Haitao Smithfield was born into a family whose connection to the Spiritual School of Magic stretched back for generations.

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His great-grandfather served as a professor within the Spiritual School Academy at the Conglomerate Citadel, helping preserve the rituals, philosophies, and responsibilities associated with communication between the living world and the spirit realm. The Smithfield name carried respect, but it also carried expectations.

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Haitao’s grandfather, Baron Cornelius Smithfield, eventually broke with the isolationist traditions of the Conglomerate. He left the hidden Citadel and travelled to Singapore, where he established a scout program intended to observe magical activity in the surface world and identify emerging practitioners beyond the Conglomerate’s direct control.

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Cornelius built a new life in Singapore and raised a son there. Haitao’s father later married a Japanese practitioner of Spiritual Magic, bringing together two related but culturally distinct traditions. Haitao was raised in Singapore within a household that respected ancestry, spirit etiquette, magical duty, and the often-unseen consequences of supernatural interference.

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Despite his family background, Haitao was never considered an exceptional student.

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He was earnest, loyal, and deeply respectful of magical tradition, but he learned slowly and often struggled with theory, formal testing, and academic expectations. His strongest qualities were patience, persistence, and an instinctive understanding that spirits were not simply tools to be commanded.

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When Haitao turned eighteen, his parents sent him to the Conglomerate Citadel beneath Greenwich, England, so he could receive the formal Spiritual School education expected of a Smithfield heir.

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The transition was difficult.

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Haitao had grown up in Singapore and was fascinated by the rapidly changing surface world. Inside the Citadel, he found an ancient society that had modernized only selectively and still viewed much of humanity with caution. While other students focused on rank, examinations, and prestige, Haitao remained distracted by surface technology, changing cultures, and the possibilities beyond the Conglomerate’s wards.

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He advanced slowly through the Spiritual School.

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Although he never distinguished himself as a brilliant scholar, he proved dependable, discreet, and intensely loyal. Those qualities eventually earned him appointment to the position of Spinel, the Cobalt Blue Stone role within the Conglomerate’s leadership and intelligence structure.

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As Spinel, Haitao was assigned to operate as a scout, observer, and occasional spy in the surface world. His task was to monitor magical developments, investigate unusual incidents, maintain contacts, and report threats that might affect the Conglomerate.

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The assignment suited his fascination with the outside world, but it also revealed his limitations.

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Haitao could be evasive, awkward, and uncertain around ordinary people. He understood spirits more easily than social situations and often doubted his own judgment. Even after receiving a Stone title, he remained convinced that others were more qualified and more capable.

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His insecurity eventually drove him to search for artifacts associated with his father and grandfather.

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Among the family possessions he recovered was an old crystal ball. When he activated it, Haitao was struck by a sudden flood of prophetic images:

• An unidentified “Iron” Gem

• Chay receiving specialized Wild Magic training

• Tae and Oron Jambiya playing an Arabic children’s game

• Tae surrounded by a white glowing aura

• Strange creatures and beings vanishing when Haitao pointed toward them

• A bright field of flowers turning to dust under the same gesture

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At first, the visions seemed disconnected and symbolic. Over time, several began to occur exactly or nearly as he had seen them.

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The experience awakened Haitao’s interest in Divination Magic and convinced him that something far larger was unfolding around the younger generation of Conglomerate mages.

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During this same period, Haitao became psychically entangled with a dark and invasive presence. The entity did not possess him completely, but it attached itself closely enough to influence his emotions, undermine his confidence, and challenge his control.

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The presence was hostile, manipulative, and difficult to detect.

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Under its influence, Haitao discovered that he possessed a previously unknown ability: Banishment.

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When the dark psyche gained sufficient control, Haitao could force spirits—and in some cases living beings—into the spirit realm. The ability was extraordinarily dangerous and appeared connected to the unsettling visions of creatures vanishing when he pointed at them.

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The discovery placed Haitao in a moral and psychological crisis.

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As a practitioner of Spiritual Magic, he had been taught to guide, understand, and negotiate with spirits. Banishment represented something harsher: removal, severance, and potentially permanent exile.

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He feared the power.

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He feared the entity that helped unlock it.

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Most of all, he feared that the ability might reflect something within himself.

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Haitao’s growing involvement with Chay, Carpitma, Elemental, and other young mages has forced him to reconsider many of the Conglomerate’s assumptions. He has seen courage and insight in students whom senior leaders often dismiss as immature or rebellious.

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Through their eyes, he has also begun to recognize that the Stone leadership may be concealing problems, mismanaging threats, or preserving traditions that no longer serve the society they were created to protect.

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Today, Spinel remains loyal to the Conglomerate, but his loyalty is no longer unquestioning.

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He is working to understand the visions, identify the dark psyche attached to him, and gain control of his Banishment ability without surrendering to it. At the same time, he is trying to become more than the uncertain heir of a respected family.

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Haitao Smithfield is beginning to realize that being a Stone Leader does not require him to imitate his ancestors.

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It requires him to decide what kind of leader he is willing to become.

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