Saga of 6Nations Birthday Posts

Before all else first:
1) Have a safe journey and have fun Gen!
2) Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and the presents! Am happy :)
3) Thanks Mr Chong for coming down and performing with your guitar!
4) Ok Yong Sheng your description of mansion has convinced me as to the income inequality in S'pore =P
5) Happy Birthday Yiting!
6) Sorry for this rather belated birthday post, got held up due to certain restrictions on use of computer. Pardon me if it's rather low quality, I don't write well under deadlines and without inspiration.
7) This is dedicated to Yiting, and to all the teachers out there.
8) Enjoy.

A single, flickering candle flared within the darkness, bathing the chamber with its inconstant glow as wavering shadows chased each other across the walls. Buffeted as it was by the winds of magic that flowed strongly within the chamber, a small gesture steadied it immediately. Though dawn was slowly breaking over the Academy of Magic, it yet remained dark within the shrouded room.

Ms Tick dressed quickly, preparing herself for a new day. Dark, shoulder length hair swept to either side of a chiseled and well-shaped face, she cut an imposing, and somewhat daunting, figure at the height of 1.8m. She was dressed severely; drab clothing that consisted of the robes of a sorceress draped over a dress that reached all the way to the floor.

Ms Tick gathered her things with a sharp, well executed gesture that brought the threads of magic, which were attached to different objects, together. A rather worn, but lovingly polished, tome of magic. A small jade crystal, her focus of magic. Parchment, pens, and other miscellaneous objects all hovered momentarily in the air, carrying themselves, if it was even possible, with a touch of their mistress’s dignity and pride that seemed to have rubbed off on them.

Amused, she twitched her fingers ever so slightly, and the objects, without hesitation, though with a slight touch of chagrin, disappeared into her bag. Together with her bag, Ms Tick passed gracefully over the floor, flowing smoothly, almost as if her feet did not touch her floor, almost as if she was levitating. Certainly, it was well within her means to keep on a permanent levitation spell, to reach new heights and view things from a different perspective…

A softly whispered command, and Ms Tick summoned the day’s messages in her inbox, which included a well-wrapped package. It was a box, filled with shimmering, multicolored crystal star shards that contained various well-wishes from different people. She exhaled sharply, emotions roiling within her mind. She had forgotten. It was her birthday. Within the overlapping network of stars, a name glowed, and her heart leaped.

Uncontrolled, images flooded her mind, images that she had tried so long to block out. She imagined that face, those eyes…enough.

Her iron discipline kicked in, and her will clamped down on the flow of images. Ms Tick rebuked herself angrily, annoyed at her lapse of control. As Queen Goansoo had dictated when she gave her blessings as Ms Tick left her service, there would be no pairings. No fraternizing with males. No violation of the foremost law of Ulutootkia, the one strict commandment that all adhered to. But yet, those feelings…almost with a sense of wistfulness, she blocked them out, and focused on the stars from her family, from Goansoo, Treesha, all the Ulutootkians who loved her, and whom she was free to love in return. I will do my best, she promised them silently. I will not fail you.

Her birthday. Ms Tick remembered a horoscope from long ago, one she had read in passing and dismissed from her mind. It had been from some blind seer in Ubercoolkia, she remembered vaguely. Such horoscopes, especially from males, were perfunctorily dismissed as flowery nonsense in Ulutootkia. But yet…what had it said? “Those born on this day are thrice blessed indeed, for these are the people who will come to shape the future of the entire world, who will be destined for all the great things in life. Those born on this day, are beyond the shadow of a doubt, pros.”

Indeed. As the sun fully crested the horizon, bathing the entire Academy with its radiance, Ms Tick slowly passed through the door, preparing herself for the momentous event ahead of her, the great task she must complete, the one that she would use to change the world, and the fates of its people, irrevocably. She went to teach.

Teaching, the noblest profession.
---

In another decidedly remote area of the 6Nations, one unexplored, where humans had not set foot on for years, the same sun was unseen, shrouded by dark, swirling clouds that vaguely boomed of thunder. It was late afternoon here, a different time zone from where the Academy was located.

He tilted his face towards the sky, eyes closed, just in time to catch the first, refreshing drops of rain as they pattered upon the ground. The black storm clouds were not oppressive, rather, they were strangely liberating. For the first time in decades, he felt free, as if a great burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders, as if finally discovering that he possessed shoulders he never knew he had.

The drizzle intensified, and all at once, it metamorphosed into a storm of gigantic proportions, one of such magnitude that was seldom seen even within the 6Nations. The raindrops hammered down upon the leaves, and he felt, rather than saw, the lightning flash across the sky. Within seconds, everything was soaked. It was beautiful, magnificent, experiencing the storm in all its raw power and fury. The rain fell so hard and fast that it shrouded the hills with a white curtain in an instant, one that the naked eye could not penetrate.

Not that it all mattered to him anyway. The roar of the storm filled his ears as he looked within, his mind’s eye seeing that which others could not. Within the 6Nations, chaos was only starting its reign. Frantic, panicking citizens hurriedly packed their belongings and fled. Across the scarred, battle-torn land, armies continued to wage their endless wars. Families were torn apart. Politicians schemed and plotted among themselves. The 6Nations were on the brink of collapse, even as the ugly side of humanity reared its monstrous head, as the people struggled desperately in their bid for survival.

So it starts with me, he thought bitterly, a cynical smile twisting his lips. My prophecy, the harbinger of doom, which has eclipsed their sanity. They think they can escape it by fleeing to the ends of Sixan. They cannot. They think they can change it, by conquering the other nations. They cannot. In the end, everyone, including me, will be drawn back in, will all be consumed by this prophecy. In the end, the effects of the prophecy will be so far-reaching, that they will be felt even in other lands, and it will change the fate of the peoples of Sixan irrevocably.

But in the meantime, I’ve got better things to do.

He stood a moment more, and then turned, disappearing into the storm. Seeking, for once, not for the fate of others, but for his future. His destiny. For, unlike what others had come to believe, he was human too, and he shared the same human needs as they did. I'm an escapist. I don't care.

Through the roaring of the storm, he imagined that he heard the Author laughing at him. His own future? Did he presume to think that he could break free from what had been otherwise dictated? The games Fate played were complex. It would not be so easy. He told the Author to screw off.


PS Yay. I'm going to slack off in writing for now. And since Gerard intervened, I've edited some parts (or rather, one particular part).