Beyond the doors of the abjuration classroms of the Lady's College, hidden amongst a maze of walls meshed with invisible force, a lone man sat, staring at the small confines of the young mistress's quarters.
Trapped, he was, like a rat in a cage, unable to escape due to the paranoia of others.
...Or perhaps, he really was insane.
The man sat cross-legged on the floor, his back posted against the wall and his sienna eyes staring off through the walls tinged with arcanic energies. They focused on a spot in the room, though it was unknown whether or not he was sentient of the rest of his surroundings.
As the final hours approached the college, a small gnome hustled into the room carrying a tray of food and water. He uttered a few words, allowing some of the invisible walls to dissipate as he created a path to set the tray down on a nearby table only to turn around and leave again without a word to the man who remained sitting disciplined and focused on the floor in the corner. The gnome looked back at the man as he uttered a few arcanic words again, putting the invisible walls back in place. Curious he was to see such a man who looked unlikely to be the subject of any outsider force or worse.
...How little he knew of what went through the mind of the young red-robed wizard before him...
As the Gnome left the room, all was silent again as the night drew on. Kaijin's sienna eyes remained focused for those long hours at nothing in particular, though it seemed as if his mind was going through an internal struggle. His hand absently ran over his holy symbol as it began to glow a bit brighter, giving off its own heat as the temperature in the room continued to drop. Every so often, a small fire mephit entered the quarters to check up on the stranger before it continued with its business. It could sense the internal struggles, and at times found it amusing to watch him suffer, but soon lost interest as it went about its business once again, to not to be seen from again for another few hours.
Midnight quickly approached, and sleep was beginning to take over Kaijin's weary body. After many days of walking to Silverymoon from Rivermoot, he still did not get adequate rest to recover from it. His body slumped down against the wall slowly as he felt his eyes grow heavy. Before he knew it, he saw darkness as sleep had finally come over him...
...His eyes suddenly opened again when he began to feel heat upon his skin. The image he saw was blurry, but he was certain he was not in the classroom anymore. The vision was red-hued with many other images wavering in his line of sight. He heard the crackling of flames and rocks crumbling. The next thing he knew, he was laying face-down in the ground, naked and scarred with burn marks all over his body. When his eyes focused fully, he looked around at this unknown place before him. Was it a dream or was he actually here? That was still yet to be determined. The scent of burned flesh and brimstone filled his nostrils and he could taste blood in his mouth.
What was happening? he thought to himself as he gazed confused into this unknown, yet seemingly familiar world.
He heard so many voices around him. The hissing of flames tickled his ears. He could understand what they were saying, but the meanings were jumbled in his mind. As he raised his head slightly, his eyes suddenly met the gaze of a being of flames. It watched him idly then glazed over the scars on his body, noting one scar in particular which was etched on his upper back. It was faint, but still visible to the untrained eye. Kaijin tried to move to get a better look at the being, but felt heavy resistance afterwards. He grunted, feeling a sharp pain in his back, as if something were holding him down, yet no one was there.
The hissings and cracklings resounded once again, forming themselves into words he could comprehend:
[Ignan] "Prepare...yourself....they approach..."
The words echoed through his mind and he tried desperately to reply, but his mouth could not form the words. He helplessly listened, trying to remain focused on who or what was speaking to him.
[Ignan] "They are many...force...destruction....prepare..."
The words began to grow more and mroe distanced as Kaijin felt himself slipping away to unconsciousness. Darkness loomed over the red-hued image once again as his eyes shut, returning to rest. Upon opening them again, he felt the cold stone floor on the side of his face and heard the low hum of magic from the invisible walls. The blurry visions of the classroom was beginning to focus once again as he awoke from a seemingly terrible dream. Once he realized where he was, he suddenly sprang up, gasping in surprise and looking around.
"This place again..." he muttered softly to himself as he held his head in confusion. "But how...?"
He heard the soft flapping of wings again and saw the mephit return, checking up on things. It regarded him with a cold stare before it flew off again to do its own business. Kaijin sat up, still confused as to how he ended up face-down on the floor in the first place. He rubbed his head again, feeling his mind growing weaker from whatever he encountered in his dream -- or perhaps a reality. He noticed on one of the sleeves of his red robes, was a newly acquired burn mark in the shape of a dancing flame...
