Damien finished reading his book, looking at the time, he rushed to check it out, running outside. The night was young, but even then he was running late. "Great…" Damien looked around running his hand through his curly black hair, he fumbled with the locks to his bike, barely stuffing them into his jacket pocket before hopping on and racing down the streets like starving hound chasing a hare. The only sound that registered as he peddled was the air rushing past his ears, and the clicks of his wheels turning. As he neared a downhill slope, Damien spotted a woman running from a man, as he got closer, he attempted to stop the man.
"Stay out of it! I've got this!" The man yelled, tall and brawny, he charged the girl. The girl was lean and willowy, with long brown hair and a face he didn't fully recognize. He charged towards them, leaping in to help the man, only to be knocked away by him as the girl opened her palm, revealing a snake which leapt and struck the man in the neck, killing him. As Damien landed, he looked at the man's prone form, which began to rot away as the light and color drained from his world. He looked at the girl, eyes a mix of fear and hate, and ran towards her, only to be pushed unto the road. A truck suddenly materialized, the driver blaring his horn. Damien felt smaller as he turned back to Yana; who with a cruel dismissive smirk turned her back to him and the corpse, before turning to see the truck, only instead seeing Tartarus, his face, his form, his sword, smirking as he aimed straight for his heart…
Faris opened his eyes, "Did we get her?"
"No…" He looked up to see Vern, "But you should rest."
"Wait? What happened?" Faris tried to get up, but he hurt all over.
"I'll tell you later, you need to rest." Faris looked at his surroundings, it was the familiar sterile white of the hospital room. He groaned internally as the door opened. Revealing Katya's mother. Vern excused himself, nodding a goodbye to Faris.
"Faris…" She said without looking up. Her eyes scanned the notes in front of her. "You have to stop being so reckless."
"What? For my sake?" Faris looked away, "At least she was captured."
Instead of responding to that Sona continued, "Faris, you're breaking yourself apart, your body can only withstand so much, just because you survived doesn't mean you'll survive the next excursion. You're too young already to be a knight, and couple that with your infirmities then-"
"What?" Faris laughed, "I should just give up? Call off? Renounce everything?" He looked at Sona with his pale blue eyes. "I've spent a year and a half living without magic and with my infirmed body. I haven't been able to talk to my parents in person all this time, because you and I both know they'd die for my sake in vengeance going after the Scarlett Heart, so I've had to lie to them."
"What, and you're honest all the time?" Sona looked at him with motherly reproach, "You've been lying to your friends all this time as well, in fact you're lucky they didn't see you being taken to the emergency room. Can you justify lying to them all this time?"
Faris looked troubled, before sighing and continuing. "Miss, perhaps you should ask Lord Jaya that."
"He's not Lord Jaya anymore after everything that happened, he hasn't been Lord Jaya for a long time, but I want to hear it from your mouth Faris." Sona looked at Faris with concern. Her daughter had come to her crying about his cold abandoning, she had gotten over it, but his memory left a bad taste in all the children.
"Okay…" Faris cracked a smile, "I'll enlighten you. Let's say go back in time, my friends just find out where I've been held, but are forbidden to try and rescue me. Despite threat of expulsion or worse, they go off. They almost get killed several times trying to rescue me. And only through good fortune and the skills they've acquired do they survive. Their goal was to rescue me, who at the worst would be dead, or the victim to experimentation. Following so far?" He didn't wait for her answer. "They find me too late, in fact, they get captured, it's literally pure luck in the fact the Shade chose to attack Venka first that saved them. Or else one of them would be dead, by my hands." Faris looks mad, "Do you have any idea how that feels?! I have dreams of that moment, only instead of just Venka, my hand goes into the chest of Nya, or Morgan, or your Daughter, or the elven twins, even of my parents." Faris's face heats up. "So! They risk their life to save mine, and end up too late, luck is the only reason they end up surviving, and at the end of that all, I lose my magic. Do you know what I saw on their faces? What the last vestiges of magic told me was going on in their minds?"
"What?" Sona asked, but she knew the answer.
