"Jordyn Ephitos and Pandora's Book" by Jordyn Ephitos

Hello friend, I'm the "witch" you see on the news. Since you've decided to read this you must want to find out the truth, that's why I'm calling you my friend. I want to tell you that I'm just an innocent girl trying to help out, not some magical freak that's trying to go against religion or play God, not the worst thing to come from Greece since the Eurozone crisis.

My name is Jordyn, and all I want to do, all I've ever wanted to do do, is help. So let me help you to understand.

It was on the morning of my fifteenth birthday that I heard the yapping. The sunlight was streaming through the gap in my curtains and onto my pillow, just as it always did, so it would have usually awakened me, but this time the barking had done that job.

I groggily sat up on the edge of my bed and caught a glimpse of my disheveled hair in the edge of my mirror. So I shuffled further down my bed to get a better view, and what I saw was horrifying - bed hair. You would think I was used to it, after waking up most days with it. My friend and classmate at The Academy would soon say my hair had "more volume than a pensioner's television", but he always had a way with words. All I saw was a mass of thick, unruly, brown hair that refused any amount of combing and brushing and covered most of my face, apart from the odd bit of olive skin and emerald green eyes peeking out from within. It was bad enough to make me envious of Medusa.

I tried to sort out the rest of my appearance to the best that I could, rolling down the leg of my pyjama bottoms that always ride up, doing up the inevitable button on my bedshirt that came undone from my constant fidgeting, and slipping on my fluffy slippers. My parents were used to my hair, which somehow knew when it was a special occasion, when I was getting my picture taken, when it would undoubtedly be worse than usual, so that could stay messy. I had presents to see to.

Still a bit hazy, I made my way downstairs and into the living room. A cup of fresh coffee to give me some much needed energy was waiting for me on the glass coffee table, along with a few presents wrapped in brown paper and string. My parents always did that, it was so I would focus more on the present than the brightly coloured paper when I was younger, but the tradition just stuck. My parents sat on the sofa, my mum hugging a puppy.

"Happy birthday Jordyn," she grinned, handing me the little bundle of black and brown fur. It looked at me

with big, almond-shaped, brown eyes and started to pant, its fluffy white tail shaking with excitement.

"She's a Kokoni, her name's Pandora," my dad joined in, a forced smile on his face, since he always said I'd never wear him down enough to let us get a dog. "And she's all yours."

She was gorgeous and I fell in love with her instantly, and I think she fell in love with me too. I hastily unwrapped the other presents (a collar, a lead, a food bowl, a couple of chew-toys and all the other basic stuff) before handing her to my mum, running upstairs for a shower and then getting dressed faster than I ever had before because I was so eager to take her out in the garden.

And as it turned out, so was she. Our garden had a cobblestone wall all around it so I could let her go without the lead, and she just ran wild. Exploring every nook and cranny of the garden, chasing any pigeons and gulls that tried to land. She wasn't just a ball of fur, she was a ball of energy too. But she kept looking back at me every now and then, to make sure I was still there.

After she'd exhausted herself she came back over to me and rolled onto her back, gesturing for me to rub her belly. I did and she looked even happier than when she was running around. I took her back inside and curled up with her on the sofa to read a book while she got her energy back so I could take her for a walk later and show her her new neighbourhood.

This is how it was for a while, Pandora, my little Pan, and I spending every waking moment together, and sometimes she would sleep with me too. She was as loyal as some of my human friends, and always lively. She was incredibly obedient too, so when I found her digging in the garden one day and refusing to stop it got me worried. Even picking her up and taking her inside wouldn't stop her from darting out of the door to the hole before I could close it.

I figured that whatever she was digging for must have been special, so I left her to it and promised my parents that I would clean up the mess as soon as Pan found what she was digging for. But my little dog's discovery slightly overshadowed my cleaning responsibilities, and the garden was going to get a whole lot messier anyway.

It was about a week after Pan had started digging that she found what she was looking for, and the hole was so deep I had to reach down and pull her out. Today was the first day she couldn't jump out of it.

As I pulled her out I saw what she had been digging for all this time. It was a box like a small chest, about the same size as Pan, but it wasn't made of wood or metal. It was crystal. The whole thing seemed to be made of one giant diamond that had somehow been cut and carved into that shape. I could see something inside but it was distorted from the crystal so I had to reach down into the hole and pull it out.

The box didn't seem to have any way of opening it. I could see that there was a lid on the box but trying to open it didn't work for some reason. Pan had been very quiet up until this point, sitting still and just watching the box, but suddenly she ran at it and knocked the lid clean off. I don't know how she did it, maybe it was because she found it first.

