Prologue
I never really considered myself to be very important. And, I never saw myself as a victim of circumstance. Well, in my current circumstance I’ve lived a lie, the type of lie that could get me killed if the truth didn’t do the job first.
I am Skender Webb. I kept a secret from the world; at least from most of the world, because I knew some would not understand. Besides, my big lie was so much cooler than the truth anyway.
My huge harrowing secret was simply this. I was muta, a person who did not have the gift of magic. I had no magical ability, nada, none. I was as useless in the magical world as a live shark on a mountain climbing expedition. Yet, there were some who thought I might have been the most powerful warlock to live in five-hundred years! They called that person the Wyzardin.
Most people were muta, but some were gifted and openly practiced their magic. There was an unwritten rule that said those with a gift were no different than those without. As most unwritten rules go, everyone acted like they believed it even when they really did not. Muta looked down on the gifted for having an unnatural advantage while the gifted looked down on muta for being deficient, handicapped and unable to perform magic like normal people.
Most days I could be found practicing in the dueling booths at the end of the camp where I spent my summers. For several years I attended a summer camp in the mystical to perfect my spell casting ability, strategies in dueling combat, and learning how to fit into a world I did not belong. Oh, and yes I really was muta.
My story began when I was thirteen. It was the beginning of summer at in .