"Relief…" Faris shook his head, "sure, I lost my magic, but to the majority of them, despite how weak I normally am, and who I am to them, what happened with the shade was too dangerous, too, unknown. They aren't fully sure I'm truly Faris ot Shade Tartarus. And so the fact I can't use magic is good to them. Because sure, if I'm just Faris, too bad, I was weak, now I'm nothing, but at least I wasn't that powerful in the first place, so I didn't actually lose too much in their eyes. But now, they don't have to worry about having to put me down if I'm actually that blasted shade." He speaks calm and low, matter of fact in order to hide his anger. "I'm not mad at them for that though," he looks at his hands, scarred with the marks of his torture and loss of magic, still as fresh as ever, "I'm angry that they wrote me off, I told them, lied to them that I was fine, that I was right as rain without magic, that despite the fact magic was one of the most important things in my life, I could handle without it."
"And you couldn't" Sona asked.
"Miss Sona, forgive me, but fuck you," Faris crossed his arms, "You were born with magic, just as I was, it's a part of you, so even the most difficult of mundane tasks are rendered simple chores. Perhaps it took learning magic to understand just how terrible it can be to not have it in this world. If a mage wanted to, they could snap my neck from across the city and I couldn't do anything to them." He looked out the city, "Even the Lords of cities who dislike magic users have a magic using squad assigned to protect the lord, because people aren't stupid, so why do you insist I ignore that?" He looked at his body, "Even with this body of mine, with extreme amounts of hard work, I could compete with the other students. But now? I can't even compete with Yana, who's always had terrible physical enchantment abilities. But at least she's captured right?" He narrowed his eyes at Sona's silence. "She was captured wasn't she?" His voice rose. "You mean to tell me after this entire debacle! She's just allowed to leave?!" He felt his temperature raise as he looked at Sona.
"Her mother ordered her release." Sona said.
"And on who's fucking authority was she release-" Faris felt his chest tighten, he began coughing out blood as he felt his organs snap from within, like thousands of nails drilling inside him in an attempt to escape his body. Sona looked on in concern, running towards him, magic in hand. The last thing to take hold of him before the shock took hold of him was of a glimpse of Yana, outside his window, a smirk on her face as she raised her hand once more…
"You know… It's getting really hard to just sleep in here…" Faris looked around, his mind confused and fractured from the pain. Where had that voice come from? He wondered, it was somewhat familiar, but also not…
"Who is this…." He asked, voice echoing in the confines of his head, a black wasteland of shadows and darkness.
"I'm your conscious, here to take you to the afterlife after weighing your deeds…" The voice sounded filled with mirth, mixed with a malevolent edge.
"You…" Faris felt his hatred boiling up, roiling around his mind like tendrils of darkness. "What do you want… I thought you died…."
"So did I…" The voice called out, "But still… it seems just as I influenced you, you were influencing me…" It laughed... "This past year-and-a-half has proved fruitful. First you separate from your friends, then the family of the man responsible for all this receives accolades and honors." Faris wanted to shut the smug voice up, to grapple with its source and grind it against the walls of his mind, reduce it to nothingness. Destroy it in the most thorough way possible. "Then, when things started picking up, you lost your -"
"If you continue… I swear I will destroy everything you are, and make it my mission to destroy your kind, and wipe them from the face of this continent."
The voice laughed. "Calm down Faris, you and I both know that can't happen, but you've surprised me, you've steadily kept at it, growing stronger, despite your hardships, you won't simply give up. That is in extremely infuriating feeling you know…"
It was Faris's turn to be sarcastic, "Oh well I'm sorry, why don't we just hug it out, if your heart's feeling weary I'll just loosen the tension, and gut you."
The voice laughed some more, taking on a maniacal edge. "Oh… that's not very paragon of y-" Faris's mind flooded with a red light as he struck out, striking the source of the echoes within his mind, he felt a biting pain wrack across his being, like an electric shock throughout his body. "...That hurt Faris… why're you being so mean…"
"Shut up!" Faris yelled, his mind was as he remembered, shattered, fragmented, as if the moments before his friends helped him retake his mind from Tartarus, who self-destructed as a last resort. "I don't want anything to do with you!"
"What if I could offer my help… for vengeance sake."
