The Blade Wielders: The Provectus Wielder

Prologue

Before Nycto March rose to the top, first he had to fall as far as he could go. Before Nycto March was Nycto March, he was Nycto Burwell.

Nycto Burwell - the outcast, the freak.

He had always been weird, that much was true. People avoided him. Maybe, in the end, that was what made him decide he did not want to join a branch of magic. He'd repel them. He'd much rather remain as a Blade Wielder.

After Nycto refused to go through with his sacred Halony ceremony and pick a branch of magic, his parents disowned him. They never understood Nycto, of course. The only person that ever showed him any kindness was his brother, Martin.

Martin Burwell, like his parents, never knew what Nycto was studying in the years leading up to his Halony. He didn't know that Nycto was slowly but surely becoming aware of the ways in which he could place the whole of the Magiworld under his thumb. All he knew was that he loved his brother, despite his oddities, and he knew that he couldn't just leave him to fend for himself on the streets when their parents kicked him out.

With the help of his brother, Nycto survived many more days to come, managing to find sanctuary in Ropnen. By the time Nycto became Nycto March, he had fallen in love and lost his love in the same year. Her name was Lexi. Lexi March. He left his research behind for her, and just as quickly picked it back up to avenge her after she was killed by a rogue gang containing a single member of every magical race. He knew he would find a way to control every single race in the Magiworld, one day. He knew that soon he'd make them all his army, and they'd kneel for him as payment for the death of the only girl he ever loved.

Nycto Burwell became Nycto March and was never once traced back to his parents. Nycto Burwell became Nycto March and never once looked back.

His mother died first. He received a letter from Martin telling him the news. A year later, his father followed in her footsteps.

"You can come home," Martin said in the letter about their father. "Your misdeed is old news now. And you are still a member of this family. Come home and meet Julieanne."

It made Nycto sick that his brother had fallen in love. Why did Martin get everything? If he could have one more day with Lexi...

Reluctantly, Nycto returned to Tergaron, a different man from when he left. Martin and Julieanne welcomed him back. And while a few members of Tergaron would see Nycto and look at him with disdain and disgust, Martin was mostly right: Nycto's crime had mostly been forgotten. People thought him crazy and left him alone, stewing amongst his books.

But Nycto never stopped. He worked and worked and worked, determined to find a path to travel down that would permit him his vengeance. He worked with members of different magical races that he charmed into camaraderie. He worked with anyone that decided he was worth trusting.

They were wrong to trust him, of course. Because when Nycto discovered the process he dubbed Vitalysis - the process that allowed him to exercise the free wills of magical races like a puppet master - they were the first people he took control of.

Not everyone was capable of learning what Nycto learnt. Maybe it was just a bit of good luck on his part that he possessed the ability to become someone extraordinary.

He tested the theory on other angry Wielders that he learnt were like him and had lost everything, and they all failed miserably. Clearly, only a select few would be lucky enough to become a Provectus Wielder - a being that could use magic second-hand through controlling others with the simple flick of a hand: through the Vitalysis process. He disposed of the Wielders he tested on and settled with the fact that maybe he would never find anyone else like him.

Life went on. Julieanne fell pregnant a year after getting married to Martin. They named the little boy Castor. And Nycto, who had never known love until he lost it, was consumed by it when he looked at his nephew. And the same feeling followed a year later when Lewis Burwell was born.

He was there, always, as a member of the family lucky enough to watch the boys grow up. They adored him almost as much as he loved them. He told them stories by the fire and cracked jokes, like any uncle would do. He became a better man because of these boys, who always believed he'd been good.

And then, one day, when Castor was 7 years old, he showed signs of being like Nycto. Of being a Provectus Wielder, with the capacity to learn the Vitalysis process. The strength he showed in training was like nothing anyone had ever seen before, and everyone seemed to fawn over him, like they could find all the riches in the world in the voice of a single boy. 

Nycto studied Castor over and over again. He was almost certain Castor possessed Provectus Wielder abilities by the time he turned 10. He stood out so much more than Lewis, who was shy, terrible with people and, while good in training, always overshadowed by Castor. He was sure that Castor would follow in his footsteps if he suggested that he help Nycto in overpowering every race of magic in the Magiworld. Both boys trusted him completely. He was their hero.

Nycto March would realise in years to come, after he disappeared into thin air and made his family believe he was dead, that he could not have been more wrong about Castor. He would realise that he had been studying the wrong nephew.

Lewis Burwell was a Provectus Wielder. And a powerful one at that.

What Nycto didn't know was that Lewis would be his downfall.