[1r5]

"Me and Nadine" by Novellia - 1994 AC, very thick pencil on parchment

1995 AC

My early life was rather careless. I was a rather normal kid when I was young – playing with friends, having fun. My best friend was Nadine, a young Felinae girl with white hair, and beautiful yellow eyes – and a pretty skilled illusion magi for her age as well. She could cast the most beautiful illusions, kaleidoscopes of wonder, simulacrums of people, objects, creatures in great detail. Ironically, though – in combat, I have the upper hand. She's good at casting illusions like making people feel numb, inflicting illusory pain, disorienting with visions (or the lack of vision, hah)... but nothing beats a punch square to the jaw, something I specialize in delivering.

...We never really sparred, but she's continually stated that I could probably win against her were we to, and who am I to disagree?

Besides, I didn't want to hurt her. She's nice to me.

Either way, we lived in an old town halfway from Delphina to Aphros along the Glyswen river, and we used to play close by the riverbank with a few of our friends. Well, they were more her friends, I never really got along with them well (I'm bad at communicating), but they were nice to me as well.

Nadine and I talked a lot about our interests and dreams. We both were fascinated by magic and we wanted to study it in some aspect. She wished to study the stars and their magic, and I... wanted to study her magic. Illusion magic. I wanted to know how she managed to create all those beautiful visions. As for our dreams, well... I wanted to become a professional pugilist at some point in my youth.

Nadine, however, wanted to become a detective. I thought that was kinda ridiculous.

2002 AC

Today I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time - and from a complete stranger no less. I... could write it all down here, but... I don't want to. I'm conflicted about it.
If only my job was as easy as just "figure out if person does bad things/what bad things this person does/who this person is that does bad things so we can label them as bad". Black-and-white morality or something.
But... it isn't. And apart from a few exceptions, it never is.

A lesson I learned the hard way.

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(trying a thing, might not continue this since it's my 7 am no sleep brain writing(it sometimes writes questionable stuff) but hey i might as well
i know it's like 2004 AC at the moment of posting but SHUT UP 2002 AC HAD A NICE THING THAT HAPPENED)