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“Okay, fine I’m sorry But is it really my fault that I’ dumb You help them”

Carver watched hed “Oh, Dustin It isn’t that You’re just – unpracticed Inexperienced This is all so new to you So about the existence of trueme with ocher, cat-like eyes that sht, Dustin It isn’t your fault that you’re so very stupid”

“Hey now Ouch”

He laughed softly “I only want for you to co since I’ve had anyone to apprentice” He folded his hands behind his back, as if to ta that he was getting excited “I very e”

“Just a e?”

Carver waved his hand “Soeneric We, all of us who have access to the invisible energies of this earth, are es in our own respect But it all comes down to nomenclature, whether by power or tradition Elementalists, sha has a name, and sometimes it is only a word But hoonderful to hear the na and know it for what it is”

His words lingered I kneanted ht not answer “So what are you, then?”

He sht be considered a sorcerer, but I know you want so for is ‘lich’ Undying, for as long as I have reason to live on this earth”

I’d actually heard the word before, but only in a ga context Liches izards who refused to die, so driven by their hunger for occult power that they would do anything – and I then their lives I studied Carver’s face, wondering what he had done himself But I had more questions

“And Thea What was she? No What is she?”

“An affront to the discipline and study of the arts” Carver grie She is a monster”

“And what am I? Am I a monster because of what she did to me? What could I become?”

“No, that ies stem from the Eldest, yes, but as for whether you will become one of their abominable children? Unlikely”

I shuddered The Eldest were beings far older and far more powerful than the entities of earth, priods, deht be seen as pawns, playthings, and very rarely, as allies But to the Eldest? We’re just insects Specks of dust And as little as they cared for huh to worship the Eldest, to risk attracting their corruption in exchange for power Thea was one of the into an abomination warped by the madness of the Eldest would have been a relief, if I didn’t already knoas going to die in a couple of days

“But back on pace As a e? You are someone who uses the darkness, who ehtened deem nefarious and unclean, perhaps even evil You could be a warlock Goodness If you truly coht even have to find neords to describe you and your unusual talents An ulea fire “A shadowcrafter”