We Fight Dragons (Volume 2, Chapter 11) "Pure thought"
Tobes walked home alone, muddy, and getting angrier. He told his parents that he’d gotten into a fight with Jam. His father asked lots of questions, but as far as Tobes could tell he was mainly worried that Jam might have used his power on Tobes.
Tobes had tied himself up completely in hiding being a Knight, that he even hid the fact that Jam had probably used his powers when they had argued. He also had to admit to himself that if he wanted to explain why Jam had used his powers, then he would have to explain how had had attacked Jam first. Tobes didn’t want to lie to his parents. He’d rather not talk about it at all.
The whispers in his head spoke to him often. ‘It’s his fault that you are upset. He made you angry, and provoked you into attacking. You have a right to be angry. You should be angry.’
‘I have every right to be angry!’ Tobes told himself, because it sounded reasonable.
Tobes had no idea that when a Dragon en-spells a person, the magic is more potent and more powerful when the person is already inclined to believe it. Tobes was inclined to be angry, and Nambodius was well aware that the angrier a person was, the easier it was to misdirect them.
‘You already know someone who can help you. The woman. She is close. You can find her if you want to… if you want power… like ‘he’ does. He doesn’t deserve power. But you do…’
‘But why? If I did that would I be any better than him?’
‘Of course you would. Because of why… why you want it…’
‘To protect everyone from people like Jam,’ Tobes lied to himself. The truth that he didn’t want to face was that he wanted to be special too. To live up to his father’s expectations. To ease his mother’s unspoken concerns.
‘Yes.. and that is the best reason... and it will make the next part easy.’ The Dragon slipped inside Tobes upset mind so quietly that Tobes barely noticed.
Unknown to Tobes, the moment that he’d made his choice, he was destined to see the woman and her friend drive past him in the car with the Urbridge West Real Estate logo. He was destined to remember that her name was Elle.
‘Miss Elle!’ Tobes waved. ‘Stop! I need to talk to you!’ The car slowed, and pulled over. Tobes walked up to the driver’s window and said to the woman. ‘I thought it through. I want to be like you. Can I still do that?’
The woman leant backward and opened the passenger door behind her. ‘Yes of course you can, Toby. And we would be lucky to have someone like you join us.’
Against years of constant advice, and driven my a burning frustration that clouded his judgement, Tobes got into car, and the three of them drove away.
They didn’t drive far. They went to an empty house in the town that had a for-sale sign out front. Elle and the man didn’t hurry. They moved like things we going just as they should. ‘We are showing this place around for the seller,’ Elle explained. ‘Until it sells, we also get to use it for other things,’ she winked at him conspiratorially.
The man went straight to the kitchen and put the kettle on a hotplate. Elle indicated a chair for Tobes to sit at near her. ‘I don’t know how much you know, about how Knights are created,’ the woman began. ‘We do it a bit differently. Our power is literally in logic. So we create others of our kind using a ritual pattern.’
If Elle was observant she might have noticed that Tobes was asking very few questions for someone in his uninformed position. However, even if she had noticed, she would never have believed that it was because he had a Dragon in his head that was already giving him all the answers.
'Our power is passed along, in an almost perfect pattern that we can predict and control.’
‘Although,’ said the man appearing from the kitchen with three cups of tea, ‘the more powerful we are, the better we can predict or influence that pattern, which is why it has not yet occurred to your less experienced lady friend here that the power I will be giving you.. is hers!’
‘What!’ Elle gasped. ‘But Marshal, I thought…’ It occurred to her that she had not thought far enough ahead about what was about to happen.
‘Don’t worry, Captain. When we return to the Fortress we will invest you with the power again, at the first opportunity that arises.’
‘Yes, Marshal.’ Elle grumbled about it, but knew there was little that she could do. She made a mental note to always be prepared for this in future.
‘Good. Now, fetch another chair and sit directly in front of young Tobias.’ When the Elle had done so, the Marshal continued. ‘Both of you place your hands palm to palm.’ When they had leaned forward and their palms were touching, the Marshal used his hands to clasp and hold their hands together. ‘Be silent now. I need to concentrate.’
Words began to drone out of the Marshal’s mouth, like they were being formed deep in his throat. It reminded Tobes of chanting.
The pitch and volume increased, and all of a sudden Tobes felt his palms ‘stick’ to Elle’s palms, like they were powerful magnets that were drawn to each other. The Marshal released his hold, but Tobes and Elle stayed connected together.
The Marshal then sung phrases that sounded like they were part mathematical formula, and part some artificial language. ‘Tobias,’ he said, speaking normally, ‘Are you ready to relinquish your pain?’
Deep down, Tobes had been so unhappy recently, that when he heard the question he needed to answer, ‘Yes.’ His own voice sounded strange to him, like it was artificial, unnatural, and machine-like.
‘Are you ready to obtain purity of thought?’
More than anything Tobes wanted to get rid of all this doubt. ‘Yes.’
‘After this, when you mean it to be so, everything you do will have optimal probabilistic alignment. The first thing you will learn when you do this, is that you can not fail. Everything you want or do will be optimised.’
This was more than Tobes had thought possible. His next thought was that he could do anything he wanted, but that was when he realised that he was wanting less, and less, by the second.
However, as Tobes desires were cooled by the ritual, there was less and less of him to contend with the Dragon. Slowly, it consumed everything about him, except what it had used to en-spell him. His anger towards Jam.
By the time the ritual was over, Nambodius had complete control of Tobes body, and his new Torquar powers.
‘How do you feel?’ the Marshal asked.
The woman, Elle, was shaking her head, like she was trying to come to terms with her new reality as a mortal. ‘I feel… emotions… all at once.’ She doubled over and threw up.
‘She will get over it,’ the Marshal explained to Tobes. ‘How about you?’
With out answering, Nambodius made Tobes body stand up, walk over to the nearest wall, and executed a lazy palm-heel strike that knocked out a brick that just happened to be loose, making half the wall collapse.
‘I feel… better than ever… I am… more grateful to you than you could ever imagine.’
‘Excellent. Now, I need to assist my good Captain,’ said the Marshal. With his attention now on caring for his sick colleague, the Marshal did not see the flicker of Dragon flame that was growing in the back of Tobes eyes.
‘You stay with her,’ said Tobes. ‘I’ll go to the chemist and get something that will help the nausea.’
Nambodius had no intention of returning. This was what it had planned all along, and the Dragon was not going to lose this opportunity to wield the power of a Torquar.
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