faced opposite each over. With this being the first ritual of the year, the surrounding audience was numerous, which honestly, suited me perfectly, it was exactly what I had been counting on.

 

The nearby instructor announced the start of the match and the crowd went quiet.

 

“Kneel! Do it now, and I’ll remove any presence of who you used to be,” Alune said commandingly.

 

“I kinda like who I am. I’ll have to hard pass on that one, sorry not sorry.”

 

“That was a mercy. If you don’t take it, I’ll keep your mind intact just enough so you can experience everything I’ll do to you. I won’t offer again. Kneel! Beg for my forgiveness!”

 

“Are you deaf? I said no. N. O.”

 

“Fine then. You were warned.”

 

Alune conjured a fireball, no bigger than 5 inches in diameter and sent it hurtling towards me. Judging from her lax defences and the crowd’s lack of suspension, I imagine everyone was expecting this to hit me and the fight to be over in a matter of seconds. Oh, the poor, poor fools.

 

I imitated the spell and sent out my own fireball of identical dimensions. The two combined in the centre of the arena, expanded and then snuffed out leaving a trail of smoke behind. For the second time today, everyone went silent. I was getting good at this.

 

“You… you’re not supposed to have any magical talent. What the hell did you do?!”

 

“Oh come now Alune. No one gets into a university of magic without having some magical talent. And yes, I’ve been bottom ranked all my life, but you people put emphasis on rank way too much. Mine is not a talent you can measure academically.”

 

“But you’ve lost every duel before it started! Why haven’t you shown people you can cast?” The surprise in her voice was real, but there was no worry there. She was genuinely curious which honestly, was kinda sweet.

 

“Nope! I forfeited every duel. There’s a difference. My magic is special, and I’m not going to flaunt it before the biggest event of my life. Now if you’d kindly get on with the duel, I have a familiar to tame.”

 

That one got under her skin. She moved back slightly and started preparing her next spell, that fact it took some time gave me an indication I should probably start preparing my own. Opening my mind, I started listening for the tell-tale signs of magic. And there it was, Alune’s activation sequence. She was preparing a hail of ice daggers. I probed deeper and found a stone wall in her memories which I took and cast just as the daggers materialised and were sent my way. They smashed against the wall as small particles of mist dissipated. The crowd cheered and suddenly, everyone was excited not just for the transformation, but also for the match that was about to take place.

 

Alune was a 4-part elemental apprentice, the best of the best. She could also combine the elements to create sub-categories such as lightning, ice and magma. I, on the other hand, was a mimic. I looked inside people’s minds and temporarily stole their magic and used it as my own. This was great, with this many spectators I had an infinite pool of magic to pull from and my mana reserve, if discovered would have found me attracting quite the attention in today’s earlier orientation. But it wasn’t without its risks. I still had to read the activation sequence and prepare it in real-time, I didn’t master the elements of my foe and so I was always slower. Secondly, the longer the fight went on the more my mind would open; in theory, I’d end up copying spells from everyone around me involuntarily and going out of control. I needed to finish this fast.

 

I conjured a lightning whip as I simultaneously crashed the stone wall. It caught Alune off guard and I managed to entangle her left leg. Thinking I had won, I prepared two quick air blades and threw them in her direction. She defended against them effortlessly and took hold of the whip with her other hand, before sending a much stronger current down the whip. I let go, confident if it hit me, I’d be the one on the back foot.

 

The two of us then moved into a rhythm. Alune was mostly on the offensive but had to pull up short from time to time, whereas I was nearly always on the defensive. Put simply her spell craft was extraordinary. It was quick, potent and left very little room for counter-attacking. Only because I could read her mind did I stand a chance, and that chance was starting to reduce in size. I needed to swap tactics.

 

Dropping all my physical defences I charged at the girl, the next spell was a combo piece; it would hurt, but I knew it wouldn’t knock me out. I searched the surroundings and found who I was looking for, I dived into his mind and 2 seconds later materialised a 3ft sword. The water pellets hit me square in the chest, forcing the air from my lungs, but I kept going, my vision blurring. I lunged forward and almost caused her to topple over, but she recovered, grabbed my hand and threw me over her shoulder where I landed face first. I sucked in a breath, desperate to move, knowing the next spell would be on its way but I was too slow. A lightning whip, the same I had used earlier encased around me, only this one was much stronger and I could feel my energy being pulled from me as I lay there on the ground, squirming. I searched the crowd and couldn’t find her, fuck, where was she! Right, plan B, I searched for another face, delved into her mind and found the spell I was looking for. I let out a sound and the area surrounding Alune started to twist and deform due to the new gravitational force pulling everything down. She let go of the whip giving me enough time to get free, but even this wasn’t enough. Both of her hands were combined as she started chanting something. When I attempted to read what it was the feedback hurt worse than the pellets from earlier and I felt the first level of my mind defences crack. Not good.

