Chapter 1
A Quick History Lesson
School. An idea that adults came up with to keep children away from how so they don't have to worry about their offspring setting it on fire. 'Least that's what my uncle told me. And me personally? I didn't think to question him. Much. Not out loud at least.
The first day he sent me to school I was more than annoyed. Frankly, I remember crying the whole way there. What? I was six and that was eight years ago. He'd already sent me to three different schools, all of which expelled me for different reasons. The first school kicked me to the curb because I was a smart ass. Again, I was six and school was cutting into my cartoon time and I refused to let anything cut into my cartoon time. I was smart like that.
Anyway, school. Yeah it was around lunch time when the teacher served us curry rice with a side of steak and for desert they offered custard. The other kids didn't complain, I mean why would they? Free food. I, on the other hand was on a mission to get out of dodge as quickly as possible. It didn't matter how, I just wanted out. I tried jumping the fence but needless to say the fence was "anti child jumping " or "child jumping proof" if those are actual phrases. Regardless, the fence was inescapable so I jumped to the next best thing.
My specialty, if you would.
"Teacher, I'm allergic to rice." I squeaked, my voice still brimming with innocence.
"Oh," the teacher gasped. "I'm so sorry Timmy. Here, I'll put the rice away and find you some bread. Think you can eat it with the curry?"
"I would but…." I thought to myself for a minute. "I can't eat glucose."
"Oh. Then you'll have to make due with the curry? Think you can do that?"
"Honestly Miss Tommysin. I'd rather not. I don't trust food provided to me by a pre-extinct generation."
"Pre-extinct," she muttered. "Oh, Timmy. You cheeky little rascal you. Firstly, it's 'Thompson'. And secondly, remember what I told you about calling women old?"
"That I'll force you to face the reality that you might never get married and have children despite being the perfect age for that and now you feel uncomfortable about yourself that's why you're attempting to increase your value as a marital partner by practicing your otherwise questionable cooking skills on your students?"
Yeah, she cried hard that day. So hard I'm fact, that her parents came in to pick her up. My ex-teacher was being picked up by her parents. Thinking that alone made me feel weird. Til I realized that the poor woman was in fact a poor twenty years old girl who was doing her college practicals. I felt bad for like three hours before ultimately deciding to move with my life.
"I wonder if she got married though." I muttered out loud.
As I stared out the window, I felt a slight rock knock against the side of my head. I pulled my gaze from the window back into the classroom. Fifteen pairs of eyes were locked on me from almost every angle in the classroom, teacher's eyes included.
"Finally decided to join us, Mr Strife?" the teacher asked, setting her book to the desk.
Quick, think of something!
"Because.... Folk Lore is based on real events?"
"Excuse me?"
I stole a quick glance at the board behind her. She had scribbles all over. Some of the words I could barely make out, partially due to my horrendous vision but mostly because of her bad handwriting. But besides the scribbles I saw what I could only assume was an attempt at a sword drawing. A long one too, with big glistening sparkles shining off it. Well, chalk drawn sparkles- whatever, the sword was important. Very important. Almost, "Legendary" important.
"Is that the legendary sword, Excalibur?" I tried to change topics.
"It is. What about it?"
"It's the sword that was used by the legendary king of the long lost nation of Britain?"
"Go on…." She prompted.
"It's a super powerful sword. I mean not in the literal sense but in the historic sense. It was a symbol of the great King Arthur's legend and authority. It's the ultimate symbol of his legacy."
"We've already covered all that, Mr Strife. What I wanna is why the Great King Arthur is considered to be "Legendary" instead of "Mythical"."
"Oh, that's easy." I snickered. "It's because he was mortal."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I mean, King Arthur is awesome, yeah but when the days done he's still a mortal. Figures like Zeus on the other hand…"
"Would be considered to be "Celestial, instead of "Legendary", right?"
"Yeah."
"Good." She nodded to herself. "I'm impressed you managed to gather all that just by looking at my impression of the Excalibur. Well done."
"Wha-….. how did you?"
I'd barely settled my butt cheeks to my seat when she call me out on my fraudulent act of paying attention. Three days into this school and the woman already a bone to pick with me. And I hadn't even done anything yet, which was saying something. I decided to not push the issue any further and sat quietly as she continued her explanation.
"In total; there are five classes," she began. "Common, Rare, Legendary, Folkish and finally Mythical."
Right. History time.
I live on a flat earth. According to the history books, it was a sphere back when people were somewhat content with their lives. That is until something took that world and carved it into three. That's right, the Earth was cut into three flat segments. From that separation came the event that changed Earth's history forever. Others called it the Dividing, most called it the cleansing but the entire species considered it to be the Rapture.
From the Rapture, came a great change for the human race. The first major change was the demotion on the food chain. Humanity was once the pinnacle of the chain, but now they fall subject to a bigger, stronger predator.
Predators that were nothing but folklore or sufficient deterrents for naught children.
I doubt anyone would take the Boogeyman as a serious threat since it was generally categorized as an old wives tale. A tale that was supposed to make mean kids behave.
I could only imagine the disaster that befell the world when that same folklore came to life and attack the first major city. The Rapture didn't just split the world in three, it gave life to legend. After the first Boogeyman, thousands upon thousands more mythical creatures crawled from the depth of the newly flattened Earth and made a feast of the humans.
Humanity was nearly wiped from extinction until one human reached for the highest peak. Some say she was calling to the Heavens, others believed the Heavens called to her. My two cents? She was totally running away.
Back to history; after reaching the highest peak in the Earth, this woman, Althea, called to the Heavens for help and in response they sent their first Angel.
As it turns out, the Rapture didn't just give life to demons, Onis, goblins, imps and such. It also gave life to the opposing side of the mythical spectrum. Sort of, "if there's a Yin then there's gotta be a Yang" type of experience.
From then on, humanity found a way to fight back against Demons. After the defeat of the first major wave, Althea struck a contract with the Angels.
"Please lend us your strength. Protect us from the monsters that would seek to devour us and take our freedom. We have not much to offer, only our hearts."
"'Then your hearts shall suffice.' The first Angel declared."
While I was off drifting into a needless history lesson, our teacher was more or less recounting the history of the world to the entire class. The other students looked at her in a state of awe, almost mesmerized by her lesson, or maybe it was just her demeanor? In either case, my fellow adolescence was lost in the lesson while I was lost on how much time I had left to go home.
"Class dismissed!" she declared, nearly two seconds before the bell rang.
"Finally." I sighed.
While the students began packing their bags, I was locked in place by the feeling that I was being watched. To my dismay, none of the other students were staring at me, rather they all formed small clicks and scurried out of the class like happy little mice.
"Timothy," the teacher called. "A word."
"Departure."
"Funny. Sit down."
"Ugh…do we have to do this now?"
"Yes, now. About your registry."
Of course. There's one more detail I forgot to mention during my whole history lesson. When Althea struck a contract with the first Angel, it wasn't just for herself. It was for the entire human race, meaning that every human had their hearts pre-registered for a contract with an angel the moment they're conceived. In order for a human to fulfill that contract and summon their Angel, they need a Catalyst, a sort of gateway to connect the human consciousness to the Heavens and call on their Angel.
For over three hundred years, since the day of Althea's contract, humans have been born with their own Catalyst. All except me.
Simply put, I may be the only human in the world without a Catalyst. Which means that I, Timothy Strife, will never have my own Angel.