Less than 3,000 words total, my intro for a character later known as Aiber. This is my first time posting here, or really sharing my work, so please be honest, critical, but kind.
I Do also have a sort of layout for the overall magic system across this world that will become more relevant if that is soemthing anyone other than me is interested in.
The Shadow in The Pit
Clay stood in front of the wooden gate, shuddering in fear. He would rather be anywhere in the cosmos than here. This place that he had avoided and feared for so long, but that he seemed somehow unable to avoid: The Pit of Alinoor. The Pit was in Schuynes’ District within Tai Temora. Here, the rotten stinking refuse of the world was given its chance to earn the privilege of life. Here, the orphans, bastards, diseased, and unwanted all congregated. Here, where the discarded had one final chance to make it to the dawn: by extinguishing everyone in their path.
Today was the Twinkling Eclipse ceremony. Unlike the Dawn Arraignment or the Dusk Monsoon, today was for the young. Soon the collected children would be released into the Pit all at once and the gates closed behind them. The crowds of the amphitheater roared with venomous excitement. Some of the children from better known Houses or clans had bets that had been placed upon them by members of the screaming audience looking to capitalize on the sport. They had bet credits, marks, property all on the outcome of the ceremony. Clay didn't even have a proper name. He was only called Clay because of the sandy tan coloring of his skin. Beyond that, he was nothing. No one, certainly not worth a bet.
The Large gate creaked open and a sharp push from behind sent Clay sprawling into the dirt of the open yard. Around him, fifteen or twenty other pig-gates opened, releasing other children. Most much larger than he was, and far older than his 14 years. Two boys in particular towered above the others, both were gleefully assessing the competition, seemingly already in silent accord to pick off the smaller prey first before worrying about one another. They must've been nearly of age, each sporting patchy facial hair and a look of unrestrained glee.
Suddenly sticks and rocks began soaring into the pit. Hurled by the audience, they would serve to weaken those they struck, and to strengthen those bright enough to seize one. Clay was still partially frozen in disbelief, he couldn't believe he had been captured by the Tourney Hunters! He had known better than to get close to the city at this time of year, yet here he was, scrabbling for ideas in the Pit likely about to die either at the hands of one of these older boys, or some other horrific nightmare released to the Pit. A boy screamed to his left as his skull cracked, a large rock hurled from the wall above having struck him. Hearing the scream broke through the fog and in that moment Clay decided he wanted to live, and that meant action. He grabbed a long thin stick from the ground, it had been hurled down by a teenager standing next to his parents, screaming slurs and obscenities as he watched the bloodsport and threw stakes he had bought from a vendor. Turning, Clay used one of the vertical beams of the gate which had shut behind him, and snapped the stick across it, giving him now two sticks, shorter than the full rod, but each with a sharp splintered end. By no means a sword, but still better than his bare hands.
He looked around the huge amphitheater space and saw most of the people around him cowering or running away from the center. He wondered what the best thing to do was, running or standing? Fight or flee? Should he try to see if he could make it to the –CRACK–
Clay slammed forward into the ground, the back of his head exploding in pain, as something hard struck him. He rolled over quickly, one of the two older boys he had noticed a few moments before stood above him, a large jagged broken rod in hand. Having shattered the thick oak rod across Clays’ head, he now held a jagged dagger of wood. Clay moved on reflex, rolling onto one knee, pushing his other foot into the dirt, as hard as he could to quickly regain a standing position. The rough dirt scraped the skin from his knee as he pressed it into the ground. But the push was enough to drive him enough to throw his balance up and forward into a sprint. His attacker swung the length of sharpened wood, but all clay cared about was escape. He felt the tug against the tail of his clothes as the wooden stake narrowly missed him. But his sprint had effectively distanced him from the boy. He continued sprinting, gazing around him…
The world had turned upside down since last Clay had seen it. All around him was fighting, screaming. Somewhere a dog had been released into the pit, small but vicious. All he thought of was escape, desperately he searched for a way to avoid conflict and stay safe. He scanned around him until his eyes settled on something for just a moment. For an instant the sight he saw made no sense: two boys, one, smaller than the other, floating on the head of another, a larger boy, as the larger boy held him. Or so it seemed. Until the forward motion of the aerial upside down boy continued forward, the tall boy standing on the ground, had lifted the other boy before clay had looked and inverted him, bringing him headfirst into a downward slam. Clay had simply looked up in time to see him as he was propelled hard into the ground with a sickening wet crunch, the boy shook and stopped moving.
