The Witch's Relay

Chapter 28: Ian

It was around a month after my moving away from home and joining the adventurers guild as a clerk, when a strange man came knocking on my door one evening.

"Hello? Who's there?" I called out, peeking through the peephole of my door into the hallway.

"I mean no harm, I have some things I'd like to discuss." The man replied. He pulled off his hood, revealing long and white tangled hair, and on his face he had a pretty substantial beard growing.

Suspicious of the stranger who didn't even offer his name, I asked what he would like to discuss, after which he looked all around nervously.

"Things that no-one else can be allowed to hear." He told me in a low voice, while looking directly at the peephole and into my eyes.

Surprisingly enough, this man, despite his suspicious attitude, had the look of someone whom I could trust. Trusting my experience in judging people as well as my gut instinct, I opened the door and let him in, but of course I made sure to keep my opposite hand close to the knife I had rushed to stuff in my sleeve before opening up.

"So? What is it?" I remember trying to stand as tall as possible and lifting my chin, trying to put on an arrogant expression, but in hindsight I must have just looked rather pretentious.

"I want to discuss with you a power lying dormant within you." He said in a mysterious tone, but one that said that he would explain everything, as long as I had the patience to listen. Which I did.

He proceeded to tell me strange tales about wizards and magic, about the fallings and risings of kingdoms and about all the different races inhibiting this world, about the vampires and the catkin, about the dryads and the succubi, and about a great many more that now only reside in the far corners of the continent, and of some that are downright gone by now. but most of all, he told me about the times before the great witch hunts and of the deeds- and fates, of the late last great mages of this world.

The old man who called himself Ian, told me a great many things late into the night, and I listened with both fascination and awe.

These visits became common, and despite the massive difference in our ages, I am safe to say we became friends. After some time he offered to teach me how to control the hidden powers dwelling within me, and I accepted the offer. Of course, since magic is outlawed, and any who practice it do it at the peril of their own lives, we had to move far away from human society.

Deep in a forest, several days' journey from my home village, we arrived at the old man's cottage. It was a cozy place, and somewhere I ended up beginning to imagine my whole future in.

I resided there together with Ian for several years, learning how to control magic and aiding him in his research.

But happy times can never go on forever, and after living there for a total of eight years, Ian passed away, leaving me alone with an empty feeling in my stomach.

Unable to bring myself to leave that place, I walled myself off from the world and improved on Ian's alert system to make sure that nothing entered that forest without my knowing, and when something- or someone did, I killed them, using the beautiful power which Ian loved so much to do unspeakable deeds.

I continued sharpening my skills, getting better and better at enchanting, crafting more and more powerful items, usually taking the form of jewelry for convenience, but also in an attempt to fill the bleak and colorless world with some sort of shine and beauty once again.

I practiced enchanting the items which I had picked up from the fallen adventurers and travelers who had attempted to cross my land, and that is also where I got my sword and a great many useful items. I also acquired seeds in that fashion and eventually picked up the hobby of gardening, which for a time brought back some color to my life for a brief time.

I began to wonder what point there was to my living here, and I contemplated attacking the royal palace on my own in a hopeless final battle, one where I'd finally meet my end. Such thoughts were often on my mind, with varying amounts of creativity being poured into them, but in the end, those thoughts were only for my fancy, and I never had the drive to commit to anything.

It was around this time when I noticed two rather fast dots running across my crystal map, and whether it was by chance or fate, but that day I saved a boy whom I took in to be my apprentice.

I decided that my one final deed to atone is to carry on Ian's legacy, to pass on what had been taught to me, to someone more worthy than I.

This boy became the light in my world. And I swear, that in my own broken and twisted way, he will sit atop this cracked and broken world unbroken.

...

I look down at the sleeping and peaceful face in front of me, as a smile appears on mine.

"We've come a long way Kade. Too long to let a stupid dreamwalker mess things up." Mages aren't supposed to be fighters, but somehow that is how things turned out in the end. Rather than being a noble, formidable and intellectual force like in the past, as they were meant to be, now, of the few that are left, they are mostly vagabonds and renegades. Killers and thieves. That is what Ian taught me, and that we need to be like the first mages, conquering the world by the power of knowledge rather than using force.

"We are the only ones left who can change this world, Kade." A tear rolls down my cheek before I have the chance to stop it. "I'm sorry dear friend, that things didn't turn out like you would have wanted."

I wipe off my face. "But no matter what, the relay must continue."