Chapter 3 -:o Playing with fire o:-
"Is he all right father? I didn't mean to do it, I mean I just tried to turn his hair bright red, I swear it! Is he-"
"He's all right, the priests are looking after him. I hope you learned a valuable lesson!" Gorion scowled at his teary eyed apprentice.
Ged felt the stone fall from his heart upon hearing that Dreppin wasn't in danger, and wiped his eyes. He and Imoen had intended to play a prank on Dreppin, using Ged's meagre magical skills. It had gone awry, igniting Dreppin's hair into flames instead of making it change color.
Ged felt ashamed and miserable, having knowingly disobeyed Gorion's strict orders on not using his spells while not under his or Tethtoril's supervision. The three years he had been under Gorion's tutelage, he had learned quickly and quite easily just about everything Gorion had taught him.
He had become arrogant and foolish and this was the outcome. Intending to impress Imoen, who had a rather dismissive and uninformed view of magic in his opinion, he had instead caused what he though had been a dangerous accident. In fact the Cantrip he had cast wasn't capable of causing harm and had merely burned off most of Dreppin's hair without causing any damage to his skin. Gorion knew this, but didn't tell Ged thinking instead to use the incident as a chance of showing his adopted child the responsibility that came with being a magic user.
"You see now why I've always told you NOT to use magic without me or Tethtoril being around."
Ged lowered his head and choked back a few tears of shame.
In his heart, Gorion was torn in two directions over his protege's skills. On one hand, Ged was showing amazing talent. He had all the markings of being a magical prodigy. With practice and experience he might become a true archmage. On the other, he was learning a little too easily and surely. Some times the boy seemed to know the answers to the questions before Gorion had asked them, as if someone else was taking part in his education and giving the boy guidance Gorion had no say in.
As he silently pondered these questions in his mind, the boy had wiped off his tears and was looking at him.
"Father... Gorion? Please, tell me-"
Gorion sighed, and shook his head. Perhaps, he couldn't just tell the boy to wait anymore. He had just turned fifteen and deserved to know at least something.
"Shhh." he put a finger to his lips.
"Sit down." he motioned towards a chair in the corner of their small room, which Ged sat on after a moments hesitation.
Gorion sat on his bed himself and took a moment to gather his thoughts.
"I will tell you about your mother."
Ged's eyes perked up at that and his hands curled into anxious fists.
"I will not tell you much, and you must promise to ask me no more until the time comes when you are ready to learn the full truth."
Ged started to speak but Gorion raised his hand to silence him.
"Furthermore, you must promise not to ask anything about your father. I will tell you everything about him too, when the time comes. When the time comes for you to know, not before."
Ged gulped nervously.
"I p-promise." he stammered.
"Good. I am not doing this to punish you. When the time comes, you will understand. You were a special child and will be even more special a man as you grow into adulthood. As of now, you are still a youth, not yet a man."
There was a moment of silence as Gorion once again gathered his thoughts.
Ged could feel the blood race through his veins. He felt feverish with anticipation, yet trying to keep his expectations low as Gorion had warned him to.
"Your mother was a special woman, special in a way unlike you. She looked quite like... No. She looked exactly like you. The same, fine features and those eyes... I see her face in your's everytime I look at you. I was her... We were lovers."
Ged had long suspected this, but knowing for certain was better and he was relieved. Even if Gorion was not his real father he had often hoped his mother had been close to Gorion. It made him feel as a part of family.
"In my youth, I used to travel with her. We became inseparable. She was I think a few years older than me and came from Silverymoon, a legendary city to the north. Your mother served Mystra, as I do now, and yet was closer to her, in a way that I can never be. We were so happy those few years, but then your father... Your real father..." Gorion struggled to find words and his voice trembled with emotion.
"Your real father came between us, you might say. We were separated and were apart for many years. Then I heard... of your birth, and heard that you were in grave danger. I raced to save you, accompanied by my most powerful comrades and succeeded. But I couldn't save your mother." A tear rolled down Gorion's cheek.
Ged watched his adopted father in amazement and terror. He had had no idea there was something like this behind Gorion's reluctance to speak about his true parents. And what about his true father...
After taking a deep breath, Gorion continued. "Three of my companions had given their lives that day. Bulda, Cirriq and Delshera. Yes, the same ones that I have told you about in my stories. I gave up the adventuring life after that and took raising you as my profession.
Gorion didn't speak for a few minutes, and Ged remained silent as well.
Then his adoptive father rose from his chair and smiled.
"Now, I shall demonstrate you the correct way to turn someone's hair red using a Cantrip. I think I know the error you made..."
