From the beginning of time, before people had handy things like calendars or writing, Gium was the soul of the world, the one who gave creatures the abilities to bend the impossible. As such, there were some abilities he had to remove from the Imprint after certain mortals abused their powers. I don’t know his stance on the dragon wishes, but considering how thoroughly he’d shut down the ability of anyone to use it infinitely, I assumed he didn’t like it much.
Parts of the Imprint were unbalanced as a result. No one had a complete record of what it would look like if it hadn’t been amended over the years, but generally, there were eight types of spell. Each of these interfered with each other, but some more than others.
This was pointless to me entirely at the moment if it wasn’t for the fact that dimensionalists can’t cast time spells. Nowadays I wonder if Gium did that deliberately to keep us from doing some particularly world shaking magics, the overlap between the two disciplines wasn’t something I ignored.
Mostly, this was a problem at the moment because half the exercises toward the cloning spell involved time magic. Which meant no teleportation, gates, or even bending space until I could cast the spell reliably.
The actual spell was very very light on the time magic part, but chronomancers in general were a relatively confusing lot, and folks were hard pressed to find any of their skills anywhere. So essentially the cloning spell sidestepped that by starting the user on the very basics of time magic.
But in short, I was struggling.
I tried to be someone who could do it anyway.
I told Aymiae that if anyone asked, Foralen was doing ‘intense personal meditation!’ for the next week and was not to be interrupted. I went and visited Jeref again but the zombie’s state seemed mostly the same as last time. I felt like I should be worried about the increased restlessness the thing was displaying, but there were too many things on my plate as it was.
I wasn’t getting enough sleep again since the nightmares decided to come back, most waking hours were dedicated toward decidedly not using any dimensional magic and trying to get my soul to accept the little scraps of time magic as genuine. It wasn’t nearly as hard as my past attempts as Fari to learn the healing arts, perhaps because I could literally go in and stabilize my own soul by force, but in all I felt I was making passable progress on that front.
Most nights I made my way to Nightwind where things slowly trickled back to normal, and it wasn’t even a coin toss anymore that I would walk into any given room and hear a conversation about Foralen.
Hivren though, would never stop the speculation game. “I think I’ve got it this time guys! She said she plans on dying here, does that mean she’s dying? Do you think that’s why she came back?”
I gave him a baffled look and I wasn’t the only one, Givei did too, Jiuhen probably would have joined us in that if he was paying attention. He’d long since tuned Hivren out though. “What the sparks kind of logic is that.” Givei pointed out, furrowing her brow. “She’s perfectly healthy, she jumped off a roof for goodness sake.”
Hivren shrugged, “do you have a better idea for why she disappeared for twenty-two years?”
Givei shrugged and jabbed Jiuhen in the side, who was staring out the window thoughtfully. She was almost unfairly mean to the guy, but he seemed to need someone who kept him on course. I wasn’t hedging my bets on the length of their relationship though.
I remained silent, picking at my food and trying to figure out how to contribute to the conversation. Hivren sighed, “Did any of the rest of you get to ask her a question? Eliax? I remember seeing you there later on with your bard friend.”
“Illila’s not a bard.” I pointed out, deciding she would probably like that distinction. “She’s a musician. She doesn’t tell stories or cheat people out of their inheritance.”
“Uh…noted. Did you get to ask anything?”
I shrugged, “I was in line, but a couple of people cut in front of me early on and I gave up.” I remembered seeing some folks cutting, so Hivren probably wouldn’t see through the lie, especially if he assumed I’d left the line when he was at the front, which would have decreased his chances of having spotted me.
Hivren blinked, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, what were you going to ask anyway?”
“I just wanted to know where she’d been all this time.”
“Don’t we all?” Jiuhen interrupted. “I heard half the city asked her that one and no one got a straight answer.”
“She doesn’t have to tell anyone, it’s probably personal. Maybe she was imprisoned by a Lich, maybe she sat in a cave and meditated, maybe she just wandered around another continent.” Givei shrugged, “In the end, there’s no way to know, but does it really matter?”
I gave her a surprised glance, not having expected Givei to take my side on anything. Well… technically she thought she was against my opinion, but it was still a strange thought.
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Hivren grumbled slightly but didn’t argue further. He was a fanboy through and through, but he was still Hivren. I wasn’t sure if he genuinely cared about our opinions, but I did know that he would rather not start a fight if he could help it.
--
Foralen dei Imal was once again entertaining the public.
I tried to keep my dimensionalism usage at a minimum since I was still figuring out that time magic stuff, but it had been days and I didn’t think I could go entirely without it for weeks on end. It was a huge part of me, bigger than soul magic and bigger than the broken memories that lingered at the back of my mind. It felt like an itch I had to scratch, an itch that never really went away.
