Tomas' story

"No, no, I'm saying that I think you and your master are fine. But what about the other wizards who use unlife magic? Aren't most of them bad?"

"So you weren't told about any evil wizards that were from your time, then? I can understand not knowing any between then and now but you really weren't told of any from your time? Hmm... maybe unlife magic used to be not so bad but then it became worse in the time that you were... asleep? Is that what you were doing in that cave?

Ah, anyways... As for why magic is feared in the Sapphire Isles, well... you can see my memories, can't you? At least, you helped reorder them and added some knowledge to them, so I thought you could. But, if you can't, well, it's just what is known in the Sapphire Isles. And I might have been a soldier for the Arcane Authority but I wasn't one fit for learning or asking. Not much space up here to have kept anything I learned, even if I did wonder. Which I didn't.

But yeah, bad magic was always on people's lips in the Isles. An evil wizard did this or that, a town got destroyed, family members lost. ... And I think I remember somebody told me something about a Prismatic Massacre once... but I wasn't really paying attention. The only other thing most people knew was that only Arcane Authority Magicians were nice to the people and had the courage and skills to keep the evil wizards at bay. I looked up to them and, even though I knew was dumb as a bag of bricks, I wanted to help them somehow. So I got strong and became a soldier for the Arcane Authority. Did a couple missions, had promise. Then... this happened."

Tomas snaps his fingers, the hint of a smile on his face betrayed by the sadness in his eyes, as he looks down at Spring in one hand and the crackles of green lightning that, in reaction to the snap, arc across the other.

"Now I'm bad. And I can never go back."

Tomas nods along to Spring's words, trying to look happy.

"Well, I have the rest of my life to make 'informed judgments.' The rest of my magical life. ...

Also, you have some sort of ability to sense evil? How does that work? None of my companions are evil, are they?""

After Spring explains its ability to detect evil, Tomas and Spring discuss a bit more before Tomas heads back to the Trading Post.


----More Than A Week Later----


Tomas lies in his cot, covered in bandages. Despite having just fought magical assassin creatures and having told his companions a long story about Spring and the Destroyer, the pain from his wounds is keeping him from rest. He remembers something Spring had told him earlier that got a bit lost in the conversation. Concentrating, he forms his thoughts towards the green shard.

"What did you mean I'm the worthy wielder? I don't know anything about magic. Your master was very powerful and seemed like he was really smart too. He made you, after all, and you're the most incredible magic thing I've ever seen. You made me less dumb, after all. And I'm still probably not even half as smart as Titus was. We could go and find you a really powerful archmagician with goodness in his heart. It seems a lot safer with the world at risk, Spring."

"Why is not having preconceived notions so much more important than power? Doesn't seem that important to me."

"Your master must have been a great magic user, but even the greatest people can be wrong some times. And if you think I should question what the Arcane Authority told me, why shouldn't I question you, huh? Anyways, what makes you think I'm gonna be some powerful magic user? Do you have future-seeing magic in you too?

...

Ah, I think I'm -huaaaahhh- getting sleepy now. You can tell me about that and about magic and about magic ethics... another... ... time. Night, Spring."