Out From the Shadows

Chapters

Chapter 1 - A Sorcerer's Tale
Chapter 2 - To The Astral Plane And Beyond!
Extra 2 - Have Wings Will Travel
Chapter 3 - New Perspectives
Extra 3 - A New Soul Arrives
Chapter 4 - The Great Illusion
Extra 1 - Cynder’s Personal Notes, Scroll 1/3
Extra 4 - Lyra Finds a Blob

Chapter 1 - A Sorcerer's Tale

Out From the Shadows

Chapter 1

A Sorcerer’s Tale

I am Cynder, son of the landlord of the de’Arnise castle. That might be something everyone would wish to be. Let’s face it, the status comes with a nice set of advantages. Power, money, and anything the combination of these two might get you. But people often only see the bright side of things.

To me, this all seems more akin to a golden prison. As I am the second descendant of my father, I am not going to inherit his authority over the city when his time is over. Now mind you, I wouldn’t have wanted that - but I’m still considered “high society” by the common people’s standards, and that is really annoying.

I am not allowed to do anything that might “endanger” myself. That actually means that I can’t leave the castle for any reason, and anything I do that is out of the ordinary has to be approved by one of the guards. I feel like I’m being held in an overly-secured environment.

There’s also the fact that when you’re living day-to-day as the son of one of the most famous heroes Faerûn has ever known, most people tend to compare you to your father. They wonder if you’re going to be as great as your father, to be as heroic as your father. You’re only going to be compared to your father’s level. You’re not going to simply be “you” for what you’re worth.

Sure, in his time he had fought countless foes, ranging from thugs to dragons - well, that’s what the stories say about him in the books anyway. He helped a lot of people in distress. He stood valiantly against most of Amn’s oppressors, and bestowed justice everywhere he went. He even saved entire cities with the help of some of his companions. I’m not quite sure what parts of the stories I hear about him are true, and which ones are just there to embellish his already countless accomplishments.

Truth is, I don’t really care. When I asked him about these stories, in the very rare times that we could have discussions, he’d tell me to believe what I wanted to, and that his life of adventure was well behind him. He made it clear that he didn’t want to talk about his past deeds.

I guess I can understand him. Not every story about him is pleasant. Even if most of what you’ll hear depicts him as proud and valiant and... well feel free to add any other heroic adjective of your choice. Some of them are of a darker shade though. I’ve even read some books that claim he is a Bhaalspawn, the offspring of the now-dead God Bhaal, and let me tell you, being a child of the God of Murder himself isn’t very kind in terms of public image. I don’t really know what to think about all of this though. Distinguishing the legend from the reality is difficult, and it doesn’t help when the person concerned doesn’t even talk about it.

However, the fact still stands that I have never heard or read any legend about him telling that he is evil.

Eruadan, being the landlord that he is, is very busy, which is why he rarely has time to dedicate to his family and friends, which includes me. He barely manages to get some time alone with his wife, Nalia de'Arnise, a human who was once one of his traveling companions before he decided to settle down.

Why do I need to be so precise about her being a human, you may ask? Thank you for asking. Really.

Well, considering humans are not the only race that exist in Faerûn, it wouldn’t be wise to assume everybody is one. Even if in Amn - that’s the region of Faerûn we are in - there is about 83% of the population that are humans, there are other humanoid races as well.

That being said, my father isn’t part of that 83%. He is an elf. A wood elf to be precise. The elves have a lot of subraces, each with their own cultures, and ways of thinking and living. I could probably lecture on and on, explaining each of them and their differences, but I don’t want you to die of boredom just yet, so I’ll cut that out.

The history of the castle itself was not peaceful, though as it was once mostly the domain of the rich family of de’Arnise, and it served no other purpose than to host the family members plus some servants. But one fateful day, Nalia’s father - the owner of the castle - died while the castle was besieged by trolls ( long story ). After the trolls had been dealt with, the ownership of the castle became quite blurry due to her father’s death. Nalia was the only child of the castle owner’s family, but she was a woman, and therefore could not claim the castle for herself. I hardly understand why such laws exist, but what can I say?

In the end, if she were to be married to a man, that man could then legally claim the ownership of the castle.

At the time, Nalia was promised to Isaea Roenall by her father, mostly for political and financial reasons, but she didn’t like the man in any way. Aversion would be more exact to describe their relationship. However it was sufficient to grant Roenall the right to claim the de’Arnise castle.

Eruadan and Nalia had already gone through some adventures, and Nalia didn’t want her family’s castle and belongings to fall in the hands of the despicable Roenall.

In a desperate attempt to save the castle from Roenall, she proposed that Eruadan take over the landlord status through marriage, which he gladly accepted. Not really because he loved her, but because to him, what was happening was a great injustice. Also, marriage does not have any symbolic meaning for the wood-elf race. To him, it was only a way to help her out legally.

After getting the ownership of the castle back, Nalia and Eruadan didn’t stop their adventures right here. They continued to go through Amn to help those in need, maybe ( let me put an emphasis on the “maybe” word )because Nalia insisted on helping every possible disadvantaged person on their way, much to the disdain of the group they were in. But they couldn’t really object most of the time, and more often than not, had to comply with her desire to help out everyone they could.

Some legend-tales later, the group decided to part ways, having earned quite their fair share of bounty, fame, and battle-scars. But considering the numerous fights they participated in, mostly the later.

I guess that’s when Nalia and Eruadan began to have some sort of romance going on, because Nalia invited Eruadan to stay at the de’Arnise castle, instead of letting him return to his elvish homeland. My father accepted, and here we are, some years later, and if my half-elf presence and those of my two siblings are anything to go by, they probably loved each other since then.

When they settled in the castle, Nalia kept on with her way of helping disadvantaged people. That, plus the fact that the castle was the home of a famous hero, it attracted a lot of people; either just travelers passing by to rest for the night in a secured shelter on their journey, or people looking for long-term hosting and work.

Nalia welcomed everyone willing to work for a salary, and over the years, the castle itself became too small to host the ever-growing population coming in her family’s home.

So, in an attempt to circumvent the problem - and let’s face it, Nalia wouldn’t just ever just say “no” to anyone - the denizens worked to clear away a great part of the forest surrounding the castle, and a small town emerged in its place, aptly named “de’Arnise city”.

De’Arnise is located on a route near the center of Amn, between the great city of Athkatla that is on the coast to the west, and other cities such as Trademeet to the southeast, or the Umar Hills to the east. It serves as a safe route between all nearby cities, since Nalia made sure to severely repress any pillaging going down on these routes.

You can’t really steal from people when you’re dead, right?

Well, of course, bandits are always given the opportunity to surrender, and willingly meet their doom, but most of them would try to flee, or to fight back when approached by the city guards. I can’t blame them for trying, since those unlucky enough to be caught are executed without any form of trial. Needless to say, those that try to engage directly in battle often get defeated hands down due to the guard’s finer experience in combat, and their superior equipment; the former being due to my father extensively training them, and the later being provided by our city’s best blacksmith.

Nalia continued to be really close to the people living in de’Arnise, even as the city became too big to be able to know everyone that lived in there. She’s going as far as walking down the streets outside the castle with no guards following her. Most of the time, she’s going to a tavern to share a few drinks with the citizens and casually talking with anyone willing to join her at the table.

The citizens enjoyed her presence very much, because it allowed them to talk about some of the problems the city may have, having the possibility to directly talk with the one in charge without having to worry about the etiquette that people usually care about so much in the castle ( to my dismay, I have to cope with it every day of the year, and every year of the -- well you get the idea ).

They really loved that “close to people” side of her, and the fact that she would take near-immediate action when something needed to be done to improve the overall quality of life of her citizens.

So, while Nalia is mostly helping the city by doing individual actions towards people - like she always did in her adventurer’s life - my father would try his best to accommodate his time between managing the enforcement of the rules via the city guards, the family’s finances, and training the guards by using his quite impressive fighting and combat experience he accumulated while on his way to become the hero he is today.

He also has my two brothers to help him take care of those things. The youngest is helping him dealing with all the paperwork, while the eldest is getting trained to later command the city guards unit. It’s not like I really envy them on what they’re doing.

At least, I am studying magic, and that is quite enjoyable. But it means I’m stuck nearly all day long in my library, which is located in one of the castle’s four towers.

I never understood why the architect wanted the library inside this tower. While it is quite roomy, it forces some of the furniture to be round to follow the tower’s walls, and guess what? Books are anything but round. Really.

It probably gets a bit chaotic to manage the books on these shelves, but at least, the shelves that are not along the walls are of a more classical shape, and thus, more practical.

The tower itself has a welcoming atmosphere, and despite the fact that the walls are made of cold stone, the ground is carpeted nearly everywhere, allowing visitors to walk in comfort throughout the room. There, two hearths were built into the opposing walls, dispensing a cozy warmth throughout the vast place, while the tall windows present are allowing the afternoon light to flow inside the library, and giving quite a sight of the city surrounding the castle below. Some torches are suspended on the few walls that do not have shelves against them - though they are unlit for now - they would allow a comfortable ambient light to read in for the darker hours.

It is in those surroundings that I’m staying most of the time, and since I’ve to be here nearly every hour of the day for my magic studies, I’ve been designated to be the librarian. At least, it allows me to do the book ordering by myself, and gain some money while also continuing my studies.

I know where each book is located inside that library. I once held a registry of the books that I have, but I never exactly had updated it consistently. In the end, I have been better off learning it all. Being in charge of the place for some years ended up granting me that kind of knowledge.

So, here I am, sitting in a chair behind my personal desk, and guess what? I am reading a book. I’m quite sure you didn’t expect that at all, did you?

My desk would have looked like some kind of a mess to the inexperienced eye, with scrolls, inkwells, quills, and some tomes that were all scattered across the surface like there was some kind of war raging between all the present objects. However, believe me, they were right where I needed them to be for my personal use.

Right in front of me was an opened volume of “The Magus’ Compendium”, a very large and very heavy volume. It contains a list of the most well-known spells in Faerûn, and instructions on how to cast them properly.

I am a sorcerer. Just like wizards, I am a capable of casting spells, but there’s a slight difference between the two.

Wizards are more of the “scholar” type of mage. They are not born with the ability nor the instinct necessary to use the magical energies. However, with heavy training and devotion, they can achieve to become arcane spellcasters.

Us sorcerers, on the other hand, have an innate ability to use and bend magic to our will. Most of us never require to study magic to use magical energies. But there is a catch. We know how to unleash great amounts of raw power in the blink of an eye, but... Not in a very precise and methodical kind of way.

A sorcerer’s magic mostly reacts to one’s instincts and emotions. That is why it is easier for us to let the magic energies decide what to do based on our mood and situation. But that is also very inefficient, and quite uncontrollable.

You are getting unbelievably angry and let the rage control your thoughts? Let out some of your power, and watch as the world burns around you.

You desperately need not to be seen in a life-of-death scenario? If you believe hard enough that nobody can see you, you’ll turn invisible.

That is how I learned I was a sorcerer by the way.

Come on, don’t tell me you’ve never been eager to win at hide and seek when you were a child.

So, in an attempt to have a better control over my magical abilities, I am trying to learn a wide variety of spells, similar to how a wizard would. The only problem being that due to the nature of a sorcerer’s spell casting abilities, I’m having a harder time learning how to shape spells into a precise desired effect, since we normally do it on an instinct and emotional basis, not an intellectual one. The only good side of this is that once I can successfully pull off a spell, my sorcerer’s instincts will allow me to later replicate the spell without having to remember the process.

Sorcerers lack in the efficiency and reliability departments as spellcasters, while wizards mostly lack in raw power, but have an easier time when learning new spells, since they don’t have to deal with their emotions getting in the way of the spell shaping process.

When I was young, and that my ability to use magic was first revealed, I was directed to learn more about it by my father. He told me I could become a very powerful sorcerer if I studied hard enough, and that he could have a use for me once I would get strong. Hence, he assigned me with a tutor named Dahrim.

While a wizard himself, he was the person I saw the most in my life at that time, since he was the one in charge of instructing me with all things about magic. From the basics of casting spells successfully to the most complex of rituals.

So, I am actually seeing Dahrim more than my parents because my magic studies were taking a good amount of time in my life. However, he is kind of busy in another city as of late, and I’ve to learn new things by myself for the time being.

I kind of hate it when my mentor isn’t here, since that means the majority of the following days are going to be almost lonely for me. He keeps disappearing from the castle suddenly, only leaving a note on my desk notifying me of his departure. But he never had told me why, where, or when he’ll come back. It can be really frustrating sometimes.

Learning about magic is always interesting. Either when Dahrim is instructing me personally and making me practice it, or when I have to learn alone, it is a passion that got me since I started knowing about the fact that you can do amazing things when you use magical energies properly.

Being a spellcaster comes with some really nice advantages. Even the most basic spells are practical. A nice example would be the spell that we call the “Mage Hand”, that allows a caster to grab close objects in a telekinetic grasp, and move them around using their magic power instead of sheer physical force.

Now don’t get all excited about that yet. While magic is easy to perform, - well, once you know how to actually cast spells - it is draining on your mental resources to do the desired effects and it will exhaust you, as readily as lugging around a heavy object would.

But the fact is, it’s way more comfortable to telekinetically move objects around than having to walk and do it yourself with your hands, especially in a library as large as this one.

Magic does not stop with this simple spell, though. It ranges from minor feats, like lighting up torches by conjuring a small flame, to as far as controlling the flow of time, and crossing through planes of existence. Even though I’m quite advanced in my studies of magic, those kind of spells are far out of my comprehension. For now.

In fact, anybody can learn to use magic, since it is an energy that flows around all of us continually, however, what makes it difficult, is to know how to channel it and use it effectively to get the desired effects.

My study was interrupted as someone opened the door of the library. I raised my nose from the book I was reading to have a look at the newcomer. I immediately recognized him as a servant of the castle, due to his clothing and behavior. He looked at me from across the room, and bowed down graciously, while saying in a very formal tone:

“Sir Cynder, dinner will be served in ten minutes.”

I gave him my most cheerful smile, and replied with as much respect and compassion that I could offer, “Thanks for your solicitude. I will make sure to arrive on time.”

The servant retired to the staircase of the tower, though, before closing the door, he bowed down slightly again in my direction.

I can’t really blame servants for being too formal with me, which is why I try to be as friendly as possible with them. But I really can’t stand the fact that nearly everything in that castle has to follow the “royal etiquette”. We are not even from a royal family, only the one of a landlord. But I guess the domestics are trying their best to not seem disrespectful.

Now that I think of it, time sure flew by very quickly. The very bright afternoon that could have been seen behind the windows what felt moments ago to me, was now replaced by a view of the sun nearly setting over the horizon, still dispensing just enough light so that reading wasn’t going to be a problem for about an hour or so. Also, the library was now deserted of anyone, while there were at least a dozen people last time I checked over the tables that were used for reading.

Someone had left a book on one of those tables instead of putting it back in its rightful place. I sighed at that plain display of disrespect for my work. Some people...

I focused on gathering a small amount of magical energy through my body, and raised my right hand in direction of the book. A nearly imperceptible yellow aura glowed from my hand, and soon after, that same aura appeared around the book.

Following my will, the book flew through the air, drawing closer and closer to me, until it was close enough to allow me to read the title. “Wishing Well” was written in golden letters on the leather cover. This was an interesting book I had long since read already. I always liked stories where ordinary people would live great adventures. That may be because I was stuck in this castle, having nothing to do but study all day long. I envied those kind of characters and their stories.

I sighed at the thought, and with a flick of my hand, the book flew back in its designated place, in one of the nearby shelves.

Then I remembered that dinner was soon to come. Oh well, I’m again going to waste some time with those stupid dinner with the rest of the castle instead of spending my time studying. Great.

My morale was starting to go down at the prospect of losing some precious hours of work, but it perked up again when I thought of something... Actually, I had been working on a new spell for a few days already...

I smirked. Time to give it a shot.

I made some distance between me and the furnitures of the room to get some much-needed free space, then, I began to cast a spell.

Raising my hands in the air, and moving them around to draw as much energy as I could, I started to recite an incantation.

“A plano tenebrarum quasi in re invoco duplicata esse.”

I felt the magical power beginning to gather inside my body while chanting the words, and I used that power to give shape to the spell in my mind. This spell is a complicated one that requires quite a chunk of energy. As a general rule of thumb, the more energy a spell requires, the harder it is to force it to your will. The magical energies always try to fight back to any sort of forced shaping. So, the more of it you will try to shape, the more it will try to escape from you.

Mind you, you neither need to move your hands around, nor do you need to incant anything to successfully cast a spell. The hand movement allows for easier energy flowing through the body, while the incantation consists mostly of words that you say to ease the spell-shaping process in your mind. You do it to “command” the magic, and bend to your will. It is more the intonation that you use in your voice that makes it useful, since it does have an influence on your psyche. Both those actions are not necessary, but they allow one to use the magical energies in a more efficient way, which makes the spell-casting process less wearying overall.

I was starting to sweat from the exertion of the spell-shaping process, and I closed my eyes to try my best to focus on the intent I was giving to the spell. I recited the incantation for a second time, and after a few moments of mental struggling to keep the magical energies under control, I felt that the spell was ready.

I extended my arms in front of me, and opened my eyes and hands wide. Then, I released everything.

I felt the magical power pressure that had been gathering moments ago leaving my body, and bright white particles of condensed magic began to escape from my hands. Those particles were piling up in front of me to about 6 feet high. At first, nothing specific could be discerned from the heap of energy, as it had no defined shape. But as the brightness of the particles were dispersing, I could make out the contour of an humanoid form.

When the glowing effect finally receded, it was not a surprise for me when I saw a perfect copy of myself standing mere feet away from me.

“I did it!” I shouted. It seemed like the spell went off successfully, and I did nothing to cover my exuberance, throwing both my fists into the air in a victory gesture, while smiling to myself - literally.

I began to review the illusion in front of me, pacing around it, and looking for any imperfection that could have been caused by a flawed casting. Complete success in casting a spell for the first time is pretty rare for a sorcerer, so I held out my enthusiasm for now, and switched back in a more professional demeanour.

After spending some time to check my unmoving double-self, it seemed like every detail of the illusion was perfect. From the royalty-looking white and gold mage robes I was wearing, to the slim and elongated body proportions. The color of its hair and eyebrows were perfectly matching mine, with a too-much vivid yellow. The hair itself had the same parting shape ending in a ponytail down to the middle of the shoulder blades in my back, and a few strands were flowing on the sides of my visage. It even had my silvery-grey eyes and my prolongated ear tips, the later being the trademark of my elven heritage, allowing anyone to easily figure out my half-elf nature, should they have somehow missed the slightly inhuman hair color, and my silvery-white metalized skin tan in the first place.

Even the whole body had the right dimensions, as I stood in front of it to compare my general measurements to it. ( But I didn’t go in depth... if you know what I mean ). It had the exact same height of about 5 feet and 9 inches as me.

I began to feel the burst of mental exhaustion inherent to the casting of a high energy-consuming spell, and I had to put a hand to my forehead for a moment. I almost had to kneel down from the strong enervation, but I soon overcame it thanks to years of practice. Once I was able to focus again, I turned my attention back on my double-self to check it one last time.

I really couldn’t find anything that was off. I probably can consider it a success.

While I was reviewing the finer details of the illusion for inconsistencies, I felt a telepathic link kicking-in in my mind. If the book I was reading before was anything to go by, I could now control the actions of the illusion, and also see and feel the world by its body by using that link.

After trying to move the illusion around, I think that the best way to describe how the link works would be like when you’re closing either your left or right eye. When you do that, you see the world from a different point of view. It’s the same here, I only have to focus on what “side” I want to see through, and my mind will be in the corresponding body. But unlike with the eyes analogy, I can not “open” (control) both at the same time. My mind has to fully focus on one to be able do anything.

The body itself, while being an illusion, is formed by energies from the Plane of Shadows that gives the body the consistency to interact with the Material world, thus enabling the illusion to perform minor physical tasks. But the body is much more fragile than mine, and it has only a minor fraction of my (nearly non-existent) real strength. Also, it may fade away into nothingness should it get hit by something a bit too harshly.

Anyway, it’s not like I was going to let that happen...

After basking in the joy of having cast the spell quite flawlessly for a moment, I was about to go to attend to the dinner when I remembered something.

“She might come back soon, I should probably have one of the windows opened for her.” I said to myself.

Joining action to speech, I went to open a window situated near a moderately sized bird-perch, with a large roost add-on, and went to go the dinner I had been called to.

Leaving my double-self behind me, I began to walk out of the library in direction of the banquet room. I hurtled down the long staircase of the tower, and navigated through some of the hallways leading to my destination.

Torches had been lit in the passages, probably not so long ago by the domestics in foresight of the night that was soon to come. However, for now, the windows to my right were still showing a magnificent view of the sun setting in the horizon, dispensing an eerie orange-tinted light along my way.

As I neared my objective, I noticed a net increase in activity, going up from the quiet and peaceful environment of the empty library to the commotion of servants affairing to prepare everything for dinner, hastily running around the corridors of the castle. There was also the noise of people chatting with each other while on their way to attend to the banquet.

I followed the crowd inside the immense room, occasionally stopping to return the acknowledgments from the people who recognized me. The dining room was consisting of very long wood tables joined side to side with each other in an extensive succession throughout the very large place. The tables were engraved with beautiful artistic patterns, giving them a regal look, while the whole place was illuminated brightly by several lustres suspended to the ceiling. There were also some more classical torches hanging to the walls in between each of the very high windows.

