The Forlorn Lineage
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*Captain Vanguard
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
The Desert.... a harsh thing to be sure.
Its sun kisses the skin with boiling rays of uncaring light...
Its seas are golden slopes of radiant grains, shifting and trembling under the feet...
Its mountains provide only so much shade, and only appear when they so please...
Its nights are cold and cruel unbiased but fair...
The Desert.... this is where I was raised, but not where I was born.
My name is Catarianna Erianne and I am the youngest of three siblings. My father, Lord Darcy Erianne ruled with a pragmatic and uncaring hand to his children, he did not care for us, he used us like pawns.
And I was simply part of his grand scheme to continue his undergrowing empire of forbidden networks and taboo trade in Cromyr.
Father, uncaringly gave me to a Thayan Red Wizard by the name of Ulamet The Flamebringer. The wizard saw in me the potential to be a great bringer of magic and fire and so he took me to a place where the sun blazed strongest and live was as harsh as the warmest fire.
This is the first episode of my journey to the sands and my lessons learned from that experience...
Chapter One: Abbandoned and Abstained
I was only five at the time I was seperated from my siblings nearly thice my age. I wondered as the bald shaven Ulamet walked me away from my home, just where I was going. When I cried for Papa, he ignored me and my ruthless mentor smacked me with a stick, I fell unconsious for the first time.
When I came to, I remember walking again, this time, with a noose around my throat. I remember thinking as we crossed mountains, traveled through seas and cautiously waded through forests, I remember thinking only one thing:
When will I see home again?
The truth is, I never saw home again, it was the start of a changed life. It was a life I eventually grew to adapt to, but at this point, I was only a child.
I was fed only when I needed to be, I was given the right to pass on bodily mass when I had to, in privacy, but I was given no right to freedom, only the promise of it, the illusion of it. When I asked, Ulamet would constantly tell me only one thing:
"One day child, one day you will be free."
I honestly believed I would be...
My journey took me to the quieter province of Thazalhar, where the population was lowest and the activity was little. It was to a degree the only time of peace I truley knew in my upbringing.
It was there my training would begin, I had no choice but to learn well and learn hard.
Ulamet owned a great tower in the province, within the smaller village of Kalyuut, it is a place I will unlikley ever forget. Ulamet made me spend most of my life in that tower from the day I entered it.
Even now I remember the decorate Thayan architechture on the walls, portraits of slaves kneeling before their greaters. Portraits of the weak bowing before the strong. This was the teaching Ulamet hoped to instill into me, he hoped to make me see as he saw, that we step upon those below us.
...That was where my defiance first began.
Upon the first day of entering that tower, Ulamet introduced me to the slaves, he did not give them names, he simply addressed them as various insults namley of names regarding filth. He taught me to name them the same and told me to familiarise myself with them, for they were weak, I was potential.
I remember the hate they gave me, I remember the bitter contempt the younger ones looked upon me with as they were forced to clean and cook and I was forced only to listen to lectures. I was lucky, I realised, when compaired to them, I had some freedom.
I pitied them, I truley pitied them.
But I also had alot to learn about the value of pity... even now I suspect I am too forgiving, for my own good.
Ulamet left me to explore the tower, save the highest point, he stated that I must never under any circumstance enter that part of the tower, though never would he tell me why, nor would I ever get the chance to know.
My first act was to revisit the slaves... I spent much of my time trying to befriend them, but Rashemi did not speak the language of Cromyr or Thay. However, every time Ulamet caught me with the slaves he would scald me for trying to treat them as equals. Every time, he reminded me that they were animals, when he could not win me over by harsh anger, he tried to convince me their lives were valueless and I had nothing to gain from sympathising with them.
Yet still... I pitied them... and I wondered... what it must be like to be as unfortunate as them.
I suppose, I will never truley know... I have always been quite prepared. In one respect Ulamet, you did teach me well, you made me ready for anything.
That is the first lesson I learned... to be prepared.
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*Captain Vanguard
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Chapter Two: Unwanted and Unnecessary
Its been a few weeks since I wrote in this tapestry. Not that I care much to remember anything that is the history of my past.
I remember however the time that I truley understood the defiance within myself.
I remember a long time ago, when I met a little boy from Rashemen.
I remember that it all begins with a touch of love and a touch of tragedy.
I remember... everything.
Ulamat was always percistant to raise me in the way of a true Thayan. He wanted me to dress as them, he wanted me to act as them. He would skin my head but still scalps of hair would grow. He would scold me for letting my face remain unmarked by the tatoos of power that symbolised my supremecy over the lessers below me.
Still, even after all he had tried to do it was in his teaching of magic that I was most flawed. He would always try to make me read books or study the art yet failed constantly to pick up on a simple fact. I was not gifted in my wisdom, but in my tallent.
I felt the pain of the beatings every day when I failed to perform a spell correctly. I screamed and cried and recieved only furious insults and further beatings untill the tears stopped. I learned to smile, when I felt pain and hide tears with laughter.
Even after the beatings and warnings, I would go to meet the slaves and try to speak with them. They were always busy, working away at the stove, cleaning the pots, toiling away at the waterwheel while their Thayan masters whipped and beat them. I came to conclude that I hated what happened to them, it felt wrong.
But then I saw this young boy, his name was Cheelayie. Chee was a kind young human like myself, his hair was rough like any slave and unkempt. The Thayan's always had the slaves remain unkempt as a reprisentation of how low they were valued in society.
Chee however was different. He didnt mind being rough, or unkempt. The scar on his small lip showed he had already tasted a fight and lost before. Yet it was not the scar or the shadow of a pained expression that made me happy with him.
He talked to me, the first of his kind. We never had the best conversations at first. It all began with a beating and a young girl begging the slavemaster to stop.
I remember it well. The man towered over me with his whip and knelt before me. He spat in my face and kicked me in the gut. I smiled, but he came to help me.
When I rose to he asked "are you alright?" I was confused. Ulamet told me that the slaves would show me no empathy, yet here he was a young boy offering his hand to help me rise.
How could I refuse?
"Im fine..." I said, dusting off my robe. The sand had dirtied the thing and now I looked humilated and petty in comparison to the more finely dressed Thayan socialists.
He took a cloth the slaves had fashioned for him. Filled with sweat and blood and tears he cleaned the flegmn from my face, without me even asking.
"You look better now." He said, he seemed so kind and yet so alone. I saw in his eyes pain that I could have never felt in my own way. I pitied him and his kind thrice the amount I had before, realising just how horrible it must be to be him.
