A Name

        “So he knows nothing?” Takhisi, the yellow dragonspawn, asked her fellow wizards. The three of them stood outside the clinic watching the two figures inside. The man wore short, white patient robes and sat reclined in the bed reading a book while the doctor examined his skin. A faint glow occasionally emanated from him.

        Arian idly stroked his stringy, graying beard. “Nothing of himself,” he answered her. “Though he does possess good manners and seems perfectly politie in disposition.” Arian turned to the side and asked his apprentice, “Was there anything else you noticed?”

Gillian looked past him into the room, stared at the man in the bed. “When I brought him here–and I may be wrong, but–it seemed as if he already knew his way around.” Gillian felt the gaze of the two senior mages hit him. He never enjoyed being the center of attention. “He was still disoriented,” Gillian explained, “but he didn’t need my leading to navigate the halls. It felt as if he knew which turns and stairs to take to get to the clinic, but all the while he looked about like he was lost. I think–I mean, it’s possible, I think,” Gillian fumbled, “that he has been here before, or possibly even studied here?” He finished in more the tone of a question than a hypothesis.

“Hmm,” Arian hummed in thought, looking back into the room.

“That’s quite the conclusion,” Takhisi said in her usual bitter tone.

“Perhaps corroborating it is this.” Gillian held up a tome. “This is his; it’s all he had. I believe it is a spellbook. It’s enchanted against weathering, though it is empty and unused.” He turned it over and marveled at the dark leathery binding and gilt-edged pages. “Expensive too, no doubt.”

“He gave this to you?” Takhisi asked.

“Honestly, I’m not sure he realized it was his. It was on his person, but in the stupor I found him in he couldn’t really explain or answer anything. I told him I would keep it safe.”

“He’s asked many basic questions since fully coming to, I understand,” said Arian. “In that regard, he is like a…child. But his understanding is there. As he takes in information it falls into place as if it were once there, or the capacity to absorb it exists, at least.”

“We’ll need to run many tests, there seems much to study, much under the surface,” Takhisi declared.  

        “We’ve no right to keep him here.” Gillian surprised himself with that outburst.

        Takhisi whirled. “No right? We don’t even know what he is! His very existence could be dangerous.”

        “Does that man look dangerous?” Gillian countered. They peered into the room through the window. The man in question was still reading, his head down to the book, a content smile on his face. On the underside of his chin, his neck, and the exposed parts of his arms and legs were visible veins stark against the skin. They bore a glow, revealing them through the flesh, and in a slow, rhythmic pulse the illumination swelled and faded.

        “He’s beyond a mere man,” Takhisi hissed. “He’s something else. Something more.”

        “What’s he reading?” Arian asked, tactfully turning the discussion’s topic.

        Gillian shrugged. “Anything he can get his hands on. Once he finished with his first batch of questions, he saw and asked me to give him the nearest book. It’s one of the Cromwell medicine journals, I think. He’s been pouring over it since.”

        “Hm,” Arian hummed again.

        Inside, the doctor rose from her stool and nodded to the three outside. Her initial examination was complete.

        Arian swung his arm out generously and smiled at Gillian. “After you.” Gillian licked his lips and led the way in. The doctor was putting her tools away, the man hadn’t moved and didn’t seem to notice their arrival.

        Gillian cleared his throat. “Hello. Do you remember me?”

The man looked up from the thick book, and his special eyes found the wizard. Those special, alarming eyes. The whites of them black, the black of them white. In recognition, the inside of the white pupils flared with something like trapped lightning.

“Of course, Gillian. You saved me,” the man answered in an innocent sounding voice, laced with a reverberating undertone.  

“I don’t know about all that,” Gillian chuckled. “I think that honor goes to doctor Mapes.”

The doctor shook her head, a perplexed smile tugging at her lips. “I can’t claim it either. In fact, by all metrics his health is glowin–” she furrowed her brow, glancing at his skin. “He’s very healthy,” she clarified. “The pinnacle of it, really, save for his memory loss.”

        “What is he?” Takhisi pressed, cutting straight to the point. Gillian winced at her bluntness, but the man was not offended; he too was interested in the doctor’s answer.

“That is…complicated. There is no precise parallel. Human, elf, even celestial, their signs are all present.”

“Celestial?!” Takhisi choked.

“Sparks of it, yes,” Doctor Mapes responded, then hesitantly added, “And residuum in his blood.”

“Residuum?!” The dragonspawn squeaked. She stormed over to the doctor and demanded details. Meanwhile Gillian saw the discomfort this was causing the man. These revelations, while great surprises to the wizards, seemed to mean little to him. The young mage walked over to the bed.

“You know, I never got your name,” Gillian prompted.

        The man’s eyes rose past Gillian in thought, but no response came. Then his eyes closed.

Images came through a fog, taking just enough shape and ebbing into view just long enough to make them out. Something in a frame, like a mirror. A face, indistinct, looking back. A smile, happy. Then a laugh of his own voice echoed. The collection of hazed images and sound formed a connection, and linked to that connection was a name.

        “Silas,” He finally said quietly. His eyes opened. “My name may be Silas.” He smiled up at the wizard. “It sounds right, doesn’t it?”

        Gillian smiled back. “Well, Silas, here you are.” He handed him the tome.

“What is this?” Silas asked, excited at the gift with no recognition of it.

“The only possession you had on you.”

Silas looked on it with sudden awe. “This is mine?”

Gillian nodded. “I hope you don’t mind, I gave it a once over. It’s in pristine

condition and holds an enchantment to prevent its destruction from fire or water. You could throw it out a tower and it’d probably be fine. It has nothing written in it though.”

“Yes it does,” Silas said.

Gillian recoiled. “What?” he asked, confused. Everyone’s attention was instantly grabbed.

Silas had opened the book to the first page and tapped it with his finger. “Right here’s something.” Then he fanned through the pages. “Looks like that’s all there is though.”

Gillian launched a look back at Arian. “That wasn’t there before,” he whispered.

Arian silently stroked his beard in response, his brow furrowed in contemplation.

“What does it say?” Takhisi demanded.

        Silas gladly turned the book for them to see. Three words were across the page.

Find Araya Tenestra

        The wizards shared glances, the name meaning nothing to them.

“Do you know who this Araya Tenestra is, Silas?” Gillian asked.

        He closed his eyes and thought very hard, searching for an answer or clues. The fog swirled and rippled, but nothing sprouted from it. His eyes slowly opened and stared at the page. “No, I don’t think so.” A thin smile slowly formed. “But now I know what to do.”