"No…" Faris quieted down, choosing to ignore whatever the Shade would say next.
"I'll help bring back Damien, and all those other… memories."
"You're lying."
"Eka thorta du ilumëo, eka weohnata hávr onr fricaiya kausta, heill" ("I speak the truth, i will have your friends come back, healed")
Faris's mind reeled, "How?! Bring them back now!"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, I can't just help you, I need something in return."
"I won't kill you…"
"It's not that easy Faris" The shade laughed, "I'm not so easy to-" The voice sounded choked, surprised, as it felt a vice grip on it, systematically tearing it apart. "W-what?!"
Faris laughed humorlessly, "For the past year, my mind hasn't been able to venture out and explore the experiences of others, others have to reach into me, and to do so, I have to break apart my defenses, so… what do I do? Just allow them inside? I've trained my mind as sharply as my body, there's a reason my friends haven't detected my mind all this while, and a reason Yana wasn't able to attack me mentally Tartarus. My mind is the ultimate weapon, and I can assure you that likely only a handful of beings in Alagaesia can defeat me. I don't know how powerful your mind is normally, I don't care if you are weaker than you were before, and I don't care about what schemes you have, the second you contacted me, you set your neck on the guillotine, and gave me the lever to drop the blade down your neck, figuratively of course. So… because I'm so 'Paragon', here's my offer, friend." He said friend with an icy coldness before smiling. "You're going to help me bring back the rest of my fractured mind and all the others, you're going to help me get revenge on that bitch and her family, you're going to help me get my magic back, and I'm going to thank you." He chuckled, "Then you're going to begin trying to convince me why I should let you live." Faris tightened his vice grip on the spirit's essence, tearing off bits in a slow but methodical fashion.
"Wait!" Tartarus screamed, relief flooding it as the tearing stopped. "I… I'll help you, but you have to promise me, if I help you, you won't kill me then."
"That's game for me, you must also promise" Faris grew serious again, "DON'T. EVER. BETRAY. ME." After a few seconds, he felt something, something different, almost like scratching an itch one didn't know they had as his mind felt, loose, spread apart, but focused. "What was that?"
"Slowly, over the year, some of your expended energy was used by me to restore parts of you, I can't fix everything, but at the least I've amassed enough power to restore your mind somewhat." Faris grew excited only to have his joy dashed away. "That doesn't bring them back, all it does is awaken you to the possibility of magic, even then, you can't use spells, but, you can reach out with your mind again, and speak to others that way." Tartarus winced at Faris's pondering mind, neither happy nor sad.
"I can deal with this, but explain the enhancing."
"Your body was changed when we combined." Tartarus began, "Even damaged, you should still be a few times stronger than the average human. Whilst you are ravaged of magical ability, I can replicate your spell to enhance your body's physical movements, reflexes, and senses, it won't be as great as before, but it will last a good deal longer. It also comes with one major advantage." Tartarus seemed to glow in pride. "Much like those enhanced children, you can be restored from physical ailments other than instantaneous annihilation to the complete degree, but unlike them..." He added, sobering under Faris's irritation, "...er… unlike them, the stamina drain will be great, due to your low amount of stamina."
"Activate it now." Faris said.
"I already did." Tartarus beamed in prideful energy.
"That's the least you can do." Faris turned dismissively. "So what now, you inhabit my mind as an active participant?"
"Yes and no, I'll remain dormant for the most part unless you rouse me, though I'm at least somewhat aware of what is going on."
"Any… side effects?" Faris asked, curious, as it was, he'd be similar in a way to the pseudo-dragon fanghur, who attacked their prey with mental attacks to immobilize them, whilst it was not his magic back, it was still a powerful boon nonetheless.
"Well… whilst in this state, your metabolism will rapidly rise, so you'll get hungry relatively quickly, especially the more you expend in movement. Head hair and nails may also start to grow at a faster pace, it's not really noticeable, perhaps ten times faster, so it would only really begin to show alongside what would appear to be large growth after you sleep."
"Ten times? What, that's like 1 millimeter a day? It would take me a little less than a month for them to grow more than an inch, so that's not worrisome. But for hair, that might be a problem, then again, I don't won't be using it 24/7." Faris thought to himself, "So… why did you choose now to introduce yourself again?" He laughed as he heard Tartarus's answer.
