fantasy

There were only a few hundred mages in the entire world.

And all of them were educated at The Academy.

But Delaney’s parents hadn’t known that, just as they hadn’t known there were mages.

Still didn’t.

And it had taken the headmaster a great deal to persuade her parents to allow her to attend.

Delaney’s parents didn’t know she was a mage.

Nor did they know The Academy specialized in training mages.

Mages had gone into hiding after the Catholic church had started executing “witches” hundreds of years ago.

Not that they managed to kill any mages, and Delaney didn’t want to image the carnage the death mages had brought.

She often wondered who the death mage was that had walked silently behind Martin Luther.

Delaney missed her parents from time to time, though she seemed to be the only one at The Academy who did.

But most of the other students she knew at The Academy had dark mage parents.

They’d been relieved to attend, and their parents had wanted them to achieve the prestige of graduating from the most exclusive school in the country.

Delaney’s parents hadn’t wanted her to go at all.

Both of Adria’s parents were the type of dark mages that senators relied on.

Ruthless. Effective. Deadly.

Delaney’s parents, however, were an elementary school teacher and an environmental engineer.

They were good people. People that picked up stray kittens from the side of the road.

She still wondered how they got stuck with her as a daughter.

Delaney was a dark mage, and like all dark mages, her specialty was death.

Some death mages specialized in weapons that could wipe out whole cities.

Others in plagues that could destroy whole countries.

Still others in economic crisis that threatened the world.

And they all ruled from the shadows. Never the men and women in power, but those that controlled the men and women in power.

Delaney had worked with the other types of mages.

The all had their uses, both at The Academy and after they graduated.

Fire mages made terrific vulcanologists, arson detectives, and foundry engineers.

Electricity mages could make computers do unbelievable things.

Water mages were increasingly in demand as ocean levels rose.

But she was a dark mage.