The One

The dark sorcerer's tale

Nasr and Odessa used to be exactly as the books claimed them to be. Odessa was the light, Nasr the dark. This was reflected as the color of their hair and choice of clothing, as well as the nature of the magic they used respectively. In the beginning, both of them—along with their youngest brother, Cameron—practiced standard magic. They progressed together, their abilities on par with each other. At some point—and nobody was ever quite sure when—Cameron sensed the impending danger and began to purposefully lag behind in his studies—not by much, but just enough to be excluded in the competition that grew fiercer with each passing year. In fact, as soon as he came of age later, Cameron moved out of the house.

But before that, there would be a time when Nasr looked for and obtained a book on dark magic. At the time, it was the only one, and dark magic was still only a theory. The original author of the book had passed away before he could begin to truly test his own theories. With his focus solely on the objective of gaining more power, Nasr did not hesitate to delve head-first into the study of dark magic.

The biggest difference between dark and standard magic was the risk involved in the former. Standard magic was just and balanced. The caster was not exempt from the effects of her own magic. As the simplest example, when Odessa cast a concealment spell on the area confining Nasr, she herself could not enter that area anymore. In contrast, dark magic to a warlock was akin to a servant to his master; its effects were biased and its rules arbitrary. It was harder to master and certain components of dark magic came at a cost.

"You really should stop," Odessa said to her older brother one day.

He had his back to her. Slitting a small cut on his own finger, Nasr let a drop of blood drip onto a dark, night-black haze hanging mid-air before him. The haze was only the size of a fist, but the ominousness that emitted from it was much more than what its visible size suggested. As soon as the blood touched his magic, the haze vanished. Nasr slid an open hand below it and a golden ring dropped onto his palm. His fist closed around it. It was only then that he turned around to look at his sister.

"Don't you think...that it is a little too late, my dearest sister?" he said. While speaking, Nasr slipped the ring onto his finger.

"Is that...?" she began to ask, though she did not finish her question. Odessa's eyes widened in horror upon the realization of what he had just accomplished.

"Indeed. I have become the world's first dark sorcerer," Nasr confirmed.

Nasr ascended from warlock to sorcerer only a few days after Odessa became a sorceress herself. Given the sophistication of dark magic to begin with, his speed implied that he was in fact a more capable sorcerer than Odessa in essence—if he had chosen the ordinary path to sorcery. Since it was dark magic that he chose, however, there was not yet a way to discern who was the more powerful. This was the logic Nasr clung to as he began his conquest for the title of grand sorcerer. The position had been void for a decade then.

Everyone who remained in the family—Cameron was long gone by now—urged him to turn back and "take the right path"; but what was the right path? Who was the right judge of that? These two simple questions he asked, and no one could answer both.

Eventually, there came a time when his parents stood in his way with their very lives, one last attempt to express to him how wrong it was. "You will fall into darkness," they claimed, "Your soul shall never find comfort on this bloody path."

He refuted their claim with another simple question. "What do you know about dark magic that I don't?"

Then, he took their lives and used them to further study his magic. Nasr's denial of love and his devotion to power became Odessa's drive. She vowed then, after that incident, to prevent Nasr from becoming grand sorcerer at all costs.