How To Heal From Hate
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Rostam, please share this with Zeelik and mother.
I was under the impression we were leaving Wisdom soon so I had things to do. If we are ever going to shed the sins of the past we need to meet people and communicate with them or they will never see as anything other than what history and our ancestor have made us, the harbingers of doom.
I went to Master Kel-ed and offered my skills as a wizard. I know how rare magic was in our tribe and that A’zad held much sway and influence among the elders. Even he began as I once did, an acolyte, learning how to cast that 1st spell, the change in me after seeing what my will might accomplish. A’zad told me that it took him a month of failures to get his first spell right. I know currently I cannot compete with the majority of wizards in the guild hall but my battle lays not with my hand but with the heart and wills of those around me. I am guessing that from what I have seen of Wisdom magic is rare among other races.
Oh an important note! Master Kel-ed explained to me that the ugly scarred elves I thought the war of the Fair and the Strong had maligned are actually descendant of the barbarians mentioned in the field journals of the Etrinan Dwarf soldiers and Tristine Chronicles! Apparently these are Hoomans, Humans and have become the dominant races ruling nearly every corner of the world!
Well, Master Kel-ed, introduced me to the mage in charge of seeing if acolytes were capable of spell casting and then pairing them up with an apprenticeship to a full wizard. The female wizard was another of these hoomans, err I mean humans…
…I am still getting the pronunciation correct…
… It would seem when the New Kingdom fell apart, these barbarians settled in an area west of here and now call it the West Empire. I do not wish to sound rude but was there not a better name to be had? I have been reading some books on history in the library here at night and then retiring to the room Master Overkill and I share. Now from what I can gather the Hoomans have become not unlike the Elves at the end of the New Kingdom and they are waging war against a new form of beastman from the north, the Wolfen! Like us only they look like wolves and did not help subjugate all the races of light until their masters were overthrown in the War of Chaos!
I hope to meet one someday.
Well I have spent my days teaching any spell I know to Acolytes, and there was a small elf boy that could see magic auras when it was cast but was simply unable to cast a spell. It seems his friends had all progressed forward and become apprentices, one of them became a pronounce wizard this year and he feared he would be stuck in the life of a knight. What amazed me is that the other children I had to have the Head-mistress of the Acolytes calm them down and explain I was not going to EAT them!
If I ever meet one of us that still follow the Old Ones I will destroy them and burn their corpse! They are the only ones I would use a rune weapon on without hesitation.
This Elf boy had no fear of me, after getting to know him for a few hours he started to talk about how he came from a line of wizards and while being a knight would be acceptable, it would crush his father and he didn’t want to let him down. He was beginning to resent the slurs, condescending remarks from family and political friends when they thought he could not hear them. I gently put my arm around him and said how sorry I felt for them.
The boy looked at me in surprise, which was the response I wanted.
“How can you feel sorry for them? I am the victim of those slurs and insults!”
“That is a choice you made on how to feel about what others say about you,” I replied, “however, I would feel sorry for any person that cannot see hack marks in the tree of life!”
“What do you mean hack marks? What tree of life,” asked the elf boy.
“According to the Tristine Chronicles the greatest wizard the world had ever seen was Lictalon,” watching the boy and also smelled the Head-mistress of the Acolytes perfume so I knew I was being watched. Thus I continued, “In the age of Light after the Chaos Lords were put down it was said he planted a tree to celebrate this victory. Now I never saw another reference to it till I came across a small book of poems and words songs among the collected treasures the Dwarves of Fort Etrinan had. In it there is a poem about a young girl who studied with the great and powerful Lictalon. She had amazing power and skill, and the story talks about her even winning one round in a training duel with her master. This small victory went to her head and she began to treat her friends like her servants flaunting her power, her careless words, bad temper around like she had been god. Eventually the great and powerful Lictalon found out about her behavior and he took her to the tree of life and gave her a bag of silver spikes, etched with mystic symbols, and a golden hammer. He told her that she would have to come here every time she got mad and hammer a spike into the tree of life, or he would stop teaching her!
The first day the girl had driven 37 spikes into the tree. Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of spikes hammered daily gradually dwindled down. She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those spikes into the tree of life. Finally the day came when the girl didn’t lose her temper at all. She began to act with more respect to others as well, she told the great and powerful Lictalon about it. Lictalon said to her that she should now pull out one spike for each day that she was able to hold her temper. The days passed and the young girl was finally able to tell the great and powerful Lictalon that all the spikes were gone. Lictalon took her by the hand and led her to the tree and told her she had done well. Then he told her to look at the tree of life where the spikes had been. There was rot around each hole and he told her the spikes were enchanted to help her release the anger she felt, but now the tree was angry and could not heal for the pain done to it.
The young girl now realized what she had done to all of her friends and over the year she made amends and as she did and those hurt truly forgave her and moved on the wounds would heal on the tree of life. One of her playmates refused to forgive her and she could not bear to see the tree suffer any more for her anger. She learned a spell to take back her anger and let the tree heal, but when she did the “wound” was transferred back to her and appeared in her heart and she died. Her friend felt so bad that he had not forgiven her when she taken her anger back and owned her mistake. He prayed to let his anger pass and forgive her, after several days of prayer the Gods of Light heard his prayers and they blessed her with life and when he saw her awaken he knew he felt no ill will toward her anymore.”
The elf boy sat there listening in rapt attention, “That’s it what happened to them?”
“I do not know the page was ripped out but I like to think they became pair bonded and lived long lives together for they both knew the worst thing each other had done and had MOVED passed it. Do you see now?”
The elf boy had a quizzical look, “I am not completely sure?”
“It’s true words said in anger create scars; and it’s better if we don’t inflict wounds on each other, but if the wound happens, or happened in the past, it’s important to know the scars can heal. Think about a cut or wound in your skin: Your body starts to heal immediately, coagulating your blood to stop the loss, then developing a scab, under which new skin grows, until the scab is no longer needed, and flakes off, leaving a red mark, which fades, until there is little or no evidence of the wound. With a more serious wound, some care and aid is needed, perhaps a healer and bandages to remove a scar. Our bodies are an unending miracle, able to accomplish things without our even noticing. But until you heal you can’t focus properly.”
The elf boy nodded, “How can I heal?”
“Make a choice focus every ounce of your will into healing,” I replied and continued, “Now I want you to close your eyes and ask the great and powerful Ra for help saying this prayer, over and over till you can see the great light of the sun radiating from you. Let me douse the candles.”
The prayer I gave him was the words to a spell called Globe of Daylight. The prayer to Ra was to help him focus the way I found prayer helpful to me. I could smell and hear others nearby in the hall but I continued and said only encouraging things to the elf boy. First his tunic began to glow and soon it spread to out, lighting up the whole room since he was the focus of the spell.
When I told him to stop and open his eyes he saw the light and his smile was as bright as the Globe of Daylight he made out of himself. I told him he should be congratulated for casting his first spell. When he stood up it slowly began to fade and I reminded him he had many years of training ahead to control magic correctly. However, he must learn to forgive people for not knowing the scars they inflict so he does not end up bearing them himself. He bowed his head and smiled thanked me for the spell as a prayer idea and off he ran. I sat there in the dark and felt good knowing my namesake would have been proud. If I remember nothing else from this quest I will remember I taught someone not to hate others for their short comings.
This is what the War of the Fair and the Strong has taught me.
Time to head back to the room and wait for Master Overkill.
With hope,
Xerx’ses
>> Written by Xerx’ses Goldenflail,
Wizard on Selestra 6th in the year 111.<<