Mortal Magic: Broken

“So I’ve been wondering. I know that every master arte is unique to its magus, but how exactly does yours work”? We have been in the ship for hours and it was night by the time Yuto started inquiring me about the nature of my latest magic feat. He said the he refrained from asking in respect of my father’s passing but he was more curious than he thought before. I wasn’t against enlightening him about it and his interest was more than genuine and influencing.

“You said yourself once that the master arte is the manifestation of the true nature of the magus. In my case it’s barely more than a field that alters the world. Inside that different realm the limitations of my body disappear and the blood moon reigns supreme no matter the time of the day or the cycle of the moon. So while the realm exists on top of the real world I produce mana without end but I can do so without getting sick. In that realm I can be invincible”. From the one time I used that realm that was all I got from its power. It felt like another world to most I was sure, but to me it felt like the true world that I lived in. It was a world filled with darkness and pain that sit heavily like stones upon my shoulders.

He was listening carefully to my words as I was talking, never once interrupting me. Maia was sitting close doing the same thing too. “But most of that world is most likely the true state of my mind forcing itself to the real world”. No one said anything to my last comment but after a while of thought Yuto spoke up again. “Fascinating. I never heard of magic powerful enough to change the reality of the world and yet here is the magus that can make it happen right in front of me”. He was talking to himself not minding that I was right next to him while he was talking about me like I was something grand. In truth I didn’t like the things he was saying like my skill was something extraordinary. I did tell him about the way my magic worked but it was time he did the same too. I had guessed that he was much more powerful than he let on.

“Don’t you think it’s time you told us about your master arte too? You are a master magus too after all if I’m not mistaken”. He froze as he was speaking and looked at me at first surprised and then at Maia who was waiting expectantly just like me. It was evident that it caught him by surprise that both of us had caught wind of what he was hiding. I mean it wasn’t that hard to figure it out. From the moment I fought him in Redgard I knew that he was powerful but even now I didn’t know how much, and I wanted to know if only for that. He hang his head defeated knowing that there was no hiding the truth once you have been confronted by it and he sat down at his chair again. “Since when did you know”?

“I knew from the start that you were stronger than you let people think. I realized you are a master after we reached Starkhaven”. He nodded slightly and took a deep breath closing his eyes. This was either a big deal for him or it was something too sensitive to talk about. I surmised it was most likely the latter. He opened them again and looked to the wooden floor when he started speaking. “You already know the nature of my powers. I don’t simply control heat and fire on everything around me; I generate it out of thin air. Just like you produce mana I can procure flames from nothing. When my powers first manifested I was thrilled, but like all kids I was playing with fire and everyone knows what happens to those who play with fire”.

He made a somewhat long pause probably to gather his thoughts or to calm himself from the memories and continued. “I was a fool back then and I caused a fire that destroyed most of my hometown and they exiled me for that. A few days later as I was passing through another town I came across a young man that was being ambushed by bandits and I helped him. That man was your father, before he was crowned king”. The moment those words came out of his mouth I was sure that they were closer than most friends. I didn’t know how to describe it or how I knew it, but I was certain that they were very close.

“Of course I had no idea who he was back then; I only learnt that when the magi guard came looking for him and tried to arrest me for kidnaping. As if I could kidnap him even at that age. He could always make quick work of my flames”. He chuckled at the memory and his eyes never left the floor as if he saw the memories themselves playing out there. “He pleaded that I was the one who saved him from the bandits and that I was under his protection from now on, and they took me with them to the palace. There I met his father that wanted to thank me and asked me what I wanted, but of course I wanted nothing in return. From my getup he figured out that I was most likely homeless and he took me in as a guest to the palace. They gave me a home and when they saw me lose control over my flames because I hadn’t used them in days they trained me”.

