Finding Flux (Solo)

[Thorne]

(OoC: Thought about it for a long while, and I've come to the conclusion that not being able to remember an entire type of magic was stupid, so I'm retconning that. Also trying to write the character better than the first thread, because oof some of that was absolute trash. Anyway. Back to Bulgar.)


    Bulgar, the former largest city in Sacae before the City of Heroes was founded. (...at least, the City of Heroes was probably bigger. He really didn't know. it just sounded bigger because the name was more grandiose, and it was created by all these heroes and such. It occurred to Thorne that he should maybe learn some real geography stuff.) The city had quite the atmosphere on this windy day. Perhaps a festival of some sort, though Thorne admittedly knew very little about the culture of Sacae. Thorne could hear the chatter of traders selling their wares, see the food and drink sold in stalls, smell the warm pastries being sold nearby, feel the warm pastries being sold nearby, taste the warm pastries being sold ne- uh oh. Thorne was holding a half eaten pastry. In front of the woman selling them. Without paying. Whoops.

    Thorne apologized and paid for the pastry. Thorne was pretty hungry. He hadn't eaten a lot during his journey through Sacae, and what he had eaten wasn't very satisfying (Yes, it was just more bread, but it just wasn’t the same. It was old and cold. Warm bread tasted much better.) After making his way to a nearby alleyway, he tried the bread. Thorne loved bread. All kinds of bread, from pastries to rolls to plain loaves. The absolute best bread Thorne had ever eaten was up in Ilia, at a small bakery in the town of Remi. It was a teeny bit pricey, but the pastries were better than life itself. The rolls were warm and sweet, and-

    What was he doing again?

…

    Thorne finished his food and started looking around for a place to get a Flux tome. Buying one wouldn’t be an option, so that meant some more nefarious means. Looking around in the alleyways, there were a few shady smugglers, but Thorne wanted to avoid them if he could. Thorne didn't think that anybody was selling Flux for a price he could afford, but he didn't see why he shouldn't try anyway. He still had a few backup ideas. It could be possible to trade for a Flux tome. Unfortunately for Thorne, anything he was willing to trade would be worth next to nothing. Nonetheless, he would have to work out some sort of deal, unless he was going to do a few months of physical labor jobs, which sounded very unappealing.

    After spending the entire day checking nearly every shop in the entire city, Thorne's best bet seemed to be the tome shop that was selling Flux for the cheapest. (The name of the shop was "The Dusted Page". Ironically, it looked very dusty inside.) Unfortunately, it was still way out of his price range. Still, it was a start. It might be possible to haggle down to more reasonable prices. That would have to wait until the morning though, as the shop had closed half an hour ago. Thorne hurried to a cheap looking inn and got a room for the night. He feel asleep quickly, and it wouldn't be until the morning that he realized he hadn't eaten anything for dinner.

[Thorne]

    Thorne sat in his room, eating a small hand pie. The dough was disappointingly soggy, but it still tasted alright. The tome shop wouldn't open until around noon (a religious holiday, related to the festival the previous day), so Thorne had a bit of free time. Seeing as he was actually close to getting his hands on Flux, he decided to spend the morning studying and refreshing himself on the practice of spellcasting. He had already read everything he could about two years prior, but it seemed smart to review it. He visited the library and checked out some old books on general magic use, pulled out his notebook and got to work.

    Something Thorne had completely forgotten about was the emotional drain of using magic, Elder in particular. Using the magic would draw out and feed specific emotions, unique to everyone. These would fade relatively quickly in most cases, but untrained use of Elder would significantly amplify the severity of these emotions. Another problem with spellcasting for Thorne would be the lack of an example. Finding someone who could cast Elder (or any magic, really) and be willing to teach him was nigh impossible, especially with the current lack of heroes in the land. He could read and study all he wanted, he could be the most talented Elder mage since Branimond himself, and it wouldn't mean much if he had never actually seen Elder magic in use.

