“No! No, please!” The wizard raised his hands above his warping head in surrender. “I’ll talk! Anything you want to know! Just stop!”
“Good.” Laruna gave a nod of satisfaction and toned down the power she was weaving into the spirit’s bindings. The red light died away, and Jynn collapsed back onto the ground. “First off, I want my epiphany.”
“Ugh. Gods. I hate dealing with mages.” The wizard shook his head and patted his face to dislodge the residual effects of the spell. It took a particularly vigorous slap to get his nose back in place. “I was here for that.”
“What do you mean?” growled the mage.
The spirit shot her a look that could have curdled milk. “I’m. Trying. To give you. An epiphany,” he hissed.
“Good. Say it. Or whatever,” said Laruna.
“I can’t!” snapped the wizard. “This isn’t some spell you can read from a book or diagram you can study. If I just tell you what you need to know, it’ll sound pithy and trite and you’ll dismiss it as nonsense! You can’t be told it! You have to live it!”
Laruna snorted. “No, I won’t. Just tell me.”
“Thrice curse the gods, this is why mages are the worst!” snarled the wizard. “All the books in your blighted Academy can’t keep you from being such blazing fools. As much as you wish it were different, you’re still a mortal, and your mind works like a mortal’s! If I could just tell people their innermost secrets and have them believe me, my job would be a walk in the celestial gardens.” Jynn shook his head and muttered. “Instead I’ve got to plumb the subconscious for all these set pieces and characters and whip up these elaborate visions to try to drill some wisdom into your thick skulls.”
Magic flared around Laruna’s hands. “Well, you’d better find a better way to—”
“Yeah, fine. The spell. I get it, believe me.” Jynn waved a hand at the light binding his other wrist. “Let’s go back to your place, and I’ll show you what I can.”
“Quickly.”
“Oh, of course.” Jynn’s voice dripped with acrimony as he gestured at the scenery. The grass rapidly receded into the dirt, which became the floor of Laruna’s childhood kitchen once more. A malnourished fire flickered weakly in the potbelly stove, and the table was set with the cracked clay dishes she remembered from childhood. Thick bundles of garlic and onions dangled from hooks in the walls, prompting a frown from the solamancer.
She nodded at the offending vegetables. “We could never afford that much food.”
“Oh, where is my focus?” Jynn’s double tried to affect sarcasm, but it was clearly very hard to do while his vocal chords, and the rest of him, were undergoing a rapid transformation. Within a couple of seconds, the spirit had shifted into a younger version of Laruna, not yet a teenager and dressed in hand-me-down rags. With a dirty face and wild curls, she looked exactly as Laruna remembered herself, with the exception of the sorcerous bindings flickering around her limbs and neck.
“You’re doing me now?” Laruna said flatly.
“Somebody’s got to if we’re going to try to show you some memories,” grumbled the younger Laruna. The girl opened her mouth and emitted a musical series of chimes.
The kitchen door swung inward and a vision of Laruna’s father stuck his unshaven face into the room. “Yeah?’
“We’re gonna take it from the top, but I’m gonna add some running commentary,” said the young Laruna. “See if we speed this up a little.”
The vision of Jek Trullon scowled. “We’re not supposed to break character.”
“Yeah, obviously. Binding of Forseth.” Young Laruna gestured at the magic around her neck and nodded at her older self.
“Oh! Right then!” The vision of Laruna’s father winced in fear, then gave the solamancer an apologetic nod and ducked back out of the room.
“Here we go.” Young Laruna extended her arms and began to weave a tiny flame, juggling the glowing ember between her hands. “Ooh. Look at me, I can magic! I just figured out some basic pyromancy and I think I’m special! Ooh!”
Laruna scowled. “I didn’t sound like that.”
The child feigned shock. “Oh, does my performance lack verisimilitude? Have I failed to suspend your disbelief? I wonder how that could have happened!”
Laruna’s brow furrowed hard enough to grind her teeth together. “Just get on with it.”
“Magic, magic, magic! I make fire!” said the little girl.
The door burst open. Jek stormed in, his performance considerably more convincing than the spirit playing his daughter, right down to the flecks of spittle dribbling off his chin as he let loose a familiar scream. “Fool girl! What do you think you’re do—!
“Freeze!” said young Laruna, and Jek went as still as a statue mid-shout. She turned to her older self. “All right, look at him. What do you see?”
“It’s my father,” said Laruna, glancing at the apparition. “He’s going to go fetch the whipping stick.”
“Right. Anything else?”
Laruna thought for a moment. “No, just the stick. He only used his belt when—”
“Yeah, yeah, right. But stop thinking about what he will do, and start looking at him. What do you see right now?”
Laruna struggled to find the words, in part because anger and pain were pushing a lump up in her throat as she stared at Jek’s frozen visage. “He’s mad at me again,” she said. “And even though I’m just a kid, he’s gonna beat me with everything he’s got. Because that’s all he has—beating people weaker than him. And I was only weaker because I was a child. He’s a powerless, simple-minded, cruel, good-for-nothing fool. Ma and I were the only decent things he ever attained, and he should have loved us… he should have…”
“He was all of those terrible things, and still is,” said the spirit gently. “But you knew all of that already, and this isn’t about him. There’s something else. Look closer.”
Laruna turned to glare at the sad excuse for a man in the doorway. He reeked of alcohol and chicken droppings, and he was wearing his favorite hat, the one Laruna had never been allowed to touch. His mouth was pulled back in an angry shout, and in his eyes, a familiar spark.
“Oh,” asked Laruna. “You mean how he’s scared of me?”
“Right!” said the spirit.
“No spug,” said the solamancer. “He was scared of everything he didn’t understand, and that makes the world a terrifying place for someone so ignorant.”
The vision of young Laruna looked nonplussed. “You knew?”
