Tag: fiction

The study of magic is not for the frail or meek. I am learning a great deal as apprentice to Val Maxis and there is a great deal more to master. Because I had not received any formal training before, I did not know that the arcanum is comprised of five elements which make up the world: wind, earth, water,… Read more →

All my possessions now accounted for, I am faced with the decision of what to do next. Stay here? Hardly. This place is a prison to my ambition. I would be unworthy of Ner Ngal’s favor if I stayed here; to live out my days a tamed wolf among sheep. Head west to Plor and set my eyes on a… Read more →

He is considering taking me as an apprentice? This may be precisely the break I need to strike out on my god-given path in earnest, once again. My mind alights with imaginings of his great library and I envision myself bursting with knowledge and power. If this conversation is to be my interview, then it behooves me to set some… Read more →

The soldiers are singing drinking songs and dancing around the fire. From where I am sitting they remind me of my goblin tribe. What a strange couple of years that had been. A figure, silhouetted by the bonfires, toddles toward us with a bounce in his step. The ornate staff identifies him as Val Maxis from quite a ways off.… Read more →

Two days later the Elysian army breaks through. The orcs had been putting up an aggressive defense but the sustained losses have finally taken their toll. Yet I am not surprised to hear the men chattering about what they discovered on the inside: the occupying force had been quite a bit smaller than the Elysians had though. I’d noticed that… Read more →

The wizard Val Maxis is poking around my potions when I return. His slight start when I catch him tells me it wasn’t merely idle curiosity. He casts me a friendly smile as I climb into the cart. I acknowledge him but don’t actually say anything. He watches me while I work for several minutes. The antitoxin is ready to… Read more →

This orc really asked for me? I wouldn’t have guessed he was the orc in question but I suppose it makes a queer kind of sense in retrospect. I know this orc to be called Ulsh, and he is my most habitual customer. He has visited my shop once a week for the last two years. Usually he browses my… Read more →

I can see the gate of Nodkis from the back of the herb cart, where I have been relegated to full time apothecary duties. This suits me just fine. Healers were dispatched from the capitol of Ark Aegion and now bolster the medic division, allowing me to do what I’m good at: work alone. The siege has resumed. Reinforcements arrived… Read more →

With the fighting stopped, the battle clerics of Kurdu come into the triage tent to assist. The additional healing magic is invaluable and the cots are half empty by sundown. I am sitting and tending to one the few recovering patients still in my bank of cots come dinnertime. A commotion stirs just near the back entrance. “Sir, you should… Read more →

The orcs do not run away at the first sign of opposition and the fighting continues well on into the night. The triage tent is at twice capacity, with less fortunate patients lying on the ground in between the cots. The grim faces of the men who bring the injured remind me of slaves who are not yet broken: with… Read more →