    Oh well, a problem for another day. His time at the inn had expired, which meant he was out of a place to study. Thorne packed up his notebook and books, thanked the innkeeper (but not before criticizing the sogginess of the hand pie), and left in search of something to do. He had about an hour until the tome shop opened, and many of the other shops were closed. Thorne decided the best use of his time would be to plan out where he would go from Bulgar. He wanted to get out rather quickly after acquiring Flux, as rumors of a small child armed with "death magic" would travel quickly. The Sacaens already looked at him funnily enough, as his light accent and warm clothes were a dead giveaway to his Ilian nationality. (Thorn still wasn't sure about the situation between the two. From what he had seen (admittedly not much), there hadn't been open war between the two for a while, but neither side seemed to recognize it.)

    Thorne found a nice bench to sit down at and looked at his map. It was hand drawn, with as many major cities as he knew, on top of some smaller areas Thorne thought he should remember. Lycia had many cities, and some would be better than others. Badon seemed like a good bet, as it easy to get to just about anywhere from Badon. Plus, Thorne did want to visit Nabata some day, and sail to the Western Isles. But it didn't seem like he would be likely to find someone willing to teach him magic in Badon. At this rate, Thorne had half a mind to visit a magic academy and hope he would be able to pay the student loans off in his lifetime.

    Before he could think of anything else productive to plan out, Thorne heard a bell ringing, signaling noon had come. He packed his stuff, got up from his bench and walked off to the tome shop. Just then did he think about the possibility of failing to get a Flux tome after all this work and planning. Thorne tried to shake that thought out of his head, but alas, to no avail.

[Thorne]

In the time it took Thorne to walk to the tome shop, he had completely lost all confidence in himself. It would require a great deal of luck to haggle the price of Flux down to where he could afford it. If he wasn't able to get the price low enough here, he wouldn't be able to get the price low enough anywhere else in Bulgar. Yeah, sure, he could find somewhere else, but these were the best prices he had seen in years. Thorne whispered quiet words of self-encouragement. "No, no, don't doubt yourself now. You can do this." Thorne pleaded the gods for aid in his task, and approached the front of the building.

The outside looked relatively nice, with new-ish paint and a clean front window. Thorne took a breath and walked in, immediately greeted by a wave of dust. After rubbing some out of his eyes, Thorne looked around. The inside was very messy, with stacks of books piled in every corner and stray pages lay scattered across the floor. There was an absurd amount of dust floating around the air, and some of the books were covered completely. Thorne also noticed a tall man leaning down on the counter, dressed in a blue robe. He was reading some sort of anima tome (the same shade of blue as the cloak. Possibly related to ice or water) as Thorne came in.

The man stood up and closed his book. He looked nice enough, and radiated a calming aura around him. "Why, hello there, young sir! Are you here to buy something?" Thorne nodded. "Yes, sir, um, I'd like to buy aaaa…" The man didn't seem to hear Thorne. "Judging by that cloak, I'd say you're an anima mage." (It was worth noting that Thorne's heavy black cloak really was that of an anima mage. He bought it cheap at a clothing shop in Ilia, and whenever he outgrew it, Thorne just sewed more fabric onto the bottom.) "Good choice, milad, good choice. I'm an anima mage myself, though I don't really cast magic anymore…" The man continued on for quite some time about a number of topics, and Thorne listened for longer than he would ever care to admit before he remembered why he came there. "Uh, sir?" ("And that's the problem with merchants these days, they'd ruin your entire life just to make a quick gold. Back in my day…") "Sir! I don't use anima magic, actually. I was hoping to purchase a Flux tome, if I could." The man looked at him, in slight shock. "O-oh… well, I mean… I guess… Do you really use dark magic?" "Elder magic, yes." Thorne noticed a significant change of tone in the man's voice. "Yes, of course, Elder magic… Coming right up…" He ducked down behind the counter, rummaging through a few piles of books.

