From a Dark Place: More on the Psychomancer

Perhaps I've been a bit inspired by Smuggel's (god I hope that was spelt correctly) short story for their hero, so I finally decided to write something I've been meaning to write for a very long time. Arash'ruin the Psychomancer, the first hero I'd come up with here, had what I considered a pretty cool backstory but it didn't really translate well to a Dota-ready compact form. So, I'm writing a short-story length tale on his quest for vengeance and how he became the dark sociopath he is today.

If you haven't seen the idea yet, here's the link. http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/forum/hero-and-item-ideas/arashruin-the-psychomancer-5750

Anyway, this story won't so much be about the end as the journey itself and how it encompasses Arash's descent. And so I'm proud to present From a Dark Place.

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Part One: Hunter in the Darkness

Nighttime.

To Arash, it seemed as if the day were but a precursor to the deep darkness he now thrived in. The sun seemed to scour him, rip a part of him away. He welcomed the pain.

Night was when he felt most at home. His quest, if it could be called that indeed, dealt with matters that he felt were best kept away from the day. Arash had entered a world of half-shadows and twilight where nothing was as simple as day-and-night.

He hadn’t slept in - how long? Truly, he had no idea. The few times exhaustion had claimed him after the damned event which started the bloody hunt for vengeance, his unconsciousness had been plagued by visions - hundreds screaming, begging for mercy from a sorcerer who was to show none, blood erupting in rivers of red fire that scoured everything and left only silence in its wake.

There was a silence in death that affected everyone.

Arash had been spared from the slaughter that had destroyed everything he’d known by nothing more than coincidence. Whilst he had been away, studying further the arts of mages, a dark sorcerer had come to his town, slaughtering them all for some unknown ritual. Arash had returned to silence and departed on silence. Chance had saved him. Now, he was to make use of that chance.

He closed the tome he had been studying, dust shooting off with a soft clap that seemed louder than it was in the silence. Sometime, the inn had quietened down, so Arash suspected it must be damnably early. Had time lost that much meaning to him, or had he just been so engrossed in his task?

The training for the conflict was the easy part. Arash knew that whoever the sorcerer was, he had power, or he would not have been able to enact a ritual requiring that large a blood sacrifice. But Arash, too, had learnt much, transforming from a mage whose limits were a moderately-sized fireball to one who could snap minds with a gesture. It was the tracking of the bastard that was proving difficult. Apparently, what this sorcerer was doing would be met with great disapproval by other mages, and as such he had shielded himself from observers. Arash was forced to use physical clues to hunt, and that had required him to hire a tracker. He’d have much preferred to work alone, as every word with another person reminded him of what he had lost, what he would never get back.

“It shan’t be long now,” he muttered to himself, rising from his seat. The thought of imminent vengeance was all that kept him going against odds and a dark pact that eclipsed his world. He would find this sorcerer, and when he did, there would be no more lives lost in an insane quest for dark power. Torment the world, nevermore.

Torment Arash, nevermore.

Part two is here! Plx liek, comment and subscreib 4 IceFraud.

Part Two: Gehenna

They set off that morning. Arash already felt they had waited too long and that with every minute their quarry was slipping further away. The journey was all he had, and he questioned if the end would turn out to be less important than the path itself.

Arash wondered, not for the first time, if he were going insane. It seemed likely enough, but the real question was if it mattered.

The duo journeyed in silence, as always. Occasionally, the tracker - Arash still hadn’t learnt his name - would stop to inspect some mark in the ground, sniffing with his bestial nose. It seemed ridiculous that he, a mage of not insignificant power, was travelling in silence with only a kobold for company. The absurdity of the situation was obvious to anyone who was to see them, a robed human standing in silence and a kobold pawing at the ground.

They had been here for almost ten minutes now, and Arash’s patience, never the greatest to begin with, was wearing thin.

“What’s taking so long?” he snapped, speaking for the first time that day.

The kobold glared at him irritably. “Many scents, many tracks,” he tittered. “Much to see, much to smell. Time is needed.”

Arash’s eyebrows narrowed. “Is there anything I can do?” he offered, more so in the hopes of returning to the journey sooner rather than lessening the workload of his companion. He was being harsh and cruel, he knew, but lately it seemed that hurting others was the only way he could heal the hole in his heart. The innkeepers, merchants and others he had met on his travel knew nothing of pain.

Nevertheless, the kobold nodded rapidly, its oversized head bobbing absurdly. “See that mark there, right here?” he asked, pointing at the offending patch of dirt which looked to Arash the same as any other. “Cast a tracing spell there. See what you find.”

Shrugging, for it was an effortless little cantrip designed to find magical trinkets, Arash cast, and immediately was overwhelmed by the sense of powerful magic. He reeled back, stumbling slightly before becoming accustomed to the sensation.

“This is not the magic of... him,” Arash stated. “It is holy magic, as if wielded by an angel. Do you think we in turn are being pursued by this being?”

The kobold shook his head. “No, no, of course not, no. But the trails of the sorcerer and this other lead in same direction. Might be connected.”

Arash nodded slowly, digesting this little piece of information. “Then we should be able to head off, mmm? Whoever this being is, I highly doubt he - or she - is aligned with a sorcerer. They may even be able to help us.”

The kobold rose too. “It is possible, maybe, but still is prudent to take care, no?”

“Of course,” Arash replied, not really listening. He was preoccupied with this new dilemma that had thrown itself at him. “No, we will follow the path, and if this... person is a friend, then we can potentially strike a bargain.”

“And if a foe?”

With a vehemence that surprised even him, Arash snarled, “Then we kill them too.”