Azura hung from the wall limply. His new wounds stung, especially the ones his father had deemed potentially fatal. Those had all been cauterized. He really couldnât afford to be wasting time focusing on it though. He didnât know how long his father would be gone for, but if he was ever going to have a chance to escape this was it. His father had put him in chains that absorbed magic at a really high rate, so he was nearly empty. He had barely been able to recharge the most miniscule of amounts, but that was fine. All he needed was a small tool.
It took far more will than normal to focus enough to make a key that would fit the whole in his shackles. Once he had it the real challenge began. He had to fit his key into the lock, a difficult thing to do wh both arms were shackled at the wrist, and far away from each other to boot. Thankfully he and Katy had practiced this skill quite a bit just in case they were ever in such a situation. He held the key so it was facing his palm and then carefully bent his hand until he managed to get the key into the slot. Once it was in he had to use his middle finger to properly turn the key. He sighed in relief when the soft click signified the freedom of his right arm.
With full use of his arm releasing his other bonds became a cakewalk. Less than 3 minutes after regaining consciousness, he was free, or well his body was anyway. He was still who knew where deep in the bowels of some dungeon. Worse yet it was a dungeon specifically designed for mages. His plan to tunnel out instead of use the corridors was dead on arrival. The walls were magic resistant. Perhaps not to the level of the unique magic from his trials, but enough so that even if he was at his best he probably wouldnât have taken his chances tunneling through it.
His blood froze over when he heard a slow clap as he was about to turn towards the entrance to his little prison. âAs expected of a Silver, even a disgraced one should still be able to manage at least this much.â He turned to face his father. Years of practice allowed him to replace his panic with disinterest. Or at least to make it look that way.
âYes well, Iâve had plenty of practice escaping you see.â His only shot was to goad his father into making a mistake. He had a less than 0% chance to beat his father 1 on 1, so he needed to escape, and he couldnât do that while his father stood in the doorway. He had one singular advantage, and it was that even if he was near empty he still had far more mana stored away than his body could hold anyway. Even better, his father wasnât privy to that particular skill. It was his ace in the hole, and one that was subtle enough that even if he used it no one would be able to tell.
âOh enough with the victim act you petulant child. You donât understand the real world. Itâs not the kind of place where you can afford weaknesses like petty sentimentality. I raised you to be strong in this world, to succeed, and what did you do? You abandoned my most important lessons. Where did that lead you? Iâll tell you where it led you. Right into my dungeon.â His father stared at him coldly. As if he was merely trash his father was being forced to deal with. âYou saved the manâs whole family, and you know how much it cost to have them betray you like that? It cost me 1 gold piece. Probably even less since that was my very first offer. Thatâs the kind of world we live in. The strong live, and the foolish ones die.â
âMaybe it is, maybe the world is awful and people are cruel, but so what? I know better than anyone the failings of humanity, but that doesnât mean I have to join in. If itâs me vs the world then thatâs fine. Weâll see what backs down first.â He was the one who got to choose who he was. Not his father, not the nobles, not his friends, not even the world itself.
His father laughed. Oddly for once it almost sounded genuine, he chose to ignore that for now. He didnât have the time to try and dissect it. âI knew you were too naive, but to think it was to this degree. What is your head filled with cotton? Surely there canât be a functioning brain in there if you believe such nonsense. It doesnât matter how strong you are if youâre too weak minded to use that strength properly. You think the world would bend to a half hearted will like that? All youâll accomplish is wasting your own time. If you want to change the world you need to accept it for what it is first, not pretend itâs something that itâs not.â
âI donât care about what it is now. I care about what it could be.â He didnât know why his father was even bothering with this conversation. It's not like he had any chance against the man. The difference between their strength was night and day. He had expected his father to force him back into the chains by now.
âAh I see. So thatâs it. The world has no value unless it and everything in it conform to your views is that it? Maybe weâre more alike than I thought.â He grit his teeth in rage. Perhaps it was a fair comparison, but all that did was make him angrier, and he couldnât afford to lose control of himself right now. âVery well, how about you get a chance to carry out your threat from earlier then. His father tossed him a knife. It felt familiar and foreign all at once. Its form was fuzzy, but he managed to make out a single red gem that sent shivers down his spine. Looking at it made his head hurt, like he should recognize it, but all he had was an echo of what it should be.
