Destination World
an excerpt

Chapter 1: In Which Rules Are Broken

Alvin Mortsindis Von Grueber was not an albino, but when he started going grey at the age of eleven they suspected that he would have great potential as a magician. When he reached age thirteen and a half, his hair turned a pure snowy, he sprouted a tiny white goatee, and they became certain. They were his parents, his tutors, the local men of magic, and even few of his peers (those more enlightened in the ways of magic).
His father, the heir to the title of Baron Von Grueber, had always had a slight suspicion of magic, and so, of course, young Alvin never missed an opportunity to disappointed the Baron to be by showing off his innate magical ability whenever important guests arrived. Colourful displays of lights, dishes floating around the room, disappearing chairs, food that made suspicious popping sounds – Alvin delighted in the art of prank. Illusions were his favourite. Once he received a scolding and a beating for trapping the Goppenhiers, a particularly fastidious couple of well-to-do aristocrats, in a hedge maze that never existed.
His mother was not in the room when his father’s servant carried out the punishment, mainly because she did not want to witness little Alvin get the switch for utilizing his natural talent. Little did she know that this was more of an encouragement for Alvin than a dissuading factor.
She was secretly delighted at every one of his tricks, thought that his power was something absolutely wonderful. She kept her admiration of her son’s abilities so secret, however, that even Alvin was surprised when she happily announced, on his eighteenth birthday, that she had arranged (all by herself without her husband’s approval) for Alvin’s future education at the Scaadville Conservatory of Wizardry or SCW, under the personal tutorship of one Billis Watershaven. He was thrilled. His father was not, but probably got over it.
Alvin could not at this point know that this Watershaven character was the same man that first suggested that he attempt to “ try out a little magic and see how you like it” on that fateful day of Alvin’s childhood, and the same man who applauded for him from outside the Manor gates after the living fountain gag, and the same man who introduced his mother to the idea of the Conservatory, guided Alvin through his six years at SCW, and would eventually lead him into the most exclusive cabal of wizards, the smallest pocket of elite practitioners of magic, that unknown, enigmatic, probably don’t exist but maybe they do, high up, sneaky group that nobody knew about but everyone talked about: those strange men who go on the expeditions to Out There, a place that Alvin would be sooner than he could imagine.
Everyone knew about Out There, even if few knew that there was a group that regularly went there. All one had to do to see Out There was to look up at the night sky, and wonder, as many did, “what are those little dotty things that I see every night of my life, and can I get there?” The answers were “stars” and “yes”, but they would not know that for a while yet. In fact, the only way that Out There and its only group of explorers were similar was that they were both viewed as enigmatic and probably dangerous, but also probably central to learning about the way the universe and everything in it behaved. This deep thinking was only for those enlightened enough to even know about this group, however.
As a collective, they were known as MACE: the Magicians’ Academy of Celestial Exploration. The expedition that Alvin Von Grueber was going to take part in was called “Expedition Twenty-Seven” and was scheduled to leave during winter of the year 303, local time of This World. As spring began in 303, Alvin had no idea that MACE even wanted him.