"You shouldnt help me, I probably deserved it." I replied once more, I incisted he needed to leave me, before a Thayan slaver spotted him. I didnt want to watch another slave get beaten.
He protested he was fine however, he protested that the beatings did not matter. He introduced himself, and with hesitation, I too did the same.
Over the course of the next three months I got to know him. He would work hard in the slave-mines, fight well in pits even for a child and he would look defiant every second he could in the faces of his owners.
He was brave, not like me. I was fortunate, luxurious and forced to wear my hair short and kept like a groomed animal. I was a trophie to my tutor, I was currency for his pleasure. I realised in some ways, I had even less freedom than Chee himself did in that respect.
He did impossible things that I could never achieve without the help of someone to carry me. He could swing a pickaxe like a full grown adult yet I couldnt even hope to lift it.
I confronted Ulamet one night and asked my master why he needed me at all. He replied: "I dont know, your simply useful for now." He smiled to me, in a way that symbolised a man with no love. Placing his hand on my shoulder, he leaned down with a cruel face and said: "I only need you for now young girl to cooperate and obay. In time you will be one of us, no matter how long it takes to perfect you. You will bend."
I felt a shudder of fear as that hand gripped me. It was as if a vice was holding my throat, even if the hand lay upon my shoulder. I could only give a strangled nod with my eyes wide and shaking.
I could tell my captors content, he smiled, taking pleasure in my fear. I couldnt feel safe with Ulamet.
But when I was with Chee, i felt safe all the time. I would spend the occasional day or two, hiding in the bushes and the wilds. I would hide away with Chee and talk to him more about his people, learn more of the Rashemi.
"We are not free..." He said coldly, looking at the floor with hate. I saw his pain and I rest a hand on his shoulder.
"But you are..." I replied. "You are more free than I could ever be, you are no bird locked in a cage, you are a young boy with the strength of a thousand men. You decide when you walk and how. You decide if you take the beating or fight it, as to me, I decide only what dress I wear and even then it is confined to a choice depending on the day or season."
I saw something in his eyes, he didnt like what I had said. He took himself away and stood slowly.
"Is this true freedom? Knowing that if you try to escape that you will inevitably die or suffer? I may be free to choose how I suffer Catarianna, but I am not free to be who I am, that is a gift only you have the choice of."
I wanted to ask him what he meant, but he stormed off, upset with me. I wanted to make it up to him but then something terrible happened.
A wild beast, a boar perhaps? I never remember too well, charged upon my friend. He was taken off guard, and injured, his legs crippled.
I went after him, afraid to see him hurt, or even die. I had to do something but no matter how hard I tried, my magic just wouldnt answer me. I kept trying to remember the scrolls and teachings of Ulamet, but I couldnt.
I trembled as I watched the creature trample him and knock him to one side. It was horrifying, watching a young boy helplessly bested by an animal. He was suffering grevious wounds and I knew the thing was going to kill him unless I did something.
I tried again, but no avail. I kept trying, I screamed in my mind please, save him.
Then I felt something, in my hands.
A great fire erupted from my grasp. A huge wash of flame coated the beast, and in a violent screaming carcass that it had become, it was dead.
I had killed something, for the first time in my life. But I did not regreat it.
I went to approach my friend, but then I heard a clapping and turned to face Ulamet.
He had been following me this entire time, more than aware of my desperate attempts to hide from him.
He approached the injured boy, his legs crushed he sighed.
"You were so useful once..." he smiled, I saw in his eye something cruel as he rest a hand on Chee's face. The boy looked to his masters eyes with hate and fear.
"A pity, really." Ulamet stated with a cruel tone in his voice, my eyes trembled, what was he going to do? Then I saw it... he gripped the boy by the arm, and twisted it out of place, leaving him compleatley crippled.
Young Cheelayie screamed in a pain I could not describe with human words. I felt my body boiling as the fire I had used returned to me. I saw a delight in Ulamet's eyes.
"So it is the pain of those closest to you, that brings you power?" He said with a knowing expression. I too realised that it was through Chee's suffering that my power had truley grown. But I did not untill it was too late realise what Ulamet intended to do with that knowladge.
Quite suddenly and ruthelessly, I felt two guards restrain me. They were imbued with enchanted armour and held me firmly in place, making me watch as Ulamet drew a knife to the terrified young boy.
"Good..." He finally said in a conclusive manner. "Then I will be sure to help you learn through it." With that, he plunged the dagger into the boy, several times. He made intentionally sure that Chee did not go quietly.
As the boy screamed in pain and begged to die I begged for Ulamet to stop and have mercy. I heard the echoing laughter of the man as he stripped away the childs life before my eyes.
When the body finally stared with horror in his face I saw the stillness of his life fade away. I had only known him for three months but they were the happiest I had known in Thay.
I felt my hands trembling. Against the armour the two guards were begining to let me loose, they couldnt contain the heat and I certainly was aflame.
Were it not for Ulamet, I might have done something far more dangerous than he anticipated. He reacted wisley, and decided to strike me with the butt of his staff as I felt blood tinge from my head.
I fell to the floor as the guards let me go, Ulamet leaned over me as I felt fear grip my body.
"Dont worry girl, he wont be the last slave to die protecting you." He promised me with a cold smile. I hated him and as he left I learned to cry again. I cried for a dead boy who I could do nothing to save.
This was the lesson of hate, one that I grew to embrace, quite strongly.
Its been a few weeks since I wrote in this tapestry. Not that I care much to remember anything that is the history of my past.
I remember however the time that I truley understood the defiance within myself.
I remember a long time ago, when I met a little boy from Rashemen.
I remember that it all begins with a touch of love and a touch of tragedy.
I remember... everything.
Ulamat was always percistant to raise me in the way of a true Thayan. He wanted me to dress as them, he wanted me to act as them. He would skin my head but still scalps of hair would grow. He would scold me for letting my face remain unmarked by the tatoos of power that symbolised my supremecy over the lessers below me.
Still, even after all he had tried to do it was in his teaching of magic that I was most flawed. He would always try to make me read books or study the art yet failed constantly to pick up on a simple fact. I was not gifted in my wisdom, but in my tallent.
I felt the pain of the beatings every day when I failed to perform a spell correctly. I screamed and cried and recieved only furious insults and further beatings untill the tears stopped. I learned to smile, when I felt pain and hide tears with laughter.
Even after the beatings and warnings, I would go to meet the slaves and try to speak with them. They were always busy, working away at the stove, cleaning the pots, toiling away at the waterwheel while their Thayan masters whipped and beat them. I came to conclude that I hated what happened to them, it felt wrong.
