Evacuate the Masquerade

Richard Struggle - Evacuate the Masquerade is the first novel in the Creakylid series, written by James M. Coombs. The book was first published on February 3rd, 2017 via amazon.

Originally the first novel was supposed to be part of a five episode series going from February till June 2017. The idea was abandoned though, the formerly known first episode 1 was later renamed into Book 0 and then even later into Book 1.

Dedication
"Dedicated to my family The most patient people I've ever known"

Book description
Every secret society fears discovery. That’s why they’re a secret society. When a prophecy declares that the hidden community of mages is soon to be discovered, they decide not to wait for nuclear annihilation, and instead leave Earth for the brand new world of Creakylid. Unfortunately for the mage's leaders, discovery wasn’t the only thing the prophecy foretold, and now every mage with a smidgen of ambition is blindly competing to be the ambiguously defined ‘chosen one’.

Into this barely controlled free-for-all walks Richard Struggle, a prospective hero who decided that his heroic competitive edge would be damn good logistics, because, as he told the first pretty girl he met on his journey, “What’s the point of striding heroically off over the horizon if you run out of food and have to heroically stride all the way back?"

Chapter 1: A Different Kind of Hero
"We should become heroes because heroes get girls?"

- Richard about Thomas' motivation to become a hero

Prophecies used to be very common back in the days while mages hid alongside the non-mage human. With time the prophecies cede to be and technological advancement of the non-mage made it harder to hide the mage's power. Currently, the leader of the mages, the Father council, discussed whether to make a smooth transition, combining the mage's society with the mundane one, or to keep themselves hidden for a few more decades. Before the talks could go on, one of the not identified deities made the first new prophecy in 800 years, stating that the world of the magekind would end with an atomic attack in 5 years. To prevent it all mages should join Creakylid in room 509, hidden behind a stuffed dragon.

The eleven-man strong council moved as quickly as they could and the unspoken leader as well as Ancient and Grand mage Nikolo Spinner within the group first joined the room. The room was equipped with two dozens of stuffed mythical animals and at the end, Nikolo found an old trunk. After opening it he climbed down a ladder leading to a completely new dimension with a beach as a starting point. There, in theory, all old and new mages could live and part with the mundane world completely.

The council was reluctant at first to share the prophecy since it also stated someone becoming a king and having many girlfriends, who in turn would become 'princesses of magic'. But slowly the magic in the mundane world seemed to get away, making high-ranking mages question the council whether they knew what was happening. In the end, they published the prophecy, without mentioning the many girlfriends as well as king part, and invited everyone to go to Creakylid and try their luck. Thus the great migration of nearly one million mages started.

Hidden away in the Cumbrian town of Penrith Richard Struggle, a 15-year-old orphan living in the Mage Orphanage, defended another orphan called Alan from three bullies. After some verbal banter a taller orphan from the same orphanage, Thomas, joined and defused the situation. He was Richard's best friend and after the skirmish, all three went back to the orphanage. There both Richard and Thomas received a letter inviting them to join Creakylid on their 18th birthday. It stated a hero among other heroes would rise, which both boys interpreted as becoming the chosen one. Thomas said, that simply becoming a hero would be not good enough reason for him to go there and further explained, that he would first look for a life partner. Anything happening on the sidelines was to help him as a bonus to become a hero.

Richard agreed with the reasoning and contemplated, that he always wanted to go travelling the mundane world and Creakylid itself would be even better than that. Back in his room, he noticed that the magically locked book he received from his unknown mother was glowing. He opened it and read that she was still alive and that he belonged to the magical aristocracy due to being able to make a blood bound ritual. The blood bound ritual was the trunk expansion spell and he already began to think of various theoretical applications to abuse that power even further.

Chapter Two: Memories of Dragons
"The woman with the clipboard rose an eyebrow.

"Richard Struggle here for Creakylid.""

- Richard finally starting his adventure

The next day Richard started his journey to learn as much as only possible about woodworking and how to survive on your own in a completely new world before he went to Creakylid in three years. For the wood skills, he joined a local builders yard as a part-time job and used the earned money to buy himself vintage woodworking tools. Further, he used the internet and books to prepare himself for living outside of the civilization. He also tried the trunk expansion spell and found it's limitations and applications. Within the next three years, he studied and trained religiously with Thomas to prepare themselves for their exit. Since Thomas was seven days older, he also left the orphanage earlier with a trunk made by Richard himself.

Richard used Thomas' seven-day absence to go over his things and made a crystal ball memory of his preparations, by using the first spell he learned, memory palace. He finished with it the next day and arranged the memories to a coherent video a the end. Six days later it was finally his turn to leave the Orphanage on his birthday, and after a heartfelt goodbye, he went by train to Calais. There he immediately sensed two other mages with the power of his mage sensing ability.

His guides, the Flymouth family welcomed and drove him through the night nearer to the Council's mountain. Overnight he stayed at a hotel and after his last night on earth, he received a letter in the morning by Susie Conker. She saw his preparation memory and asked him if he wanted to join her in the quest of taming dragons on Dragon island. All known attempts by Whisperers failed so far and she wondered whether he might have a new idea to solve the problem due to the way he made his travel preparations. He also watched a memory from the view of her grandfather how they failed to tame the beast. Since Richard didn't know where to go anyway, he decided to accept the invitation to join dragon island.

Chapter Three: A Diamond in a Woolly Jumper
""Absolutely not!" She looked away. "And don't think I can't detect the sexual innuendo in your words, Mister Struggle.""

- Richard flirting with Elizabeth

Later on, Richard got introduced to Elizabeth Whisper, who was a Horse whisperer, and trying to go to the mainland city New Earth. Richard explained that they could go together for a while since he had to go the similar direction. During their walk to the Creakylid entrance, Richard showed her his trunks abilities. Elizabeth noted that Creakylid itself was also a trunk, and implying that Richard might be connected to it.

They also talked about Richard's motivation to be a hero and his future plans to make a portable workshop he can carry around with himself. He further explained that he was very prepared for this journey with his epic trunk and could carry a lot, but also could transport even more if Elizabeth one day would finish her last horse whisperer ritual. Elizabeth rebutted that she wouldn't do the final horse whisperer ritual just to turn into a working horse.

At the entrance of the council temple they saw two council guards and while eating dinner, Elizabeth expressed her fear towards them. Richard said he once wanted to become a council guard and even learned a human whisperer spell for that. Afterwards while lining up to join Creakylid, Richard was taken aside to demonstrate his trunk spells and was split from Elizabeth. While show-casing the trunks content, the Grand Made Nikolo Spinner was informed of a mage with an impressive blood bound spell but ignored it in favour of his paperwork.

After the three guards examined all his contents, Richard finally moved on to a queue. He found out that people were taught the official language on Creakylid, English, within minutes with the help of a blood bound language learning spell. Additionally, since he himself came from a blood bound family, he got immediately passed through a fast lane to Creakylid. There he met Elizabeth again who told him about a one-way boat going to the Second Island. They boarded and sailed it, powered by five nitrogen elementals.