Out of the box fell a book, about the size of a dictionary, with yellowed, dog-eared pages. The book was bound in a faded green, leather-like material with a golden pentagram on the cover. In the corners we're golden triangles in different orientations and there was a strap across the pages to keep it closed. I tried opening it but the strap wouldn't budge. It was connected to a small metal oval on the cover about the shape and size of a fingerprint. I ran my thumb over it and felt a sharp pain, I pulled away and saw that whatever it was had drawn blood.

I noticed some had pooled in the oval, and then the strap flicked open. Pan was now sat by my side, her eyes focused on the book, unblinking. I opened the book and saw the word "Μαγειολεξικο" written on the first page in ink so glossy and fresh it could have been written moments ago. Mageiolexiko. It was a spell book. The spell book.

We heard about the Mageiolexiko at school when we were learning about mythology. We had to have a good grasp of our heritage, know of the Gods, heroes and creatures our ancestors believed in. The Mageiolexiko had all of the old-world spells in it, every one of them, but to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, the Mavromagii, it was encased in a crystal and buried underground. Pan had found it, and now I owned the catalogue of every magical spell or curse of Ancient Greece.

I ran to the crystal box and put the book back in before putting the lid back on. The next thing I knew I was stuffing it into my wardrobe, hiding it behind my clothes. Nobody could know about this, I suddenly felt so paranoid. I kept telling myself that the Mavromagii didn't exist and even if they did when the book was written they couldn't now. But that wasn't enough. There was a little voice in my head, niggling, never stopping, not letting me forget about the dark wizards that could be still searching for the book.

And how could I protect it? I'd only just turned fifteen and the Mavromagii would have spent their whole lives practising. But then I remembered something. Our teacher had told us that the Mavromagii only wanted the book because they didn't know all of the spells, and now I did. They had more experience, but I had a bigger arsenal. And I had to prepare myself.

So I began my training. Any moment I had to myself with my parents out would be spent reading the book, Pan by my side. She had found the book and she had to protect it too, and I think she somehow knew that. Every page was covered in arcane scribbles and detailed hand-drawn pictures.

I soon learned that the spells were split into five categories. The four triangles on the front represented the four elements; earth, water, air and fire. But I was spirit, I was the fifth element, that's how I opened the book when I pricked my finger. Each element had its own set of spells, ranging from very basic to complex rituals that even combined elements.

I spent lots of time hiding in my room when the house was empty. At the start it was a little bit disastrous, like when I cast the spell "Εκριξι", pronounced "Ekrixi", which creates a small burst of air and was slightly more powerful than I expected. I ended up blowing all of my posters off of my walls and ripped my curtains off the rails, sending them out of the window that was forced open by the gust as well. At least it wasn't as bad as the time I almost burned down the olive tree in the garden with the flame-creating spell "Αναπσταπιρκαυια" or "Anapstapirkayia". It should just have been a small fire in the palm of my hand, but things can get out of hand when you don't really know what you're doing.

I got better though, much better. Before long I was causing rain on the sunniest of days, turning invisible, creating huge vortices of fire and forcing columns of rock up from the ground. If I focused hard enough and spoke the word "Σουφι" or "Souphi" into her ear I could control Pan. I was a master of the elements, and not even the Mavromagii stood a chance at getting that book from me.

But the Mavromagii didn't appear. I guess they had no idea of the book's whereabouts, so I carried on practising. But one day I tried a spell that could only be described as going disastrously wrong. If tried simpler conjuration spells before, like turning a stick into a snake, but I'd never attempted any of the elemental ones to bring forth denizens of the earth, air, water and fire. They were very complex, combining spirit and one of the other elements to create a living creature, and I avoided them until a few days after I'd mastered all of the other spells.

I don't know why I chose the fire creature, it just seemed to draw me in, but looking back I made a poor choice. At the time, however, I was just eager to try out such a difficult spell. If my concentration was broken at any point the creature would disappear or, even worse, go rogue.

So I went out into the garden and opened up the book. On the right hand page was a picture of the creature. It was like a regular person, but it's feet seemed to hang down as though it were floating. The skin was crimson red with criss-cross lines of orange running all over it. It had long, black fingernails and curled horns like that of a ram pointing upwards from its head. The eyes were black too, and there seemed to be a ring of fire around its head, just above the eyes, like a crown. On the left page, the words to conjure this demonic beast.

