The Heir Of Dreams And Curses

Where I take the worst trip down memory lane ever

I asked my dreams to show me Advi's past again.

I could have asked for anything. I could have asked to see Edgar's future, or my own. I could have asked for Edgar's past, see what made him act cold and distant all the time. I could have asked to see my father, see what he had done.

However, I couldn't help but feel Advi and I were intertwined. He was so much like me. When I didn't ask for anything in peculiar, the dreams showed me a piece of his past. Now, I needed to know more.

Advi, in the dream, was talking to his teacher. It wasn't the same conversation they were having the other day --- Advi looked older. I felt his emotions, and I knew he had so much sorrow. He felt like I might have felt if I stopped giving a damn. We were different in that. I never gave up, no matter what happened. Advi had given up long ago.

"I know you disagree with my methods, Farheng." he said. It was the first time I heard the name of his master.

"I don't understand you, Advi. You should have told me."

I didn't understand what was going on, but Farheng had tears in his eyes.

"Of course you don't understand! You wouldn't have understand if I told you! Since my friends and I got lashings on our back for desacrating the magi's power, I wouldn't have told you a single thing of our creed had you asked!"

"Advi, I do not know why you're courting magic, even the dark part of it, the way you do, but you are like a son to me. I thought I was a father to you."

"You are! I guess. I never knew my father. I don't know how fathers are supposed to act."

I felt a weird feeling. Another thing we had in common, Advi and I were both orphans.

"When your mother died and you said you were going to take care of it, I thought you would have attempted to resurrect her," Fahreng said softly. "Not that you would do something so foolish."

"Foolish?" Advi laughed scornfully. "It worked, didn't it? No one could deny it was real magic, the likes of which most magi have never seen."

The fire lit in the room cast ominous shadows on the terracotta walls. I couldn't help but shiver internally.

Besides, the effort to translate their ancient language into modern English was making my brain boil.

"What does your experiment have to do with your mother's death?" Farheng asked.

"It made me see who was the one who killed her. And I suspected as much, of course. That she was assassinated, I mean. I couldn't have foreseen that it'd been..."

"Maybe this is all a misunderstanding."

"Of course it isn't! It's not her fault the war prisoner she was nursing escaped and killed the magus. I'll tell you what she was --- an independent woman. I imagine Jobias despised this the same way our father did."

"Jobias?" Farheng's eyes were open wide. 

"Yes, Jobias, her own son! You would give me a lecture for using the dark part of the universe for my magic, but he never did, and look at him! He killed someone already."

"But I heard you want to give up white magic altogether. Is that true? I remember what you always used to say, that good and evil are the two cosmic forces. You can't have one without the other."

"From now on, I'll take my energy from the evil source of the universe," Advi confirmed. "Because I've heard it dulls your pain inside. Killing someone is black magic. And people keep calling Jobias a hero! How are you a hero if you kill your own mother? But the real reason I'm giving up white magic is because I won't live long enough to practise both."