Wake up, Cruor of Chaos. The Crimson comes…
…
"You're finally awake." He heard Anastasia speak. His lidded eyes slowly opened and gazed at the girl.
"What …was that?" He asked her. From the expression she gave him, she didn't quite know either.
"Did you have a dream?"
He slowly sat up, his hands trembling and his body drenched in sweat. "A massacre." He told her, "Ivory walls covered in blood, a palace hall full of corpses and a dead king sitting on his throne—one heck of a dream…"
"Are you alright?" Concerningly, she asked and sighed, "That's a nightmare."
"No, I'm definitely not… If those are the memories I lost, I don't want them back." He told her before lying down on the mat as he took deep breaths.
"Those are not your memories; it was a vision." She told him.
"A vision?" He repeated.
"Perhaps, you are blessed of Serenity as well, an oracle like me. We get visions such as this before something terrible is about to happen."
"No, no, I am sure of it. Those are my memories." He breathed heavily, "I can still smell the blood and the iron…"
Anastasia stayed silent, unable to bring herself to speak any further as Brand continued; the descriptions were too vivid and real to be a vision.
"Besides, I remember my true name now, and from what I understand, I'm a blessed of chaos." He told her, and she nodded in response.
The knowledge about one's name and blessing came instinctively; that was why forgetting one's true name was considered nearly impossible unless one's body, mind, or soul had been tampered with.
"Speaking your name will allow you to use your blessing, but don't worry, only you can understand what it truly means."
So, that's why she spoke the word before casting the divination? He thought to himself before he muttered in a low voice.
"Cruor."
[ (/ˈkru.ɔr/) ]
Something within him stirred; it was the essence inside him stirring, molding to his commands.
"Stop!" Anastasia spoke loudly, interrupting the young man. "You'll destroy something inside here. Come outside."
She stood up and opened the door before walking out. Brand soon followed her outside and behind her cottage hut.
"You need basic control over your essence first. A blessed of Valor can do it inside their bodies, but as a Blessed of Chaos, you can only do it outside." She told him. "Try making a sphere in your palm."
"Alright." He followed her instructions and managed to expel some essence from his palm. It looked like a translucent fluid with only a red hue to it; he managed to somehow form a rough sphere in his palm.
"As expected, you're already awakened." Anastasia poked around the ball for a bit before Brand couldn't hold its shape anymore, and it collapsed before seemingly evaporating into the air. "You're aware of dormancy and awakening, right?"
He nodded; Glenn had mentioned it to him yesterday. A person who can only feel and observe the essence has it dormant, and although they could use basic abilities, they couldn't control the amount of essence or the structure of the spell.
"What else can I do?" He asked her.
"I am an oracle;
I don't know much about your blessing, except for your higher aptitude for magic." She said sorrowfully.
"Usually a mage's spells require catalysts to grant them form, like a firestone or firedust to set something aflame, like the essence stone from before, but those are different things."
Essence stone to store essence, and a catalyst like firestone to cast spells… He recalled the moment when Syrash had reached his hand inside his cloak before lighting the log on fire; that surely had been some sort of catalyst then.
"I cannot find something like that in the village, surely?" He asked her, and she shook her head.
"Probably not, but the alchemist here is notorious for his experiments; you could ask him if he has some catalysts lying around." She said and sat on a nearby log, "If you're heading to Blackstone, there are several stores dedicated to mages there."
"I'll look into them when I get there; hopefully I can learn who I was and where I'm from without experiencing those horrible memories." He internally gagged upon thinking of the bloodied ivory hall.
"I wonder what kind of life you lived to experience something like that. It must have been hard on you..." She paused for a moment before correcting herself, "The you who still had his memories."
"I pity him, too, to witness something like that firsthand." He said quietly and shook his head.
He looked at the sun in the sky, realizing that a lot of time had passed as he slept. The group of travelers had decided on a plan to leave a few hours before evening to hopefully reach a checkpoint north of the village just as the sun set.
He still had a few hours before they left, though, enough time to do some work, perhaps even help out Rufus on his problem with the mutating foxes.
It was quite a troublesome task, though, especially considering he had near no knowledge about the foxes or how dangerous the task was going to be.
"I have a question." He spoke, interrupting the silence.
"Go ahead."
"What could cause animals to turn into monsters?" He asked her, and she seemed confused as to why he would ask such a strange question out of the blue.
"I don't really know much about animals; it could be some magic or alchemical waste." She told him and asked a question herself, "Have you seen something like that recently?"
He shook his head. "A rumor I heard."
"Those creatures are quite dangerous and hard to come by. You should tell the beast hunters in Blackstone about the rumor once you get there. "
"I will, and thanks for your help in all this." He thanked her sincerely. "I don't really have anything right now, but once I get my life going, I will return here for your payment."
"You owe me one now." She laughed devilishly.