The words were in Greek, but as they sound much more poetic in English I will tell you those instead. Feel free to translate them if your heart so desires. But nevertheless, I drew a pentagram on the ground with some petrol from the canister in the garage, set it alight to provide the creature's element and called upon the creature by yelling, "Scorch, singe, burn and boil, denizen of fire, aid my toil!"

The flames roared, created a pillar of intense fire around six foot in the air, but subsided as easily as they were created. However, the flames left more than a patch of burnt grass. The creature was there, and it looked far more terrifying than the book displayed. It's body was like molten rock, the orange lines of lava glowing and fading slowly, over and over again. The crown of fire was bigger than the image suggested, and three small orbs of flame orbited its torso. Its eyes, the deepest, darkest black I'd ever seen, never left me, seemingly staring into my soul.

I turned my head slightly to the right and it mirrored me, then to left and it did the same. I had read a little on how to control it, but I had been slightly hasty, so I only knew the basic instructions. I shot a glance at a bush outside the garden and the denizen reached out for one of its orbs and hurled it at the bush. The orb reappeared just as the bush exploded.

Then Pan, my dearest Pan, fearing for my safety, jumped up at me. In my state of complete concentration she shocked me and I stumbled to the ground. The link had broken.

I looked up at the creature I had created. It shook its head a little, then suddenly came to the realisation that it was free. I could tell it knew, I think I even saw it smile. But while I was urgently thumbing through the book looking for a way to get rid of the thing, it started floating higher and higher, then it launched another flaming orb, this time directly at me.

"Aminamou!"

The smoke cleared. Just because I neglected to read about how to control the creature doesn't mean I hadn't memorised the spell to create a magical barrier. I had created my shield just in time, the glowing blue orb that surrounded Pan and I disappearing with the smoke. My poor puppy was cowering behind me.

As I looked up I saw the creature flying away. No doubt it would soon lay siege to every inhabited location it came across. This was a problem.

After covering up the crater with a bit of magical assistance from the book I return inside. I had to carry Pan, the poor thing too frightened and shaky to move. A quick flick through the book and I found the banishment spell I needed, "Εξοριζο" or "Exorizo". The only problem was that I needed to find the creature.

My best chance was to check the news, if it was attacking anywhere then the reporters would seize the chance to bag a good story immediately. At first I thought I had struck gold - it was in Drosia, a fifty minute drive from Vrisoui where I was. A news crew there reporting a demolition spotted it when the building exploded prematurely and a lot more violently than expected.

But I had no way of getting there, I couldn't drive. I had to sit and watch the news or browse the internet as videos of it flooded in. There was one of it speeding through the sky like a comet, and it must have been going pretty fast considering it made a fifty minute long journey in roughly a quarter of that time.

By the time I had my eureka moment and realised that there was a teleportation spell in the book Drosia had taken a huge beating. There were even more piles of rubble where buildings should have been, even more fire. But then it went from bad to worse.

Watching the news coverage while I steeled myself to teleport I saw a hooded figure stood on a rooftop. The figure outstretched their arms and then my denizen of fire shrieked. When I heard it I felt like my ears were going to bleed, it sounded so shrill and painful.

But then it started to fall apart from the bottom upwards, until nothing but ash remained of it, drifting away on the breeze. Only someone with magical knowledge could do that, but the last good wizard hid the book. That must have been a Mavromagii.

There were no tracking spells in my book, but that didn't mean that they didn't exist. Generations of the Mavromagii had devoted their lives to searching for the book, and I'm sure they would have found it by now if it wasn't encased in crystal. But now it was out, and I had a chance to get rid of the Mavromagii once and for all.

They could be here soon, so I had to prepare. I had mastered most of the spells, but I wouldn't be rushing back to try and conjure another denizen any time soon. I just had to memorise them and come up with a battle plan. That took up a great deal of my time, as did caring for Pan until she was back to her usual self.

But the former paid off, as the Mavromagii caught me completely off guard. I had a spell to attract an object of my choosing to my hand, and I had a spell to teleport myself to any chosen location, but the Mavromagii had seemingly mixed the two. One minute I was reading through the book, Pan asleep at my side, the next minute I was standing in the middle of what looked like an arena.

It was semi-circular in shape and bright white. I was in a circle at the bottom of the semi-circular flight of cracked stairs that surrounded me. The stairs, or maybe they were seats, were built into the hillside with trees behind them. At the very top was sat a cloaked figure, the same figure that was on the news.