Like usual when about to eat in community, the persons that knew each other made sure to sit in groups at the tables, to ensure themselves some interesting conversations throughout the meal. For my part, I made sure to get a place close of my family so that most people won’t try sit nearby by respect.

I really hate most of the castle folks, because most of them are high class nobility.

Don’t get that the wrong way, this doesn’t mean I hate them simply for being part of the nobility. Gods forbid me, if I was to hate them for this sole reason, I would also have hate myself a lot.

The problem is that some of them got to their actual rank with lies and deception, using nearly any method at their disposal to grant themselves more power, or more money, pursuing their own objectives while disguising them behind a wall of selflessness.

Not all of them act that way, I know that for sure, but I can’t really take chances since I am the son of the landlord. Having misplaced trust could have disastrous consequences for those around me, and myself. I shield myself by only having the minimum of social contact with those persons.

My brothers had rarely anything interesting to talk about. One could go on forever explaining how the rules of this city had loopholes that could be exploited by malicious persons and how they needed to be changed, while the other would try to convince me to do physical exercises with him and the guards, to “be able to defend yourself, and strengthen that frail body of yours” to quote his own words.

Hell, if someone would try to do anything to me, I already have numerous ways to deal with that, thank you very much. Burning them, freezing them, shooting them up with pure magic missiles, or sending them flying some feet away are only a few of the options I’d be more than happy to use. I don’t need to lose time trying to vainly build my body when I could be improving my magic potential and knowledge instead. Anyway, it’s not like I was going to ever put my life at risk, locked in the castle as I am.

I found a chair next to my younger brother and sat there, waiting for the dinner to officially begin.

I greeted my parents and siblings with joviality, and they all returned it happily. Dinner is the time of the day where everyone is guaranteed to see each other. In the daytime, everyone is busy with their work, and lunch does not have a predefined hour, so it’s easy to carry on a day without seeing anyone that you may know. I even skip it most of the time when I’m not hungry.

The library isn’t exactly the place where I have a high chance to see my family. Well, except for my younger brother, since he works a lot with the town's rules, but he mostly comes around, take the books he needs, and goes back to his own office.

The servants were still filling up the tables with either cutlery or dishes. Since I still had some time ahead of me before they would finish to set up the meal, I decided to focus on my illusionary self, which was still at the library.

I opened up my senses to the telepathic link, and found myself in front of my personal desk. The supplies on it still seemingly in the middle of a great conflict, but I couldn’t care less. I resumed my study of the huge tome that I had been reading minutes before.

While flipping through the book, I found an interesting chapter going on about the creation of magical portals, allowing the travelling of very long distances by stepping into it.

Well, that’s the easiest part of it all.

After further reading, it seemed like summoning one is actually a very complicated ritual, involving the creation of runes on the ground using complicated patterns, and the shaping of a very elaborated spell.

I focused myself on the footnotes of the spell.

“It is probably wiser for one to start learning to create portals before attempting any self-teleportation magic. Getting the basics of accurately defining the arrival point of a displacement spell is important, and while the creation of portals has quite high requirements, it has the potential of being the safer way to trifle with arrival points.

If the arrival point was misplaced, the caster can simply shut down the portal to avoid any complications that might occur, while a caster failing a classic teleportation spell might cause himself harm if placed poorly.*

*See page 2845, 2ndparagraph formore information about teleportation into objects.”

I pondered over the subject for a few seconds. After very intense reasoning, I decided that using such an elaborate illusion to read a book was counterproductive.

There are far more better ways to ways to make such a spell profitable...

I smirked at the possibilities.

While I was going through the potential uses I could have for this spell in my mind, I felt something on my shoulder - and I didn’t mean the shoulder of my library-located-self, but the shoulder of my physical body. I focused my mind back to my real self, and tried to identify what was causing the feeling.

As the view of the banquet room filled my eyes again, I turned my gaze to my left side, only to find my younger brother glaring at me through his glasses with worry, a hand still on my shoulder as to call me out.

“Cynder, are you alright? You haven’t eaten anything yet, and you look very preoccupied by something. Do you want to talk about it?”

As he said that, it struck me that the dinner was almost half-through, and that I still had an empty plate in front of me. People around the tables were either finishing their main course, or beginning to eat their desserts, while still chatting happily with their neighbours, filling the air with the noise of their conversations.

My brother’s questioning also attracted the rest of my family’s attention, and they were now looking at me, eyes filled with concern too. I shifted nervously, as I hate being the center of attention.

“Yeah, maybe I should start to eat,” I thought. Anyway, my belly was starting to signify me his dissatisfaction of being empty by growling loudly.

I thought for a bit, trying to come with an answer better than “Oh, I’m actually controlling a duplicated version of myself while we eat, don’t worry about me”. It would bring a needlessly long explanation that was sure to reduce the impact of some of the plans I had for this illusion.

I smiled, and tried to look confident.

“Sorry, I kind of phased out while thinking about my latest studies. I’m learning about teleportation magic, and I didn’t realize dinner even started because of how deep in thought I was,” I said, while grabbing my fork. “I’ll go ahead and start eating now. Don’t worry about me.”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie. I simply omitted some minor details, like the presence of an illusory being that looks just like me in the library, and the fact that I can remotely control it.

I started serving myself with some dishes, and seeing me acting normally was enough for my family to drop the matter and resume their previous conversations.

I also felt another starving feeling, but on a deeper level. I knew what that meant, but I would have to address that problem later.

For now, I had fulfill myown biological needs.

I got myself a generous portion of anything that was to my taste. However, while machinally eating, I eavesdropped for some interesting news.

Being a librarian, getting news from the town can prove to be quite difficult while working. Even though I see dozens of people a day, the fact that a library has to remain calm means that you can’t chit-chat with anyone without breaking the comfort that silence brings to the readers present in the room. So, I hardly ever have time to talk with people, aside from the occasional questions I get when someone is looking for advices on what to read next based on what they want, to which I’m much obliged to respond being the librarian and all.

Things being what they are, dinner is the only time of the day where I can get such news, so I went fishing for some.

My two brothers were talking to each other. Actually, I am not sure ‘talking’ was the right word. I listened in the middle of their conversation. The older one seemed on the verge of flipping the whole table over, which I hoped wouldn’t happen, since I would be right in the trajectory of the object. It would optionally also disturb the serenity of the dinner itself, but I think it comes second in my priority list when having to deal with the possibility of having a whole massive table heading in my general direction at an unhealthy speed.

He was as close to shouting as you could be without drawing the attention of the whole banquet room, but it still earned him a few glances from our closest neighbours. Indignation and rage were dripping from his voice while he said “But that’s stupid! I know our town hasn’t anything to say in Amn’s laws-making, but why would they prevent us from dealing with bandits by ourselves? They get in the way of our citizens, and even possibly theirs! We can’t afford to let them roam on our roads and commit crimes in all impunity! I can understand the roads are not under our legal protection, but we don’t even ask for money to do it!”

My younger brother tried to remain as calm as he could, considering the threat of the table promising to shorten dramatically his usually quite long half-elf lifespan - as well as mine in the process - should it get flipped over.

He eyed his older counterpart with a composed expression. He adjusted the glasses present on his nose and said in a comprehensive tone “We can’t really argue with orders from the Council of Six of Athkatla. Also, I think their decision isn’t that much devoid of meaning, considering the recent upsurge of aggressive tribes of goblins and the likes. They even reported a hill giants tribe attacking a small village in the northeastern part of Amn.”

He joined his hands on the table and went on, “Right now, sending patrols might lead them to their demise. If bandits are dumb enough to expose themselves to such dangers, let them do it.”

He grinned mischievously while adding, “And if there are encounters between the bandits and those tribes, we win, whatever happens.” I had to concede, my younger brother had a serious point here.

“This is the reason why the Council does not want us to go out bandit hunting. They simply care about us. Once the situation changes back to normal, I am quite sure they will allow us to do it once more. As you mentioned, it is quite profitable for them that we don’t even ask for a compensation while doing it,” he said.

My older brother seemed to have calmed himself down. “I guess I understand,” he said.

The younger also added, “But the fact is, the Council made sure to inform everyone to only travel under heavy escort for now because of these events. So you may see a sudden increase in escort missions on your side.”

“That is something I will be looking forward to!” he answered happily.

They both went back to rules debating, as it was common for these two. I tried to get a hook on any other bribe of useful information that I could listen to from the nearby conversations, but nothing else seemed interesting enough. Knowing whoever is dating with isn’t what I would call interesting.

So, while I was finishing my meal, I began to set up a plan for my illusion by switching my vision to the illusion while I was chewing on my food.

Switching back and forth from my body to the other wasn’t so hard, so I intended to use that feature to its full extent. If my plan works as intended, there should be some animation very soon...

And I was not mistaken. A few minutes later, a city guard came in the dinner room, and rushed past all the tables, heading directly to my father, his full-plate armor rattling with every step he made.

I started focusing a bit of my magic, channeling it very subtly on myself to make sure the guard wouldn’t notice me right away.

It worked perfectly, because the guard just continued past me, apparently not even acknowledging I was there, and he went next to my father. He made a salute, and reported:

“Sir, some of the main gate guards spotted your son Cynder leaving the castle a few minutes ago, apparently without any official permission. We tried to stop him, but he ran to the town. We gave him chase, but we lost track of him at the corner of a street. Should we send a search party to bring him back?”

Right when he finished his sentence, I stopped channeling the previous spell, and tried my best to act like I was surprised.

My father stared dumbfoundedly at the guard for a few moments. Then he turned his gaze to me, quickly checking if I was there. After getting this confirmation, he turned himself back to the guard.

“Are we talking about this Cynder,” he said, while pointing a finger in my direction, “or do I have another son named Cynder that I am not aware of?”

The guard turned himself to look at me, and the look of pure confusion that I could see on his face was priceless. I must say, I had trouble to keep my own confused facade, while all I would have wanted was to burst into laughter right then. He stared at me, seemingly not believing his own eyes, and stammered, “B-b-but... He... I...”

Seconds passed, while his expression gradually shifted to one of suspicion. “How...”

I could not resist adding some more salt to the wound, so I said “Are you sure that it was me? I am in this room ever since dinner started, and I had been in the library before that. I never left the castle’s vicinity.”

“But... the robes... The ears... I...”

I saw my older brother looking at me with a knowing smile, which I could only return with an utter confused look and a shrug. I could not drop the appearances right in front of my father.

However, my father didn’t exactly seem amused the whole situation and cut the guard short. “I have no time to hear about your hallucinations. Was this man you gave chase to of relevant importance that it might be worth interrupting my meal? Else your are dismissed.”

He didn’t even bother to give the guard any more attention, and went back to finishing his meal. I still felt bad for the guard, but damn, it was worth it!

The guard stared a few more moments at me, like he was seeing a ghost, and finally said “No sir, nothing else to report. Sorry for the interruption.” After that, he saluted again, and quickly ran out of the dining room.

After a few moments of silence, my older brother said in a falsely inquisitive tone, “I wonder who it is that they saw... Because you obviously were here all the time...”

He let the sentence hang in the air, like I would explain him what had happened.

Of course, it was my illusion that ran out of the castle, and I stopped the spell right when it was about to be caught, but a magician never delivers his secrets, so I just shrugged, and replied “How could I know?”

Eruadan and Nalia resumed conversing with each other, in a low voice. They didn’t seem to care about what had just happened. The only one to have rightful suspicions about me was my older brother, but he knows I like playing tricks to the guards with my magic. This isn’t exactly the first time something similar had happened, but never anyone could prove it was me.

It kind of is the only way I have to break the monotony of my life. Since I have an easy time with any illusion-related magic, I am trying to make the best out of it. It helps me morally, and gives some way for me to use my magic for a real reason.

Dinner was soon coming to an end. I was finishing my dessert, namely, a slice of my favorite: Strawberry tart. Most of the people around me were finished with their meals, and were going through the ends of their conversation topics with their close-by companions, or leaving to head to their quarters, or maybe to attend to some other businesses I’m probably unaware of.

Once I was done eating, with my stomach now full and warm, I left the main room, but not before wishing a good night to my siblings and parents, to go through an opened door leading to the quite huge kitchens of the castle. That part was swarming with activity, mostly servants passing by, either carrying the rest of the dinner’s dishes towards the cleaning room, or on their way to get more of them from the dining area.

The room had numerous hearths throughout it. Though they had now nearly all been extinguished, they were probably used moments ago to cook our meal. There were also lots of shelves present, garnished with all sorts of ingredients necessary to prepare the food. It was also a bit darker than in the main room, and it was taking my eyes a moment to adjust to the sudden decrease in brightness .

The room should probably have felt a tad too warm to me, considering the heat that had been produced by the preparation of our meal. However, I had enchanted my robes some weeks ago when studying the Spellweaving skill. I had put an enchantment that keeps me at pleasant temperature whenever I face moderately cold or hot environments.

I was drawing some curious glances from the persons present , but I didn’t care to explain my presence here to them. After spending some time trying to spot the chef in the crowd, my search finally paid off, as I saw him sitting in front of a table, eating his own meal with some of the servants now that the service for the castle was finished.

I walked in his direction, and he spotted me approaching when I was halfway there. He waved his left hand to me, while still attending to calm his hunger by eating with his right arm. Once I was in front of him, he dropped his fork in his plate, and stood up to shake my hand.

“Hey, how’s going the landlord’s son t‘day? Learned some new of those fancy spells o’ yours?” he asked me with a very sincere smile.

“You wouldn’t believe the last one if I showed you. But, I’m fine, how about you?” I said, returning the smile, as we broke the handshake.

“Oh, you know, always the same,” he said while waving his hand dismissively.

He’s one of the few people that I know because of my librarian job. He often comes to get some books about cooking, to try to improve himself or get new ideas. I really enjoy talking to him, because he never really treats me differently than anyone else. He’s one of the few that are not afraid to talk sincerely in front of me, and neither does he change his attitude because I’m of a higher class - except sometimes for comedic purposes.

He was quite the old man, nearing his 40 years, his expression a reflection of his hard work throughout his life. He’s wearing the official cooking uniform, depicting him as the chef, and his whole outfit is stained with blood or sauce marks, leaving no doubt as to his function.

“I’m here because it seems that my familiar may - again - end his day with his stomach empty. Perhaps you could get me something that she might eat when she comes back?”

He emitted a “Hmmm...” while thinking over the question. “Well, I might have a rabbit that she could eat. Hang on, let me go get it.”

With that said, he left the room to go through a door, probably leading to the meat stock. He came back seconds later with, as promised, a skinned rabbit carcass. He was holding it with his bare hand. He probably didn’t really care about getting himself bloodstained.

He presented it to me, while saying, “Here you go. However, I’m concerned by your bird’s hunting abilities. They seem to be getting worse and worse recently. Did she became too fat to get her own food?” he asked, while insisting sarcastically on the word ‘bird’.

“I’m afraid so, but I can’t just let her starve to death. Especially because of our bond.”

“Well, you should try to make her do some exercises. I’m sure you can find a book about ‘How to keep your bird fit’,” he said jokingly.

I picked up on this and said “Or I could write it myself, that I am sure of.”

We exchanged a hearty laugh. When we were done I directed my hand towards the carcass, but instead of grabbing it with my hand, I let out a small amount of magic, creating a telekinetic field around it, causing it to glow with a slight yellow aura.

Maybe he didn’t care to dirty himself, but I don’t particularly like getting blood all over my hands, or clothes.

“Sorry about bothering you for this,” I said.

As he noticed the aura around the carcass, he let go of it, and replied “You know you’re always welcome here, boy’. Anyway, I’ll get back to finish that,” while pointing his thumb behind him to his unfinished plate.

“Alright, let me get out of your hair then. Good bye, and thanks!” I said, waving to him with my free hand, and started to leave the room by using the service door while levitating the rabbit carcass in front of me.

“‘later, Cynder!” I heard from behind me.

So, I made my way back to the library. The light dispensed by the torches was now mandatory, as the sun had now set, giving place to a starry night.

I reached the door leading to the library, and opened it.

It was now quite dark in here. The two hearths inside the room were now put out, only small embers indicating that there was once something burning here. There wasn’t going to be enough light to continue my study, even considering that half-elves herit of a somewhat diminished version of low-light vision from their elven ancestors. I navigated through the library mostly by memory, blindly going through the room. I was approaching my desk, the rabbit carcass still following me through the air, when I suddenly heard something.

“Meat?”

Getting addressed so unexpectedly got me frightened, and I did a quick turnaround to face the source of the voice. All the while, my concentration on the Mage Hand spell dropped, and so did the rabbit carcass that was hovering near me.

Hearing something that was really unexpected in such a dark and - usually - silent place made my survival instincts kick in. I quickly raised into an offensive position, and without even thinking, released some power to begin casting a fire spell.

I know the choice of element to fight with wasn’t really brilliant at the moment, considering we were in a library, but my emotions were taking control of my spell shaping process at this instant.

Having no time to try to spare my magical resources, I poured as much energy as I could in the spell, which got it ready nearly instantly. In less than a second, both my hands were engulfed in a cracking fire. I held them in front of me, ready to release a torrent of flames in the direction I should point them to.

However, right when my hands were set ablaze, I felt a deep sense of primal fear, that had nothing to do with my own instincts, and I also heard a shriek coming from the darkness I was facing.

Right when the light radiating from my hands allowed me to see what was in front of me, I suddenly realized that it was my familiar.

Just as quickly as I had initially cast the spell, I interrupted it, cutting the energy flux flowing into my hands, and the flames died out with a slight swoosh sound, without causing any damage.

“Damn! Sorry!” I said.

I felt a panic that wasn’t mine, and I rushed to the side of my familiar’s perch. As I neared it, I could now distinguish its features. I was in front of a quite large golden eagle, of about 42 inches in length, its feathers of dark brown shades almost blending in the darkness surrounding them.

She was startled, courtesy of my earlier pyroclastic show, and was agitating herself on her perch, flapping her powerful wings without actually taking off, making the perch oscillate dangerously, nearly putting it off-balance.

“Calm, it’s over, no need to panic anymore” I said, trying to sound serene and attempting to convey the feeling that everything will be alright. I also tried to put my hands on her sides to help calming her.

Well, saying that I ’said’ my previous sentence might not be the right word for the kind of conversation I was having with my familiar. Neither of us could understand each other if we were to use our respective voices. But, when a spellcaster creates a bond with an animal to become his familiar, this bond allows to empathically convey thoughts and general feelings over this link, making the understanding of each other possible without having to utter a single word.

This kind of binding also makes us to perceive what one another is feeling physically and emotionally at any time.

After a few more seconds of trying to calm my familiar with soothing thoughts, she finally went still, and the panic I felt from her earlier receded.

She stared at me, puzzlement emanating from her as she asked “Why did you do this, half-elf?”

To that question, I answered - a bit abruptly perhaps, “You startled me when you addressed me so suddenly. I did not know you were here.”

“You were looking in my direction, how can have you not saw me?” she said.

I sighed, and replied “Do I need to remind you of your more developed vision, or is that you just like it when I compliment you?”

She took a prideful stance on her perch, slightly raising her head puffing her chest. “You, humanoids, really have the most inefficient appendages I have ever seen.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing there was no point arguing on such a field with her.

Then, I remembered why I had brought the rabbit carcass here, which was still lying on the floor, due to the previous events. I used a telekinetic grasp to bring the rabbit carcass to my familiar.

She eyed me quizzically. “Is that for me?”

I almost wanted to make a joke out of this, but resisted the urge, and simply nodded.

Once she caught it in one of her talons - still using the other to keep her balance on the perch - I let go of the carcass. I felt my familiar directing gratitude towards me, just as she began to feast on the rabbit.

After letting my eagle eat a bit of her meal, to make sure she wasn’t starving anymore, I asked her, “So, was your hunting so bad?”

I felt a shameful sentiment coming from her at that question.

“I started hunting too late. My prey all went to hide now. I couldn’t even get one of the smaller ones.”

I tried to reassure her. “It’s okay. You know you can count on me when you’ve got a bad day.” Again, I felt gratitude from her.

I let my familiar to feast on the carcass and went to attend other matters. I went around the room, to light up the torches with a minor fire spell, and rekindle the hearths by adding more wood in them. Once I was done, there was enough ambient light to read comfortably, and I wasted no time getting back to it.

The night went on without much notable events, and I continued my learning of the portal spell I had stumbled upon while controlling my illusion. The moon was now shining brightly outside, bestowing its otherworldly light upon the city and the forest around it, while the starlight had gained in intensity.

After staying up probably more than politically correct for me, I decided to stop when I couldn’t focus rationally on the book before me anymore. I shifted my gaze around the room, and saw that my eagle was already asleep in the nest add-on of her perch.

I quickly made some tidying up, and extinguished the torches around the room. I also added some wood again in the hearths to make sure they will last throughout the night. When I was done, I felt some contentment emanating from my familiar.

“Darkness...”

She shifted slightly, in her roost, making herself a bit more comfortable, and I felt her mind drifting back to sleep.

I smiled at this scene. Seeing my familiar sleeping had some kind of cute side to it.

I left the library to go to my chamber. It was small room located behind a door inside the library. I had long ago asked my parents if I could get a room there to lose less time travelling back and forth between the appartements wing of the castle and here - which is quite a walk because this castle is huge - and they had granted it, turning that old storage room into my very own chamber.

The setting was quite simple, with a comfortable bed, and the basic furnitures you’d expect in any chamber, and most of those are of a really good quality. There is no desk, due to the proximity of the library, and due to the fact that I already had one in there, but despite this, I got all I need to take care of myself. There’s also a small window giving a glimpse of the outside.