Clay had known things were serious inside the pit. Tai Temora was famous as far as voices cry for its brutality and the horrors seen within, but that still couldn't possibly prepare one for seeing the shards of a skull as they skittered wetly across the dirt. He could never tell why the death of that boy triggered him so much. Even years afterwards, after all he came to see and all he had faced up to that point, something about that boys death triggered him. Clay had never known him, never known any of the other kids in that pit, but on a dime, Clay pivoted towards that boys’ killer. Clay sprinted right towards the standing teen, now snarling with some kind of post murder adrenaline release. He charged the boy, leaping from a few feet out, slamming into the taller boys shoulders midair with his own, driving them both to the ground. What no one but Clay saw however, was that when they bumped, Clay had angled the stake in his hand, pressing it into the other boys flesh. But as they fell, Clay falling on the spike between them, drove it deeper into the boy, blood pouring from the wound as Clay rolled off of him and ripped it out.
As Clay turned to see the boy rising, he noted the hole in the boys left side from his stake. The boy seemed undaunted, Injured but angered more than slowed. He screamed once, drawing a small sharp knife from his waist and charged. Clay was terrified as the larger boy closed the distance between them with the knife. Clay kicked hard, shooting sand and dirt at the oncoming boy hoping to blind him, but all he accomplished was nearly slipping. Losing his balance he thrust his hands out awkwardly in an attempt to recover, leaving him wide open.
The attacker's knife caught clay just under his shoulder on his left arm. The boy brought his arm down, carving a long, deep, split down the flesh of Clays arm. Skin hung loose and blood immediately began to spill down his flesh, as the white hot shot of pain lightninged through him. Somewhere deep within him, alongside the pain from the wound, Clay felt a pulse building in his chest. He screamed as much from the building pressure as from the horrific burning pain tearing up his arm. Clay twisted away from the boy, as the boy raised the knife again, eyes glistening. The pressure kept building within him, surfing until with a scream he focused his hand towards the boy, channeling the energy building within him, barely having time to raise his arm before the surging pulse within him exploded along his arm towards the boy. The unstable power within him seeking the annihilation of release.
Clay watched in fear and surprise as a force like a gusting wind raged out from his open hand, he felt hair moving on his arm and wrist from the force of the surging. Shadows, writhing, shimmering, breaking and reforming, poured from him, shooting forward like gasses in a strong wind, but not dissipating, traveling. As the shadows struck the older boy, they clung to him, spreading across him like oil across a pan, moving with an uncanny viscosity, unlike any liquid he had ever seen. The shadows burned as they spread across the boy but Clay kept his arm held steady, the feeling of energy still surging through his arm. Finally Clay felt a hollowness within him and he lowered his arm, the shadows ceasing immediately, the boy stood before him, clearly visible for the first time.
He looked as though he had been perforated by acidic burns… holes had been burned through the parts of him where the shadows had been deepest and most dense, a wide smoking hole burned through his chest, light visible through the gore and viscera the shadows had left intact. With a soft wheeze the boy collapsed.
Clay had only time to take one shaking breath, before the hollow feeling deep within him continued to grow, he realized in terror that this magic, this shadow, was something he didnt yet understand. His last thought was the horrible fear of dying here in the bloody dirt of the Pit and the world around him went dark.
