29 Watching From Afar
(Madelyn Pov)
It has been 3 years since Morgan came to the tribe, and I still can't believe how many things have changed since then. Yesterday my husband asked me what I thought about him. I had to think about it for a while before I gave him my answer.
I had to think about how I felt at the time he got here and compare it to how I feel now. I think it is fair to say that I was the last person to warm up to Morgan. It's kind of hard to admit it, even now. I felt uneasy around him, it was due to his odd behavior and the nature of his magic.
I learned a bit of anima magic, but that was done at my father's insistence. My background as a noble had allowed me to have exposure to all sorts of magic. I have seen my tutors use fire, thunder, wind, and ice magic.
I learned from my tutors that water, ice, and earth magic while not popular they fall into the category of anima magic. When my husband asked me if I knew what type of magic Morgan is using, I could not answer him.
It didn't feel like light magic, and it didn't look like any of the types of magic I have seen before. I eventually asked him what he practiced, he told me it was dark magic. I thought he was messing around with something taboo, and I got scared of what he could do.
Dark magic is known as something only the truly wicked and corrupt practice, among many practitioners of magic. Naturally, my tutors also influenced the way I saw dark magic. With Morgan's intelligence and eerily calm demeanor, I treated him like some sort of pariah.
In the first year, Morgan was here, he didn't show many emotions. For the most part, he was very calm, quiet, and he kept to himself a lot. He also gave off the impression that he was constantly thinking and planning something.
That combined with Morgan's knowledge of dark magic, made me feel very uneasy around him. There was also the fact that I couldn't read him well at all. Morgan knows how to hide his emotions, how to read people, and the best way to act in front of them.
Kids are supposed to be very open with their emotions and very boisterous. The only other time I saw this type of behavior from kids was in my childhood. I came to Sacae to get away from the heartless noble society. Morgan unfortunately reminded me of my past.
It was unfair to him that I let my prejudiced thoughts cloud my perception of him. I did not make an effort to get to know him. My perception of him started to change when he started to feel more comfortable being around us and opened up.
It was thanks to the efforts of the other kids that he started to open up to us. While he was still trying to adjust to life in the tribe, the kids were intrigued by his presence. They warmed up to him very quickly because they saw him as a potential friend.
The fact that he knew magic made him more interesting in their eyes. They constantly approached him trying to get him to talk to them or to get him to join them on whatever they were doing. Eventually, he gave in to their demands and started to talk to them.
At the start, he had trouble communicating with the other kids. I am guessing his intelligence was a contributing factor to his troubles. He had too many ways to say what he wanted, but he didn't want to confuse them with the way he spoke to them.
The important part was that he was trying to get closer to others. He then found his role as the kid the others could go to for answers to whatever questions they had. No matter what, he would always try to give them an answer they could be happy with.
After he found his place with the other children, my impression of him softened up. I also started to notice a lot more things about him. Morgan actually talks a lot and it's sometimes hard to get him to stop. He hates misunderstandings and likes to constantly explain things to make sure you understand him.
When he learned that I knew a bit about anima magic, he approached me and asked me what I knew about dark magic. I told him that I knew nothing, but I know the reputation it had among the other disciplines. He asked me if that was the reason why I felt uneasy around him.
I said yes, before I could explain myself he said it was fine. He told me people are often afraid of the unknown, so he offered to explain to me the nature of dark magic. I had to mull over it for some time, but I accepted his offer.
To my surprise, he actually admits that dark magic is very dangerous, but he said it depends on the user. He told me the power does affect the user's mind, but in the beginning, it doesn't change anything about you. It just reveals what is deep inside of you.
It is only dangerous when a person already has very strong desires, dark magic amplifies them even more. Depending on what they want most, they could be harmless or very dangerous to others. The issue is, people often change and experience different things.
Morgan told me what he wants most and why I shouldn't worry about him practicing. All he wants is to not be alone and have a normal peaceful life. He told me if you take your time, dark magic isn't dangerous, you just have to resist the temptation to gain power quickly.
If he can't resist the temptation, he at least has a plan to not forget what type of person he was. There is no guarantee that his plan will work, but Morgan's plans always seem to do the impossible. The second-year Morgan was here, he showed us what he could do with his intelligence and magic.
He showed us that he used magic to tame spiders. He told us that his spiders will allow us to harvest their silk. And with enough time and effort, we can create bolts of silk to use or sell. He gave us a demonstration of the harvesting method, and he made a single spool of silk.
