Chapter 82: Duality
Valens considered for a long moment an answer to Master Archibald’s question, and came to the simple conclusion that becoming a member of the Magi Guild, a high-ranked member to be precise, seemed too good of a deal to pass on just because there might be certain complications if he were to admit he had a rather different approach to magic.
He’d always been the odd one in this place. Seen as a heretic Healer by the Templars, a freak of nature by the Duality Guild and their Master, an abnormality who was not just a Healer, but also a Mage and a Hexmender both in a world that seemed obsessed with titles and distinctions of different fields.
And through all of that, he came to learn one thing.
A crucial thing, really.
Something that wasn’t the case in the Empire.
People in this world appreciated talent. Sure, there were some who got suspicious and others who were stuck in their old ways, but the majority of people Valens came across had shown him respect the moment they saw what he was capable of.
Nobody cared for a damn if he was a heretic or not when there were dozens of men lying in their own blood over the dirt. Nobody uttered a word when he handled a monstrosity that threatened a whole town with its venom and healed every single one of those miners. Nobody, not even the Bishop, argued otherwise when he showed him that he wasn’t someone to be taken as a simple Healer.
No, for all the flaws and twisted things this world housed in its long reaches, there were glimmers of hope and novelty that Valens had never expected before, and this Magi Guild was one of them.
He couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to become one of them. Back in the Empire, back in the Academy of Resonant Healing, they were the outcasts. Bright minds of the nation who got shunned because of their talents. Taken for granted. Seen as the gears of a machine that no one cared for.
But what would become of that machine when the gears that braved the rusty torture of a paranoid mind too scared to polish them gave in and stopped working? What would become of that giant Empire when the very foundation of it crumbled into pieces?
That was a question that hadn’t left anyone’s lips for the longest time. People got accustomed to their painful silence. They remained ever-mute against this centuries-old practice even when they knew it was wrong.
Well, the Magi of this world were different. They had learned their lessons, hadn’t they? Thus, they prepared an organization of such magnitude that made the kingdoms acknowledge their potential, if Master Archibald’s words were to be believed.