In the time it took Tellah to reach the caves in the mountains, he hadn't needed to use much of his magic. One larger concern was his failing memory. In fact, just a few days prior, he'd had one terrifying moment where he was unsure why he was in the desert to begin with. He had paused, feeling the earth sway under him gently. Tellah briefly thought he felt faint, but as he stood still, he noticed the spherical gem in his staff rocking back and forth in its cage. An earthquake? In Kaipo? he thought.
He watched, transfixed, as the gem slowed to a standstill. His first instinct was to ask Anna if she felt it, too, turning to head back home. Tellah was certain that just a few minutes prior he'd been in town, and the disconnect between the familiar town sights he expected and the emptiness that greeted him baffled him. Kaipo was a distant speck behind him, and he was alone in an unforgiving sea of sand and never ending summer sky. Thoughts were rushing a mile a minute, especially as he wondered how concerned Anna must have been about his disappearance…again. He sat down, heartbroken, dreading the thought of Anna rushing around town looking for him when he suddenly remembered that she was the reason he had left at all.
Tellah sighed in relief. He'd known there were brief lapses in his memory, but as they'd come for his memories, so they had come for his magical repertoire. The more complicated magic he once possessed were now noticeable voids in his brain, missing portraits in a beloved art gallery - he knew he once possessed a certain spell, but at times he couldn't even remember what they were. Tellah used to find it funny in his early adulthood days when he'd forget an entire evening after drinking with friends, but now? What would become of him once age devoured his soul, his very essence of being?
It was very fortunate, then, that as he traveled through the subterranean caves leading to Damcyan that the monsters he encountered were also no challenge for him. Battles ended fast, but the travel was slow. Tellah had overestimated his stamina. Each step in the shallow murky waters of the cave strained his hips, and his back was aching something horrible from resting on the rocky, damp surfaces. Finally, in one of the smaller caverns within, Tellah found a traveler's circle. He plopped down, groaning in relief. The glowing lines of incantations placed so long ago promised safety and restful sleep.
Exhausted and covered in mud, Tellah began taking inventory of his pack. He had enough to last him a few more days at this rate, but he was pushing his luck. He needed to move faster if he wanted to make it to Damcyan at all. He could only imagine the irony of one of Mysidia's greatest sages succumbing to the elements only a few hours away from civilization. He decided to open one of his few tent kits, and he used the kindle inside to start a fire and dry his feet.
The flames threw flickering lights across the waterworn ridges in the cavern walls, causing the shadows to distort in a strange dance. It reminded him of…something. A very early memory threatened to reappear. He focused on the moving lines, the curves shifting back and forth and back and forth and-
Tellah remembered.
"Again!" The instructor snapped. Tellah wiped the sweat off of his brow. "You won't eat until you cast Fire right the first time!"
On cue, Tellah felt his stomach rumble. It was loud enough that it earned him a quirked brow from the instructor. Tellah braced himself, and bowed his head to chant. He heard a rustle of robes, and the instructor's breathing near his head as she listened in.
"Much better," she said. Tellah kept at it, focusing hard on the phrases as they were about to come up. A sharp inhalation from the instructor, and he knew he missed something. The frustration set in and he felt the anxiety take over. A spray of embers bounced on the straw dummy in front of him, and it blackened slightly from the weak attempt.
"This. Isn't. Good. Enough. Tellah. Your father would be disappointed." She sighed and shook her head, walking away to leave Tellah to ruminate on his failures by himself, with only the training dummy to keep him company.
Tellah threw himself to the floor, feeling the fine sand of the training ground stick to his sweaty skin. The sky was a brilliant blue above him, a solitary cloud meandering lazily across his vision towards the Tower of Prayer. He watched it careen like a sailboat letting the wind take it where it may. The instructor was giving up on him. It made him begin to doubt his own abilities and the opportunity he was provided. His mind began to wander, and he considered everything that had brought him to Mysidia:
His father had promised to teach him magic when he grew as tall as the biggest post in their fence back in Kaipo. He had been only two inches away from his first lessons before his parents had been summoned to Mysidia on business. He awaited his parents excitedly; as he'd gotten closer to his goal, his father began bringing him along on his mage duties to witness his magic in person. He told him that their next trip after he came back was to help construct an underground room at the granary for the incoming heatwave. He'd told Tellah to come up with ideas for how to get the job done using only magic, and if he was right, he'd start the lessons early. Tellah waited day and night for their return drafting idea after idea, but days turned into weeks and still they were gone.