I undressed myself, put the clothing on a hanger provided for this purpose, and literally dove inside my bed due to my heavy exhaustion.

Now that my body was relaxed inside the bed, my mind was starting to drift away, but I forced myself to focus one last time of what I will do tomorrow.

“Try to create a portal” I thought. If I can pull it off, I will certainly gain a lot of insight on the magical forces used in the displacement of matter through space. That could prove useful for a lot of spells. But for now, I had a more urgent task at hand...

I fell asleep.

Chapter 2 - To The Astral Plane And Beyond!

Out From the Shadows

Chapter 2

To The Astral Plane And Beyond!

I woke up that morning more on an instinctive basis, rather than a cognitive one. That was one of the perks of being empathically bond to a biologically time-regulated creature: some of their habits tend to rub on you, and that includes waking up at a set amplitude of the sun in the sky, no matter how tired you might be.

Even though I was now standing on both my feet and going through my morning routine, my intellectual capacities were still at their minimum due to my exhaustion from yesterday’s work. After having dressed up, I only realized that I was trying to brush my hair with the back of the hairbrush after 5 minutes of trying to comb it unsuccessfully.

I dumbfoundedly stared at myself in the mirror of my vanity, sighed, and began the process of brushing my hair with the right side of the tool. There were deep rings under my eyes attesting of my exhaustion.

“This is going to be a long day...” I thought. “At least I got two free days ahead of me, since the library isn’t opened the 9thand 10th day of the Tenweek.”

The prospect of such free time was boosting my morale up, and I finished my routine with a newfound energy. As usual, my breakfast was already waiting for me on my desk in the library. I ate it in the quietude of the vast room that was devoid of any presence but mine. It seemed my familiar had already left the place; she’s quite the early bird.

I found what was left of the rabbit carcass I gave her yesterday, namely squeaky clean bones. I made sure to put them on the plate along with the remnants of my breakfast, and put the plate itself on one of the reading table for the next domestic to take it away.

I took a deep breath, and began working back on the matter of creating a teleportation portal. I took a quill and a scroll, and wrote a short, but comprehensive list of what was to prepare before attempting to cast the spell, helping myself with peeks inside the Magus’ Compendium’slong paragraphs about the process, and adding along some more personal notes.

“-With salt, make a confinement circle on the ground. (Should prevent the magical energies from leaving the circle’s vicinity while the shaping is in progress)”

“-With a white chalk, draw runes inside the circle. They should be shaped in a fashion that goes inward to the very center of the circle. (That will force the energies to meet at the center of the circle, to form the portal itself. I should probably get help from a runes-specialized book to do it right.)”

“-While shaping the spell, focus on the place that should be set as the point of arrival. (As a starter, I guess I should focus on trying to get inside my own room. This isn’t too far away, and won’t put me in trouble if the spell is successful.)”

“-Prepare an incantation to do it efficiently. (The shaping process seems extra-long, so I will prepare an incantation with some length to make up for it.)”

]“Much more clear now,” I said cheerfully, while reviewing the scroll I just wrote.

I did some research over the rune pattern to use by getting help from an annex book, and found an example matching what I was looking for in it. I left it open at the corresponding page, putting it on the ground in a clear space with no carpet.

After rummaging through my desk’s drawers, I found some white chalk I could use to draw the runes, and a pouch of salt. Those being commonly used in the magic domain, I always had them at the ready, along with plenty other of the most common components.

Having made a circle with the salt big enough that an average man could lay inside, I went on with the process of creating the rune pattern with the white chalk. One small inconvenience was the fact that the floor was made of stone, so I had a hard time seeing the salt circle. That made the rune drawing a tad more complicated than it had to be, but I didn’t think it was going to be a problem in the end.

While I was tracing the runes, the sound of powerful wings flapping announced the arrival of my familiar near the tower, and indeed, a few seconds later, I saw a golden eagle entering the library by one of the opened windows. After landing on her perch, she looked around the library in a royally indifferent manner. She eyed me for some time as I was working on inscribing the runes on the stone floor.

After a few minutes, she asked, “What is it you are doing, half-elf?”

My guess is that she was more interested to know why I wasn’t reading a book, as I was usually doing at this hour. I learned that birds had their habits at certain points of the day, and they hate it when something deviates from them.

However, I answered with honesty. “Working on a teleportation spell.” I knew that she didn’t quite understand what that was about, but I liked toying around with her lower knowledge.

“So in order to do it right, I have to create teleportation portals first.”

Over the years that she had been my familiar, she had gained a lot on the intelligence side. It was quite hard for her to understand most of mankind’s concepts and words when our bond was so fresh. However, due to our closeness, and with the help of the empathic link we shared, she began getting more and more intelligent to the point that she now could comprehend most dialogues we went through, and form somewhat complex sentences herself - well, it’s a relative complexity considering she’s an animal. But in the end, there are still some words and concepts that are obscure to her.

She probably knew that I was trying to play with her, but for once, she decided to go along, which surprised me. “And what does that do?”

I replied while still working on the task at hand. “It is a magically-powered portal that allows anyone to go from point A to point B simply by crossing it.”

“Hay? Bee?” I felt her confusion at the mention of this. I mentally applied a palm to my face for using an analogy that didn’t work on someone who couldn’t read.

“Let’s say it allows to travel great distances in only a step... Or a wing flap if you prefer,” I said, trying to simplify the description for her.

I felt that she was genuinely intrigued by that fact. “How practical... For once, your magic interests me, half-elf.”

While I was finishing my work on the runes, she started to preen herself out of boredom. Rarely had she been intrigued by my work on magic, but it wasn’t the first time. She already showed interest in some of the illusion tricks I could perform, even if it was only toward the most ‘flashy’ ones.

Illusion magic is what I work on the most. Simply put, it was the only school of magic that I could put to good use in this castle. By “good use” I meant “playing tricks on some of the castle inhabitants,” since this was one of the only source of entertainment I could get. Until now, by using deception, I’ve never been caught.

However, I still know some spells from other schools for the sake of diversity, and because some of them were taught to me by my mentor.

After a few more minutes of inscription, the runes were finally drawn on the floor. They formed an exact replica of the illustration in the book I had at my side. Satisfied with my work, I playfully tossed and caught the white chalk in my hand while I walked to sit back at my desk. Casting the chalk aside, I began thinking about an incantation I could use for the spell.

Many mental attempts and corrections later, I finally had what I thought was a good incantation, and I tried to recite it.

“Conjuro ego ex hoc... magicae vires uiam... forma... locum potestate... ego cupio. Possit ad transitum... aperta tenent donec... traicere ut destinatum, nemine prohibente... a vires externae.” I said out loud, staggering as I was trying to imprint the words in my mind.

Following multiple retries, every time going faster on my recital, I was able to repeat the words without any errors or slowing down on the words.

I reviewed once again the list of the requirements for the spell to be sure I had not overlooked anything, and was happy to see I was finally done with everything. I rubbed my hands together. “Now, the fun part begins...”

Before I had time to even get myself ready for the spellcasting, I got interrupted by my familiar. “What is this ‘fun’ that you speak of?” she asked.

“It is when you... Uh...” I was at loss of words. Trying to describe what ‘fun’ was seemed a difficult task when speaking to an animal. I finally chose to simply say, “It is not important. I was talking to myself anyway.”

She didn’t pursue the matter, and simply watched me from her perch as I got back to work.

I went to stand in front of the runic circle, adopting a relaxed posture. Since this spell required a lot of energy, I had to clear my mind of any emotion to prevent them from overtaking the spell shaping process, leading to potential problems.

I closed my eyes, and breathed deeply in and out for a few moments, focusing on nothing but the feeling of the air entering and leaving my lungs.

Now that my mind was devoid of any other thoughts, determination was the only thing I felt. I slowly raised my hands, trying to capt as much ambient magic as possible. The energies were gathering inside my body, and I began to shape the spell in my mind. While reciting the incantation in a drawn out and imperative tone, I tried to focus on the destination of the portal.

My room.

I mentally visualised my bedchamber, and added my personal feelings of the place to complete the whole intellectual image.

Slowly, a magical flux began to emanate from my body, and visible particles of condensed dark-blue magic began to travel from me to agglomerate themselves inside the runic circle.

I kept a steady influx of magic, and the whole circle was soon entirely filled with eerie dark-blue particles of lights, that were going up to eight feet tall. I was pouring more and more energy into the circle, forcing the magical forces to compress themselves at the center of the circle as they followed the rune pattern that was now glowing with a bright white light as it was forcing the magic to its midpoint.

After straining for a few moments, repeating the incantation as long as necessary, I was starting to feel myself slowly reaching my limit. Streaming so much energy out was taking its toll on me, and my consciousness was wavering, kept only by sheer force of will. My determination was starting to vacillate, as I was starting to think I probably couldn’t keep up with the energy required for the spell. Right when I seriously considered the idea of aborting the spell casting process, I felt a thought coming from my familiar in the back of my mind.

“Shiny.”

Whatever was happening, it had to be an interesting light-show for her to enjoy it.

I dared to open up my eyes - still focusing all my senses on keeping an unfaltering flow of magic - just in time to see that the gathering of magical energies was so dense at the center of the circle that the forces collapsed on themselves. As it happened, I heard a distant sound that could be best described as an explosion, and I felt a faint shockwave of magic emanating from the circle, which was probably greatly reduced by the presence of the salt barrier.

I was now staring in awe at a 7 feet tall pitch-black fissure located at the exact center of the circle. It was surrounded by crepitating dark-blue sparks of pure magical energies. Just as I was recovering from the shock of what had just happened, and that my thinking capabilities were now returning to me, the fissure was slowly shifted color, going from void-black to...

Grey?

Brown?

Multiple colors were now interweaving inside the fracture, slowly forming an image. When it stabilized, I could discern what looked like... my bedroom?

Yes, it definitely was my bedroom on the other side of the portal.

When this realization hit me, saying I was happy would have been a grave understatement. I bursted with unbridled joy, yelling “Yes!” - or similar words that express general acknowledgement multiple times nearly atop my lungs while performing some kind of victory dance, completely ignoring the heavy exhaustion that was washing over me. In hindsight, it would have probably been weird if someone saw me at that very moment. Well, I’m not counting my familiar, since she probably just didn’t care about human weirdness. She doesn’t really have much comparison to judge my behavior as strange or not, nor would she care. But I would have probably died of shame if someone else was able to witness this. Hopefully, no one else was in the library at this moment.

When my joyfulness finally receded enough for me to focus on the present time, I began staring at the portal for a moment, partly basking in the accomplishment I felt for having been able to pull that spell off, and also giving myself some time to recover from the strain the spell casting had put me through. I closed my eyes, and channeled the few remaining forces I had in me to keep myself standing. When I opened them again, I had gathered my lasts remnants of resolution, and was feeling ready to try to cross the portal.

“Care to join me on this incredible and epic journey to my bedroom?” I asked to my familiar, with maybe a slight exaggeration regarding the proportions of the travel.

She seemed to ponder my offer for a moment, but quickly decided to join me and took off from her perch. She landed on my right shoulder, her talons hooking up on a heavy leather patch present on my mage robes at that spot, which was made especially to prevent said talons from tearing my flesh.

“I indeed want to experience this ‘teleportation’, half-elf.”

I affectionately scratched the corner of her beak, and said “Then, let’s try this together!”

I turned back to face the portal, and began to walk slowly towards it. I solemnly said aloud, “That’s one small step for me...” I made a dramatic pause, and made another step. “But a giant leap for my...” *CRACK* “...studies...?”

It all happened in a split second. I barely had the time to realize what had happened. I had stepped on the salt circle, making a crack in the barrier that was holding all the magical energies inside the circle. When I understood this, I only had the time to say “OH DAM--” that all the energies that were previously trapped inside the circle made their move to escape the prison they were in.

And guess which way all the energies tried to escape?

That’s right. By the crack I just formed by stepping on the salt circle. The very same crack I just happened to be in front of.

A powerful torrent of magical energies washed over me, doing its best to escape the runic circle. I tried to defend myself by putting both my hands in front of me, but I had not enough willpower left to try to fight such a flood. Even if I had been in possession of all of my capacities, I highly doubt I would have been able to do anything against such an outburst.

Due to the amount of magical power traversing me at this very moment, my body made its defensive move.

I blacked out.

[...]

I woke up to one hell of a headache. I rose to a sitting position and began to rub my temples, trying to understand why I was hurting.

Still oblivious to what had happened previously, I opened up my eyes, preparing myself to be hurt by the sunlight or any other light sources bright enough to increase the headache raging in my brain, but instead, I saw nothing but clear silvery skies in all directions.

My mouth was agape. The sight extended above and below me. I realized I wasn’t even standing on anything solid, mildly floating in the air, but it didn’t feel like I was falling. I was simply drifting here.

I began panicking, looking around me frantically for any option to escape this place, and put myself to safety, but there was nothing except the wild argent yonder all round me.

“Oh damn! How the hell did I get here!?” I asked in a pathetic attempt to get an answer.

Of course, nobody answered my question, and I could do nothing but stare into the great nothingness extending all around me, startled and confused.

Trying to remember what had caused me to be here, it only took a few seconds for the memories of what happened to come back in full force. “The portal spell... and then... I miserably caused it to fail by breaking the salt circle.” I said to myself.

I tried to pound my right fist on the ground to vent off the rage of having made such a terrible mistake, but it simply went through the air, much to my disdain. I then tried to stand up - but quickly found it was a rather futile task, considering the lack of ground, so I finally decided to go back to my train of thoughts.

“Then, the energies rushed through me and... Oh, so this is how I ended up here? It does explain a few things... but it doesn’t exactly tells me where I am...” I thought.

I tried to look in every possible direction for clues in a much more attentive manner than before, but there was only the same silvery sky pattern extending as far as I could see, except for one small detail that I noticed in the distance.

A brown shape was approaching. As it drawn closer, it looked like it had wings, flapping them to head in my direction.

It didn’t take me long to put the two and two together.

It was my familiar.

She probably had been drawn to this... Plane? Realm? Along with me. I am not even sure how to call this place, however I was relieved she was still alive. As she was coming closer and closer, I started feeling her emotions via our empathic link.

Freedom and wonderment were the most predominant feels I was getting from her. They contrasted with my own feelings of insecurity and uncertainty.

Since she still had quite some distance to cover to meet up with me, I began to think of a plan to return home. I opened up my senses to the magical energies of the place, to know how much power I had at my disposal. I was a bit surprised to feel that magical energies were literally saturating the place, so I guessed using magic wasn’t going to be a problem here.

I first thought of re-opening a portal to get out of here, but there was a massive flaw to that plan. I had not the necessary materials to make a runic circle, and even if I had, I couldn’t exactly draw runes in the air. And that’s even assuming I could remember the shape of the runes to draw.

There was the possibility of simply casting the teleportation component of the spell on myself, without turning it into a portal. However, I didn’t really liked the fact that I could end up stuck in a wall - or whatever else solid object - should I fail my casting.

After weighing over all the possibilities, it seemed like teleporting was the only option I had, but I really, really didn’t liked it. This had so much possibilities of backfiring...

By the time I had resigned myself to cast the spell, my familiar had caught up with me, and she landed on my right shoulder.

“I really do like this ‘teleportation’, half elf. There is so much space to fly,” she said. I could feel her heart pounding strongly from the intensity of her flight. She really seemed to enjoy herself here.

“Too bad there are no preys here,” she added with a hint of sadness. “It would have been so easy to hunt them in such an open space.”

“Unfortunately, as much as you enjoy this place, we have to leave. I don’t know where we are, and even if there are no immediate dangers, I have no intent to stay long enough to find out.”

She turned her head to face me with a questioning glare. “Wasn’t the point of ‘teleportation’ to bring us here?”

I sighed, not wanting to go in details over the matter. “Not exactly. We indeed teleported somewhere, but not where I intended us to be.”

She probably felt my uncertainties toward the place at this point, because she simply replied “Oh,” followed by“Then how do we get out of here, half-elf?”

I didn’t need to be asked twice. “I will teleport us back home.”

Without wasting any further time, I began to cast the teleportation spell, and focused its effects on ourselves, rather than letting it out to create a portal. I was very surprised when the spell shaping process only took me mere seconds to complete. I didn’t even had time to recite the full incantation I used previously.

It was probably due to the magical energies saturating the place, so I didn’t really put much thought over it.

The spell was now ready to be released. I focused on the place I wanted it to bring us to. Since I wasn’t sure how the teleportation would work over an unknown distance, I focalised my destination over a larger scale of things.

I mentally visualized the castle of my parents, surrounded by a dense forest. Then, I projected the image of the library, and focused on it, while still imagining the castle around it. The shelves full of books, my messy personal desk, the reading tables... I tried to imagine them clearly into my mind, and I tried to focus my arrival point right behind my desk.

Then, I released the spell.

I suddenly felt myself being dragged out of reality by a very powerful force, forcing all the air out of my lungs. It was like being attached to something that was going at a very high speed. I didn’t see anything because I had closed my eyes by reflex. Just as abruptly as it started, I went to a full stop, feeling solid matter under my feet.

Teleportation sure was something when you are conscious.

I took a deep breath, and took in my surroundings. I was... In a castle for sure...

But only one problem...

This castle was in ruins.

I was indeed in what looked like a library, but it had been torn apart by age. All the shelves were toppled over, sometimes overlapping one another, left here at the mercy of the elements.

Books were littering the floor everywhere, some of them missing lots of pages that were scattered all over the place, in a pattern that undoubtedly was the effect of winds. All of them were now rendered unreadable, probably due to extensive exposure to rain, like the crumbled ceiling suggested.

Some of the walls were missing huge stone chunks, allowing me to see the forest surrounding the place I was in. The whole decor was bathed in an afternoon light and the few walls that were still holding on were nearly entirely covered in vines.

At first, I feared that I had been somehow sent in the future, long after the passing of my family and their descendants, but one detail brushed off that harebrained theory. I was at ground level, whereas the library in de’Arnise was located inside a tower.

“This is not our home,” remarked my familiar.

“It sure isn’t,” I added. Even though the teleportation obviously failed, I hoped we had landed somewhere close to de’Arnise.

I really started thinking that I should not have trifled with the portal and teleportation magic without the help of Dahrim, seeing how I was really getting in trouble for this...

I thought about using my teleportation spell again, but due to how my last two attempts turned out, I wasn’t sure it would be a good idea, considering I could end up in a more dangerous situation. Also, I had already drained a good chunk my mental resources by casting it twice. I couldn’t be sure I would be able to cast it again until I get some rest, even if the second casting had been merciful on my power reserves, due to that strange silvery place’s energy saturation.

My current situation left me with no choice but to explore the immediate surroundings for any assistance I could get.

“Can you scout around for landmarks or people?” I asked. “Come back if you see any sign of civilisation. This might be our only chance to get back to our home.”

She acknowledged with a slight nod of her head, and took off in the air, disappearing over the treeline surrounding the castle I was in. The fact that she ‘nodded’ to acknowledge my order didn’t escape to me. Yet another human trait she probably learned because of our bond.

Meanwhile, I began to explore the place I itself, trying to look out for clues as to where I was. The library I was in was clearly deserted, so I felt comfortable to rummage through some of the books that were laying on the ground, trying to identify the language used, as it would be a good start to know what region I was in.

Unfortunately, it seemed like none of them were spared the continuous assault of the elements, as they all looked lavished, with not a single ink drop remaining on any of the pages.

I moved on and decided to explore the rest of the place - which looked very much like a castle - for anything that might help me.

Whenever I entered a new room, I made sure to hide my presence by channeling a spell on myself. It is an illusion spell that greatly reduces the chance for anybody to even notice I am here, by tricking the subconscious of all nearby beings. Basically, it makes them think that my presence and any sound they hear from me are only mundane things, which should not even be thought about.

But this spell has its limits, and does not work when the persons affected by the spell already know I are here, or if I do something obvious in front of them, but it is quite useful to make people forget about myself, or make them not acknowledge my presence right away, which may get me an advantage should I stumble upon something or somebody that seems hostile.

However, it turned out this precautions was a bit of an overkill as there was no one else in this castle.

None of the rooms I went in were spared the passage of time, all of them looking like nobody had visited this area for centuries. I found what looked like a throne room, along with what remained of what appeared to have been fine decorations throughout it, probably for a royal family of some sort. I saw three thrones aligned at the far end of the room, all of them heavily adorned. It could have been beautiful if not for the fact that everything was tarnished by the passage of time.

Some of the ornaments could have looked like symbols of gods, but none of them matched the exact blazon on any of the gods I knew. Even though I am not worshiping any of the gods myself, it doesn’t hurt to know which ones exists, and the domains they govern.

The sun, the moon, and stars were the most commonly used shapes on the decorations. There was also a lot of stained glass windows throughout the room, but most of them had been shattered in some way, rendering the image they once shown impossible to see.

Except one.

I cautiously walked toward the unbroken window to have a better look. It was showing a grey horse-like animal from the side, in a charging stance, with plains and a mountain as a landscape around it. The particularity of this being was that it had wings on its side, and a long horn on its forehead, much like a crossbreed between a unicorn and a pegasus. I had no idea how to call such a creature, since I had never seen, or heard about one.

Unicorns are revered creatures among wood elves and any close-to-nature beings, such as druids, but they rarely ever show themselves, preferring to hide in the coverage that their forests have to offer. They are known to share social interactions with fey-like creatures that inhabits their forest, such as pixies and dryads, but they won’t hesitate to use the mystical powers at their disposal if the forest they live in would somehow get threatened. Contrary to popular belief, such creatures are sentient, and have intelligence rivaling those of most humanoid races. Some are even said to be capable of speaking the common language, but we don’t exactly have a lot of proof to convey that theory.