"You were dying again, that woman, Yana, she weakened you. So I assumed."
"That I'd go along with any agreement you put forth in a desperate bid to stay alive and gain vengeance?" Faris laughed again, "You astound me." Tartarus grumbled as Faris felt himself being lifted from his introspective. "It looks like I'm… waking up."
Faris opened his eyes to a group of Protector of Life Mages. Before they could say anything, he asked, "Let me guess, as soon as the 'guest' I arrested was released into her mother's custody, then she 'disappeared' for about an hour, then during that hour I "somehow" got these new injuries and almost died, completely by "accident".
One mage looked at him in semi shock. Another just sighed. "It's out of our hands, the queen is touring the battle lines south. The first time you accused her was already apparent enough, but Lady Camille has deep ties with the nobility."
Faris nodded, "I understand…" He scratched his forehead, flinching as he felt a sharp pain and drew back blood. He inspected his hand revealing some of his blood on his finger nails, which were about a half of an inch extended from his hand, tapering into razor sharp tips. He immediately felt his hair, which was a shaggy mess extending past his shoulders. "How long was I unconscious?"
"It's a miracle you're even alive." One of the mages confessed excitedly. "To couple with the fact that recovery was only three days! It's ama-" Faris cut him off with a raised hand.
"Yeah… I get the picture." Three days? That's like a month of growth if I've had this ability active this entire time! He groaned internally.
Hey… you needed every second of those three days, even whilst the mages poured magic in to heal you, she cast a spell to destroy your heart, and crush your brain, as well as sever your spine, if I hadn't acted, you'd be dead, even then, you lacked the stamina to completely heal, so I had to siphon the energy from your bird.
What did you do to Ventus?! Faris felt his anger welling up, but sighed in relief to see his bird friend, simply resting on a roost by his bedside.
Nothing! Tartarus seemed to recoil in his mind, fearful of Faris's wrath. The bird's gem, the one you gave it, it's been siphoning off energy from his surroundings this entire time! That bird's spent huge swaths of time in the forest, in front of thousands upon thousands of organisms, hell, it could be a mage for all you care. Tartarus's tone switched from defensive to prideful. I bet you don't even realize how much your owl changed.
Yeah yeah, Faris quieted him. He looked at Ventus, you saved my life buddy, thanks… He heard Tartarus grumble about ungrateful kids, and where's my thank you. But chose to hold his tongue on the fact this situation was mostly brought about by the Shade's cheap self-destruct. Looking at the mages, he sighed. "So, can I get discharged?" Without waiting for their answer, he stepped off the bed, and realized he was starving….
After a haircut and the consumption of a copious amount of food, Faris made his way to the military academy. Upon entering it's halls he immediately made his way to the Headmaster's office. "Hello Donovan" He called out, not knocking. He to his amusement found the headmaster holding hands with a middle aged woman he recognized as the school's head historian and librarian. "Oh… sorry to interrupt."
"Faris!" Donovan blustered angrily, "Knock first child!" Faris grinned to himself as he backed up, closing the door. He knocked then opened it again.
"Hello." At this point the woman's face was beet red, and Donovan's was only a shade deeper.
"What do you want?!" Donovan asked angrily.
"I'd like to know where my squad is, I want to let them know I'm alright."
"They're on a mission." Donovan said angrily.
"Without me?" Faris asked. "Where too?"
"I can't tell you, no use intercepting them Damien."
Faris narrowed his eyes. "Oh? It's a place I shouldn't be? Actually, with that being said, on whose orders was Yana released?" He waited a few seconds before turning around. "I'm taking a leave of absence for a month."
"You can't do that!" Donovan began angrily.
"But I can sir, I survived a terrible accident you see, so in my shock I decided to rest and recuperate, and I just happened to be off the radar for about thirty days." Faris laughed, "Besides, I don't have magical powers, so it's not like I can get in alot of trouble."
Donovan sighed, "Going on leave? Fine, I can spin it that way, I'll even provide you a horse, for vacationing, I heard Ceunon is lovely this time of year, there's even a brochure."
