are you a man, or a monster?
prompt for july!
4. shrike believes society has created these corrupted mages. something's got to change. he earns +1 power.
200+ words (2) + world-specific (1) + evocative (2) x 2 prompt bonus = 10 gold total
The whispers of monsters he’d left behind in the village curl like vines around his mind, squeezing ever tighter. It is not fear he feels beating in his chest, but something similar.
There is something happening in Ivras, something he cannot put his finger on - something dark and clawed slinking wet through the underbelly of the world. It feels as if he is holding his breath always, waiting on a precipice for someone to finally push him off.
He draws in a long, slow breath through his nose.
Shrike fears it is the forced surrender and imprisonment of mages that is driving them to seek more power, and perhaps to seek vengeance on those that have wronged them. He doesn’t blame them. Could he really say that he wouldn’t desire the same, if he were to succumb to that horrible fate?
Yes, it seems obvious to him that something needs to change …
Unfortunately for the mage written about in his letter of assignment, Shrike still needs to earn an income somehow, and he’s certainly not interested in running back to his mother in the Navy with his tail between his legs.
No, there is no returning to the life he once lived. He’s known that since he abandoned it, as painful as it had been.
Still, he cannot shake the thought as he navigates his horse through dense undergrowth that society is to blame for the creation of these monsters - and the stubborn gnawing of guilt he feels in his stomach knowing that he is at least partially responsible for the turning of the cogs in this deadly machine.