âWell go ahead boy. Kill me, just like you did your brother and mother.â His father held out his arms, presenting himself as a target. He didnât hesitate, he lunged for his father, dagger poised to pierce the man's chest and⦠Pierced through? No rather there was nothing to pierce, the man scattered into flower petals as the world around him changed. His gaze shifted rapidly around his new surroundings. An endless field with flower petals floating around in impossible ways.
âWhat?â He looked to the dagger in his hand only to find more flower petals that he quickly released. He also noted that all the wounds he had previously obtained were gone, and his equipment was once more on his person. âThis is new.â He furrowed his brow in confusion. Was it a dream? No rather what was reality.
âYouâre not meant to be here.â His eyes widened, and he frantically searched around, but even his magical senses failed to detect the presence speaking to him. âOr perhaps you are, but only in part. A quarter tainted, a quarter pure, and half that doesnât understand. Yes, yes, I suppose you can stay for the time being. Well that is to say I wonât stop you from staying.â The voice was higher pitched than he was used to dealing with, to the point heâd normally assume it to be from a young girl, but it had a weight behind it. Not Unlike Garionâs.
âIâm sorry, Iâm not terribly sure where here is.â Or even if there was a here. Perhaps he was still chained up in the dungeon and hadnât actually woken up yet. His dreams werenât normally this lucid though, and if he was missing any memories he couldnât place them. Although on closer inspection some of those memories were a bit blurrier than they should be. When had his sister become head medic? How had he managed that? Yet he was sure she had.
âA soul that knows not the contents of time is it. Knows not the meaning of purity, yet is pure in ways most canât be. A piece of you sealed away, tainted yet pure, true to thyself, yet not knowing what you are. This is a world which you canât yet understand, but the pieces are there. Perhaps one day all will fall into place. Until then you may call this place Avalon, or at least that is what many who have seen glimpses call it.
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Avalon? Heâd heard that name before. Part of some old children's story he was pretty sure. Well at least the name was easy enough. Gave him more time to try to understand everything else the mysterious voice had said. He had the feeling that purity didnât mean the same thing to him as it did to them though. Nothing about the side he had sealed away was pure. âOk so if Iâm remembering right Avalon is supposed to be the land of the fae right? A place where only fae who have never touched the outside or spirit worlds can reside right?â He felt a little stupid reciting the story he had read as a child as if it was fact, but it was all he had at the moment.
âIncomplete, but not incorrect.â Ok so That was at least generally correct, just oversimplified. He could work with that. âKnowledge for knowledge, I now have a question for you.â That hardly counted as a question, he was just confirming something he already knew, but he got the feeling that upsetting his host wouldnât end well for him. âWhat is it you seek?â
What he sought? Did she mean why was he here? It wasnât like he came here on purpose, so he couldnât say he had any particular goal in mind. âIâm afraid I donât quite understand your question. Iâm not seeking anything at the moment.â Laughter echoed from around him as if coming from the floating flowers themselves.
âA man without purpose is but a husk young one, you do not appear to me as a husk.â Something about that set him on edge. He felt like husk should mean something to him, but he couldnât place why.
âWithout purpose is a tad extreme, I merely said that I did not come here searching for anything.â Which was true, well that wasnât to say he wasnât seeking anything at all, but him appearing here was unrelated to that.
âYou play with words hoping to avoid an answer, a childish tactic. Answer my question honestly or be gone from this place. Become the husk you claim to be.â Well that was ominous. Once again the word made him uncomfortable, but he still couldnât think of why.
âI wasnât especially trying to avoid answering, I just misunderstood the question. If you mean what do I seek in general unrelated to this place, then Iâd have to say freedom, or rather the right to make my own decisions about things.â He didnât mind if he was locked away forever for a decision he made, as long as he got to make them without risking someone else.
âYouâre afraid of something, and your fear takes away your ability to choose. I see, not an uncommon reason to go to the tethers, still to get lost in the flow to this extent there must be more. What else brings you here?â Tethers? Lost in the flow? What was she talking about? Also hadnât he already escaped from his fathers clutches? They had clashed earlier, and his sister was safe right? Or perhaps that was the dream and this was reality, or neither of them were real in the first place.