He would lay the spiders on their back, hold the spiders down with some pins he made, he would then use a small pair of pincers to pull out a strand of silk from the spider. He would glue that piece of silk onto a spool, and he would then slowly spin the wheel the spool was on.
This would pull the silk out from the spider, eventually, he would have a spool of thread. The thread would still have to be treated before we could use it to create bolts of silk. Thanks to Morgan's ingenuity we could produce our own silk for such a little cost on our part.
Silk is a valued commodity because the production process of silk is a closely guarded secret within Sacae. Many tribes know how to make it, the problem is you need to have the resources to be able to produce it not only consistently, but also on the move.
Many of the members of the tribe knew about the process of making silk, but we didn't have the resources to be able to do it. The process involves using the cocoons of a certain type of worm, but to make a single bolt of silk you need thousands of worms.
You not only need to have the resources to care for the worms, but you also need to feed all of those worms a specific food to get them to produce the silk. That wasn't possible for a new and relatively poor tribe like us, but Morgan's method was easier, faster, and cheaper.
The spiders just need to eat any type of meat and they can produce silk nearly every day. With the proper setup, we can regularly make bolts of silk. If your tribe can consistently make silk, then your tribe is considered to be part of the wealthy and powerful elite.
Morgan's idea came at the right time, as we were still looking for ways to improve our standing in the plains. This was a quick way for us to raise our prestige and a way to amass wealth. We were very ecstatic about the future possibilities, and we agreed with his idea of a spider farm.
Something we discovered is that the silk his spiders make is very strong. As a result, what we make with the silk ends up being a lot tougher and stronger than other products on the market. This makes the silk ideal for armor, and because of how easy it was for us to produce.
The silk if woven properly can stop an arrow, and with a lot of layers, it could even stop a spear. This made the silk even more valuable to sell. At the time we were very excited to start making silk. We started a spider farm, and we perfected refining the raw spider silk.
Morgan's idea not only helped out the tribe, but it did something very important. I don't know what Morgan has experienced before meeting us, but he made sure we can't abandon him. This was his plan to prevent himself from being alone, he tied his presence to the wealth of the clan.
Even though he is much closer to us now, I can't shake the feeling that there is something that is constantly bothering him. He sometimes shows signs of melancholy, but I caught a lot of those fleeting moments.
I think I am the only one who has noticed those moments, and some of his actions make sense. He doesn't like staying still, he is constantly searching for things to do and is always open to helping out. On the days he is supposed to rest, he is working on improving himself.
It's like he is trying to distract himself, to keep himself from thinking about something that makes him sad. My husband has spent the most time with him, so he knows bits and pieces of Morgan's past. I was told of how eerily similar his parent's background was to ours, but I can't help but think we are missing something.
Whatever the case may be, the relationship between those two had gotten deeper these past 3 years. My husband is a warrior, and he is proud of the skills he has gained during his days wandering the plains. The other men in the tribe are respectable warriors in their own rights.
The ones who have sons are all passing down their skills and experiences down. I know for a fact my husband will definitely try to pass down everything he knows to our daughter. I only have 2 problems with this. The first being I do not want my daughter to do anything too dangerous.
The second is, to reach the level of strength my husband has, a person needs to constantly push themselves to their limits. They must constantly strive to challenge powerful foes to grow and learn. His knowledge and experiences are best applied when you are dancing with death.
I want my daughter to be able to protect herself, but I don't want her to hurt herself trying to reach his level. I just want her to live a long and peaceful life, one she has the freedom to choose whatever life she wants. That's why I am feeling conflicted about the matter of her learning from her father how to fight.
It was a good thing that Morgan came along when he did, he was able to quell his excitement. It was a perfect combination, we had one person who wanted to teach and another who wanted to learn. I don't want to say this, but my husband is not a great teacher.
The advice he gave was good at times, and sometimes it was questionable at best. Morgan being the person he is, was insane enough to try out anything he was told. If he couldn't apply the advice, he would work hard until he could make it work.
It was an interesting thing to watch unfold, but all of that time training together made those closer. When combined with all the time those two work and talk together doing tasks around the tribe. It's fair to say that Hassar is starting to see Morgan as a son of sorts or something similar.
I don't think I will ever see Morgan like that, and I don't think Morgan will ever see me as a mother figure. I don't think I can teach or influence Morgan in a way that will change him. I taught him how to use anima magic, but it was only the basics I could barely remember.
I just hope he can get past what is bothering him and not miss out on the things life has to offer. I am interested to see what kind of man he will grow up to be, the things he will do in the future. I hope he doesn't give in to the temptations of dark magic and forget who he truly is.
