WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.800 Music. 00:00:23.443 --> 00:00:27.483 The first boulder was the size of their cabin in the woodlands. 00:00:27.663 --> 00:00:30.743 It didn't explode or crumble to dust. 00:00:31.103 --> 00:00:37.283 One moment it was there, a colossal, unmovable fact of stone-blocking Dragon 00:00:37.283 --> 00:00:40.483 Road, and the next it was simply gone. 00:00:41.043 --> 00:00:46.123 The air rushed in to fill the space where it had been, a sudden whoosh that 00:00:46.123 --> 00:00:49.703 echoed down the tunnel and kicked up centuries of dust. 00:00:50.383 --> 00:00:55.543 The smaller rocks that had rested against it tumbled into the new void with a clatter. 00:00:56.483 --> 00:01:00.703 Dala coughed, waving a hand in front of her face. Beside her, 00:01:01.103 --> 00:01:02.723 Prosper didn't seem to notice. 00:01:03.023 --> 00:01:09.003 He stood with one hand outstretched, his palm open and facing the mountain of rubble. 00:01:09.443 --> 00:01:14.583 His face was a mask of concentration, sweat beading on his brow, 00:01:14.883 --> 00:01:16.483 despite the cavern's chill. 00:01:16.483 --> 00:01:20.723 He took a step forward, his eyes fixed on the next obstacle, 00:01:21.083 --> 00:01:26.383 a jagged slab of granite leaning against its twin. The festival. 00:01:27.283 --> 00:01:29.303 The colored lanterns. 00:01:30.826 --> 00:01:35.706 His voice was a faint whisper, almost lost in the great, silent dark. 00:01:36.066 --> 00:01:40.926 The granite slab shimmered for a barest second, and then it too vanished. 00:01:41.426 --> 00:01:43.346 More rocks cascaded down. 00:01:44.006 --> 00:01:48.026 Dala watched him, a knot of unease tightening in her stomach. 00:01:48.346 --> 00:01:50.486 She had seen his magic before. 00:01:50.926 --> 00:01:55.966 She had witnessed him float her and Mela down a cliff face, a feat that had 00:01:55.966 --> 00:02:00.626 left him drained and grieving a lost memory. This was different. 00:02:00.986 --> 00:02:05.486 This wasn't a single act of power. It was a relentless assault. 00:02:05.846 --> 00:02:10.206 This was a man trying to tear down a mountain with his bare hands, 00:02:10.366 --> 00:02:12.906 only his hands were his memories. 00:02:13.846 --> 00:02:18.426 He moved again, his steps sure and steady over the shifting rubble. 00:02:18.966 --> 00:02:24.306 A hand in mine. The first snowfall. By the gods how beautiful she looked. 00:02:25.286 --> 00:02:31.506 Another rock, this one larger than a draught horse, ceased to exist. The air popped. 00:02:32.206 --> 00:02:36.986 Dala took an involuntary step back. The sheer scale of it was terrifying. 00:02:37.486 --> 00:02:42.966 He was not just moving stone. He was unmaking it, erasing it from the world. 00:02:43.326 --> 00:02:48.546 And with each piece of the mountain he unmade, a piece of himself went with it. 00:02:49.506 --> 00:02:56.326 Katrina had told Mela how it worked, and Mela had explained it to her. Magic was an exchange. 00:02:56.646 --> 00:03:01.766 Power for a memory. The greater the power, the more cherished the memory it 00:03:01.766 --> 00:03:06.226 consumed. It all seemed so abstract and interesting at the time. 00:03:06.406 --> 00:03:09.206 But this? This was brutal. 00:03:10.066 --> 00:03:15.026 Inhumane. What memories was he burning now to fuel this rampage? 00:03:15.426 --> 00:03:20.446 What precious moments with Katrina was he feeding to the darkness to clear this 00:03:20.446 --> 00:03:23.306 path? He had already lost their beginning. 