1.2 Blood Awakening

General Summary

Day 3

Heavy fog blankets the forest in the morning when I wake. There’s nothing left for me here so I set off to follow the stream down to the human settlement. I walk for an hour and somehow find myself back at my camp, though I could have sworn I never circled back. I wait for a few hours, say goodbye to Dal’s grave, and try again. It still feels like I’m going in a circle but suddenly I find myself in new territory.  

Day 4

As the sun sets I make camp and take note of the direction I need to travel in. In the morning, I keep walking. At midday I feel the presence of a powerful magic energy. It is large and ancient - the kind of magic that protects entire cities. I realize that the feeling has slowly been getting stronger as I travel. All of my magic seems unaffected - I can cast and shadow step.   Soon, several enormous rabbits with glowing red eyes and swirly fur come out of the bushes and attack me. Their fur is swirled with magical energy in the same sort of messy glyphs that have been carved into my arm. Whatever substance was used to draw the glyphs has since evaporated or dried. I leave their corpses and continue on my way.   I come across an injured human woman being attacked by three large wolves, also with glowing red eyes. Joining forces, we dispatch the wolves but strange things happen with my magic. I try to use my mastery of sound to injure them but instead I draw a knife and slash at my arm. At the same time, one of wolves falls dead, five gashes appearing in its hide. We finish off the rest of the wolves and rest for a bit by the stream while we talk. I reshape her armour and experience a flashback:  

I’m standing in a forge and there’s a hulking figure opposite me with an anvil between me and them. That hulking figure is of no race that I can put a name to. Humanoid, yes, but tusked and with bristly hair and skin that is mildly reddish in hue. Between the two of us rests a large wicked-looking axe blade. Magic swirls in my fingertips as I hold my hand over the blade. I’m pressing glyphs into the soft metal. Where I’m pressing, it glows white-hot and then the figure takes the axe and quenches it in a bucket of what looks like blood.

  Her name is Rosalia. A half moon ago, some villagers had stumbled upon a tomb that they opened up. The villagers went mad, painting symbols in blood on their walls and slaughtering their own families. Even their livestock went mad until the villagers themselves were slain and their houses burned to the ground. It hasn’t stopped the wild animals from being infected with the same madness. Rosalia and 3 companions had been hired by the village elders to close the tomb but they were unable to get past the bears lurking at the entrance. All the others perished but Rosalia escaped. She tells me that the madness seems to come and go with the fog.   After we make camp, I forage for food and take some time to think about my magic and take notes. I see that one of the unrecognizable glyph patterns on my arm has healed further than the others - perhaps related to what happened with the wolves today. As I write in my notebook, I start remembering magical formulae and patterns to the magic that I know and practice - the arcane magic. I know there are other magics out there - elemental magic and more spiritual magic, but I don’t know much about them and I don’t think these glyphs are related to any of them.   I remember how to amplify damage that I do to myself and apply it to another target. I also remember some tenets of this style of magic, though they feel incomplete: “Blood is the force of life that flows through us all” and “Self-sacrifice reaps rewards”. They feel familiar.  

Day 5

Rosalia tells me a little bit about magic here. Apparently anyone with the talent and money goes to the city of Ipth to study. There is a mystic in town and he is the only magical practitioner she knows of.   She also tells me what she knows about elves, based purely on rumours and speculation since there aren’t very many elves around. Apparently we are wicked, heartless thieves who steal children. We also come out of the shadows to kill those who have wronged us. I can’t really debate this...I know I grew up with elves and I certainly don’t think everyone was a heartless thief, but I’m distinctly lacking in practical knowledge of elves.   I protest that I haven’t come out of any shadows to kill anyone who’s wronged me, but it feels like a lie. Oops. I suppose I can’t go around speaking so confidently about my past. I try to amend my statement that I haven’t done anything like that to someone who wasn’t an evil person to the world at large. That feels better, but still skirting around the truth. Yikes.   She expresses a lot of sympathy for my lack of memory, which is very kind and appreciated. I’m lucky she isn’t afraid of it, I suppose.   We finally reach the village and are greeted by a pair of young men who seem to be guarding it. One carries Rosalia inside while the other runs to fetch the mystic. He is an elderly man in simple white and yellow robes with candle flames embroidered on it. He heals Rosalia and me, but his magic doesn’t heal my left arm and it seems to stop short of touching that area entirely.   His magic feels warm and bright. I’m getting used to tasting these different magics - my original magic hums with energy like lightning or sparks. The magic I used on the wolf was coppery and painful, almost sorrowful. The magic emanating from those cursed animals felt dark and thorny. He is deeply suspicious of me and not just because I’m an elf. He tells me that I feel like dark magic and that something about me frightens him, and he doesn’t frighten easy. Rosalia comes to my defense and convinces him to let me stay in the village because I saved her and asked nothing in return. He begrudgingly agrees and Rosalia brings me to her apartment to clean up.   After we tidy ourselves, she kneels and offers me her sword and her life as long as I’ll have them. I don’t want this. I don’t even know who I am! I am not ready to be leading myself, let alone someone else. Nevertheless, I know I’ll need a human to speak for me so we agree to stick together. It is nice to have a friend.