Living History

The First Soul Mage

The first Soul Mage was found on the planet Namwun on council year 717. The stories told of this Mage started only years prior. Most of the stories told are legend or rumor; only one actual witness account has been recorded. Try as they might, the council could not record the memories of most of his victims, save one. 

The victim's name as it appears in this retelling will be William. 

The Soul Mage's name as it appears in this retelling will be Mark.

William was 178 years old during council year 715. He had served 100 years on the enforcement team of Namwun before retiring in 698. He had a wife and seven children, the youngest at 92 years and the oldest at 132. After retiring, he worked as a civilian manufacturer for the force along with his 3 sons. The oldest, at 132 years, was Nigel; the middle, at 121, was Arn; and the youngest, at 97, was Lio. The four worked in one of many small manufacturing plants across the planet. Their production was average, although occasionally William was recruited for special projects by the force.

It was on one of these projects that William first met Mark. Mark was a newly-hired supervisor for a very specific project - to build a machine that could track all mages on a screen, and distinguish mages from mundanes. Though William didn't know anything about electronics, he was able to help buildt the hardware and casings. In fact, he was the only one to do so. Each task of the project was managed and maintained by one sole expert in the area - the entire project consisted of only 9 people, not including Mark. The project was finished after 17 months, which made it the longest project yet. After it was finished, Mark treated his team to a large feast to toast their hard work.

It was around this time that William started to notice some things. Firstly, he and Mark were the only older two men. All of the other team members were younger than 70. Secondly, none of them, including William, had heard of Mark before this project. Thirdly, none of the others seemed to know magic. William couldn't be sure of this, as they rarely talked about it, but he had a feeling he was right about this. He knew Mark had magic, as did the others. He did not know if Mark knew he had magic.

It was only because of his magic use that he could sense something odd about the feast. He couldn't put his finger on it exactly, but something most definitely was not right about the food, or the drinks served. To maintain appearances, he ate a little, and he drank a little. Nothing tasted off. However, the moment the food and drink entered his body, he could feel his magic being drained away.

William still held his amulet from his days in the force, and the moment he felt his magic start to fade, he pushed the rest into the amulet. He felt exhausted immediately. The food not only drained magic, but he realized as he looked around the table that it must contain some sort of sedative as well. The men who had started first were out cold; the rest just had enough time to panic before their brains shut down. William could feel his own mind becoming foggy, but he siphoned a bit of the energy he'd stored away, just enough to stay awake. He fell against the table and did his best to hide his energy so that it would feel the same as the others at the table.

Mark was not fooled. He walked around the table, making sure all were out, but when he passed William, he grabbed the older man by the collar of his shirt and threw him out of his seat. The force of William's back hitting the wall almost knocked him out again. He barely managed to look up at Mark.

"Why would you do this?" He demanded. Mark walked up to him and knelt in front of him.

"Because I can." He said simply. He opened his hand in front of William, and William immediately fell asleep.

He woke up later and saw no one around. He seemed to remember being near some other people. He also did not remember why he was on the ground. He stood and looked around. Some of his memories tried to come back, but were stopped. He had been eating, he knew that much. Eating with others. A team of some sort. Had the force called him back? Why could he not remember? He called the man who usually recruited him for special tasks, but the man said he had not called William for anything for over two years, as William should well remember. He then asked if William was okay. William told the man that he had just had too much to drink, then hung up. William knew that was a lie.