Chapter 224: Demonstrations of Skill and Power
Siobhan
Month 8, Day 30, Monday 4:00 a.m.
Siobhan set aside her mind-reeling speculation about the cause of the Black Wastes and continued to read. The author of the scroll next delved into theories about why and how the Black Wastes affected the mind.
It was commonly known that the skin was a powerful and inherent barrier. That was why it was basically impossible to reach into someone’s chest with magic and directly stop their heart.
The text postulated that there was a mental barrier that functioned similarly to the inherent barrier of the skin. Just as one’s inherent ownership of their own body gave a powerful resistance to external magic, the scroll suggested that the inherent ownership of the mind—and the Will—protected against intangible external access.
The author believed that this mental barrier could be damaged and weakened, just as an enemy might cut and spill blood, thus opening a victim up to magical effects using that blood.
The symptoms that people showed on extended exposure to the Black Wastes would make quite a lot of sense if the nature of the land itself were infecting them. A human mind was never meant to be so malleable, so without identity.
Siobhan’s thoughts jumped back to one of Thaddeus’s letters, in which he had mentioned that agents of the Red Guard were attempting to create spirit world wards using mental walls and protective structures. He had thought that might allow a spirit-walking shaman to protect their mind against the erosion of the spirit realm.