The Adventures of Lucius - II

This is Chapter II of The Adventures of Lucius story. To see Chapter I go here.

I feel like I should stop here for a moment and explain a few things. After all, the gunshot really wasn’t that important.¹¹ You might have noticed that both my assailant and I used lightning. There is in point of fact a reason for this. You see lightning belongs to one of the five elemental circles of magic. Lightning belongs to the circle of air. It also belongs to one of the five primary school, but that part of magical theory just isn’t for beginners. Oh yeah that was another thing unaffected by my amnesia. I for some reason remembered all the magic theory that I had learned. Perhaps before I had my amnesia, I was a magical theoretician. Who knows? I know that I don’t.

So at this point, it should become quite clear to you, dear reader, that the stranger and I were similar types of wizards. After all, the stranger did possess at least one of the Aeromantic powers. Now, I am what is technically called an Aeromancer, therefore I possess all the Aeromantic powers. I however never learned how many Aeromantic powers this stranger possessed, but he was at the very least a Keraunomancer or wizard who could use lightning..

As I was saying earlier, the stranger had frozen me with terror and fear. Now, this also could be an indication of Aeromantic powers, but it would have been a highly skilled use of them. One of the Aeromantic powers is telepathy, therefore he could have planted in my head terrifying thoughts that caused me to freeze with terror and fear. It is much easier to do this though if you have the manipulation power of a Pyromancer, which is empathy. Also, it could have been something to with the dark arts.¹²

Now, where was I? Ah yes, I was frozen with terror and fear. What means were used to accomplish this fell act of magic are still open to debate. Then there was the roar of a gun. Whatever magic held me in its foul grip released me in that instance, and I turned to see my adversary falling to the ground. Then I saw a woman dressed in a small cuirass with a short dark cape hanging from her shoulders coming down from one of the beach’s dunes. At her side, there hung a saber, and in her hand she held a revolver. “There you are,” she said with a shake of her head. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

I stood there dumbfounded for a moment. Here was a woman, who believed that she knew who was I, which was pretty impressive since I had no idea who I was. Perhaps, it was due to the fact that someone had tried to kill me right away in the first few moments of my new life, but I discovered in that moment that I was a very suspicious individual. I wasn’t really quite ready to trust a woman that I didn’t know, even if I had known her in the past. So I simply responded, “Who the hell are you?”

The woman looked at me with an utterly dumbfounded expression for a moment. “It’s me,” she said with a shake of her head. “Cassandra. We have been traveling together for years now, Lucius.”

So Lucius apparently was my name. Excellent. I knew one more definite thing about me than I had a moment ago. Unless of course, the woman was lying to me. In which case, I had obtained no new knowledge. “Look, Cassandra, if that really is your name,” I said with a note of doubt in my voice, “I don’t know who the hell you are.”

“Lucius,” the woman, who was possibly named Cassandra, said with a sigh, “this isn’t a funny joke.”

“It ain’t no joke, lady,” I replied. “Now please be so kind as to leave me alone.” With that, I possibly foolishly turned my back on her and began to walk away. Exposing your back to a potential enemy is not a good plan. Unless you absolutely have to, like when you are running from a big flaming dragon. So it was that I began to walk, not knowing if she was preparing to shoot me in the back.

¹¹You are probably thinking that the gunshot does seem somewhat important. I tend to agree with you on that point, and I wish that I could tell you more about it. I was not yet cursed with being Lucius’ companion though. I can say that he obviously survived it though, as I was cursed to meet him later.

¹²The Dark Arts are a very nebulous category of magic. It is basically a catchall term for any evil or twisted use of magic. Therefore some “dark arts” are mere abuses of the regular twenty-five powers, but others are a different form of magic in their own right. No one knows much about these though since to study the dark arts in any real depth once must inevitably do the dark arts. For more on this topic, I would suggest De Artum Umbrarum (Of the Methods of the Shadows) by the renowned gnomish scholar, Wisdom Barlik.

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