[Prologue]

Back home, Mellie's life was always fairly boring, and uneventful. Due to her younger brother constantly snatching up the spotlight, she rarely found the inspiration to strive for, well, much of anything. 

At least, that was until she discovered magic. 

​

Now, in Mellie's world, magic was a fairly unheard of concept. The only way that it was experienced by the common folk was through copious amounts of drugs, and only the heirs of well-known families, such as the Seikers, could move past the average mana spark. Still yet, it was a dying practice even in the few circles in which it existed. That being said, Mellie's interest did not get her very far. Not even her brother, Lorne, had any grasp on magic himself - why should she? Despite this, the young woman continued her studies all through high school, until she was contacted by someone by the name of 'Amagla' over sketchy sources.

​

Amagla promised that there was a way to achieve great magical power, all without the use of the harmful drugs and steroids supplied in the slums of her city! The price, however, was fairly hefty, even for a rich kid such as herself. Regardless, she managed to scrounge up the amount over a few month's time, and without a word to anyone but her closest friends, she met this strange person alone to see what all of the fuss was about. Amagla would certainly keep their end of the bargain, but the method was certainly more than Mellie had bargained for.

​

Half way through their shady back-alley dealing, the hooded figure of Amagla whipped out a letter, and gave it to Mellie. When she opened it, the ground beneath her opened up and swallowed her whole, leaving her final words to echo through the cool night air.

​

"WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUCK"

​

..Well, final of that world, anyway. As she would soon come to find, this 'Amagla' person was, in fact, a fairly skilled mage that had been invited to Ulreich some weeks prior. Instead of accepting or denying the invitation, however, they'd been forging the notes and making bank off of gullible people such as her. 

To make matters worse, through fault of either the forger or simply the location of the New World itself, that particular teleportation route was not stable in the least. Quite a few had died en route during previous, less-polished transportations, and because of this, many residual energies clung to Mellie as she fell through space-time, merging with her own like some kind of greedy parasite. She fell into a coma-like state in this warp, only to wake up several months later, when time finally caught up and she was spat out at her destination.

​

Ulreich University.

​

[Chapter 1 - Wonderland Gone Sour]

​

The nature of her arrival wasn't lost on her. After a messy greeting on the Ulreich transportation pad, Mellie quickly decided that she wasn't going to mess with the magics of teleportation for a while during her stay, and she wasn't going to leave the island for a while. With that said, with the trials and tribulations of her arrival behind her, Mellie spent her time in the school in pure awe and excitement. She spent every waking hour of her time delving into the depths of magical research and strictly honing her new magical abilities, meeting and greeting the students of Ulreich in time, and learning about every single tree that presented itself within a book for her. Her rise to power would benefit greatly to this dedication soon enough, but by the short time in which she'd reach the rank of Mage, everything would go sour for everyone in Esmeralda - the newest Manatist included.

​

One day, while she was mulling about in the Practice Chamber to hone her skills, the sky above Kre'nath shredded open and her entire world seemed to fall into a panic. Mages she knew and came to befriend rushed off to lend their hand in what would come to be known as the Day of Grey Skies, while she.. Well, she simply turned a blind eye to it. Not only was she far too weak to consider herself a battle mage at the time, but her own cowardice lead to her holing herself up in the Dorms and continuing her research there, alone, for the time that the invasion lasted, much to the chagrin of many of those she considered her acquaintances at the time. 

​

Of course, she wasn't entirely alone; a few other mages also ended up remaining at Ulreich with her, and during one of her wanderings of the silent school, she met a Psionic mage around her rank at the time that would eventually come to be a good friend of hers. 

​

..But, not right off. A misunderstanding ended with him slapping her butt and her slapping him in the head with a Steel manatism construct that would come to leave a scar - his name was Randaye. True love at first sight, right? 

​

In any case, the invasion soon ended and everyone came back. After many arguments about the stupidity of going into the event, Mellie wasn't friendly with many of those she was prior to the event, perhaps mostly due to her own guilt. She did, however, keep two friends from prior to the event -Claire and Ophelia. There would be a divide between her and them, though. They were among the 'heros' that went to risk their lives in a town.

​

[Chapter 2 - The Divide]

​

sajdo