Ged smiled as he listened Gorion, but his mind was elsewhere. All he could think for the moment was the glimpse of his past and family Gorion had shown him before slamming the door shut again.
"Ged! Are you listening to me?"
"Yes, father. Stress the first syllable and don't over do the finger twirl." the boy answered automatically. He could absorb details of spellcraft from conversations and lecturing almost as naturally and easily as one might take a breath or blink.
"Good... let's continue, shall we?" Gorion said with a smile, not noticing anything amiss.
Ged nodded, this time concentrating more fully.
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"Oh my son how I've missed you so. I and you father both."
Ged smiled, couldn't stop smiling. He was standing in the green fields outside the fortress, which loomed behind him. Somehow it seemed to recede even further, as if he was being drawn toward the figures standing in front of him without walking.
The woman (who was exactly as he had imagined her!) was smiling sweetly, dressed in a beautiful white gown and silver cloak with golden trimmings. Her brown hair billowed freely in the wind. The other figure was as if shadowed and he couldn't make out his(?) features.
Somehow he knew, it was his mother and his father, and they had come to take him away from this stupid fortress where nothing ever happened and all the dull monks made even laughing seem a crime.
"You've come to take me away, haven't you?" he asked anxiously.
The woman (his mother!) smiled sweetly and her eyes (exactly like his own!) shone with warmth and love.
"We have come to take you away from all this mundane foolishness Gedragon, son your father. Your fate awaits and you will accomplish great things. The past is over." her voice said, melodious as a golden harp.
Ged blinked and rubbed his eyes quickly. Had her lips moved? He couldn't be certain, but they must have...
"Yes..." he said, taking a step closer, then glanced back over his shoulder.
"Wait, I must go and tell Gorion!" he remembered suddenly.
"Won't he be surprised to see you mother? Just- Yaugh!" he screamed, feeling something cold grasp his shoulder.
Almost dreading the inevitable, he turned his head and screamed again upon seeing what had him in it's grip.
His mother was a living corpse, maggots crawling in her empty eye sockets and falling to the ground. Her beautiful dress was tattered and spattered with blood. The dark figure stepped forward and took on a horrifying shape. It was a blood red, nightmarish construct of scales, claws, fangs and horns and it laughed cruelly as it towered over him.
"You have no need of Gorion anymore, son. Your true father is here..." it gurgled at him and extended one of it's clawed arms.
Ged screamed and tried to recoil, but the corpse of his mother held him tight.
The horrible appendage took his other arm and he felt intense burning pain in his chest even as the claws sunk in his flesh.
"You cannot escape, Gorion cannot help you, no one can! You belong to me!" the monster laughed, and Ged screamed and screamed...
And woke up screaming, as Gorion was shaking him. He collapsed in a sobbing heap on his adopted father's arms, repeating the same words over and over again:
"Don't let him take me, don't let my father take me..."
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"Does he remember anything?" Tethtoril's voice was grave.
"I don't believe so, thank Mystra." Gorion replied.
"He only knows he had a nightmare and is even embarrassed at waking everyone in the floor with his screaming."
They were sitting in Ulraunt's office, and the owner himself was seated in a third chair, with a not-all-too sympatethic look on his aquiline features.
"I warned you Gorion. I knew that you couldn't help him for all the cleverness and kindness you possess. I knew!" he thundered, ignoring Tethtoril's angry gaze.
"I know you did, and as little as I cared for your blithering meddling back then I care less than half that much today." Gorion answered his accuser, voice even but his light blue eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
Ulraunt's darker eyes flashed with anger but he knew the mettle of his two guests and for all his arrogance and power he chose not to press the point further.
"In a way, the most high Ulraunt is right Gorion, my friend." Tethtoril said. "I imagine now that this has begun it will gradually worsen and culminate in..." he paused.
"You don't know what will happen, old friend. No one does. We shall see if kindness, guidance and stable childhood will be enough to counteract the darkness that... threatens him." Gorion replied sipping a glass of red wine Ulraunt had served them.
"I trust your judgement, Gorion. I always have. With you at his side, Ged will always have a positive force in his life." Tethtoril said, smiling at his friend.
"Bah. The darkness that spawned him will consume him the moment you avert your eyes, mark my words! What's bred to the bone can't be changed with a few kind words and coddling. He'll come to an ignominous end, I've never been so sure of anything in my life." Ulraunt sneered, drawing an angry scowl from Tethtoril but not even a look from Gorion.
The priest-wizard only sighed wearily and rose from his chair. He bowed slightly to both the kind Tethtoril and the most high Ulraunt, Keeper of the Tomes and politely excused himself, leaving his two companions sitting in sullen silence.