The mysterious hooded character stood up and began to walk towards me. I clutched the book to my chest, it must have been brought here along with me, and stepped back, falling over instantly. I looked up to see what I had fallen over and standing there, shivering, was Pan. I was stroking her when I was brought here so, just like the heavy time I was still clinging to, she came with me.

"Welcome to Epidaurus," said the cloaked man, who had now made his way to the bottom of the stairs and dropped his hood, revealing himself as a man. His long black hair had been combed back into a ponytail that hung over his left shoulder. Slender hands dangled from the sleeves of his cloak, the left one tainted with a large burn on the back, looking fairly old so probably from the result of training and not the events in Drosia. His face was gaunt, with high cheek bones and sunken eyes, but as he came closer I saw his emerald green eyes, which revealed gold flecks as he bent down and offered the hand free of disfigurement to help me up.

"What are you doing?" I snapped, tightening my hold on the book even more.

"I'm helping you up, archários, what does it look like?" he replied, his voice as calm as the breeze that moved his ponytail from side to side. He called me a novice. Now I was annoyed.

"Why would you do that?" I stood up of my own accord. "You're a Mavromagii."

"Ah yes, the very last of my order. Does that indicate that you've been reading the book then?"

"Of course, I'm not letting you get your hands on it. Now why have you brought me here?"

"I've always had a certain flair for the dramatic, so where better for our battle than the theatre of Epidaurus? Did you know that you can hear a match being struck at the centre of this circle even if you're sat on the outermost row of seats?"

"I don't care about the acoustics, I just want to get this over and done with so I can go home."

"As you wish," he said, smirking, before he launched a fireball at me.

I blocked it and blew Pan further from the action with a quick rush of air, before sending a fireball of my own his way, but he dispatched my attack before launching one of his own. That was how it went for what seemed like hours, but was most definitely shorter. Whatever I did to him was either blocked or sent back my way. Gusts of wind, torrents of water, balls of flame, nothing got through. It was time for a new tactic.

I had memorised a couple of spells that sounded useful but I never had time to practice them, but I had to wait for the perfect opportunity. I used a few spells I knew he would block and waited for another fireball. He always dissipated the fog I conjured so I had to wait for the cover of smoke.

It came just after I tried to turn his legs to stone, a personal favourite of mine. The searing hot orb roared through the air and my heart felt like it would explode. It had to be now. Either it would work and I would be fine or it wouldn't and he'd get the book, but I could only hold out for a short while longer so he would get it even if I didn't try my gamble. I went for it.

As the fireball was coming towards me, seemingly in slow-motion, I dropped onto one knee and called out to the heavens "Grant me the defence of the unmoving aegis!"

Then I closed my eyes.

When I opened them I noticed that my left arm felt heavier. On it was a shield, from my view plain and made of metal with leather straps securing it to my arm, but the edge seemed to glow a faint blue, just like the barrier i conjured to protect myself from the creature I conjured earlier.

I had to act fast, the smoke was disappearing and I was going to lose my advantage. So as quickly as I could I whispered the words "I command thee, Dardanos, lend me thy sword."

It was miraculous. I felt the need to stand up as the hilt formed in my right hand, a blade forming out of that as the last remnants of smoke drifted away. As the blade grew out until it reached its final point, it started to glow hot, before suddenly being immersed in flames. But I felt no heat, no fear. I would leave all of that for the man with ponytail who stood across from me.

"Is... Is that the..." he uttered.

"Sword of Dardanos?" I cut him off mid sentence. "Why yes it is."

"I've read up on it! That was a luck ritual!" he yelled, infuriated that he had been bested by a young girl.

"It sounds like you've been reading the wrong books," I said, with a little grin and a sly wink.

I charged towards him, shield up to protect me from any projectiles he tried to launch at me, all to no avail. I looked down and saw Pan running alongside me. We'd spent so much time together that I didn't even need to use magic to control her, a simple gesture would suffice.

She ran ahead of me, small enough to not be noticed by the Mavromagii who was desperately throwing all that he could at me. I was getting closer when she bit his leg, ruining his focus and giving me the opening I needed to run him through with my flaming blade.

The on his face was more of shock than pain, eyes wide open and mouth agape. I saw the life fade from his brilliant eyes, and then he was no more. Not simply in the way that he was dead, but the sword caused him to combust, leaving only a pile of ash which was swiftly scattered by the wind.

My sword and shield vanished, somehow knowing that I no longer had need of their assistance. The last of the Mavromagii was gone and the book was safe at last.

I bent over to stroke Pan and I gave her one of the treats I always had in my pockets to reward her for her good behaviour or, in this case, for helping me to kill the last member of a secret, ancient order of dark wizards. Then I picked her up and, with the book tucked under my arm, I recanted the teleportation spell that would take me home.