At last, the man stood up, and placed a Flux tome on the counter. "Here you are. That'll be… 799 gold, please." Thorne only had a few hundred gold. Time to bargain. "Um, so sorry sir, but I… don't have, 799 gold. Would it be ok if I gave you 350 instead?" The man seemed to tense up. "I-I-I'm really sorry, it's all I have. I can get you mor-" "Deal. I'll take 350 gold, and in exchange, you go and don't come back. Your kind is bad for business." Thorne could barely contain his excitement. "Thank you sir! Thank you so much!" The man ignored him. Thorne reached into his hip pouch to grab his money, but as he pulled it out…

His tome fell out.

[Thorne]

    Thorne couldn't remember where he had gotten his tome from, but he knew it was important. It was advanced, powerful Elder of some sort, so Thorne had no chance of using it anytime soon. The problem was, people tended to panic when they saw it. Especially people that already disliked elder magic.

    Thorne quickly picked it up and set his money on the counter, but it was too late. The man saw the book, and after studying it while Thorne tried and failed to stuff it back in his pouch, the man gasped. He started to walk towards the front door. "Uhhh, I'm sorry kid, I'll be right back. Just… just stay here! Don't move!" The man frightfully passed Thorne, his pace quickening as he got closer to the door. Once he got within touching distance, the man opened the door and started yelling. "EVERYONE RUN! THIS KID HAS A DARK TOME! IT'S THE NOSF-" The man ran out the door and slammed it behind him. The door clicked, presumably being locked. Thorne wondered what the man was about to say. Something related to his tome?

    Whatever, Thorne didn't have time to think about it. He nabbed the Flux tome off the counter (he did pay for it, so it wasn't actually stealing) and went behind the counter, looking for a way out. Sure enough, there was a back door, which Thorne opened and bolted out of. It was still around noon, and he had gone into one of the alleyways. Running as fast as he could, Thorne moved through Bulgar looking for the fastest way out of town. As he crossed roads and streets, he noticed that nobody was outside. In fact, Thorne saw nobody until the very last street, where he saw a whole troop of city guards. They were dressed in full metal armor, wielding lances and bows. Thorne moved into and the closest alleyway ducked into a pile of garbage, hoping it would be enough to hide him should the guards search his area.

    After a whole gut wrenching five minutes, it seemed the guards were moving on. Thorne slowly got up out of his hiding spot, but in doing so he knocked over a bucket. Most of the footsteps walked the opposite direction, luckily enough. Unfortunately though, Thorne heard one set of footsteps get louder and louder. One of the guards must've heard. This was… really, really bad. Thorne's hiding spot wasn't great, and it wasn't like he could just find a new spot. The steps were getting louder and louder, closer and closer. For a brief moment, Thorne thought to use Flux, but quickly dismissed it, since he hadn't practised with it yet. Thorne didn't think he could just start slinging blasts of Elder right out of the gate without even reading the tome.

    Thorne had enough of hiding. It was time to do something that no man, no hero, not even a legend pull off.

    It was time…
to just book it out of town and hope for the best.

    This was Thorne's favored and most cherished strategy in any situation, and he knew it wouldn't let him down now. Thorne stood up abruptly and dashed towards the city gates, with nothing but his cloak, his books, and a dream. He heard guards yelling behind him, but it was too late. Thorne was out of the city, and he didn't plan on stopping now. He hoped he was running south towards Lycia, otherwise he would get lost quickly. Behind him, Thorne could hear some guards giving chase, but he would make it to a patch of forest before they could catch up to him, and Thorne was positive he could lose the guards easily in the forest. Fortunately though, it didn't come to that. Soon the guards slowed and eventually stopped, finally giving Thorne a chance to catch his breath.

    But, sadly, Thorne was out of luck. He has no clue where he was, and the nearest city would have to be incredibly far away. All he had was a gut feeling guiding him across the continent.

    This was probably going to end badly.

(OoC: Yes, I know south of Bulgar is Bern, but Thorne doesn't.)


<---END THREAD--->