Pegasi are also very rarely seen in the civilised parts of the Faêrun, but they indeed exist in some temperate forests, and very high mountains. These creatures tend to avoid any interaction with other species, but they are known to be able to understand the common language, even if they are not capable of speech themselves, making them only slightly more intelligent than regular horses. Their ability to fly due to their wings makes them near impossible to catch, and there were only very few cases throughout history where a pegasus served as a mount, because of their untamable behavior.

All these informations got me to think I was indeed somewhere in Faêrun, probably in an nature-worshiping civilization, but it is only speculation as I was lacking some data to be a hundred percent sure of this. It was probable that this pegasus-unicorn picture had a symbolic meaning for the race that inhabited this place.

Unfortunately, I still had no certitude or even enough material to take a guess on my current location.

As I looked around for other details, I wondered what led this castle to be abandoned. There didn’t seem to have been any pillage going on, as the presence of valuable elements throughout the place can attest. So, what led the people living here to suddenly go away, and just leave this place without bringing any of the materials...?

I didn’t had the time to pursue my reflexions further, as my familiar came back, entering the throne room by flying through a breach in the demolished roof, and landed as usual on my right shoulder.

“I saw some homes that look like those of your kind, half-elf. They are a bit far away, but we should be able to reach them before the night. I clearly saw activity from afar.”

So there was indeed a civilization nearby. My hopes of returning home were faring better with this new piece of information.

“Let us not waste time then, there is no point staying in this place any longer.”

In fact, I would have probably enjoyed studying the remnants of this civilisation to get some clues, but I didn’t want to still be in this desolated place when the sun would have set. Also, I had no resources to sustain myself, and I didn’t exactly want to starve to death because of my curiosity. However, I would probably ask for permission from my father to come back here and study this place with an escort, once I could get back home. I am quite sure I haven’t read anything about this kind of civilisation.

This led me to consider what my inventory was for this journey, but unfortunately, I quickly realized I had mostly nothing but my clothes, and a coin purse hanging on the side of my belt, containing a good amount of gold pieces that I gained when renting the books of my library.

Finding some kind of tavern to eat at and pass the night was going to be my first priority. Then, I will try to find directions to the de’Arnise castle, and maybe get a better way of traveling than just walking.

When I thought about it, it was the first time I ever got out of the de’Arnise castle by myself, and right now, I felt like a character in one of those fantasy stories, going on an epic journey to fulfill their quest of good. I was even probably going to go to a tavern! The most popular place of all the fantasy stories I’ve ever read! With bards chanting the exploits of local heroes while people share drinks and...

“Why this sudden excitement, half-elf?”

… Was I being so obvious about that?

Of course, I sometimes forgot that she could feel my emotions, just as I feel hers.

“Don’t worry about it. Let us be on our way.” I said, to drop the subject.

However, I couldn’t help but keep a grin plastered on my face as we began our journey.

We exited the castle by what seemed to be the main entry, and I was grateful that the heavy double-doors had been kept open, however I couldn’t help but notice an odd structure before we went out. It had 5 metal bars radiating out of a main stone structure that ended in cone-shaped displays. It seemed obvious that there were once objects held in these displays, probably relics of some kind that were used in a sort of ritual.

But, I didn’t stop to find out more about this strange construction, I would probably have all the time in the world to study it if I could get back home, and get an escort to come back here later. I followed the indications that my familiar was giving me, leading me out.

She led me to follow a dirt road going out of the castle. I hadn’t been walking for a whole minute that the first complication of my travel appeared in the form of a bridge. I probably wouldn’t have cared much, if it wasn’t for the fact that the bridge looked like it was on the verge of breaking apart should I only slightly step on it. It was made of ropes and wood planks tied precariously together, and held in place by two rocks on each side of the ravine to secure the ropes.

I took a peek to what was awaiting me should I fall off, and it wasn’t exactly comforting. Below the bridge was a ravine so deep that I couldn’t see the end. It looked like a beast with its jaws wide opened, awaiting for an unfortunate traveler such as me to fall off.

I swallowed at the sight, and suddenly I decided that adventuring wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. When the hero of a book crosses a bridge such as this one, they make it sound easy to do. But being in front of one in reality wasn’t exactly endearing.

“Are you going to wait here for long? There is nothing to be afraid of,” my familiar said. “Look.”

She took off my shoulder, and flew over the bridge, landing on the other side of the ravine, on one of the rocks that had some ropes of the bridge tied to it.

I facepalmed. How did I not think about that? I definitely should use my wings to fly over the bridge!

Oh wait.

I don’t have wings.

“Sure, let’s just wait until I grow a pair of wings. They should appear any minute now.” I said ironically, folding my arms.

I only felt uttermost confusion coming from my familiar.

I sighed. It wasn’t even funny. She couldn’t understand irony, and even though she’s quite intelligent for her specie, she still isn’t quite on the level of mankind.

“Alright... I can do this.”

Bringing a cautious step to the first plank of the bridge, I slowly shifted my weight on it to test the waters. The ropes and the wood plank held good, though they manifested their annoyance to my presence by emitting a slight creaking sound. Otherwise, the whole structure seemed stable enough, despite looking precarious.

I felt confident enough to go through the first half of the bridge, even if it was ever so slowly, taking my time to test the woods planks on every step. However, once halfway there, I realized that should the bridge decide to fail me at this very moment, I wouldn’t be able to reach either side on time to save myself.

At this thought, my hands began to shake, sending vibrations through the ropes they were gripped to, and that made the bridge oscillate slightly. This added even more fuel to my fear, and my whole body began to tremble uncontrollably, making my advance on the bridge near impossible.

I also made the terrible mistake of looking directly into the abyssal maw below. I was paralyzed by sheer terror, unable to move any muscle, aside from the parts of my body that were irrepressibly shaking.

My teeth were now clattering and I felt despair seeping into my very being.

“I will never make it past this bridge.”

“I will not be able to ever reach this village.”

“Half-elf?”

“Why delay the inevitable?” I thought.“There is no way I will ever be able to return home.”

“Might as well give up now. It will probably make things painless.”

“Half-elf?!”

I contemplated the black void below. It was so easy to end it right now... All I had to do was to let go of the bridge... I would probably not feel anything... It would be swift, and merciful...

As I was staring intently in the ravine, something suddenly snapped me out of my state.

I suddenly got stripped of my emotions, leaving me disoriented and confused for a moment. With a newfound clarity, I took a moment to think about what had just happened, but I couldn’t understand how I could had gone in a state of mind where jumping off the bridge would seem appealing.

I looked at the end of the bridge, and saw that my familiar had her eyes closed, just as if sleeping, but still keeping herself balanced on the rock she was on.

“What is going on?” I asked.

I didn’t get a response, and my familiar was still unmoving. I wasn’t feeling anything coming from her anymore.

Something was definitely wrong.

It was like if our empathic link had been severed. Even if she had been asleep, I still should have been able to capt her emotions. So, there was something else going on. I felt like I had lost an important part of myself, and void took the place of the link.

I felt empty.

I traversed the remnant half of the bridge as fast as I could, while still being cautious about not slipping off it. I kept an eye on my familiar as I progressed toward the safety of the ground, but there was no signs of her moving.

As I finally stepped on the earth, I sighed, slightly relieved to not have to worry about falling anymore. However, I didn’t lose time, and I immediately went to see what was wrong with my familiar.

I didn’t had the time to reach her that she suddenly opened her eyes again. The empathic link came back in full force, and I was slightly destabilised, but somehow happy to feel that the link was back, and the emptiness I felt earlier was washed away.

“Let us get out of here half-elf. There is something very wrong with this place. We should not stay here.”

I had to agree with her. What had just happened was weird, and I didn’t want to risk experiencing something like that again. I had chills running down my spine just thinking about the ordeal.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” I said, and I promptly began to walk away from the bridge, probably slightly faster than what was necessary; but I wanted to put as much distance as possible between it and us. I occasionally took a peek behind me, fearing something might happen there while I had my back turned.

My familiar followed me, flying a few yards above, well over the trees, often doing circles to scout in the immediate vicinity. I felt she was trying to protect me.

It was a relief that the bridge was now too far to be seen when I once again checked behind me, so I adjusted my pace to a more steady and comfortable one.

We kept going on, following the road as my familiar was indicating me to. The road itself was heavily surrounded by the forest, and I hardly could see anything in between the trees and the others natural obstacles. The canopy was slightly reducing the overall brightness inside the forest, despite the sun still being high in the sky, but I was able see at a comfortable distance, thanks to my elven heritage to see in low-light environments.

I had to say, being able to walk all by myself, without an over-securing guard escort was a new experience to me. The trees were passing by as I walked, and a small breeze was filling my lungs with fresh air, adding its own flavor to the freedom sensation I was feeling right now.

It was a bit strange... But liberating at the same time. No more of these invisible shackles holding me in de’Arnise castle. I was not even forced to go somewhere precisely. I could make my own choices if I wanted to...

These thoughts gave me a new perspective about the world around me. A world of infinite possibilities was there, waiting for me... I wonder why I never had a second thought about all that.

Well, actually, this liberty had a price. For now, I was still without anything that I could eat, nor did I have any place I could safely sleep at. I didn’t even know where I was, which was quite... Problematic.

So I continued to march onward to this still unknown ‘town’, hoping I could get some help and directions to go back to my home. I wished they had comfortable rooms in a tavern there, but I guess it didn’t really matter, as long as I could at least sleep somewhere.

After walking a for about an hour, I was starting to get exhausted. My legs were hurting, my breath was erratic, I was thirsty, and my mind could only focus on the pain caused by these facts.

I had never covered so much distance by foot. Most of the time, if had to go somewhere outside of the castle, we would go there by using mounts or carriages, and the escort would always bring the necessary supplies to eat and drink while traveling.

I really wasn’t used to these traveling conditions, and it was taking its toll on me, especially considering the lack of water. I thought about it for a few minutes while walking, and decided that I’d fix this problem by doing something right out of a fantasy novel.

“Can you try to spot a river, or anything I can drink off nearby? I am really thirsty here,” I asked to my familiar while she was still flying in circles above me. I was that desperate that I would drinked off anything, as long as it was liquid.

She answered nearly immediately, “There is one lying a few yards in front of us. Just continue to walk, you will inevitably have to go through it, as it cuts through your path.”

I guessed that was good news for me. The promise of being able to soon clench my thirst was giving me the metaphorical energy to continue going forward. Strangely, it also made the pain I was feeling earlier to fade to the background. It was still there, but much more bearable.

Soon enough, I was able to hear the sound of the rushing water from afar, which was a bit later completed with the vision of the river itself, crossing right through the dirt road, just like my familiar had told me.

As I saw the river, I made a run for it. Literally. All pain had now receded as I focused on my one and only objective of the moment: Drink. I began closing the gap between the river and me, every footstep of my run bringing me closer to the salvation promise that was the clear liquid.

I wished I could just fly there, like my familiar would have done herself, but I was slowed down by my inefficient and ridiculously weak legs.

It was only a few steps away...

And then, here I was, right in front of the river’s bed. I fell on my knees, completely forgetting about my self-image for the moment being, and I let my head go right through the torrenting water.

It was fresh.

After having refreshed my head, I started drinking by joining my hands as a makeshift cup, using them to drag water to my mouth.

Being finally able to drink was a relief. I did not try to hold myself back as I drank my way to sate my thirst, doing my best to take in as much water as could, and as fast as possible.

I was midway to get yet another handful of water when I heard her say, “Half-elf, watch out, behind you!”

I suddenly felt a primal fear coming from her as she warned me. I did as she asked, quickly turning around to look behind myself.

That is where I saw it. A few yards away, on the right side of the road, still a few feet inside the forest. A very large bear was there, sniffing the air in my general direction. It was a bit more than half as tall as me on its four, and would very probably be taller than me if it was to stand on his back legs.

My sudden movement seemed to have attracted his attention, and it stood there, watching me intently, looking like it was trying to gauge my reaction.

We were both unmoving, looking dead right in each other’s eyes. Silence was growing more and more oppressing, disturbed only by the occasional burst of wind, and my heart was starting to pound heavily in my chest. My mind was blank at this moment, and my senses and instincts were all screaming “Run!”. However, something told me that if I just started to run right now, that would probably trigger the bear’s reaction to chase me.

My own fear was further growing to a point that it was becoming unbearable. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold the gaze of the wild bear for much longer.

Luckily for me, I didn’t had to.

It all happened in a split second.

I heard a screeching cry, and even before I had time to realize where it came from, a brown blur descended from the sky at a very high speed, and collided with the bear’s head.

The bear growled ferociously after getting hit, the impact making his head forcefully hit the ground, probably heavily damaging his jaw. I realized the blur was my eagle’s, as she made a second dive to hit the animal.

Before the bear could even react, she made her second attack, and her beak struck the bear’s left eye. The bear roared in agony, and tried to riposte with his right paw, but she dodged gracefully with a flap of her wings.

“Run! Now!”

That is when I heard her command that I realized it was indeed a good time to run away from the danger that the bear was representing. I had been so hypnotised by the fight that happened before me that I had completely forgotten about myself.

Not wasting any more time, I turned around, and ran to flee by the only path I could go in this current setup: through the river.

The water wasn’t really high once I set foot in it, as it was only going halfway up to my knees. I went through it, one step after another, as the rushing water was opposing a fierce resistance to my advance.

At this point, I could only hear the fight between the bear and my familiar, in the form of growls and screeches coming from behind me. She was obviously trying to buy me time so I could get away, and I tried my best to honor her will.

As you could guess, my pants, robes, and shoes were dripping wet as I reached the other side of the river, but I didn’t exactly had the time to care about that.

“Flee from the bear if you can, I am through the river now!”

I hoped she would not take more risks than necessary to save me.

When I said this, I saw her burst through the canopy, flying over the forest, out of range of the beast. She spotted me, and flew in my direction, flapping her wings to quickly cover the distance between us. It seemed she was unscratched from the fight before.

The bear started to give chase, running after me on its fours, but unfortunately for him I had a very good head start, having already crossed the river while he was still on the other side. I didn’t know if he was going to be able to cross the river, and I didn’t intent to stay to find out.

I could clearly see from afar that its left eye had been pierced, forcing it shut while blood was pouring out of the closed eyelid. The bear was probably very angry at this point, so I made my best to escape from it, running for dear life along the path that was now in front of me.

I ran for a few moments, not even stopping to catch my breath; and god knows I would have wanted to, because my lungs were burning from the effort I was deploying to continue forward.

My familiar was now in front of me, flying high, as if she was guiding my path.

While running, I risked taking a peek behind me to see if the bear was still following, and what I saw was very unpleasant. Not only had he already crossed the river, but he was even rapidly gaining ground.

Things were not looking good for me at all, and I redoubled my efforts to run away. However, it only served to exhaust me faster, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun the bear in the end.

Still doing my best to put as much distance between the bear and me, I suddenly had the idea to use magic. I worked my whole life to learn it, and I completely forgot to use it the moment I need it the most. I would have stopped to facepalm if my life wasn’t heavily threatened right now. Instead of this, I focused on letting out a flux of power while running, and soon enough, five red orbs of arcane energies materialised around me, following me in my course.

Once I had gathered enough energies inside the orbs, I went to a full stop, and turned to face the bear. It was still charging swiftly in my direction, and there was only a few yards left between him and me. The orbs were now emitting audible and visible sparks of energy, and were as big as my fists.

It was probably going to be my last stand, and I made sure to put as much magic as possible inside the orbs, focusing intently on saturating them. It was me, or him.

“Take that!” I said, as I pointed my finger in direction of the bear.

Following my telepathic command, the five arcane orbs suddenly went flying as fast as arrows in direction of the animal. They closed the gap in a mere second, but three of them missed the bear by a few inches, and dispersed on the ground. It seemed like the bear had sidestepped them in his course, however, the last two striked true.

The bear got severely wounded, as the presence of deep lacerations and burns on his fur and skin could attest where the two arcane missiles hit him. And it probably hurt him a lot, considering the heavy roar he let out after the impact.

However there’s one little detail about the situation that I didn’t really enjoy...

It did not stop its onslaught in the least.

If anything, the bear looked even more determined to kill me right now, his only eye reflecting all its rage toward me. He continued to charge at me at full speed seemingly unphased by the impacts he had just sustained, and unfortunately for me, he was only a mere yard away now.

I only had the time to prepare myself for the imminent impact, crossing both my arms in a defensive position in front of me, and hoped for the best.

I had to say, I wasn’t prepared at all for what happened next. I had never really experienced heavy pain, or sustained heavy damage on myself.

As the bear crashed into me, I heard, and felt my ribcage crack loudly. The pain I felt this moment stunned me for a few seconds, as I was sent flying away a few feets by the force of the impact.

Landing on my back forced the air out of my lungs, making me groan, as I tried to catch my breath. I insist on the word ‘try’, because everytime I tried to breath in, it made my lungs hurt like they were burning from the inside.

The bear didn’t stop there, and I saw him approach me. He raised on his hind legs, his intent made clear, as he was preparing to strike me with his right paw.

I knew I wasn’t going to survive this. I had to do something, to protect myself from being gored out. But I could only watch in horror, and futilely put my right arm in front of me in an attempt to mitigate the blow.

Time slowed down, as the bear’s paw was slowly, but surely, going to strike me. That would very probably be a fatal blow.

I didn’t want to be killed. Not like this. Sure, we all die someday, but I never had the chance to experience anything outside the castle by myself. Would the first time I could go out on my own also be the very last? Could it end, just like that?

Something clicked in my mind at this instant.

I couldn’t just sit there. I couldn’t just watch myself being taken away by death without doing anything. I would not let my life - all that time passed studying magic, all that time learning about the world around me - go to waste that easily.

I let my emotions drive my thoughts, and body. If I wanted to live, I had to survive this fight.

I had to come out winner of this confrontation.

What I needed most right now was protection. Drawing from my last reserves of energy, I focused it on creating a shield. It appeared just in front of my extended hand, a purple globe materialising all around myself.

The globe solidified just in time, and as the bear’s claw impacted on it, it bounced away, just like a rubber ball would do on a wall. However the protection globe I had just created was too unstable and too fresh to hold against such a mighty blow, and right after the impact, the fragile shield did what unstable magic does the best:

It exploded with a loud bang, emitting a powerful shockwave around me as the very magic it was composed of dispersed in the air. For once, that spell mechanic worked for me, instead of against me, as I don’t even count how many times I had been on the receiving side of this side effect when failing my experimentations with new spells.

The bear got cast-off a few feets by the magical outburst, and he collided with the nearest tree head-first. I slowly rose to my feet completely ignoring the massive pain I was feeling in my torso. Step after step, I closed the gap between the now-stunned bear and myself. Rage was the only thing that was present in my mind, and adrenaline was rushing through my veins, making me feel unstoppable.

He was not dead, I could tell because of his rising and falling breast. “Now, you will regret that,” I said, as I began invoking one last spell.

I continued to walk slowly toward the bear, and I put my right hand in front of me, palm-up with my fingers pointed to the sky. I should not have been able to cast that last spell in a normal situation, given the fact I had already spent way too much energy. However, something drove me to push even harder on my limits. My hand was engulfed in cracking yellow flames, and a visibly red orb appeared in the center of my palm.

“...Dodge this.”

I hurled the fireball toward the bear.

I have to say, now that I think about it, I am not very proud of what I did that moment, and I don’t want to go into details of what happened next. However, in the heat of the action, killing the bear had appeared like a mandatory step toward my survival.

In retrospect, I had stunned him, probably for a long time considering the speed at which he had collided with the tree, and I was still alive. I could have left right then. But I didn’t. My emotions and instincts drove me to kill that creature when there was no need for it. I really don’t know what had took me to do such thing that day, but it happened.

That was the first time I had killed something with the real intent of doing so. Somehow, it did not really affect me, just like if it had been something out of the ordinary. I guess the fact I wasn’t really controlling myself contributed to that.

After I had done my deed, there were only ashes remaining of my foe, and a scorched, still fuming area around it. I turned away, grinning slightly, somehow satisfied with what I had done at this moment.

I limped my way back to the dirt road, ever so slowly. I had no more resources to continue walking, and my whole body was now aching. This fight had me exhausted physically, and I had probably over-used my mental resources. Adrenaline started to fade away, and it stopped inhibiting my pain a few moments later, making it come back in full force. However, I tried to go toward the city my familiar saw earlier. I could probably rest there...

Only a few more steps, and I couldn’t hold it anymore. My legs gave in, and I collapsed on the ground, on my side. I felt mentally very empty. I just stared at the ground. I could not think about anything.

The blurry form of my familiar landed in front of me. I felt sadness coming from her, but I could not understand why. My mind was so foggy...

I stared at her, as I was losing consciousness, blurr beginning to gather in my eyes.

With one last effort of will, I told her this.

“Please, save me.”

Then, there was only darkness.

Extra 2 - Have Wings Will Travel

Out From the Shadows

Extra 2

Have Wings, Will Travel

She was standing there, in front of her dying companion, not having been able to help him during that fight. She felt him slowly drifting away, losing his consciousness. Before his mind presence completely disappeared, he told her one last thing.

“Please, save me.”

And he closed his eyes. She still felt a connection with him, so he was not dead. However, considering the pain she had felt from him while he fought the bear, the half-elf would probably die soon of his wounds if she didn’t act quickly, but what could she do?

