It is night time, and the library is bathed in shadow, dotted with oil lamps here and there in the cubbyholes, artificial stars amidst artificial clouds. One of the cubbyholes is occupied by a small dark-robed unicorn who pens a letter by the light of a lamp and what light filters in from the city outside, rather than staying up for some late night reading … though a stack of books suggests that may have originally been his intent.
The unicorn pauses briefly, reflexively glancing over his shoulder. No one is there. He lets out a held breath, then dips his pen again, and resumes his writing.
– or maybe somehow with Scrying magic, you can read it. I really wish I could get some letters back from you, but I guess I'd have to be a Spirit mage to even know where to start. If you're a ghost, it's okay to pop up and say hello. I'll probably scream and make a fuss at first, but it's okay, really. I went by the monument, but somehow it doesn't just make everything feel better, and make me forget things. But if I did, maybe that would be bad. I don't want to stop caring. I just wish that I could change things.
Well, that's depressing. Sorry. Didn't mean to make this a downer of a letter. I guess Babel is just sort of gloomy that way. I mean, I keep hearing that there are fights out in the city, and awful things happening, and no real reason to any of it, except that everybody's angry and scared and fighting over what's left. It's nice to see people again that I thought might be dead, but I've already told all my stories, and there just aren't many kids to play around with (especially not kids who are Journeymen). Are you a Journeyman yet? (I'm guessing that with so many mages over there with you, you can still learn more magic, right?) That would be so dark if you were.
Anyway, in case you haven't been following me around and watching me, I'm still holding onto Mister Porky. I don't really know what to do with him, and I'm so afraid something bad's going to happen to him, but maybe he's a link of some sort so you can peek in on me now and then. I was thinking of dropping him off with your parents, but the things I heard from Master Cyprian make me wonder if they'd really want him. I'm going to write them a letter. I don't really know what else I should do. I feel like I'm missing something, something important, but I'm just not smart enough to figure out what it is.
For right now, I'm still stuck at the Mages' Guild. I don't have the money to charter an airship ride out, so I'm having to wait until there's a ship coming by to visit, and I can use my guild privileges to get a ride. I'm not too picky really where I ride to, though I guess Rephidim is the spot I'll probably go first, until I figure out where I really want to go, or where there's a job for me.
While I'm here, I wish I could make myself useful and be a hero or something, but I'm still just a kid. Maybe if I work harder on my magic, I could do some good. I could use Scrying to try to find someone who needs help, then use Shadow magic to sneak over to them, and then Life magic to do a little healing. I still try to study up on Life and Scrying so I can continue what Master Koshiro taught me, but I'm still officially just a Shadow mage, and even at hiding, I'm not all that great. You can't just cast powerful spells to be a good hider. You have to be smart and tricky, too. (I'm not so great at being tricky.) I guess the thing that scares me most is that people are so strange in the city. I don't know if someone would want my help. But if I don't try, then I'm not much good. But also, I owe the Guild a lot of money, and I'm not earning any to pay them back by mooching off them at the Guild Hall. I'm just going to have to talk to the older mages here and see if there's any way I can make myself useful while I'm waiting on a ride out.
I really miss Envoy. Do you remember her? She's the one who looks like a grown-up, even though she claims she's younger than I am. Oh, wait, that was a stupid thing for me to say. Write. Whatever. (I don't want to blot things out. That's sloppy.) She's the one who looks almost like she might be related to me, except her horn is golden and all curvy, and she's got wings, and these golden scale-things on her neck, and she's an Earth mage, too. Well, on Reckoning Day, she made this speech about how bad the Guild is for persecuting the priestesses. ("Persecuting" means, I guess, that we don't let them visit the Guild Hall, and we don't think it's nice how they kill people and all that.) I saw Rephath there. I heard she's a spirit, but she looks very real, and she looks mean, too. Any road, Envoy's speech got the older mages at the Guild all riled up, and they took away her mage status, so she's not allowed to cast spells anymore. I haven't seen any more of her after that. I guess she left town or something. That would be awful, not being able to cast spells anymore. If I couldn't, I don't know what I'd do! If I couldn't use magic, I'd just be a kid, and I haven't got any parents to take care of me, and all my friends are grown up on me. (That reminds me – do you keep growing up where you are? Or do you just stay the same? Do you still like to play Hide and Go Squeak? Or are you all grown out of that sort of stuff? Maybe you don't even like candy anymore.)