His neighbor Raslan, a young dairy farmer who occasionally sold his livestock at the market, had volunteered to care for Tellah in his parents' absence. When weeks turned into months and Tellah's parents had yet to return, they tried to send inquiries to Mysidia to find out more. This was to no avail, and Raslan shrugged and told Tellah not to worry. It was the nature of a mage to be summoned for longer than anticipated, especially with the growing demand to use magic for everything.
One day, as Tellah was on his way to care for Raslan's livestock, he passed his parents' yard. He paused at the post he'd almost completely memorized from checking his height against it habitually - and he could finally see the top of it. Up until that moment, Tellah had believed his parents would return, but finally seeing that the day he'd dreamt of the most had slipped by without fanfare and the sand in the hourglass of his mind counting down the days until he was finally allowed to learn magic had silently fallen so long ago, Tellah knew his parents were gone. It was as if he'd always known, just as he'd always known there were two moons in the sky.
That day Raslan came home with a letter, and even as Tellah broke the Mysidian seal on the back of the parchment to read it, he knew what the contents would be. A bittersweet surprise awaited him: he learned that his parents had died heroically to save a small fishing hamlet on the border of Mysidia from invading monsters, and the Order of Mages would hold a funeral of the highest honors for them. They also invited him to stay at no cost in Mysidia to learn magic from the best instructors they had to offer.
Tellah finished and gave it to Raslan without looking at him. Raslan read the letter and sat down next to Tellah, wrapping an arm around him.
"I'm so sorry." Raslan had said. Tellah's eyes were swimming with tears. "Your parents were the most amazing people I'd ever met. You don't need to decide right now. You can stay with me if you'd like, or you can go. I will help you regardless."
Tellah was grateful to Raslan and his unending kindness when his world had been upended. So it was with slight embarrassment that that evening, Tellah informed him of his desire to go to Mysidia to follow in his parent's footsteps. Raslan did not complain; instead, he helped him pack and bought him passage on a ship to Mysidia from the east coast of the continent. He even took him as far as the docks to say goodbye. Tellah had all of his belongings in two borrowed suitcases and watched life as he'd known on the continent disappear into the horizon.
Tellah had taken a big risk in coming to Mysidia, and he feared he'd made a big mistake. He stood up and brushed off the sand from his robes. He focused his eyes on the dummy once more and began to chant out loud. He'd gotten through three quarters of the phrase before he'd faltered again, and this time, nothing happened to the dummy.
"Dammit!" Tellah shouted, bending down to grab fistfuls of sand and pathetically throw them at his enemy. The dummy stood there unmoving and undamaged from Tellah's deranged attacks. Tellah ran at it and knocked it to the ground, throwing small fists into the makeshift, straw face. He ignored the small cuts the straw made on hands, incoherent cries of frustration escaping his throat with every blow. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that his parents were gone, it wasn't fair that he was learning magic from someone who didn't care, and it wasn't fair that he couldn't cast the most basic spell of black magic. Once Tellah was spent, he sat back still straddling the dummy. He thought of returning to Raslan and letting him know how he failed at magic - how he was nothing like his parents. That one stung the most, especially when he imagined the way Raslan would try to hide his disappointment when he took him in again.
Tellah started another chant under his breath, his head dizzy from the pressure building in his rage. Everything faded around him - it was only him, the spell, and his target. A ring of green light burst around him, and fire exploded across the dummy. Tellah opened his eyes and hissed at the blisters spreading along his arms - he'd inadvertently burned himself as collateral damage. It took him a moment to realize what he'd done. Relieved, Tellah started shouting at the top of his lungs for his instructor to come back, running after her and swinging his arms wildly, the pyre of his first spell dancing ever taller and wider as the winds fed the voracious flames into an excited frenzy.
I'm a sage, not a novice, he thought. I refuse to lose the magic I took years to learn . The dripping stalactites and the crackle of the fire were oblivious to the emotional turmoil torturing the sole occupant of the cavern. Tellah lay down, putting his pack behind his head as a pillow. A heavy ache filled his chest, his hands shaking slightly as he tried to rest. He could feel the atmosphere buzzing incessantly despite the serenity the traveler's circle emanated, an invisible bee swarm in the millions passing right through him. The magnitude was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. He never knew why he could feel darkness, but he attributed it to his fine tuned sense for magic.