00:03:23.666 --> 00:03:28.186 Now, it seemed, he was sacrificing the middle and the end. 00:03:29.827 --> 00:03:36.807 He was moving faster now, a frantic energy about him. His muttering grew louder, less distinct. 00:03:37.227 --> 00:03:41.567 It was a torrent of words, fragments of a life being dismantled. 00:03:42.067 --> 00:03:44.787 Sunlight on the water, the small boat. 00:03:45.587 --> 00:03:48.387 So cold, but still we laughed. 00:03:49.647 --> 00:03:55.427 A section of the ceiling, a hanging dagger of stone, dissolved into nothing. 00:03:55.827 --> 00:03:59.427 The scent of wildflowers after the rain. she laughed. 00:04:00.307 --> 00:04:07.467 I remember she... His voice trailed off, his brow furrowed for a moment in confusion 00:04:07.467 --> 00:04:10.347 before his focus returned to the rockfall. 00:04:10.587 --> 00:04:13.967 He didn't seem to be choosing which memories to sacrifice. 00:04:14.407 --> 00:04:20.207 It was as if the magic was simply taking what it needed, ripping pieces from 00:04:20.207 --> 00:04:25.567 him at random, and he was either powerless to stop it or worse, didn't care. 00:04:26.047 --> 00:04:31.987 He was a man with nothing left to lose, and it had made him terrifying. 00:04:33.187 --> 00:04:39.527 Dala took a cautious step forward, her boots crunching on the newly settled gravel. Prosper. 00:04:40.007 --> 00:04:45.827 He didn't turn. His attention was on a twisted mess of fallen rock and shattered 00:04:45.827 --> 00:04:49.127 stone that formed the bulk of the remaining blockage. 00:04:49.287 --> 00:04:52.947 It was a solid wall of debris, dozens of feet high. 00:04:53.427 --> 00:04:59.487 Prosper, maybe you should rest. Her voice was small in the vast emptiness of the tunnel. 00:04:59.787 --> 00:05:03.667 He raised his other hand, both palms now facing the rubble. 00:05:03.867 --> 00:05:08.567 The air grew still, the ever-present draught through the tunnel ceasing. 00:05:08.807 --> 00:05:10.707 The light from their single torch 00:05:10.707 --> 00:05:16.167 seemed to dim, stretched thin by the oppressive silence. The red dress! 00:05:17.738 --> 00:05:21.738 She wore the red dress. Her father smiled. 00:05:22.258 --> 00:05:27.158 His voice cracked, a sliver of anguish cutting through the monotone. 00:05:27.938 --> 00:05:32.398 Dala couldn't watch anymore. This wasn't a wizard clearing a path. 00:05:32.618 --> 00:05:36.878 It was a man committing suicide, one memory at a time. 00:05:37.218 --> 00:05:42.938 She walked up behind him, her steps slow and deliberate on the unsteady ground. 00:05:43.258 --> 00:05:47.858 Prosper, that's enough. She reached out and put a hand on his arm. 00:05:48.098 --> 00:05:55.398 His skin was cold, clammy, but it was his reaction that made her snatch her hand back as if burned. 00:05:55.758 --> 00:05:58.778 He didn't turn his head. He didn't flinch. 00:05:58.998 --> 00:06:04.098 His entire body went rigid, and the air crackled with a power that made the 00:06:04.098 --> 00:06:07.158 Herondala's arms stand on end. 00:06:07.518 --> 00:06:11.918 He turned slowly, mechanically, until his eyes met hers. 00:06:12.218 --> 00:06:19.258 They were empty, Blank voids. There was no recognition in them, no anger, no grief. 00:06:19.518 --> 00:06:25.298 There was only the spell, a terrifying focus that was utterly devoid of the man she knew. 00:06:25.878 --> 00:06:30.658 The look pinned her in place. It wasn't a threat. It was worse. 00:06:31.018 --> 00:06:35.838 It was the look of a storm that would destroy everything in its path, 00:06:36.158 --> 00:06:40.458 not out of malice, but because that is simply what it did. 00:06:41.338 --> 00:06:47.158 She saw then that the man she knew was already gone, lost somewhere inside the 00:06:47.158 --> 00:06:50.838 hurricane of his own magic. She backed away slowly. 