Faris's eyes flashed, but he smiled, "Thank you, I'll pack up in a bit and return later."
He stepped out, heading towards the blacksmith shop he had been working in. As he made his way across the streets towards Gurant's forge. Nodding his hellos to the several blacksmiths that knew him as the man's apprentice, he entered the forge. Gurant was busy at the forge, after they made the sword, the man had taken to tinkering and working on the many designs Faris brought to him. The old man did not want for money, so in his twilight years he took to the forge with a excited vigour. Faris had convinced him to take on more apprentices, both of which were mages from the Commerce and Engineering Guild, two copper initiates who were suggested by Bartholomew, twins by the name of Laslow and Marshall. They were a clever pair of young teens, older than him yes, but quite kind, they also deferred to him as the elder apprentice. They helped him now pack his gear for his trip.
"So, everything's been calibrated." Marshall began, excitedly, brown eyes reflecting off the light from the forge, Gurant was working on something, with Laslow assisting him, they had barely acknowledged Faris, which he accepted in stride. There were times where the forge took all of one's time and patience to complete. Turning back to Marshall he returned back into the conversation. "...swords and knives have been sharpened and cleaned, the flax oil is lined in the sheath. Your bow was restrung and cleaned, and the different arrows are fixed and ready." Marshall chuckled nervously, "It's like you're going to war."
Faris laughed, "Well I'm heading to Ceunon." He grinned at Marshall's horrified expression. "Don't worry, that's why I'm taking all of this," He laughed, then remembered, "Oh! And is it ready?" He looked at Marshall expectantly, who after a confused expression nodded rapidly.
"Oh! Oh! Yes! Yeah! It's ready!" Marshall smiled.
"Where is it?"
"It's in your storage locker, along with 10 magazines, we finished the last 2 today."
"Thank you," Faris nodded, heading to his storage locker. Near the end of the forge, past the dirt and soot covered smocks, lay the failed and unproductive experiments, past that lay some of the better results of their work. First was the cannons, Faris smiled as he passed by his first one, it was in all honesty a reinforced iron barrel with one opening. Inside it would be stuffed with purple soldier powder, then a large iron or stone ball would be launched with massive force, capable of massive amounts of damage and blowing through literal months to years worth of warding. Of course it wasn't something you could use unless you wanted to immediately kill someone. It could also be used for mining, but blasting huge holes in the ground was a great way to start cave ins, ultimately it was discontinued after the fourth one, and they started going smaller.
Next on the list was finding ways to miniaturize the steam engines, for something smaller than trains, after a bit of tinkering, they were able to create a steam engine about ¼ the size of the original thing, this could be fitted to a much lighter rig, and could exude about half the power of the original engines. They were submitted the design to the kingdom, and smaller trains were on the way, faster and carrying light cargo or only a few people, this was the key to their wealth, as these smaller trains were affordable enough that it was possible to begin building trains to major cities, railways had already been made to Teirm, Gilead, Aroughs, and Aberon, the capital city of Surda. This venture had been extremely profitable to Faris and Gurant, enough so that the master blacksmith no longer had to take blacksmith orders out of necessity. Faris moved on to his storage locker, Marshall's and Laslow's was too the left, both their lockers had their names branded on the metal outside, with little images, and bits here and there. Faris's on the other had was completely blank on the outside, no cosmetic changes had been made at all to it. Opening it up a huge portion of pictures, paintings, and fairths fell out. Faris grumbled as he cleaned it up, from the look of it, Master Gurant Simply dumped it in, and it caused his documents and charts to be unbalanced.
Marshall peered over, Faris was a talented artist, even after losing his magic, he continued to draw and write to practice and improve his mind. As Faris organized his pictures, Marshall noticed several paintings of the Big 6, a famous group of Pearl Ranked Mages who had created a huge fuss in their first year. Faris had been a member of that group, but when he lost his magic he was admitted to a military academy. Of course, only two members of the Big 6 knew that. And Marshall wasn't the type to blab about it anyway. He and Laslow kept their heads down, and where under Bartholomew's protection, so they needed not worry about bullying. As it was, He could see many of the pictures were of them winning various accolades and rewards, and even a few of them just sitting around, enjoying themselves. He noticed several extremely accurate paintings of those six, himself and his brother, Master Gurant, Ventus, Faris's owl that rarely came near the blacksmith district, and especially accurate portraits of Venka, the most famous member of the Big 6. He remembered hearing that she and Faris came from the same town. He had always considered her to be quite pretty, he was only a little older than her as well, but he never approached her, no one did. She was extremely powerful, and that was intimidating for any would be suitor.
