The excitement didn’t end with my accidental blessing of young Jade. Instead, that incident was only one of several that occurred during my visit. Some of them, like the moment when a minor accident made my fight or flight reflex kick in and freeze a large amount of water after a rooftop tank broke, were minor. Others, not so much.
Amusingly, what I considered the biggest, or maybe most impactful, of those incidents was almost certainly considered to be of minor importance by the locals. Maybe Daniel and Murray had realised just how important the meeting between Samantha and me had been.
It had started, as such things are wont to do, by sheer coincidence. Samantha had walked around the corner, bumping into me, as I had been distracted by a particularly complex and involved question regarding foundational magical theory. Trying to explain how physical reality and the Astral River intersected and interacted was complicated at the best of times, and it was only exacerbated by the fact that everyone used a different mental model to conceptualise the Astral River. Some even called it the Astral Stream, and apparently, their system reflected that mental designation, deeply confusing me. I had no idea why that might be the case, and made a mental note to investigate at some point.
Due to that, my attention was well and truly occupied. By the looks of it, Samantha had been just as distracted, causing the two of us to literally run into each other, both of us stumbling back due to the unexpected collision. Realising what had happened, before recognising the unexpected obstacle in my path, caused me to flush a faint purple, though the recognition, moments later, instantly changed my mood.
I had no idea how I was supposed to react to Samantha, especially as I was confident she was unaware of some facts she really needed to know regarding Carnelia. On the other hand, I was also fully aware that those facts weren’t really mine to tell, despite being the only one who knew them, but I was too cowardly to disclose them to my daughter. Who really should know about the possibility that she was permanently and irrevocably bound to me, the shattered remnants of her very soul enslaved to my being.
In some ways, it was a comedic tragedy worthy of the Greeks of old, a being created with a simple purpose that evolved far beyond it, yet remained bound by it, despite the regrets of its creator. All the while, the creator understood their mistake, regrets the initial binding, but is unable to correct the error without irrevocably altering their creation, potentially destroying it in the process. Maybe I was somewhere between Pygmalion and Gepetto, but with a few additional regrets.
Reigning in my thoughts as I caught myself, I studied Samantha with controlled eyes. While I doubted they would seem completely calm, I was reasonably certain they wouldn’t give away just how conflicted I was.
“Samantha,” I greeted her, my voice placid and chilly like a winter lake. “Well met.”
“Jade,” she replied, “Nice to see you.” There was a faint tremor in her voice, but I wasn’t sure if it was one of surprise, guilt or some other emotion. I wasn’t even sure it was due to her treatment of my daughter and that whole mess, or because she had run into me.
For a moment, I contemplated the use of Mind Magic to get additional information, but here, in the midst of a group of Spellcasters, was about the worst possible moment to try that. I might be able to get away with it unnoticed, but I wasn’t confident. It had worked when I used it on that Jeff guy a few days back, but there I had been in my domain, with those around me being my students, without a connection to Jeff. So, I merely opened my mental senses to the maximum, feeling an odd mix of emotions emanating from Samantha.
“What brings you to our small town?” she asked, her voice a little more controlled than it had been. “I thought you moved on last spring, and the upper tower was sealed a little later when Carnelia departed. The rest followed not long after, when Lorgar and his band of f...riends arrived.” She had to catch herself as she spoke, turning something that could easily have become the word ‘fools’ into the word ‘friends’. My lips may have twitched at the minor stutter, but otherwise, my face stayed controlled.
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“Well, just because we moved on doesn’t mean I can’t come back, does it? Magic is such a wonderful tool, lets you do all kinds of ‘impossible’ things,” I replied, making the appropriate air-quotes. Then, as if to demonstrate, I let the shadows swallow me up and left them right away, standing a few metres from my original position.
“See, easy,” the grin on my face widened even further, as the people, especially the Arcane Spellcasters, were staring at my performance. Shadow Stepping was an incredible ability with many uses, ranging from the practical to the frivolous and everything in between.
“But, you know,” I shook my head, as if dismissing my demonstration, “Lorgar and his f…riends are an excellent topic to talk about,” I suggested, copying Samantha’s earlier stutter to the best of my ability. Which was, while not perfect, close enough to make said woman blush, which, in turn, made me smirk just a little.
“Why is that?” Daniel asked, interjecting himself into the conversation and giving Samantha a moment to compose herself.
“I’ve been scouting the so-called Blessed City heavily, as you might imagine,” I paused, “Earlier, you mentioned Lorgar, Daniel,” I reminded him, given that I had dodged that topic to an extent, “What you don’t know is that he and his actions are a big reason for my current visit,” I explained, noticing a few frowns form on different faces.
“While I’m quite curious about your accomplishments here, and honestly impressed with the success you’ve had, it wouldn’t be enough to make me visit,” I shrugged, letting a bit of honesty show through. My tower, as monolithic as it was, was more impressive than what they had built, especially as I had created it in a fraction of the time and mainly on my own.
“No, the reason for my visit is to warn you. All of you,” I continued, trying to match the pitch of my voice to the emotions I could feel from them. To project a little additional strength when they felt threatened, to give them confidence and compassion when they felt fear. I wasn’t a great orator, but I would hopefully be able to fake it well enough.
“A few days ago, when I checked the so-called Blessed City, I saw something deeply unsettling. Lorgar, everyone’s favourite pony-boy, was preaching to his congregation. That wouldn’t be a problem. His backdrop was a group of five people, all five tied to stakes and getting slowly roasted in divine light. Torture, plain and simple, torture that continued until all five were dead. It took days.” I finished, my voice getting progressively quieter, drawing my listeners in as their horror mounted.
“And the people there just allowed that?” Daniel asked, his voice just as quiet as mine had been, as if he was scared to say the words out loud.
“Yes,” I simply replied, trying to project as much grief as I could in that simple, single word. “Not that they have much of a choice,” I continued, my words now slowly getting louder again. “Not with the wards they use to protect their Cursed City. Protective wards, powered by the prayers of those living inside the city. Prayers that bind each individual who speaks those prayers to their deity. And, through the deity, they are also bound to their church, so to speak. Only that here, the church’s leader truly cannot be questioned. Not because of some sort of cultural mandate that makes him supposedly infallible, but because they are mentally unable to question him,” I paused once more, my voice filled now with disgust and anger. “They are slaves, ignorant of their chains. Bound to their cursed city by convenience and necessity, unable to disobey while living there.” I shook my head, looking at the people around me, noticing that some additional people had joined while I had been ranting.
“I do not know if I’d be able to help the people in that city,” I admitted, “But I hope that, by warning you, I can prevent more people from falling into that spider’s web. Getting tangled in those threads, bound by those chains,” I paused once more, “Better to die free than live on your knees. At least that’s what I think.”
“Thank you for the warning,” Samantha managed to say after a few moments of silence, clearly unable to give a real, coherent follow-up to my words. Sadly, I also had no idea what else to say, how to continue the conversation after dropping that massive mess on their heads.
So, I simply gave them a polite nod, not quite bowing, and wished them a quiet farewell before stepping back into the shadows, seemingly disappearing from their quaint little town.
