Mark of the Fool
Chapter 649: Going for Distance and a Memorial Creation

“Ten miles this time,” Alex Roth muttered, lost in thought.

Reaching into the energies of his soul, he called on the power of the Traveller, disappearing from the blazing hot sky, then reappearing miles ahead.

He looked down, using the landmarks he’d set to measure distance.

“Let’s see, that sword-shaped rock is over there… Which means…” His mind did some quick calculations. “...eleven miles. Good stuff. I’m breaking my records. I’ll keep going and try for twelve miles this time.”

Concentrating, Alex focused on his inner energies, keeping track with the Mark of what he’d done right in each one of his hundred jumps through the Barrens of Kravernus. He examined how the energy flowed, how he’d formed an image in his thoughts of his start point and destination—gathering that information and carefully analysing it were key to understanding the magic.

Making some simple adjustments, he got ready again.

“Here we go,” Alex pictured the starting point and destination in his mind then vanished, teleporting back across the Barrens, instantly materialising some distance away. He looked for landmarks.

“Okay, so there’s the empty gorger cave…fourteen miles. That’s good,” he muttered. “But, not good enough. Not anywhere near good enough.”

Alex and Claygon had been in the Barrens of Kravernus since late morning, testing Alex’slimits with Hannah’s power, while Claygon was elsewhere trying out his new form. On Uldar’s Rise, Alex had pushed Hannah’s power constantly. Fighting Uldar’s covert arm of the church in that battle had meant teleporting almost as often as he took a breath, but that had grown his strength with the power, and made teleporting easier, faster and smoother than before. Now, he was reaping the benefits, turning every bit of hard earned experience into results; travelling further distances with each teleportation. It was like training to run a race by practising, building strength, doing sprints, and working on one’s form.

“I’ll have to teleport hundreds of miles at a time to have any hope of making it to the Irtyhsenan Empire,” he said to himself. “From Generasi to the closest imperial border is about sixteen hundred miles, so at my present limit, it’d take me a bit under a hundred and fifteen teleportations to get there. Possible, but risky and inefficient.”

He looked down at the Barrens. “Pushing to travel longer distances takes more power. I was nearly at my limit after less than a hundred teleportations at Uldar’s Rise, and I was only moving maybe ten to a hundred feet at a time then. I’ll need time to increase my limits and get used to the increase so I don’t spend all my energies just getting to theempire. Especially if I take anyone else with me.”

Reaching deep inside, Alex examined his energies again. “…Maybe I’m doing something wrong. I’ve been picturing where I am in space and where I’m going to teleport to, creating solid images in my mind…but if I think about it, that can’t be exactly how Hannah’s power worked. Not completely.”

He looked up at the sky.“Not if she did half the things she wrote about in her journal.”

Hannah’s power was astounding, granting her the ability to teleport to different worlds, across unimaginable distances with a single thought. In a heartbeat, she could leave her home in Alric and be in this faraway ‘earth’ that was her birth-planet, or suddenly appear in worlds most mortals couldn’t even imagine.

But—more importantly—to worlds she'd never been to before.

“If she could take herself to places she’d never seen before, that means she did it without building a true image of where she wanted to go,” Alex reasoned. “So what’s the key here? What did she use instead of an image of her destination? If I can figure that out, then I'll have the answer to teleporting to and across the empire, or anywhere else.”

He sucked his teeth while turning the thought over in his mind. “Anyway, let’s leave that for now. My focus is mostly on distance right now, so let’s see how much more I can squeeze out for the day.”

Alex concentrated, pushing his limits.

But, as he continued practising, reaching for greater distances, he found he wasn’t making as many gains; his inner energies were waning. By the time he decided to take a break, his maximum distance had only increased by a little over fifteen miles.

“Alright, recovery and assessment time. I’ll see where I am, do some reflection, and see if I can find weaknesses to eliminate, or strengths to improve on.”

Alex couldn’t help but feel some bitterness at his situation.

Here he was, having this amazing power that would one day let him travel to anywhere he could think of in less than a breath…and yet he wasn’t free to do so. He couldn’t use it to travel to Tekezash, or Thundar’s home, or to explore other sights across the world. Instead, here he was in the Barrens training to go to one of the coldest realms on earth where he’d have to try and blend in with a people who believed that all outsiders were lesser beings.

“I’ll be real glad when this is over,” Alex said in the Irtyshenan language, practising his pronunciation; he’d been focusing on learning the tongue, hoping to be fluent by the time he went there. He shook his head, centering his thoughts. “I need to keep my focus on the rewards: the Mark of the General. If I can free myself from every restriction I’m under because of the Mark of the Fool, we’ll have a better shot at killing the Ravener and coming out of all of this alive…not to mention getting revenge for what it cost Carey.”

He smiled, briefly thinking of the First Apostle—letting a few of the horrors he had in mind for the man play out—before teleporting across the Barrens and back to Claygon.

His golem wasn’t hard to find; the explosions levelled by his fire-gems were like beacons calling to Alex. They were so powerful, he could hear and see them from miles away. They’d need that level of power for the Ravener, but for the Irtyshenan Empire, a more subtle approach would have to be used. But, before he could go there, there were more preparations to take care of; for his trip and more.

Carey’s parents would soon be arriving and there was something he had in mind for them.

