The Magician's Apprentice

The trip to Ar was far far longer than I remembered it being. I supposed it was because I was too busy looking back, rather than forward. When Circé Veneficus invited me to Ar on the last En'kara, I had been rather elated. I thought and dreamt of nothing else until I arrived at last. Yet now in my present circumstance, I felt no such joy in my heart. I do not know what will become of me, nor whether I will ever see Marius again in my lifetime.

There is both an element of entertainment and of mystery enshrouding Xarika. She is a Magician, and I sense that most folks regard her with a hint of loathing. And yet at the same time, they are drawn by curiousity to see whether she is truly able to make a person vanish into thin air. Or to saw a person completely in half and put him or her back together again. I have incidentally been reduced to this most humiliating position of being the Lady's apprentice while we sail across Thassa and continue our voyage along the Vosk.

People stare at me as if I am some freak riddled with the Dar-kosis, as if I am an unnatural anomoly when I return from the void I had vanished to.. or when I rise and walk as a whole man, only moments after being sawed in half inside the Magician's truck. They used to look upon me much differently when I was known as Musician. I have become a pariah in their midst, and I fear I shall die of lonliness before the end of Se'var.

Sold

It was not long before my joy became dashed upon the stones of utter devistation, when Marius announced to me that it was I who had been sold. In the night while Jade and I had slept so soundly in one another's arms, my Master sold me. Following the exchange of coin from Xarika's hand to his, I myself have become the expendable commodity. In shock I faced him, before suddenly losing my composure and throwing myself at him... where I am sure I wept so like a woman. How can he be filled with hate so easily. How? When I love him so unconditionally! I clung to him with my weeping and my begging, reducing myself in his eyes yet further. Until I could not possibly sink any lower while still remaining above the ground.

"Go, Damos. She waits for you at the pier." He peeled my arms from around his neck and pushed me back.

I've no more left within me with which to beg his mercy. I turned my back upon my Master to gather my belongings. And then I fled from his House without looking back. All the way to the pier I ran, where I met the Lady Xarika waiting for me, just as Marius had said. I wonder if she knows how desperately I yearn to hate him. I wonder if she even cares.