“Over the next years I trained with your father, him mastering the art of projection and me learning to bend the flames to my will. And by the time Atreus had mastered his magic, mine exploded like yours did. I had no control of my master arte when it manifested. Like you said the master arte is true nature of the magus’ magic and mind. What I did was to create a fiery hell with flames strong enough to melt stone. A tornado made out of fire that almost burned the forest we were at the time”.

His face grew sad at the memory of his magic going so much out of control. I was starting to believe that he never wanted to use that arte in his life, but I could be wrong. “They managed to calm me down by injuring me, and that duty had fallen into your father’s shoulders. They took my dying body to the nearest healer and stayed with me until I woke up days later. The moment I opened my eyes he was crying his apologies and he was so funny in his beard that I started laughing no matter how painful it was. I could never hold a grudge against him though so I never even tried in the first place”.

A warm smile crept its way to his lips then. “In fact I still owe him for that. If he hadn’t injured me I would never have found my wife Marie and my daughter wouldn’t even exist. She was the healer he took me to and I loved her from the moment I saw her”. I could see he was happy and proud of his family and even sad that he was away from them even though he didn’t show it that much. “Anyway the point is, my magic is just as unpredictable as yours, if not worse. If I let it build up for too long then no matter what I do it’s going to be like a bomb going off in the best case. In the worst case I will unleash Crimson Inferno again and this is something that I always dread”.

Hearing his story made me feel better. It seems like not every time a master arte manifests the results are great. Sometimes they are tragic, for more people than just the caster. After he finished his story he got up and left the crew courters without saying a word. It was obvious that he didn’t talk about this often, and no matter how many times he does it won’t get any easier to do so.

Since it had been hours since the sun set and we were all tired we decided to go to sleep. There were many beds here and for those who preferred it there were also as many hammocks even though it never happened that the whole crew would sleep at the same time. I took one of the hammocks farthest away hoping that the distance would give the clue that I wanted to be left alone and Maia refusing to be too far away but not feeling comfortable laying on a hammock took the nearest bed. I could hear the snoring of the half a dozen men that were sleeping at the moment and the creaking of the floorboards as the ship moved. I could feel the movement and even though it didn’t make me sick it distracted me enough to not be able to sleep.

I decided that it was no use sleeping yet if I couldn’t do it so I got out of the hammock as silently as I could and moved like a ghost past the beds. I climbed above deck in the night I saw the few members of the crew keeping watch in the dark. There were no lanterns lit but that didn’t mean you couldn’t see. The light of the more than half moon along with the stars were all the light one needed here. I moved along the deck to the front of the ship and everyone ignored me to do their jobs like usual. It wasn’t that they were cold against us, in fact they were mostly polite and helpful in any way we asked. Just when they had a job to do it was all about the job, both the captain and the crew were adamant about it. It seemed as if this arrangement was born out of mutual respect and the unity of the same goal.

I made my way to the front of the ship and leaned against the wood watching the night in front of me. The sea blended perfectly with the pitch black darkness of the sky on the horizon. The only clue it was there was the light of the moon that was reflected on the surface of its waves. Without the snoring it was peaceful out here. The sound of the waves and the smell of the sea were giving you a sense of relief and calmness. As I was standing there doing nothing with my blank mind I heard someone coming my way and turned my head. I saw the captain of the ship having lost his shirt and holding a cup in his hand. Without the shirt his body seemed obscenely huge, like every muscle in his body had muscles. I saw that the tattoo extended to his chest and abdomen along with his forearm. He came closer with a smile and leaned on the wood beside me looking at the sea.

“She is a sight at night isn’t she? She can make you forget your worries even for a little bit, and all it takes is for her to sing to you”. He was talking as if the sea was the love of his life, and it was evident that this began a very long time ago. Not knowing what else to say I went with a simple “Yes” and then looked to the sea again. I felt his gaze on me and I tried to ignore it until I heard him sigh loudly and turned back to him.

“I know that something is troubling you young man. Say what does the new master of projection want in Whitespire after all? If I may ask that is”. Why was he asking this all of a sudden? He never once gave the impression that he was curious about the trip. I was reluctant to share the information but I figured that there was no use hiding the reason I was going to the eastern continent. At least part of the reason. “I’m searching for someone”.

