The Young Adult Fantasy Saga The Magic of the Ancients
Dive into a school of magic in the heart of contemporary England.
Tony Millard is an ordinary teenager. His only victories are won behind a screen, and his mastery of spells is virtually non-existent. Yet, when the Cheffoy Academy of Magic sends him his admission notification, there is no mistake: he is expected.
At Cheffoy, cutting-edge technology merges with age-old rituals. But behind the school's prestigious walls, a threat long thought buried is waking up.
Thrust into a relentless hunt from the jungles of Peru to the depths of England, Tony and his circle of friends have only one mission: to reunite the four primordial elements. If they fail, the world will fall. If they succeed, nothing will ever be the same again.
Lost in a war beyond his control, Tony, the "powerless," will have to unearth the secrets of his past. For in the heart of chaos, the most formidable magic may be the one that appears in no database...
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S. Gallic grew up in western France, in a region steeped in legends. From his Breton roots, he retained a lifelong fascination with Celtic history and the mysteries of ancient standing stones. It is this heritage that he weaves today into the adventures of Tony Millard.
After living in France and Canada, the author sets his story in the English countryside, at the heart of the fascinating Cheffoy Academy. Blending magic, technology, and the ancestral wisdom of druids, S. Gallic delivers a fast-paced action story spanning the globe. A smooth, captivating fantasy where discovering one's own origins remains the greatest adventure of all.
The Characters
S. Gallic answers your questions
What is the difference with "The Adventures of Tony Millard"?
The Magic of the Ancients is not a sequel. I gathered the entire epic into a single volume to offer a smoother reading experience. This novel brings together the three original works, completely revised and updated:
- The Cheffoy Academy (Volume 1 – formerly: The High School of Witchcraft)
- The First Elements (Volume 2)
- The Dance of Colors (Volume 3)
There are now two ways to discover my universe:
- Paperback: A beautifully formatted 450-page book in a 5.5 x 8.5-inch format (13.9 x 21.6 x 2.8 cm).
- Ebook: The complete 120,000-word, 47-chapter epic.
Why rework this book into a second edition?
An author is like an alchemist, constantly searching for the perfect formula. For this new edition, I picked up my pen again to refine the story and give it a more dynamic breath.
The first volume, The Cheffoy Academy, underwent the deepest changes. I trimmed out the slow parts to achieve a sharper, fast-paced rhythm that matches the urgency Tony faces. The opening is completely different: the old Egyptian escape game has disappeared in favor of an immediate immersion into the Plain of Armorie.
I also removed certain classes and mechanical animals to prioritize pure action and a quicker discovery of the universe. For the rest of the trilogy, I focused on fluidity. The battles are more intense, the emotions sharper. Even if you already know Tony, this version is the story I always wanted to tell.
What are the origins of “The Magic of the Ancients”?
This story had been running through my mind for years. It all started with a simple question: what would happen to a modern teenager, someone more comfortable with a keyboard than an incantation, if he were thrown into the heart of an ancestral war?
With this novel, I wanted to explore a fantasy style on the border between contemporary and urban. From the high-tech corridors of Cheffoy to the mystical peaks of Peru, I weave a link between our technological world and the forgotten roots of magic.
But beyond the spells, this novel is above all a story about resilience. The courage of Tony, Amy, Alicia, and Sam is what truly brings light to the narrative.
What role does Artificial Intelligence play in its creation?
The universe, plot, and story structure come entirely from my imagination. To write the text, I used AI as an assistant based on very precise prompts: scene progressions, actions, dialogue, character reactions, and environment details.
Every event and narrative choice remains entirely my own. This tool primarily allowed me to speed up the drafting and formatting process of the saga, acting much like an advanced word processor.
I also used AI to visualize my characters. Originally, I made the artistic choice to provide very few physical descriptions so you could imagine the protagonists through their personalities. In hindsight, I realized these sparse descriptions could sometimes slow down immersion. I therefore decided to share directly on this website the visual representations of the characters I worked with while writing.
