Nishaven sat at the dining table relieved that his search finally seemed to be over. His situation, though still somewhat nebulous, was starting to gain clarity. He still marveled at his circumstance. These great surges of energy that burst forth from him were not a curse, but a blessing. The gods had blessed him with a great power, and perhaps this was what Uma had spoken of those many nights ago. Not only had he found someone to tell him what the Shadow Crystals were, but he had found someone to teach him how to use them as well! His gift, this Talent to become a mage, was going to be the vehicle wherewith he could exact his revenge on those that had wronged him. Only then would things be right again!

Ronam sat at the head of the table and, unlike Nishaven, did not eat the food that was placed in front of him. Instead, he waited. After Barnes had left to fetch Ronam’s daughters, they retired to the dining room where he explained a little more about the oasis and his exile. Initially, Ronam moved his household to the deserts in an attempt to escape persecution from King Alandros. The Grasp was such a harsh environment that no one would think that it could sustain life for long. Thus, the King was content to leave him in his exile. What they didn’t understand was just how powerful the Shadow Crystals had made Ronam. From the waste places of the desert, Ronam was able to raise an Oasis as a heavenly retreat much more suitable to his studies. The cost was that his initial Shadow Crystal was spent in the creation of it. That was not the end of his experience with the Crystals, however.

The door cracked open and two young women entered the room followed by the butler, Barnes. The first one he recognized as the girl Maj from the desert, the one that led him to her father. She smiled at him as she walked in. The second he assumed to be Ronam’s other daughter, Serena, as he had explained. Maj, he was told, was an exceptional mage and her particular specialty was her ability to control and create fire. Serena, on the other hand, was not a mage. Her Talent lay elsewhere. Ronam explained that she only need to look into a man’s eyes and she could see into his mind. Chills ran down Nishaven’s spine at the thought of his head open to her in such a manner.

“Ah, here they are at last,” Ronam said as he motioned his daughters to come sit at the table. He passed through a quick, but formal, introduction and then turned to his younger daughter to get down to business. “Serena, I need you to get into Nishaven’s head and remove his block. In his current state, he’s liable to blow up the entire Oasis if unchecked.”

Nishaven whipped his head around towards Ronam in shock. “You’re going to let her just rip into my head like that? How do you know that…”

“… that I won’t leave you some babbling, mindless buffoon in the process?” Serena asked with a wry smirk on her face, staring at him directly into his eyes. “Well, I can’t promise I can do anything about your buffoonery, but I promise I’ll be careful to make sure that you’re not drooling all over yourself when I’m through. I have quite the delicate touch, you can be sure.”

“I trust her, Nishaven,” Ronam assured him. “Her Talent is impeccable in this matter. I’ve seen her perform this act countless times before with great success.” His voice grew suddenly stern through the wrappings, “If you do not comply, however, I shall have to ask Maj take you back to where you were found. I will not have you misusing your Talent due to your current state of mind. It must be repaired.”

Nishaven stared open-mouthed at Serena for a moment and then clamped his mouth shut angrily.

“Oh come on,” Serena said. “Don’t be like that. You’re only going to make this harder on yourself. Besides, you can be sure there won’t be anything I haven’t seen before. Teroth knows I’ve seen the worst that creation have to offer.”

Nishaven contemplated things for a moment. If he truly was to find his purpose in this life, there was no other way. He had to confront these demons that had cropped up in the last few months. He nodded to Serena and readied himself. She slipped a bracelet from a pouch and slid it onto her wrist. It was made of a weaved gold and silver, but most notably it had a thin, glowing Shadow Crystal fastened to it. She walked over to Nishaven and rested her fingers on the side of his head.

“This may hurt as I help you break down your block,” she said, peering intently into his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Nishaven writhed as his mind lit up like a bonfire. Scenes of his life flashed before his eyes with an unbelievable feeling of reality. He was forced to relive the tragedies of the last few weeks with a resounding clarity that his memory never could have conjured on its own. He saw the deaths of many innocent bystanders due to the lack of control of his Talent. He felt the pains of their death, but strangely his new knowledge of Talents and the Shadow Crystals tempered that pain and brought understanding. The sorrow definitely remained, but it did not drown him as it once had. It brought him purpose, a drive to learn to control the power within him so he could bring to pass a greater good in this world.

His memories blurred to the day that he found out about the plague and the events that directly followed. His anger flared up again as he relived the moments with King Alandros. How could that man let his family die, especially after bringing him such a precious gift like the Shadow Crystals? Again, though, he felt his anger tempered against reason. His family’s death was tragic, and that pain would never fully heal from his heart and mind. But could the death and subjugation of the people in an entire kingdom be a sufficient price to pay for just a few people? There was no way that the King could make a choice like that. Nishaven could forgive that decision, but he would never forget the priced that was paid to make it!

His memories blurred again to earlier times. Harvest season after harvest season with a plenty of good crops. Those were the days when things were much simpler! No magic, no Crystals, just living off the land as his family had for generations. Nishaven was always blessed. Somehow, he always seemed to get enough rain for his crops, even when his neighbors had suffered through dry weather. As he witnessed the seasons come and go in his mind, Nishaven overheard the voices of those that had recently come into his acquaintance.

“I see you have a Talent,” Maj noted. “Have you come to seek training?”

“On the other side, say someone has an ability to control the weather and the lightning, then that power becomes magnified into such a tempest as one has never before seen,” Ronam’s voice echoed.

“Take these Shadow Crystals, Nishaven, use them to protect humanity from the forces of evil.”

Uma’s voice shocked Nishaven back to the present. Sweat rolled down his face and his entire body seemed damp with it. The clarity of that voice in his head once more brought him back to a sense of who he was. He was a farmer, yes, but the gods had graced him with a beautiful gift that needed to be cultivated, as much as any crop he had ever grown. This Talent had come with a cost, so as to remind him of the price of weakness inherent in all men. Nishaven must rise above that. He would rise above.

Nishaven looked up and noticed Serena had slumped into a chair. She was looking closely at the Shadow Crystal in her bracelet as if inspecting it for cracks. It seemed that the Crystal allowed her to not only read his mind, but to guide his thoughts and memories into a particular direction.

“That is a marvelous Talent you have, Serena,” Nishaven said quietly. “One, that I dare say, would be devastating in the wrong hands. Is your Crystal spent?”

“Not yet,” she said. “But soon, I think. I’ve used it much longer than I expected for its size.”

Ronam rose from the table called gestured for the servants to clear the table. “Maj, would you show Nishaven to the acolytes’ quarters? On the way, make sure to explain to him the training regiment. His will be fairly similar to yours, I should imagine.”

She nodded, rose, and gestured for Nishaven to follow. Ronam turned to Serena and said, “You and I must make preparations to leave immediately for the Altalas Mountains. I wish to see this place where young Nishaven found the Crystals, and I will need your help finding the location I assume you saw in his mind.”

Serena stared longingly for a moment at the plates being cleared by the servants and placed a hand on her rumbling stomach. “Do I get to at least eat something first?” she pled.