Mark of the Fool

“And that, my friend, is a golden nugget that should be shared with your teammates,” Baelin said to Thundar, giving him an encouraging smile. “Would you mind expanding on that point?”

The minotaur looked uncomfortable. “Well…I know I was talking like I was a twenty foot tall badass or whatever…but not going to lie. Inside? I was scared shitless.” He tapped his skull. “The shit that big demon was saying got inside my head and so did the terror-field. So, it was like…all I could see were these nasty mental images of you all getting…mangled.”

Alex shuddered, recalling what had crept into his own head.

Some teammates were nodding: it seemed that he and Thundar weren’t the only ones affected.

“So, right away, I started using techniques from the Cleansing Movements,” Thundar explained. “I let those thoughts and feelings pass over me, acknowledging ‘em, as I did. But that wasn’t enough. Something about the terror-field made the thoughts…oh what’s the right word…sticky? Stubborn? They wouldn’t go away. So uh…”

He cleared his throat. “I started saying things out loud to kinda deny those images: thoughts to anchor myself. Yeah, most of that muttering you saw me doing? That shit wasn’t spellcasting: I was saying ‘I’m not afraid’, ‘Baelin’s engeli are protecting my friends’ and uh… ‘I can kill this bastard’, over and over again. Something about hearing my own voice kept me grounded, and that helped keep the terror-field out.”

“Thundar…I’m so impressed with you right now, I am almost ready to vote for you as cabal leader!” Khalik laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “If anything, how you did what you did just makes it even more impressive.”

Murmurs of agreement rose from the entire circle.

“Whoa, now.” Thundar held up his hands. “I dunno, like…muttering ‘I’m a badass’ over and over again to yourself is something that some crazy bastard would do. Or y’know…some tryhard who only dresses in black, even when it’s like the hottest day of summer.”

“No, no, no,” Alex insisted. “Listen, I’m not letting you do that shit to yourself. What you did was necessary: anything you had to do to get that noise out of your head is valid. Some guy saying ‘I’m a badass’ repeatedly while he’s sitting in class…I mean yeah, that’d make me cringe. But doing it so you can drive hell-magic out of your mind? That actually isbadass.”

“I don’t know much about boys wearing black in classes.” Drestra’s voice crackled through her veil. “But I don’t think you should be embarrassed by what you said. I mean, it was a bit funny—”

“Thanks,” Thundar said dryly.

“No, no! In a good way!” Her voice was warm. “And it helped destroy our enemy. So…I wouldn’t feel shame over it, if I were you.”

“Well, that’s the trouble with feelings, isn’t it?” Thundar shrugged. “They just happen. All we can do is try and steer ‘em in the right direction and hope they lead us right. Or we can lead them right.”

A startled silence followed.

“Has…anyone ever told you that you’re rather wise for your age, Thundar?” Baelin asked.

The minotaur shrugged.

“Well, they should,” the chancellor said.

“I dunno, most of the time I just say whatever stupid shit jumps into my head…unless I’m meeting new peop—Wait, we’re supposed to be analysing the battle, not me!” Thundar raised his voice. “Right, so, I guess my point is that…well, you can use words to reaffirm to yourself what’s real and what’s magic trying to mess with your mind.”

“And that might be the greatest lesson you all take away from this venture,” Baelin said encouragingly, pointing to Thundar. “An iron will is often most helpful when it comes to defending against magic that strikes the mind or soul, but a Proper Wizard, —warrior or Hero—enhances their own will using specific mental techniques to ensure they are not overcome. When one loses one’s mind? One loses all battles. And now, to that point…”

He looked at the group expectantly. “So, now that we have teased out Thundar’s great wisdom, what else would you say that you did correctly in your undertaking? What do you think could stand improvement?”

“Well, I can think of a bunch of stuff I did wrong,” Alex grumbled, organising his notes. “First, I let us walk into the Hold without a way for us to see in the dark without giving away our position.”

“Oh?” Baelin cocked his head. “Do go on.”

“Well, I have to ask myself, what would’ve happened if the demons didn’t have those fork-traps down there? They can see in the dark so why would they need light sources, they could simply leave their fortress pitch-black. So for us to light the way, we would’ve needed forceballs. Forceball light would have just screamed, “hey we’re over here!”...to any demons within a few hallways of us. Lighting was crucial, and I overlooked it.”

He glanced at his notebook. “There must be some potion or spell that can let someone see in the dark: I’d be shocked if a wizard hadn’t already come up with something like that.”

“Indeed, a fine point,” Baelin acknowledged. “When a Proper Wizard is engaging their enemies, they must pick apart their advantages. From there, they can use their own magics to either remove those advantages, or equalise matters by gaining the same advantages for themselves.”

“Yeah, and I didn’t account for that,” Alex grumbled. “That brings me to my next mistake…I didn’t really have a good way to disarm those fork-traps. If they’d been activated by proximity instead of a common word, we would have been done for.”

He scowled. “Then there was that mess with those damn hellhounds. You told us to expect the unexpected, but I let hellhounds catch me completely off guard. In the future—if my summoned monsters are out of sight—I need a way to recognize which are mine, and which are the enemies’.”

“Hey, man, don’t beat yourself up about that kinda shit,” Thundar said. “We all did good, and we all made mistakes. You acknowledge them, but no need to cut yourself to pieces.”

“But—”

“If you’re worried about me, don’t be,” Theresa put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Like Thundar said, we all did well, and we all made mistakes. We’re learning.”

