Memoirs of J.P.

[forwhat]

It danced on invisible strings, its feet making a little ‘click-a-clack’ on the table, and ended its clumsy jig with a bow. Up until that moment I saw it, it was just another little lie adults tell children to get them to behave. But there it was, my doll was dancing of its own volition. Heroes and monsters, men who work spells, fairies in the woods, it was all out there. Reality was stranger than my own imagination. From then on it was as if these strange things could always just be lingering in the shadows of my peripheries. Magic, it was awesome yet terrible, beautiful yet violent, illuminating yet mysterious. I always thought that was the point. Apparently I was wrong.

I’ve finally met the followers of Mystra, and it’s exactly the place I went on this journey to find. Great minds and masters of the arcane trade their secrets freely. I have a new master paving the way for my success. Stolid, patient, and with a face that may as well have been hewn from stone for its expressiveness. Typical for his kind. Their labs are stocked, they are generous, and they have asked little in return from me. I want for nothing. And yet, something gnaws at my mind.

Call it a crisis of faith, or perhaps a conflict of doctrine. The Mystrans claim to serve and defend the weave, but isn’t it the other way around? Crusaders of Her faith bunk with masters of the arcane. A man called Declan told me that he would stop spellweavers who abused Her art. The notion is comical; that on one end stands practitioners, who by her gift, twist and warp life itself to serve them, and on the other stands a man with a sword. And it is the knight that claims to represent Mystra’s will. Is it truly an accident that magi can conjure such terrors? And if not, then why?

I have resolved to speak with Anovallis, a priestess in this house of wonders. She always seems to be in the company of others, so my chance has not yet presented itself. Above all, I must show discretion. I cannot afford excommunication, not now. My works, halted for so long, must be allowed to continue.