Chapter 1: Same Old Tricks

He awoke to the sound of chains and the loud clash of metal against metal—a sound the young man had become accustomed to the past three years.

"Get up! It's your last day alchemist!"

The guard unfastened a key from his belt and unlocked the cell. He lifted the bucket of water next to him and tossed the water over the alchemist, drenching him.

"Clean yourself up..."

The guard chuckled and chucked a bar of soap at him, with a quick hand, the alchemist caught it and smiled.

"Well are you going to sit and watch, or are you going to fucking leave?"

The guard balled his fist, banging it against the bars yelling.

"Hurry up! You're going to be right back in here anyway!'

He said with a low grumble as he walked away..

"Well, I wouldn't want you to miss me."

scoffed the alchemist. He did the best he could to wash, of course not being allowed to use the showers—a punishment for past trouble making. He stood up, gripping his wool-like hair and digging his fingers into it.

"First thing a kid needs is a haircut, can't wait for that..."

He turned the faucet, cupping some water into his hands to rinse the soap from his hair. Finishing up, he grabbed the towel to dry himself off.

"And a real fucking shower..."

He mumbled with a sigh as he held the wet clothes.

A different man approached; it was the head of the prison—the man who oversaw the enforcers and day to day rabble.

"Sheist!" He boomed. "Today's the day!"

The large hefty man said with a grin. Leaning against the bars, he handed Sheist a sealed bag with all of his belongings; things confiscated on his way in, and his old clothes.

"Thanks boss, you've been really cool in here—I won't forget that!" He said excitedly

Thinking about being on the outside, Sheist finished getting dressed and putting on his old clothes. Two more guards came to meet him at his cell; they walked in and cuffed his hands. The three walked him to the front of the prison and released him.

"It was fun, kid; you're one of the most talented alchemists I've ever seen. You could really shake shit up for the better—do some good..." He balled up his fist and offered it to Sheist.

With a grin, Sheist returned the pound and told him, "I plan to, so you might be seeing me back in here."

The chief turned on his heel, strolling back into the prison and told him, "Not any time soon I hope." With that, they parted ways.

The head of the prison sat back down at his desk to put Sheist's folder away. He glanced over it one more time with a smirk. An officer who was hanging around leaned against the desk and read some information aloud.

"Looking for a dark skin male—five-six. Body type—average. Alchemist t-shirt. Has a curly-top fade with a line on the left side. Age 13—wow, what kind kid gets put into an actual prison? Sure, there are a bunch of 'alchies' in here—but a kid?" the officer asked before taking a pull of his cigarette.

"A dangerous one. To be honest, we've had eyes on him since he was 12. To choose the path of an alchemist? He could have taken an easier path to greatness, however this is the one he chose." The Chief Said.

The officer separated the beginners' affinity test from the rest of them.

"He got perfect scores in all categories! What a waste of potential," The officer sighed disappointedly.

The officer got up with a stretch and went back to his post. The Chief put all of the papers back into the folder and filed them before getting back to his job.

Sheist dug into his bag. With a smile, he pulled out a small square platform with two sets of wheels. He pushed a button on the side which extended it into a longboard.

"It's been three years since I've ridden," He said to himself. Sheist lifted his left foot and put his full weight on the board and immediately busted his ass. "Oh shit!" he yelled out.

He picked himself up off the ground, dusted off his shoulders, and kicked the board in frustration nearly falling again. He had it with the longboard and put it back in his bag. Sheist decided to walk.

He took his wallet from his bag and opened it. Of course someone took what little money he had in it! "Stealing from a kid?! I hate it here." He sighed as his stomach grumbled. He rubbed his hair and put the wallet in his pocket and with another long exhale continued to walk.

After about an hour, he got to the borough of Magehood. Looking around, he noticed everything was pretty much the same. Summoned creatures roamed the street and mages were selling magic scrolls in kiosks on the side of the road.

Sheist placed a hand on his stomach rubbing it, his nose led him in the direction of a witch, it looked like she was using magic to cook food in front of everyone making a show of it. Sheist thought about pickpocketing someone for the funds to eat, but also thought about what if he got caught.

