Locksmith

by QuartzScale

17. Sorcerer

Author's Note:

I would like to hear your comments on this story. Enjoy the chapter.

I didn’t know what to expect when I woke up. It was supposed to be just me seeing a tower but when I finally went to rub my eyes with my hooves I found something wrapped around my left hoof. It was a small star shaped charm. It looked metallic with several neon blue tips. The center was an amber yellow star facing the opposite direction of the main star. Before I got out of my ship for the Mysterious Tower I looked through my book and found the entries of the two beings I met within the dreamscape.

Zeke Ventral

A Keyblade Master of another realm. Seems to wield the X-blade. At the moment his darkness smells really potent. Still retains his human form but lives in an Equestrian Reflection.

Eclipse Sparkle (Sparkplug)

A Keyblade Master of another realm. Wields both Oblivion and Oathkeeper. Eyes were red and was transformed into a unicorn and sibling of the Sparkle household. Will now be known as Sparkplug. He lives in an Equestrian Reflection.

“Right… other wielders in different realms. Joy. Well I guess that’s something I’m not gonna be worried about.”

I was worried. Worried that whatever they were dealing with would come where I am. I pushed it out of my head and looked back to the Wayfinder. I unwrapped it from my hoof and placed it into my saddlebags. It was nice to look at but I needed my hoof clear in case anything happened.

The Tower was crooked and nestled within the small hillside leading my steps across the path towards the first doorway. When I finally reached the small courtyard I felt… off. I smelled darkness trying to seep into the area which confused me. When I stepped into the courtyard a singular heartless appeared and I was surprised by the one that appeared. Pureblood Heartless were some of the most dangerous and erratic creatures of darkness. It was an Invisible, one of the deadlier beings. It looked at me and raised the strange sword it wielded before charging against me.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I summoned my keyblade and braced my hoof against the blade stopping the Invisible’s charge. Flipping my sword forward I knocked it back and immediately took to the air. It shook off the sudden surprise and flew up to face me.

Each swing of our blades produced sparks upon impact. The Invisible forced me back on each swing. In hindsight, taking to the air was a poorly thought out tactic. I had no way to gain traction and push back my opponent. I quickly shifted my wings so I was below it and blocked another blow allowing it to push me back on the ground. With my hooves firmly planted I waited for it to charge once again.

It dove straight for me ready with an overhead chop. As the blade grew closer I lifted my forehooves forward with keyblade steady. The blade struck mine and I pushed it to the side allowing the Invisible to hit the ground. Before I could plant my blade into it's head it rolled away and planted the blade into the ground. It disappeared in a haze of dark fire.

“Uh… wait what happens when they do that?”

My question was answered as several dark flames appeared around me. I really should have remembered that.

“Oh. Right. Shit…”

The flames circled me at ludicrous speeds but I stood my ground. I remembered what would happen and waited. The flames stopped and lunged at me. I jumped at the last second escaping with a singed tail but no worse for wear.

As the heartless reformed and picked up it's sword I lunged in with my own swings catching it off guard and into a flurry of strikes. It felt that I was doing piddly damage to it though. Really wished I had the scan ability right now.

“Crush.”

An orb of condensed gravity appeared on the invisible crushing it to the ground. The intense pressure dissipated allowing the heartless to comically spring back up to form. I think I lost myself to a blinking fit. The sensibilities of physics wanted to complain while my new mindset of magic smacked it back to the background.

“What the-”

A large helix blade sliced against my cheek leaving a trail of blood trickling down. Using my wings I backpedaled away from its swings which arced wildly through the air.

The courtyard was a cloud of dust and chaos as we traded blows allowing the sparks of our blades as the only visible sign of our presence. Finally my lucky break came as the helix shaped sword swung down at me. The triangle button appeared in my head. As I pressed it in my mind my body reacted appropriately. I spun into a side step and swung the keyblade so hard that the head of the Invisible was cleaved clear from it's shoulders. Before I could get a good look at the decapitated body the entire heartless dissipated back into the darkness. The walls that had appeared disappeared just as quickly leaving me with a cut cheek in the middle of a dusty courtyard. I hoped the master of the tower didn't mind the scuffle around his home. I made my way to the door and was about to open it when it slowly creaked open. I think I was invited in.

“He is rough around the edges and there's something wrong with his magic. His fighting skills seem to favor blocking and countering rather than attacking outright.”

With the small study stood a magician in blue robes and pointy blue cap adjusting the glasses on his face. To his left was a old woman in a blue gown who seemed to be floating around.

“The poor dearie. He's reluctant to use magic to cure himself. Perhaps we should examine him more closely before his body gives out.”

The figure sitting at the desk clasped his hands together and closed his eyes in thought while the other two continued talking. Several things had happened in succession. The glowing of the star and moon sigils in the study followed by the arrival of a heartless managing to pierce through the light. Finally a keyblade wielder appearing and managing to hold off dangerous entity with only minor trouble. Things were happening at a surprising pace.

“We should let him in then. We shall discuss more in depth what he is when he is in front of us. He deserves that respect.”

The wizard in the pointy blue hat stroked his beard while the flying woman fiddled with her wand. The wizard coughed a bit before voicing his concerns.

“The darkness in him seems heavy. I’m surprised he was chosen to wield a blade. Are we to ignore that?”

“No. I will figure out the problem. It is faint but his heart is one of light. The darkness seems to be acting as a shield for it which is something I find almost impossible. I will not act in lines with Eraqus’s views. This one is fighting the darkness in such a way that I've never seen before. Should we be careful then he could do great things for his causes.”