00:06:51.178 --> 00:06:58.018 He turned his attention back to the wall of stone, and then he unleashed everything. 00:06:58.378 --> 00:07:01.358 It was not the quiet vanishing of before. 00:07:01.678 --> 00:07:07.438 The entire mass of rubble, tons of rock and cracked stone, lifted a few inches 00:07:07.438 --> 00:07:12.898 from the ground. It groaned, a deep, earth-shattering sound of protest. 00:07:13.278 --> 00:07:15.758 Dust poured from a thousand cracks. 00:07:16.640 --> 00:07:21.400 The torchlight flickered wildly. Prosper's arms trembled from the strain, 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:25.300 his whispers now a steady, incoherent stream of words. 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:31.000 He was shouting them, screaming them into the dark, a litany of lost moments. 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:35.160 He gave a final, desperate cry and threw his hands forward. 00:07:35.580 --> 00:07:41.580 The great mass of rubble didn't fly. It didn't explode. It simply folded. 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:47.340 For a split second, the entire wall of stone and rock seemed to collapse inward 00:07:47.340 --> 00:07:50.480 on itself, shimmering like a mirage. 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:55.960 Then, with a deafening implosion of silent air, it was gone. 00:07:56.320 --> 00:08:01.880 The cavern shuddered, not from an impact, but from the sheer wrongness of so 00:08:01.880 --> 00:08:03.760 much matter ceasing to be. 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:10.440 A violent gust of wind tore back down the tunnel, a vacuum desperate to be filled. 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:15.660 Dala threw an arm over her face, her mind reeling not with the power of the 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:18.920 spell, but with a single terrifying question. 00:08:19.460 --> 00:08:21.640 Where did all that stone go? 00:08:23.283 --> 00:08:27.703 Stretching out beyond the flickering light of the torch, the road ahead was 00:08:27.703 --> 00:08:30.783 clear, as if it had never been blocked at all. 00:08:31.003 --> 00:08:35.343 The ancient paved stones stretched forward into the darkness, 00:08:35.803 --> 00:08:37.303 pristine and untouched. 00:08:38.003 --> 00:08:42.883 Prosper stood for a moment, swaying. His arms fell to his sides. 00:08:43.123 --> 00:08:49.023 He crumpled to his knees, then fell forward onto the newly cleared road, his body limp. 00:08:49.603 --> 00:08:54.043 Dala rushed to his side, her fear replaced by a hollow-hearted pity. 00:08:54.463 --> 00:09:01.443 She knelt and gently rolled him over. His face was slack, his eyes open, but seeing nothing. 00:09:01.883 --> 00:09:05.263 She put a hand on his cheek. It was still cold. 00:09:05.923 --> 00:09:11.763 Prosper, can you hear me? His eyes slowly focused, blinking as if seeing the 00:09:11.763 --> 00:09:13.663 world for the very first time. 00:09:13.883 --> 00:09:17.883 He looked at the cleared road, then at the high cavern ceiling, 00:09:18.183 --> 00:09:20.543 and then, finally, at her. 00:09:20.903 --> 00:09:29.883 There was nothing behind his gaze, no memory, no history, only a profound and terrible emptiness. 00:09:29.883 --> 00:09:36.503 He frowned, a look of simple, childlike confusion on his face. Who are you? 00:09:37.903 --> 00:09:42.183 He was a husk, a man hollowed out and left empty. 00:09:42.883 --> 00:09:48.503 Dala helped him to his feet, his movements clumsy and uncertain, like a newborn foals. 