Deep in the western woods of Solarin, two companions were riding their horses down a hill, taking their time descending so as to avoid harming the horses.
The sharp sun hanging high up in the sky was shining sharply into Roderic's eyes, as it was difficult to avoid.
"Damned sun!" Roderic cursed, his eyes twitching as he was quite light-sensitive. Lucian tried to avoid laughing about his new teammate's harsh cursing habits, as his own eyes were protected by his kettle helmet. Lucky for him, he managed to avoid laughing but still let out some snickering behind his raised hand.
"What's so funny, man!? Is there something you wanna talk about? Ooh, wait, I know what you're laughing about. You're laughing about my eyes getting blinded, huh!?" Roderic, still squinting his eyes, stretched out his arm, letting Lucian know he wanted to receive something. "How about you give me that bucket hat of yours? Because of my night vision, I struggle being under bright lights. So if you would be so kind to your new teammate, how about you let me borrow it for a little bit, hmm?" Roderic's expression revealed a sinister smile.
"Night vision!? I know you are special and got some sort of strength boost, but night vision as well?" Lucian asked, his face showing a mixture of shock and thrill.
"Yes, I do. In fact, you also aren't escaping my question. I'll explain more if you lend me that kettle helmet," Roderic said, shaking his palm up and down.
"Fine... I'll let you have it for now... But on one condition: I receive it back by nightfall, okay?" Lucian expressed, his expression twisting into a frown.
Roderic showed a wide toothy smile, letting Lucian release his kettle helmet from his head before Roderic grabbed it, then slapped it on top of his head, adjusted it to sit right, then used the two clips to snap them tight under his jaw.
He finally let his eyelids widen. "Nice, my eyes feel so much better now! I can actually look around and see my surroundings!" Roderic said, his smile switching from ominous to delicate instantly.
All Lucian could think was "That was fast..." before switching his thought process back to the reason he'd lent his kettle helmet in the first place.
"So... you know that info you promised in exchange for the kettle helmet...?" Lucian said quite slowly.
"Yeah?" Roderic exclaimed.
"Yeah, so if possible, I want to hear it now. Okay?" Lucian said, this time not being as slow in his words.
"Okay then, mister curious. For starters, what do YOU want to ask me? Then once you don't have any questions left, I can fill in some extra blind spots," Roderic said, quite confident in his own info source, as a lot of his info came close to or straight from the elders in the Shifting Sanctum.
"Hmm... Okay, I got one. These abilities you mages get, is it different from person to person, or do you all keep similarities, or is it all straight up the same?" Lucian asked, feeling proud of himself for the question.
Roderic whipped the rein of his horse upwards, then slightly to the left, to get control of his horse, as he hadn't gotten fully used to horses. Most of the time there was no need for him to use them except for long distances, which he rarely did. When he did travel long distances, he would usually ride in merchants' carts, paying them a sum to let him board.
"Mages have all sorts of unique abilities. As we are connected to different types of entities called rends, they come from a place or space we still haven't figured out. Many mages believe it's a type of different reality to where we live, or a secondary planet entirely different from us. There are many theories, but those are to me the most compelling. But as you asked, there are still a lot of different abilities which usually come to many mages, like super strength, super speed, higher durability, and heightened senses. Most of these will grow in strength the more connected you become with your rend, same with the main ability or sub-abilities which come with the unique rend," Roderic explained, trying to hit as many points as possible so misunderstandings wouldn't happen later, especially in the Shifting Sanctum.
"Hmm... that's quite interesting!" Lucian expressed, showing keen interest in what Roderic was saying while digesting it all into his already mangled worldview.
"Okay, I got another one. Can you communicate with the rend you are connected to?" This was a question that really interested Lucian. Having a friend to speak with whenever he felt like it sounded amazing. Best part, this friend or partner couldn't die, which was the most important detail for Lucian.
