CVIII

It sounds rather fancy, I'll give it that; and, immediately after, the odd feeling beneath my flesh intensifies for a moment, and then… nothing. The feeling leaves abruptly, as though it had never been.

"Did it work? Am I nameless?" I ask the sorcerer.

To this he gives a frown. "Check your status indicator," he orders, though not in a manner that is particularly harsh.

Doing as he says, I look to the hazy area at the corner of my vision, where that slight haze which had informed me I was no longer on Earth resides. Opening up my stats display I see…

Name: Anetor

I don't need to look further than that. The worthless sorcerer gives me a questioning look, and I give a slight shake of my head.

"Hmm… I must admit, this is quite strange," he says, after a moment of thought. "I haven't failed an unnaming of someone since I was new to the path of sorcery. For a failure to occur, the one who named you must have been at least more powerful than myself… truly mighty in the field of sorcery, that is certain. My, what type of unfortunate circumstance befell you to fall for being named by a sorcerer of such power?"

I'm not in much mood to talk at the moment, so I give a shrug. However, my thoughts are anything but silent in this time.

[That worthless, useless sorcerer! He played upon my hopes and dreams, and yet couldn't deliver when the time called for it, truly the scum of the world! I had thought I would be free of this curse today; yet, if this man cannot even save me from it, what hope can there be? Am I doomed to be stripped of power again and again until my eventual demise, Lector benefitting at every occasion from my miserable state?

[If he were weaker, I could seek out another sorcerer of greater power. But the fact of the matter is, this worthless scum is apparently at the peak of what money can buy in terms of sorcerous services! There is only one other sorcerer within five hundred miles of here that is of comparable might, and none of might exponentially greater. I could go to him and see if he can strip me of this name, though I am not optimistic…]

While these thoughts race through my mind, the worthless fool who had played on my false hopes continues to spew his inane blabber out into the world, as if there were even a single man who would ever want to hear it.

"Well, he must be very powerful indeed, I'm afraid to say that if I can't do it, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who could. Of course, you're welcome to try; and of course, your coins will be returned to you."

"There is no chance of it working if you try again?" I ask, holding onto one last bit of hope.

"No, I know this feeling of failure, I had experienced it in my early days, remember? I'm sorry, I am simply not powerful enough to override whoever it was who named you. That said, I would really appreciate it if you were to give me his name. Please understand that I wouldn't hold it against you, but I would rather like to know who it is who I may have angered here."

[Can't solve my problem after essentially promising such, eh?] I think, all trace of hope fully gone. [What a fool, scum of the earth, worthless rot… Well, perhaps I'll regret it later, but I guess it probably doesn't hurt much to tell him… and besides, I quite look forward to the expression on his face, there is no way that he will not have heard of the rulers of Shi'vat, considering his profession, right? Or perhaps its rulers aren't well known, to be honest I hadn't heard of them in my short time in this world… not that that means much. Bah! My negativity shall soon infect even my fun if I'm not careful]

"Well, so long as you promise not to tell anyone, I suppose it will be fine to tell you. My master was Lectoricus, the wizard of the Council of the Sorcerous Dynasty of Shi'vat."

Any expectations and hopes I held for a reaction could not have prepared me for reality. The sorcerer's eyes bulge out of his head a bit, and then he starts mumbling to himself "I've insulted Lectoricus… the Lectoricus… how could such misfortune befall me…?"

I give a snort. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, I doubt he'll care. He would have killed me, but such would apparently invalidate whichever arcane sorcerous method he has used upon me, instead he left me to die on my own. However, he's bound to return at some point, I would simply like to be free of his control before then. Besides, who wants to be under control over such a man? That said, the least you could do for me is provide me with some information about him; it seems you know more than I do. You see, while we interacted he was disguised, I didn't know his identity until his plan closed in on me."

"Well, it does sound like you are in a worse situation than I… very well, in exchange for telling me who may be hunting me, I'll tell you what I know of this Lectoricus."

[And he even has the audacity to sound as though he is doing me a favor! After getting my hopes up and not delivering, he owes me a lifetime of favors, one is hardly enough! And this isn't even a favor, it's a mutually beneficial information exchange!]

"Lectoricus, you see," he continues, "is known to be the third strongest mage in the Sorcerous Dynasty of Shi'vat, at least by people who are in the know regarding such things. In a nation of sorcerers and other mages, he is behind only the emperor and the council head in pure ability spread across all areas of magic. He is second only to the king in the magic of his strength, elemental manipulation, and is actually in the lowest third amongst the council in sorcerous strength; yet, he is still most definitely a more formidable practitioner than I."

"Wait, I thought Shi'vat was headed by a council, what's this about a king?" I ask, distinctly remembering recently having a thought questioning the naming of a nation as a Dynasty when it was run by a council.

