OOC: Doesn’t Gwentan Issivan sound like something out of homelands? (Uncle Itsvan…)

December 15, 794 Talismanian Reckoning

The final customer left the shop, and Valin hurriedly closed the door behind him. He flipped the sign over to read closed and walked to the counter. It took Valin a few minutes to clean up, a lot less than the usual.

Valin could barely keep in his excitement. Of course that was bad, Valin reasoned, his mind would be in a state of turmoil in that case. But Desdel was no telepath, so he wouldn’t have a clue to what was going within Valin’s mind. But that did not feel right, as in Valin’s mind and assumptions a magician was peaceful. Peace of mind and body was the key to success, of course many of the evil wizards in legends were insane. Perhaps just knowing how to summon mana was the key, and the state of mind was irrelevant. That was irrelevant, Valin mainly wanted to achieve peace of mind because he didn’t want to go insane.

Valin shuddered at the thought of insanity. “Uggh.”

Desdel walked into the front room. “I see you’ve cleaned up, now. You’re exceptionally fast today, and I can understand why. Come here, to the back room, and I shall attempt to teach you what I have learned through the Celliden Tome and another large book I found in the librabry, the Gwentan Issivan. It’s some white mage’s journals from several years.”

Valin nodded and shuffled through the door to the back room behind Master Desdel. Together, they sat down on two chairs. Master Desdel pulled a small chair toward them and placed the Celliden Tome upon it. “I have been studying only white magic in the past few days, because during a quick overview of the Tome I found more easy white spells than black ones. Besides that, it will be easier to learn white while we have the Gwentan Issivan.”

Valin nodded, clearing his mind of most of his thoughts. Most of them. Some lingered, like insanity, and that sickened him. Why the worst thoughts had to stay in his head, he did not know. That thought heralded other secret fears he held. Mainly life after death and immortality came to his mind, and those two thoughts alone could drive him crazy. That thought brought back the momentarily subsided insanity. Now his mind started flooding with every thought possible, and even more.

Valin looked up at Master Desdel. He was mumbling something incomprehensible- no, comprehensible but not to Valin. The memory of when Desdel first agreed to let Valin learn magic entered his mind, and Valin lost it. “Augh! Tha tehrar! Tehrar!”

Desdel inhaled, and muttered something incomprehensible. He picked up a jug of cold water and dumped upon Valin. This only provoked more screaming.

“Augh! You’re all against me! Every last one of you!” Valin said to no one in particular. “What is up with the world? The terror!” and then Valin started sobbing in his chair.

Valin was surprised. He remembered slurring his words, but now he could mutter comprehendible words. Perhaps he was overcoming his fear of the unknown, magic being his first step. Conquering a fear. That thought felt good in his mind. It warmed him. It melted away the other thoughts, clearing his mind.

Desdel looked at Valin. “I thought you had lost it there again. What happened?”

Then it hit Valin. He had reached a goal of learning magic, and the thoughts were quelled. He had conquered a fear, and his thoughts were quelled. He had achieved something that in his mind was memorable, and he returned to sanity. “A fine way to preserve sanity.” He thought, and chuckled within his mind.

“What happened?” Desdel repeated.

Valin nodded quickly. “I have found a way to maintain sanity. No longer will I be like that for long. Nay, soon, I will be above that fear.”

“An honorable speech, I must say. Been practicing?”

“Nope.” Valin replied.

“I see. Well then, on we go. As I was saying, you will learn white first because there are more simple white spells to learn than black spells. First, I shall tell you what I have learned in general. Mana, like all other things, can be manipulated. In other words, you do not need a spell to do something, you just need to know how to do that spell. That would be like not knowing how to spell, but still talking. There are several ways to manipulate mana, the most obvious way is to will it. Another way is to concentrate on the object you want to change, and then will the mana to do that. That is a much more efficient way to manipulate mana, but it requires concentration. Concentration some insane mages did not have. I got this from the Gwentan Issivan, on a day that the mage discovered he or she could cast more spells on the same amount of mana this way.”

Valin nodded, processing the information. “Ah… Why did you say he or she, not a particular gender?”

“Ah… I’ve read a large amount of the Gwentan Issivan, but still the mage did not mention his or her gender. There are mentions of brothers and sisters, names, but never ever a name of the mage or a clue to their gender. Perhaps their name was Gwentan Issivan, perhaps not.”

Valin nodded. “And the spells?” he asked cautiously.

“Impatient little boy! Your first spell you shall learn is healing. In order to do this, you must see the wound and imagine the pain the subject is feeling. Then, imagine the wound and the pain at the same time and will your white mana to heal it. Here, the mana takes on a mind of it’s own and heals it, not necessarily like the body would. It attempts to restore it to what the body feels is the best position. It also mentions that with about three times as much mana you can alter it’s healing. Not a lot, but you can leave a scar perhaps or put an extra spot or something. Got that?”