"Rends are beasts at heart. They aren't meant to have any higher intelligence than a common animal. But the elders have stated that if you ever cross a mage who has a rend with human-level intelligence, even worse speech, IMMEDIATELY contact the elders. I'm not fully sure of the reason myself, as this is information you can only get by being an elder..." Roderic explained, feeling slightly disheartened, as he thought he was prepared for all the questions Lucian asked.
Lucian whimpered slightly. His hope of getting a companion which could last him his entire life had now been completely stomped on.
Petting Excalibur, he decided to ask a more risky and scary question. "The god you talk about, the one called the Binding Abyss. Is it to some extent connected to the god I believe in? Or is it a totally different entity...?" Lucian mustered up his courage to ask this, feeling he would be doing treason on the name of god for just questioning it. But in the end his curiosity got the best of him.
Suddenly the mood turned dark as Roderic's entire face became hidden under the kettle helmet. Lucian gulped as Roderic said in a low voice, "Has no one ever warned you that curiosity killed the cat..."
Before his head snapped up, showing his face grinning deviously. "Just kidding, I don't really know a lot about the Binding Abyss. All I know is that we mages worship him, he grants us special abilities and helps us keep away from any danger. For more information I would need to be an elder." Roderic sighed to himself before riding over and laying his hand on Lucian's shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. It's not like we're ever going to figure it out anyway. Keep the entire god shtick to those higher beings while we lower beings do our shtick and have fun. Right?" Roderic's face still had the same grin as before, as he took his hand off his shoulder before tilting his rein to the left, to get back to his spot.
Lucian's left eye twitched before saying, "Don't go around joking about that stuff..."
"Okay, mister serious," Roderic scoffed back.
Suddenly an awkward silence fell over them, as both continued focusing on keeping their horses stable and on the road.
Suddenly Lucian asked curiously, "Do you know anybody in the Shifting Sanctum? You are a citizen there, so you must have some kind of relations with others, like friends, work buddies, or at least something?" In Lucian's mind there was no way this man was in any kind of relationship with a woman, so he didn't even suggest it. But he was still curious about him having friends, as when they arrived there it would be quite useful for him and Roderic to actually have someone to help them around, as Roderic seemed to have been away for some time and might need a little time to get settled again.
"I actually do! I have one close friend there. His name is Fergus, and we have been friends for as long as I can remember. Our contact over the years has lessened since I went under Anna as an apprentice, but we're still close," Roderic said, quite happy as the awkward air had broken and Roderic could mention his good old pal.
To Roderic, Fergus was quite the nice friend. Fergus would often help him in day-to-day life, almost like a mother. Fergus was definitely the responsible one in their friendship, and could definitely help them once they arrived, especially with navigating the magical architecture down in the Shifting Sanctum. The place made it nearly impossible to find anything you were looking for.
"Good to know that we have someone that can help us once we arrive," Lucian replied, happy to have a tour guide once they arrived. He believed Roderic would still be good for that too, but to be out here in the sticks as an apprentice must mean he hasn't been in the city for a while.
Suddenly a thought appeared. How is Anna anyways? Is it the witch my squad fought back then, or is it someone else? Guessing by what he said about him being an apprentice, it must mean it was that witch… I don't fully know how to feel about that…
Lucian then mustered up the courage to ask the question. "So the witch I fought, was it Anna? Or was it someone else?"
Roderic's facial muscles tensed up as he felt his body sweat slightly. He felt that he shouldn't have mentioned Anna, as this was the mage who caused all the harm to Lucian's mental health and the death of his squad.
Roderic believed that the trauma that Lucian experienced from Anna's rampage could cause harm to their newly found partnership, as he was this mage's apprentice after all.
He then nervously thought of a way to avoid conflict. To do so, he would need to lie, but sooner or later Lucian might figure it out. Roderic wasn't really sure how, but the risk was there.
Perhaps it was time to face the consequences that Anna had left him with and explain how mages become more aggressive when they're close to turning.
He then took a deep breath and said, "Yes, the 'witch' you fought was Anna, and I was her apprentice when she was still Anna," feeling some weight from his chest disappearing.
