On any normal day in the city of Nephtis, one might find all sorts of bizzare scenarios like people zooming through the skies faster than lightning, bricks flying around and buildings seemingly constructing themselves, flames burning through fields but instead of destroying, they left the plants healthier and nourished in their wake. But despite all that, the citizens went about their day seemingly unaffected by the chaos around them.
Although it might seem quite strange to an outsider, but all the dreamlike chaos of Nephtis was actually quite structured. On a closer look, one will notice that not only were the citizens unfazed, they also seemed to be able to predict, or even understand the events happening around them, the magic was not only around them, it was in fact coming from them.
Every human living in Nephtis had one thing in common, the presence of a mana core, sometimes called a Magic core. The core allowed them to detect and to some degree, control the world's mana in various ways. The humans with functional mana cores were known as the Awakened.
In the normal world where no knowledge of magic existed, when a human awakened, they were brought to Nephtis and were given guidance to go through the change. Awakening of a core was considered to be random as it could happen to anyone but generally, it happened only to humans aged 12-25. Also, the direct descendants of Awakeners were usually sure to have their mana cores awaken.
After the awakening, the core will give the awakeners different aspects. The aspects could be combat oriented, could be related to healing, or flying or telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and many more. Therefore, in simpler words, Nephtis was a city of Awakeners, the people of Magic.
In one of the grand castles of Nephtis, a hooded figure was hurriedly moving down a wide set of dimly lit stairs, with superhuman speed. The figure was surrounded by a strange dense smoke which followed their every movement without trailing behind, despite the superhuman speed. At the end of the stairs, was a basement, which was a laboratory of sorts, with glass vessels filled with eerie potions arranged along the walls.
An old man, dressed in a dark robe, his face hollow but eyes sharp and calculating, was hunched over a bubbling potion which looked creepily similar to blood. There was a peculiar chillness in the room, despite it being the middle of summer.
"Professor" the hooded figure greeted the old man, smoke leaking out with every word from under the veil covering his face."I have found the boy."
"Careful! Dear Nox" the professor hissed in a low, snake-like voice, without even turning around to face his visitor. "The boy you speak of so casually is the prince of the City of Magic."
"Are the rumors reliable?" Nox replied in a similar low and chilling voice.
"Rumors are for common folk. I make my plans based on information and research, not something as shallow and fleeting as rumors." hissed the professor. He raised his arm and tendrils of the potion he was stirring rose above the cauldron, forming vague patterns barely visible in the dim light of the basement."Where did you locate him?"
"The mundane world" Nox replied. "The disturbance I detected was caused a fortnight ago, in a city called New York."
"Ah..it has been a while then." said the professor."You must reach him before the Order does."
"And then what?" asked Nox.
"Then you bring me his blood!"