Valin nodded. “Um, I assume I don’t have even mana capacity to um, do the alternate altering healing method. Am I correct?”

Desdel nodded. “You’re correct. You don’t have the mana capacity. Come with me to the back. I had a live deer taken here so we could kill it on the spot and so you can heal it’s wounds. Okay? Follow me.”

Valin nodded. They walked through the back door and entered a stable. It was not exactly a stable anymore, now it held more than horses. It held cows in one corner, pigs in another, horses in a third, and miscellaneous in the other. This included the deer, so they walked toward it.

“This is a buck.” Valin commented to himself, “Not a doe.”

Desdel nodded. “You are correct. Please don’t be affected but I will have to get the buck to bleed. Okay?”

Valin nodded, suddenly feeling sick at the thought of a bleeding animal. His worst memories flashed out to him. Valin shook his head, recalling the memory of his victories. But those memories were wearing thin, and becoming harder to recall. Still, with a bit of effort, Valin managed to summon the fact that he was learning his first useful spell. Still, he had not learned it and the fear he wouldn’t kept creeping into his mind. He remembered that he was finally learning magic, and that ability stopped the evil memories for a moment.

Then something snapped in Valin’s mind. All of his evil memories flooded his mind and Valin fell to the floor pulling on his hair. “Augh!”

Desdel sighed. “Do whatever you did to quash the fear…” and the talk became incomprehensible.

Valin struggled to think of a victory. Still, none came. His mind flashed back, before he learned magic. But every victory there seemed miniscule compared to recent victories. His whole past seemed miniscule. Perhaps that was just an illusion. Valin summoned every victory he could remember… and willed them to stop the evil memories. They did, but slowly. The evil memories eventually receded.

“What happened, Valin?” Desdel asked, “Next time perhaps I can help you.”

“Well, my bad memories, my fears attempting to overwhelm me. Every time you mention fear, or the like, it incites a reaction which makes all of my bad memories attempt to clog my mind. I think of my victories, though now it has been harder to recall them, and they clear my mind.”

“Ah.” Desdel nodded. “And how can I help?”

“Perhaps saying my victories to me would help? That time you poured water upon me only brought about more pain, more suffering. But it did bring me to my senses somewhat because I realized I could understand the words I said… they weren’t slurred, and then I realized I was winning… conquering this fear, and the pain subsided.”

Desdel nodded. “Now, onto the spell. Remember, you are a wonderful boy. You have a talent, two opposing colors of magic. You have a gift.” Master Desdel reached up and slashed the buck, leaving a large open wound on the side.

Valin felt sick immediately, and the memories came back. But then he thought of overcoming those memories and healing the buck, and the evil stopped for a moment. But that moment was all Valin needed. He summoned the mana and willed the wound to close, and imagined it and it closing in his mind. The wound closed slowly, ever slowly, but every time the Buck whimpered it threatened to throw Valin off balance. But finally the wound healed.

Valin opened his eyes, and there was the Buck, alive and well. Then it was dead. Master Desdel had killed it, to sell it. The memories flooded back into Valin’s mind, and he only managed to keep them away by thinking that he had saved the buck and he could save many more. But the onslaught of memories pressed onward. For the first time Valin had a good look at them. In his mind they were humanoid, as if he had met these people before. Then he saw one and met its eye. They were his family.

Valin choked, then let out an unearthly scream. He remembered his family, and then his more dreaded part of his life flashed into his mind.

There, in front of Valin was his close family. They were on a fishing boat. Ah, yes. Valin recalled they were fishers. Two servants, Renna and Minos, pulled the rigging in. We had caught a large amount of fish today, so we started to sail home.

Then, behind them, the clouds disseminated. Looming behind them stood the legendary ship The Corpse. It was the nightmare of childhood, and now, once again Valin realized it’s reality. The large ship sailed many times faster than the small fishing boat, and before we they were even close to shore The Corpse caught up to them.

There, a silhouette against the sun, stood it’s captain, Davvor. Valin stood in amazement though something told him to run. Davvor made a hand motion and pointed to the fishingboat. Within minutes, they were boarded. All of them, Valin and all of his family.

Once aboard the ship, they were locked in a dark cell. Valin was alone with Minos. Together, they hatched their only plan for survival, and escaped the ship. It has a miracle that it worked, and a miracle that Valin had survived. And now, he was here.

Valin slumped to the floor. The dream repeated forever, and ever. And for the next two days he was unconscious, his nightmares and dreams repeating endlessly in his mind. But throughout all of this he knew one thing. The blood of Davvor would taste good in his mind.

OOC: This gives him a goal to shoot for but I’m not going to make him kill Davvor soon. Until then, he’s gonna have nightmares :).