PM to join A ghost from the past

[Vick]

Was this a sign of trust or a way to backstab him later? If this was Sahova Vick would have laughed and toyed with him but would Thomas backstab him now? Wizards were always so wary of each other but the island made it seem so much worse compared to cities. Yet what choice did they have?

“I will do what I can to help you control and understand it more. I am far from a master of this type of magic myself but it may be better compared to you running wild with it as you can kill yourself or others without meaning to. Do you have any place where we can be that is quiet?”

Vick asked as he looked back at the young man. Vick could still recall the countless days he spent trying to learn this magic but for it to be thrust upon someone had to be hard. While Vick knew how to control it due to having to learn it the hard way Thomas did not. How he avoided hurting himself or others was a surprise to Vick but it was only a matter of time until he made a mistake.

“You might want to eat something as we will spend a good deal of time learning before we take a break. I will teach you how one would learn this as this is one of the few magics that you can learn without a teacher as long as you have the idea of what to do. Once we start with that you might be able to take more of a control or at least know how to stop it if it does flare up. We can use Glyphing as well to help channel the focus. It would not be the first time I have made a scroll for it so we can try to make one that can store the magic if you are sleeping and it flares up.”

Vick said in a long winded voice. He had a plan of action now and would try his best to help Thomas. Yet why was the question and even Vick could not really answer that. Maybe it was just a simple fact he was lost and alone and could use a friend? Maybe it was to gain a favor? Maybe something else but he would not really question the why yet. Not until later once they knew more.

Yet the question did come up if Thomas could even control this or if the fountain made it so it was always going to be wild like a fire. He could only hope that he could learn to control it otherwise Vick would have to go to greater lengths to help and he knew Thomas would not like that idea.

If Thomas had a place where they could go he would follow him. Otherwise he would look for a quiet place around the city where they could find peace.

*Credit goes to Tanith Sitai

[Thomas Cosa]

Thomas wanted to cry, he was so relieved. Everything that had happened over the last couple of days, the sleepless nights, the sudden episodes of panic and fear, the constant absence of Laria, everything seemed suddenly less. Even more remarkably, Vick seemed suddenly safe. The wizard's world had turned in on itself since he drank from the fountain, and Fate be damned, a Nuit seemed to be leading the way to right everything out.

He could've laughed.

Instead, he nodded, his face settling in an expression of dazed contentness. "Please, if you'll follow me."

Thomas would lead, should Vick follow, through the dense crowds of the square, across one of the many sprawling day markets. Colors lit their way, vibrant reds and blues and yellows, decorating the stalls and vendors alike. Their voices called to them both, promising deals and a variety of miracles for body and mind alike; they offered bargains of valued and exotic good; they practically threw their wares, so eager they were to sell. Thomas only bothered to turn when he heard someone yell something about Vision Water, more interested in what idiot was trying to sell something as something it obviously wanted. He imagined most people understood that the Konti would never part with anything so sacred.

Eventually they passed through the market, reaching a quieter road that eventually split into two: one road spiraling down into the fog covered valley below, another reaching towards the mountain's summit. Thomas made for the one reaching upwards, and expected Vick to follow.

They finally reached a humble cottage, smashed awkwardly between two larger homes. Thomas' home seemed everything he wasn't: unassuming, old, and utterly ordinary. The only thing the two shared was an apparent stubbornness to remain standing despite all odds. Indeed, the cottage, perhaps better described as a shack, was made of a stone smoothed by the wind, spotted with mold and covered with wild vine. The bottom of the door was worn and covered with a green-black mold, and the metal rungs that held it were splattered with rust. The whole of his garden was unkempt, weeds strangling the soft grass.

Once inside, it wasn't much better. He had the basics, better than Sahova at any rate, a small kitchen in the main room that emptied into a living space that offered a table with two chairs, and an unused chest. There were two doors, one presumably leading into a bedroom, and another, that logic might suggest would lead into a bathroom.

Thomas wouldn't offer an explanation for either of these, and the idea of a tour was laughable for a place so small. Instead, he sat down, expecting Vick to sit in the chair opposite him.

"Well? Where do we start?" He asked, eager to finally get some answers.

[Vick]

Vick did not make any remarks as they walked for what seemed forever to him. When he was in Sahova he tended to be in his own world yet he kept an eye out where they went and the people they saw this time. Slowly keeping the information stored away as he learned more of the layout of the city.

Even once they entered what seemed like his place he did not make any remarks. He could not throw stones as he did not even have a place himself that was his. He just took a seat without fighting and looked at Thomas. Really looked at him for once as he pulled his djed from his soul as the world shifted to shades of color and wonder.

Thomas was young. Vick never knew his real age as it never came up. In the end, most humans were just a stepping stone but Vick had to look past that.While he was tall he seemed to still be on the thin side. At first, Vick thought it was due to his time in Sahova yet could it have been something else? He had left a while ago but still did not seem to get healthy in terms of looks.

Yet it gave Vick second thoughts about this. He really did not have any teaching history himself even if he was a high ranking member of Sahova. His “students” never did last enough for him to pass on his information but this was not like Malediction which he knew like the back of his hand. This was a magical power that even he had to struggle with as while he knew the basic information from long years of study and even learning it the hard way it was far different than teaching. As in the end, they were at the same level odds were.

Yet this was better than nothing at the end of the day. It had to be.

“So I guess this is where I tell you everything you wanted to know but I am not the greatest person to really teach right now. Yet I guess you need something to go on. So I will do what I can and see how it helps.”

Vick said after some thought as he looked at Thomas, his magic pressing along his body as he was trying to learn more of his djed and flow of magic.

