Inktober 10/5: Build
The whispers had always been there. Elizer always knew he was born something different, but he had always assumed it was just because he was a changeling. For so long he didn’t even realize the whispers of shadow and endless depth were something beyond him. He figured that’s just how it was for everyone, even as the murmurs built up and grew louder.
It wasn’t until he was in jail that he started to actually listen to them. He had nobody else to talk to, and though they didn’t really answer any of his thoughts and questions, he could at least pretend they had conversations. They talked about the vastness of the Shadowfell, the empty and uncaring world that fueled him. They talked about the power of his connection, the strength he could draw from it.
Even at a young age, Elizer was interested in magic, but his family was of thieves and there was little use for that save for disguises and distractions. As a changeling, Elizer could disguise himself seamlessly and without any spell casting. Distractions were just as easily caused by non magical means, so, in both cases, his parents didn’t seem to find the need to indulge in his magic fascination.
Now, alone and left behind, Elizer had the opportunity to understand exactly what the buzzes were telling him. As he sat in his cell, he concentrated on what they had to say and teach him. They built on each other, and he began testing what information he had been given. He found he could light the torches on the walls outside his cell, prestidigitaion the mutters called it. He slowly learned more and more, practicing in secret with the whispers as his guide.
The more Elizer learned, the slower his heart began to beat, and the colder his skin had become. He didn’t realize this, it was such a slow process that it didn’t even occur to him. It wasn’t until a fight broke out in the jail, and he was grabbed by the neck by one of his usual aggressors, but instantly dropped. He was ice cold, and the shock of touching a living thing that wasn’t warm startled the criminal enough to release him and shout out the fact. It was then Elizer realized he couldn’t actually remember the last time he felt warm.
Discovering the speed of his heart beat came later. A late night, later than it should have been, wore him down. He was growing tired from his practice, and was debating sleeping. Then, his heart beat. The sensation was so foriegn in that moment that it startled Elizer, and he jolted to alertness. What had happened? Did his heart beat extra hard? Curious, and a bit worried, he placed a hand on his chest and waited, but there was no pulse. Anxiety started to rise through him, until a minute later he felt it beneath his palm, a soft beat. His heart was still pumping, just, slowly. He hadn’t actually felt any different than normal, despite this, and though cautiously, he decided he would be okay. His heart would continue to startle him occasionally, but, he wasn’t dying. As the whispers later told him, the thinning of his connection to life was a sign of a strengthening of his connection to the Shadowfell.
His power and knowledge grew, and then the day came that he was released. He was a changed person now, in more ways than one. Elizer was ready to live his life as the new person he had built himself up to be.
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Today we are featuring another D&D character!! This is Elizer Able, a changeling born to a pair of thieves. He took up their trade but was caught later in life and sentenced to jail. He is a sorcerer of shadow, and his spell casting ability is forged from a connection to the Shadowfell! This is a brief glimpse in how he grew to understand this side of himself while in prison.
