Chapter 8 – Heading to

Mary didn't know what to think. Sure, this girl – Sainna claimed to also see the Ring and she could buy it, but some of the other things...

“Maybe she just have some problems with her head. Imagination running wild? Something worse?” Mary really had a hard time to believe her. “Whats this world end scenario? Shouldn't there be signs? Apostles of god running around? Spiders raining from the sky? Or was it something else raining. And why is the big guy just staring at the wall behind me?”

“... and that is why I sincerely ask for you to join us as soon as possible.” Sainna concluded her speech.

“Umm I have a question...” Mary stopped her train of thoughts. “What?”

“Weren't you listening?” this time it was Melita who spoke. Sainna meanwhile looked like she was about to laugh.

“I did, but I am bad at this stuff, make it shorter, make it easy for me to understand, don't just speak for 10 minutes and expect me to remember!” Mary threw her hands up in the air, but quickly hid her them again. She still had not gotten rid of blood on hear left hand. Even if it didn't bleed for some time already she still had yet to clean it.

“Haha hahahaha!” Sainna broke into a laugh. “This is fucking gold!” she wheezed.

“Young miss, please watch your language.” Hall woke up from his coma to reprimand Sainna, meanwhile Mary sent a venomous look at Sainna who was now unsuccessfully trying to keep her face stern.

“You know I don't have a whole day to just sit here and entertain you, can you get to the point?” Mary grumbled. “I am just a little bad with long speeches.” She thought.

“Shorter, yes, we can help you get better at better at healing, in fact, I believe you could even heal others if you understood you power better, got that?”

“I am not stupid, I understand words.” Mary took a sip form the tea Melita had ordered for them. “So, how would you be able to do that? Also, weren't you saying something about worlds end, or some such stuff?”

“We happen to have someone who can help you with magic and control. As for the worlds end... As I said I am a seer and...”

“You are?” Mary interrupted Sainna, much to her amusement. While Melita didn't seem to be pleased and Mary was a target of another glare of hers. “Right, so she did say that, maybe, no it was there, surely? Also, magic? This fast healing feels more like a superpower, maybe there is no difference?”

“Well, yes, I am! As a proof I even prepared a list of innocent little things that will happen in next few days. Weather, lotto numbers, car accidents, some topics that will be on the news.” Sainna slid a note to Mary. “You know, other people who I spoke to was more trusting.”

Mary shoot Sainna a look like she just had told her biggest lie of the year.

“Riiight!” Mary didn't quite buy it.

“Its true!” Sainna pouted. “Anyway, if you you want to get in touch with us there is also a phone number, I understand that you want to think it trough, but there is not much time left. We can make sure that your family is as safe as they could be.”

“OK, assuming that what you are saying is true”

“It is!”

“Assuming its true, how much time are we talking about?” Mary finished her question.

This time Sainna looked troubled. When she finally spoke it looked like she got a shade paler.

“Month... you have a month.”

“And what will happen in a month?” Mary wanted to know.

“I can not say, but when the time comes you will have to decide.”

“Also, if you were a seer shouldn't you already know my answer?”

But Sainna shook her head.

“Those with power are always hard to read.”

–

Mary was on her way back home, it was already quite late and the light of streetlights blinded her when she tried to look for the Ring that always seemed to be in the same place. Sainna had taken her leave soon after giving her deadline, saying something about preparations.

“If what that Sainna girl said was to come true? How will I get my parents to move, and my dear brother? I don't even know how to contact him. What would happen to the world? Would I have place in it?” Mary didn't know and she squeezed the paper page in her hand, which Sainna had given to her. “Lets see if these come true first. And then worry about the rest.”

Mary decidedly ignored the part of her that wished for adventure, for change, for a life that didn't involve work she didn't like and being married just for sake of it.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

But first, Mary had to go trough something much worse. She opened the door of her house and prepared herself for mothers scolding.

***

Next day after Theodore had made his call to inform Sainna of his decision it was time for him to get busy.

“Never would have thought that my affinity would be Shadow magic.” Theodore was very exited to finally know where his talents lied. “And finally I know why people are avoiding me, now I only have to rein in my soul and not let it leak out.”

Theodore knew well how to do that, after all, he had done it for three years. He just had to concentrate on controlling his soul and make new perimeter within his body. He had not done it earlier because he had no reason to, he had been constricted in this body for so long and letting his soul emanate out of his body gave him a feeling of freedom.

Theodore could not wait to speak with people without them avoiding his eyes or trying to retreat from him. “Ah, but first, I have to bring some order to my room. There was that book about affinities, where did I put it?”

What followed was several hour long cleaning session, admittedly Theodore should have done it before, but he had the bad habit of reading a book and then placing it in the nearest free space he could find.

