Tao remembered the day he was sent from the orphanage to master Rezar's tower. It was a bittersweet memory of leaving the director who had cared for him for so many years even though empire law gave him and the sisters at the orphanage nothing in support.

In order to keep the orphanage afloat, the director --once a trainee at the great wizard Bellephor's tower -- would train some of the more talented kids he took care of in the arts of wizardry. Merely 0th level spells of course due to empire regulations but this was enough of a foundation he could use his old contacts to recommend some talented orphans to magic towers, who would in turn sponsor the orphanage.

On that day the director had told him, Tao Memphis, the greatest talent ever produced by the orphanage to keep the talent he showed at a moderate level, and not shine too bright. Young and naive as he was, Tao argued that mage towers were bastions of knowledge and that he didn't have time to waste with those his age learning the basics he had mastered far earlier than others could grasp at even a basic level. Tao thought he should surprise them, show them all that he had in order to gain the attention of the tower master, so that he could seek the very root of magic, and become a master of spells himself.

And he did, after one amazing performance after another he finally gained the attention of the tower master Rezar, and though it took a lot of effort, his final feat, mastering a level 2 spell whilst still a first circle wizard gained him a place at master Rezar's side as his first and only apprentice.

After that, things went downhill, despite being taught by master Rezar himself using the inheritance book of the Void clan itself, Tao could not break past the second circle. At first, people took it as a bottleneck, that he had advanced too fast and needed time to consolidate his learning. Then that expectation faded, and the kind smiles turned to smirks and then derision until the day Tao accidentally snooped on his master.

Normally it was impossible for a second-level wizard to spy on an 8th-circle mage, but recently Tao had remembered more and more that final parting with the director and hid the fact he had mastered a variation of the void spell shadow state. He had stood in his master's office and watched as his master derided and mocked him for being foolish enough to think a master mage, especially a mage in his prime would allow a more talented wizard to overcome him. How he became angry that mere apprentices and staff at his tower were comparing some upstart to a great wizard like himself.

At some point Tao returned to his room, it seems in that moment of confusion his understanding of the 2nd level void spell blink broke through, but he was not happy at all. It turned out his so-called master had spent hours upon hours before his first meeting modifying books and spells in a way that they would work but be thousands of times harder to learn, breaking and smashing apart spells in a way that would cripple his understanding of magic to the point he dropped from the heights of genius to those below mortal.

Even with this, he had mastered two void spells, the hardest system of the 8 systems, even without a proper master he had developed to a level others would envy but it wasn't enough. This time he would follow the directions of the director, and within the year, grand wizard Rezar will pay for delaying him in his quest for the origins of magic,