After I gave him my not so enlightening reason we didn’t say a thing. We just stood there watching the dark sky mingling with the sea. Then after a while he spoke up again taking me by surprise. “You are afraid of it aren’t you? I was close when you were all talking before and I heard your stories. It’s only natural to fear what you think is changing you”. I didn’t think that my magic was changing me, I was sure of it. Every time I used magic I was feeling it going out of my control. The mere try to produce a sword would result in the making of at least one more at the same time despite my intent. An attempt to reinforce my body just a bit would end up bringing my ability to its limits. And every time I was angry Blood Realm was always ready to be deployed. And it terrified me what it would do to me.

“You don’t know what it feels like. To have the simplest of your abilities evolve into labors and twist your intent the whole time. And if that is not enough I feel my mind slipping away when I’m angry. It’s like my magic is driving me insane slowly and I can’t prevent it”. He looked at me for a second and then he started laughing loudly, the sound loud as thunder rumbling in the clouds. He kept laughing his heart out and I was getting irritated by him when he stopped and caught his breath. “What you are going through is not going out of control. Your intentions are clear to your magic, but they are so strongly conveyed that your magic is acting out to it; trying to give you what you desire”.

What he was saying didn’t make any sense at all. How could magic want to do things like it has intentions? Even trying to comprehend this was beyond my imagination, maybe beyond reason itself. And yet he was saying exactly that. He laughed a bit more this time not as loud and continued. “Magic is not just a tool or a skill young man. It has a mind of its own inside the magus just like mana. You can try all you want but if your intension is not conveyed to your magic then nothing will happen. However to do so is so easy that it always happens, but sometimes the intensions are so strong that cause magic to act differently. And by saying that I mean that magic will always act to better bring to life what the user wants. In your case, it simply acts depending on how much more you want something. Maybe since you are so close to the person you are looking for your intensions are clearer and more intense than before”.

It made more sense now that he explained more but still it was unlikely that this was true. My intensions were the same as before. The only thing that has changed is that now I want to kill Lars for murdering my father too, even if he wasn’t the one to commit the act. Did that count as my murderous intent getting stronger and affecting my magic? Even if it did I was sure that there was more to it than just that. Noticing my thinking the captain tried to reassure me. “Look, don’t overthink it. Most likely once you do what you want to do everything will calm down”. I let my shoulders hang and sighed loudly at him. How was I going to not overthink this? Would he be able to do so in my place?

Right then he handed me the cup he was holding with a smile. “Here, have some. It will make you feel better”. I looked at the cup suspiciously and I could smell that it wasn’t water that was inside. The smell was strong and kind of sweet and bitter at the same time. I looked at his face again silently asking him if he was serious. “Relax it’s not poison, or at least it won’t kill you. Some people call it a poison though”. I reluctantly took the cup from his hand and brought it to my lips where I sniffed at the contents once more to find the same smell. Deciding that I had nothing to lose from this I tilted the cup and took a gulp of the warm liquid. The moment I swallowed it though I regretted it. After I swallowed the places where the liquid had touched felt like they were burning and that feeling was not welcome to my throat.

I bent over and started coughing from the burn and the captain started laughing loudly like the first time as I was shooting daggers at him with my eyes. “I take it this is your first time tasting rum isn’t it”? Is that what this was, rum? I instantly hated the substance. It did have a somewhat sweet taste but it burned like hell after you drank it and I hated that. I would chose a stab wound over it any day. He took the cup from my hand and finished the rest of the liquid in one go and I was watching at him in surprise. After there was nothing left to drink he let out a satisfied groan and patted me on the back. “Well on the good side it will help you sleep better. Now I’m going to do just that, you should too. We are arriving tomorrow night”. With that he left smiling and I got back to the crew quarters where I found out that it rather did make it easier for me to fall asleep.