The search was successful in the end and Theodore now held a book the Other had written two years ago. “Or was it year ago? No, it was one and half, right after he started to loose his hold on his old language.”

Theodore still had to decipher language the Other had used at the start. There was definitely much to learn in those books who was written in it. But that was for later. Right now he had to brush up his knowledge about how to practice his affinity to develop it further.

He had read the work which was meant for his Mind Mages affinity, but that work didn't include other affinities as the Other had no interest in them being a mind mage himself.

Theodore started to go trough the written work. “Soul is what gives us the inner mana... affinity is what acts as the outlet for our mana influencing the world around us... there is always one affinity for every soul.. Huh? But then... I now how two?” Theodore stopped for a moment to think.

“How did the Other manage to do that?” Theodore wondered. He always knew that the Other was someone with great knowledge, but he had never written down the way of gaining another affinity.

Theodore kept going trough the book until he finally found what he wanted.

“To improve ones affinity one has to empower ones core with the very element he was destined to control.” and little further “for those born from shadows they must embrace darkness and lower themselves into nothingness within that darkness. By filling themselves with the power of shadows they shall find authority to command them and rise again to engulf the world in twilight.”

Theodore sighed, so it was one of those. Magic often placed more importance on 'feeling' than 'thinking'.

That is why he had not really read more about other schools of magic and concentrated on Mind Magic. While 'feeling' was definitely important there, a good imagination was even more so. Practicing Mind Magic was similar to how someone would build a tower. To cast a spell you had to construct foundation and add upon it. Almost everything about magic could be approached with logic, well, apart form the fact that indeed ran on something that was a soul and mana.

And sure, Theodore had no real talent in casting fast, or efficiently for that matter, but it was not something a lot of practice could not fix.

Shadow magic on the other hand... He clearly could control them slightly even without previous knowledge, but there were no spells for him to learn. And the part in the book he had placed his hopes on told him to basically feel it and then do it. Was that even a proper spell-casting? Apparently it was.

It was also now clear why he had so much easier time in learning “Shadow Mind”, while still a mind construct it still partly fell under Shadow magic category.

“I guess I will have to start with that, feeling out how exactly did “Shadow Mind” combine two schools of magic and go from there.” Theodore thought.

Then Theodore noticed another paragraph.

“On seldom cases there will be those who find themselves with souls so strong they are able to interact with it from their birth. If such a person is found one should inform highest Mage of order for their evaluation, if they are found lacking in character and are with weak minds they should be killed immediately before their Souls are poisoned by madness that comes with the Echoing Past.”

“What?” Theodore did have a passing memory of the Other writing something like this, but had not made a connection then. Which was strange, he usually paid full attention when the Other was working. “Isn't this talking about me? What does that mean? Killed? Poisoned?”

Theodore started to look for more information, but besides that tidbit there was nothing else. He could do nothing more for now. Maybe other books will hold that information, thought, he didn't held much of a hope.

“What is going to happen to me?” Theodore could not help but mutter, but there was nothing he could do. There was simply nothing more to find on topic.

Sighing again he started to study what exactly went on in his mind and where Mind Magic ended and Shadow magic started. At least with that he could keep his mind occupied.

–

More than three weeks had gone by for Theodore since he started his endeavor. He had immersed himself in his research almost completely forgoing school, he did attend exams and graduation ceremony, but only felt that it was a waste of time.

Exams weren't even hard, he just had to cast some basic Mind spells to remember his textbooks and figure the rest out with some thinking. As for graduation ceremony, here was no one congratulating him anyway, all he got was a paper, that confirmed, that he, indeed, had finished school with top grades.

Theodore only regretted that he had nothing worth to remember from his school. No first love, no friends, no parties. Nothing. He did not think that those things were a necessity, and certainly wont cry about it, but it would have been nice to at least talk normally with his classmates.

It was less than a week left till, according to Sainna there would be... something that would happen.

Theodore was packing his belongings. For better or worse he had chosen to trust Sainna, and she had given him message that he should be getting ready and Hall would arrive in a day to escort him to his new home.

“And I didn't even ask where that new home is.” Theodore admonished himself. “Why is it that when I have to speak I always mess up, and why are not my mind enchantments helping with conversations?”

Theodore actually knew why. Those enchantments still relied on previous experience and knowledge and Theodore had almost none in these areas. That mean that he had to like it.

The most vexing thing was, he had not found anything else about this “Echoing Past.”

At least he had made good progress with his “Shadow Mind.” He felt confident that no one would notice him in darker place unless looking straight at him. Theodore also now could tell where and how many people there were in his detection zone, which now was ten meters in radius large.

Soon he had packed last of his books and went to sleep early. After all, tomorrow he would start a new chapter in his life and he wanted to be fresh for it.

After going trough some light mind exercises Theodore slowly fell asleep.