Chapter 49 – A Sorcery of Origin

The current Adam clenched his fists tight enough to make the veins on the back of his hands bulge. To see Caine again was infuriating enough. To see him telling his honey-sweet lies to Adam’s younger self was next to impossible.

You sick, twisted piece of vermin…

Caine closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled. “I hate what the Order is becoming in this war, and how they are treating Insticas like you.”

Adam grimaced. “Ever since the war they’ve been acting damned paranoid. As if everyone who isn’t part of the Starwing Order, or who practices Instinct, automatically supports the Prophet!” Adam said with a low, reverberating growl in his voice. “You wouldn’t believe the slurs we’ve been called. Not any more though.” He grinned humourlessly. “Now they’re starting to fear us.”

Caine closed his eyes and bared his teeth in frustration. “Ugh… you must understand that all those duels you’re having are making it worse! Do you think Jeremiah has stayed quiet, huh? After you just had to humiliate him in the ring? No, he’s already spreading rumours, using his connections against you!”

“Let them come!” the young Adam raised his voice, waves of sickly heat radiated from him, accompanied by the smell of alcohol. “Jeremiah called me a filthy heretic hound of the Ancestor! Oh, luckily it wasn’t in public, just in the presence of the Royal Army, troops of Agatha, and Talons of Aves, no big deal. He loudly wondered when I would betray them. While I fight to protect this world from the Prophet, just like everyone! I duel to show the world we deserve the same respect as knights and Novaseers.” He stopped and grinned, a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes. “And now, Jeremiah knows what it’s like to grovel in the dirt, to ask for mercy.”

The current Adam winced, remembering Jeremiah’s revenge all too well. The results of the trials of Ziecherhein’s disaster were well known, after all. And now that Jeremiah was going to be chieftain of Gotterburg it would be hard for Adam to return the favour.

Caine took a deep breath and made calming gestures. “Easy Adam, I get that you’re angry. What worries me is the lack of trust between Novaseers and the Royal Army on one side, and Insticas on the other. The suspicion of betrayal is growing on both sides, which is why I fear for the results of your research. As you are the one who rediscovered Reminiscence, the Order might try to shut it down. They could fear it leads to the Pure.”

The young Adam raised an eyebrow. “Or, they might use it to increase their own power and influence. To explain it as a holy ‘extension of Novaseering’ or something.” He thought for a moment, leaned against his desk again and smiled. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. It would be good to have you join this research, but I have one condition. If it turns into a success and becomes public, people who know about it will be more likely to give you, the honourable Novaseer, the credit. Would be nice of you to keep in mind that I’ve rediscovered it, eh? Even when you’re boasting around and all.”

Caine huffed indignantly. “Boasting around? As if I’d ever do that about a project like this!”

Adam raised an eyebrow. He closed his eyes and slowly sniffed the air. The corners of his mouth curled upwards. “Liar,” he said with a subtle rumbling growl in his voice.

Caine’s cheeks reddened. “Okay, okay, maybe just a little. I mean, these are great stories to tell!”

The young Adam didn’t laugh. “I mean it, man. I travelled to several hidden ruins to learn what I know now. I cross-referenced myths from several religions, translated all those old hieroglyphs, I’ve even tracked the old folktales behind children’s songs. I’m not some butcher on the battlefield, I’m more than that. And Reminiscence is my way to make a bigger contribution to the world.”

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Caine raised his hands. “Relax, don’t worry. I will certainly give you all the credit you’re due.”

‘Give me credit’? You’ve stolen my discoveries and used them against me!

The young Adam grinned. “Great to hear!” He wrung his hands in enthusiasm. “If we knock our heads together, who knows what we can accomplish, eh? Combining the insight of both Novaseering and Instinct might just be exactly what’s needed to unravel the secrets of Reminiscence.”

Caine smiled with relief. “Undoubtedly. About that, Agatha mentioned that Reminiscence is the original kind of sorcery out of which Novaseering and Instinct have evolved. But those two are so different, how could that be true?”

“Ah, excellent question, my young student!” Adam rummaged through books and papers full of notes.

Caine sighed. “By Aves, you’re going to call me that the whole time, aren’t you?”

“Of course not!” Adam hung a wide sheet of paper on a noteboard. “I’ll be sure to alternate it with ‘pubescent pupil’ and ‘he-who-thirsts-for-knowledge.’ And whatever else I come up with.”

The current Adam leaned back against the bookcase. He tried to wrap his head around the idea that he was about to get a lecture from himself on a subject he hardly knew anything about.

“As a bright pea in the pod like yourself, you’d know that Novaseering uses a series of gestures.” The young Adam made some very poor drawings of what were supposed to be hands on the left side of the paper. Emily giggled soundlessly and signalled in sign language, “Looks like a horse to me.” She stuck her tongue out. The current Adam made some rude gestures back. Oliver rolled his eyes.

The young Adam looked at his artistic creation. “Right. Beautiful. The mastery of a gesture, like Marrow, gives access to a series of Invocations. Instead of gestures, Insticas develop certain markings on the heart. These are called Impressions.” He drew a crude heart with some scribbles in it, which seemed vaguely familiar to the current Adam. “Each Impression is linked to an emotion or an important concept to living beings. Most are related to survival, like Hunger or Love. Each Impression mastered by an Instica opens the door to Invocations related to it.”

Caine crossed his arms, his eyes darted over the sheet of paper. “So, you’re saying the Impressions perform a role similar to that of the gestures?”

Emily gasped softly. “Of course,” she breathed.

Oliver had an indignant expression and blew air through his nose. As if any comparison with Novaseering was heresy. Nevertheless, he seemed to listen with full concentration.

The young Adam nodded. “And both of them are a specific, specialised form of this.” On the lower side of the paper, he drew hieroglyphs. “Symbols, images that carry meaning by representing a concept. Reminiscence uses a predetermined set of symbols, similar to Impressions and gestures. Beings who practised Reminiscence had to deeply understand the symbols in question. And after study and training, they could learn Invocations related to the symbol. Supposedly, there are many ways to apply such a symbol in practice, like inscribing it on a surface or carrying it on battle standards. Anyway, Reminiscence used to be the only type of sorcery during most of the Age of Chains. Until Novaseering and Instinct were created as specialised types, a feat that hasn’t been replicated since. The Ancestor himself developed Instinct, while a being referred to as ‘the Collective’ created Novaseering.

Caine frowned. “Didn’t Aves invent Novaseering?”

The young Adam laughed. “Religious propaganda. During the Age of Chains, Novaseering had existed for thousands of years before Aves was born.” He drew an arrow from the hieroglyphs to the image of the heart and one towards the Novaseering gestures. “Both the Ancestor and the Collective developed their own, specialized set of simpler symbols to fit within their type of sorcery. Instinct condensed the meaning of entire emotions into Imprints. And what is a gesture, but a symbol performed by motions of the hand?”

Caine looked at the young Adam’s drawings. “They are not so different at all… Hmm, Novaseering uses Oquira to power Invocations and Instinct uses Inner Fire. Does Reminiscence have its own related energy?”

The young Adam nodded. “It does, supposedly it’s a goldish-green substance that’s called Origin. Pretty cool, huh?”

The current Adam smiled, hanging on his younger self’s every word as if he was his teacher. Pretty cool, indeed. It was strange, he had forgotten almost everything his younger version told him, yet it felt so familiar. Like he always used to have this overview of how sorcery works, and how each type works in a similar way.

“Wait.” The young Adam pressed a finger to his lips and whispered. “People are coming down the hall and right this way. Judging by the sound of the footsteps…” He closed his eyes and cocked his head to the left. “Ah, Julienne and Alef.”