Book One – Chapter 4

Yves ate sitting on the floor in a narrow alcove of the cavern wall. He could easily create a physical illusion of a chair or simply grab the chair from the nearby table beside his meditation crystal. He could also just sit directly at the table like a normal person. However, against all logic and convention, he preferred to sit here, squeezed into this nook, on the cold ground with his back to the rock wall, his legs bent, and his feet pressing against the opposite side. His bowl rested on his stomach. It was as illogical as it was absurd, but in a peculiar way, it felt different and oddly comforting to view this entirely familiar space from such an unfamiliar and limited perspective.

Almost as if, for this brief moment while he huddled there, he was temporarily removed from the world. He could not quite put it into words, because he still had no inclination for the literary arts, but standing always demanded action. And when he sat so impractically, he rendered himself incapable of doing anything. As long as he ate, he did not have to do anything else, because he could not do anything else.

As Yves fiddled with his mashed potatoes, his gaze settled on the three weapons beside him. Along the walls of the hideout, he had stored his collection of magical artefacts. In this alcove, he kept his three lightgiving weapons: a Lightgiver Wand, his Bow of Light, and a Lightning Staff.

In core, you could distinguish two types of wands: Those which amplified a wizard’s spell and those that bore their own intrinsic spells. The Lightgiver Wand belonged to the latter category, living up to its name by conjuring light independently of the wielder’s spectral abilities. Yves could infuse it with his own energy in times of rest and then call upon its radiant light when the need arose. It was vital for compensating for his inability to perceive light in the dark.