A young magician by the name of Thomas Stein lives in a world where nations of humans and Fariborn, a species of monstrous creatures, are at odds with each other.
As a user of magic, Thomas is seen as a demon to the hierarchy of templars who govern...
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Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and, by sheer coincidence, something important is happening?
No? Well, tonight was one of those nights.
I'd become restless and unable to fall asleep to the point where I stepped outside to get some fresh air. Maybe it was because I took my medicine on an empty stomach. I wasn't sure.
Not that it mattered, because I couldn't even get a foot through the door before I felt that something wasn't right. I saw a faint light coming from the direction of Coinston, which was out of the ordinary. To confirm my suspicions, I went back inside and grabbed a bronze spyglass from my desk. Looking through it, I saw a massive fire engulfing an area in the middle of the town.
My first instinct was mild concern, followed by the want to ignore it. It was a bit far from me, and within the boundaries of a place that I had made a habbit of carefully navigating. I had very little reason to help, but then I had a thought. I was a warlock for God's sake, why shouldn't I? Putting out a fire of even that size would be child's play.
I guess all I can do to rationalize helping people who loathed me is to say that it was an impulse of goodwill. Or maybe I didn't need a reason at all, maybe that's just moral.
Regardless, I scrambled to get several things in my bag, put on the beckoning glove and opened the strongbox. With the beckoning spell, I could bring certain things to myself when I needed them. But over time, I'd learned how to bring myself to certain objects.
I put my left hand on the symbol in the box, concentrated, and snapped my fingers.
There was the quick flash of orange light, followed by what felt like being blasted by a gust of wind. When my eyes adjusted, I saw tell that I was no longer in my cabin, but out in the forest, with my hand flat on a beckoning symbol painted on a rock in the ground. It had been a while since I'd tried using the magic to warp somewhere, so I was relieved to see that it worked. The place where I was now was just outside the city walls of Coinston, and the only reason I was using magic so brazenly was because I was about to use a whole lot more.
After pulling a hood over my head, I sprinted past the gates and made my way to the center of town. The fire was large enough to be seen over the buildings I was near. When I rounded the last corner, a crowd of people was surrounding the building that was on fire. It was a small fabric and textile shop. Figures it would be the building to go up in flames.
I pulled a small and clear crystal shard from my bag and tried to move through the crowd as discreetly as possible. When I finally made my way to the front of the building, I felt the fluctuating heat coming off of the fire consuming the building. I heard a chain reaction of gasps and other exclamations from the townspeople behind me. My only hope was that they either knew I wouldn't hurt them or that they were to afraid to interrupt me. I tightened my grip on the shard and held it up to the fire. As I did this, the flame's behavior began to change, and it started to wind into a spiral shape.
