Blind Addictions Part II

As I was frozen, burned, and electrified by the gargoyles. At the same time the Arch Mage was chanting spells that penetrated my mind. The psychological torture was almost unbearable. It felt like millions of shattering a mirriors inside my head. I saw visions of my power being drained from me. Dreams of my innate fire abandoning me in my hour of need, many others came when I would fall unconscious. The Arch Mage wasn’t holding back in the least. As time passed the assault progressively got worse. This was one of the worse situations I had ever been in during my two hundred some odd years. It was horrible he was breaking me down physically, mentally, and as the night continued my anger level was rising rapidly.

 I still had four hours before the silence spell or any of the others that I had cast would wear off. I had to think of a way out of this situation. A way to let the Arch Magus know I wasn’t here to harm him. Was this fear? I started to what you would call panic. But here is what seperates the great men from the average, we take the reins and take a hold of the issue. "Adapt or go extinct Coridan." 

I remembered the thorn that was in my arm, this allowed me to formulate a course of action. I pulled the thorn out of my arm and started to create a seal on what was left of my robes. Writing with my right hand proved to be very difficult as the seal I was attempting to create had very little margin for error. And to make matters worse I was writing with  thorn tip dipped in blood, not the greatest of ink. I timed the shock of cold and heat blasts with the small needles hitting me as the Arch Magus’s traps continued to harass my senses and nerves. I think I even passed out a few times due to the rapid cooling of my body temperature. Being who I am I used my internal flame to keep my body at a regulated temperature which solved the stupid freeze ray. When I was finished with the seal to break the silence spell. I figured I had one chance to survive this.

I only had one usable arm thanks to the vine trap earlier so I couldn’t activate the seal and cast a spell at the same time. But I had already thought of a way around this. I added some forbidden text I had came across years ago to dispel the restraint runes I was standing on. Also inscribed an old elvish phrase that confuses golems, lets just hope it works on gargoyles. Now I only had to worry about the Arch Magus’s response.

It was now or never. I timed the pressing of the rune to the timing of the flame trap for obvious reasons. As I pressed the rune I had created it activated with a shear blue light and a loud screech.  My invisibility dropped and as I expected the Arch Magus threw a spell worthy of his level. I narrowly escaped it by using the flame from his trap to create a deflection wall to bend his spell to the other side of the room. I was lucky that both these spells where the same level or that could have hurt.

Laughter broke out. The Arch Magus was very happy with himself.  “Coridan what a surprise,” he grinned knowingly.  I was confusseled, angry, tired, sore, but I was alive so I was relieved. The Arch Magus started to walk towards his shelves on the wall he pulled a few items off of the shelves and started to mix them together in his alchemy set sitting on his desk.

“So Coridan I realized that the only way you would understand what you where after was to allow you to complete this journey in full circle.”

Speechless I thought how did he know.

“Let me guess how did I know is what you are thinking right about now? Well let me explain, you observed your entire class, most of the professors and a few people in high positions with the spells I placed in that book for you.” The Arch Mage grinned as he started to mix some ingredients together.

“What I want to know now is if what you learned tonight was the same conclusion I came up to many years ago?”

Astonished by what I was hearing I gathered my thoughts. “I have come to the conclusion that we each have our addictions or seductions that directly or indirectly affect the road or choices we make in life. Some we can see, others lead us blindly through our lives. The addictions that lead those blindly are the dangerous ones. The ones that drive me make me excel ahead of those called my peers which is fortunate for me.”

The Arch Magus smiled and began walking towards me with a salve in his hand. “ I was hoping you would say that. Also I hope this brought to light that we all need to put all of our addictions aside once in awhile and stop to enjoy life, as you only get one my young Coridan.”

Now as I walk through the hall I try not to pay any attention to these irrational thoughts projected at me. As we all have our addictions, mine just happens to be endless nights in search for lost secrets hidden in the books of the great library.

Blind Addictions Part I

Walking through the halls of the academy I notice every emotion being projected at me. Among the strongest is resentment or jealousy, envy, fear, and a few others that most women of no virtue have.  It has been this way since I moved to the academy. In the beginning I couldn’t understand why people I didn’t even know hated me. It wracked my brain for many of nights in the library as I was studying. Being as obsessive as I am I had to know what sparked these emotions from these people so I sat out for a way to get these answers.  

One night in my first year here I had came across a few spells of stealth and silence that allowed me to follow what started off a few classmates around. That first night was a very long and interesting night. One of the people I followed hated me with such a passion he ended up dropping out that year. As I sat and watched him from the shadows he drank until he couldn’t drink another drop. He then picked a few fights and got himself blistered by his own spells. I then understood how far behind he was then the rest of the class. Much to my dismay that morning I was almost late for class as the spells didnt wear off until I almost had the be at class. A minor over calculation on my part.

My targets of surveillance over the next few weeks consisted of a wide range of races and positions inside the academy and kingdom. I was obsessed with the amount of information I was learning and I wasn’t even in the library. One of the professors studied every night due to me being ahead of her in the class she taught on minor remidies.  This pushed her to feel incompetent. I had no idea I had made her feel this way as I always found her classes a great challenge and the presentation even kept my interest.

As the weeks passed I became even more bold on who I would follow and observe. During this time in my life I learned so much about families and household responsibility. Some of the peers in my class had such pressure from their parents status or expectations it would ruin their chances of success.

The night I attempted to see what drove the Arch Magus outside these walls is the night all my research came to an end.  Not before I was exhausted, beaten, and shown more then I ever intended to gain from of observing my peers. That night started off like any other, I cast four spells rewritten in the draconic tongue with a few other alterations that allowed them to all take hold at the same time without breaking the others. As if you cast silence first then you can cast the rest of the spells or if you cast shadow invisibility then any other spell your invisibility drops. Enough showing off back to that night.  

I followed the Arch Magus to his home on the outskirts of the campus. He bypassed his house and went into his back yard where his personal tower is. The path to the tower had tangling vines that go after anyone not grown from the persons blood who planted them. They have razor sharp thorns and the ability to paralyze anything they catch in their grasp. I was already in their grasp when the Arch Magus light the latern outside the tower. This created a shadow inside the tower which allowed me to fade out of the vines grasp.  I had just barely made it as the stupid plant had already paralyzed my left arm. I followed him up to the highest part of the study where he sat behind a huge desk, As I walked into the open room the Arch Magus spoke, “Is your journey after me worth your life shadow?” As the words finished I was surrounded by gargoyles and four seals of restraint.