For several days after the face-off at Epidaurus I contemplated putting the Mageiolexiko back in its crystal case and burying it in the garden, now there wasn't much need for it. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Houses had been razed to the ground because of a creature that I had conjured and I had to right those wrongs. On top if that, I got a taste for justice when I dispatched the dark wizard, and with the flaming Sword of Dardanos I suffered no repercussions.

My chance to do some good came in the form of a letter. It told me of an island of the coast of Scandinavia where those with exceptional skills learn to control them and use them to help others. It sounded perfect for me.

Whoever wrote the letter knew about my powers. They told me that the island appeared on no maps and that I wouldn't be able to teleport myself there, and nor was I able to teleport out once there. The only transport was a ship, which would be docking at a place named Arcachon in France in a week. If I missed the boat I would miss the opportunity completely.

I had to persuade my parents to let me go, I knew I would regret it if I didn't. So the week was spent showing them what I could do, I used every spell in the book that I thought wouldn't cause too much damage and eventually I wore them down. That may not be the best way to put it. Essentially I got desperate and turned my father's legs to stone, telling him I would only turn them back to normal if he let me go. I was stubborn and hard-headed but, just like with Pan on my birthday, I got what I wanted.

On the morning of the day I waste go on the boat I said my goodbyes to my parents and promised that I would write to them whenever I could, and that I was sure they would have Skype at the school. I bundled Pan up into my arms, not wanting to leave my best friend without me, especially not after she had helped me completely wipe out the order of the Mavromagii. I picked up my suitcase, the book safely stowed away in there and said the teleportation spell. I saw my mother burst into tears just as I was whisked away.

In Arcachon I quickly found the port and the boat. It was a beautiful wooden ship with crisp, white sails and the same emblem that I found on the letter was mounted on the back. I presented my letter to the brown-haired, muscular man in a suit who was waiting at the side of the ship, as the captain was waiting at the ship's wheel, but I was denied entry. Despite it saying nothing on the letter, animals were forbidden.

So I walked away. There was only one thing I could do. I had to use my invisibility spell to sneak Pan onto the ship. The only problem was that it only works if whoever it has been cast on stays perfectly still, and Pan was a little bundle of energy. I had a spell to knock her out but I was a little reluctant to do it. Sadly, it was the only viable option, so it had to be done.

But it worked in the end. I got on the ship and so did Pan. I decided to head to the lower deck to better hide my little stowaway. She recovered quickly and didn't seem too angry with me once I'd rubbed bed belly for a little bit. Determined not to get caught, I decided to stay in hiding downstairs until we were moving.

We weren't moving for long when there was a tremendous thud on the upper deck, we couldn't have even left the port. The man in the suit poked his head through the door at the top of the stairs leading down to where I was and saw me holding Pan, comforting her after the loud noise. He opened his mouth as if to berate for sneaking her onboard, but then looked back outside and then turned to me again.

"We've, uh, we've got a horse on here now so I'm going to let you off," he said in perfect Greek with a German accent, before loosening his tie and unbuttoning his collar as though he was stressed and overheating, in the process revealing a faint scar on his throat.

He then went back outside, mumbling something about how the headmaster wasn't going to like this.

I never left the lower deck for the entire journey, and whoever brought the horse never came downstairs, probably comforting it during the journey. I have no idea what went on up there, but I felt a sudden chill very close to our destination. I also saw the mess left on the upper deck by the horse when I departed at the snow-covered Scandinavian island of Øya Helter. As an apology for bringing a dog on board I washed it off with some water jets, prompting the captain to doff his cap at me in thanks. With his beige blazer on I thought he looked more like a train conductor that the captain of such a magnificent vessel.

Regardless, I walked towards the only house on the island, a grand log-cabin that was more like a mansion and matched the ship in majesty, with the Germans man in the suit, the boy of probably the same age as me with messy brown hair, his grey mare and Pan beside me. What a sight we must have been to the grey haired man who met us at the door to the school.

And that, friend, is as far as I will go, as my time at The Academy on Øya Helter was very uneventful until Jonathan turned up, and he is chronicling those events himself.

Since these events I was interviewed by the press and I confessed that the destruction of Drosia was my fault. That is the cause of the animosity that a great proportion of the public feels towards me. A simple act of clumsiness and a whole lifetime of hatred.

So I bid you farewell, and hope that now you understand more about me and help those who are very quick to judge to understand my plight and my aims.