 

5 elements, earth, wind, lightning, fire and water materialised around me and then shot out in arcs. I dodged the first couple, but seeing as I was surrounded, I couldn’t dodge them all. They penetrated my skin and I could feel my muscles being punctured as I crashed to my knees. I couldn’t move. The ritual circle started to respond and I knew I was about to lose; the crowd knew it as well. I searched one last time and found another individual with the ability to rewind time. I focused, took the spell and rewound my injuries. The process was excruciatingly painful, but nothing compared to what would happen if I lost. The circle stopped; Alune stood motionless, confused. I jumped at the opportunity copying another spell; blur, as it was called, and closed the gap between the two of us, throwing a scattering of sand in her face. I caught her off guard and managed to blind her. From here I laid on spell after spell, growing in speed as she was forced to take a more defensive posture. I was winning, I was close! She’d either make a mistake or she’d reach the boundaries of the ritual. I pushed, on and on and on, each attack driving cheers from the crowd. My heart stopped, my breathing shallowed, this was it, I was about to win.

 

My mind broke. Voices from the surrounding audience penetrated my mind as I was overwhelmed. Spells started forming in my mind and firing off in all directions. Thankfully the ritual defensive measures held intact, but this played little to my benefit. I screamed, howled; clutched my head and rolled on the ground begging for the voices to stop. They didn’t, if anything they intensified. My vision changed into a series of runes and scripts and I could feel that I was losing myself. I looked at Alune, confident if I could finish this the extra mana would starve of this hunger, but I couldn’t find her. I panicked, tears in my eyes as I clawed my way across the floor, trying to discover where she had gotten to.

 

“You’re a lot stronger than you look. You fought well.”

 

The voice was a whisper. How could she have been so close and I not have noticed? I attempted to cast a spell and was horrified to discover I couldn’t isolate any of them. The chorus was too much and I knew in my heart I had been beaten. I turned to face Alune and started crying; her face was one of pity as she prepared a final spell that would signify my defeat.

 

You know the rest, the ritual detecting I had lost honed in on me and I found out first-hand that yes, it was the most painful thing a person can experience. Despite our earlier exchange Alune was surprisingly gentle, she held me close as I continued to sob, twist and deform.

 

“What would convince you to go to such lengths?”

 

I looked at her, clutching at her clothes as the words were lost before they could form.

 

“Shhhh, you’re mine now. You don’t have to talk for me to find out.”

 

With that, we were transported away from the courtyard. Away from the hundreds of watchful eyes and the pain that was penetrating every cell in my body.

 

 

I was on a beach; the air was clean and the sun bounced warmly off my face.

 

“Nia!”

 

I turned around and looked up to find my sister calling my name as she ran towards me with food in her hands, a smile spread across her face. The two of us sat there giggling as sisters do as we partook in the food. I was happy, without a care in the world. It was the last day I can recall being truly happy.

 

“Tomorrow I’m going to the university.”

 

“Are you excited?”

 

“Honestly I’m really nervous.”

 

“Why? I thought going to the university was a privilege?”

 

“You’re too young to understand Nia, but one day you will. I just hope I’ll be there to help you through it.”

 

The next day she left and I didn’t see her again for 3 years. By the time I did, any trace of my sister was long gone. She had been reduced to a toy, a piece of meat that when you poked would squirm violently as she danced and obeyed any instruction desperate to relieve herself of the pent-up arousal her owner had given her. And she enjoyed this, it was her world! When she looked at me there was no recognition in her eyes. There was no remorse when they took the family home and turned it into a brothel. No remorse when I was cast into the streets to fend for myself. No, the sister I knew died 3 years ago, the creature that had replaced her was nothing other than a puppet. I mourned her that night, built a grave out of what little stones I could find and vowed to gain my revenge. As luck would have it, her owner was a fucker named Edwin Mavis who just so happened to have a sister around my age. I put my plan into motion, even getting down and dirty with criminal organisations some years later to ensure I would end up in the same university as her. My revenge was beginning to take root.

 

By the time I had enrolled in Alune Academy, I knew everything about this girl. Who she hung out with, her daily routine, her weaknesses and strengths. She would be mine, I just had to get through the 3 years.

 

What I didn’t account for was how gentle she was. She was nothing like her brother. She took vulnerable girls and sheltered them; used family fortunes to make their stay comfortable even going as far as to set out plans for their life. And she was gifted, the most gifted girl I had ever met. As time passed my ideals of revenge started to die down. It was her brother I hated, not her, she had done nothing wrong. I would have left it too if not for my encounter with Katie.

 

Katie was another girl like me, who specialised in unregistered magic. Hers was clairvoyance and the two of us got on pretty well. One day I peeked into her mind and mimicked her power which I used on Alune. I had given up on my plan at this point and I simply wanted to see what sort of life she would live. I was horrified at my findings.

 

The number 2 rank, Jason Miyne, was going to challenge her in the upcoming ritual, and what was worse, he was going to win. Alune would be left little better than the husk that had replaced my sister; I couldn’t watch someone go through that again. My plans were already in motion, all I had to do was pick them back up and continue as if I had never stopped. I could save her! Sinslar knows she would be safer under my ownership. I had planned on using Katie’s ability again, but that night she killed herself, I still haven’t figured out how.

 

And that was that. I kept up appearances, planned in secret and counted down the days until our inevitable duel.

 

I was torn away from the memories and placed back into my body.

 

“Oh, you idiot. You had to have known it would always end this way.”

 

I was distinctly aware the pain had considerably decreased. It was still there, but it wasn’t nearly as bad; it felt more like an after echo. I hung close to my owner and hoped I would be treated well.