“Aye, lemme tells yous this, I sure learnt somethin’,” Cedric said, his eyes growing distant. “That feelin’ o’havin’ somethin’ crawlin’ around inside yer head an’ body—fightin’ yer soul fer control—’tis a bloody awful thing. Like bein’ full o’snakes.” He shuddered. “I hated every bloody second of it, an’ I wish I could go back down t’ them hells n’ wipe out every last one o’ them kindsa demons…but runnin’ inta battle…that was my mistake, wasn’t it?”

The Chosen’s fingers flexed in his metal gauntlet. “I went off t’finish th’last demon an’ got us in bloody thick trouble. I made a stupid choice f’sure. We’d already chopped up two o’ them big ones, an’ when you’re fightin’ Ravener-spawn, y’ press any advantage y’gets. Don’t make much sense stoppin’ t’have yerself a think.”

“It’s true,” Drestra’s voice crackled with frustration. “When Merzhin takes as long as he does to use one of his more powerful miracles, it sets us back. Pushing forward is what we were taught to do.”

“Yeah,” Hart agreed. “Leaving an enemy alive doesn’t make sense. Dead ones can’t hit back.”

“Aye, but that didn’t work out real well this time, now did it?” Cedric said.

“An interesting observation,” the ancient wizard remarked. “And why do you think that was the case this time?”

“I got cocky. Overconfident. Punched wit’out thinkin’. That kinda shite,” Cedric reasoned.

“Oh? Is that all?”

The Chosen looked at Baelin in surprise. “Beg pardon?”

“I encourage you to examine your conclusions more thoroughly,” Baelin said. “As Hart and Drestra pointed out, there are many situations in which seizing the initiative will help solidify victory…if not outright guarantee it. After all, such a tactic has worked well in your previous battles, has it not?”

“Aye…that’s so…” Cedric said slowly. “But it still went like shite this time.”

“And why might that be?” Baelin asked.

The Chosen frowned, falling into deep thought.

For a long moment, silence hung in the air while Cedric reviewed his part in the battle. Alex was also examining the fight and had come to what he thought was a sound conclusion.

He was about to raise his hand…but decided against it.

‘Better if Cedric answers. The Heroes need to learn how to do their own analysis and assessments.’

The Chosen scratched his long red hair. “Y’know…I gets the feelin’ that the problem coulda been that I had no bloody idea what them demons was capable of. A rush works on Ravener-spawn, but that shadowy demon thing caught me completely off guard.”

Alex and Theresa nodded.

“True. Very good,” Baelin’s voice was warm and congratulatory. “Seizing the initiative is right when you are guaranteed that such a tactic will undo your enemy, without that guarantee, taking such a risk could easily bring more trouble for you. Rushing ahead against a prepared enemy with unknown capabilities is likely a dangerous move to make.”

“Right…” Cedric said. “Learned that the hard way.”

“Indeed,” the chancellor continued. “It is important to know as much of your enemy’s capabilities as you can. If you do so, and you have the proper counters? You will master them. It is those unknown factors that bring the powerful to their knees and—unfortunately—even the greatest of Proper Wizards cannot account for all chaos in the universe.”

He looked over his students. “Is there anything else you feel you have gained from this experience?”

“Yeah,” Hart jumped in, looking at Alex’s group of close friends. “We worked pretty well as a team today…but you all clearly have a lot more experience working with each other. In the Ash Ravens, we also learned about each other: we’d know what our mates could do and they’d know what we could do. Made working together a lot smoother.”

From the corner of his eye, Alex caught an abrupt shift in body language from the Sage’s direction. By the time he’d fully turned, she was completely still.

“Very good,” Baelin agreed. “Exploring your capabilities and learning to work around each other’s strengths and weaknesses will greatly improve your ability to function as a cohesive unit in battle, as well as in other areas. That said, you have already begun to work well as a team: your natural compatibility is quite good. But with that in mind—”

He looked at everyone in the circle slowly. “—keep in mind that you may not always have the privilege of choosing your most optimal allies when entering a battle. At times, you will be forced to work with strangers, for whatever reason that might be. In those times, let this experience serve as a reminder of how to handle such circumstances: today can teach you how to adjust to new team members’ rhythms. Take this lesson with you as you work with others in future.”

“That reminds me of another point of observation I wished to bring up.” Isolde said, raising her hand. “It was…an incredibly complex battle with many moving parts that I was not used to.”

“Go on,” Baelin said.

“Well,” she clasped her fingers together. “There were new members within our ranks, and not only that, we were fighting in a completely alien realm, a dangerous environment we had never been to before.”

“Yes,” Khalik agreed. “The demons were complicated opponents: they possessed a number of varied weapons, abilities and magics, plus there were a great number of them, and while some used crimson lightning, others were firing crossbow bolts at us. We also had to contend with the three sons’ magical laughter and those unnerving shadow demons and their ability to possess us. All of this made it very difficult to track everything that was happening while also trying to think of proper counters at speed.”

“Excellent points,” Baelin said. “Unpredictability among your opponents only compounds as they increase in number. To counter this, one must consider multiple possibilities, grow one’s power and—as I said earlier—become used to working both with, and against new combatants, and that comes with practice.”

Alex nodded, thinking about what he would have to deal with in future. ‘One thing’s for sure,’ he thought. ‘Baelin’s right…I’m going to need people who aren’t my friends when I go down to the hells for information about the Traveller. It’ll be impossible for me to predict everything that could go wrong down there…and as much as I hate thinking this way, it’s better if something happens to people I don’t know, than to those I do.’

He looked at the Heroes.

‘The other thing I'll need to do is to grow their power. And that’s something Baelin and I can start working on right away.’