But then I saw this young boy, his name was Cheelayie. Chee was a kind young human like myself, his hair was rough like any slave and unkempt. The Thayan's always had the slaves remain unkempt as a reprisentation of how low they were valued in society.
Chee however was different. He didnt mind being rough, or unkempt. The scar on his small lip showed he had already tasted a fight and lost before. Yet it was not the scar or the shadow of a pained expression that made me happy with him.
He talked to me, the first of his kind. We never had the best conversations at first. It all began with a beating and a young girl begging the slavemaster to stop.
I remember it well. The man towered over me with his whip and knelt before me. He spat in my face and kicked me in the gut. I smiled, but he came to help me.
When I rose to he asked "are you alright?" I was confused. Ulamet told me that the slaves would show me no empathy, yet here he was a young boy offering his hand to help me rise.
How could I refuse?
"Im fine..." I said, dusting off my robe. The sand had dirtied the thing and now I looked humilated and petty in comparison to the more finely dressed Thayan socialists.
He took a cloth the slaves had fashioned for him. Filled with sweat and blood and tears he cleaned the flegmn from my face, without me even asking.
"You look better now." He said, he seemed so kind and yet so alone. I saw in his eyes pain that I could have never felt in my own way. I pitied him and his kind thrice the amount I had before, realising just how horrible it must be to be him.
"You shouldnt help me, I probably deserved it." I replied once more, I incisted he needed to leave me, before a Thayan slaver spotted him. I didnt want to watch another slave get beaten.
He protested he was fine however, he protested that the beatings did not matter. He introduced himself, and with hesitation, I too did the same.
Over the course of the next three months I got to know him. He would work hard in the slave-mines, fight well in pits even for a child and he would look defiant every second he could in the faces of his owners.
He was brave, not like me. I was fortunate, luxurious and forced to wear my hair short and kept like a groomed animal. I was a trophie to my tutor, I was currency for his pleasure. I realised in some ways, I had even less freedom than Chee himself did in that respect.
He did impossible things that I could never achieve without the help of someone to carry me. He could swing a pickaxe like a full grown adult yet I couldnt even hope to lift it.
I confronted Ulamet one night and asked my master why he needed me at all. He replied: "I dont know, your simply useful for now." He smiled to me, in a way that symbolised a man with no love. Placing his hand on my shoulder, he leaned down with a cruel face and said: "I only need you for now young girl to cooperate and obay. In time you will be one of us, no matter how long it takes to perfect you. You will bend."
I felt a shudder of fear as that hand gripped me. It was as if a vice was holding my throat, even if the hand lay upon my shoulder. I could only give a strangled nod with my eyes wide and shaking.
I could tell my captors content, he smiled, taking pleasure in my fear. I couldnt feel safe with Ulamet.
But when I was with Chee, i felt safe all the time. I would spend the occasional day or two, hiding in the bushes and the wilds. I would hide away with Chee and talk to him more about his people, learn more of the Rashemi.
"We are not free..." He said coldly, looking at the floor with hate. I saw his pain and I rest a hand on his shoulder.
"But you are..." I replied. "You are more free than I could ever be, you are no bird locked in a cage, you are a young boy with the strength of a thousand men. You decide when you walk and how. You decide if you take the beating or fight it, as to me, I decide only what dress I wear and even then it is confined to a choice depending on the day or season."
I saw something in his eyes, he didnt like what I had said. He took himself away and stood slowly.
"Is this true freedom? Knowing that if you try to escape that you will inevitably die or suffer? I may be free to choose how I suffer Catarianna, but I am not free to be who I am, that is a gift only you have the choice of."
I wanted to ask him what he meant, but he stormed off, upset with me. I wanted to make it up to him but then something terrible happened.
A wild beast, a boar perhaps? I never remember too well, charged upon my friend. He was taken off guard, and injured, his legs crippled.
I went after him, afraid to see him hurt, or even die. I had to do something but no matter how hard I tried, my magic just wouldnt answer me. I kept trying to remember the scrolls and teachings of Ulamet, but I couldnt.
I trembled as I watched the creature trample him and knock him to one side. It was horrifying, watching a young boy helplessly bested by an animal. He was suffering grevious wounds and I knew the thing was going to kill him unless I did something.
I tried again, but no avail. I kept trying, I screamed in my mind please, save him.
Then I felt something, in my hands.
A great fire erupted from my grasp. A huge wash of flame coated the beast, and in a violent screaming carcass that it had become, it was dead.
I had killed something, for the first time in my life. But I did not regreat it.
I went to approach my friend, but then I heard a clapping and turned to face Ulamet.
He had been following me this entire time, more than aware of my desperate attempts to hide from him.
He approached the injured boy, his legs crushed he sighed.
"You were so useful once..." he smiled, I saw in his eye something cruel as he rest a hand on Chee's face. The boy looked to his masters eyes with hate and fear.
"A pity, really." Ulamet stated with a cruel tone in his voice, my eyes trembled, what was he going to do? Then I saw it... he gripped the boy by the arm, and twisted it out of place, leaving him compleatley crippled.
Young Cheelayie screamed in a pain I could not describe with human words. I felt my body boiling as the fire I had used returned to me. I saw a delight in Ulamet's eyes.
"So it is the pain of those closest to you, that brings you power?" He said with a knowing expression. I too realised that it was through Chee's suffering that my power had truley grown. But I did not untill it was too late realise what Ulamet intended to do with that knowladge.
Quite suddenly and ruthelessly, I felt two guards restrain me. They were imbued with enchanted armour and held me firmly in place, making me watch as Ulamet drew a knife to the terrified young boy.
"Good..." He finally said in a conclusive manner. "Then I will be sure to help you learn through it." With that, he plunged the dagger into the boy, several times. He made intentionally sure that Chee did not go quietly.
As the boy screamed in pain and begged to die I begged for Ulamet to stop and have mercy. I heard the echoing laughter of the man as he stripped away the childs life before my eyes.
When the body finally stared with horror in his face I saw the stillness of his life fade away. I had only known him for three months but they were the happiest I had known in Thay.
I felt my hands trembling. Against the armour the two guards were begining to let me loose, they couldnt contain the heat and I certainly was aflame.
Were it not for Ulamet, I might have done something far more dangerous than he anticipated. He reacted wisley, and decided to strike me with the butt of his staff as I felt blood tinge from my head.
I fell to the floor as the guards let me go, Ulamet leaned over me as I felt fear grip my body.
"Dont worry girl, he wont be the last slave to die protecting you." He promised me with a cold smile. I hated him and as he left I learned to cry again. I cried for a dead boy who I could do nothing to save.
