Chapter 8

The sights and sounds of Malakar overwhelmed my senses after days spent amid the hushed desolation of the crimson forest. Everywhere I turned, the village hummed with frenetic energy and life.

Soot-stained miners hauled carts piled high with raw ores and glittering gemstone chunks, bellowing jovially as they navigated the cramped, winding lanes. Gaunt, half-starved children wove between the thronging crowds, palms outstretched for any spare coin or scrap to sell. Hawkers barked their litanies of wares from rickety stalls, plying everything from fresh meats to arcane curios and tomes.

The air itself was thick with scents of woodsmoke, unwashed bodies, scorched metal, and sulfurous ore. It was both invigorating and stifling after our isolation. 

I stuck close to Graham's side, feeling out of place in my threadbare attire. He wove through the chaos undeterred, clearly accustomed to pandemonium like this.

Our first stop was a large outfitter's stall, sheltering tools, smoked meats, mushrooms, and tubers. Graham bartered gruffly with the toothless proprietor in a brusque exchange of gestures and growls, somehow concluding with us departing laden with fresh supplies.

As we pushed through the crowds, a snatched fragment of conversation snagged my attention:

"...Lilac Radel's work, or so they say. Scared poor old Parven when he stumbled on it by the chasms..."

The name Lilac reverberated through my entire being. Suddenly, a vivid memory blossomed with visceral intensity:

I ran frantically, the soles of my boots pounding against the cobblestone path as towering flames licked at the night sky behind me. The castle - my home - was ablaze, its mighty walls and parapets crumbling into smoldering rubble.

Panicked shouts and screams echoed all around as others fled the conflagration alongside me. I clutched a gnarled staff topped with a pulsing azure crystal, mana swirling in frenzied tendrils around my free hand.

Up ahead, the sweeping vista opened up to reveal an apocalyptic landscape - jagged crevasses split the earth asunder in molten wounds, towering blasted monoliths of stone jutting forth from the ruptured terrain.

In the distance, the soaring spires and vaulted arcologies of a great civilization lay in smoldering ruin amid the pyre of unleashed Chaos...

The vision washed over me, leaving me gasping amid the clamor of Malakar's market crowds. Graham gave me a concerned look but remained outwardly unfazed.

Before I could process what just happened, an artificial, mechanical tone reverberated through my mind:

"System initialization complete. The host is Lilac Radel. Currently known as Amara."

The toneless voice resonated for my perception alone. Graham showed no reaction, continuing forward through the press of bodies unfazed by the inexplicable words only I could comprehend.

The memory still burned with lucent intensity - the enormity of the arcane power I had once commanded, the overwhelming scale of devastation I was capable of unleashing evident in that cataclysmic vista.

Dread and yearning knotted into an inseparable tangle within me...

-Amara? What's wrong? Graham asked with worried concern, no doubt noticing my visible discomfort and disorientation in the wake of that searing memory.

-Nothing, I lied with a shake of my head, struggling to compose myself outwardly even as the revelations continued crashing over my psyche in waves. Let us go. I am hungry.

Graham scrutinized me a moment longer, those intense gray eyes seeming to bore straight through my flimsy reassurances. But then he gave a mild shrug and turned to lead us further into the thronging market crowds once more.

I fell into step just behind him, senses attuned to every fleeting burst of conversation and aroma swirling amid the pandemonium. My skin prickled with an almost electric hypersensitivity, each new stimulus seeming to awaken deeper etchings of recollection buried within the void of my former existence.

We eventually found a ramshackle eatery amid the market's labyrinthine warrens - little more than a soot-stained shack with a wood counter and a few tables and stools.

Graham ordered for us both, exchanging a few muted words with the heavyset proprietor before passing me a steaming plate of duck curry with rice. Despite my body's gnawing hunger pangs, the appetizing delight did little to whet my cravings.

We settled at one of the rickety tables in a dim corner, the ambient din of the bustling market fading to a dull roar around us. Graham dug into his meal with familiar gusto, seemingly content to exist within his base needs for sustenance.

I, however, found my focus scattered endlessly inward, consciousness inching closer to that transcendent revelation at my core with each passing moment. The smells, the textures, the undulating cadence of mundane life surrounding us - it all served as an unrelenting undertow seeking to submerge me utterly in that ineffable ocean of recollection.

-You've hardly touched your plate, Graham remarked between mouthfuls, giving my mostly full bowl a nod. "Everything alright?"

I blinked, my gaze refocusing on him slowly as I dragged myself back from the cosmic peripheries once more.

"Graham," I said, my voice sounding distant even to my own ears. "Who...was Lilac Radel?"

He cocked an eyebrow at that, pausing mid-chew to scrutinize me as though debating whether I was serious or suffering delirious effects. When he spoke, his tone was measured, almost cautious.

-Lilac Radel was...is...a figure of legend if you put any stock in such tall tales. They say she was a mage of immense power who walked this world long before my father was born.

A faint smirk played across his weather-worn features, suggesting he didn't fully subscribe to the myths in question.

- Why? Does the name hold some significance for you?

-I don't know, I replied evenly, letting the pregnant pause marinate between us as I grappled to begin articulating the profundities roiling within me. I heard people talking about her. 

Graham's smirk evaporated as I spoke, that guarded tension reasserting itself as his gaze grew preternaturally intense.

- People attribute any incident to Lilac Radel here. Entire realms birthed and unmade by her merest impulse, realities reshaped and transcended in the wake of her ascendancy. That's what I was told of her.

My gaze bored into Graham, willing him to perceive me in that moment truly.

- And you don't believe them?

-I mean, she died in the crimson forest.

-Huh? I blinked, surprise marring my features.

Graham swallowed the last of his plate and pushed away from the table. He rose in a single fluid motion.

- After killing her father and burning his castle with her magic, she was chased by the knights to the crimson forest where a mage like her killed her. 

Confusion knitted my brows. It felt as though something was missing. Like a piece of the puzzle had been carefully removed from its place. Graham walked over to my position and tucked away a hair strand that had fallen out of place.

-That's why he whispered, his face a few inches close to mine, you should hide what you can do. It will not do you any good to stick out as a mage here. 

And then, he flicked my head. 

- Now eat. We still have a place to be.