Edwin lay back and took a few moments to remember his made-up backstory. He’d adapted it when he realized that he’d given away too much of his knowledge on magic and now the most important part was that he didn’t misremember anything and contradict himself.
“I grew up in a small village in the countryside in the south-west. When I was young, I didn’t get along with the other children very well, so I often went off on my own. Around that time, an old man moved into our village. When I heard that he was a mage who’d come there to have a quiet retirement, I got curious. For young me, this was the most interesting thing ever, so I spent a lot of time loitering near his home. He noticed, of course, and at one point he came out and said, ‘If you’re going to be underfoot, might as well make yourself useful.’. He was still moving in, so he made me carry things, stock his bookshelves, help in the garden, stuff like that. He was a floramancer, a plant mage, so he had a lot of different things growing in his back yard. He didn’t need me, mind you, I probably slowed him down more than I helped. I think he simply liked the company.”
Edwin stopped and cleared his throat. Salissa passed him her waterskin, as his own hadn’t survived his tumble with the direwolf, and he took a long draught.
“I started spending a lot of time at his place, and seeing him move objects and start fires with his mind made me obsessed with magic. Right then and there I decided that I would become a mage too. He tried to tell me that it didn’t work like that, that it was very unlikely that I’d have the gift.”
Edwin scratched his head, feigning an embarrassed smile. “I was a somewhat headstrong child, so I didn’t take that well. He finally just stopped trying and went along with my fantasies. I was very curious – he called it nosy, and he might have been right – so I asked him about anything and everything. How did he do the things he did, what was life like at the College, had he ever slain a dragon, anything I could think of. And he answered them all, never telling me to stop asking.”
Edwin trailed off, a sad smile on his face. This one was real. The story was completely made up, of course, but he’d followed Walter’s father’s final lesson to him: ‘The best lie is the one that’s hidden among a hundred truths.’. The old mage may never have existed, but Edwin had modeled him, especially his character, after one of Walter’s few true friends, Master Tordov. Walter had been a good few years older when he met him than Edwin was in the story, but Tordov had provided Walter with a haven when he felt alone and aimless.
“When I grew older, his answers became more complex. Telekinesis wasn’t just ‘I concentrate and move things with my mind’, he actually explained the mechanics behind his magic. He also explained more about how his plants worked. Only later did I realize that it was unusual to be teaching advanced theoretical thaumaturgy to someone who was barely a teenager. At that point I still thought that any day now I’d manifest my magic and I’d be able to put my knowledge to use and do all the things he did.”
“Of course, that never happened. I waited for years, until finally I had to accept that I’d never have any magic myself. That realization crushed me. I told him that all the things he’d taught me were useless, that we’d both wasted our time. He looked at me, raised an eyebrow and said:
‘No knowledge gained is ever wasted, boy. It makes us who we are. You may not be able to use it to do magic, but who knows what other kinds of wonders will come of it?’
“For some reason, that helped. I mean, I was still devastated for a while, but I came around eventually. It was at this point that he allowed me into his library. It wasn’t a big one, mind you, but for our village, a few shelves of books might as well have been the College’s own collection. He was fascinated with history, especially the old world. We spent many evenings in front of his fireplace, discussing the things I read in his books. He also allowed me to help with the more delicate experiments in his garden.”
Edwin stopped to take another sip of water, and it reminded him of something. He grabbed his backpack that was lying nearby and dug out his travel rations.
“Give me a minute, I’m really hungry.” He wasn’t, of course, but he figured that his body’s healing desperately needed nourishment.
“Sure.” Bordan said slowly, as if waking up from a trance. He scratched his chin in thought, then turned to Salissa. “What are plant mages?”
“Oh, uhm…” Salissa said with a flustered look on her face. “Well, they use magic to change plants. It’s not very common, I think it’s not even considered a real discipline.”
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“Cowwect.” Edwin said with his mouth full. “He swallowed, then continued. “You know healers right? They use magic to influence the human body. Floramancers do the same, but with plants. They can make them do pretty much anything. Grow faster, taller or shorter, bear more fruits, anything you can think of. My…friend was researching several things, but his passion was to develop a type of grain that could grow well in barren soil.”
“That…sounds really useful.” Bordan said, surprised, while Edwin was stuffing his face more. “If that’s possible, why isn’t it a real discipline?”
“Uhm, I’m not sure.” Salissa admitted. “When they talked about it, it never seemed very useful.”