This was the lesson of hate, one that I grew to embrace, quite strongly.
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*Captain Vanguard
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Chapter Three: Competition and Control
Who I was before doesnt truley matter to me these days. But it is always important to remember the roots of what made you who you are and what lead you to become what you will be.
By this time, I was of my teenage years while Ulamat the Flamebringer beat me and bent me untill I would learn to perfect my pyrokenesis. He refused to give me breaks or to show me any empathy since the day I had shown mercy to a slave.
For every time I refused to use my power on another student of the school he would simply bring another slave and kill them in some grotesque manner while he intentionally made me watch. He knew it would hurt me and he was right, I could only hate him for it.
Inevitably I accepted the only way to stop his murdering brutality was to kill every Thayan wizard apprentice he saw as his own competition and mine in turn. A prooving of Thayan schools was going to occur in the Capital and it ould be the first time I would leave the tower.
Ulamat warned me that I had to behave. I nodded complacent as he explained to me what would happen:
"The Tournament is a show of power between rival teachers. From time to time, we send our students to amuse us in place of ourselves. This time, you will be there and you will "kill" everyone in the way. The reward is my glory and your fame. You will get no coin nor any trinkets of power they should offer, those will go to me, do you understand?"
"Yes master Ulamat" I replied with a monotonus tone. My heart was already broken and I had no furtherway to fight against him. He had bent me weather I wanted to serve him, or not.
He smiled proud of his own accomplishment. He knew I was unable to argue anymore, especially with yet another Rashemi slave standing before me, a woman.
"Kill her, or I will."
The slave's eyes widened as did my own.
"What?" I said trembling.
"You will be fighting compeditors who will show you no mercy. Kill this pitiful slave and proove to me you are ready."
I saw the woman shaking her head, I saw her eyes welling with tears and my heart raced with fear once more.
I had seen him slay hundreds of slaves, by now, that didnt bother me so much. But he as asking me to kill her myself in cold blood and without motive. I couldnt... I wouldnt...
But then I saw he was raising a dagger to find some slow way to murder the woman. I decided in my mercy, I would put her out of her misery before he did.
"Im sorry..." I said to her soflty. I saw her begging for her life in Rashemi, but I couldnt give her the mercy she wanted.
My hands wove the flamenow, knit perfectly, remembering all the slaves he had killed already I felt my fingers trembling like the rippling edges of the sun. With my hate complete, I sent a jet of flame to the woman in such a manner it burned her to dust before she could even scream.
It was over in a mater of seconds and in my disgust, Ulamat grinned.
"Your learning." He lectured once more.
Some time would fast and I found myself once more traveling through deserts by carridge. We were carried of course, Ulamat insisted the slaves serve as little better than horses and had them whipped when they could carry us no further.
The journey was not an easy one and the occasional bump made the cart tilt or falter when a slave didnt carry the cart effectivly enough. It wasnt long after that before I heard the sharp whip of one of the slaver guards striking the one responsible.
Through the screams of slaves toil and the tiring nights where I just couldnt rest. My mind kept flickering to the woman whos flesh I had destroyed.
I felt my vision swim as I saw her there, standing in the desert with me naked before her. I covered my most essential figure and looked at her with trembling eyes.
"W...what is this?" I asked in surprise, where were we?
"You... destroyed me..." she replied in bitter hate, approaching me with her fire. I tried to run away but the sand itself restrained me like several slaves hands holding my feet in place and my arms.
"No! Your mistaken! I put you out of a greater misery!" I replied, pleading my defence as the slaves restrained my arms, I was exposed to the fire and the flaming woman continued to advance upon me with a furious and merciless stride.
"You destroyed me and now you shall burn." She reached out and I felt her touch my skin, I couldnt stop screaming as I shaked and turned my body boiled and my flesh rippled in agony.
"Please stop! Please!" I screamed, ive never felt so much pain. It was as if she and all the other dead slaves were trying to reach out to me.
"You will burn!" She promised and sent a stream of fire towards me.
Thats when I woke up with a gasp, staring at Ulamat who had slapped my face to wake me up, my cheek glowing red from pain.
"Wake up foolish girl, were here." He said impaitently before we emerged at what seemed to be the largest school ive ever been to in my life.
The citdel was a large newly constructed establishment that the Thayans had bosted would host every school in Thay. It was intended to be the end of the necessity to travel between schools, standing like a pinnacle establishment amoung many here.
They bragged it could be the answer to everything, but then again what didnt they brag about I thought. They were always so optimistic about things, in a far less than noble way.
If it wasnt for the fact their accomplishments were built on the blood and tears of lessers it might have been as glorious as Ulamat had boasted. But I did not feel the same, I saw only a house forged from the tyrany of this place and soon enough I would be entered into it.
When we ventured inside, we traveled through long corridoors filled with the archtitectural statues and carvings of great Red Wizards and Thayans ruling over lesser slaves. I was disgusted at just how proud they were of their love for ruling other things and yet I myself found that what hurt me even more, was that I was forced to indulge in it.
Despite everything Master Ulamat had forced upon me there was one thing I never did respect. Every time he would try to shave my hair bald and every time in retort, I would keep a cropped head, symbolising there was still something imperfect about me he could never tame.
I suppose, it was my only real revenge.
When we entered the academy training grounds we stumbled into a large open area with paved stone below and no comfortable or soft ground to fall on. I realised soon enough I wasnt going to enjoy landing on my face here.
The very archways hung over me like a giant prison but with that open dome at the top the sun beamed through upon me and my master. We traveled into a group of other Thayan tutors and their proudest pupils. I realised in that moment, weather to humilate me or display me, Ulamat had braught me to show to his rivals he was greater.
Once more, I felt a sense of loathing for the wizards manner of treatment.
He approached a bald and gaunt man clearly fat with wealth or coin. The man had two slave girls at either side of his form and wore the typical robes of a red wizard. He has a tatoo upon his forehead shaped not unlike an eye, I remember, constantly staring down at his lessers.
"I see you've braught your trove Omrithas" My master addressed the man before us when he spoke.
Omrithas replied: "my trove is worth a thousand of your slaves now tell me where is your newest failure?" The man taunted my master, I saw Ulamat was displeased.
Newest failure? I wondered myself, but soon before I could think he thrust me before the man as I stood there silently trembling.
I had learned from all the beatings that showing weakness was only going to make me easy pray. I chose to feign my content but the fat Omrithas saw right through me.
"She is pitiful, she wont even make it past the first round. Especially not with my own dear Paluthi to crush anyone in her way, especially ants."