She was an eagle. She could not attend to his wounds, like he did to her in the past when she got hurt. She was too small, and her talons did not allow her to do such things. If only she could get someone that had the ability to heal him... But there was no one around. Even though if one of those bipedal creatures - the friends of the half-elf - had been here, she could not talk to them. She could only talk with him - or other eagles by using her voice.

Trying to find a way to save him, she took off in the air, flapping her wings to gain altitude. She looked in the immediate surroundings, checking for eventual predators that could threaten her disabled companion. She scanned the road, and in between the nearby trees while drifting around in circles.

It was a relief that she spotted nothing but smaller animals, which would probably not even care about her friend. She would probably have took the time to hunt for one of those as she was hungry, but the half-elf was in danger. She could not let him stay here alone to die.

After doing a few more circles around, gliding on the air currents, she remembered that the half-elf had wanted to go to that group of buildings outside the forest.

It had looked like houses of his kind, so he was probably trying to travel there to...

When she thought about it, she did not exactly understand the motivations of the half-elf. He could have hunted and drinked for as long as he wanted in the forest, provided he was able to catch preys. Even if he didn’t, she could have hunted for him, like he had done for her sometimes.

Again, she thought about the fact that she should have warned him sooner about the bear. She had forgotten about the fact the half-elf could not flee by flying in the air like her. She should have been more thoughtful.

For now, she had to find a way to repair her mistake by saving him.

The only possibility she saw right now was to go to those buildings in the distance, and try to find a way to get the inhabitants to help the half-elf. She hopped they were not hostile, like some of the creatures were back at her home. She had to give it a try, whatsoever.

After finding an ascending air current to get some more altitude, she checked one last time around her companion to be sure he was not in danger, but there was still nothing around him for yards, except critters.

She used the altitude gained to start gliding toward the buildings, while sometimes flapping her wings to keep some momentum. She started to focus her vision on the building themselves, and the immediate surroundings. She could clearly see activity from afar, but something was... Off...

First of all, the creatures walking through the streets were... Colorful. She had never seen so much colors, except when the half-elf was doing some tricks with his ‘magic’.

Also, they were quadrupedal, and looked much like the horses she saw in the stables of her home. However, they were much smaller than what she was used to, even considering the fact she was still a few miles away. Some of them even seemed to have wings, while some others had something pointy coming out of their head.

She had never seen such creatures in her life, but it was clear those were the creature inhabiting the houses of this... City? Yes, it was the word the half-elf had used to describe his own kind’s homes regroupements.

She remembered the half-elf talking about how a city works with the help of all the natives, but it had been too complicated for her to remember. She could not understand why he liked talking about complicated things. What she knew, however, was that the creatures inhabiting cities are more friendly than those living in the forest. Maybe it worked the same for those quadrupedal creatures?

It was the only way she had to rescue the half-elf, so she had to try anyway.

A few minutes later, she landed atop one of those buildings, and she took in her surroundings. There were some of these creatures she saw before passing by on nearby roads, while the roads themselves were bordered by colorful flowers and a few trees. In the center, where the roads were crossing, there was a stone structure that was emitting water inside itself.

She remembered the half-elf describing this kind of place as a ‘park’, where he sometimes went to ‘take a walk’ to quote his own words. She did not know what was the point of that, but some of these creatures seemed to do what the half-elf often does in a ‘park’: walking aimlessly through it.

Maybe... If she could try to speak to them? Or even just draw their attention. Maybe they would understand?

She tried to imitate how the half-elf often spoke with his kind, using her voice.

“Please, anyone, my companion is dieing in the forest! I need help to save him! He may die if we don’t get to him soon!”

Well, this is what she tried to say. Obviously, it came out as inaudible screeches for the audience. There was no way she could speak the ‘Common’ language, but she tried again, as hard as she could.

“We must save him! Please, anyone, I am begging you!”

Passers-by were looking at her irritatedly. The fact that she was doing so much noise troubled the quietude of their walk.

But she didn’t care about that.

What she needed was someone to help the half-elf, and she was going to try her best to get someone to understand her. Even if that meant merely annoying some of these creatures.

She was about to make another try when one of those horse-like creatures came out from one of the nearest trees. The creature was blue, with wings that she used to fly up to in front of her. Her tail and hair were made of multiple colors interweaving with themselves in stripes.

As the creature stopped mid-air right in front of her, flapping its wings to stay at her level, the horse-like being eyed the eagle with a look both irritated and sceptical. She did not understand how she was able to read its face so easily. Maybe it was because of the very usually large eyes?

In any case, the creature began to speak, but it was not something that she could understand. She clearly could hear that there was a structure in the voice and tone used by the creature, so she assumed it was some kind of speech. But unfortunately, it was neither the Common language, nor the Elvish language that her companion had taught her, so she could not get any of what the winged creature was saying.

Even if she could not understand the sentence, she heard in the way the creature had spoken that it was not amused, probably because of her earlier squawking when attempting to make people understand her.

After finishing its sentence, the creature crossed its front hooves, and looked at her very much like if waiting for an answer, while still flapping its wings to hover in front of her.

Was it possible that this creature could understand her? Well, she was given the opportunity, to find out. She had to try.

Like she did earlier, she ‘tried’ to speak.

“My companion is dying near the entrance of the forest. We have to save him, please. It is over there,” and she finished by turning her head in direction of the forest, that could clearly be seen in the distance, over the city’s constructions.

The creature eyed her for a few more moments, and sighed, while dropping its head in defeat. It began to lazily fly away while mumbling something to itself that she could not understand. The creature soon was out of sight, disappearing in the distance behind some of the buildings.

So much for trying to get help.

It seemed these creature were not speaking any language she knew whatsoever. Well, it wasn’t like she could really speak Common herself, but at least she gave it her best squawking try.

However, that did put a serious problem in her plan to get someone to help the half-elf. If she could not speak with any of them, it meant she had to find another way to help him.

But the more she thought about it, the more she realised she had no way to save him.

Was she going to let him die, just like that? Even worse was the fact the is partly responsible for his demise. She felt something she had never felt before: remorse.

Most animals do not have to deal with this kind of emotion, but her link with the half-elf had opened her to some of the more complex thoughts and feelings, and remorse did not feel good at all.

She was sad. There probably would not be a way for her to save him. She was going to lose him, and she will have to go back to her wild life, alone. Even if she had been reluctant to join the half-elf at first, and share her life and thoughts with him, she now realized it was something wonderful.

She had learned a lot from him, and he had taken great care of her. Over the years, she had taken his companionship for granted. But now the half-elf was going to die, making all that knowledge he had given her worthless, and forcing her to live by herself again.

But, as she was thinking over the matter, she suddenly heard something she could understand.

“Hum, sorry miss eagle, but my friend here would like to take a nap but you... hum... Kind of make too much noise for her to be able to sleep, so could you please make less noise as long as you are in this park? It is supposed to be quiet for the passers-by...”

The voice she heard was sweet, and kind. She turned her head to see that the creature from before had returned, but with another one by her side. This one was yellow-colored, with a light pink hair and tail. Both of them were hovering a few feet away, flapping their wings to stay in the air.

Adding the two and two together, she knew that the one that spoke just then was probably the yellow one. She did not know why, or how, but somehow she knew the creature would be able to understand her, just like she understood what it said just before. She also knew she could trust this one, so she explained it all again, by screeching out, “My companion is dying in the forest, we have to save him, please! He is very important to me!”

The yellow creature suddenly gasped, and looked very determined, “Where is your companion exactly? We must not lose any second.”

Chapter 3 - New Perspectives

Out From the Shadows

Chapter 3

New Perspectives

Darkness was enveloping me. Comforting, securing. I felt some tingles coming from my body, but I was far too exhausted to even care about what was happening. All that mattered was that I could sleep. Rest.

Even if I had wanted to, I’m sure I could not have opened my eyes. They were closed. Unmovable. I had never pushed myself so much. I needed to take a break. To stop thinking.

I was drifting in the nether. Existing, but not quite. I don’t know how much time it went for, but it felt good nonetheless. Finally I was getting some peace, and much deserved rest. I could not even remember how I had put myself in such a state.

For some reason, I wanted an answer to this question.

I began to dig inside my memories for a moment, but every time I felt like I had grabbed something important, it disappeared a fraction second later, leaving me in complete confusion.

I tried to dig harder and harder, but it only served to break my peace of mind... Until the memory I was looking for finally sticked to my mind. The whole ordeal preceding my blackout came back to my brain, and suddenly, my thoughts became much more clear.

The scene played back in my mind, slowly, and in a kind of external point of view. It allowed me to almost take a critical eye over what had happened, and how I had reacted.

My familiar had warned me. I had been struck by fear, and I had not even tried to defend myself when I had a clear shot, and a great opportunity to cast a powerful spell to engage the bear.

Then again, I remembered how I had not even tried to use magic in the first few moments of the fight. I mentally laughed at my lack of good sense at the time as I watched myself flee.

Now was the part I started using magic, and I missed most of my arcanic missiles because I had not even took care to focus. I had not been concentrated enough on my target, probably because of panic. The mere sidestep the bear had done should not have been a problem for telepathic-controlled projectiles.

Clearly, this could have been improved if I had been more thoughtful.

The bear had me pinned down, and was now about to strike me. It would have looked like a helpless situation, but a few inches before the bear could strike me down, I had cast that shielding spell.

Strangely, the timing on the shield had been perfect. Should it had been a few moments later, it would have been too late to save me. If I had cast it a few moments before, the shield would have had time to solidify itself, and would not have exploded like it did because of its instability.

I would not have been able to hold the shield for more than two, maybe three strikes… And then? I prefer not to even imagine what would have happened to me.

Luckily for me, the shield’s shockwave was emitted outward, and thus did not affect me. However, the bear have had less luck, and got stunned right onto a tree.

And… I stopped the mental image right then. I did not want to see again what had happened after. My curiosity satisfied, my mind became blank again, and I tried to go back to get some rest…

However, I was interrupted.

“That was the first time you killed something, wasn’t it?”

I heard that voice, but clearly it was not a physical one since I was too deep asleep to even notice the sounds from the world around me. It felt very much like the way I was communicating with my familiar, so i tried to reply in the same fashion, using mind thoughts.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“How could you ask such a question to yourself? That makes no sense.”

I pounded over the matter for a few moments. Maybe that was my subconscious? Or was it the beginning of a mental disorder?

Ouch. Thinking too much was hurting, while all I wanted to do was to recover. I really had overused my mental resources, and I wanted to stop thinking. I decided to try to let things go.

“Did you enjoy it?” Again, the voice troubled the quietude of my mind.

“I don’t really get where this is going.” I said.

“Have you not felt it, when you killed the bear? The power you could have, if you just let your emotions drive you?”

As much as I disliked thinking about the fight with the bear, I decided to follow along with the voice, if only to understand what it wanted from me.

So, I went back over the last part of the events.

I had then cast the fireball spell. That one spell is very, very consuming. Now that I thought about it, there was no way I could have done this considering my low reserves at that very moment, even considering I had been threatened.

It had felt like I could have moved mountains by sheer force of will at this point.

“Yes, of course, it was very… Energizing to say the least. But…”

I shivered at the thought of what this power had led me to do.

“I do not want to have power, if I can not control what I do with it.”

Most of my first lessons with Dahrim had been about controlling magic, and not letting it control me. As a sorcerer, I should be very careful about this. However, that one episode with the bear had been a necessity. After going through such an ordeal, I am even more convinced this is not something I can let happen, except for really dire situations. Who knows what it could lead me to do.

“Think about it more thoroughly . About what you could do with such power. Until now, you were forced to live in that miserable castle. If you were to be a renown spellcaster, you would not have to stay there. You could have more than a city to yourself… Maybe, a whole... Kingdom…” the voice said in a tantalizing manner.

I gave it some thought for a while.

Yes, one of my dreams was to finally handle things by myself, going off to live somewhere else. It was also true that I would have liked to be famous, and powerful as a sorcerer. I would even like to become part of the Cowled Mages of Athkatla, an organisation made to regulate the illicit use of magic within the city, which is composed only of elite spellcasters...

...But I had to work my way to it. Becoming a good spellcaster isn’t about raw power. It is about using the right spell, at the right moment. If I was to simply let my emotions guide my steps and spells, what would be the point of all my studies?

Also, most sorcerers are known to become rogue when they completely let their emotions drive their life. They become more in tune with their instincts, and in doing so, they acquire more powers, but in turn, that makes them quite mentally unstable.

There is even a prison that is under control of the Council of Six, specially designed to retain such persons if they start threatening other people’s lives, and I don’t exactly want to end up there. It is named “Spellhold”, and for a reason. None of the mages that were imprisoned here ever got out. Well, actually there had been an exception recently, but it has been dealt with.

“As interesting as it might sound, I have already made my choice. I will not allow my emotions to control my life, and that is final.” I replied with determination.

Following my statement, there was only silence.

I had conflicting guesses about who, or what that voice had been for a few moments, but decided to just let it slide for now. Anyway, there was some rest to be had, and somewhat easily, I was able to make my mind blank again.

I went back to that state, where I was simply existing. I don’t really know how much time it went for. Maybe it was only a few seconds. Maybe whole days. I couldn’t say. But in the end, I finally felt rested enough that I could try to wake up.

The world came back to my senses, and I woke up to the sound of chatter. The first thing I felt was the fact I was laying on my back, resting on a mattress.

My ankylosed muscles greatly protested when I tried to move, so I made it slow. I moved my arms, emitting grunts of pain as I felt every fiber of the muscles tensing inside them.

Strangely, the background noise that had awaken me stopped at this moment, but I could hear some kind of clattering sound of something hard hitting on wood.

Trying to move my shoulders, I quickly realised I couldn’t. Something was constricting them, and the sensation prolongated to my whole torso.

I slowly opened my eyes to try to understand what was going on, and at first, I could only discern a blurry violet form. I blinked a few times to get rid of the excessive moisture in my eyes, and when I could focus my vision, I could see two huge purple eyes were staring at me.

Being the first thing I saw as I woke up, that was terrifying.

I felt fear beginning to spread in my entire body. Even though I also felt a distant feeling promising me security, I couldn’t help it.

So I did the manliest thing I could do to defend myself against this soul-piercing gaze.

I fainted.

…

It seems that this happens way too much lately...

[...]

When I woke up again, it was the morning.

As I opened my eyes for the second time now, I was met with a peculiar view.

First, I noticed I was in a bed, with a blanket made of a tanned skin.

I was in a small alcove, and the room was not lit, but the morning sunlight flowing from a small window to my left was enough for me to analyze my surroundings. There was no glass covering the window, and the only indication it was meant to be a window, as opposed to a hole in the structure, was the presence of two wood sticks held together with a small rope at the center of the hole.

The whole structure itself looked like it was made out of wood, but strangely enough, I could not make out any separations in the wood material of the wall. It looked like it was made as a whole, without planks whatsoever. I found it odd, but guessed it was some kind of trick of a very good cabinet-maker. There were also a few branches coming out of some walls and ceiling, with some small leaves at the end of each.

In the only room composing the structure I was in, I could see a lot of different colored vials, either suspended with cords to the quite-low ceiling, or laying in some of the few shelves. Along with those, there was a wide array of alchemical reagents, ranging from flowers to minerals, and all that was completed with a few books.

There was not much as a decor, but it was still noteworthy. There were a few masks hanging off the walls, or on the ground, held balanced against said walls.

The masks, made of wood too, looked very elongated and were probably not meant for wearing. It reminded me of an ancient subculture of the human race, that used to live in the Chult isle, in the south-west of Faerûn.

Maybe that could be a start as to find where I was…?

Well I sure hope it doesn’t mean I am actually in Chult right now, because that is a very long way from Amn. I think, it’s actually as far as you can get from here. Also that jungle-ridden island is not exactly known to be a welcoming and peaceful place.

Anyway, completing the scenery, I could see a worktable against one of the walls, manifestly used for alchemical needs as could attest the many colored stains on it, and in the very center of the room was a cauldron atop now put-out coals.

And, last, but not the least, there was… A zebra… Or something that looks partially like one.

It was laying on the only carpet of the building, apparently sleeping, as its steady breathing and closed eyes could attest.

First I noticed an intricate pattern on its flank that was made out the black-and-white stripes of the animal’s fur, but that was only one of the things really standing out about it.

Its… hair… was shaped as a mohawk. The eyelids of the zebra were quite huge compared to what I was expecting for an equine, and its face overall looked like it had been flattened. Also, the animal was quite smaller overall than an normal zebra.

The strangeness did not stop there, as it had a few gold rings stacked around one of its leg, and neck, and adding to the already very weird picture, it was wearing two matching golden earring.

Who the hell takes a zebra as a companion animal, and lets it live in his own house?

I was not given the time to think things through, that I heard this:

“Half-elf, you are finally awake!”

I identified the voice as coming from my familiar, and it also gave to my senses a rough approximation of its position, and instinctively, I turned my head to look there.

And there she was, right above me, perched on one of the hanging branches of the structure.

Manifestly, I could feel she was happy to see me, and I would lie if I’d say it was not mutual.

Seeing she was still here began to reassure me of my current situation. If she had been able to stay at my side while I was passed out, chances are I was probably being taken care of by someone else.

This was further confirmed when I tried to move, and finally could see that what was constricting me before were in fact bandages running around my whole torso, and secured on my left shoulder.

I could only assume that whoever is the owner of this house, he had probably saved me.

That is when I noticed I was kind of naked under the blanked. I almost got obfuscated by this fact, but it kind of made sense considering the bruises I had received from the bear. You can’t really apply bandages to someone who is clothed.

Speaking of clothes, I noticed my robes were hanging on one of the wall of the alcove, on my right., and the fact my coinpurse was still hanging off of it further confirmed the fact that my caretaker had no ill intents toward me. The robes had suffered slightly from the episode, but they still looked wearable if you disregarded the few stains on the fabric.

I adjusted myself, painfully moving to rest my back on the bed frame. My torso was still hurting, but not as much as before. The fact my movements were limited by the bandages did not really help either, but at least it probably helped with the healing.

“What happened exactly since the fight with the bear?” I asked my familiar, trying to understand exactly my situation.

“You were not moving, just like if sleeping. So I went to the nearest city which is the one we were going to. I tried to get help but no one could understand me. In the end, I found someone that could, and I brought them back with me to save you.”

That explained a lot of things. She had probably met a druid and that meant I had probably got quite some luck, because druids aren’t exactly known to live in cities, or even small towns. They prefer the companionship of other druids, and nature itself. But of course, sometimes they will eventually visit a city for business reasons, but most of them will try to make their journey as short as possible, as they are not comfortable in civilised parts of the world.

At least, their ability to communicate with animals really saved me here. Frankly, I was really surprised to be still alive by that point.

“They had difficulties to carry you, so they moved you to the nearest…” She interrupted herself to think for a few seconds.

“‘house’ I think you call it?”

I mentally acquiesced her choice of word, and invited her to continue her explanation.

“So, they put you in here, and the yellow creature told me that I could stay at her home while she healed you, but I did not want to. I wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to you.”

I mentally noted the use of ‘yellow creature’, but decided to ask her about it when she would be finished with the relation. I did not want to disturb her, since it is quite hard for an animal to do such an explanation of past events. Wild animals mostly live in the present, and rarely store up informations of the past. Of course, my familiar was not a wild animal anymore, but she’s still an animal.

“Then for... a few days...? The yellow creature and her friends kept coming to see you. The yellow one is very kind. Everytime she came, she brought food and water so I did not have hunt for it. She did not bring me meat, but at least I had something to eat, and I could stay here.

Sometimes the black and white one would bring you some food, but most of the time she is either absent or doing things on that table over there.”

She mentally indicated the worktable I had noticed before. I also noted the fact she used the word “doing things”, which is the exact word she uses for when I am working on magic, or reading.

Well, to her, this is basically an abbreviated version of “doing nothing useful while sitting in a chair”, so I could only assume the owner of this house is an alchemist of some sort, if the tools on the worktable and the reagents present everywhere in the house itself are anything to go by.

Now the question is, why does she keep calling them using a color, followed by the word “creature”? She is supposed to know how to recognize humans at least. Basically, she calls anything that is humanoid a “human”. She only calls me “half-elf” because one day, I had told her I was one, and since she insists that names can not be used to describe living beings, she calls me by my race ever since I told her, instead of calling me “Cynder”.

Anyway, that piqued my curiosity, so I asked her.

“Why do you keep calling them ‘yellow’ or ‘black and white’ creatures?”

She thought about it for a while before answering.

“I am not sure what they are.”

After pondering over the matter for a while, I asked:

“Your call them by their color, is that because of their clothing?”

“It’s not clothes,” she answered. “It is their skin and fur color”.

Wait… Fur and skin?

While reflecting on the matter, I thoughtlessly let my eyes wander in the room I was in. What kind of creature could have yellow or black and white fur? And of course, after a few seconds of staring at the face of the answer, it finally clicked in my mind... Black and white fur and skin…

“Do you mean that zebra over there?” I asked, as I mentally indicated said creature to my familiar.

“If that is how you call that creature, then yes, that ‘zebra’ is the black-and-white-furred creature I was talking about.”

… Really?

“Do you mean, that this creature,” I insisted on the mental image of the zebra, “is the one that fed me for days, and is the one that is… ‘doing things’ on that table over there?”

“Yes. Why are you being so insistent over that fact, half-elf?”

Alright, so either I was in front of a very well trained zebra, which is probably in that case a familiar of a very good spellcaster, or this being is actually sentient. And the fact my familiar never ever talked about a humanoid being in her story kind of makes the second possibility the only explanation.

“Can you confirm me that you have never seen a human here?”

“As you have the habit to say… I am ‘a hundred percent’ sure.”

