Mage training pays off

I am already trying to find out more about this secretive behaviour for 6 days now.

The first two days, I was trying to get Fred to tell me something.

But everytime I asked something, he said: "Not my business what's going on, ask someone else."

On one hand this is annoying.

On the other hand, he does not deny that something is going on and he makes it clear that he doesn't want to be involved.

And besides that, my intuition says he is somewhat trustworthy. However, there is something very odd about Fred. Like he does not really care about anything at all.

And I don't mean that he is bored by everything. It looks like he just does not feel anything towards everything.

But he is somewhat honest, so I kept talking with him about other stuff as well and I think I can be friends with him.

But after the day with scouting lessons and close combat training together with Fred (Kent and Manhoff got another instructer because their optimal fighting styles are different from ours) it was time for mage training.

With Lisa.

And those three mage training where some of the most fun times I had.

It seems like Lisa was way less uncomfortable after the first lesson, and we got to talking about all kinds of stuff.

At first I tried to question her a bit too, but everytime I tried she seemed to start feeling uncomfortable again so I stopped completely after the first lesson.

But we hit it off so well!

Apparently she is quite interested in biology as well, so we talked about some fun facts about certain animals and I even made a drawing of a bird for her.

She really liked the drawing.

The only weird thing was that my intuition made me feel weird sometimes.

But I ignored it, because it was not a feeling of something being wrong or anything.

Also, she involved me way more in conversations with Kent in our room, and even told me what they where going to do (walk around or look at the library most of the tinmes).

But when I asked if I could come with, she always found some reason to say no.

...I dont want her to betray me.

Even thinking about her and the rest planning something behind my back breaks my heart.

Especially if she supports it.

But because Lisa made the mage training fun, I could actually kind of concentrate on some of the stuff I had to learn, and I found something pretty amazing.

Apparently, mages that lose their minds because of an understanding of a level too high for them are easily manipulated if they dont die.

They start craving more truths. A promise of such a truth can be used to make them do something.

However, for this to work, the person that is trying to manipulate the corrupted mage (thats what they call them) has to establish something of a connection first.

The corrupted mage has to trust the manipulating party. Otherwise, an empty promise of truths can instead make the mage more angry.

But my truths have a small part of my soul attached to them!

I already have had 3 days of mage training to comprehend more about my ability and the implications of stuff like having a part of my soul attached to it, and this is what I found out.

It is highly likely that telling a corrupting truth to someone also uses a small part of my soul.

This part of my soul grows inside the tainted individual (from now on I will call them 'tainted' because I taint them with the truth, just like the name of my ability). It grows parallel the breakdown of the soul of the tainted.

Carrying a truth too great breaks a soul down bit by bit (the reason its called corruption with mages).

Broken down parts of the soul can be absorbed by other souls. Thats how mages advance their souls in times of crisis. Using soul stones that are dug up from graveyards. These stones also contain broken down pieces of souls.

And if the piece of soul becomes big enough it should be able to support a spread of the truth through someone I contained.

This means I could theoretically spread my tainted truth like a disease over a city or something and because these people are automatically connected to me by pieces of my soul so it creates an army that I can somewhat control.

The only problem is: I cannot take the piece of soul back.

My soul needs to heal after every taint to get back to normal and taking a piece of soul back out of a tainted, while possible, is not viable. The piece of soul is too rotten for that. My own soul could not handle that sudden weightgain.

By the way, Lisa does not know any of this. I made sure to ask all questions related to this in private to the teacher.

This could come in handy as a trump card.

Something that they won't expect.

I hope I dont need to use it though.

Especially not in Lisa.

But she would not betray anyone right?

She seems way to kind for that!