Private Tales A Newly Shared Pain

[Cormund Augur]

Cormund Augur had places to be. It was clear to see by his pace through the hallways, rushing past regal paintings and busts of long dead Dreadlords. He looked left and right in his trademark paranoid manner, luckily alone in this particular hallway. He was having unfortunately very personal visions, rare but always disturbing in nature. Cormund was imagining one of his classmates, Sabrina, dead in front of the very steps of the Academy. Her former shimmering hair turned into a dull glow, and cut above her shoulders. He tried to focus on the visions peppering his sight, but they weren't much better as usual, showing what looked like a woman and her son similarly butchered. They reminded him of another one of his classmates somehow...

Almost alone at least, he didn't quite see the dark haired boy coming up on his right. Cormund jumped in fright seeing said other classmate, Gallagher Grande. He smiled as if this coincidence wasn't incredibly eerie to him. Not sure if he meant to scare him like that or get his attention, the raven haired boy ventured a wave and a
"Hello there, Gallagher."

Gallagher Grande

 

[Gallagher Grande]

It had been a particularly stressful week for Gallagher Grande. Learning how to use not only magic but your body to perform feats of strength in the potential heat of battle involved a lot of less than fun WORK. Luckily, he managed to get through it as he had perfected the somewhat unhelpful ability of what essentially worked out to reaching the summit and then fainting on the spot. Thus, he had decided that this free period would be one for recharging. Apparently, the Academy had a rather prodigious library and the blue-grey haired boy was keen to seat himself in a chair and do nothing for a second, which was a more than welcome change of pace by his standards.

Still wandering, he noticed one of the initiates from the rock class ahead of him, coming this way. Cormund, he guessed, because he definitely wasn't the shiny girl...ah, Sabrina was her name, he remembered from the roster. Should he say something? Having a friend would probably not be too terrible, he supposed. The other initiate looked busy, so maybe not? Gallagher groaned at his own inexperience with people, annoyed that something like this could make him so utterly indecisive. Luckily, he didn't have to make a choice in the matter as just before they crossed paths, Cormund startled like he had just noticed him. Well, that was confusing, but as Gallagher made to continue his walk, he heard a voice.

"Hello there, Gallagher."

Well of all the things he had expected from them, this was not it. He paused and turned back, waving as well. "Uh, hi. Where're you off to in such a hurry?" he asked, deciding that if a conversation were to go down, he would not be stuck without anything to say. All the while, his magic reached out and began turning into the other initiate's, a process that happened unbeknownst to even Gal himself. They only realized something was up when in their mind flashed a picture of a woman and a boy, both of which shared an astonishing similarity to his only family.

Another thing they had in common was how many pieces they were in, which was significantly more traumatizing. "My mum and Frye, they're dead....dead....dead. I'm here learning how to handle my copying and now they're in pieces. Dead." he said in a dead tone, not even aware of who he was speaking to anymore in the shock. The image felt so real, so so real. It couldn't possibly be fake, because who has "day nightmares?"

Cormund Augur

 

[Cormund Augur]

Oh gods, the dreaded "Uh." The ultimate unintentional utterance of awkward feelings. Just by saying hello he had destroyed any future relationship with his fellow classmate permanently. He wondered if he should simply run off instead of continuing this now doomed conversation of necessity and politeness.

"Oh yes, I am in a bit of a rush. I think one of the training ghouls is going to break the lock to their door soon and maul a student so I'm off to see if that's happening soon, later, or ever. Safer to check sooner but I think it'll be fine if I take a moment."

Oh no, why did he have to keep the conversation going? This could have been a mercifully short exchange at least but Cormund just had to insist on staying to talk. His desperate need to socialize always trumped his common sense like that. The conversation seemed to take a turn to the personal, however, and the Grande boy began speaking of his dead mother? Along with another person by the name of Frye?

"Oh... my condolences. Must have been quite tough losing family like that. Is Frye your brother or..."

Cormund was incredibly slow on the uptake, but looking into Gallagher's eyes gave away the nature of the situation. That unsettling piercing nature to them that hadn't been there before. The eyes that had caused him many a name calling. He completely forgot about Gallagher's copy magic.

"Oh. Oh my gods ummmm..."