00:09:49.043 --> 00:09:53.043 His eyes, which had burned with such terrifying power moments before, 00:09:53.463 --> 00:10:00.063 were now vacant, listlessly taking in the cleared tunnel, the distant torchlight, 00:10:00.323 --> 00:10:03.123 the concerned face of the woman supporting him. 00:10:03.443 --> 00:10:10.643 There was no recognition, no memory of the wife he had just lost or the mountain he had just moved. 00:10:10.983 --> 00:10:16.683 We need to go. Her voice echoed in the sudden profound silence of the cavern. 00:10:17.403 --> 00:10:22.803 Mailer is waiting for us. The name didn't register. He simply blinked, 00:10:22.983 --> 00:10:26.123 a slow, languid motion. Mailer. 00:10:27.362 --> 00:10:30.322 The word was an alien sound on his tongue. 00:10:30.602 --> 00:10:36.402 He knew what a name was, but this one held no meaning, no connection. 00:10:36.822 --> 00:10:39.162 It was just a collection of noises. 00:10:40.182 --> 00:10:47.602 The journey back down Dragon Road was a slow, agonizing education in the true cost of magic. 00:10:48.142 --> 00:10:53.942 At first, Dala thought the spell had taken everything. He walked with a shuffling 00:10:53.942 --> 00:10:57.982 gait, his hand often trailing along the cavern wall as if for guidance. 00:10:58.462 --> 00:11:04.082 He stumbled over the smallest of pebbles on the smooth, paved road. He was a blank slate. 00:11:04.802 --> 00:11:09.982 Then came the first crack in that theory. As they passed one of the sconces 00:11:09.982 --> 00:11:16.022 Prosper had lit on their way in, its magical light still burning brightly, he paused. 00:11:16.502 --> 00:11:20.422 That's a continuous illumination spell. The lattice frame contains it. 00:11:21.202 --> 00:11:26.762 Very efficient. Dala stopped, her heart skipping a beat. You remember that? 00:11:27.702 --> 00:11:33.902 He looked from the sconce to her, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. Remember what? 00:11:34.622 --> 00:11:37.942 It's a simple piece of craft. Any apprentice would know it. 00:11:39.062 --> 00:11:43.042 He knew the spell. He knew its function, its name. 00:11:43.282 --> 00:11:48.882 But he had no memory of casting it himself. It was as if he'd read it in a book, 00:11:49.082 --> 00:11:53.062 a piece of trivia disconnected from any personal experience. 00:11:53.342 --> 00:11:58.802 The pattern repeated itself, each instance a fresh wave of horror for Dala. 00:11:59.022 --> 00:12:04.222 He knew he was in the Dragon's Teeth Mountains. He had even retained some emotional 00:12:04.222 --> 00:12:08.522 connection to memories, for when he casually mentioned the road they were on, 00:12:08.762 --> 00:12:11.582 his voice took a dark turn. 00:12:12.182 --> 00:12:16.722 This is the road to Ness, the home to evil wizards and their vile lackeys. 00:12:17.442 --> 00:12:22.402 He knew his own name was Prosper, but when Dala, her voice trembling, 00:12:22.902 --> 00:12:26.622 finally worked up the courage to ask the question she'd been dreading, 00:12:26.782 --> 00:12:32.582 his response was a chilling affirmation of what he'd lost. Do you remember Katrina? 00:12:33.342 --> 00:12:37.382 He looked at her, his head tilted slightly. Should I? 00:12:38.831 --> 00:12:45.971 There was no pain in his eyes, no flicker of a lost love, just a placid, empty curiosity. 00:12:46.491 --> 00:12:51.811 The spell hadn't just taken the memory of his wife, it had taken the hole her 00:12:51.811 --> 00:12:53.531 absence should have left behind. 