Soul of a Human

After getting new pants, Mor went to find Orth, and after asking around, he was directed to the library, finding Orth reading a history book.

"Hello, Orth. Do you have a minute?" Mor greeted the noble, who in turn looked up from his book.

"Hey, Mor." He looked at him strangely. "Everything alright? You look like someone rolled a boulder over you."

"Not a too far off guess. I had a run-in with Ranbors ex-flunky Zaletha, who was pissed at me for being too resistant to her illusions and therefore losing her place next to "her Lord"." Mor explained and Orth got a thoughtful look.

"What did she do?" Orth asked concerned.

"Well, she got through a crack in my mind's defenses and dragged me through a really bad illusion." Mor shrugged. "Probably wanted to kill me, but I got out before dying."

"How can you be so calm about it?!" Orth asked incredulously.

"Well, it helped me to get my head straight, but I can´t just let it go. So I wanted to ask about your offer, to help me if some other noble tried something with me." Mor explained.

"This goes far beyond "trying something", we need to get you to the headmaster and let him deal with that," Orth said, standing up and putting the book back. "Come with me."

Mor followed Orth as they both walked through the halls towards the headmaster's office. Orth knocked on the door, and opening without waiting for an answer.

"Mister Obsidian, you are a noble, but that does not excuse this kind of behavior." The headmaster chided Orth instead of a greeting.

"Excuse me, headmaster, I didn´t want to show a lack of respect, but it is important. My friend Mor Agaton told me he got attacked by another student. Which is clearly against school rules." Orth explained and the headmaster let out a sigh.

"As if I didn´t have already enough problems now..." The headmaster whispered to himself, not quite loud enough for Mor and Orth to hear, the headmaster then looked at them both "Then Mister Agaton, please tell me what happened."

Mor told the story of Zaletha´s attack, leaving out the detail of how exactly the illusion was broken and the headmaster frowned at this tale.

"Let me examine you, if it was such a powerful spell, you should have residue on you." The headmaster said concentrating on Mor.

"You can do something like that?" Mor asked interested.

"Yes, please be quiet this is very demanding." The headmaster replied.

As Mor stood there in silence the headmaster examined him from head to toe and finally nodded.

"I see, you are telling the truth, you were definitely influenced by very strong illusion magic, I will take care of this, so don´t worry anymore. Mister Obsidian would you be so kind, as to escort Mister Agaton back to his room, he looks somewhat pale."

"Thank you, headmaster," Mor said, but not leaving immediately. "Headmaster, could you please teach me this spell to detect magic?" He asked instead and the headmaster looked at him.

"You will learn it in class when your lessons have progressed enough, I don´t have the time right now to give you a private lesson on this. Now leave." The headmaster answered, evicting Mor and Orth from his office.

"You heard the headmaster, let´s get you back to your room. Let the people in charge deal with this." Orth said.

"Yes, that´s probably for the best. Can I ask you something, Orth?" Mor said and Orth looked at him questioning.

"Do you know why Miss Amethyne left the school? Zaletha told me, and that´s why she was so sure she could get away with it." Mor asked and Orth shrugged.

"I only know there was some kind of emergency and she was chosen to deal with it. Something about ancient traditions, but I also don´t know more." Orth said.

°Something is up, he isn´t telling the whole truth.° The human said.

"Orth, please don´t keep something important secret from me." Mor tried to get more information.

"Sorry Mor, but I can´t tell you more, right now. Get some rest, everything else will be explained tomorrow." Orth said, leaving a confused Mor in front of his room.

°Very strange, but it won´t do pressuring him further, hope he´s right though and everything will be explained tomorrow.° The human said and Mor nodded.

°Let´s get some rest, we had enough trouble for one day. At least you are talking with me again, which is nice.° Mor said and the human chuckled.

°It was your fault.° They said.

°Yes, you made sure I understand that.° Mor answered.

After they went through their evening exercises, some stretches, and cleaning themself, Mor went to bed, but this night's sleep was not restful, as every time he closed his eyes he was back in this dark forest, he spent the night tossing and turning, and awoke the next morning dead tired.

°Bad night.° The human stated.

°Yes, seems Zaletha´s illusion, hit a bit too close to home." Mor answered.

°I just don´t get why, yes this thing was scary, but still only a beast in a dream, so why are you reacting so extremely at this?° The human asked and Mor shrugged

°I don´t know, it is an illusion of a monstrosity, so maybe some ancient instinct warns me of this? I mean, a lot of children´s stories have tales of monstrosities and every time it was almost unstoppable and needed a lot of heroes to defeat.° Mor said and the human got thoughtful.

°Then maybe this was the natural enemy of your ancestors, and this instinct is what made your kin survive.° The human mused, and Mor agreed.

This day, something was up, as there was a sudden extra lesson on history and an after-school assembly scheduled, the lesson was about the origins of the monstrosities but the assembly was a mystery.

...

Monstrosities were once the beasts, living along the ancient kin, but while the great kin war was raging, the habitat of the beasts was drained of magic, as it all was pulled towards the battlefields. The beasts were starved of the energy, many of them needed to stay alive, with their survival on the line, they used the last bit of magic they could get ahold of and transformed themself, to get the much-needed energy in another way, this being hunting other beasts, or killing the new best source of magics, the kin. In addition the emergence of the "First" seemed to also influence the beasts, as they quickly got more resistant to magic and physical attacks, seemingly as a defensive measure, to protect themself against the hunting from the kin and the hunting of the "First".

...

After the lessons, all students gathered again in the gathering hall, as the headmaster once again climbed the stage and took a deep breath.

°Doesn´t he somehow look nervous?° The human asked, and Mor nodded.

°Whatever is going on, it seems bad.° Mor said and the human agreed.