Will paced in his cell the next morning. He hadn’t been fed the previous night, and breakfast was already rather late. He was quite hungry, and this was compounded by the shocking silence of the room. He could feel that Koma was well, and had been fed, but that was his only comfort. He could see guards in the room beyond the wooden door through the grated window. But they never noticed when he yelled. When that started to get to him and he started to yell for minutes on end, they did at one point notice him and start laughing. He couldn’t hear their laughter. He finally decided that there had to be some magic dampening the sound and forcefully calmed himself. He could still hear himself, just not anything beyond the door.

The suppression bracelet was a constant temptation. It held back his powers. With his magic he could escape. None of the people who had come after him would be able to stop him. The guild would consider this a reasonable situation, right? But there was a part of him that knew that the moment he took that bracelet off was the moment he failed.

He had not been able to find many friends back on earth. Not since his dad had struck it rich. Emerys was annoying, but he liked the guy, Amalise too. It felt like it would be a betrayal to take the bracelet off now. Even as the bracelet seemed to grow bigger, heavier, until it consumed his whole perception. He had never been so open to listen to the influence of his concepts than when he had been forced into a small stone box for so long. Even as his two mental concepts fought, they called to him, pleading to be used. All he needed to do was take off the bracelet and set them free.

When a bowl was shoved through the flap at the bottom of the door, Will fell upon it. He devoured it with the single minded ferocity of a beast, and was licking his hands clean before he noticed that a spoon had been pushed in behind. But the distraction had helped. Will found himself using the bowl and spoon to play little games. Anything to distract himself from the bracelet. He pulled different items from his inventory, going through the loot he had collected and kicking himself for not storing some extra food. He would rectify that issue as soon as he could. But his inventory management could only help him for so long. He moved to working on his spirit enchanting, but could barely concentrate. He knew that there was a way to make his enchantments way more efficient, but his brain wouldn’t focus properly with the way the bracelet was weighing him down.

When another meal came an unknown amount of time later, Will ate with a little more self control. He used the spoon this time, though he still inhaled the gray gruel they gave him. It wasn’t enough, but Will sat against the back wall and attempted to meditate. Five minutes later however, the door opened and two armored guards came in, picking Will up by each arm and dragging him out of the cell. He was taken to a room with a wooden table where his manacles were locked to the floor. A chair was placed behind him so that he could sit, and there was a chair opposite the table from him.

A well groomed man in clothes Will presumed were quite stylish for all the lace and ruffles, came in and sat down opposite Will. He gave Will a kind smile and introduced himself.

“Hello, William. I am Baron Agenhal, and I cannot tell you how glad I am to meet you.” His smile grew, and Will couldn’t help but see a sinister quality to it. Will cringed back slightly.

“You are the one who was spreading those lies about me.” Will stated, trying to keep his tone flat, but couldn’t manage to keep a hint of outrage from seeping in.

“An unfortunate necessity I assure you.” Baron Agenhal said. “But you have to understand, you presented an opportunity far too good to pass up.”

Will was realizing very quickly that there was far more going on here than he had realized. Baron Agenhal was outraged, at least that was what the stories said. But the Baron Agenhal in front of him looked far from outraged. In fact he looked positively delighted. Will tried to think of what could be going on, but he couldn’t think of anything. He simply had too little information.

“What do you want from me?” Will asked flatly.

“Ahh, straight to business then. What I want from you is for you to testify against the adventurers guild.” Will looked at Baron Agenhal incredulously.

“Testify against the adventurers guild? What am I supposed to say about them?”

“Nothing special, and nothing even untrue. You simply have to tell the courts that you were let down by the guild, and that their lack of training led to the unfortunate situation in bramble.” Baron Agenhal smiled at Will again. Will could feel his concepts reacting to the man’s words, and felt their rage rising inside of him. He fought desperately to keep them under control.

“And why would I do that? The guild has been nothing but good to me.”

“Well you will get your freedom for starters. No crime, no record. All the blame falls on the guild for the mishap at bramble. But aside from that, I will give you this.” Baron Agenhal pulled a small vial of purple liquid out of a pocket and set it on the table. At first Will thought it was the potion that the alchemist had been making from the giant raspberries. That would have been a good bribe to anyone without the recipe. But it quickly became obvious that this potion was something entirely different.

“This, William,” Baron Agenhal said, his smile getting wider. “This is an antidote of sorts. You see, not ten minutes ago you consumed a potion usually given to people new to their concepts. People like you, except that most don’t have such powerful concepts. You see, this potion amplifies the power of your concepts so that they can more easily be accessed and called upon. Of course, it isn’t recommended for those who are not struggling with a weak concept. It can cause some minor control problems.

“But this potion will allow you to flush the concept enhancement potion from your system. You will be as good as new. You simply have to testify against the guild.”

Will stared in horror at Baron Agenhal. He thought back to the sword of desolation as he held it above Lord Aalto’s head like the sword of Damocles. He thought of the destruction he would have wrought had he actually brought it down. It would be that, but enhanced.

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“What have you done?” Will asked. He couldn’t betray them. So few people had been good to him, he couldn’t betray the few who helped him.

“I have simply ensured that things will go in my favor no matter what happens.” Baron Agenhal said. He held up the vial and spoke in a singsong voice. “Potion? A few words and it will be yours.”