00:12:54.031 --> 00:12:58.991 He was a puzzle with pieces missing, and he wasn't even aware of the gaps. 00:12:59.491 --> 00:13:04.931 That, Dala realized, was the cruelest part of the curse. He couldn't even mourn 00:13:04.931 --> 00:13:06.191 what he couldn't remember. 00:13:06.491 --> 00:13:11.911 He knew he was a wizard, but he couldn't recall how he'd learned a single spell. 00:13:12.311 --> 00:13:17.791 When Dala mentioned the levitation spell which saved them, he nodded and simply 00:13:17.791 --> 00:13:19.731 said, The essence of the feather. 00:13:19.931 --> 00:13:26.011 But he had no memory of studying it. He was a library of facts with the soul ripped out. 00:13:26.251 --> 00:13:30.291 All the knowledge remained, but the emotions, the connections, 00:13:30.811 --> 00:13:35.331 the life that had been lived alongside that knowledge, all of it was gone. 00:13:35.571 --> 00:13:42.311 He was a man made of charcoal sketches, the vibrant color of his life erased. 00:13:43.131 --> 00:13:49.691 Dala found herself becoming his caretaker, his guide back to a world he only partially remembered. 00:13:49.951 --> 00:13:55.771 As his mind rushed to fill or cover with scar tissue, the gaps left behind, 00:13:56.071 --> 00:13:58.611 it made him aimless and without focus. 00:13:58.911 --> 00:14:01.991 She would point out a loose stone on the path. 00:14:02.231 --> 00:14:05.711 She would remind him to drink water from the deerskin pouch. 00:14:05.931 --> 00:14:08.431 She would wake him when he fell asleep walking. 00:14:08.791 --> 00:14:15.511 He followed her instructions with a docile obedience, his trust absolute and immediate. 00:14:15.851 --> 00:14:21.391 Why wouldn't it be? He had no memory of betrayal, no reason to fear a helping hand. 00:14:21.671 --> 00:14:27.291 The walk across the ash fields was a silent one. The blighted land seemed a 00:14:27.291 --> 00:14:30.511 fitting reflection of the emptiness walking beside her. 00:14:30.831 --> 00:14:35.871 He seemed to understand what the fields were, describing them as the result 00:14:35.871 --> 00:14:40.331 of a catastrophic failure due to poor agricultural practices. 00:14:40.831 --> 00:14:42.771 He felt nothing about them. 00:14:43.836 --> 00:14:46.796 They saw the Thieves' Tower long before they reached it. 00:14:46.996 --> 00:14:51.936 It rose from the base of the mountain, a black spear aimed at the sky, 00:14:52.216 --> 00:14:56.816 a structure that was both a part of the mountain and a defiance of it. 00:14:57.556 --> 00:15:05.336 Dala felt a surge of relief, of homecoming. This was where Mela was. This was safety. 00:15:05.916 --> 00:15:11.276 She looked at Prosper, expecting to see a similar awe, or at least confusion 00:15:11.276 --> 00:15:13.136 at the massive, hidden structure. 00:15:13.836 --> 00:15:18.416 He had stopped walking and was staring up at it, his head tilted back. 00:15:18.736 --> 00:15:21.316 The vacant look was gone from his eyes. 00:15:21.696 --> 00:15:27.116 In its place was a spark of something she hadn't seen since before he'd cleared the road. 00:15:27.796 --> 00:15:34.056 Recognition. A slow smile spread across his face, but it wasn't the warm smile 00:15:34.056 --> 00:15:35.556 she'd seen him give Katrina. 00:15:36.056 --> 00:15:42.496 It was a smile of ancient knowledge, of a secret long kept. He turned to her, 00:15:42.736 --> 00:15:44.896 his eyes focused and clear. 00:15:45.376 --> 00:15:50.016 Ah, he said, his voice full of a strange, quiet confidence. 00:15:50.516 --> 00:15:53.956 The Tower of the Wizards. I know it well. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:16.560 Music. 00:15:58.776 --> 00:15:58.896 We'll be right back. 00:16:15.756 --> 00:16:18.156 The Podcast Alchemy Production.