33: Diamonds

My dreams were dark and troubling, but fascinating all the same. Visions of the sphere universe clouded my mind, and as I watched I saw it split and multiply. The Dark One appeared and pulled at the spheres, molding and shaping them into large, multifaceted diamonds. From these diamonds he drew energy, and as he poked and prodded at them green light flew from his fingertips. It was the same green light he had used on me, and the diamonds screamed with insane laughter. The Dark One laughed himself, and continued his vile business.

Then a new diamond appeared, yet it remained spherical. He poked and prodded at it, and from it he drew more of the energy. He chuckled and dove into it. The sphere began to resolve itself into facets, but when he returned from his business they began to break down. The sphere shimmered and destabilized as a scream of true pain came from it, and from it a bolt of red energy struck out towards the Dark One. He attempted to sever his connection, but the red light struck him and he screamed in agony. From this the red energy spread to the other diamonds, destabilizing and shattering them in turn. He screamed as he was enveloped in the light, and yet he worked frantically to put control over his failing efforts. Soon the red light became overpowering, and the ground he was standing on broke apart. The Dark One fell into the cracks and disappeared. With his death the energy dissipated, and my dream ended.

I awoke painfully, aware of the dull ache in my body. I automatically went to get out of the bed, but when I put weight on my left foot I screamed and collapsed. Suddenly I remembered what I had done to myself. I sent a small burst of healing magic through my leg, but it had no effect on my pain. I writhed on the ground for several minutes before I was able to gain control of myself. Deetsan came to my aid with a powerful restorative potion. I thanked her and felt my pain subside slightly. I pulled myself back onto the bed and moaned. I looked at foot, but it was so tightly wrapped in bandages I couldn’t make anything out. With nothing better to do, I looked at the bottle of the potion Deetsan had given me. I was a bit shocked at the label. It was the most powerful restorative they had on stock at the Guild. The only thing more powerful had to be ordered directly from the Arcane University, and even then it took quite a long time to procure. A curious thing I noted was that the potion had some powder of diamond in it as a catalyst. My dream immediately came to mind, but I dismissed it as coincidence. Suddenly I realized that my foot was wrapped in bandages. I had seen it before, but not understood the implications. Bandages are almost never used, thanks to the powerful healing spells available today. Only in the direst of circumstances are bandages and magic used in tandem. I was a bit shocked by this, as I didn’t think my toes could be damaged beyond repair. I had only cut them off with a semi-sharp disc. Those wounds ought to have been easily closed via magic. This worried me, but my inquiry was forced to wait, as Deetsan had to go mix another potion for me.

In the mean time, I attempted to heal myself with some of my own spells. Oddly enough, the pain in my toes increased instead of diminishing. I winced as the pain blossomed, and I grabbed at my leg as the pain began to subside. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I reached for my foot to unwrap it.

The bandages were still warm and sticky from blood, and they were difficult to pull apart without causing myself pain. When I had unraveled my foot, I found myself staring at the most disgusting thing I had every seen. The stump at the end of my foot had no toes on it whatsoever, and the bones protruding from the open wound were caked with blood. As I watched, my foot gushed a little bit of blood and I winced. I could see the effect of my heartbeat as I sat, entranced by the horrid scene before me. I snapped out of my daze and carefully sent a healing spell into it. To my horror, the magic from my spell was simply sucked away by a cloud of the Dark One’s mist. Through some strange phenomenon, the mist had fused itself with my body, and my toes were refusing to heal due to it. I looked at the bottle Deetsan had given me, and realized that the main effect was as a painkiller. For some reason, the mist was not sucking that up.

I took another look at my foot and gagged. I then flicked a magical flame between my fingers and held it near to my foot. The mist immediately reached out and stole away the energy powering the flame. I then proceeded through all the most basic of elemental and pure magical spells I could, and each one was sucked up by the mist. I grumbled and tested a few of the spells on other parts of my body, but each performed the desired effect, not being absorbed by the mist. So obviously this was a localized effect. In fact, on closer experimentation, I realized it was only the area where my toes had been that was affected by the mist. I pondered over this information, worried about my outlook.

Deetsan came in with another potion, this one of her own creation. When she saw what I had been doing she became a little worried and asked me to cover up my wound “for the sake of my stomach.” She administered the potion, and I felt the same painkilling effect as before. I told her about my discovery and asked her about how the potion could work when the mist sucked all magic away. She replied that the painkiller worked directly on the brain, and not the foot. It answered my question, but didn’t solve my problem. I thought for a while, and then asked Deetsan to extinguish all the candles and draw the curtains. When she did so, I saw the shape of the glowing mist itself. It was perfectly in the shape of my missing toes.

I then asked for a lit torch. While she was gone, I attempted to outline the shape of the mist on a piece of paper I placed beneath my foot. Deetsan returned with the torch and I took it from her. The mist ate the flames as I brought them near the wound. I sighed and asked for a non-magical torch. Deetsan ran off and returned with another torch. I Held it near my foot and the flames were not touched by the mist. I held my breath and pushed the torch onto my wound. I screamed as the wound was cauterized, but I knew it had to be done. I extinguished the torch and flicked a magical flame near the wound. The flame flickered momentarily, but it stayed alight. I smiled and sent a healing spell down my leg. The painkilling effects happened immediately, and I sighed with relief. I collapsed backwards onto my pillow and fell asleep, my mind and body heavily fatigued.

I awoke and immediately checked my foot. Deetsan had been kind enough to clean the area and heal it as much as she could. I sent my own healing spell into it to alleviate the pain, and laid back to rest some more. Maybe later I will attempt to get up, but not now.