text: Crowding the gateway edge of the town's graveyard five boys peered inside at a sixth, larger boy, picking weeds around the stones. They watched with petty, angry, eyes as he moved with a languid grace, his hunched form strange and his dull eyes gray like the overcast. Darius was coming though, they knew, to put an end to this overgrown freak-show and hopefully drive him right out of town. They'd have done it themselves, they'd all agreed nodding, but it was much easier to let Darius do it. He was a mage's son after all, and already trained in fire magic. The magic of war. 'There he is!” One of the smaller boys hissed, pointing as the blond boy approached from behind them. “Sush up, idiot!” Another boy whispered with a jab. “Or Saed will hear us and know who's coming!” There was the smoke-like silence that drift through the cemetery as Darius approached. It twist round statues and smoothed down the grass. Spring had just recently taken root and so the budding greens were still mixed with sodden browns. Saed moved onto the next statue while they watched, his rough hands dragging a wheel barrel without delicacy. The noise it made seemed the only valid sound across the whole grounds. The birds agreed in silence. At the gateway, like parting the seas, Darius strode between the gang of boys without so much as a nod, his novice robe, red as flame, licked the air above the ground as it billowed in the soft wind. The boys were uncharacteristically quiet as he walked past, each taking their turns examining the academy insignia wrought across the back of his robe: a blackened dragon's talon that seemed to emanate its own heat, a warm gust of wind dissipating as the young mage got further away. Grins crept up onto the boys faces as they watched Darius stride towards Saed. The freak was as good as gone this time. Moments later, unnoticed, Darius stopped just a couple feet before the gangly gravekeeper and paused to pat down his shirt, then readjusted his gloves. A fire was building in his chest as he stared down disdainfully at the peasant. He spoke abruptly with a thunder. “What are you still doing here Saed? Is it not clear the town wants you gone? Do I have to make our opinion more obvious?” He attempted to crack his knuckles. “More.. substantial?” The last word came out slow, Darius' grin spreading as he said it. When he was done his speech Saed finally turned around to address him, standing up... and up. The grungy gravekeeper was somehow at least a foot taller despite the two's identical ages. Instinctively a small fire lit at the tips of Darius' casting hand. He decided not to hide it. Yeah? And if I dont you're going to what?” Saed replied casually, obviously not understanding the gravity of the situation. He spit out some sort of plant stock out before continuing, “spittle your fire over me like a scared little Breye? Call your daddy on me because I was mean to you?” He turned back around with a grin, dismissing Darius like a pet before pulling out some more weeds. “Fuck off Darius, I have a job. Unlike you.” If there was ever a time where Darius was more angry he could not fathom it. His voice cracked as he all the sudden shout. “I'm not some fucking useless Br-eye, you low class garbage! You think all I can do is just spittle fire!? You want to find out what I can *really* do?!” The other boys broke into a sprint across the pitch , Saed at the same time sprung to his feet horrified as he turned, watching as Darius begin to weave fire between his fingers like string, his hands shaking feverishly in anger. “Darius wait! Stop!” someone shouted. **** Seconds later Darius jut out his fingers and the strings melded into a hellish portal, a javelin of orange flame firing from inside the light with such force as to buckle the teen's wrists! The projectile whined like a shrieking star as it shot just feet from Saed's head and exploded into a headstone to their left. Rock, dirt and searing wind threw the two boys to the ground, moans and groans of agony soon followed. Groggily, Darius shook his head as he tried to gather himself. Mentally, he was stunned out of anger and thrown into a ruinous satisfaction. Never before had he truly unleashed what he knew! For what he knew... he wasnt supposed to know. Stolen lessons from his father's texts and overheard conversations, the masters had refused to teach him anymore than what his age allowed, and yet somehow he had learned. A smile folded up the corners of his mouth as he repeat the phrase in his head. *Yet somehow I have learned.* He was going to be great he decided. Powerful. Slowly the young adept eagerly opened his eyes, ready to view his destruction first hand and be judge to his own awesome power. When he finally did open his eyes, however, instead of beautiful destruction he found a large humanoid mass atop him in the dust. And it growled. *Wack!* Waving the cloud out of his face, Saed looked down on the pompous brat with disgust. He contemplated giving him a couple extra punches for good measure but what was about to happen would be punishment enough, he thought. Using dangerous magics against an Unfound causing... this? Darius was about to be stricken of all academy rights, expelled from the school and forbidden from learning any more magic. His whole life was about to be destroyed. There could be no conceivable defense for coming into the graveyard and nearly killing its caretaker. The smoke refused to dissipate though, as the leaden wind slid slowly across the grounds, Saed still in debate as he sat over the boy's limp form. He squint then, trying to get a better look Darius' face, and subtly shook his head. He was smiling, the son-of-a-bitch was smiling! It was at moment that Saed knew Darius was somehow going to get out of this. With his father's connections or sheer weight of coin, he was going to get out of this. And so with his huge fists Saed gave him another punch. Debris was dangerous after all.