“Go. To. Hell.” Will growled. A twinge of pain reared up from deep within his being as he wrestled with his two mental concepts. By this point even his physical concepts were starting to act out. He smothered all four with all the willpower he possessed, but it simply wasn’t enough.

“Ahh well. Too bad. Though I can’t say I am disappointed. Things will be more fun this way.” Baron Agenhal flicked the potion vial so that it smashed against the wall. He grinned at Will as he left. “Have fun William, can’t wait to see your performance at the trial.”

Will struggled within himself as he was left alone. His concepts fought ever more fiercely as their power increased, and Will did everything in his power to try to keep them apart, to keep them under control. His concepts seemed more like dragons than masses of power spooling out of his gates and nodes. It felt like he fought for hours when two new guards came, unlocked him from the ground and dragged him up a set of stairs. He was brought to what looked like a courtroom and was sat down on what looked like a witness stand. The room was full of officious looking people, including the rest of his party as well as Lord Atherton and Master Windrider. They all looked at him worriedly, but Will was glad to see that while Lord Atherton and Master Windrider were in prominent seats, the rest of his party seemed to be in the crowd.

“Master William!” Will jumped as he heard the whip crack voice of a severe man in ornate robes. Will looked at the man, realizing that this had been the third time he had been addressed.

“Yes, um, Your Honor?” It seemed like that form of address was suitable as the man simply huffed in disdain.

“Please answer the question.” Will felt dazed and confused as he continued to fight the battle within. He looked around until he spotted a man standing before him.

“Would you please repeat the question?” The man in front of Will snorted in derision.

“I asked, did you receive any training before going on your first quest?” Will had to think hard in order to answer the question and deal with his concepts at the same time.

“Umm, no, I had…”

“Did they test your capabilities before you left?”

“They tested… my… my concepts.” The man continued to another question, but Will’s head banged to the barrier in front of him and he groaned in pain. The entire courtroom went silent as Will wrestled with the shock of pain that had radiated through his whole being.

“I object to this treatment of Master William!” Lord Atherton yelled. “He is obviously unwell, and needs medical attention before we can continue these proceedings.”

“Just so that you can hide away your crimes, Lord Atherton?” The voice of Baron Agenhal cut through Will’s pain and rage filled the void. “Lord Atherton is obviously trying to stall these proceedings.”

Will wanted to rip his throat out and feed it to him. He pressed his head harder against the wooden barrier and his whole body tensed as he fought against the urge to leap across the room and attack Baron Agenhal. Images of him tearing the man apart, freezing him, burning him and scattering his ashes on the wind tore through Will’s mind. Blood seeped from his forehead where it ground against the barrier.

If this had been all, Will may have been able to resist. In the end, it was the burning that got to him. The bracelet was glowing an incandescent white where it sat on his wrist, casting the entire courtroom into shadows. Will had heat resistance as his Inferno of the Tumultuous Mind was currently active, and could easily resist the fire that had broken out around him. But the heat given off by the bracelet as it sat against his exposed flesh was too great for him to ignore. Some part of Will’s mind knew the thing was overloading, and it was that part that Will listened to when he finally stored the bracelet in his inventory.

Will exploded in incandescent multicolored light. The building around him was burned, frozen and turned to dust in turners as it crashed down. Pain seared through Will as he lost all control over his concepts, which seemed to dance together to an awful tune. But it was still getting worse.

Will staggered out of the collapsing building and into a large square. Dozens of mages and soldiers wielding bows were stationed around and fired as soon as they saw him. Every attack was swept away by the immense waves of power rippling off of Will. Those same waves of power ripped up rocks, caused the clouds to start to circle above him, and the earth to shake beneath his feet. Will was glad when he saw Koma in his full size leap out of the wreckage of the courthouse. Somehow, the ripples of power seemed to split around Koma as he came up to Will. Koma licked Will’s face, not caring that the slobber was immediately vaporized as it touched Will’s skin. Koma turned, and allowed Will to climb on his back as the soldiers watched.

Immediately the two set out. Will had never seen Koma move at full speed, but he experienced it now as buildings flashed by. They had to be moving as fast as a car on the freeway, and Koma did so nimbly dodging every obstacle in their way. Koma jumped over a building, and Will activated his strength boost to keep from being thrown off.

Strength Boost (Moderate)

Boosts Strength 5000%

Five thousand percent. His attention was drawn away as he continued to try to keep his concepts under the remaining vestiges of his control. But he held on with ease once he activated the boost. It was a kind of power that did what it was supposed to. But the two concepts didn’t seem to like this new power butting in on their territory, and they roared ever higher. Suddenly, the two concepts grabbed a hold of the trickle of mana coming from Will’s broken mana source in what Will could swear were jaws, and pulled hard. A new pain joined the rest as the broken source protested, but the mana flowed all the same. Suddenly the radius of destruction tripled, and Will cried for Koma to run faster. Suddenly, they were running on water, waves of intense cold emanating from Koma as he froze a path of ice for them to follow. The path did not last for long, smashed apart by Will’s out of control power. But it lasted long enough for Koma.

Will watched in relief as they passed the docks, and the city fell away behind him. But his concepts were not done. The power within him just kept growing and growing. Soon, nothing would be safe around him. Koma had done everything he could. Will stood on Koma’s back, fell sideways, and pushed off with all his might. He heard a yelp from Koma as he and Will rocketed away from each other. At least nobody would be hurt when it all ended.

Will’s vision was filled with an all consuming light, accompanied by a roar that shook the earth.

Everything went black.