“Becauph it dowwen’t work.” Edwin said, then swallowed. “When I met him, he’d been working on this project for decades, without success. The problem is this: It’s fairly easy to use magic to change a plant, any mage can do that. Changing it to do what you want it to is harder, but a Journeyman who took a single course on the topic could coax an apple tree to double its yield. But a single apple tree is not what you want. “
“There is something within plants that decides what will grow from their seeds, and simple floramancy can’t influence that. In my example, any trees that grew from the seeds in the apples would be completely ordinary. This is what my friend and all of those that call themselves floramancers are trying to solve. There are ways to alter the seed to change what grows from it, but it’s impossible to know what effect your alteration will have until the seed is grown. It’s like rolling the dice every time. And it doesn’t have to be positive either, a lot of the experiments I saw him do simply didn’t grow at all or couldn’t survive long enough to bear fruit. Some were dangerous, like poisonous fruit, thorns or leaves. Sometimes, the plant grew really quickly, smothering anything it was near. And sometimes what grew from the seed didn’t even look like a plant at all.”
As he spoke, Bordan looked more and more troubled. “That’s…disturbing.” He finally said. “I can understand why people don’t like that kind of magic.”
Edwin nodded. “It’s also too close for comfort to another kind of magic that has a mixed reputation: Flesh magic. It’s basically the same thing, but with living creatures.”
“Living creatures? Like people?” Bordan asked horrified.
“Indeed. Apparently, this is one of the kinds of magic that was used by the evil mages in the old world. They twisted men and monsters into abominations and used them as weapons, so when the College was formed in the aftermath of the mage wars, it was highly regulated.”
“They didn’t just ban it?” Bordan asked, surprised.
“They couldn’t. After all, healing is also technically flesh magic.”
“Oh. Oooh.” Bordan said, understanding dawning in his eyes. “And healing is the most prominent discipline.”
“Yes, you’re correct.” Edwin said, surprised. “How did you know?”
“I was in the army.” Bordan shrugged. “I met plenty of healers during that time, even spoke to a few. One of them told me how only the best of the best can join them, and that it’s very prestigious.”
Edwin grinned sardonically. “That testimony may have been slightly inaccurate due to personal vanity, but he was mostly correct. Only the highest scoring and most powerful students at the College are accepted to become healers, and the faculty holds a lot of sway in College politics. It’s understandable too, as advanced healing is very complicated and can have catastrophic results if done incorrectly.”
“Advanced healing?” Bordan asked.
“Like attaching severed limbs or regrowing parts of the body. Growing new flesh isn’t all that hard, but you can’t just conjure up an arm and stick it on, or the body will reject it. Those procedures are why healers need years of training before they’re allowed to practice, and that’s why regular people can’t afford their services.”
“Ah.” Bordan said and grew quiet. He seemed lost in thought, maybe remembering some of the procedures he’d seen as a soldier, Edwin thought.
“Anyway, what happened next?” Salissa asked.
“What? Oh, right, we’ve gone a little off topic, haven’t we?” Edwin laughed. “Not much, to be honest. He taught me a lot, and after a while I even regained my interest in magic. He was my family, more than my actual family ever was, so when he died, I packed my things and left.”
“Oh.” Salissa said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you, but it feels like a long time ago. I moved around a bit and did odd jobs along the coast. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, and that’s when I met a party of adventurers. They came to our village to hunt a monster, and I talked to them a little while they were in the tavern. That’s how I got the idea to become an adventurer myself.”
“Why did you come to Pel Darni?” Bordan asked. “Wouldn’t Pel Harvand or Pel Miyad have been closer?”
“Sure, but I remembered the history books I’d read, and if I was going to be an adventurer, I wanted to do it in the birthplace of the Guild.” He chuckled. “What can I say, even I like the story of Lionel Lidion.”
“And what about your family?” Bordan asked.
Edwin hardened his expression. “Getting away from them was the other reason why I chose Pel Darni, but I will not talk about them any further.”
Bordan raised his hands in defence. “Alright, fine. I don’t mean to pry. It’s just that you’re so…weird.”
“Gee, thanks.” Edwin said with a flat look.
“Oh, come off it!” Bordan laughed. “You’re two meters tall, just wrestled a direwolf, and now you’re lecturing us about magic. If you think you’re normal, you’re delusional!”
Edwin scratched his head, and this time the embarrassment was real. After all, he had been trying to blend in, originally. “I guess you might be right.”