Prologue

Prologue-Nick
This would be the interview of the millennia. Ken Baker was going to interview The Immortals. The cameras were set up, the sound check was done, and we were all seated. There were six of us, the five of us on one end of the small room and Ken on the other. The director was counting down and Ken personally thanked us one last time for being there.
Three
Two
One
“Hello everyone, I am Ken Baker, and today I have with me the now household names, The Immortals. Thank you all for being here today.” he said turning to us.
We all in our own ways responded. Whether it was a head nod from Eli or a formal “You’re Welcome” from Anne. I myself stayed quiet. Public speaking was not my cup of tea.
“We all know how you all saved essentially the entire nation from the threat that was lurking right under our noses, but not many people actually know you guys.” he looked down at his paper wanting to get our names right. “There are Anne and Eli Cartwright.”
Anne raised her hand and Eli again nodded.
“Duncan Jameson.”
Duncan stood up awkwardly with his broken leg and thanked him.
“Mark Franklin.”
“Thank you Ken” Mark said.
“And last but certainly not least is Nick Coleson.”
I didn’t respond.
“Nick? Are you okay?” Ken asked, concerned.
“Yeah. Sorry. Just not used to things like this.” I said coming back to reality.
“It is quite alright. Now I believe the question on everyone's mind across the nation is how are you able to do the things you do?” Ken asked to all of us.
“To be honest we don’t really have a good answer for that.” Mark responded “We were all just sort of born with this innate ability to learn magic. We are also all born essentially Immortal, hence our group name. Now we can still in all technicality die, but just not from old age. And any other way is extremely difficult.”
“I’m sorry. It is just so strange to hear words like ‘magic’ and ‘immortal’ thrown about as real things now. Before all of the events in the past couple weeks most people only knew about magic from fairy tales we heard as kids. It is just incredible to see the stories actually be reality. Feel free to decline but would any of you like to demonstrate a spell.” Ken asked unsure of the answer he would receive.
“I suppose that would be okay as long as we don’t do anything crazy.” Eli stood up and pulled a small figurine out of his pocket.
“We don’t call them spells by the way, they are skills” Eli exclaimed as the small statue came to life.
Gasps were clearly audible from the entire staff there including Ken. They weren’t able to believe their eyes as this small stone man started climbing up Eli’s arm and perched itself on his shoulder, waving to the camera.
“We all have the capabilities to do the same skills, but some of us choose to specialize in specific areas of magic.” Anne said as the stone man jumped into her hand.
“Well what exactly are the areas of magic?” Ken asked.
“I don’t think that camera has enough memory to record all of them.” Duncan chuckled “But to name a few there are the elements, such as fire and water, there are mental magics, like telepathy. And there is also my personal favorite enchanting.”
“We all have our favorite ones. Eli’s is elemental, specifically earth. Duncan loves his enchantments. Anne enjoys her mental skills. I personally enjoy abjuration skills, or I guess in simpler terms protection skills.” Mark spoke up.
“Well what about you Nick? What do you enjoy doing?” Ken asked me.
“To be honest Ken I started at the academy three weeks ago. I couldn’t tell you because in comparison to these guys I am just a novice. I think I am just happy to be here with these guys.” I said.
“Now more about this academy. I believe it is called Latrom Academy, I don’t have a location here for it though.” Ken said scanning his notes.
“Well a locations is not necessary anymore. The academy itself is now nothing more than a pile of rubble. The name however is correct. It was founded in the early 1800’s by Jacque Latrom. He himself was like us and wanted a place for our kind to feel safe. Back in those times you would be burned at the stake and chained at the bottom of the river if there was even a chance you were involved with magic. The Salem Witch Trials being a good example of that.” Anne exclaimed “I guess even now some people may have a problem with our kind.”
“Don’t say ‘our kind’. You make it sound as though we still aren’t humans.” Eli said placing the stone man back in his pocket.
“You are right, I misspoke. I apologize for that. We are indeed human beings but somewhere in our DNA there is a slight change that allows us to perform our skills.” Anne said apologetically.
Was Eli right? I had been wondering about my own humanity since I was told about being an Immortal. It clearly isn’t an average trait. I’ve never thought of myself as alien, just more of a mutant.
“So is it hereditary?” Ken asked.
“It is, but it is a very recessive gene. Mine and Eli’s parents were both casters but it was still highly unlikely that one of us would even become a caster.” Anne carried on.