âIf there is more I donât know about it. I want to protect those close to me, and live my life without fear that Iâll cause them great harm for a simple misstep around my father.â That was all right? He couldnât think of anything else he especially desired. He enjoyed research, but not to the point where he would say it was something he sought.
âPerhaps the something more comes from the part of yourself you have sealed away. Why donât you release it, and see if you have something more to say then.â He winced. His first thought was to refuse, but itâs not like there is anyone around to get hurt, and he had never been destructive for the sake of being destructive so in a place like this it would probably be fine.
âVery well, itâs still just me though, Iâve yet to notice having any particular goals in mind when releasing it.â It had been a few years since he released the seal, but oddly he felt like it hadnât been that long. He shrugged it off, and focused on creating his temporary counter seal. He considered merely releasing it altogether, if there was any time to try and have his 2 sides acclimate to each other this would be it, but in the end he was too scared to find out what that would look like. Once it was released mana surged through him like a tidal wave. When he was like this he produced far more mana than he thought possible, perhaps he should unleash it more just to boost the reserves of stored mana.
âAs I thought, half pure and half tainted. I suppose you havenât yet realized your origins, but you will. Undoubtedly this power will become vital to you. It was wise to have this half sealed away so you could grow as a person without it, but soon the day will come when you must accept both sides of yourself or you will die.â He rolled his eyes. He didnât know why he was normally so wary of releasing the seal. So what if he was a little aggressive, and yes heâd crippled those nights, but they had attacked him first. They should have known better than to attack him if they were that week.
âI donât know much about pure or tainted or whatever, but I do know my origins. Even if I normally pretend not to. This is my draconic side right? My mother was fatherâs familiar, that was why he grieved the loss of his familiar after mother died. Even if I normally keep it in the back of my mind so I can hide from the truth there is no way Iâd miss something as obvious as that.â He idly wondered what it was about draconic instincts that made him the way he was when unsealed. The aggression was easily accounted for, but dragons are fairly loyal beings, so the willingness to hurt his âfriendsâ seemed fairly out of place.
âThe curse of knowledge hounds you. You run, and hide, but it always finds you eventually. Perhaps this time it will aid you with what you seek. Do you know what dragons really are, young seeker?â He tilted his head. It was a curious question. He had always had a suspicion they werenât like other creatures. Not even other magical ones. They existed as pure spirits, but even the ones that roam the land were half spiritual beings. Unlike when most spirits descend and become physical beings of the outside world.
His eyes widened as realization dawned on him. âAre you trying to tell me that dragons are fae?!â It was something he hadnât even once considered, but it actually made a lot of sense now that he had. Dragons, or at least true dragons were entirely unique from any other being he had ever encountered, and the connection to the spirit world would explain the lack of physical body, and their absurd mana generation rate. They werenât just constantly attuned to the spirit world, but even Avalon itself.
âTheir ancestors were without doubt. As to the ones that youâd currently find flying around, well I doubt many of them even know of Avalon.â So then it was safe to assume that tainted and pure referred to the fae ancestry, but that didnât quite add up. She said he was a quarter pure, and a quarter tainted. Assuming the other half was his human side then that would mean his mother was half pure, however Garion seemed to be purely dragon, so even his taint must have been at least half. âYour mind spirals looking for answers it canât comprehend. Perhaps someday you will have the chance to return when you have advanced enough to perceive the answers you seek, but for now unity should be your focus. The half that doesnât understand needs to be taught, and the taint must be cleansed so your soul can heal. The tainted fae, dragons as you call them were never meant to have offspring, for mortal souls can not handle the taint.â
âAre you saying that if I leave myself unsealed for too long Iâll die?!â It seems it was a good thing his sealed self was so cautious. For the first time the actions of his sealed self made sense to him, not simply because it saved his life, but because he had no idea what purifying himself would do to him. Much as he didnât know what letting his mind stabilize with the draconic side would do.
âDie? Perhaps not die, but your soul will without a doubt be torn apart, like a flower in a hurricane.â His eyes widened. Perhaps he should seal his dragon instincts now, heâd rather stick with the human instincts than have his soul ripped to shreds. âHope is not lost of course, why else would you arrive here if not to purify the taint? Whether you knew or not I can only imagine that is what drew you here. The taint longing to be purified. Come child I will aid you. The price shall be paid, but not for many years yet.