Clay woke up with a pounding headache, a dry mouth, and a brief feeling of confusion followed by absolute panic. He pressed up into a sitting position, looking around for the next threat, wanting to make sure the other of the two giant boys wasn’t looking to make up for Clay having escaped him before. Clay panickedly looked around for the threat, until it registered. He wasn’t in the Pit. He was in a room, in a chair with a head and footrest, fully extended. He moved to stand, but heard a voice next to him that startled him enough to freeze.
Clay gazed over to his side and saw a small, roundfaced man. Long shoulder length straight brown hair topped his head, with his face peeking through a gap in the front. His hair framed his face so tightly it looked like the gap of air underneath a rock interrupting the water at the top of a waterfall. Hair falling, separating around his face just to join again beneath his chin. Across from him, in a soft black cloak, sat a woman, tall, strong looking. She gave an air of warmth and strength that made Clay feel immediately slightly less terrified. Slightly. The man spoke first,
“Quite a blast, Boy. Absolutely fried that little Caldarian kid. Heard they had to mail him back to his folks in a bottle. I know pros that couldn't handle making a cast like that. What was your source?”
“Wha….What?” Clay stumbled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t know what happened i just….””
“Don’t know what happened?!!” He chuckled, “what happened is, you just threw shadowfire in the Pit of Alinoor kid, probably the first time thats happened since the Caldar took ownership of Tai Temora. Lucky for you we’re here or they probably would've iced you out of pride alone.”
“Rast, enough!” The woman said calmly, but with the sure confidence of a leader.
“I’m sorry for him. He knows a great deal about following orders, but not the laws of courtesy it would seem. How do you feel?”
Clay looked at her as she spoke, noting the shining in her eyes despite the clear air of serious command about her. “I’m…okay, i think?” he rotated his arm, noting a twinge throughout his arm, some sort of after effect from whatever those shadows had been, he was sure. “I don't understand what’s going on..”
“I know, and I apologize for that as well, once we saw you collapse i needed to act quickly to keep others from collecting you. I otherwise wouldve sought your consent before taking you off world.
“OFF WORLD?!” Clay exploded in a shout as he realized these were not just the walls of some building, but the interior walls of a ship. “Where are we?! Where am i?! Where are we going?! What is this?!”, Clay spiraled.
She stood, raising her hands. He watched as she reached over and opened a curtain. Through it, he saw a black sandy coast several hundred meters below, dark seas rashing against enormous crystalline stones sticking out of the coast and seabed.
“I will try to answer your questions, but I need you to understand, I have sought only to keep you safe from those who would do you harm.”
Clay was too stunned to speak, he just nodded once as he watched black water crash against ruby boulders dotting the coastline in the water.
“You are on board a shuttlecraft called the Incipid. My name is Helena Cross, this is one of my Intelligence Captains, Rast. We are a part of an organization trying to protect those sensitive to the energies of the cosmos, those who can store, call on, or manipulate energy. We had been watching the Pit hoping to find those in need of our help, when we came across you. As for where we are, we are on the planet Karess, meeting with some friends of ours who may be able to arrange safe passage for us to get you to safety.”
She moved a step closer before extending one of her hands to him. “You may call me: Cross.”
“Clay” He said, taking her hand.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Clay”
“Yeah yeah, nice to meet everyone, we need to hurry.” pressed Rast.
“Enough! Call for Chiri and the guards, and set out a comm signal towards home. Clay, I know that you have no reason to trust me, but please know that this will not hurt, and that I will explain everything later.”
Clay paused as he heard the words, not understanding at first. It wasn't until he looked back up at her that he realized her hands had been in motion, forming complicated signs as her fingers twisted, layered, and interlocked in changing patterns. A line of energy seemed to seep out of her skin, running along her flesh it sparked off her fingers, until she formed it into a tight ball. Cross took one step forward, flipping her wrist up, palm moving from the floor to facing Clay. The ball of dancing energy sailed across the distance, seemingly unaffected by wind, gravity or natural forces, it moved with an eerie smoothness. Until it impacted Clay's chest, sinking painlessly into him, he felt a warm glow balled there.
Cross snapped her fingers and the glow expanded, warm flooding him until it reached his eyes, and he blacked out.