“Are you against this Merlin?”

“No Godmother. I am merely being wary. He knows a spell which takes a lot out of untrained mages. I can sense the bonds of magic tearing apart his body. I'm worried the path he follows will be his downfall.”

“Then we shall have to do our best to give him the best chance for survival. He is far from even being a keyblade master but the potential is at least there.”

The three mages stood in silence contemplating what was necessary to test the strange equine but the thoughts were interrupted when Merlin brought up a very important point.

“What is he Master Yen Sid?”

“I have no idea.”

The two magi stared at Yen Sid and did the only sensible thing they could do at the time. They rubbed their temples and groaned in frustration.

It felt as though I had been walking for hours. It was probably closer to minutes but boredom shares no differential on time spent. The staircase I was trailing up stretched on for miles. The only reason I hadn't used my wings yet was the fatigue from battle. Even though it was a high level for I still didn't level up. Both were of similar frustrations on my part but luckily flying was of more importance.

As I got used to this body flying gave me the most versatility for both combat and mobility. The heartless I've faced so far have been ground based for the most part. From the stats I've seen I've noticed I'm more of a tank with slightly weak attacks and magic though I think my magic is causing side effects.

When the gravity spell launched from the keyblade I fell magic well up inside my chest. The constant staccato of my heart caused more problems than the Demon Tide did. At this point I couldn't deny that magic was doing something to my body which was likely a side effect of God's power on me. Perhaps I was supposed to stay asleep for the entire month or he short changed me on my transformation. The long winding stairwell gave me a lot of time to think. Way too much in fact.

Here I was living out a child like dream in a twenty year old body after abandoning my world from the sheer anarchy that exploded that fateful day. I would have been twenty nine yesterday but now my birthday already passed almost ten days ago. That family I had fell apart six years ago. My job to uphold the law ended last year. I left so much behind and it was horrible. At the same time that family did care about me. I met a love I thought would last forever. While it didn't at least I could say I was in love once. There were good things I left behind.

“Stop losing yourself to memories. You're Gray now. Jack is gone… and he's never coming back.”

As my thoughts tried to reorganize into something more manageable I finally came across a large door covered in stars and moons. I came to a complete stop in front of the door and sat down completely unsure of how to proceed. Here I was on the cusp of working out training for my skills only to realize that I had no idea how to approach him. I knew of Yen Sid from both the movie Fantasia and his roles in the games. I was in a reflection of another world and he could be any version. The movie portrayed him as a stern mentor with very stringent rules while the games made him out to be understanding and open to someone using darkness to protect others. Time to roll the die I suppose.

I decided to flex my diplomatic skills once again. Unlike Nightmare Moon I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. If nothing else I could be polite to someone who seemed to deserve it.

“Enter.”

I opened the door with my wing and trotted in with my head held high. The proceeded to trip over a snag on the small throw rug and slide face first into the room.

‘Perfect ten point landing. Kudos on first impressions you idiot.’

There was a short chuckle but the voice that came after wasn’t demeaning at my expense. In fact if I didn’t know any better it actually sounded comforting.

“Are you alright there?”

“Yeah… Just took a trip far, far away.”

“Quite. I suppose we should dispense pleasantries now. I’m Yen Sid, Master of this Tower and a sorceror. To what do I owe the pleasure.”

“I’m Nebula Gray… a thestral and pony. I guess I’m a keyblade wielder and I heard you trained them once. I was hoping to come here to get some training to be competent at the very least.”

“Are you? Something was used on you. I doubt you were a pony. I can see the magical lattice work that changed your form. So who are you really?”

Crap… I was hoping he couldn’t tell. Since he can might as well say as much of the truth as I can.

“Originally… I was human. My name is Jack Ryker. Or was at this point. No I’m not looking to turn back. I’ve gotten used to this form already and I’m actually enjoying it. Flying has a lot of advantages. It’s a new life for me… I’ll live it this way now.”

Yen Sid pondered on things. His eyes were closed and he seemed lost in thought. I watched him for a while until boredom had me glancing around the room. There were several items on the walls amongst the bookshelves including small statuettes of Heartless trapped in a stone form. He opened his eyes once again and a smile came to his face.

“Excellent. I would not teach someone who could not tell me who they truly are. Are you certain that this is what you want though Jack? To forgo the past you had and build a new future with little to tie you down? Forgetting the past can be just as dangerous as forging a new future.”

“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about both sides lately and part of me wants to keep the good but the bad always seems to force its way back to the forefront. I’d rather not deal with it right this second.”

“That is fine but if I do train you, we must figure out the problem. You are here to find something in particular and I think I can tell what that is.”

“Yes?”

“A purpose. You seem to be lacking one and are just following your own curiosity. If you should follow my instruction there will be three particular trials and we shall handle them quickly and efficiently. Right now I think there is much we must do and little time to do it before events unfold into something beyond our control”

“I- Yeah please. I’ll follow your instruction.”

“It’s a pleasure to have you under my tutelage, Nebula Gray.”

As I heard the name I chose for myself I felt… happy. A genuine happy which I haven’t felt for a while. I finally had a direction to go in.

Comments

[everydaygamer]

I've been enjoying this story, good characters and plot with nice steady pacing. Always looking forward to a new chapter.

[Fluffy-Boi]

Love Yen Sid. He is a awesome master.

[QuartzScale]

8337563
To be fair I'm writing him somewhat less... genocidal than he was in the games.

[Timeless Lord Slayer]

I am starting to love this story. Despite how it was less engaging at the beginning, it really, really opened up further on.