After putting away the documents, Faris spied the leather bound case, opening it carefully. He pulled out an ornate leather satchel, it was emblazoned with what appeared to be two dragons entwined in battle or in their mating ritual. Both were relatively likely. He opened the satchel to reveal a gun. It was a 9mm pistol modeled intricately after the Browning Hi Power Classic 9mm. It was one of the best 9 millimeter pistols invented, and was what one could call a Big 9 pistol, meaning it had a large magazine capacity in comparison to most other 9 millimeter pistols. While not the go to model, that being the Glock 19, this one was only slightly larger and and heavier, and the recoil wasn't too bad. Back on earth, Faris had been invited to a firing range by his uncle, who was a retired army captain. He let him try out the gun, and even let him take it apart and back together. Damien had by no means been a gun maniac, but if there was anything he kept from his journey before, it was his now impeccable memory. It packed a lot of punch he remembered, and could tear through minor wards and even medium ones. They had gotten a correct mixture of different materials including purple soldier powder to create a good level of pseudo gunpowder for the bullets, all of which had to be forged individually, it was relatively slow going, but hastened by the inclusion of magic to keep everything accurate, it served as good practice for Marshall and Laslow to control their magic, and a good reason for Gurant to keep them around, as magic could be more accurate than even his deft hands. Faris took out the magazines. 8 of them were normal gun magazines, for the Browning Hi-power they contained an extended magazine of 32 bullets, for a total of 256 shots he could fire off of the normal bullets. The last 2 where special, inside each bullet was a needle sized and shaped quartz, it was infused with a tiny bit of magic and with the ward piercing enchantment, the needle quartz was then encased in a bullet. When fired off, the power and velocity of the weapon could make up for the amount of magic in the crystal being so little, and the ward-piercer would do its job. There were only two magazines of it, so Faris had only 64 bullets to spare, luckily, he'd likely not have to use them all.
"These weapons…" Marshall began, "A non-mage with training can use it just as effectively, and it can easily kill anyone, mage or non-mage," He shivered a bit, "This kind of weapon would turn any war if it belonged to one or more sides."
"That's why only I and Gurant know how it's fully made, it's too dangerous otherwise." Faris finished his packing. He was equipped in a thin tight-fitting cloth jumpsuit of his design, covering him from the neck down. His pants were a strong thick leather, with stiff padding to protect the side and front of his legs. From his knees down were steel armored pads and greaves, his boots were stiff leather, with steel pads covering and lining the top, front, back, toes, and soles in intercrossing pads, under the first layer of soft leather soles were the steel soles, followed by a hard leather covering. Faris stood as Marshall helped him put on the half-plate armor, it was a bit thinner than most steel, instead lined on the inside with stiff leather. It's purpose was to block light thin blades he otherwise couldn't defend against. In the center behind a small layer of steel plate was a crystal, enchanted to make the entire armor feel lighter than it really was, so that it wouldn't weigh on Faris anymore than his normal clothing. He placed on his shoulder plates, strapping them using thick leather in a criss-cross x-shape. Slung to his back was the Orc longbow, he had grown, just barely enough that he could draw it just barely to its full length, and the steel-tipped heavy arrows could at times make an even deadlier payload than even his gun. To his sides were strapped two swords, one was a simple but well made short sword, his main fighting weapon. The other…
"Are you sure you want to take that sword with you? Last you and master Gurant told me, it's pretty useless."