I figured I was making decent progress on learning the spell so there wasn’t much issue with taking a break from it for the week or so it would take after this for my soul to shed the dimensionalism magic.
I shifted the space around me again. Leaping through the air and landing easily on a nearby fence. “How’s that?” I asked a kid on the ground, crouching down into a perch.
He gaped at me and pointed his little wooden sword at my face, hopping up and down with excitement.. “Could you teach me how to do that!”
The crowd was much smaller than before, but I figured it was because the people of Reiaran had decided I was going to be around for quite a bit longer. They weren’t worried anymore that they wouldn’t be able to see me if they didn’t do it right then.
The captain of the wall guard stood nearby, five other heavily armed soldiers stood at the edge of the crowd. The captain had sent a message to Aymiae for me, basically yelling at me for being so reckless the other day. He also provided a way to contact him. Apparently last time there’d been a bit too much trampling, no fatalities but the captain would really rather not have that on his record. He wanted to know every time I would be appearing in public from now on.
So the six soldiers were keeping an eye on things while I advertised myself. I signed papers, patted children awkwardly on their heads, answered questions and occasionally posed for a short portrait.
It was exhausting, but somehow not enough to dissuade me from ever doing it again.
I left the premises after an hour or so, this time letting the six guards escort me to the Ayfel. Everyone still assumed that that was where I was staying and since I couldn’t think of a better place to trick them into, I let them believe that.
One woman was furiously being held back by one of the guards, she was holding a small goat and screaming as she tried to get to me. Some folks were…odd that’s for sure.
“Sir! Please! This is a gift for the Hero!” She screamed, the small goat seemed rather confused with this situation but he sat placidly in the woman’s arms.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry but-”
“Foralen!” She met my eyes, holding the goat out toward me, “This goat is for you!”
-
It was a strange sight to all as Foralen dei Imal stepped out of the crowd and into the Ayfel, carrying what looked like a small goat. She didn’t seem bothered as the creature chewed on her collar, and she certainly didn’t seem like she planned on getting rid of the goat at the first possible opportunity.
I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about the creature, and I found myself thinking of it as more a sign than anything. I needed to get my crap together and devise a real plan for my future. Or maybe I just didn't want my future to be filled with mentally ill people giving me goats. This was the first time something had happened while playing at my old life that I decidedly hated.
I heard the Ayfel door close behind me and I set the small goat down. I was used to goats being bigger but this one didn’t seem like it was still a kid. It was probably just…small for some reason?
“Where in the Lost Sages last will did you get a skipping goat?!”
I stared at Aymi, “Don’t…don’t all goats skip?”
Aymi rushed over from the doorway and picked the little creature up, “Of course, but a skipping goat is different.” She looked over the creature, examining its head, eyes, underbelly and hooves, “They live in the dragonlands, Fari.”
“...and?”
“And they sometimes breathe fire.” She opened its mouth and stared down the poor thing's throat. “Is this thing staying here? Did someone give it to you?”
I nodded, “It was a lady outside, she didn’t seem all…there in her mind.”
Aymiae set the goat down on the floor, “Alright well don’t make it angry. Most of the Ayfel is stone so it should be fine, but I’d rather not have to replace all the carpets.”
We watched the goat warily for a couple of moments. “Could I leave this thing here?”
Aymiae stared at the goat for quite a while longer. “Alright, but this had better be the only creature I have to deal with, and only because I’m selling the fur as an alchemical ingredient.”
I nodded, “That’s fine, sell the creature itself if you want.”
“Seriously Fari, if you come back here with another living thing I’m not dealing with it.”
I nodded, barely stifling a grin at the idea of shoving some undead at her. Jeref would probably love it here. He might even calm down if he had an Aymiae to crossly glare at him...either that or he would trash the entire place and track sandfrost everywhere. Though knowing Aymi she would probably just use it in a potion.
---SELNETH---
He wasn’t quite aware at the moment, the curses of being what he was. But he was no longer with the agent. The fire in his veins stirred as he remembered his master’s orders. They were simple orders that would be absolutely trivial to perform in the state he currently held.
A strange woman cut his fur, very annoying of her, but he would admit that he felt better in the summer heat without as much of it. The target was gone now, left somewhere with her strange powers. Surely she would return soon.
He would wait for the time his master had described. Fire was often warded against, but he was a fire mage of the highest caliber, brought up in the depths of Pamor’s volcanoes. Petty wards and fireless stones would not hold him when he struck, when he brought down the one his master had selected for death.
His body didn’t move quite as it should, but the form was slowly growing on him. It had its own innate fire that would add to his own.
Selneth vowed that soon, the target would die. It wouldn’t take long for her to lower her guard in this building.