Korah had never known his parents. He had been found, abandoned on the steps of a small orphanage on the outskirts of the city. The nuns who ran the orphanage had taken him in, but life had never been easy for him.He was small for his age, with scrawny arms and legs and a shock of unruly black hair. The other children teased him relentlessly, calling him names like "runt" and "mouse". Korah tried to ignore them, but it was hard. He felt like an outsider, like he didn't belong anywhere.Korah had always known that he was different from the other children. He had no magic, no special powers that the other children had. In the city of Arindale, where magic was commonplace, being without it was a curse. The children who had magic could control the elements, summon creatures, and even fly. They were the elites, the chosen ones, and Korah was not one of them.Despite his lack of magical abilities, Korah was determined to make something of himself. He worked hard at his studies, and the nuns

The chirping of birds and insects and the sweet scent of fresh dew on grass roused korah from his slumber. He had spent the night in deep meditation, trying to be in tune with his powers. Before standing up, he rubbed his eyes lazily and just took out time to reminisce about his life so far. He was going to be fifteen years in two months time, he had tasted the good, the bad and the ugly in his almost fifteen years of existence. He thought back to when he was bullied, neglected and mocked, he thought of the kindness of the nuns, the principal and his new found friends. He was happy to have been given a second outlook of life due to his lucky encounter with the magic artifact in the cave without which he would still be a worthless orphan who knew nothing about magic.After spending a little more time in bed, he stood up and started the day with breathing exercises, meditation and brushing up his magic skills.Today, the principal was going to have a long session with all the students o

Early the next morning, korah jumped up from bed with a start, visibly disturbed. Apparently, he was plagued with a very disturbing nightmare throughout the night. It used to be a common occurrence while he was still at the orphanage, but since he got to the mage academy, he has been sleeping better and had totally forgotten all about the nightmares which always seemed to take away his sleep every night. Korah rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the remnants of the dream. He couldn't quite remember what it was about, but he knew it had been terrifying. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down, reminding himself that it was just a dream and it wasn't real.He got out of bed and started his usual morning routine, trying to push the nightmare out of his mind. As he dressed up, he tried to recall if anything significant had happened yesterday that could have triggered the nightmare. But he couldn't think of anything. Korah made his way to the training hall, his mind still fog