Kee's Private Journal: Keep OUT
2087.09.01
My name is Kee and I am a mage. This is my personal journal and if you are reading this you should be worried. You should be worried because either I am going to hunt you down and kill you [this means you Courier or something really bad happened to me, and reading this might put you at risk.
My best buddy Courier and I were front and center to the @[Burning Tower](landmark:a2aef1db-6426-4ee0-9748-0a584b91cec9) going from figuratively burning to literally burning. In fact, I was inside when it happened and they tried to put the blame on me, or at least they held me partly responsible for it. Okay, so they just thought I didn't do my job very well.
They would be wrong.
What they don't know is that for as long as I can remember I have been able to see magic. When I was young, I just thought everyone saw the way I did. It got me in trouble at school a lot. Some kid would be using magic to cheat or play a practical joke and I would call them out because I thought it was so darn obvious. I could see them doing it, and surely everyone else could as well. It got me beat up more than once until Courier came along. He was one tough little kid. He was taking Saturday classes at The Academy, a school The Rookery runs for people with wings. He was already ahead of some of the adults in his martial arts class. For whatever reason, he decided to take me under his wing [see what I did there?!?] and protect me. Spending time with him was how I came to understand that the way I saw was completely different.
So what do I mean by different? Well, I'm honestly not entirely sure. I identify colors and things the same way as anyone else. Some might say I can read auras, and maybe that's true if auras are the magical energy in the world. That said, I have talked to others who see auras though and that's not what I see. They see a person, or maybe, rarely a thing surrounded by a certain color of light. I see the webs that interconnect things. I see...well, I think of it as I see the magic. I see the air, the ground, the clouds, the plants, the people, the animals, the things. I don't entirely have words for it because it's just how I have always seen things.
Sometimes it scares me. I mean, do I really see at all? What would happen if the magic just went away again the way it just reappeared. Would I be blind?
And if that's not enough, when I work magic I can see where I am pulling it from. So when I work to create a breeze, I see how I am using the air itself and pushing and pulling it. I was taught to do this sort of thing with incantations and gestures, but I found out when doing my homework that I don't need to use those things. I tried to show a teacher once and they got very angry with me for not using the 'correct methods' and told me that magic needed those things to be controlled. I haven't shown anyone what I do since then. I just say the words and make the gestures even though I know that's a bunch of bullcrap, or maybe it's not for others? Who knows. I can only tell you what I experience.
Needless to say, there are a lot of things about me that no one knows. I am afraid to let anyone know because I have seen people taken away by the @[Magic Circle](organization:657c6121-94ea-4ec0-9072-6143a6af9a92) for doing things in new and different ways and they haven't been seen again. Maybe they are cherished and allowed to live in an ivory tower, but then again maybe they are test subjects. I hope to never find out.
And I am way off topic because the topic scares the bejesus out of me.
Today I was doing my day job at The Burning Tower. I was sitting at the roof entrance watching the magical alarm runes and keeping my eye on those entering to ensure that nothing dangerous came in when Courier came in with a delivery. The delivery was for Mr Sendon. He is, was, this really high up dude in the Tower, and the Magic Circle, who has some really impressive connections. This dude sneers at us, me, Courier, and K'estra because he has to come up and collect this Class IV package himself. He signs takes the package and heads back to his lair. Jerk.
About an hour later I see this incredibly bright light that just blinds me entirely for what felt like an eternity but was more like fifteen seconds. Then when I get my sight back, the whole outside of the tower is in flames. These aren't real flames. There's no heat, or smoke, just the light and flickering of one. I could see the flames moving in the way that real fire would move, but it was off. The color and movement didn't have the same vibrancy that real fire has. Everyone who was there started talking, and no one but me saw a light at all. One minute there was nothing, the next there were flames; for them, no light. After cooling my heels in a room for a few hours while the powers that be figured out what was going on and decided that I really did have nothing to do with it, they let me out.
Those hours gave me some time to think though. Why was I the only one to see the light? Why was I temporarily blinded? Why did they think I had anything to do with it?
What I came up with is that I was on duty when that Class IV was brought in, and that's why they held me. Now, I looked that package over, from a distance of course. Courier's bag dampened the package the way it was supposed to. It didn't extend past the bag's field at all. When the package was taken out, sure, it looked about like I would expect a Class IV to look. It was definitely bright. Mr. Sendon came and collected it like the jerk he is. He didn't open the box it was in, and it looked like it was wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with twine, but still, nothing about those seemed at all magical to me.
Next thing I know there is this bright flash and then the whole building is lit up. The spell on the building is not bright at all, and near as I can see it's self-powering. It's kept alive by pulling magic from everything around it at very low levels. It's not taking anything that anyone can't build back in short order.
Later I hear that Mr. Sendon was killed by the knife that was in the package. If there was a knife in there I should have been able to tell and yet to me, it had looked more like a large crystal than a knife.
That night I crashed hard, and I dreamt of a dragon, and not just any dragon, a great dragon. It was an Asian Imperial Lung. I know that ‘cause it had five fingers. He was the most beautiful shade of red with mustaches, and his mane was the most amazing shade of yellow with red at the tips. He told me that I was caught up in things that were bigger than they seemed and that he would make sure that Courier and I were safe because we didn’t deserve to be caught up in it all. Ever since then I have felt completely reassured and at peace, only that can't be right. It can't be right because dragons don't make mistakes and he deliberately involved Courier. I was barely even collateral damage on a dragon scale [HA!], and yet he made a point of contacting me and giving me that message. I shouldn't even be on his radar.
I really should just let this go. It has nothing to do with me. Courier is off the hook and so am I. No one thinks we had anything to do with it and I should just mind my own business. But here's the deal. I didn't see it, and that just doesn't happen. That means there is some mad, awesome magic out there being done by someone, maybe a dragon, and I want to know more. And that means I'm going to do something stupid...something crazy like Courier would do.