"Mostly useless." Faris said, as he sheathed the dense blade he and Gurant had spent the better part of the year revisiting to create. "But I should have times where it will be useful." The blade was well balanced, but heavy enough still to overpower even most large axes and cavalry swords, in fact, a strong enough downswing could bend a poor sword, not even to mention the damage to the swordsman unfortunate enough to block it. Faris slung it to his left side, whilst he had taught himself to be ambidextrous, he was right handed from the beginning, and needed to use it. After everything was squared away, Faris donned a large cloak, slung his pack to his back, and went on his way.
The streets were empty for the most part, it was night time, and whilst the night was fresh, it was one of those quiet days were nothing happened. Faris took in the fresh night air and looked at the city. The few citizens still about talked amongst themselves, quietly, and casually. A few groups of children played around, some circling around him for a few seconds before turning to leave when he didn't play back. He waved them off before making his way towards the Northern Gate Islanzadí. Awaiting him was a group of knights. He recognized a few, and they hailed him over.
"Damien Ser…" Faris nodded, to most people he was Damien Ser, unrelated in any way to the mage boy who lost all his magic, this was the best way for him to survive.
"Yes sir."
The knight took out a scroll, handing it to Faris, he continued. "This is a debriefing on squad 13's mission. They communicated success on the first two missions and have two more before heading to the final point, the rendezvous point is located in…"
"Ceunon, first city to fall to the elves, it's lord was Previously Lord Rembrant, due to his actions against his father, Yacob Rembrant was able to restore his family honor and his mother due to her contributions was able to remain lord. Due to some unrest that had been going on for a while already though, a Civil War has sparked out. Unfortunately for the city, the leader of the rebellion, a poor farmer by the name of Jasper is proving difficult to defeat, and the kingdom can't spare too many resources to quell the rebellion." Faris had kept a close eye on the city's state. The guard nodded.
"A smuggling and supply chain between the capital and Ceunon was discovered by some mages who intercepted a growing bandit uprising near here. The person who notified us worked as a brewery distributor, and he left several documents pertaining to the rebellion's logistics and such in the bars for safekeeping if he ended up being killed."
Faris put two and two together. "Those thieves, they weren't after just gold, they found the plans and stole them, that's why the barkeep was so adamant we collect them." But he was confused, Tartarus summed it up best when he added,
But why would Yana help them steal it? It's logistics for the rebellion, something that would help the kingdom put down the rebellion, we don't fully know their demands but the nobility of that city is in danger. That includes Yana's mother, and Yana herself.
"When Yana was released back into a Ceunon official's custody, she broke free, and was tracked to outside your hospital room, where she assaulted and attempted to kill you, you are lucky she chose a method that you could be saved from."
Faris frowned, luck hadn't saved him that time, Tartarus's activating that life-saving ability was what kept him alive. "And she disappeared?"
"Likely back to Ceunon,"
"Who knows I've recovered?"
"Only Sir Donovan, Lady Sona, and the mage doctors know of you completely."
He overlooked the rest of the document. "Alright, regardless, it's time for me to set out."
"Yes, your horse is ready." The guard brought forward a chestnut brown mare. She had a decent length mane and a powerful, sleek build.
"What's her name?" He asked.
"Tamera" The guard nodded. "She's one of the best, so make sure to bring her back." Faris nodded, walking up to the horse. Extending his hand to touch the horse's brow, he closed his eyes.
Tamera, hello, Eka eddyr aí fricai (I am a friend). I need your help. The horse blinked at him a few seconds, then accepted his pats and strokes. He admired her muscular flank, then hopped up the saddle.
"I'm sure you're familiar with the known paths?" The guard asked. Faris nodded, gently patting his horse.
Forward please. "I won't overwork her." Tamera sprung forward, excited to run after being cooped up in a barn for most of the day, Faris let her run fast for a minute, then tugged the reigns slightly. Ease up a bit, you don't want to use up all your energy. As the horse slowed from its spirited gallop to a more methodical trot, Faris looked up, raising his hand.
Circling from above, carried by huge wings, Ventus descended, landing on his gloved hand. The owl extended his wings to keep himself from falling, and looked at Faris, peering at him with his huge brown eyes.
Friend.
Yeah. Faris replied, smiling, "Friends." He patted his horse once again, and the trio made their way towards Ceunon...
.
.
