Free A Mage's Power (Journey to Chaos) by Brian Wilkerson Page A

read aloud. “From the
Grisly Brothers Collection: 'Originally, there was nothing but Lady Chaos.’” The
first page pictured a vast sea of golden-brown. It moved on the page like a
real ocean. Magic in children books . . .I wonder how it works . . .
    “Lady Chaos bore a son whom she named ‘Order’ . . .” Eric turned the page: a grey form rose above the sea. “. . . and immediately
panicked because she couldn't nourish him; her milk burned him and without it
he would starve.”
    The third page showed a third creature; a tree sprouting
from the Sea of Chaos. Its roots were hidden in the waves and its branches
reached off the page.
    “The solution came with the birth of her second child,
whom she named ‘Noitaerc.’ The Great Tree drank its mother's milk and diluted
it into a form its older brother could swallow. Order showed his appreciation
with a hug.”
    A fourth page showed the grey mass wrapped around the tree.
    “ The branches of Noitaerc flowered. Its fruit and leaves
gave birth to more life.” A fifth page showed a close up of the Tree; round
fruit and angular leaves hung from its branches.
    “And within these fruit grew the universes, where our own
home, Tariatla, resides.” A sixth page showed a close up of a fruit with
people inside.
    “The milk of Lady Chaos, the water of the Sea, flows
through Noitaerc to our world and keeps us alive. Then it flows out to keep
Order alive. Finally, it returns to the Sea.” A seventh page showed a chart
of the Flow of Mana. “The cooperation of the First Family maintains the
balance of the cosmos.”
    The penultimate page contained three words: “Happily Ever
After?” The last page told the moral about how mortal families need to “maintain
the balance” of their homes and such.
    The other “Grisly Brothers” tales he was more used to:
gruesome encounters of humans with the supernatural. They covered a range of
subjects from philosophy to history to math. If I heard a story about Tasio
tricking a pair of humans out of their food, I might've been more interested in
math as well .
    When those nine days ended, Aio shoved his head into a book
and closed it on him. While he laughed, Eric spun around and whacked him on the
head with it. This only made him laugh more. Eventually, they were kicked out
of the library.
    “What are you doing here, Aio?”
    “We need back-to-school supplies,” Aio cheered, “Our first
day is tomorrow!”
    To Eric, school had been a string of bad experiences. Vivid
flashbacks haunted him all day: friend to no one, punchline to everyone, the
only student with Legal-Guardian/ Teacher conferences.
    Aio put an arm around his shoulder. “It'll be great! We'll
make friends and pass notes in class and sit together at lunch!” Eric couldn't
decide whether to burrow his enthusiasm or be sickened by it.
    The Otherworlder was in for a surprise when he arrived. The
school building looked like a Threan one: several stories tall, made of brick
with a lot of windows. There was even a basketball court in the
playground. Waiting in his classroom was another shock. Of the ten human heads
present, each was a different color. There were kids with black, brown, and
blond hair, but also orange, blue, and purple. One boy even had bright pink
hair. Poor guy.
    “Tariatla is home to countless varieties of creatures . . .”
     Eric took his seat just in time for the Mana Studies lecture.
He'd come on a good day; the class would be spent on a review for a test he
wouldn't have to take. Some students zoned out, others paid rapt attention, and
the rest were somewhere in between; just like his own school. In fact, he saw
so many similarities between Threan and Tariatlan schools that he stopped
trying to find differences. Then, a mermaid in a glass tank floated into the
room.
    “ . . .But they can be divided into one of two categories:
Sapient or Monster,” the teacher continued. “Who can tell me the difference
between the two?”
    A blue-scaled lizard