I could tell he was enphasising me, soon enough I saw this Paluthi he spoke of too. She was a taller girl than myself and had a far thinner, one might even say attractive complexion compaired to her tutor. She was however at least four years of age greater than I, and more than likley twice my strength. That of course was at the time, what I considered to be the truth.
Paluthi summed me easily enough. She was looking at me with disgust, I saw it in every Thayan. She had shaven her hair perfectly and her hazel brown eyes stared at me as if I really was just an ant below her.
"You expect me to fight this?" She said with disgust at Ulamat. "I will crush her, kill her and be done with her remains before you can even pick up the pace."
Ulamat smiled to me. I blinked as he looked back to Paluthi. "Dont underestimate the small compeditor, you may yet find yourself regreating it to be your last mistake."
Paluthi looked once at me and turned away spitting at the floor near me. Soon enough I saw her master Omrithas smiling slyly to my own.
"Shes fiesty isnt she? She will hold her word though Ulamat, you're wasting your time. Forfiet now and save the girl her life and your humilation."
Ulamat clearly didnt intend to back down, I could see fire in my masters eyes just as his name implied.
"When this tournament is done the fortunes you have will be worth nothing compaired to the look of humilation on your face." Ulamat pointed with a cold smile to his rival. I saw that Omrithas didnt take it well.
"So be it Ulamat, may the worst wizard loose."
The fat man marched away into the tourney grounds with the other young scholars and their masters. Ulamat leaned to me.
"Listen to me..." he promised with a cold certainty in his voice. "...These people will kill you if you even remotley think of spairing their lives so here is a vow I will make to you. If you fail me I will spair your life, at the expense of an entire Rashemi slave heard. You will be made to watch, and I will make sure every last slave knows, it was you who murdered them."
I could see the subtly of his attempt to inspire me. It was blackmail, if I failed hundreds would die, but if I succeeded only his competition would. Either way, I had to kill someone and it made me sick to even think about it.
Still, here I was at the tourney grounds.
After an introduction by the tournament master, we had rules explained to us that we would have a day to prepair and that we had appartments made for us. We were allowed to use any spells we pleased and we could kill if we desired. He explained that showing mercy was not a favourale tactic amoung competition who might later try to kill us.
Still... I wondered if he was really telling the truth, and despite my masters instuction I did not feel the urge to kill anyone today.
As night fell I recall sleep was rough once more. I saw the woman yet again grasping my face, scorching it with blazing heat as the slaves arms dragged me towards the earth below. I flailed I screamed I tried to fight back but it was hopeless.
"You will burn tommorow" she promised. "And when you do, you will suffer everything your kind has inflicted upon us."
I felt myself sinking into the sand of my nightmares.
When dawn came, I wasnt sure if I would be ready.
But if there was one thing I had to do, it was survive. And right now, as much as I wanted to run away, as much as I wanted to kill anyone, I needed to obay Ulamat's instruction in order to get out of this in one peice.
It was this that taught me the lesson that competition always has to die, no matter how amusing it would be to spair it. However, it also taught me a valueable lesson about doing as you were told and more so, when the time came, I too might one day tell others what to do.
I wondered if I was ever fit to rule and control.
Who I was before doesnt truley matter to me these days. But it is always important to remember the roots of what made you who you are and what lead you to become what you will be.
By this time, I was of my teenage years while Ulamat the Flamebringer beat me and bent me untill I would learn to perfect my pyrokenesis. He refused to give me breaks or to show me any empathy since the day I had shown mercy to a slave.
For every time I refused to use my power on another student of the school he would simply bring another slave and kill them in some grotesque manner while he intentionally made me watch. He knew it would hurt me and he was right, I could only hate him for it.
Inevitably I accepted the only way to stop his murdering brutality was to kill every Thayan wizard apprentice he saw as his own competition and mine in turn. A prooving of Thayan schools was going to occur in the Capital and it ould be the first time I would leave the tower.
Ulamat warned me that I had to behave. I nodded complacent as he explained to me what would happen:
"The Tournament is a show of power between rival teachers. From time to time, we send our students to amuse us in place of ourselves. This time, you will be there and you will "kill" everyone in the way. The reward is my glory and your fame. You will get no coin nor any trinkets of power they should offer, those will go to me, do you understand?"
"Yes master Ulamat" I replied with a monotonus tone. My heart was already broken and I had no furtherway to fight against him. He had bent me weather I wanted to serve him, or not.
He smiled proud of his own accomplishment. He knew I was unable to argue anymore, especially with yet another Rashemi slave standing before me, a woman.
"Kill her, or I will."
The slave's eyes widened as did my own.
"What?" I said trembling.
"You will be fighting compeditors who will show you no mercy. Kill this pitiful slave and proove to me you are ready."
I saw the woman shaking her head, I saw her eyes welling with tears and my heart raced with fear once more.
I had seen him slay hundreds of slaves, by now, that didnt bother me so much. But he as asking me to kill her myself in cold blood and without motive. I couldnt... I wouldnt...
But then I saw he was raising a dagger to find some slow way to murder the woman. I decided in my mercy, I would put her out of her misery before he did.
"Im sorry..." I said to her soflty. I saw her begging for her life in Rashemi, but I couldnt give her the mercy she wanted.
My hands wove the flamenow, knit perfectly, remembering all the slaves he had killed already I felt my fingers trembling like the rippling edges of the sun. With my hate complete, I sent a jet of flame to the woman in such a manner it burned her to dust before she could even scream.
It was over in a mater of seconds and in my disgust, Ulamat grinned.
"Your learning." He lectured once more.
Some time would fast and I found myself once more traveling through deserts by carridge. We were carried of course, Ulamat insisted the slaves serve as little better than horses and had them whipped when they could carry us no further.
The journey was not an easy one and the occasional bump made the cart tilt or falter when a slave didnt carry the cart effectivly enough. It wasnt long after that before I heard the sharp whip of one of the slaver guards striking the one responsible.
Through the screams of slaves toil and the tiring nights where I just couldnt rest. My mind kept flickering to the woman whos flesh I had destroyed.
I felt my vision swim as I saw her there, standing in the desert with me naked before her. I covered my most essential figure and looked at her with trembling eyes.
"W...what is this?" I asked in surprise, where were we?
"You... destroyed me..." she replied in bitter hate, approaching me with her fire. I tried to run away but the sand itself restrained me like several slaves hands holding my feet in place and my arms.
"No! Your mistaken! I put you out of a greater misery!" I replied, pleading my defence as the slaves restrained my arms, I was exposed to the fire and the flaming woman continued to advance upon me with a furious and merciless stride.
