Confessions of a Red Wizard

Image generated by Midjourney AI

---

I’m here. Alive somehow, and back in the Capital.

Look, I don’t want to go over what happened. You can read the police report if you want. It’s not public, but I can get it to you through my contacts in the AED. In return, I ask that you leave an old man be.

…how did I do it? How did I escape The Great Wizard Election and transmutation into a Soul? A magician never reveals his tricks, heh. That’s what I am, you know. I can accept that now – I’m no wizard, not a magical bone in this decrepit body.

You know what I realized, though, after this whole ordeal? I haven’t got one person in this Runiverse who gives a whit about me. Did you know that in the process of getting free, I’ve aged myself something like 20 years in mere moments? At first I thought, well Soran, you can’t expect to go through all that and not feel a bit achy and out of sorts. And then I looked in the mirror.

Nobody else noticed. My managers, coworkers, and underlings at Capital Resources…I realized that they never look at me. They never SEE me, not really. And I didn’t see them. All of us, caught up in our plans and office politics, the others mere pieces on the board.

I handed in my notice, you know. Can’t stay there now. For one thing, Miyo isn’t going to give up; in my case, her enmity is personal. And the firm has proven that it can’t protect me.

But it’s more than that. I’ve realized that none of that stuff I pursued before matters. And I sacrificed a lot in pursuit of it – both of myself and from others. I don’t know what I could do to put things right. Probably nothing. But I’m not going to find the answers in the same places I’ve always dwelled. I’ll be a seeker until the end of my days. And that’s probably better than I deserve.

Well, I can’t say that talking to you has made me feel any better, Scribe. But talking it over has helped my resolve. This bag of tricks and I are going on the road. Oh, and the snake too, I suppose. He’d just follow me anyway.

Farewell.

(Interview recorded by Druid Faiz of Arcadia with a little help from Kel 1/1)

Entered by: 0x9Baf…9a49 and preserved on chain (see transaction)