“So let’s say two non magic users have a child, there is actually a chance that they will have a ‘caster’ as a child?” Ken questioned.
“Yeah, that’s how me, Mark, and Nick are.” Duncan said.
“I love how you all seem so close. It’s like you all are a small family.” Ken noticed.
“Well...for one reason or another we all kind of need a second family. I will be honest and say I haven't spoken to my parents since before I started at Latrom.” I said,my palms getting sweaty.
“Now I just can’t understand how your parents wouldn’t be trying to contact you after all of this. After hearing what you have been through these past few weeks. Did you always have problems with them?” Ken asked hesitantly.
I was taken aback by the question, but it was a good one. My parents had always been working on their business, something to do with pharmaceutical manufacturing. For the six months prior to me leaving for Latrom, they had been on constant vacations and business trips. I had to forge my mother's signature on the slip to let me transfer to Latrom. Although things like that didn’t surprise me anymore.
“I’m sorry Ken but I can’t really answer that.” I said, not wanting to get on the topic.
“No I am sorry for pushing the topic.” he apologized “Now I am curious, was the academy government funded?”
“Other than a few members of specific agencies that we will keep unnamed, no government agency has any clue until now about the academy. It is… was self funded through donations from former members.” Anne said.
“Anne. I have to say you are quite knowledgeable about the Academy.” Ken exclaimed.
“Well, it was part of my duties as student council president to know things like that. Also my father is serving…” she paused.
“Our dad was on the board of directors for the Academy.” Eli grabbed her hand.
“Interesting.” Ken took notice of the situation, with a small smirk he turned to me. “Nick another question for you. About two months ago there was a fire in a chemistry lab at your old high academy. At the time you were still a student there. According to the articles about it, you are credited with the saving of at least half a dozen lives that day. Was this thanks to your skills?”
“Well yes and no. At that time I was still under the impression that magic was a fairy tale. The fire started from an explosion caused by a bad chemical reaction.” I pulled my collar down slightly to reveal the top of my scar. “The glass from the beaker that exploded shot right through me. I didn’t even notice until later that day when I saw the hole in my shirt and healed over scar on my chest and back. There was a tap in the classroom that was still flowing. I thought maybe if I could fill a bucket or something I could try to help the others that were stuck in the back of the classroom. There was a lot of smoke already so they couldn’t really see when the water just started surrounding my hands and creating orbs of water. I was in shock, I started shaking my hands in a panic. Luckily all the water ended up on the most of the fire, extinguishing it. There was enough gone that the other students and myself were able to get out.” I said laughing a little to myself.
“What’s funny Nick?” Ken asked.
“I’m sorry, it shouldn’t be funny but that was the first time I was ever able to tell the honest story to a reporter. I always had to decline interviews.” I said.
“It is funny how things change.” Ken turned to the camera “We will be right back with The Immortals to learn exactly how all of this got started after a quick word from President Janice Walkers.”
The live sign above the camera turned off and Ken turned to us.
“Nick I have to apologize again for the parents question.” he apologized to me again.
“It’s really okay, I don’t necessarily have a problem with talking about it myself, I just know my parents wouldn’t be okay with it.” I said accepting his apology.
The director walked up to us. “We are going to sort of go through a timeline of how everything started. Where did you guys wanna start and who wants to start it?” he asked quickly while the President was talking. I listened to a bit of it but it was a bunch of political jargon.
We all looked at each other unsure of when to start.
“It really all started when Nick came to the academy, so I guess as long as you are alright with it, you should start.” Mark said to me.
“Yeah I guess that’s fine.” I said internally screaming.
“Okay, Walkers will be done in about a minute so be thinking about what you want to talk about.” said the director walking back behind the camera.
Where did it all start? What would I talk about? What would I leave out?
“Guys you probably have to take over at some point, I’m no good at speaking.” I said to them all.
“Hey man. Don’t think you are going to get all the limelight here. We are all going to get our turns to speak.” Duncan said.
“Well do we want to leave any details out?” I looked at Anne.
“No, even our father should not be left out of this” she said looking for a confirmation from Eli. He nodded.
“Okay, no detail left out.” I said as the director was counting us down.
“We are back after that message from President Janice Walkers. From what I heard during the break I believe Nick was going to start out.” Ken said.
“Well first off you might wanna grab a cup of coffee because we might be here awhile.” I started.