"You destroyed me and now you shall burn." She reached out and I felt her touch my skin, I couldnt stop screaming as I shaked and turned my body boiled and my flesh rippled in agony.
"Please stop! Please!" I screamed, ive never felt so much pain. It was as if she and all the other dead slaves were trying to reach out to me.
"You will burn!" She promised and sent a stream of fire towards me.
Thats when I woke up with a gasp, staring at Ulamat who had slapped my face to wake me up, my cheek glowing red from pain.
"Wake up foolish girl, were here." He said impaitently before we emerged at what seemed to be the largest school ive ever been to in my life.
The citdel was a large newly constructed establishment that the Thayans had bosted would host every school in Thay. It was intended to be the end of the necessity to travel between schools, standing like a pinnacle establishment amoung many here.
They bragged it could be the answer to everything, but then again what didnt they brag about I thought. They were always so optimistic about things, in a far less than noble way.
If it wasnt for the fact their accomplishments were built on the blood and tears of lessers it might have been as glorious as Ulamat had boasted. But I did not feel the same, I saw only a house forged from the tyrany of this place and soon enough I would be entered into it.
When we ventured inside, we traveled through long corridoors filled with the archtitectural statues and carvings of great Red Wizards and Thayans ruling over lesser slaves. I was disgusted at just how proud they were of their love for ruling other things and yet I myself found that what hurt me even more, was that I was forced to indulge in it.
Despite everything Master Ulamat had forced upon me there was one thing I never did respect. Every time he would try to shave my hair bald and every time in retort, I would keep a cropped head, symbolising there was still something imperfect about me he could never tame.
I suppose, it was my only real revenge.
When we entered the academy training grounds we stumbled into a large open area with paved stone below and no comfortable or soft ground to fall on. I realised soon enough I wasnt going to enjoy landing on my face here.
The very archways hung over me like a giant prison but with that open dome at the top the sun beamed through upon me and my master. We traveled into a group of other Thayan tutors and their proudest pupils. I realised in that moment, weather to humilate me or display me, Ulamat had braught me to show to his rivals he was greater.
Once more, I felt a sense of loathing for the wizards manner of treatment.
He approached a bald and gaunt man clearly fat with wealth or coin. The man had two slave girls at either side of his form and wore the typical robes of a red wizard. He has a tatoo upon his forehead shaped not unlike an eye, I remember, constantly staring down at his lessers.
"I see you've braught your trove Omrithas" My master addressed the man before us when he spoke.
Omrithas replied: "my trove is worth a thousand of your slaves now tell me where is your newest failure?" The man taunted my master, I saw Ulamat was displeased.
Newest failure? I wondered myself, but soon before I could think he thrust me before the man as I stood there silently trembling.
I had learned from all the beatings that showing weakness was only going to make me easy pray. I chose to feign my content but the fat Omrithas saw right through me.
"She is pitiful, she wont even make it past the first round. Especially not with my own dear Paluthi to crush anyone in her way, especially ants."
I could tell he was enphasising me, soon enough I saw this Paluthi he spoke of too. She was a taller girl than myself and had a far thinner, one might even say attractive complexion compaired to her tutor. She was however at least four years of age greater than I, and more than likley twice my strength. That of course was at the time, what I considered to be the truth.
Paluthi summed me easily enough. She was looking at me with disgust, I saw it in every Thayan. She had shaven her hair perfectly and her hazel brown eyes stared at me as if I really was just an ant below her.
"You expect me to fight this?" She said with disgust at Ulamat. "I will crush her, kill her and be done with her remains before you can even pick up the pace."
Ulamat smiled to me. I blinked as he looked back to Paluthi. "Dont underestimate the small compeditor, you may yet find yourself regreating it to be your last mistake."
Paluthi looked once at me and turned away spitting at the floor near me. Soon enough I saw her master Omrithas smiling slyly to my own.
"Shes fiesty isnt she? She will hold her word though Ulamat, you're wasting your time. Forfiet now and save the girl her life and your humilation."
Ulamat clearly didnt intend to back down, I could see fire in my masters eyes just as his name implied.
"When this tournament is done the fortunes you have will be worth nothing compaired to the look of humilation on your face." Ulamat pointed with a cold smile to his rival. I saw that Omrithas didnt take it well.
"So be it Ulamat, may the worst wizard loose."
The fat man marched away into the tourney grounds with the other young scholars and their masters. Ulamat leaned to me.
"Listen to me..." he promised with a cold certainty in his voice. "...These people will kill you if you even remotley think of spairing their lives so here is a vow I will make to you. If you fail me I will spair your life, at the expense of an entire Rashemi slave heard. You will be made to watch, and I will make sure every last slave knows, it was you who murdered them."
I could see the subtly of his attempt to inspire me. It was blackmail, if I failed hundreds would die, but if I succeeded only his competition would. Either way, I had to kill someone and it made me sick to even think about it.
Still, here I was at the tourney grounds.
After an introduction by the tournament master, we had rules explained to us that we would have a day to prepair and that we had appartments made for us. We were allowed to use any spells we pleased and we could kill if we desired. He explained that showing mercy was not a favourale tactic amoung competition who might later try to kill us.
Still... I wondered if he was really telling the truth, and despite my masters instuction I did not feel the urge to kill anyone today.
As night fell I recall sleep was rough once more. I saw the woman yet again grasping my face, scorching it with blazing heat as the slaves arms dragged me towards the earth below. I flailed I screamed I tried to fight back but it was hopeless.
"You will burn tommorow" she promised. "And when you do, you will suffer everything your kind has inflicted upon us."
I felt myself sinking into the sand of my nightmares.
When dawn came, I wasnt sure if I would be ready.
But if there was one thing I had to do, it was survive. And right now, as much as I wanted to run away, as much as I wanted to kill anyone, I needed to obay Ulamat's instruction in order to get out of this in one peice.
It was this that taught me the lesson that competition always has to die, no matter how amusing it would be to spair it. However, it also taught me a valueable lesson about doing as you were told and more so, when the time came, I too might one day tell others what to do.
I wondered if I was ever fit to rule and control.
-
*Captain Vanguard
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Chapter Four: Victory and Vanity
I feel a changed woman in recent days. A very different one from the person I used to be. A tange of guilt still flickers in my mind that I wonder if the path I am taking is the one that will make me stronger.
But now that I have tasted power it would be a lie to say I havent come to embrace it.
Enjoying the company of my new found colleagues, Shania namley whom we share an employer between has prooven fruitful. My work of late is focusing on a young Paladin of Tyr named Beth. She is quite a pretty thing and if all that my lady wills is as written and intended then she will soon be a very different disciple of a very different god.
