#shadowsorcerer

For @brnd.l 💜

Here’s when Caroline lets edginess get in her head - dw, she’ll come to her senses soon. Also the pics are always cooler than the events.

I awoke in my pile of hay shortly after dawn, anxious both about the fact that those thieves might not come and the possibility of them actually coming. The inn was silent as I dressed and walked upstairs to find only Ericson, the kind yet awfully tired keeper, awake and polishing some glasses. 

I took a seat and struggled with a chapter of lay lines over my porridge, partly because of the book’s density and partly because I would jump at every sound. I barely went over half a chapter in several hours I spent there, and made a mental note to look for a library and master the basic terminology of arcane maths before trying my hand at this chapter again. 

After a while, two travelers entered, an older man and a young woman with horns. They paid me no heed but sat at another table and ordered butter beer. I still spent their entire meal fixated at them, looking for a cue that they were here for my message. More time passed painfully slowly before two hooded men in black entered. They took their seats, seeming as cautious as I was, but not half as anxious. I gathered my nerves and my belongings and approached their table, took a seat calmly and said good morning.

They stared at me in disbelief as I shared why I contacted them. After an exchange of glances with the travelers, the other two joined our table. My misguided intuition seemed to have taken me in the right direction, and the long time I spent staring at them was now a tool to impress the Thieves. I made a comment about their adventuring gear and manerisms, raised eyebrows all around telling me that I was managing to leave some impression.

Overall, the group seemed rough and unforgiving, but also like they could use the services of somebody as magically apt as I presented myself as. We agreed to meet when the sun goes down. They would test my abilities, prepare me for my part in their upcoming mission, and offer the information I was seeking in return. 

When they took their leave, Ericson approached me with a worried face, inquiring about my reasons for talking to such a shady bunch. 

‘If you need money, young lady, there’s a job’s board on the town's square. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something more appropriate than whatever they have to offer.’ 

I was touched by the sincerity behind his worried words and thanked him for his concern before taking my leave from the inn for the day.

The walk was peaceful for a very short while. As I was exiting an alley to get to a clearing, I was almost stompled by a bunch of running, screaming people forming a circle. In the middle of it, two robed men were flinging spells at one another in a manner I thought I’d never see outside history books. 

It was a mage duel, and it flew before even my somewhat trained eyes. One man sent a torrent of fire to the other, who responded by a swift wave that almost choked his enemy to death. The duel ended quickly, leaving the fire-caster passed out on the ground, and the burnt one stumbling back home. 

I joined the commotion, hearing somebody murmur something about ‘the bloody mages and their constant disturbances’ and approached the unconscious man, or rather, the pile which emerged from his robes as he fell. A quick glance showed me that he had dropped some magical items. Without thinking much, I grabbed them and scurried away. 

‘Magical items are rare, so be sure to take them when you get a chance’, a voice echoed in my head. It was neither mine nor Otto's. 

Upon closer inspection, I would learn that the gloves increased my capability of casting spells, but I donned them for their aesthetics. The trinket contained a poem in Elven - and a convenient shot of the Comprehend Languages charm, or I would never understand the lost tongue - about a treasure that could be found in the nearby forest, buried there after long-gone wars. Finally, a quiver which I took although I had neither arrows nor the skill to shoot them was laced with a Message spell that recharged once per day.

Accepting my defeat in this round, I nodded and rushed along, heading to the building in the city center, where my kind hosts told me the guards met to receive their orders for the day. It was easy to locate it, but its positioning at the very middle of the city square made it challenging to sneak anywhere and hide well enough to perhaps gain some information. I ended up squatting behind some trees, receiving strange looks from the passers-by. I spent some time in that position before realizing how ridiculous I must have seemed, so I slid against the bark until I was leaning on the tree, took out a book, and hoped that I would look inconspicuous enough. 

Hours passed, the earth got cold, and my entire lower body was aching, but I refused to leave before I gained any significant information. The dusk had almost settled when I finally noticed a group of guardsmen looking better-dressed and higher-ranked than the ones I had the honor to talk to earlier in the day entering the building, followed by some elementals. Those fire creatures looked even more impressive from such a close distance, their bodies constantly shimmering in flames and faces vaguely humanoid pits of burning nothingness. I shook off my fascination and tried to listen as intently as I could when the main of the high guards talked to a lower member on the stairs. 

‘Don’t let anybody in. We spend the night here in preparation. The Master shall come in two days and we shan’t exit until he does.’ 

So that was it. That’s when I could meet the cultists. All that was left to do now was to figure out how to enter this big building - the City Hall, it seemed - and what to do once I was inside. I had no idea how to do any of this, but a nagging voice in my head kept asking,

‘What does it say about you if you fail on your first ever adventure, really?’

And I promised myself that I would figure it out. The shadowy tower in the distance caught my eye and seemed to be attracting me, as if the center of my gut was magically tugged closer to it. I decided to pay it a visit before turning in for the day. Otto mentioned something about the shadows forming around me every time I would cast a spell, something about graves and Shadowfell and faraway demons, and that scared me. This tower filled me with the same sort of dread combined with excitement, and I told myself that if only my magic responded to the area, I could only learn more about it and gain answers and find my destiny… and then perhaps return to Otto’s and live with him forever?

My mind was playing tricks on me. The tower was old and stony but not as covered in dark shadows as it seemed from the distance and there was no realization, no catharsis once I arrived there and even laid a hand against its cold surface. Warm tears ran down my cheeks as I returned to my host family, and the name Exter never held such a bad aftertaste as that day.