In himself, he still refused to choose. A spark of right-mindedness somehow remained, or perhaps it was just iron-willed arrogance. Whichever it was, it wasn’t possible for Hamar to care what such distorted minds thought of him. His days passed in momentary challenges and play fights, now that most powers were small for him to handle, while his own Death Ordeals still remained firmly in the future.
In fact, at eighteen Hamar was bored. His days were routine and consisted of waking to first check that his majic paraphernalia had stayed tamper-free under a cover of spells, in checking that his new cloaks and tunics were still safely within an invisibility layer where no one might slip them on to gain power. He took pride in his morning grooming by Delphian virgins who’d jealously earned the honour, sat nobly for any new tattooing, was fast to clear out the spiritual diseases that showed up in his body along with majic use: nodules that appeared on the palms of his hands, phlegmy plasms that clogged his throat, kinked vertebrae if he got lax in managing the forces locked in his spine, – he deftly saw to it all, even assigning a willing fat Syrian boy named Mokbal the privilege of bearing his spots for him. He lay himself down at night after first ordaining his dream-life before sleeping, deftly batted off demonic night thoughts as fast as they came, tolerated with disdain whatever atmospheres prevailed. He moved like his own man, – but with a certain frustration now.
He was nearly beyond the last control of all the inhabitants whether young and old. Casually he entered minds at will, only the most expert able to keep him out, the Red Priest included. They forfeited their special knowledges to him when he did, and so his store of powers ever increased in effortless leaps. Where were any challenges? Life had become too mundane.
He had a considerable stash of powers by then, all secretly categorized and readied for use for that one stolen time, that one glorious return to sky and freedom in Al Musar in his last trip out onto the sunny Earth! He enjoyed taking his majician treasures out to review them, enjoyed staggering Mokbal with the tale of them, Mokbal now his devoted side-kick who was safely too dumb to guess his motive behind them all:
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