The Editors

Chapter 2

"Come on," Victoria cried out, grabbing my wrist with bruising force and yanking me forwards. We ran through the forest, narrowly avoiding trees and roots jutting out of the ground.

We burst out into the streets to see blue lights flashing and drones flying through the air. Alarms were blaring as they circled houses and spun above the road. Following the crowd of panicked people, we started to head towards the council building, shoulders knocked painfully into mine.

Alarms and red lights had started to become a common occurrence, with the rebels growing stronger and planning more attacks. It meant stay indoors, and I would watch through my bedroom window as members of The Guard ran out in teams, armed to the max.

Blue lights though, signalled an emergency announcement, which was something that I'd never heard of happening before.

"What do you think this is about?" Victoria yelled above the sirens, eyes scanning the crowd wildly, taking in the chaos.

"Probably something to do with the rebel attacks, maybe they're issuing a warning?" I yelled back. Something about this though... it felt off.

We stopped walking and stood outside the council building as our leader Kryton, his wife, and Incantor Larson stood on the balcony above.

Incantators. Just a whisper of the name was enough for people to bow their heads in respect. They were people blessed with extraordinary magic, and were the reason that our universe still existed.

Thousands of years ago, our universe was dying.

Planets gave off energy waves that sustained the universe, but the universe was ever expanding and there simply weren't enough planets to keep it going. Tears formed in the universe that originally sucked in any debris nearby, but soon grew and ended up draining entire planets of their energy. We called them black holes.

We learned about them in school, young children sitting with straight backs and clasped hands resting on desks in front of them while looking at pictures of screaming disfigured people and watching videos of whole cities crumbling to the ground.

Drought, infection, starvation, insanity, and death.

The Incantators of the time all gathered together and created a special kind of magic, pooling together all ancient spells, potions, and powers at their disposal to create an enchantment, one that changed the course of history.

Imagine your favourite book; the characters, the world they live in, the events that happen, all of it. Imagine that those books became reality, real and whole words that existed somewhere out there in the vast expanse of space, of our universe. That's what the enchantment did, it all became real after that day.

Authors created stories, carving whole other worlds into existence filled with people, cities, creatures, and magic beyond imagine. They wrote incredible tales and the Incantors brought them to life, and so, the universe was sustained. Now the rebels were threatening to destroy it.

"Attention!" Leader Kryton bellowed, silencing us.

"Before we make the announcement, we request all authors and guards from groups A-1 to A-4 and G-1 to G-4 to make their way to the grand hall."

"That's us," Victoria said, eyebrows furrowing. She turned to look at me. "Why would they call authors and guards in training during an emergency announcement?"

"Better find out," I answered as we started to weave through the crowd, knocking shoulders and elbowing our way out.

After we had finished wading through the crowd, we walked into the great hall, and even though I'd seen it a handful of times, it never failed to take my breath away.