I would smile, but books cannot portray emotion physically. So I know that I smiled when I wrote this at least.
Yet I frown now, I wonder... is this me? Who am I becomming now. Something in me makes me wonder if I was always born to inherit this role to begin with. The voice of reason tells me that I am going deeper down a path I cannot return from.
I have yet to decide, which road I will persue to the fullest. But the scales of fate have always tilted me down one path.
My own.
I spend a moment to contemplate my history here. Perhaps it is in the annals of my journey that I was always meant to be like this. I will continue with the tournament of the Red Wizards. Perhaps therein lays the answer.
I awoke to the cruel hand of Ulamat grasping the small needles of my cropped hair. I felt the urge to scream as he yanked me from my bed to my feet.
"Up" he demanded, I could tell he was upset. "You're late and the pupils are being charted."
"W-what?" I replied, my body was shaking enough from my nightmares now in reality, I knew no peace either.
"Dont what me you stupid girl, your here to impress my rivals and unless you kill the competition ill start making examples by having you kill the slave children. Then, when im done with that ill have you slay their mothers and their fathers untill you are finally a perfect killer. Now either you kill the competition, or you kill the slaves. Do you understand?"
I hated it when I had no choice.
"Yes, master Ulamat." I replied with a bitter acceptance. For now I would obay, for now.
"Good." He told me with no less instruction. "Now, we will venture back into the main lobby, hurry, you have no time. Bring your staff and your robe or I will break the staff over your skull and drag you into the hall naked."
It didnt take me long to get dressed and carry my staff. We walked rapidly back into the antichamber of the tournament. A ring of wards had been instilled into the middle ground to prevent any dangerous spells reaching the tutors. I recall it well, it was like being penned into a cage with no escape while locked inside with a monsterous animal opposing you.
Paluthi was watching me from the distance with her bloated master. It was clear she was snickering to him as he did in turn snicker back. I saw many other faces of lesser wizards and their pupils.
This was a prooving ground where only one of our mentors would be worthy of the favour of grandmaster. That was why I was here, to elivate Ulamat's glory, not my own.
I sighed and readied myself as I was selected to fight my first foe. A young boy clearly cruel in the face and eager to bully a weak girl as myself. I saw him lick his lips as I shuddered in discomfort.
The tournament master approached us both as we were made to stand in the middle ground of the ring. He held his hand out and spoke the rules:
"There will be room for only one victor. The casting of spells is permitted, the use of melee is not. This is a test of your magic compitence, not your prowess in the duel. Your masters will not be allowed to intervene untill the very end of the battle when the defeated pupil may be spaired by a master upon their choosing. Do you both understand?"
I could see the young boy nod, he was grinning to me. He knew I didnt have a chance. I shakily nodded in turn to hear several Red Wizards and their apprentices laughing at my direction.
Ulamat looked at me with a scolding glare as I replied: "Yes, I understand and im ready to proove myself."
I saw the look on the boys face, he was insulted I had the nerve to even speak. He leaned towards me just before the tournament began and whispered: "I will enjoy hearing you scream little girl, why dont you run back to your failed master and pitiful slaves."
Something in those words triggered a hate in me as I grit my teeth. I glared at the boy feircley and noticed his sudden recline. I waited for the tourny master to begin.
The wave of a hand orchestrated the begining of the fight. My opponent wove a spell into his hand conjuring small orbs of light. Ive known this spell to be the art of magic missle. I was nowhere near as advanced as my eyes widened.
He hurled the bolt into my direction as the projectile slammed me straight in the gut. I felt myself being hurled lifelessly to the sky I let out a gasp of pain slamming against the hard floor. I swore something must have bent.
I looked back, my anckle had twisted from the recoil. I was struggling to stand once more leaning on my students staff. Struggling to my feet I saw my opponent casting another spell. He was weaving a halusinating light into my eyes trying to make me dazed and confused by the force.
I shook off the strange sensasion and retaliated by trying to conjure a spell. I shuddered trying to think of one but nothing would emerge. I grunted and cursed and looked to Ulamat pleadingly. I saw him holding his knife threatening a nearby slave girl. I glared at him as he grinned at me stroking the knife against the slave.
I pointed my hands together and had far less trouble using my spell-structure now. Fear compelled my hands as they wove quickly. My foe was trying to get off another missle but I reacted first, as my hands radiated with a blinding fire I launched it straight at the boy.
It struck true into his eyes, setting them ablaze as he screamed in frustration and fear. I did not hesitate to send a second conjuration. I raced against time knowing Ulamat would kill the girl if I did not act quickly. My hands wove sheens of cold together to create a small radiant beam of frost. The beam flew out from my grasp into my foe. I felt his ressistance as his lesser magical defences warded off the attack. I cursed inwardly.
I saw my foe conjuring a foul spell necrotic energy glowed from his hands. The young boy clearly couldnt see me in focus as he fired, his lancing necrotic light missed several long inches from my body. I moved to one side and prepaired to conjure my own spell.
My hands rippled with acidic heat melting and steaming as I looked at the injured boy. I saw in his eyes as much desperation as the slaves, and my body hesitated. I knew that my body was feeling fear, fear for hurting another. I didnt want to!
But I had to...
My body reluctantly formulated the weave as I lunged acidic essense into the boys chest. I was careful and my caution paid off as his robes were melted into nothing, while leaving his body unharmed.
The boy came to, I saw him gaze down upon his body realising he was near naked. A blush formed on his face as I saw him tremble into a stream of tears. It was evident, I had won.
The tourny master pointed to me and announced the victory. To my surprise, I saw on the boys face a sense of relief he was still alive. He walked away humilated but not dead.
There was a look of disgust on Ulamat's face, I could see he was ashamed I let the boy live. He slapped the slave girl to the floor as she ran away. I sighed in relief.
He approached me calmly and said with a lecturing tone: "Bask in this moment while it lasts. Your victory is a hallow one at best."
I caught myself smiling at him in defiance. I felt a small sense of pride that no one had died this day and I had won fairly. Contrast to his rule-set beliefs. It was then that a revalation hit me.
I felt strong... in my own actions.
Perhaps this has been what lead to my modern transformation into what I am now. But I fear there is a longer story yet to tell. The tourny had just begun and I have yet a long way to go before completing the tale of my origins.
For now... I will muse more on what I have written already.
I feel a changed woman in recent days. A very different one from the person I used to be. A tange of guilt still flickers in my mind that I wonder if the path I am taking is the one that will make me stronger.
But now that I have tasted power it would be a lie to say I havent come to embrace it.