My best buddy Courier and I were front and center to the @[Burning Tower](landmark:a2aef1db-6426-4ee0-9748-0a584b91cec9) going from figuratively burning to literally burning. In fact, I was inside when it happened and they tried to put the blame on me, or at least they held me partly responsible for it. Okay, so they just thought I didn't do my job very well.
They would be wrong.
What they don't know is that for as long as I can remember I have been able to see magic. When I was young, I just thought everyone saw the way I did. It got me in trouble at school a lot. Some kid would be using magic to cheat or play a practical joke and I would call them out because I thought it was so darn obvious. I could see them doing it, and surely everyone else could as well. It got me beat up more than once until Courier came along. He was one tough little kid. He was taking Saturday classes at The Academy, a school The Rookery runs for people with wings. He was already ahead of some of the adults in his martial arts class. For whatever reason, he decided to take me under his wing [see what I did there?!?] and protect me. Spending time with him was how I came to understand that the way I saw was completely different.
So what do I mean by different? Well, I'm honestly not entirely sure. I identify colors and things the same way as anyone else. Some might say I can read auras, and maybe that's true if auras are the magical energy in the world. That said, I have talked to others who see auras though and that's not what I see. They see a person, or maybe, rarely a thing surrounded by a certain color of light. I see the webs that interconnect things. I see...well, I think of it as I see the magic. I see the air, the ground, the clouds, the plants, the people, the animals, the things. I don't entirely have words for it because it's just how I have always seen things.
Sometimes it scares me. I mean, do I really see at all? What would happen if the magic just went away again the way it just reappeared. Would I be blind?
And if that's not enough, when I work magic I can see where I am pulling it from. So when I work to create a breeze, I see how I am using the air itself and pushing and pulling it. I was taught to do this sort of thing with incantations and gestures, but I found out when doing my homework that I don't need to use those things. I tried to show a teacher once and they got very angry with me for not using the 'correct methods' and told me that magic needed those things to be controlled. I haven't shown anyone what I do since then. I just say the words and make the gestures even though I know that's a bunch of bullcrap, or maybe it's not for others? Who knows. I can only tell you what I experience.
Needless to say, there are a lot of things about me that no one knows. I am afraid to let anyone know because I have seen people taken away by the @[Magic Circle](organization:657c6121-94ea-4ec0-9072-6143a6af9a92) for doing things in new and different ways and they haven't been seen again. Maybe they are cherished and allowed to live in an ivory tower, but then again maybe they are test subjects. I hope to never find out.
And I am way off topic because the topic scares the bejesus out of me.
Today I was doing my day job at The Burning Tower. I was sitting at the roof entrance watching the magical alarm runes and keeping my eye on those entering to ensure that nothing dangerous came in when Courier came in with a delivery. The delivery was for Mr Sendon. He is, was, this really high up dude in the Tower, and the Magic Circle, who has some really impressive connections. This dude sneers at us, me, Courier, and K'estra because he has to come up and collect this Class IV package himself. He signs takes the package and heads back to his lair. Jerk.
About an hour later I see this incredibly bright light that just blinds me entirely for what felt like an eternity but was more like fifteen seconds. Then when I get my sight back, the whole outside of the tower is in flames. These aren't real flames. There's no heat, or smoke, just the light and flickering of one. I could see the flames moving in the way that real fire would move, but it was off. The color and movement didn't have the same vibrancy that real fire has. Everyone who was there started talking, and no one but me saw a light at all. One minute there was nothing, the next there were flames; for them, no light. After cooling my heels in a room for a few hours while the powers that be figured out what was going on and decided that I really did have nothing to do with it, they let me out.
Those hours gave me some time to think though. Why was I the only one to see the light? Why was I temporarily blinded? Why did they think I had anything to do with it?
What I came up with is that I was on duty when that Class IV was brought in, and that's why they held me. Now, I looked that package over, from a distance of course. Courier's bag dampened the package the way it was supposed to. It didn't extend past the bag's field at all. When the package was taken out, sure, it looked about like I would expect a Class IV to look. It was definitely bright. Mr. Sendon came and collected it like the jerk he is. He didn't open the box it was in, and it looked like it was wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with twine, but still, nothing about those seemed at all magical to me.
Next thing I know there is this bright flash and then the whole building is lit up. The spell on the building is not bright at all, and near as I can see it's self-powering. It's kept alive by pulling magic from everything around it at very low levels. It's not taking anything that anyone can't build back in short order.
Later I hear that Mr. Sendon was killed by the knife that was in the package. If there was a knife in there I should have been able to tell and yet to me, it had looked more like a large crystal than a knife.
That night I crashed hard, and I dreamt of a dragon, and not just any dragon, a great dragon. It was an Asian Imperial Lung. I know that ‘cause it had five fingers. He was the most beautiful shade of red with mustaches, and his mane was the most amazing shade of yellow with red at the tips. He told me that I was caught up in things that were bigger than they seemed and that he would make sure that Courier and I were safe because we didn’t deserve to be caught up in it all. Ever since then I have felt completely reassured and at peace, only that can't be right. It can't be right because dragons don't make mistakes and he deliberately involved Courier. I was barely even collateral damage on a dragon scale [HA!], and yet he made a point of contacting me and giving me that message. I shouldn't even be on his radar.
I really should just let this go. It has nothing to do with me. Courier is off the hook and so am I. No one thinks we had anything to do with it and I should just mind my own business. But here's the deal. I didn't see it, and that just doesn't happen. That means there is some mad, awesome magic out there being done by someone, maybe a dragon, and I want to know more. And that means I'm going to do something stupid...something crazy like Courier would do.
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