Lucian quickly replied, "Oh… So you are connected to her. I guess it makes sense with both of you being special. I'm not really mad at her though, even if she killed my squad members. It was after all we who attacked her unprovoked."
Before Lucian turned silent, exuding an aura of melancholy.
Roderic didn't expect this answer at all before remembering this man was a knight after all. Sudden bursts of anger were pointless and could cause problems among their squad members, so it wasn't too shocking he was experienced in suppressing anger and sadness.
"It might be true that you guys attacked her unprovoked, but as a mage she had to follow one of our codes against ordinary people, and that is to avoid harm or death upon them. This is a pretty serious crime, and you would be hunted down and killed for it. So the reason she went on the full offense was the fact that she was so close to turning into a rend… this causes their bodies to turn mindless and aggressive like wild beasts. So in the end it wasn't truly you guys' fault. It was on her for using her echo too much," Roderic said, thinking that it was fair to blame Anna for this, as this was in fact all her fault.
Knights come through and attack us all the time, and most of the time we fake our deaths and play along with them, but she was so on the edge I guess she didn't even think about that for a second and immediately went to blast them to smithereens.
"Ahh, that makes sense… When I fought her, I didn't even believe for a second that we could win after my sword made contact with her scales… Mages are truly wonderful. They're like fighting an army that has been compressed into one living being, that we ordinary humans could never possibly rival. I guess none of the other knights realized this, as killing a witch or evil sorcerer was quite the accomplishment in the kingdom, one that could elevate you high among the knights… I guess in the end, it was all fabricated for our own safety, by you guys…" Lucian's worldview crashed once more.
Roderic felt the tense mood in the air, but he felt he couldn't possibly help Lucian's mood improve and could only reply with a simple "Yeah…"
Lucian then started wondering how strong the strongest mage could possibly be… then asked, "So, I'm wondering, how strong is the strongest mage, and what type of abilities does that mage have?"
Roderic felt slightly pleased. This time he could finally answer the question without avoiding it or putting the question on the elders. He responded, "The strongest mage we know of is called the Abomination. At least, that's what we call him. I don't really know his real name, if he even has one."
He pressed his fingers to his forehead, rubbing it as he tried to figure out how to explain. After scrambling together what he knew, he continued, "Uhh... when it comes to that man's abilities, I don't fully know. But one of the reasons he has the name the Abomination is that he's capable of using a ton of echoes that normally don't match together at all. It's almost like he has multiple rends... but as far as I know, that shouldn't be possible. We mages can only connect one chain to a rend, and trying to force other connections is impossible, even with help from the Binding Abyss. Sorry, I don't really know much more than that, but he's sometimes called the human closest to god. You should probably understand his strength based on that alone."
Suddenly a twig snapped.
While Roderic was explaining, a group of people ran straight out of the woods, each holding a sword tightly gripped in their hands. It seems like when Roderic was focusing on answering Lucian's questions, he left his guard down and didn't fully focus on what was happening up ahead, causing an ambush to catch him off guard.
Roderic's and Lucian's eyes widened, trying to understand what was happening in front of them. Looking around, it seemed that they were getting ambushed by a bunch of rugged bandits.
While Roderic and Lucian were trying to figure out what was happening, one of the bandits called out, "Stop the horses now, unless you wanna die!" before pointing his finger down to the ground and saying, "Drop all your weapons here. If we even for a second see any type of suspicious or fast movement, we will kill you on the spot. We've got archers in the back, so even if you succeed in killing us, you two will still be filled with arrows. Also, just so you know, we're not here to kill you. We are here to rob you."
Roderic and Lucian were both slightly agitated before calming down, trying to analyze the situation.
The rugged bandit who asked them to drop their weapons seemed to be quite calm and stable for a bandit. Both believed he was the leader of this bandit group, not just for his calm demeanor but also because he was the most armored and the one who looked the least rugged amongst them.