I felt she was amused to use one of my expressions, while I only felt confusion about the whole situation. Never in my life had I heard about a zebra tribe being sentient. The only few creatures that are indeed sentient are most of the humanoid races, or a few magical-blessed creatures, such as unicorns, and a few others, including those coming from outer planes. And zebras are not part of those.

Well, since it is morning, I should work on getting up. I’ll probably have a chance to see if this zebra is indeed sentient anyway.

Executing myself, I slowly got out of the bed. I winced at every muscle movement, because of the fact they still were ankylosed. However, I managed to get up, and dress myself, even if I had to support myself on the nearest wall due to relative weakness.

Now that I was nearly standing, I noticed the ceiling was somewhat low. I would probably almost touch it with my head if I was to stand on the tip of my toes.

Slowly, I began doing a few steps with no help from the nearest wall, making sure I could still walk, and indeed, I could now stand on my own.

At least I was not going to be crippled for too long.

Suddenly, my familiar jumped on my right shoulder. It kind of surprised me, and the abrupt addition of weight almost threw me off balance, but I held good. Then, she rubbed her head on my cheek - her way of signifying me her affection. She sure was happy to see me again, and so was I, so I gratified her with a few scratches on her head with my hand.

It seems this scene was witnessed by someone else, because as I focused my attention back to the room, I saw that the zebra had awaken, and was now staring at both of us silently.

As I noticed this, I started speaking, while being a bit startled for not noticing this before.

“Oh, Hum… Hello? From what I can understand, you are the one who saved me? If so, you have my thanks for what you have done, and my eternal gratitude,” I said, while making a slight bowing gesture, further emphasized by a movement of my right hand. I could not exactly bow down too much with an eagle on my shoulder, and considering my actual condition.

It seems my gesture was not lost on the animal, as it responded with what I could only interpret as a bow - it knelt on one of its forelegs while lowering its head. However, as it did that, it seems the zebra made some noises with its mouth.

Upon further analysis, it was probably some kind of speech, but which I could not understand. There was some kind of structure in the sounds it made but none that I could recognise as words, or dialects I know of.

Since there was already enough signs pointing to the fact this creature was probably sentient. I decided to try to establish some kind of communication with it, and the first idea that I thought of was to use a tongues spell.

Basically, this is a divination spell that is used to allow one to speak, and understand any language, as long as it uses structured sentences. Of course, it normally can not be used to understand animals, as they only use cries instead of speech, but sentient animals? Might as well give it a try.

Of course, it can not be used to learn the language itself, since the spell directly translates the speaker’s language to something understandable by the person the caster focuses on ( also, anybody else who understands this language can hear and understand it too ).

This is a very simple spell I learned for the first time when some of my father’s family visited us at the castle. Of course, I had not learned the Elvish language, because Common was the most widespread one in Amn, but at least, I did not dishonor them, because they thought I had learned it when I used this spell.

After focusing on myself a few seconds to channel the necessary magical flux to activate the spell, I tried again to speak with the zebra.

“Hello…? Can you understand me now?” I asked, a bit impatient to see if the animal could answer.

And the answer did not take long to arrive. The zebra opened its muzzle for the second time, but instead of unintelligible rambles, I heard this:

“Ah, I see that you can speak just as I do, now was that magic or some kind of voodoo?”

I had to say, I was really not expecting for this to work. Its voice sounded very much like what I would have expected from a native of Chult, with an unmistakable accent consisting of mostly basses, but yet clearly understandable and audible.

As such, I was most obliged to answer the creature’s question.

“Yes, as it seems our languages were not the same, I am holding a spell allowing me to understand and speak to you… So, as I said before, I would like to thank your for rescuing me and taking care of me and my familiar while I was unconscious. If there is anything I can do to repay you, then I would be much obliged.”

The zebra shook its head. “That won’t be necessary, as it is only natural to help others who are in danger. Also you should be wary, as I was not the only one that acted to help you stranger.”

Was the rhyming made on purpose? I could blame luck the first time, but twice in a row... Well, it seems the creature was not obfuscated that I don’t do it, so I guess I can continue that way.

“Then I am forever in debt of you and your friends. May I know who you are, and maybe the names of those who saved me?

“I go by the name of Zecora, and as you can guess, I am a zebra. I am not from this area, but my friends are ponies that are indeed from Equestria.”

Well, at least I can now use a name to describe this creature. Also, if voice tones are anything close to humans’, I’d say she is a female. However, I better not try my luck and risk looking disrespectful. I will simply address her as Zecora for now.

Also I am now convinced the rhyming was not random chance. And so,she went on with the next sentence.

Wait did I just…?

“While only two of them actually participated in your saving, they are a group of six friends which are quite interested to know how you will be behaving.”

So far, I have collected a few valuable informations from this conversation.

I am not in Chult, but in ‘Equestria’, wherever that is. What puzzles me is that I have studied maps of Faerûn for quite a long time, but never heard about such a place. Well, it kind of makes sense, because I also never heard about sentient zebras or ponies.

Chances are, I am either in an unexplored part of Faerûn… Or a totally different realm… Or even plane, as far as I can tell, because I think by today’s standards, we would have explored enough of the world to know about an area ruled by seemingly sentient equines creatures. However, Zecora did not stop there in her rhyming frenzy.

“Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are the ones who helped you. These are the ones you should seek out to say ‘Thank you’ to.”

Zecora moved around the cauldron, and indicated the ground with her right hoof in an invitational manner.

“Now while you present yourself, maybe we could eat? I am interested and curious to hear more about you, so please take a seat.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash? What kind of names are those? Well, anyway, I noted them in a corner of my mind for later. And I also just remembered I did not present myself to my host. Where did manners go?

“My name is Cynder, son of Eruadan, who is the landlord of the de’Arnise castle, in Amn. I am a half-elf, which is basically a being born after the union of a human and an elf. And so, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Zecora.”

I bowed down again like before, and she returned the gesture.

“I am also pleased to meet you. By the way, I hope you don’t mind eating stew.”

So, Zecora invited me to share her food, and in my current state, it would have been unwise to refuse. I did not have any other choice but to sit near the cauldron with her. It was somehow uncomfortable to sit on the plain ground, but I managed, and did so without complaining. As a guest, I did not want to be seen as ungrateful.

Zecora took care of lighting up the fire under the cauldron, and to my surprise, she did that very easily considering she only used her mouth and hooves to hold and manipulate the tools of the trade.

Also, I only now noticed that I was hungry. The fact that I had just woke up probably was the factor that had inhibited my senses.

The preparation of the food did not take too long, but it allowed the two of us to chat idly about one another. I learned, to my dismay, that humans or any human-like creatures have not yet been in Equus, making me the first of the genre to set foot in here.

She also told me that it attracted the curiosity of Fluttershy’s and Rainbow Dash’s friends, who visited us once while I was unconscious. I guess those were the friends she had mentioned before. I kind of hate being put under the projectors but I can understand their interest. I’d probably have the same reaction if a new unknown specie suddenly arrived in my homeland.

While I ate in company of Zecora what was probably a vegetables stew by the scent of it, ( but I did not ask by fear of being rude, ) I explained that my presence here was merely a mistake of my own. In between sips of a bowl of her preparation, I related the events from the portal creation up to my confrontation with the bear.

It seems the fact that I could use magic got her curious, but I carefully left off the part where I killed the bear in my tale, instead saying I simply left him stunned behind me when I walked away. Since I am not exactly sure about the relations in-between other animals, I could only assume others animals are sentient too, and that they can eventually share bonds. However it seems she did not care much about the fate of the bear.

“So if I am not mistaken, this eagle you have here is protecting you? That is quite a loyalty token, because even when passed out it always stayed near you.”

Zecora’s words reminded me of something, so I addressed to my familiar.

“Now that I think of it, I did not really properly thank you for helping me. You played a big role in my saving, so I’ll make sure that you get properly rewarded for being such an awesome companion when we get back home.”

I felt she was proud of this, but there was another feeling mixed in I didn’t quite really identify. However I continued my conversation with Zecora in the meantime.

“Yes, this is my familiar, but I am quite as much hers as she is mine. Wild animals can share their friendship, but never do they acknowledge they belong to someone.”

I did not explain the empathic bond we shared for now, because it would be a lot to tell, and maybe quite strange to understand, so I did not pass over those details yet. I will probably explain them another time maybe.

After my relation was finished, she told me in return the basics of the land I just got in. By this point, we had almost finished our breakfast.

It seemed that this region was populated by sentient equine races. The three main ones being Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi. She also stated that there were much more than these outside of Equestria, such as Griffins, of course Zebras, and a few other creatures.

I felt like this bestiary was coming right from the top list of the rarest creatures I ever heard of, but at least, I now know why there was a symbolic unicorn-pegasus-thing in the castle I was in at my arrival.

The difference between the three first races were quite… Obvious.

Pegasi could fly, simply by using their wings, while Unicorns could use magic. Earth Ponies if I understand correctly, simply have more endurance strength than their counterparts.

Actually, I don’t really get why Unicorns are the only ones to be able to use magic. Throughout history, it has been proven that even those who are not gifted with magic at birth can train and eventually become spellcasters, and sometimes even be better at it than sorcerers.

Of course being born as a sorcerer as I am can help a lot, but Zecora clearly explained to me that only Unicorns can use it, which I find quite odd.

Well, who am I to even question the functions of a land I am not even from?

As I questioned her, Zecora told me more about the Zebra tribe.

“My homeland, from the world we live in, is clearly withdrew. But using the most of our resources is the field in which all other races we outdo. From ointments to potions, we can craft them all. We only need a few ingredients to make them functional.”

So, basically, she told me the reason why Zebras are alchemists. They live in a land where their resources are quite limited. Doing the most with the less is kind of the only option here.

This new land was getting most of my curiosity, and I tried to press a few more questions about it. However, I could not get any more details, as our breakfast was now done, and it seems Zecora had to take her leave.

“Now please excuse me, but I will see you in a few hours. Someone needs my care and her illness can be cured by these flowers,” she said, as she equipped herself with saddlebags, and threw some elegant eerie-pink and white flowers in one of said bags. She also began to charge herself with a few others materials.

“Maybe when I come back, you could tell me more about you. Unless if you consider talking about your species as a taboo.”

I nodded at her question. She shared quite a bit of her history with me, so there is no reason I would not do the same. “I would be glad to present you my culture, and the functioning of my land too. Whenever you come back from whatever you have to do.”

Only after I had said this sentence had I noticed it rhymed. Funny, how her way how speaking seemed to affect me.

She smiled at me while suggesting, “You may stay here to recover. Just make sure to keep warm under your covers.”

While the prospect of being alone in her house for some time was not so bad, staying in bed did not seem like an interesting activity, so I asked “Do you mind if I visit the nearby town you mentioned? I wish to know more about this land, and walking around a bit would help to make sure I am still okay, rather than staying in bed all day.”

Zecora stopped her affairings to look straight at me, and worry could be clearly seen in her eyes.

“You should maybe not visit them that early, for they might not take your presence kindly. They might not do something to harm you directly, but they will hide from your presence like they first did with me.”

She sighed, and looked on the ground for a moment before continuing.

“Even if you go now, you will probably find no one to talk to. They will avoid you like the plague, that I can relate to.”

I thought about it for a moment, but Zecora moved to the door and and opened it. She was about to leave, but she turned around to say something before actually going.

“If you wish, tomorrow I can make some of my friends introduce you to their city. The townsfolk might be easily frightened, but they will accept you if you come with a committee.”

I crossed my arms while pondering over the question.

Well, if that was the only way, I guess I’ll take her up on the offer. There is no reason to cause a panic just by going in as a complete stranger.

… Oh god I did it again, even when thinking now… Her speech is infectious I swear.

“That would be most appreciated. I might go take a walk at some point anyhow, but I will avoid the city then. Thank you for your offering though, I would be very interested to see the townsfolk, and even maybe even meet those who saved me.”

“Then I shall now go out. I should be back before Celestia’s star could be put-out. My advice is that you should stay here and rest, but as you suggested walking for a bit for your health, would be best.”

And with that, she left, closing the door behind her.

Now that I thought about it, what exactly was ‘Celestia’s star’...?

“I have no idea, half-elf.”

Extra 3 - A New Soul Arrives

Out From the Shadows

Extra 3

A New Soul Arrives!

“Its state is now stable, and its wounds are healing. Now we simply need to wait for when it will stop sleeping.” Zecora pronounced her diagnostic to her public, composed of six ponies.

Just as she finished this sentence, a high-pitched voice could suddenly be heard.

“Weeeeeeee, this means I can make a get-better-after-near-death but-not-so-quite-dead party!” Pinkie Pie said, as she bursted cheerfully in the air, somehow making confetis appear in the process, and staying mid-air for probably longer than gravity would normally allow anybody else. Her outburst almost made her hit the ceiling of Zecora’s house.

Rarity rolled her eyes at her friend’s demeanor, judging it exasperating, while most other ponies continued to discuss amongst themselves over the matter, as if nothing had just happened.

A sigh of relief could be heard. “So… Does that mean it will live?” Asked a very shy voice. “Or does it still need care?”

Zecora nodded at Fluttershy’s question, and explained, “Its wounds are closed, and are healing quite nice. We will only need to change its bandages once or twice.”

Fluttershy made a sigh of relief, before taking out a few things out of the saddlebags she was carrying, namely a small sack filled with grains, as well as a water pouch.

Apparently oblivious to the conversation, Twilight Sparkle was asit near a quite strange creature. She seemed fascinated by it, even though it was simply laying in Zecora’s bed, deep asleep.

While scribbling on a parchment, using magic to keep both the scroll and a quill levitating in the air, she kept staring at the odd creature as she was silently focusing on taking notes over every detail she could add in her notes.

Fluttershy went near her, but her interest didn’t go in the same direction as the unicorn’s. She looked up, toward a brown eagle, perched in one of the branches of the alcove, just above the strange creature Twilight was taking notes on.

A sincere smile appeared on Fluttershy’s face, as she said, “Hello sweet bird. Here is your meal for today. Don’t eat it all now or you might not get enough to last for until tomorrow.”

She deposited a hoof-full of grains for the eagle to eat in a makeshift birdtable that Applejack had took care to fixate at the eagle’s level, allowing Fluttershy to put both food and water.

“You still do not want to come over at my house? You would be more comfortable you know…” She asked to the eagle. “Also, there would be others animals you could make friends with while you wait for your companion to get better.”

The eagle responded, though only Fluttershy could understand what it said, sounding more or less like bird screeches for anypony else present. “This half-elf is important to me. I will not leave his side until I am sure he gets better.”

Fluttershy simply nodded and said, “It is alright, I can understand.” Though she was a bit sad that the eagle would still refuse her offer, she also knew that it was very attached to this… Strange creature in the bed.

Well, looking back in the past events, it was that eagle who came to signal that the creature was in danger, so she knew there is probably some kind of relation between the two. Though she didn’t know how they were related exactly.

Fluttershy knew eagles were not known to care about the well-being of others, and especially in the Everfree forest where they actually hunt some creatures down to eat instead. She had shivers in her back just by thinking about that.

“Ah’ve never seen something like that in mah life, but Ah ‘spose that there are things Ah can’t always know ‘bout,” observed Applejack.

“Pfft,” made Rainbow Dash while looking at the farm-pony. “It’s not like you ever hardly leave your barn and its surroundings,” she said, as she crossed her front hooves, resting herself in the only chair available in the house, near the chemistry table of Zecora.

“Is that ah challenge you’re proposing to me?!” countered Applejack, frowning at Rainbow Dash while approaching her menacingly. “Ah bet ah can leave my farm an’ even travel more than you could with your wings,” she said, defiance in her voice as she was now inches away from her rival’s face.

Rainbow Dash countered by also approaching her face from Applejack’s in a resistant manner. “And I bet I would leave you in the dust in the first few seconds.”

“Girls! Please, behave. We are guests here, and we have a… special someone. It is no time for one of your meaningless squabble,” said Rarity as she approached the two, using her front hooves to gently push them away from each other, showing a forced compassionate smile.

As she noticed the content of the table near the two, she also added, “And it would not be wise to… Put even more at mess this table than it already is.”

After being separated, the two quarrelsome ponies seemed to agree at the same time to face away from each other, in an haughty ignoring gesture. Applejack mumbled something barely audible about a possible interaction between her hooves and Rainbow Dash’s wings, but no one in the room seemed to have caught on her speech.

“Hum… Zecora? We have been attending to this creature for two days now. Did you have any luck finding information about it?” Fluttershy asked in an almost inaudible voice.

Zecora could only shake her head at the question. “Through all my books and knowledge this creature seems to be absent, but judging by the fact we found it with clothes it looks like it is sentient.”

Twilight Sparkle absent-mindedly noded to Zecora’s words while still focusing on her task. She also said, “I think it is also a civilised creature if we judge by the fact it had a money purse filled with a few gold coins. I took the liberty to take one of the coins to analyse it when we arrived, and as I suspected, it is very much like our own bits. The coin weighs almost exactly as much as ours, but I haven’t been able to test the fineness of it yet. Of course the major difference being that it is stamped with a symbol I have absolutely no idea of where it comes from.”

She also added, “Oh… This is so fascinating…”

As she was still scribbling furiously through her 5th scroll, Twilight Sparkle heard something peculiar that caused her to stop focusing on it.

“Ugh…”

She turned her gaze at the bedridden creature, and surely, it was slightly shifting, and a few sounds were coming from it as it struggled to wake up.

“Girls…?” asked Twilight. Sadly, she was not heard over.

Her friends did not notice what was going on at all, still going through their own conversations, or ignorations for the two rival friends. So she made sure they realised what was up.

“Uh… Girls!” Twilight Sparkle said out loud. Her hesitating and worried voice made the group of ponies and the zebra instantly stop what they were doing. Except for one pink pony.

“...And then I told him,” she began, and made a loud gasp before going on “‘ I think it's high time you went shopping for a better exc...’ Oh…” She said, realising with a slight delay what was happening.

All eyes were now focused on the unknown creature, as it was shifting in the bed. Tension was building up, as nobody knew what was to expect from it. Was it going to be aggressive? Was it going to be thankful?

After a few seconds, the creature rolled to its side, and slowly opened its eyes, right in front of Twilight Sparkle. The creature’s gaze was locked upon the purple unicorn. The later was feeling a mixture of fear, and great interest in what was going to happen. She wanted to know more about this yet-unknown creature and so she kept staring back, trying not to miss any valuable information about its imminent reaction.

The creature blinked a few times, its look full of confusion and... fear? After a time of a few seconds, which was felt more like an eternity to the ponies and zebra as they were holding their breath, the creature just went back to an unconscious state with one last long-drawn and heavy sigh.

“...”

Everypony and zebra were quite disappointed, as they have had high expectations to what was going to happen. Even Twilight Sparkle released the breath she was holding and said, “That’s it? I was really hoping for some kind of reaction, not for it to just… faint right here.”

Known only to Fluttershy, the eagle said something,“The half-elf was shocked because he saw that creature staring back at him as he woke up. However he is still very tired. He was awaken because of noise. He has retired in its sleeping state again.”

Curious, Fluttershy asked “How do you know that…? Hum, if you don’t mind telling me that is.”

Not missing that there was an exchange between the two, Rarity asked to her friend, “Your conversation with the eagle seems interesting, darling. Could you please share it with us?” She did that in a very persuasive tone.

“I will once I am finished talking to it, just a second,” she replied as the eagle was giving her answer after a few seconds of reflection.

“I am bound to him just as he is to me. I can feel what happens to this half-elf just like if I was him.”

“Uh… How did you get… ‘bound’ to this creature then?”

“... I don’t know. As far as I remember I always have been.”

Fluttershy turned to her friends and explained what she had just talked about with the eagle. Of course the first one to react was Twilight Sparkle, writing down everything that Fluttershy reported, notably that the eagle called this creature a ‘half-elf’.

However, Zecora spoke up, “If what this eagle says is true, we may have woke up this creature with our presence. It still needs to rest for it to finish its convalescence.”

“Ah think we should go out for now. Nuthin’ better than letting it rest for its bruises to heal up nice! It would be best that Zecora call us up when the creature’s up and walkin’.”

Pinkie Pie trotted up to the creature’s bed and poked it in its arm. “Are you sure it is not just trying to avoid my party?” She asked, with an expression clearly thinking that the creature was guilty of such crime.

As the third hoof-poke struck the creature, Twilight Sparkle used her magic, a purple aura enveloped her horn and a similar aura appeared on Pinkie Pie’s hoof to prevent her from poking the creature again.

“Pinkie…” she began, her voice slightly irritated. “This… ‘half-elf’ is clearly not in a state where it can wake up, and I don’t think it even knows that you plan on giving it a party.” She also gave a side glance at the creature to make sure it had not been awaken again.

After making sure it was not the case, she released Pinkie from her grasp. She added, “Also, I think we have to know more about this creature if we want to eventually have interactions with it in the first place. A party is clearly not in the priority list. We have to try communicating with it first. We have to make sure it is not hostile.”

“Awww…” was the only thing Pinkie Pie muttered before slowly walking away towards the door, her head down in disappointment.

“Thank you for inviting us over Zecora. Next time, we should do a meeting at the Carousel Boutique. You will be most welcome,” Rarity proposed, as she went through the door. She was soon followed by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.

Twilight Sparkle was busy ordering her scrolls and putting them in a saddlebag she wore to carry them, but soon followed her friends, with a good-bye addressed to Zecora.

Before going out, Fluttershy said, “Oh… I will come back tomorrow as usual to bring food for the eagle… Is that ok with you?”

