Earth, 2012, december 21

Poland, Village of Wolf-Howling

Stephen Morawiecki

I awake in cold sweat, feeling as if i took 10 cans of energy drinks and was prepared for a marathon. An unknown previously feeling of power overtakes me, as does a peculiar need to exit the house and go into the forest.

Slowly, i leave the bed taking care not to wake my wife Sophia. She doesn't seem to be feeling the same as i do and she doesnt need to miss any sleep over this. I slowly make my way to the front door, not even bothering to grab any clothing or shoes because for some reason i have a feeling that i won't be bothered by their absence. I walk through the snow, not feeling the cold, almost perfect vision despite the lack of lighting and lack of any discomfort from missing my shoes. Despite how energetic i feel, i walk in a half-daze, believing this to be a dream.

Slowly i make my way deep into the forest surrounding my estate. Once i can no longer see the signs of any civilization, i sit down and take in my surroundings. The forest feels more alive than it should be in winter. While there are no birds flying around or bugs making noise, i can feel the forest around me. Once i realise that, i also realise that it's trying to speak and that i can kinda understand it.

The forest spirit's message is that a grave danger is coming, and that the feeling of power is the herald of that change. It tells me that it will teach me how to use the power as long as i help protect it from the horrors that are yet to come. I accept it, both amazed at the fact that magic is real and that i can use it, and terrified at the images that are shown of what is to come.

I spend hours talking to the spirit, receiving guidance on how to conciously access the power, rather than the unconcious use i already perform by seeing in the dark and not being harmed by the elements. The spirit taught me how to cast a spell which should regulate the amount of mana in the surroundings, telling me that it should help stop mutations from occuring in the village.

I return home right as the sun rises, filled with excitment and dread. I need to master magic if whatever the spirit shown me will be true. For my wife and unborn child. There will be a lot of work to do.

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Earth, 2012, december 21

Poland, Village of Wolf-Howling. A womb.

Arunaro Ferro

I pop into existence, not really knowing how or why. I am safe and warm but my memories are severely jumbled. I know that my name is either Arunaro, Annie or Melindias. I'll go with Arunaro, since that's what i seem to be called in most of my memories mentioning my name, with the other names being fainter and not really belonging in the picture that is my broken mind.

One of the strongest memories is one of my death, which makes this either some sort of afterlife or necromancy, with the latter being most probable. Jumbled memories happen when both soul and brain is damaged and someone uses parts of other souls to fix the soul so that it can fix the body or inhabit a new one. The blast should've evaporated my body entirely, which means that my soul is now in a new one.

I look inwards myself and notice that my body is that of an unborn child. That means that it's possible that the theory of reincarnation is probably true, however the fact that i have my own memories and ones from other souls makes me feel that something went wrong during the process.

Another weird thing about this body is the fact that i am not actually in it. The body is too small to handle all of my soul and i feel detached from it. Hopefully this shouldnt be a problem in the future.

The sudden feeling of intense amounts of mana pulls me out of my stupor, as i realise that this is the most mana i have ever felt in my life. Its as if i decided to jump straight into a pool of pure mana and submerged myself. This is bad, very bad. Mana overdose is no joke, being able to mutate children and adult mages if they do not handle it correctly.

Learning to cycle mana inside ones body is an important excersize for every mage in order to improve their capacity, which i proceed to do in order not to get overwhelmed and die due to all the mana. I feel some pain, realising that the connection body-to-soul is barely enough to handle all the power. I continue on, preferring some pain as opposed to mutations. As i do that, i realise that if my mother gets mutations of her own i might die or get them transferred to myself. I quickly attempt to cycle the mana out of her as well, but it's too much for my soul alone to handle and my body isn't developed enough to be of use. 

As i slowly start to panic, i suddenly feel a drop in mana levels around me to levels that are the maximum a human can handle. Seems like there is a mage nearby who felt the ambient mana and cast a spell to help cope with it. I say a silent thanks to the good soul who done so, and begin work on circulating the decreased amount of mana. I also help circulate my mothers mana veins so that she can deal with mana on her own without the need for spellwork. She's gonna need it if these mana levels won't drop by themselves.

Length of time that a child spends within their mother escapes me, i hope that it's something reasonable like 4 months or something.

It's gonna be a long stay.