"I take it you don't know much of Shi'vat's political system; most don't, it is a small nation considered only by the Arenese Empire to be anything of note; generally, only the most powerful mages take notice of the goings-on there. Their system is rather interesting, a council made up of their thirteen greatest mages, mages who constantly fight for their position in the hierarchy against each other and against new challengers, is in charge of running the nation's affairs. Quite unrelated, there is a hereditary monarchy that rules over the nation, a monarchy known for producing some of the strongest mages in the world; the most powerful member of any generation of that monarchy will become king, the runner-ups within the family often end up on the council of their own achievement. The monarchy is in charge of heading the military, alongside ceremonial and formal activities."

"I see. So, other than Lector being one of the greatest elementalists in the world and also among the strongest mages in general, what else do you know of him?"

"Well, I am hardly an expert, I only know more than the average person due to my background as a sorcerer. That said, I have told you everything I know for certain, merely his position and the extent of his power. That said, I have also heard some rumors regarding him; I suppose you may find them to be useful, though, of course, they must be taken with a reasonable degree of skepticism.

"First of all, Lectoricus is said to be among the eldest wizards in his nation, as well as among the Council of Shi'vat, with an estimated age of about five hundred years. That said, he is far from the most senior member of the council, having served on it for only about one hundred and fifty years. Unlike the majority of the higher-ups within his nation, he is said to have been born outside of it, receiving his training not from earlier members of the council like his Shivatian brethren but from other, mysterious masters."

I nod at this; Lector had told me that he was trained by a few masters, I hadn't gotten the impression that they were all pseudo-royalty… well, maybe except the last one, he had said little of his third master other than that he had trained under him for some time.

"Now, perhaps the most interesting, and least believable, of the rumors surrounding him," he continues, "is that he was trained by Reishvart the Evil."

[Man, that name seems to just keep reappearing, huh?] I think, before clarifying with the sorcerer that this character is the one I think he is. "Is that not the dragon who killed the god of humanity, stole the sword of the heavens, and created that miserable forest in the monstrous lands to the southwest?"

"Yes, the very same; though you seem to be lacking in some details. This dragon initiated the Great Warring Period of man, a time of untold casualties and countless death, a time of chaos and destruction as civil wars and international conflicts shaped the world for many decades. Though, perhaps more germane to the topic at hand, this dragon is the very one who trained the first batch of what are now considered 'evil' mages. And while Rjakavichk is often credited with the creation of sorcery, it is doubtless that it was Reinhart who popularized it."

"This is the master of Lectoricus? Why, it is no wonder, then, that he turned out the way he did."

"Well, this is only a rumor, and I have yet to hear what it is even based on, if anything at all. I prefer not to deal in rumors, but I figure it may be of some use, especially on the off chance that it is in fact the case."

"Well, thank you. For a man that claims to know little of this Lectoricus, you have provided me with a great deal of helpful information, again, my sincerest gratitude." [And don't think the score is settled yet, wretched fool! If you think that the debt racked up by your crushing of my hopes could be at all allayed with some mere rumors, you are mistaken!]

"Ah, yes, it was no problem. Again, my apologies that I was unable to help you resolve your issue, I can imagine that it must not be pleasant to have such a character breathing down your neck."

"Mm… well, I must be going." Saying this, I grab my bag of coins off the table where they had been so casually set and exit from the room.

A mirror of last time, silence pervades my interaction with the butler as he leads me to the door; however, where last time this silence had concealed a faint hope, now there is only a hollow despair and sense of melancholy. Or at least, such is the case for me; I cannot speak for the butler, who is as professional as ever.

Where I had last left with a deadline for what seemed a clear path to a solution to my problem, now I leave with a problem still unresolved, with no promise of resolution at all. Even my hope can barely be referred to with such a strong word; the chances that the second sorcerer accessible to me will be able to resolve my problem when this one couldn't seem rather unlikely; still, it is not yet impossible, one can bet with confidence that I will seek out this second sorcerer in the hope that he might finally resolve this problem.

And if he also fails, which is more than likely, I'll just have to find another method, sorcerous or otherwise, to bring an end to this problem of mine. For rest assured, I shall not rest until this problem, this great impediment towards my progress towards my noble and necessary goals, has been dealt with.

[Even if I must scour the world for methods, search the mightiest of places for capable sorcerers, suffer a hundred setbacks at the hands of Lector – I shall not give up. My life could never grow so horrible as the void, no matter the circumstance, and thus goal one must be preserved. And this world must be punished – thus, my second goal. To bring these aims of mine about, the life of myself and the death of the rest, this must be my first priority, I must escape from that demon's shadow!]

To the door, then through it again, the fourth passage of the threshold; and yet, never have I been so hopelessly motivated towards that same goal which has occupied me on each occasion of my crossing.