Can we have a story about Wraithvine having to teach this doofus to be a "mini me" of him as it were? That is, since he was begging to follow hir around and basically learn to be just like them?
It's from this one. @internutter/challenge-03319-i031-lesson-two -- Anon Guest
Nobody trailed after Wraithvine like a lost duckling. There were things to learn and the eternal Wizard knew everything. Including the simple fact that there is more to learn.
He must be kind. That was written across his soul. Therefore, wherever Wraithvine went, ze had four kind hands. Twice as many as normal. Twice the baby comforting. Twice the feeding of hungry mouths. Twice the gifts to the needy. Twice the aid for the sick. Never for vainglory. Never for reward. Never for merit. Just because it was right and it was kind.
Nobody knew he didn't have a true name. He had paid it to learn Wraithvine's ways. There was, Wraithvine said, an egotistical immortal who was helping in the wrong direction, but could not see where he was going wrong. That was Nobody's past. Without a name, without the memory of mistakes, Nobody had a chance to do things right. All it took was two kind hands and three small words. "Can I help?"
The man with no feet glared boiling venom at Nobody. "Not from you."
Oh. Oh no.
Wraithvine had said this would happen. Once in a while, Nobody may meet the people his former self had caused harm towards. It would happen less and less, because mortals didn't last, but it would be happening.
"I... do apologise," said Nobody. "I know that's a thin balm, but I do apologise."
Wraithvine took over and Nobody sort of hid behind hir. "Perhaps I can help. I know a vast array of remedies. Would you like new feet? Or an ease to your painful or injured joints?"
"What're you doing running around with him?" challenged the old soldier.
"Teaching a more permanent lesson. How to be truly kind. How to truly help."
"Wouldn't mind having feet again," allowed the old man. "And while you're fixing that, you can tell me how you're making the Destroyer suffer."
"Suffering is not the point, teaching is," allowed Wraithvine. Ze produced a chair for the old soldier and set to working on the stumps of his legs. "Knowing that he was once called the Destroyer is going to nibble at his conscience now, but he knows nothing else of his life. He has no name, and I put him under a Geas to be kind."
"A nobody," cheered the old man. Smiling with a kind of malevolent glee. "That'd upset the man I met. All about spreading his name far and wide. No more glory for him. Ha!"
Nobody had once been horrible. He had once been a Destroyer. But now he was learning the art of two kind hands. Building that which he would have once knocked down. He said, "May I buy you an ale? A bowl of stew? Both? I still have some coppers..."
"Man I knew was more concerned with feeding his own face," grumbled the old man. "You spend all your money on me. Spend a day hungry and balance up one that your old self made starve."
Now with a quest, Nobody ran to fulfill it. A tankard of ale and a serving of stew in a bowl made of bread. The latter still steaming as he handed it to the old fellow. He had even purchased cutlery for the soldier. Just in case.
By then, he had most of one of his legs back to full form.
"Today, I will not eat," said Nobody. "I can bide being hungry for a day."
The man under Wraithvine's ministrations boggled. "When you fix a body, you fix a body. Remind me never to get on your bad side."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ylivdesign]
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