I get really nervous about stuff I hear about spirits around here. I mean, I'm really worried someone is going to decide that Silhouette is a "free-willed spirit" and try to do something bad to her. It's so weird. I sort of wish she were a free-willed spirit, because I think she deserves a free will, but I also don't want her to get in trouble, either. I really really want to get to be a more powerful mage so I can cast some really awesome ritual to make her solid, so she won't be stuck as a spirit anymore. Then, we wouldn't have to worry about some Spirit mage trying to exorcise her, or call me a sorcerer for having her around. But I understand why they're scared, because it's really weird, thinking that some mages can call up this spirit, and then it becomes almost real, and starts ordering people around, and has awful things happen like what Rephath does. I can't even repeat the stories I heard about what goes on in her temple. It's really sick.
I was thinking again about how I might be able to help people without getting into trouble. I've heard that really powerful mages can make elementals – you know, fire elementals, water elementals, air elementals, and even shadow elementals. I wonder if anyone's ever made a life elemental? I was thinking about using Scrying magic to make my sneaky spy-creen even more powerful, so I can send him out and see what's going on outside the tower. But wouldn't it be cool if I could make my Creen able to heal people, too? Of course, it'd be a lot more work than if I were there in person, that's for sure, but if anyone tries to attack my elemental, he can just zip away, and if anyone hurts him, I can just fix him like that. At least, if something like that worked. I'm not near so good at Life or Scrying magic as Shadow, that's the problem. I'll keep working at it.
Where do you think you'd go if you could work as a Journeyman anywhere on Sinai? I'm sort of curious, really, to find out if there are others of my kind. I know there's Arch-Inquisitor Melchizedek up in the Temple, but he's spooky. Maybe if I travel around a lot, I'll run into other Aeonians. I probably need to find some way to learn the language, though. Somehow, I can understand things being said in my dreams, but I don't know whatever language it was when I'm awake. If I can't even speak the language, they might have trouble believing my stories. (They might even have trouble anyway, what with how weird they are!)
I think I might like to see Chronotopia someday. It has lots of gears and clocks and things that blow up, though I don't really want to be near things that blow up. It's pretty close, though, to Bosch, which is like a whole land of nightmare, and when I think about going to somewhere like Chronotopia, I worry that there might be this big gust of wind that blows the airship over into Bosch and we can't get out. That would be really awful. But I guess it must be that this doesn't happen much, or people wouldn't go there. The thing is, they're not really big on magic, and although I am a Shadow mage, I'm really not a specialist on magic-suppression, and that's what they'd really be interested in. So that'd probably just be a place to look around because it's cool, not because I could actually get a real job there.
Abu Dhabi is another place that sounds interesting, although it's really hot. I suppose I could make a little candy money by making shades for people, but if it's hot enough, it's bad even in the shade, and that's a bad place to be going around in dark mages' robes for sure. I'd love to check out the Gateway Town and see other worlds, but I hear magic doesn't work there, so I'd be totally useless, and I'm afraid Silhouette wouldn't be able to come along. (Most certainly my Creen wouldn't be able to come along, and I'd really miss him. He's a big help in scouting around in dangerous areas, plus he's so happy when I give him shadow bugs for treats!)
Maybe I'll just see where an airship is going if it's going out of here, and see where it takes me. Either that or just go to Rephidim and see if it passes over anywhere really dark, and hop off (just figuratively!) somewhere to find a job. I'll be sure and write you another letter once I figure out anything like that.
Well, that's about it, really. Oh yeah. When New Year's comes around, I'm going to get some fireworks if I have the money and try to send some up really high so you can see them, okay? I wave every once in a while at the Procession just in case you're watching. Be sure and say hello to all the other mages up there for me.
Your friend,
Rorschach Stormshadow, Journeyman of the Sphere of Shadow
Rory blots the remaining ink from his pen, and carefully wipes off the nib, then sets it aside, blowing lightly on the parchment to help dry the ink a little faster. He then pauses and looks up at the night sky, at the dim glow of the Procession. He sees a bright sparkle – one of many – and (just in case) he lifts his hand, smiles, and waves.
