The Magician's Brother

My twin brother is a Wizard and thinks he's the only magician in the family. It's actually a little funny that he hasn't suspected anything different over the last 17 years - with my constantly need to keep his idiot face out of danger and stupidity - but that's not today's problem. You see, someone's trying to kill him.

My twin brother has started to go mad, and my powers are the cause. Nobody knows how to stop it, and all the facts are telling me that unless I can cure him, my brother is very likely going to try and kill me soon. And that's just how this whole mess starts. From there I run face first into a whole stack of problems, including a crazy werewolf girl, a large pack of flesh-eating ghouls, and a trip to the greatest repository of magical knowledge in the world, where someone like me is definitely not welcome.

As if my life wasn't already complicated enough, now the Archons are back, and they're searching for their lost brother. My school is overrun by a new crop of Magicians who can't keep civil tongues in their heads. An ancient group of Shadowborn-hating fanatics has crawled out of the woodwork with a bag of powerful toys—and the ruthlessness required to use them. To top it all off, I've managed to draw the attention of the Fae.

A new drug is flooding the streets, capable of giving Magic to humans. It's addictive, powerful... and not what people think it is. I make a powerful new enemy, alienating the other Archons in the process, and she's clever enough to make me regret it, drawing me ever deeper into a web of vice, power, and evil that I struggle to untangle before it's too late. I discover new allies but also new threats and terrors from when humanity was young. Monsters close in from every side, bringing heartbreak, loss, and guilt.

University was supposed to be a time of exploration, of learning, and new discoveries... I probably should have guessed that my problems weren't just going to vanish because I was feeling optimistic. The Fairy peoples have cut themselves off, taking important parts of me with them. A new threat emerges, wrapped in a righteousness that serves only to conceal a dreadful rot. Demons start to circle, Black Magic grows in power and influence, and my old enemies are starting to band together in the service of a new darkness.

My life has become peaceful, routine. I have friends, I have a girlfriend, and all is right with the world. Or it was, anyway. One night is all it takes for things to go from perfect to perilous. One night in which my life is turned upside down, thrusting me into a war for my very survival. One night that was supposed to be fun and joyous. The night where I met my girlfriend's family.

We won. But so did he. His final act damaged my Well, the source of my magic, perhaps beyond repair. My body is failing as my own powers slowly kill me. I have to find a cure before it's too late, but there are so few people who can even understand what's wrong, much less how to go about fixing it. Not even my fellow Archons know how to help, and my sources are coming up dry. Desperation is driving me into branches of magic some might consider dangerous and that others would gladly kill me for just looking at.

In the quest to save my life, I delved into unnatural powers and changed myself utterly. I mastered new forms of Magic and discovered others. I expanded my knowledge, learned, and grew; both as a Magician and a man. It wasn't enough. All I managed to do was to buy myself some time, and now that time is running out. My brother has fought me every step of the way. He even murdered my one hope of a cure, and in his demented desire to finish the job, went digging into mysteries he had no business with. Now, he's been taken.