He noticed something else laying around he could use, with a wicked grin he took a marker off one of the stalls and picked some rocks up off the ground, he drew an alchemic circle on one of them, and with a little energy it changed to gold, or at least the appearance of it.

"Hey, how much will this get me?". He held up the nugget of gold.

The witch was obviously new in town. Her eyes widened with a bright glow as she said. "I'll cook you everything on the menu!"

The would be customers she had around her left with a laugh moving on to other stands. One of the unwritten rules in The City of Orr is to never take nuggets of gold as payment, especially from an alchemist.

Sheist walked up and dropped the nugget of gold in her hand, adding in a few extras from the other rocks he had picked up.

"My first sale, I can't believe it! I thought no one was going to buy my food." She said looking at the alchemist.

"I can't imagine why, everything looks so good!" Shiest said in his customer service voice.

It only took her an hour to cook up most of the food on her menu.

"That's enough, I'm not trying to clean you out" He told her "This is more than good."

Sheist noticed she had some containers and bags.

"If possible I'll just take the food to go." He smiled, rubbing both of his hands together.

"Of course you can.", the woman came from behind the stand in full view.

She was taller than the average girl, she had porcelain skin and jet black hair, beautiful onyx eyes, a small waist and wide hips leading to a thick ass.

Sheist's jaw dropped, going through the height of puberty locked up with other men was awkward to say the least, everything in him screamed to reach out and touch her, as quick as that thought came so did another which made him instinctively rub the side of his face, he could practically feel the slap coming and barely knew the witch, he shook his head and took his food.

It was a good idea to get from around her as soon as possible, he didn't know if the gold would turn back into rocks or what. After all, it had been some time since he was able to use alchemy so freely, a liberty that was taken away from him in that cell.

With a nervous grin he told her, "Bye, and keep the change.".He thought about something. "I never got your name? Mine is Sheist." He gave her a genuine smile, she smiled back and gave him her's "Angelica, Angelica of Agartha."

Agartha is a city of witches that lies on the outskirts of Forevermoor, the city of dreams. It is said mages so powerful live there that it has a physical effect on the area around it for miles, if you can even consider individuals that powerful mages. more like gods, and people treat and revere their king as just that.

Sheist in response said. "Wow, you must be incredibly powerful!".

The witch blushed and sunk into herself a bit, before she could respond he continued.

"Well I am going to take my leave, nice meeting you Angelica.", he said as he began to walk away.

Her voice stammered a little wondering what the rush was, but of course he probably wanted to eat his food. "O-ok bye, thanks again and I hope you like it!"

With Sheist finally able to take his leave he moved with a small jig in his step and a smile, he was feeling like his old self again. He thought about how nice it would be to stay at a fancy hotel his first night out.

"I guess one time couldn't hurt. Just once!", he said with a grin as he purposely stumbled into a nearby onlooker.

With quick sleight of hand he lifted the gold purse from the man's inner coat pocket. "Hagh! Haha! Sorry about that!", he coughed and laughed continuing on his way.

Sheist walked into the hotel and dropped a few gold coins from the stolen pouch on the desk, the maiden smiled and handed him a key and told him his room number.

"You will be in room number 5, just let us know if you need anything!"

Sheist nodded and walked off to the side where his room number is, he opened and closed the door running to the bathroom as he placed his food on bed, he turned the shower on and handled business waiting for it to get hot, once hot he took the most refreshing shower he had in years.

Getting out of the shower he dried himself off and wrapped the room's complimentary bathrobe around him, he found some one-size fits all boxers wrapped in plastic, he put those on too, not having any change of clothes on him.

He plopped down on the bed scarfing down his food, without even finishing all of it he knocked out on the bed snoring, his fork still in his hand.

Sheist started to shiver feeling the absence of the hotel's warmth, he instinctively gripped at the blankets he remembered falling asleep on and felt nothing, he was beginning to wake up, however so far it didn't seem like his body was where he fell asleep.