Ascent: Day 13

Word Count: 78,003

Summary of Events:

Ilyé massacred his entire family and was then confronted by an unhappy Master Lyarí who made it that Ilyé could no longer kill people unless he was in a calm state of mind or was not killing them in revenge. Ilyé, in his voracious reading, came upon some heavily-enchanted volumes speaking of a magic known as deep magic which was rather difficult for even Lemyazhmoks to do, and began practising the exercises, one night having to go out to a lake to do some exercises requiring water . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"He'd done most of the exercises when he was startled by the sound of slow, rhythmic flapping, and then the shadow of a great dragon, which circled around overhead and caused Ilyé to gaze with wide eyes as he landed with hissing and spraying of water and steam in most every direction.

A large dragon whom Ilyé could tell even in the dark was yellow snaked its great head toward him and looked at him seriously for a long time before speaking.

"Who are you to be exerting influence over the deep magic?" the dragon asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

"I am Ilyé Nikadenaer, Apprentice of the Lemyazhmok Zharíka Lyarí," Ilyé replied confidently.

The dragon looked at him with an expression that seemed rather dubious.

"Raise your head, look at the stars," the dragon said.

Ilyé looked up. He didn't see anything spectacular.

"Who gave you this mark?" the dragon asked, its claw touching exactly where the last dragon's claw had touched, a long time ago.

"I do not know his name, but he was orange, and he had come to aid Master Lyarí when the waters would not show him images as they were supposed to," Ilyé replied.

"Hm," the dragon growled deeply. "You are the one he spoke of, Troubled Heart, the Fearless One."

"My heart is not troubled," Ilyé said.

The dragon uttered a deep, rumbling chuckle that sounded much akin to a thunderstorm. "We are perceptive people who can see deeply, we can see things in others that they do not believe they have, and it is such with you Troubled Heart."

"If you're so perceptive then why is it so troubled?" Ilyé asked.

The dragon growled and his chest seemed to glow under the water. "You know well why it is troubled if you will look deep within yourself, but you will not, and if you will not look deeply within yourself then you do not need to know why you are troubled."

Ilyé said nothing, he felt he may have crossed the dragon a little bit already, and he didn't know that he wanted to experience what it would be like to be breathed on by fire — and it would surely ruin the volume of knowledge on the deep magic he had beside him, something he didn't want to lose.

"You are only an apprentice, though," the dragon said. "Why is it that you are practising the deep magic?"

"Master Lyarí does not know it, he did not read the volumes written on it, so it is that I am teaching myself," Ilyé replied. "Besides, Master Lyarí has said that the waters have told him much about me being a greater magician than he.""