“If you know Glyphing I want us to make simple scrolls so that can store the void portal. While I am really not the best with it since I kept putting it off I have made Void scrolls in the past. I would not use them for fighting but they can help suck up the magic so you don’t break things.”

He said not knowing if he knew that world magic off hand or even if he had the supplies to create a simple scroll or two. While it was not wise to create scrolls when learning Glyphing Vick still did just to make sure his creations would not break by mistake. It was just not wise to use them as the scrolls or portal would break apart or worse.

Yet either way, Vick would move forward with helping Thomas as he spoke again. Every now and then making sure he would blink to try to act more human for Thomas as he was trying to help.

“Voiding is one of the few magic studies that you can learn from a book. I doubt most cities have a book that has enough information to really learn it but that is how I was able to learn it. It does not need a master. Just yourself and time. So I am going to act like you don’t know the magic and help you “learn” it.”

This would be the hard part as while Vick had the rough bit of the magic he could not help Thomas understand the basic of the magic.

“As you should know with your time with Sahova we have a lot of different worlds and places outside of here. Yet when we use Voiding we are not using anything like summoning which makes a portal to a world but we are really opening a portal to a different dimension. Most of the time we would use it to send something to it. Trash, artifacts you can’t control, people or even monsters that you can’t kill.”

Vick said as he would let Thomas write down any notes if he was into that. Really he was showing a different side than what Thomas was use to odds are as he took his time to give him a foundation of information before moving forward even with his limited information yet what he knew the best was research and he had studied all forms of magic so long ago.

“It took me countless days in a closet sized room as I spent clearing my mind of thoughts as I focused on one word. You see you have to become aware of the feeling of meaningless and emptiness until a word does not mean anything to you so you can feel attached to the void. My first portal lasted just a blink of an eye yet it gave me a new feeling in the back of my head of something alive. Even once I made a small flicking portal it took me a long time to understand how and why.”

It was rare for Vick to talk about his past in detail like this as he thought back to when he was younger. He would not know what Thomas would think or feel about him opening up but it did not matter as he had to know more about what was going on.

“You know how you push your djed into objects when we do our world magic trades? To move and give life to new creations? That flow of life fuels the portal. Once you focus and get that portal to trigger you feed it. More you give the larger and longer it holds. Yet once you cut that flow off it dies like a fire covered in water.”

This bit was the key really. The biggest thing Vick could share about how the portals would flow. It was something that he was not sure if Thomas knew or not but he had to start with the bare basics as if Thomas knew nothing of the magic.

A sigh left the nuits lips as he looked up after talking for so long. Lost in thought and memory for a bit as he let his words sink into Thomas. Was he doing a good job at this? He was not sure but he had to keep moving forward.

“I was told before the world changed that wizards had to learn it. Since Sahova is frozen in time it’s how I picked so much up I guess. The world seems far different even with what I can recall when I was still alive. Even if you told me I would learn magic back then I would have laughed at you and told you it was a made up word that parents told you.”

He said as his eyes were slightly unfocused as he looked past the human. A memory flaring to life as he was just a little human boy on the beach playing with his parents as they ran back and forth from the water. Such a long time ago but he just shook his head as he refocused his mind back to the topic at hand.

“If I were you I would pick a word and find what it means to be empty. Find out what it means to bond with the void and understand the root of it. I can’t tell you how long it may take. Days, weeks or even longer but anyone can learn this with this idea. After all, it’s how I learned it and most since you don’t need a lesson.”

Vick stopped talking after that. It could have been one of the few times he ever said as much in one sitting but it had to be done. Thomas had to try to understand more and while Vick did not have to teach him this information he could not let someone wander in the world without knowing about what they were doing.

[Thomas Cosa]

Thomas listened, his expression an unflattering mixture of desperation and desire. The wizard boldly tried to memorize each word Vick offered him, each one more precious than the undead could ever know. Or perhaps he could; Thomas knew nothing of the master's past, he was only realizing.

Vick offered bits and pieces, pathetic slivers of information, but to Thomas, it seemed a smorgasbord. Portals. The Void. This magic, Voiding, seemed far less glamourous than Summoning, but the idea of a whole other world behind the cold veil was still incredibly, dangerously, interesting to him. A world of garbage, of long forgotten trash, from generations of wizards. He wondered if he could pull things out, or if the door only opened one way; the things he could learn, even from the trash of old Alahea!

"When the portals open, there isn't much warning. I mean, I feel cold," he started, burying his face in his hands. "Gods, I never understood personal magic, even Auristics, and somehow they see it fit to give me this?," Thomas whined, his voice muffled by an awkward pitch. "It all seems random, too wild and unpredictable, but I know that the power comes from me, but I don't how it starts. It wasn't an initiation, not like Auristics, it just started up one day," he sighed, breathing down his own panic. Speaking about his new magic, while almost liberating, acknowledged that it was happening to him. He couldn't deny the loss of control, not anymore. "So, when you mean find a word, do you mean to start as if I don't have this magic? That I need to walk through the steps of a Voiding initiation? Would that offer the control that I'm missing?" It seemed too easy, but Thomas hadn't thought of it -- he would hope that it would work.

"I do know Glyphing, although I haven't made a scroll before," he confessed, walking to collect some paper and ink. "Mostly I use it effect the Djed in my animations, make it more smooth, more malleable than wild Djed is otherwise."

Thomas put the paper, ink, and quills on the table, and sat down quietly. He still buzzed with questions, but one bothered him more than any other.

"Do you think I'll be able to control this? Or did the fountain marr me forever?" He asked in a whisper in a voice, shaking and frail, like a leaf lost to the wind. Thomas would fight for his magic, he would give his life easily for power, but he was scared of having been ruined forever because of one stupid decision.

Never would he drink from a fountain again.