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Afterword:
Well hi everybody! From what I can tell, the loss of magic for Faris had put a lot of people off. I can understand why you feel this way, but I also ask, when Faris was injured by Durza and crippled, you didn't know how or if he'd recover, I mean you always kind of knew he'd recover in some way, but you never really knew what would happen. Let me take the time to explain why exactly I made this change. So, originally, I had in the story that they were able to save him, he tamed the shade, after a year, he'd be a stronger duelist. But he'd feel a magical limit, during that time, much like Anya did, the Shade within would extend its essence, and he'd have another great wealth of power to look through. I wrote that all out, and I realized, it wasn't fully the story I wanted to write, it felt a bit cliched, and while it would make an entertaining read, I feel given the kind of protagonist Faris is, the story and life he goes through shouldn't be the type afforded to an idealistic hero.
Faris is, in my opinion, a charitable, kind and caring psychopath with personal incentive to be the good he wished he had the power to be but couldn't be as Damien. He has a good ability to read people and moods, and he has the skill to behave and conduct himself accordingly to the situation (both traits that can be associated with Psychopathy). Though, as you've seen, he's only so willing to put himself in the mercy of others, or trust those who could potentially have power over him and who have traits he may disapprove of. He's also capable of extreme levels of cruelty and sadistic-ness. With all of this, he only practices it on people he writes off as not worth his effort to be restrained. And in all these situations, he made sure he wasn't thinking deeply about the person, lest his empathy get in his way. A psychopath is a person who has great interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, this allows him to manipulate his surroundings to his lacking. For Faris, or Damien, he had to learn to manipulate his surroundings to remain in his family's good graces, with mistakes leading to his cowardly personality, that Faris did his best to go the opposite of. This time of being bullied gave him the belief that, those who abuse their power aren't worth his mercy, but those who were weak or abused were always worth his mercy. This is how he determined to kill Anya, why he only killed about half those thieves, and why he didn't kill Yacob, even while he blames him for everything that's happened.
Now, bear with me. If Faris believes those that abuse their power don't deserve his mercy, isn't his extrajudicial punishment akin to abusing his power? Is he above the rule of law and consequences of his actions? Faris avenged hundreds of children, but he still killed people without proper trial and jury, and not whilst in the heat of battle, but in a cold, merciless way, he toyed with them. Much the same way Yana toyed with him, or Anya toyed with Faris and Venka. Thematically I don't know how many people caught this, but through that, it would be counter to the story's morals that I don't have him at least suffer what he brings upon others, no matter how evil they are. I at times wish I could just punish evil, but the problem is if I had such power, shaping the world to my whim is no more great than becoming a dictator. If Faris only came from an enriched background, he could be a great and kind leader, but never truly be in touch with suffering, thus making him easily manipulated, if not down right corrupt. If he came only from suffering, whilst he can empathies with the downtrodden, either he'd go too far in persecuting who he thought was the enemy, or once he attained power and a way out of suffering, he'd do his best to keep the power and attain even more. This is important for him, and I think for the viewer. Fighting is an important part of people, we must fight for our views and beliefs if they are threatened, but we must understand that consequences outside our power are likely to occur. For Faris, this consequence was getting on Rembrant's bad side, he likely wouldn't have if he didn't decide to exert his superiority of the man, doing so quickened the investigation into the child traffickers, and gave Rembrant increased incentive to take his vengeance.
I can understand Faris loosing his magic is weird and uncomfortable, especially given how amazing magic has been, exploring it through the story was for me always fun, and I understand that this lack of magic caused a tone shift, so great that some people have decided to drop the story, the same frustration the reader feels is felt by Faris, and by myself a bit. But thematically, it's representative of the themes I'm trying to portray in the story to the very end. Hopefully you guys are willing to follow along these twists and turns, though either way I get it. As it is, thanks for all the attention you've given my story so far, here's to a plethora of more chapters!
Atra esterni' ono thelduin
Mor' rana li'fa unin hjarta onr
Un du evari'nya ono varda
Also, please, reviews are important, its good to see how people feel about the story, thank you to every single commenter so far, even to the one that hurt a bit, it shows me people care enough about my story to let me know how they feel.