My name is Mason Snowford. Like a number of other fifteen year old boys like me, I liked playing video games, mainly FPS and RTS games with a high tech feel to them. Right now, it was a Friday night early in the summer and I had finished my homework from the first week of summer school, so I was killing time and enemies in an RTS. Or rather, I was trying to. I was getting wrecked by someone a couple levels higher than me. At least I was able to throw out a few distraction flares and put some distance between us.

I'd just made a successful escape when my headphones, a nice black pair with glowing purple lines on them, were pulled off my head. "Mason, it's time for supper" my dad said. His voice was serious, as it usually was with me. "Jennifer's back, too."

There went anything I could do. "Alright, I'll be down in a bit." As my dad left, I closed the game and the laptop it was on. A moment later, I was heading downstairs.

"Hi, Mason!" Jennifer ran over to me and wrapped me in a hug I didn't return. "I haven't seen you since, what, Easter? How have you been?"

"Get off me" I said as I broke out of her hug and sat down at the table. I didn't really like her very much, but my reasons for that were good.

"So, how's everyone at Henway doing?" dad asked her in a more upbeat tone than when he talked with me.

"INCOMING TUNA CASSEROLE!" mom called out from the kitchen before Jennifer could answer. After setting the casserole on the table, she sat down. "So, how's everyone at Henway doing?"

"To answer your question dad, everyone's doing well" Jennifer answered as she set out a dish with some kind of weird salad in it. "And to answer your question mom, everyone's doing well. Unfortunately, the potion teacher has died again."

"Oh no. What happened this year?"

"Eaten by a treant while he was gathering potion ingredients."

I tuned out the conversation between Jennifer and my parents as I got some of the casserole. Jennifer was gone most of the time at some dumb magic school called Henway, and when she was here, it was all she and my parents would talk about. It honestly sounded like some kind of LARP thing more than a school.

After I ate some of the weird salad, which I had no idea how it got onto my plate or why I ate it, I went back up to my room. The black and purple of the room was comforting to me. In fact, black and purple was my favorite color combination. I was the only guy at my school able to really wear that color combination well. At the moment though, I had games to play.

Middle of Summer

I got off the bus and once again entered the school that would become my high school after summer school was out, thankful for the air conditioning inside. My usual black and purple, while awesome, didn't feel good under the summer sun. Still, it was better than all black would have been.

"Hey, Mason!" Jack, an acquaintance of mine, cheerfully said as he put an arm over my shoulders. "How's your morning going?"

"It's alright." While it would have been nice to leave him behind and just head straight to the classroom, we had the same classes, so I couldn't really escape.

"You're in a mood. What's gotcha there?"

"Nothing." We took our seats in the classroom near the doorway.

"Then let's find you something so you aren't dealing with nothing, good buddy."

"Shut up, Jack" Phoebe said as she came in and took a seat near us. "Besides, this is normal for him. It would be nice to see him smile, though."

"Mason? Smiling? You'd need a wizard for that."

"Or a witch."

"Maybe both?"

I left the two magic talkers and went to the opposite corner of the desks just as a substitute teacher came in. "Hello, everyone. Mrs. Jones isn't feeling well today, so I'm clearly filling in for her. Call me Ms. Mercia. That's M-E-R-C-I-A. I am not Ms. America." She spared a long glance in my direction for some reason. "Anyways, it looks like all twelve of you are here, so let's get right to page 214 and pick up where you left off yesterday."

Well, she was an alright substitute. The only problem was that it was math class she was teaching. She kept looking at me from time to time, though nobody else seemed to notice. Me? I simply didn't care. She also brought her own wooden pointing stick, which she seemed to never let go of.

End of summer

It's been a couple weeks since summer school ended and I was taking a break from the games on my computer by watching some Mythbusters. How I'd never heard of it until a few weeks ago was puzzling, considering their notoriety online. At least the house was fairly quiet otherwise.

All my supplies for the upcoming school year, two weeks away, were gathered up. Some were reused from summer school, but that was alright.

"Mason" dad said as he handed me a miniature powdered donut. "This is yours. Also, you got something big in the mail today. I put it up in your room."

As I chewed on the powdered donut, I went upstairs to see what it was I'd gotten. I didn't hear the front door open, nor did I hear mom's mail sorting hum, so I had no idea what it could have been.

I entered my room and saw what looked like a black hard plastic rifle case, wrapped only with a purple ribbon, sitting on my bed. There was a card attached, so I took it off and read it.

Dear Mason

I heard you're going to be starting school again in a week, so I got you something to help you get ready for it. You may not see the value of it now, but I'm sure you eventually will.

Your big sis, Jennifer

3

Well, I can't say I was expecting something from her. Still, a present is a present, and a present is free stuff, so I undid the ribbon and tossed it aside. After undoing the latches keeping it closed, I opened the case.

"A sword?" The blade was long and thin, clearly not made for heavy attacks. The hilt and base of the blade looked like someone threw gripless a revolver in there and made it all fit together. The handle had a spiral look to it and flared out towards the pommel. There was even what looked like a trigger on it. The whole thing looked really expensive.

Grouped together under the blade were various colors of crystals that seemed to glow. They were shaped almost like bullets and looked to be just the right size to fit in the cylinder. There were lots of those crystals there.

I picked up the sword to inspect it and noticed that it had a good weight to it before I blacked out.