Enjoying the company of my new found colleagues, Shania namley whom we share an employer between has prooven fruitful. My work of late is focusing on a young Paladin of Tyr named Beth. She is quite a pretty thing and if all that my lady wills is as written and intended then she will soon be a very different disciple of a very different god.
I would smile, but books cannot portray emotion physically. So I know that I smiled when I wrote this at least.
Yet I frown now, I wonder... is this me? Who am I becomming now. Something in me makes me wonder if I was always born to inherit this role to begin with. The voice of reason tells me that I am going deeper down a path I cannot return from.
I have yet to decide, which road I will persue to the fullest. But the scales of fate have always tilted me down one path.
My own.
I spend a moment to contemplate my history here. Perhaps it is in the annals of my journey that I was always meant to be like this. I will continue with the tournament of the Red Wizards. Perhaps therein lays the answer.
I awoke to the cruel hand of Ulamat grasping the small needles of my cropped hair. I felt the urge to scream as he yanked me from my bed to my feet.
"Up" he demanded, I could tell he was upset. "You're late and the pupils are being charted."
"W-what?" I replied, my body was shaking enough from my nightmares now in reality, I knew no peace either.
"Dont what me you stupid girl, your here to impress my rivals and unless you kill the competition ill start making examples by having you kill the slave children. Then, when im done with that ill have you slay their mothers and their fathers untill you are finally a perfect killer. Now either you kill the competition, or you kill the slaves. Do you understand?"
I hated it when I had no choice.
"Yes, master Ulamat." I replied with a bitter acceptance. For now I would obay, for now.
"Good." He told me with no less instruction. "Now, we will venture back into the main lobby, hurry, you have no time. Bring your staff and your robe or I will break the staff over your skull and drag you into the hall naked."
It didnt take me long to get dressed and carry my staff. We walked rapidly back into the antichamber of the tournament. A ring of wards had been instilled into the middle ground to prevent any dangerous spells reaching the tutors. I recall it well, it was like being penned into a cage with no escape while locked inside with a monsterous animal opposing you.
Paluthi was watching me from the distance with her bloated master. It was clear she was snickering to him as he did in turn snicker back. I saw many other faces of lesser wizards and their pupils.
This was a prooving ground where only one of our mentors would be worthy of the favour of grandmaster. That was why I was here, to elivate Ulamat's glory, not my own.
I sighed and readied myself as I was selected to fight my first foe. A young boy clearly cruel in the face and eager to bully a weak girl as myself. I saw him lick his lips as I shuddered in discomfort.
The tournament master approached us both as we were made to stand in the middle ground of the ring. He held his hand out and spoke the rules:
"There will be room for only one victor. The casting of spells is permitted, the use of melee is not. This is a test of your magic compitence, not your prowess in the duel. Your masters will not be allowed to intervene untill the very end of the battle when the defeated pupil may be spaired by a master upon their choosing. Do you both understand?"
I could see the young boy nod, he was grinning to me. He knew I didnt have a chance. I shakily nodded in turn to hear several Red Wizards and their apprentices laughing at my direction.
Ulamat looked at me with a scolding glare as I replied: "Yes, I understand and im ready to proove myself."
I saw the look on the boys face, he was insulted I had the nerve to even speak. He leaned towards me just before the tournament began and whispered: "I will enjoy hearing you scream little girl, why dont you run back to your failed master and pitiful slaves."
Something in those words triggered a hate in me as I grit my teeth. I glared at the boy feircley and noticed his sudden recline. I waited for the tourny master to begin.
The wave of a hand orchestrated the begining of the fight. My opponent wove a spell into his hand conjuring small orbs of light. Ive known this spell to be the art of magic missle. I was nowhere near as advanced as my eyes widened.
He hurled the bolt into my direction as the projectile slammed me straight in the gut. I felt myself being hurled lifelessly to the sky I let out a gasp of pain slamming against the hard floor. I swore something must have bent.
I looked back, my anckle had twisted from the recoil. I was struggling to stand once more leaning on my students staff. Struggling to my feet I saw my opponent casting another spell. He was weaving a halusinating light into my eyes trying to make me dazed and confused by the force.
I shook off the strange sensasion and retaliated by trying to conjure a spell. I shuddered trying to think of one but nothing would emerge. I grunted and cursed and looked to Ulamat pleadingly. I saw him holding his knife threatening a nearby slave girl. I glared at him as he grinned at me stroking the knife against the slave.
I pointed my hands together and had far less trouble using my spell-structure now. Fear compelled my hands as they wove quickly. My foe was trying to get off another missle but I reacted first, as my hands radiated with a blinding fire I launched it straight at the boy.
It struck true into his eyes, setting them ablaze as he screamed in frustration and fear. I did not hesitate to send a second conjuration. I raced against time knowing Ulamat would kill the girl if I did not act quickly. My hands wove sheens of cold together to create a small radiant beam of frost. The beam flew out from my grasp into my foe. I felt his ressistance as his lesser magical defences warded off the attack. I cursed inwardly.
I saw my foe conjuring a foul spell necrotic energy glowed from his hands. The young boy clearly couldnt see me in focus as he fired, his lancing necrotic light missed several long inches from my body. I moved to one side and prepaired to conjure my own spell.
My hands rippled with acidic heat melting and steaming as I looked at the injured boy. I saw in his eyes as much desperation as the slaves, and my body hesitated. I knew that my body was feeling fear, fear for hurting another. I didnt want to!
But I had to...
My body reluctantly formulated the weave as I lunged acidic essense into the boys chest. I was careful and my caution paid off as his robes were melted into nothing, while leaving his body unharmed.
The boy came to, I saw him gaze down upon his body realising he was near naked. A blush formed on his face as I saw him tremble into a stream of tears. It was evident, I had won.
The tourny master pointed to me and announced the victory. To my surprise, I saw on the boys face a sense of relief he was still alive. He walked away humilated but not dead.
There was a look of disgust on Ulamat's face, I could see he was ashamed I let the boy live. He slapped the slave girl to the floor as she ran away. I sighed in relief.
He approached me calmly and said with a lecturing tone: "Bask in this moment while it lasts. Your victory is a hallow one at best."
I caught myself smiling at him in defiance. I felt a small sense of pride that no one had died this day and I had won fairly. Contrast to his rule-set beliefs. It was then that a revalation hit me.
I felt strong... in my own actions.
Perhaps this has been what lead to my modern transformation into what I am now. But I fear there is a longer story yet to tell. The tourny had just begun and I have yet a long way to go before completing the tale of my origins.
For now... I will muse more on what I have written already.