The fire crackled in the hearth, throwing flickering light and shadows across the room.

It was strange to see flame in a fireplace at this time of year, and at this time of day; the sun was high in the sky and the late summer temperatures in Generasi were far from cold. Even stranger was the fact that the fire danced in the hearth of one Alexander Roth, an accomplished young wizard.

WIth a wave of his staff, he could have easily conjured light.

With the press of a glyph on one of his heat sources, he could have had all the heat he wanted.

Alex had a very good reason for working by firelight though; what he was creating would likely be viewed, not by light from magic and spells, but by light from nature: sunlight, moonlight, or firelight.

And Alex wanted it to shine under those lights.

Concentrating, he directed a horde of Wizard’s Hands to a massive canvas set up in his bedroom. It was broad enough to take up much of the wall, and nearly half his height. Its dimensions would allow for the amount of detail he wanted.

He leaned forward in his chair, tapping a brush against a painter’s palette, blending paint to match the colour of Grimloch’s dorsal fin. Surrounding him were the swarm of Wizard’s Hands, each laying down various shapes on different parts of the canvas, while a single Hand held up the Traveller’s phone.

The image of a smiling group was displayed, taken the day Alex had shared a feast with friends and family, celebrating time together and a successful Games of Roal: the last image of Carey in life in this world.

That was how he wanted to remember her; alive, happy and among friends.

And he wanted to share that memory with her family.

He’d tried for hours to puzzle out how to get the image from the Traveller’s artefact, but with no luck. He assumed that there must have been a way to share images with other people in Hannah’s old world, but try as he might, with the magic available to him, he just couldn’t find it.

So, the only thing left to do was to use the old intensive way, with paint brushes and paint; creating a portrait of vibrant colours that looked true to life under sunlight, moonlight or candlelight.

He’d considered infusing magic into the painting, making the figures move, or letting them speak, or maybe having the canvas release aromas of the different foods, and the scent of the ocean breezes they’d enjoyed that day.

But, in the end, he’d decided to keep things simple; the painting would capture everyone in the image in detail, showing them in that authentic moment of joy.

Her family could have a bit of comfort, knowing that Carey had found some happiness before her end.

And he would—

“It looks beautiful,” Theresa’s voice suddenly came from behind him.

The Fool of Thameland startled, letting out a sigh of relief when he realised he hadn’t smudged the brush strokes.

“Theresa, you scared the hells out of me,” he said. “You’re even quieter than you used to be.”

“Sorry.” She blushed. “I didn’t ruin the painting, did I?”

“No,” Alex assured her, resting his brush beside the palette. The swarm of Wizard’s Hands stopped painting. “You didn’t.” He paused, looking at the partly finished portrait. “Do you think they’ll like it?”

Theresa came closer. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “If any of my family died, I’d appreciate something like this to remember them by; something that shows them with their friends. Something that shows they were loved and weren’t alone.” She peered at Carey. “The only thing I might want different is for Carey to maybe be more prominent?”

“Yeah, I thought of that,” Alex said, glancing at the image in the artefact. Carey was somewhat off to the side among the sea of friends and family. “But I didn’t want to hand them a lie; they wouldn’t know the difference, but I would. And so would Carey.”

Theresa squinted at the image of their late friend. “Wouldn’t want to hand them a lie?”

“What?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

She checked the phone. “There’s something’s missing.”

Alex winced, knowing exactly where she was going.

While he wanted the painting to be a true representation, he’d left out a significant detail on purpose:

In the original image, Carey proudly wore the symbol of the Traveller around her neck, her new faith proudly displayed for all to see. Yet—in the portrait Alex was painting—her neck was bare.

“I was going to paint her wearing her necklace,” Alex said. “But Carey’s family are still staunch followers of Uldar. No one’s about to tell them that priests were responsible for kidnapping and causing her death, for obvious reasons. So, they’d be wondering why I painted the symbol of the Saint of Alric around her neck then start asking a bunch of questions they wouldn’t be prepared to hear the answers to, all things considered.”

Theresa groaned. “That feels a bit wrong to me, though. She died holding onto her faith in the Traveller, and her faith in her friends, loved ones and Thameland. To just erase her chain like that…isn’t that like erasing a part of her?”

“Yeah, but…painting it would just make her family ask a lot of questions; it’d bring them less peace, not more. Besides, Carey wasn’t wearing the necklace when she died. It appeared after she went to the after-world.”

“Isn’t that more reason to add it?” Theresa asked. “In death, she wanted her new faith on display.”

“Well…” Alex muttered, feeling guilty. “I still think it’d just cause her family more stress. Maybe we should just let the symbol be our secret.”

His fianceeshrugged. “It’s your painting, and you knew her better than I did…but, I still think you’re making a mistake.”

“...I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m just trying my best.”

“I know.” She rested her hand on his shoulder, leaning over and kissing him. “It’s your gift, in the end. Do what you think is best. I’m sure it’ll turn out alright. How much more time do you have to finish it?”

“Around three days, according to Professor Jules,” Alex said. “Carey’s parents arrive then.”

“Have you thought about what you’re going to say to them?” Theresa asked.

“Aside from passing on her words?” Alex shook his head. “I have no idea. I’m not sure any of us really know what we’re going to say.”