Cormund was at a loss for what to do. He could only think back to the instruction his proctors gave when he first arrived at the academy. He put his hands on Gallagher's shoulders, hoping to everything out there that this would work for Gallagher as it did for him.

"Listen to me, Grande. What you're seeing isn't real. You need to look past what your eyes see, for they are falsehoods, an infinitesimally unlikely future. Breathe. Breathe and tell me what you see in front of you now. Ground yourself in the present."

Gallagher Grande

 

[Gallagher Grande]

Through his horror, he managed to just barely hear Cormund speaking, and that little distraction ultimately allowed him to focus and turn away from the mutilated bodies of his family even for a second. "You make it sound so easy. All I can see is...well, my only family chopped to bits." he confirmed, trying not to look before realizing it didn't matter. He could recount any detail from the bloody scene without even a backwards glance, he felt it, for that was how much it impacted him.

Still, he could try listening to the advice a bit better, so he exhaled a deep breath and then inhaled again, feeling a bit lighter. He hadn't realized it, but Gallagher had been holding his breath. "Right, then, I must have copied you." he realized, a little surprised. More of a curse than magic, this trapped gift seemed. He gave a look of respectful admiration to Cormund, as he would anyone who had to regularly contend with such things. "Hey, thanks for helping me." he sighed, the image becoming a bit see-through.

"I can see you...and the wall. The image is fading a bit." he said, his breathing becoming more steady. The image got a bit more faint, ever fading. Cormund's advice was working. Taking a final breath, his exhale blew the vision away. His eyes retained their piercing quality, since the other initiate's magic would not so quickly fade, but at least Gal had his bearing. Meanwhile, in a room out of earshot, wood and iron creaked as a ghoul escaped their cage. Suddenly, another vision struck him.

It was of a kid he didn't recognize, a kid being dragged away by something out of view, scraps of wood littering the floor in chips. What had he said, something about a training ghoul? "Y-you mentioned something about an escaping monster, right?" he asked, shuddering.

Cormund Augur

 

[Cormund Augur]

Cormund eased his anxiety with Grande, taking deep breaths. He had never had to deal with this in someone else before. In a strange way it was cathartic to have someone else understand what it was like to hold such a curse. It was also nice to get thanks for the help. Today was a day of firsts.

"Of course, I wouldn't want to just leave you here to deal with it alone. Sometimes it's tough to separate what's happening in your head to what's really going on."

Of course, fear returned to Cormund quickly upon hearing about the monster he was originally coming here for. Not even to do anything to solve it if it was true, but to ease his sense of guilt for not at least checking.

"Oh yes, the training ghoul. One of the ones to train offense magic, highly physically resistant."

He quickly got up and raced towards the East training hall where his vision took place. He then stopped in his tracks and wheeled around to face Gallagher.

"Just in case this uhhh... is really happening, I hope you know said offensive magic. Because I don't."

Gallagher Grande

 

[Gallagher Grande]

The breathing had really helped, weirdly. He had heard that as a coping technique but never really believed it as the most effective. Perhaps he would continue this method the next time he had an issue even if it was not quite mother and brother butchering related. "Well, you're strong for being able to see the difference at all, in my opinion. I'm sure I would have made a VERY regrettable decision if you ran from my little "episode." he said, grinning. Perhaps an odd thing to smile about, but he didn't quite know how to react around a "friend".

"Ah, highly physically resistant. Great." he said, a little nervous. With the correct magic, he was sure something would work out, but with none of his own and his acquaintance's cursy gift not providing much help in terms of offense, they had an issue on their hands. "I can harness offensive magic if I get my hands on it, but that's a big if." he explained, keeping pace with Cormund and almost passing him by when the other lad stopped. "It's best to assume that we won't be so lucky, though," he finished with a tiny grimace.

"We gotta do something either way, because however upset I'd be if my mum and brother actually died, I'm having trouble trying to imagine the pain the mother and father of the victims would be in hearing their sons and daughters were slain by a training dummy." he said, eyes becoming a bit more determined than they had before. Besides, if he was stuck with this prophecy magic for a while, it seemed best for his sanity to eliminate any futures with dead bodies.

Cormund Augur