Tellah turned on his side, hoping that by facing away from the bright flames he may be able to catch some sleep. Anna never could cast magic, try as he might to teach her. Instead, he made her learn basic self defense from traveling mercenaries as a contingency if Tellah was unable to protect her. Tellah told himself that even if he wasn't around, her sense of preservation and previous training would help keep her alive until he reached her. Whether or not it was true, there wasn't anything he could do about it until he made it to Damcyan; that thought was barely enough to let him rest. Hours later, once the fire had turned to mere embers and he felt the chill of the cave begin biting at his fingers and now-dry toes, Tellah stood and readied himself for the second half of the journey.
He stepped through the cavern, where larger bridges and natural staircases awaited him. He grumbled at the pulsing pain in his ankles. Just a little more…just a little more and I'll be out of these caves. Tellah repeated as a mantra. He came across an exit from the cave, light spilling freely into the darkness like water. He made his way through and felt warm sunlight kiss his skin and warm his joints. The air here was crisp and the wind rippled across his clothes. Tellah allowed himself a half hour here to recover before continuing through the northern waterway caves. He reached a large drop off in the cavern, the bottom of the drop barely visible in the darkness and amongst the splash back of the waterfall. Considering how much time he'd spent resting, Tellah said a quick prayer and leapt.
He expected the water to hurt as he broke through the surface, but the churning absorbed him easily. He let the turbulence carry him like a leaf in the wind before it calmed downstream. Here, Tellah could see there were less monsters than in the southern caves. While reassuring on the surface, Tellah knew this wasn't a good sign - cave monsters especially preferred deeper underground caverns to surface caves for their nests. Why had the monsters avoided this area? He soon received an answer.
In front of him were vibrant scarlet tentacles curling and swaying above the water. One tentacle alone was the size of a tree trunk. He sighed, the hope that perhaps he could sneak past the creature dissipated as the Octomammoth screeched in fury at his presence. The monster launched itself at him, and before Tellah could react, its tentacles curled around his waist and threw him against the opposite cavern wall.
Pain bloomed across his upper back and head, white static appearing in his vision and his legs weak as he tried to stand. He cursed at his dislocated shoulder. The monster screeched again, its war cry piercing Tellah's ears once more. It floated up slowly, bulging bloodshot eyes glaring at him. Hundreds of curved, bloodstained teeth like wild reeds were in full display across its seemingly overextended mouth. Tellah healed himself, wincing as he felt the joint reset, the cavern temporarily lit under the brightness of white magic. Tellah noted the piles and piles of bones and leftover sinew strewn across the cave from the cephalopod's previous meals. The tentacles lashed out again, but Tellah was prepared this time and cast Thundara just before it touched him. It recoiled, floating to the back of the cavern, slowly sinking to hide its mouth. It kept its large eyes fixed on him, bubbles floating up below the surface.
In his youth, Tellah was certain he could cast fast enough to defeat the creature without being touched. I can't do it alone anymore. I have to cut my losses and run, Tellah thought. He backed away from the monster, never letting it leave his sight. He rounded the corner and hobbled back to the waterfall. He stood there, staring at the faint light at the top of the waterfall. He cursed again. What was the incantation for Float? Tellah hoped that the Octomammoth had recently fed and wasn't inclined to follow him. He stroked his beard. Teleport would work well here, too! Except…he couldn't remember that either. Tellah grew frustrated. The spray from the rapids sprinkled coolly across his face.
Recalling spells now…it was very similar to getting carried away in the water. The disorientation: not knowing which way was up and where dry land was. Was this word supposed to be said here? Was there an inflection there? This phrase sounds right; it's what's taught is used for this school of magic, and yet…it doesn't fit anywhere in the incantation.
After a few false starts, Tellah was able to scrounge up enough of both spells to pull off a weaker hybrid. It threw him to the top of the waterfall in the blink of an eye, a brief sensation of falling causing his heart rate to quicken as he landed with a light drop in the waist deep water.
Well, that solves one problem, for now… Tellah thought, wading back the way he'd come. Perhaps someone in Kaipo could help him? If needed, he could even ask his friend in Mist…
A/N: A friend in Mist? ;) I've got tidbits up to chapter 5 written here and there. I might update a little slower considering the whole flashbacks thing will occur at different points of Tellah's life throughout the chapters...I need to make sure that those pieces tie together in a way that makes sense. Thanks for reading!