The Notes of Xesuain Khor

[Random_White_Guy]

I recall pain.

It had not been long since my family had so proudly declared to their rivals, their friends, at what point can the two be discerned - that I had been accepted. Away from my home, from my siblings, from all I had come to know I would be shipped.

Before my time of departure I was frequently visited. First by the apprentice: She was an unnerving woman but she had a charm to her that put me at ease. A fool I was, considering the nature of her "Evaluation" and the trials I was put through. What I thought were fun little games at the time I later grew to learn were assessment of nascent talent.

Somewhere along the way the woman stopped appearing, then came a man. He was young, not so much older than she - at least in look. He lacked her charm. He was a strict figure who took no shortage of glee in his charge. She had tested in one area, he would test in another. I did not like the man.

...Ultimately I would be visited by a very old man. The word majesty is thrown about by many but the reverence my parents gave him upon arrival to our home. The odd shift in my mother's demeanor of hunger, of desire. The subtle twitch in my father's visage. A combination of fear, of shame.

They served the man tea and we simply sat and spoke.
And as I drank the tea, he took to speak in a foreign tongue.

All I remember was pain. Pain and Red.
It was then I was told I was accepted.

As I writhed screaming on the ground,
shaking and begging first my father,
and then my mother for aid.

My siblings only gawped.
Dutiful. Sullen. Silent.
Orderly aligned watching my agony.

No one said a word amidst my howling.
Save for the old man.

He said it was simple.
He said it was truest challenge.
He said it was to be the greatest achievement of my life.
...All I had to do was survive the poison.

The words still echo in my head at times when I sit down for a meal.
"It is simple, child.
Solve the riddle. Breathe.
Breathe or you will die."

The callousness in his voice,
the color of his boots,
the glimmer of the tattoos on his face.

This was my first taste of power.
This was the first time I cast Magic.
This was the day my life forever changed.

This was my first encounter with the vaunted Red Wizards of Thay.
This was the day I was accepted as Apprentice.