Zecora simply nodded, and said, “Farewell my friends. I will not miss to inform you when its sleep ends,” Zecora said to all other ponies.

As they all walked away from Zecora’s house, chatting together about these recent events, Rainbow Dash suddenly said,

“Hey, Applejack!”

As the farm-pony turned to face Rainbow Dash, she heard, “First to Ponyville’s town hall wins!”

And with that, Rainbow Dash suddenly flew away toward the city at incredible speed. Applejack didn’t miss a beat, as she started sprinting to catch up on the very short head start her rival had taken.

The remaining ponies rolled their eyes, or had similar reactions, except for Pinkie Pie, who started bouncing up and down in a playful manner.

“Oh! Oh! Can I play too?! What do we win?” she asked, oblivious to the fact the two competing friends were already long out of earshot.

“I do not think there is anything to win but pride in this race…” said Twilight Sparkle, as the group continued to trot away . However that didn’t stop Pinkie from jovially jumping up and down.

Rarity made a half-smile, and said, “I do not know if you noticed my dear Twilight, but this creature had a few vestments of its own when Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash found it. I had time to see how it seemed to have been made perfectly for the creature to wear them.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded, and added. “Yes, I have written it down right there. Strangely enough, the fabric itself seemed to emanate some sort of warmth, even though the temperature at Zecora’s was clearly quite normal…”

She thought over the matter for a few more seconds. “I guess I wouldn’t even have noticed if it wasn’t for you Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash telling me. You were the ones who carried the creature back to Zecora’s home.”

Fluttershy emitted a small approbation sound. “Well… The creature was quite heavy… Even with Rainbow Dash, it would have been hard to carry it all the way to my cottage. Zecora’s house was only a few meters away… But even then the fabric felt oddly warm, yes.”

“By the way,” began Twilight, “Fluttershy, do you mind if I ask you to provide me with information whenever the eagle says something about the ‘half-elf’? It seems to know a bit about this creature, and any detail could prove valuable in this research.”

It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to give an answer, “Of course Twilight. I will even try to have a conversation with it tomorrow, if it can help you.”

Twilight nuzzled Fluttershy as they continued to walk, “Thank you, I knew I could count on you.”

The group of ponies separated as they arrived near Ponyville. Fluttershy went to her cottage, while Rarity and Pinkie Pie went to their respective homes.

As she arrived at her library, Twilight Sparkle was levitating the coin she had borrowed from the creature in front of her, staring intently at the stamp present on the heads of the gold coin.

She did not stop looking at it as she opened the door to her library using her magic, and made a beeline to her basement.

“Spike! I will need you to take care of the library for a few hours, I need to do some experiments down there.”

Twilight Sparkle couldn’t see Spike’s reaction as she was already going downstairs. The baby dragon was a bit taken aback by the sudden order, while he was rummaging through the library. However, he did not object, and did as he was told, putting her behavior on another of her obsessional phases.

However, he told himself to at least go see what has gotten into her this time, if only to make sure she doesn’t go… unstable… again.

Chapter 4 - The Great Illusion

Out From the Shadows

Chapter 4

The Great Illusion

Time sure flew by awesomely slowly.

Since Zecora had departed, it had only been about an hour, but I still couldn’t make up my mind about what I should do.

I thought about either taking a walk, staying at a safe distance from the city that was nearby, or trying my luck by going in it with a bit of magic of my own, to disguise myself as one of the natives.

Going back and forth in the zebra’s house, I went over the question over and over again.

Learning more about an unknown species?

As interesting as this prospect might be, there’s a chance I may get caught. Even if Zecora told me the ‘ponies’ living in the city may not try to harm me, I’m not exactly sure what would be their reaction if they suddenly noticed I was trying to hide amongst them. Do they have some kind of anti-caster guard unit? Even if a normal city-guard squad was to arrest me, I’d probably have a hard time explaining my presence here, and I’d probably get questioned a lot.

But…

On the other side, I am getting the chance of a lifetime, having the possibility to learn about a somewhat civilised species, yet most probably unknown to Faerûn. Maybe I could even write a whole book about all this, and then… I’ll become famous, the first explorer to have discovered another…

...Another…

… I’m still not even sure exactly how to call the separation between Faerûn and here.

I think I’ll settle with the word “world” for now, in absence of proof that this land exists on Faerûn. I mean, there are a lot of exotic places, and even strange planes of existences, but all of them are at least quite heavily documented, and I think I’ve already gone reading through all of them a dozen times.

This one… I’ve never heard of.

“You have not moved for a few days, and now you keep ‘taking a walk’ inside this tree. I don’t understand how your specie work, half-elf.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, and raised an eyebrow at my familiar, which was now perched on one of the hanging branches of the structure I was in — apparently my caretaker’s house.

“What do you mean ‘inside a tree’? This is a house, actually.”

She shook her head, which seemed too human-like for an eagle.

“To me, this is a tree.”

As she said this, she sent me the mental image of a large tree, which was isolated in a small glade inside a forest. I didn’t really understood what she was trying to explain to me.

“Well, of course this a tree, what are you…”

I have to admit, I had overlooked the details of what she was trying to show me, but as I focused a little bit more on the larger tree of the image, I realised it had a door… And holes made to look like windows, and I instantly recognised the pattern.

“Wait… You mean this house is actually carved within a tree?”

I did not really give her the chance to answer, as I made a run for the door, and went outside, making some distance between the building and me to see it whole.

While I acted on an impulse, I quickly regretted suddenly running out like that because pain shot through my legs and chest, reminding me that I should not strain myself after what had happened.

After taking a brief pause to recover, I continued my initial train of thoughts, taking in the picture of my host’s house with my own eyes.

As much as I thought this unbelievable, I couldn’t really argue with the fact that I was in front of a house made out of a tree, standing there in the middle of a clearing. Or was it a tree-shaped-house?

Even if the clearing and the tree itself had a gloomy sense to them, I stood in awe in front of the structure. The performance was impressive.

I was soon followed by my familiar who flew out of the door, and came to perch herself on my shoulder.

“I don’t get why this is so special to you, half-elf. It’s just a tree… And there happens to be someone living in it. Most of my specie also live on or around trees.”

I didn’t really press on further, because it would be hard to explain why this structure defied the laws of nature, if only because a carved-out tree should wither and die in only a few weeks, whereas this house is clearly inhabited since more time than that.

“Yes, you’re probably right.”

Putting this matter aside, I however noted I should ask my host about that. I wanted to know exactly how this could be possible.

Now that I was outside I noticed that the beaten path to my host’s house led to another larger, and cleaner one, which itself led in and out of the forest.

Even if the glade surrounding Zecora’s place was a bit dark, it seemed to brighten when looking at the entrance of the forest, while on the contrary seemed to darken when looking through the path leading deeper into the woods.

It seemed there was nobody in the immediate surroundings, and I allowed myself a bit of respite. I breathed deeply, taking in some much-needed fresh air. I rarely felt more alive than at this very moment, even when considering my currently wounded state.

I also noticed that the earth was a bit muddy. It had probably rained recently, but for now the sun was shining high into the sky, with barely any clouds in sight. This already nice setup was added a perfect touch as a slight breeze ruffled through the nearby trees, making their leaves rustle as it passed.

Staring through the forest’s edge, I could make out a few buildings from afar, which probably were from the city Zecora had described to me, ‘Ponyville’ if I remembered correctly.

It was quite the change in architecture though. It seemed my host lived like an hermit inside a tree, whereas the city’s buildings in the distance were clearly made out of more strong materials like stone, or their equivalent, with a modern design. With such a distance, I couldn’t really be sure about such details, however.

Now just seeing that from afar piqued my curiosity. I decided to at least get some information about the city.

“Do you mind if I ask you to visit that city for me? I want to see it closer. Having an aerial sight of it could help me understand what kind of civilisation level they have.” I asked to my familiar.

“Oh, you have no idea how I missed flying while you were lying in that bed. Let me do a few checks before I go, though,” my familiar said, with excitement transpiring in her thoughts.

And while staying on my shoulder, she extended her wings one after the other. I felt her sore muscles stretching out, and she quickly looked through her wings to make small adjustments in the feathers pattern with the help of her beak.

After a few seconds of rummaging through, straightening misplaced feathers, she retracted her wings and made a satisfied screech.

“Ready whenever you are, half-elf,” she said.

As she said that, I focused on our empathic bond, allowing its nature to flow more than usual into my being.

I closed my eyes, focusing not on myself, but on my familiar. She did not oppose my presence, and so she shared her vision with me. I could suddenly see through her eyes.

Before I go on, you should know that seeing yourself through another point of view is quite disturbing when you first do it. However once you’ve done it quite a few times, it just stops mattering.

Seeing through an eagle’s eyes is quite an interesting experience. While the vision angle is quite similar to those of a humanoid, colors are slightly dulled. The most visible change however, is in the precision of the vision.

I could make out details in the bark of the trees around us at this distance that would require me to almost be standing with my nose touching it if I wanted to see that by myself.

The motions, notably the leaves shivering slightly into the wind were impeccably trackable, whereas it would have appeared slightly blurry to me if I had not focused on a particular leaf.

I even perfectly noticed a few movements in between some of the trees of the forest. My familiar’s instincts categorised those as “potential prey”. Having already done a few ‘flight’ sessions while seeing through her, this was not exactly new, but the sudden change in vision perspective is always impressive.

I gave her a mental “Ready,” and with that, she jumped off my shoulder, and flapped her wings powerfully to rapidly get some altitude. And so our ascension began.

Already we were way above the dense forest but she kept on going higher. My familiar gave a sideway glance to my position, scanning the area around my still-standing body.

“Safe,” she said, after a few seconds of examination as she caught no movements around.

She then turned her attention toward the city.

From there, I noticed the constructions for the most part had either gabled or cross-gabled roofs made out of what I assumed was straw, or something similar-looking. From this point of view, the roofs were all I could see.

As my familiar continued her approach, I began being able to discern the main design of the buildings, made out of wood for the overall structure and some kind of stone-like material to fill what space was left in between the planks

We were now gliding above the city, and I could see the natives walking around the streets.

What struck me first was not the fact that they were ponies, pegasi and unicorns. That, I could have understood, since those creatures do actually exist. However I was not aware of any sentient group settlements of those races. At least as far as Faerûn’s history is concerned. And so I wondered how such races had developed into a civilised state.

I also noticed they all ran around naked for the most part, which I found quite disturbing at first. Most civilised races put shame on nudity at the very early stages of their development whereas here, it seemed they just didn’t care.

But the thing that actually drew most of my attention was the fact that they were… Multicolored.

Blues, reds, greens, yellows, whites, blacks; whatever color and any of its shades or combination were apparently a valid fur or hair color for these creatures. From what Zecora had described me about them, she forgot to mention that detail.

To my knowledge, unicorns and pegasi both shared a white-only coat, while normal ponies can be… Well, you know… Normal colors like brown, white, grey… I don’t know. I simply was not expecting them to be vividly colored. Unless it was a custom their civilisation shared to paint themselves?

Before I could make out any other details, my familiar turned her gaze toward the forest again. From what I felt, I knew she was trying to look out for any other signs of danger around me, however she was now too far away to spot me in the dense forest.

She was starting to be uncertain about if she should continue or go back to cover me in my temporary blindness.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you if anything goes wrong,” I tried to reassure her.

She mentally nodded and her attention was drawn back to the city, enabling me to take more details about the town below. However she still was not convinced about my security.

Her concern was still a very present feeling, and so I decided to ease her.

“...Alright, give me a second.”

I cut myself off from my familiar’s sight, and found myself standing again in the pathway to Zecora’s home.

A quick glance assured me that nobody was around, and I went back into the security of my host’s home. After laying comfortably onto the bed (because standing while sharing vision requires some mental efforts I’m more than willing to stop using for now), I projected myself into my familiar again.

“Now, you shouldn’t have to fear anything,” I said. She seemed more comfortable now, and we went back to sightseeing the city.

We hovered over another one of these tree-made-building.

I was now beginning to think that was something those ponies knew how to make at will. While Zecora’s house looked slightly grim and and rustic, this one did not look out of place with glass windows to cover most of the openings. Also the tree looked quite healthy, really fitting the context of the well-kept and decorative vegetations around the modern houses.

Funnily enough, as we passed by, I saw a sign planted in front of the main door depicting an opened book. If I was not mistaken for it being the sign of a library, I could only laugh at the irony of a library made out of a tree.

You know, because most scrolls and book pages are also made out of trees or other natural vegetation.

Also, it was kind of a poor choice if you asked me, considering the chances of everything being burned would a fire start right there.

My familiar’s attention was naturally drawn by her instincts to the part of the city with the most movement. And so, before my eyes appeared a market, with a lot of stalls for wares and products of all kinds, but the most dominant product there was food.

The alleys were crowded with ponies, either simply passing-by or actively conversing with the storekeepers while trading for goods. Clearly this was the most busy part of the city at that moment.

I was fascinated at how ponies had their own ways of carrying things around — those wingless and hornless seemed to have bags on their sides to take things around, while unicorns most of the time used a telekinetic spell to keep objects afloat as they made their way, as could attest the colored aura around their horns and items.

Pegasi shared the trait of their flightless and magicless counterparts to have saddlebags, but I’ve seen a few of them content to use their wings as a way to carry things around, which surprised me.

I also noticed their faces shared some traits I noticed on Zecora, namely the fact they almost resemble what I had been expecting of a pony, except for the mostly flattened muzzle and quite huge eyes.

As my familiar finished flying over the market, her vision turned to another part of the town, and after a few other wing flaps, I could see a few buildings with very distinctive signs hung above their entrances.

While the one with a quill and a couch’s meaning went over my head, there were a few other ones that were universally understandable, like what I assumed was a tavern with a beer-filled mug symbol as a banner, or the one with a bed sign which was probably the local inn.

There was also a distinctive building on that street that looked like it was made out of candies and pastries. Just looking at it was mouth-watering. I hoped I was not drenching my host’s bed with my saliva right now.

This one street had a moderate activity, and I even saw a brown pony stumbling while trying to walk out of the tavern, as it was being yelled at by someone standing in front of the entrance. I found this scene quite amusing.

I mentally noted the location of the tavern if only because that would be my best bet at getting information, namely, my location or any other valuable knowledge. At least, that’s implying those fantasy books were any right about traveling and adventuring, taverns being reputed to be the best place for getting those.

We passed by a tower-like building in the middle of the city. It was the tallest of the area, and it seemed like an important building.

However what led the huge front double-doors entrance to be completely destroyed, I had no idea. A few ponies were working on it though, with a few tools in their…

I did a double-take to make sure I was not hallucinating.

They do that with their mouth? Really? How...

“How else would they do it?” My familiar interjected to my apparently transparent thought.

Much to my disdain, I had to admit after a few seconds of reflexion that I got outsmarted by my eagle. “Good point,” I conceded.

After passing through a few others districts, I had made up an intellectual map of the area, and I began mentally reviewing about what I’ve seen so far about the ponies here.

Up to now, the technology level seemed quite close to what I’d expect in Faerûn. Maybe I wasn’t that far from Amn then?

I thought about this idea, and asked, “I am curious about the surroundings, could you take a look around?”

My familiar executed herself, looking in the distance, and I saw the city was bordered with what I assumed was a farm. There were a few animals going around a barn , and a very large orchard running down a good portion of the plain next to the city.

She turned her gaze, following the horizon I saw yet another forest, and plains sprawling with vegetation. She went on until I saw a very large mountain in the distance. The peak was obscured by the passing clouds making it look very huge, but what made it stand out mostly was the castle embed to its side.

From where I was it was difficult to make any other details about the castle, except that there were two waterfalls running along the side or going through the castle itself.

Even from afar the architecture was majestic, and the city around it impressively vast considering it to be built at the flank of a mountain. I would not have been surprised if it hosted some royalty or important personalities of this area. Even the castle I live in looked really pale in comparison to the vivid white structures and their nicely decorated gold-purple spires.

As my familiar redirected her gaze to the next object in the distance, I snapped out of my reverie, and said, “This landscape does not really ring any bells to me. Plus I haven’t heard of a castle implemented on the side of a mountain in my books.”

“I do not remember of this area either, half-elf,” she stated.

She then made a circle around the city, and we were now heading back toward the forest. I also noticed the river I stumbled upon my arrival actually ran out of the forest and crossed at an extremity of the city. How I could have missed this detail on our way to the city, I had no idea.

There was nothing else noteworthy in this decor, and so my familiar proceeded to travel back to my position.

A few wing flaps later, and she was back to the forest. She followed the pathway back to Zecora’s house, simply gliding all the way there using the momentum she had built by being so high in the sky earlier.

I was slightly discouraged to see that Zecora was not on her way back, as could attest the empty paths my familiar went through as she arrived at the tree-house.

Preparing for her arrival, I cut myself from her sight and went to open the door, right as she whizzed past me and gracefully perched on a hanging branch inside, blowing a gust of wind on me as she did so.

Now that she was perched, the first thing she did was to rummage again through her wings.

“Whew, I really needed to stretch my wings,” she said, right as she adjusted a misplaced feather, which caused her to emit a small satisfied caw.

“We should do that more often, half-elf, I find it pleasurable to see that you enjoy the sight while I fly.”

“Probably…” I half-heartedly said.

Even though I can’t argue with the fact that I really enjoy the experience of following her in her flight, my mind was drifting somewhere else right now.

After closing the door, I pensively put a hand around my chin, and began pacing back and forth, quite much in an imitation of what I was doing before the whole flight session. I thought over what I saw about the ponies and the city. It was clear that this city was peacefully prospering, not having something even remotely close to a slum or a badly maintained district.

Also I don’t remember seeing something looking like a guard or peacekeeper, but maybe that’s just me not being able to make the difference between types of ponies. I mean, in de’Arnise, you wouldn’t miss the fully-armored and weapon-wielding soldiers standing straight at attention at some corners of the streets, or the peacekeepers patrolling through at night with their lanterns.

One thing was for sure: the city did not have any fortifications either.

Thinking over about what Zecora had said earlier about coming back ‘before Celestia’s star could be put-out’, I realised the only visible star in the sky was actually the sun, which meant she probably would be coming back before sundown.

The thought of being alone all day long was not a pleasant one. However the previous facts, and this new-found reason comforted me in my initial idea of going in the city, disguised. I rubbed my hands together at the thought…

...And so, my curiosity won over my rational side once again. Unfortunately, the former seems to win too much lately at the expense of my own security. I only had to think about the events of the last few days for the sad truth to come back up to my mind.

But I didn’t care in the least. Well, for now. I wasn’t in immediate danger, and I’d probably get a few unique experiences I wouldn’t have gotten back home. I was kind of worried about how this will turn out at de’Arnise castle, however. Had everyone freaked out at my sudden disappearance? Yes, probably. But there’s nothing I could do about it from where I stood, which is why I needed to know more about my environment first.

It is also common knowledge that half-elves often inherit, and even over-develop the curiosity of humans, and I was clearly not an exception here. And so, my very first stop as a now-unicorn being had been to go at the tavern I had spotted a few minutes ago.

Those fantasy books I had read have probably influenced my choice here.

First, I should maybe explain how I disguised myself, and what the implications are, as to not get you lost here. I used one of the illusion’s school of magic basics: a glamer.

A glamer works quite strangely, so you might need to know the following before I go on.

Basically, when you apply a glamer to something ( or someone ), you don’t change its physical shape, only how it is perceived by others. The problem with this functioning is that someone can see or perceive minor inconstancies in the illusion, like how the environment or the sounds acts unusually around the modified object.

The best way for you to understand this, is to imagine the following scene: I take a small rock from the ground, and make a glamer to make it look like a boulder. ( Which you’re not aware of ).

Now, if I tossed it your way, you’d probably see a huge rock flying right at you ( and you would probably be wetting your pants at this point ).

Let’s imagine I purposefully missed you by a few inches with the small physical rock. You’d still see the grown up boulder going right through you, but it would not physically harm you. The physical rock is still an harmless little stone.

At this point, the inconsistency begins: You didn’t get hit, but you saw the boulder go through yourself. Also, if you had paid attention, you’d probably heard the small ‘thud’ instead of an obvious crash when the rock would hit the ground.

There, two things can happen:

What most people would think would be “He probably missed me,” and choose to think they just got lucky, that the boulder didn’t actually hit them. In other terms, they still think the boulder is real, and so the illusion is maintained.

Or, you could choose to disbelieve what you just experienced, due to the fact that you didn’t get hit by the boulder when you should have taken it right to the face. You pertinently know something is wrong. This leads to the illusion being broken to the viewer who disbelieve the illusion, and so he would now see the boulder as it truly is:

A simple, small rock.

Additionally, such a revelation would probably make you break into laughter at how foolish you were to think it was real, but that’s details. A glamer uses this principle to work, but it can be tricky to the mind.

The better the glamer, the less inconsistencies you will be able to find in the environment interactions with the object or person. The most advanced ones will trick the viewers’ mind into ignoring the most obvious inconsistencies they should normally notice, and also create phantom sounds to cover up the noise side of the object. One can even infuse some of the shadow plane’s powers into his illusions to make them more real, but this however is very magic-consuming.

Of course, countering an illusion is quite easy when you already know it’s here, if only because you can disbelieve it immediately.

However, I am quite proud to say that my capacities at using illusions are good enough to at least trick most of the de’Arnise castle’s guards. For entertainment purposes at least. So I felt confident enough to go as a glamer-pony here… And this is how I ended up in a bar, full of colorful ponies.

