Illusions 12

"I've been manifesting fragments of memory! I'm not hallucinating—I've been creating illusions! I am a mage!"

He held out a hand and willed an illusory draft horse into being. The thing materialized through a soft haze of blue, and it ran a heavy canter around the man. He reached out to touch it and easily passed a hand through its dappled grey side. The illusion ran past, leaping through his signal fire and loping up and down the beach, a graceful streak of cloudy night against the harsh white of the sand.

The man laughed at the madness of it all. He laughed at his own ability, his foolishness, but most of all in that moment, he laughed that the other inhabitants of the beach thought his creation was real. Seagulls took flight when the horse approached, insects flew close to try and rest on its back, and though it left no mark in the sand, this creation felt more real than any fire, spear, or net ever had. His imagination was too great to contain, and his mind was as boundless as he wished. The man had no need for a name or a past, for in that moment he knew exactly who he was.

The man dispelled the horse and created an elephant, dispelled the elephant and created a sea monster, dispelled the sea monster and turned the day into night, filling the beach with an endless array of delicate stars.

He laughed until he cried.

After a moment of happy tears surrounded by an endless galaxy of illusory stars, his heart became heavy.

He was standing in an endless night, a perfect void dotted with small bursts of light.

The man was incredibly alone.

He vanished the illusion of the stars and the night and was met with an equally empty beach.

JACE, ALONE