Since colors did not seem to be restricted for this race, I decided to make the glamer a simple copy of my usual self, except… more pony. Hence, other people looking at me would see a simple male unicorn, with a metalized-beige fur tone, light grey eyes, and blonde hair and tail.

My hair, or ‘mane’ to use a better wording, was flowing long in my back. I did not make it look like a ponytail because I thought it would be redundant with the fact I would already have a literal one in my back.

Also, even though it seemed natural here, I was not really comfortable with showing myself naked, even if it was as a glamer. So I added a cape covering most of my rump, whose fabric was made of a mono-toned light yellow color to go on par with the white-yellowish robes I usually wear on my real self. The cape would also make me more credible if I was to explain I just arrived here, as a traveler.

While the overall atmosphere of the bar seemed quite nice, in this finely maintained establishment, I sadly ended up being in the company of probably the most drunken one of the crowd.

At first, I thought that the fact I could not understand her rambling was due to a language barrier, even as I had channeled my Tongues spell. But it seemed the grape-colored pony that had found a chair next to me was simply too full of whatever it is they serve here.

“Shooo… n...ewww… here…?” she asked as she struggled to keep herself straight even with the help of the chair she was sitting on. Somehow, she kept her beverage mug perfectly balanced on one of her front hooves. That is yet another thing that intrigued me, as it seemed those ponies were able to somehow keep things attached to their hooves.

Also, I wasn’t even sure if that was a question she had just asked, but it raised a perfectly good point about how I was going to present myself to other people.

I mentally began working on a background for myself.

Being now much closer to these ponies, I noticed a few more things about them. First, it seemed easy to differentiate males from their female counterparts, simply looking at how their muzzle ends: abruptly and square for the former, while it’s mostly smooth and curvy for the later.

Well, it would have been smooth and curvy for my newfound companion if her face had not just met the table when her last effort to keep herself straight was overpowered by gravity.

Tonk.

There I heard a small “Owww…” and considering alcohol’s pain inhibiting properties, I’m quite sure the one that suffered the most was the table her face had met. I let a half-smile cover my face, while I was still trying to understand what that pony had tried to accomplish when she came to discuss with me in such a state.

Suddenly I heard someone almost shout near the booth I was in, and I turned toward the source of the sound.

“Hey, Reds’! Berry Punch is down again!” Was yelled by a mint-colored unicorn. She had white stripes in her hair and tail, and she was followed by another pony, whose fur was beige, while her hair was split into three distinctives dark-blue and pink parts.

The recipient of the message, was apparently the bar keeper if her position behind the counter was anything to go by. She apparently lived up by her nickname, literally, as her fur and hair were a bright and light shade of red respectively.

As she looked our way, her expression deadpanned when her eyes met the drunk pony sit in front of me. She sighed and trotted around the bar and as she arrived she shot an apologetic look to me.

“Sorry if she caused you any trouble,” she said with a firm, but sweet voice. “Order whatever you want. Your next drink is on the house to make up for what happened.”

“Oh it is alright, she did not do as much as mumble a few sentences with no heads or tails,” I said. “But thanks for the offer.”

I wasn’t exactly sure how she could make me a heart-warming smile and all the while be doing the almost grim task of taking the passed out pony on her back and walk away.

The two other ponies I noticed before, who I shall refer to Minty and Beigy for now ( because really, my only experience with pony names had been that they have color or fur-texture related names ), took the occasion to come by the booth I was sitting in.

They stopped nearby, and Minty said, with a slightly forced smile, “Hey, sorry about Berry Punch… She kinda, likes her drinks you could say.”

I made a side look at the one she had called Reds’ who was still carrying Berry Punch toward the back-office. Funnily enough, her mug was still attached to her hoof by some kind of miracle as she was being dragged out.

“Yeah, I can sense a great love-story between the beverages and her.”

I looked back at Minty and Beigy.

“Too bad, the alcohol doesn’t seems to agree with this union.”

They both laughed and Minty’s one was heartfelt, while her companion’s was a more polite one.

“Hey do you mind if we join you? It’s rare to see new faces here,” Minty said expectantly.

I gracefully indicated the free chairs across the table with a hand, which probably appeared as a hoof for them. That’s the downside of glamers, you can’t see them yourself, you had to guess how people ‘might’ see those and hope for the best.

“Be my guests, I wouldn’t mind for a bit of chatter with somebody that can actually process thoughts and speech with a minimum of coherence, for a change.”

That sentence, for an obscure reason, earned me an odd look from both of them as they sat at the opposite end of the booth.

After a slight silence, Beigy asked, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

I found it odd that she could jump to such a conclusion, with me trying to actually merge with the crowd, and decided to enquire about what gave that away.

“Do I stand out that much?” I asked, raising a genuinely intrigued eyebrow.

However I thought it would be nice to put to use the backstory I worked on just before. It wasn’t really perfect, but it would probably lift up some suspicions they were beginning to have.

I did not let them have the time to answer just yet, and said, “But yes, I’m a traveler. I stumbled upon these lands after trekking through the nearby forest. I come from much farther away though.”

“You… Kind of have a way to speak that is clearly not from around here.” Beigy answered, and emphasized her point by doing a dismissal movement with her front hoof.

Suddenly she seemed to remember something.

“Oh, but where our manners? I am Sweetie Drops, but you may call me Bonbon,” she said.

She then turned to Minty, and added “And this is Lyra.”

And with that, Minty - or now, Lyra - smiled and noded to me, confirming Bonbon’s claims. Well, so much for my theory about their color-schemed names.

And so, it was my turn to present myself.

“I am Cynder, son of Er-” I began, but stopped dead in my speech when I realised the second part of that presentation was mostly formal, and should probably not be used in such a context. I opted for a well placed cough instead.

“Sorry,” I said, hoping the diversion had worked.

Trying to cover that mistake, I continued as if nothing had happened, and said, “Nice to meet you both,” I said, extending a hand.

I should have probably foreseen it, but I just handed them - literally - one hell of an opportunity to break the glamer. I’ve seen a few ponies ‘shaking hooves’ as they met in the bar, so I thought it was probably natural to do the same, but now that I thought about it - a bit too late though - if I made contact with their hooves, they would probably feel the fingers around their hooves…

Hoof impacting with hand in 3…

Okay now this was awkward.

If I withdrew now, I’ll very probably look like a huge jerk.

2…

If I still offer my hand, there’s a high chance the glamer will break, due to the strange feeling they will have on their hoof. If that happens, it may freak all ponies around. My imagination even started working on an escape plan revolving around invisibility and running. Very fast running.

1…

Actually running was kind of out of the question with my current state, so all I was left with was one simple question: “What to do, what to do?!”

And on the highest peak of my panic-induced state, a genius flash shone through.

I closed my hand right before it impacted with the hoof.

Tock.

“Ouch!...”

My now-closed fist had met Lyra’s hoof, and I had to suppress an urge to cry out in pain as I had clearly not anticipated the hoof’s surface to be so hard. But in the end, it was probably for the best, and a sore fist was nothing compared to what could have happened.

I shook her hoof up and down with my fist, and found it somewhat strange that my hand would literally be attracted by the hoof, just like if there was some invisible force holding it. That probably explained how the mug had kept itself attached on Berry Punch though.

At least, Lyra did not seem to notice anything, and as we were done, I mimicked the gesture with Bonbon, but taking care to hit the hoof a bit more softly. Both of them greeted me in their own way.

Over the course of a few minutes, I learned from an enjoyable conversation with my two companions that the reason why Berry Punch had just not been kicked out of the establishment was because she was the bar keeper’s sister. That explained the reason she was sorry about her behavior, going as far as offering me a drink.

I also learned the reason she had done that was to ( quoting Lyra’s own words ) “Not to frighten a rare stallion customer.”

Repressing the strange feeling about being referred to as a ‘stallion’, which in a way made sense, but was still bizarre to me; I also did not question why the male portion would not be majoritary in such a tavern, though I was slightly taken aback by that very fact. Bars are supposed to be a man thing.

In between a few other meaningless exchanges, I learned Reds’ was a nickname for Redbud. Speaking of which, she had come by our booth to take our order. I ordered a simple beer, while Bonbon took a ‘Lemon Drop’ ( which I had no idea what it was made with, but my guess would be that there’s lemon in it ), and Lyra asked for a small cider bottle.

I did not really get how those ponies could already talk so casually to me when seconds before they were apparently suspicious about me not being ‘from around here’.

Well, I probably was not the first ‘traveler’ to come in this city I guess.

The conversation continued, and our drinks had been served. The beer tasted quite good for a bar. I had already seen a lot worse, notably in the few times I had been travelling with my family to go see acquaintances.

Some towns we went through during our trips had some really cheap beer they served, who was harsh and all around tasting bad. I’m clearly not a beer connoisseur, but I can appreciate a good pint. And as the conversation went on, they began asking more about who I was and where I was from. It was in a lighthearted type of conversation, so I was much obliged to answer.

Very much like a politician doing a speech, I spoke while using my hands to emphasis my points and giving an aspect of grandeur to my narration.

And like a true politician, I lied.

A lot.

“I found interest in travelling around the world. Seeing new peoples, new landscapes and discovering new societies seems to have been my life’s call. So I drift around, from city to town, or camping alone in the longest of my journeys simply in the hope of seeing something new.”

They were both glued to every word I spoke, and even though I had to make up most of my story on the fly, the river of words I was serving up was clear, and with no interruptions which made it a believable story.

Before they asked, I decided to bring up the ‘home’ part of my fake background if only because it would prevent awkward questions I might not be able to answer on the move later.

“My homeland, Rufena,” yes that’s Faerûn rearranged if you’re wondering, “is very far away. So far, that I have been travelling for almost a year now before ending up here. It is a prosperous and beautiful region, home of a lot of wonders, and it has its share of secrets.”

“I live in a city whose primary source of revenue is trading, and it is acting as shelter for travelers and merchants alike on their way to their destinations. The city also provides its own guards to keep the nearby roads safe.”

If they had never heard of that place or city, they did not bother to show it, most probably enthralled by my recital. Though I made sure to make the description as vague as possible to prevent them from trying to link those semi-imaginary places to real existing ones.

“Seems like a nice place,” said Lyra with a convinced tone.

“Hmhmm,” agreed Bonbon.

“So, do you like it here?” Lyra asked me. “Or is Ponyville just… another town you happen to pass through?”

I felt there was an opportunity I could use here to get some more data about where I was, and I went on with it. “Oh, actually, it is one of the few towns I would gladly come back to visit someday. The environment is charming, and the city itself is quite a sight with its well-constructed and maintained buildings. It also is kind of how I like cities: Not too much crowded, and yet livingly enough.”

I directed a smile to my audience and added, “Also, the company is quite enjoyable.”

The compliment seemed to hit home, as they both had a small fit of laughter while I took a sip of my beer. I had learned from a few diplomatic events that courtesy goes a long way, even if you audience knows it is a forced one. It sometimes open a few doors that would remain closed else.

“And so, I might need a few geographical points of references if I want to come back someday. Do you happen to know where I could get such information? Like, a map of the local area, and even a regional-scale one? It might be of use.”

Lyra and Bonbon looked at each other for an instant, eyebrows raised and mouths twisted in reflection.

The former was the first to look back at me saying “You should try to see if Twilight Sparkle got any of those. She runs the local library, but even though it isn’t related to books, she should have what you need.”

A strange sense of déjà-vu struck me when she said the name of ‘Twilight Sparkle’. It was even stranger because it mutated into a strong repulsion, and anger feeling.

Suddenly, I found myself asking the following,

“Could you give me directions to go see that ‘Twilight Sparkle’?”

The tone used felt much more like a command than a question. It was clearly not how I would have acted by myself.

What just...

I was starting to think that feeling had come from my familiar, but Bonbon reacted before I could process what had happened, and said:

“It’s easy. From here, exit to the right of the bar, and go straight until you arrive at the town hall. It’s the tallest building here so you won’t miss it. Then take the street that goes through the market. At some point you should encounter the library, easily recognisable as it is a tree building.”

Seems my tone change went unnoticed by my audience. Or they did not acknowledge any discomfort to it. Putting the matter aside, I took a few more minutes with the two ponies to finish the conversation properly. Since I had introduced myself ( in blurry details ), I asked a bit more about themselves in return and so the conversation was now centered on the mares in front of me.

This is how I now knew that the one called Lyra was a professional musician, playing oh so unexpectedly the lyre as an instrument. How she could do it with hooves, I had no idea, but I did not press on more about this detail since there were still a lot of things that I didn’t really get about this land.

Also, I am trying to not raise any suspicions about myself, so asking about things that seemed mundane for them was probably not the way to go.

Bonbon on the other side was a confectionery maker. Both of their profession seemed to correlate with the tattoo they arbored on their rumps. Now that I thought about it, most ponies I had seen so far had this kind of tattoo, depicting… something. I did not really give it as much as a second thought at first, but was it related to their profession? Very probable from what I’ve seen from Lyra and Bonbon, but it might need some more investigation to confirm this.

I couldn’t just ask why they had these tattoos since nearly all of them had one. Again, it may raise suspicions; unless it was something that was unique to this city, but I couldn’t really take any chances. Maybe I should just ask some of those who don’t have one yet if I have the chance…

…Or I might just put that on the list of things to ask Zecora about when she comes back.

After the last comments were exchanged, I bidden farewell to my interlocutors with a formal bow, before leaving the bar.

Like when I first went inside the establishment, I had to duck slightly to pass through the front door. I guess someone looking at me would wonder why I had to do so, considering they’d only see a regular pony whose size was more than small enough to pass. Glamers being what they are, I couldn’t exactly correct this behavior.

Once outside, I reminded myself about what Bonbon had indicated me, so I took to the right and went on to the town hall. Sadly I had not made a few steps that my right foot sunk into a mud puddle with a small splish sound.

I reacted with an “Urgh,” and shook the shoe a bit to get rid of most of the small muck amount that was now dripping from it.

With a defeated sigh, I went on with the rest of path to the library. At least, nobody could see that my footwear was covered in soon-to-be-dry mud, the glamer concealing that particular view with a pony-unicorn image instead.

However I still would have to clean this shoe up after returning to Zecora’s.

I passed by the first landmark, namely the town hall. Like I had seen before, it looked like something had rammed into the front double-doors, breaking them apart.

It was still being worked on, and I simply passed by.

I took to the market as advised by Bonbon, and soon the sound of chatter began to fill the air. While it had been lively from above, it seemed even more crowded from that point of view now, and I gracefully dodged my way out of most ponies, trying to avoid any kind of contact that could endanger my disguise.

As I passed by some fruit vendor, I heard a pony bargain with the merchant in a monetary unit called ‘bits’ and with a quick glance toward the stall, I could see it looked simply like gold coins with a few minor differences that I had not the time to inspect further as I continued to go by.

Well, if my gold coins had the same value here, I could probably use the ones I brought with me to get a few services, like catching a ride to someplace that is closer to my home. I could even maybe rent a few books from that library.

And so, the library I was looking for soon appeared right before me, the tree-house towering over myself quite a few times. The door was, like most buildings I had passed by, slightly smaller than myself, but that would not stop me.

I knocked three times, and waited...

Extra 1 - Cynder’s Personal Notes, Scroll 1/3

Out From the Shadows

Extra 1

Cynder’s Personal Notes, Scroll 1/3

Cynder’s personal notes over the developing bond of a spellcaster and his familiar.

Preface

After reading a lot on the subject of obtaining a familiar, I felt like there was much ground uncovered about the nature and function of the empathic link between the two parties, so I decided to take notes over my personal experience on the matter, and later compile the data into a user-friendly book.

For now, however, these scrolls will serve as a journal where I will add anything noteworthy concerning the development of our bond with the date ‘Day 1’ being the date when the spell to get a familiar got cast. This will serve as a base for the creation of the book.

Day 1

The spell went off successfully. I got paired with a golden eagle. A female. She was apparently living atop the castle’s library, and had a nest here. She didn’t resist the binding, which means I might have a chance to keep her.

Today, she didn’t even bother visiting me, despite our newfound link. I feel a sense of home and comfort that has nothing to do with myself, which I guess was from the empathic bond we now share. I have a hard time distinguishing my own feelings from those of the eagle. Basically, I feel them just as my own, but they are of a more... Primal nature. Based on the complexity of the emotion, I can eventually figure they are from her, but it takes me a time of reflexion to be able to draw such conclusions.

Also, this empathic link seems to have a reduced effect when we are more than roughly a mile apart. At this point, emotions from the eagle feel more ‘distant’, so it’s easier to distinguish them from my own. I guess she was on her hunting grounds when I noticed this; probably in the forest surrounding the castle.

Day 2

She still hasn’t came in the library, despite my efforts. I guess the problem is that birds in general tends to avoid other races, because of a lack of trust. However, she still hasn’t rejected the link yet. Nothing new on the empathic link.

Day 3

I guess I understand why she hasn’t came in yet. I saw her flying in circles around the library at some point in the day. She seemed to be looking for something, and I felt frustration coming from her. Later in the day, when she had long since gone away, it hit me: despite having the windows wide opened, she couldn’t land on anything, should she get inside the library. So, she was probably trying to get a landing point.

I commissioned one of the city’s carpenters to make an eagle-sized perch. I also asked for a nest addon, but I wasn’t sure it was going to be of use. She is still a wild animal for now, so I don’t expect her to stay with me more than a few minutes.

Day 4

She repeated the events of yesterday. However, the carpenter hasn’t finished the perch yet, so I can’t do much but watch her as she flies around the tower. After a few minutes, she was gone; back to continue her day.

I’ve been able to establish some kind of routine on her daily life while trying to analyze the feelings I got from her over the link. It seemed like she had some kind of very precise biological schedule, with times where she would just chill out in her nest, atop the tower. At times like this, the ‘home comfort’ feeling is what I get the most.

She seems to get to her ‘home’ right after a hunting session. I can’t really understand what she feels when she hunts, since she’s getting too far away when she does. The distance impedes on the force of the feelings themselves, but I can safely assume that when they get dulled out, she’s on her hunting grounds.

Day 7

The carpenter finally finished the perch, and it got delivered at the library in the evening. It is quite simple in appearance, but it seems strong enough to support a bird of her size.

I’ve put the perch right in front of the window nearest to my desk. I hope it will work.

Day 8

She was flying around the tower at the same time of the day as usual. This time, she saw the perch, and flew right to it. As she landed on it, some of the people in the library got startled. I probably should have warned them about this.

However, something quite interesting happened. While I explained to the people present that the eagle was mine, and that they had nothing to fear, that’s when I ‘heard’ her for the first time.

The words were “Not yours.”

Despite the fact that the words themselves could have had a lot of different meanings, the implication of them was crystal clear because of the empathic link.

She meant that she was not my property.

It seems that despite being bond to someone, that doesn’t make animals any less wild. That is something I should remember for any further interactions with her.

What interested me the most was how clearly I could understand her. Even if most of the wording used over the link was very basic, the feelings added to them weremore than enough to make up for the lack of proper sentence structure.

I also found out that despite this, my familiar retained her somewhat low sapience. I tried to have a conversation, but my error was that I assumed she would understand things in a civilized humanoid fashion.

“So, how should I address you? Do you have a name?” I tried to ask.

“Complicated thinking,” is what I got for an answer as she tilted her head, while looking at me. She didn’t understand the concept of names, and with hindsight, I should have suspected so.

She didn’t stay more than a few minutes that day, but it was interesting to have been able to at least meet my familiar for the first time. It seems like taming a familiar wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought in the first place.

Scroll 1/3

Extra 4 - Lyra Finds a Blob

Out From the Shadows

Extra 4

Lyra Finds a Blob

They left the bar feeling slightly tipsy. Of course it was not enough for both of them to even flinch as they trotted their way back home. However, the alcohol probably had a ‘social lubricant’ effect on them, making their thoughts not as clear they should be.

Lyra and Bonbon were discussing mundane topics, when suddenly, Lyra stopped dead in her track, and addressed her friend in a way that sounded mostly like an engine starting up with huge efforts.

“Bon~~bon~bon-bon-bon-bonbonbonbon-bonbon!” She exclaimed while jumping from a hoof to another in excitement. “Look, at this!”

Bonbon approached her to get a better view of the object that provoked her friend’s sudden hysteria. However she could only stare confused at the mud puddle she saw on the ground.

“...What… is that?” she asked, her expression changing to a frown as she could not believe her friend had stopped for such a mundane thing as muck on the ground.

“A print,” Lyra said, unphased by her friend’s lack of understanding and reaction to what she thought was the best finding ever, and so she kept on her wide smile.

Bonbon now could see what Lyra was talking about, some sort of pattern had been printed into the puddle. “You mean like a hoofprint?” she asked, still sceptical about this.

However as she focused on it, she noticed something odd about said print. “That is the strangest hoofprint I’ve ever seen,” she stated.

Lyra was still not affected by Bonbon’s negativity, and she simply replied like it was common knowledge, “Not a hoofprint silly filly, a shoeprint!”

“Uh…” Bonbon began, suddenly understanding where this was going.

Unfortunately for her, Lyra went on with her explanation, her enthusiasm increasing for every word she spoke, “Like a shoe! That goes on a foot, that goes on a human!” And as she said her last words, she put both her hooves under her chin in a clear fan-gasm display.

Being already used to Lyra’s antics, Bonbon kept her calm and rational part. She just simply asked the following, trying to reason her friend.

“Are you sure somepony didn’t just… drop something in the mud? Just looks like a blob to me.”

Knowing very well that Bonbon might be right, Lyra reacted with an ultimate desperation alcohol-induced move, as she put herself prone near the puddle, using both her front hooves to protect the area around the print.

“Stop crushing my dreams!”