Again Skylar flinched. He seemed lost for a second before looking up for the scroll. His face fell and he took a shuddering breath.

"My family was targeted by cultists down South. Almost every single Altzan can cast magic from the second they can read. Our blood at base contains a potent reserve of magical energy, making it one of the best spell catalysts available." He chuckled darkly, "So they attack us. Hunted and caught us one by one to use in their rituals. We fought back. Oh we nearly had them beat out of our towns too. But some of us turned. They got greedy, conspired with the cultists, and destroyed us from the inside." His mouth was set in a hard line and fury twisted his face.

"My mother" he spat the word, "was the matriarch of our family. One of the best battle mages of our time. She turned too. Found out when I woke up to a burning house and my little brother on the altar, insides opened and drained of all his blood. I tried my best to kill her but I just can't cast battle magics, let alone at her skill." Tears started to well up in his eyes and his voice dropped to little more than a whisper.

"As to back there. Magic, despite our attempts to manipulate and catagorize it, constantly changes and fluxutates, changing the rules and effects as it wishes if the will isn't strong enough. Magic often innately enhances emotional responses and creates a feedback, furthering one's experiance of the emotions." He pursed his lips and looked down, "In cases of extreme stress or trauma, it often forces you to relive the event and substitutes that reality for the current one. You see, hear, feel, taste, smell everything that happened again and again. The cultist triggered the memories and I saw her instead. I aw my brother Alexander on the altar before her. I smelled the fire and death. So I tried to change it. Thankfully, killing the cultist made me remember she didn't die and brought me back. Who knows what else I would have cast and who I would have caught in the crossfire. I had a few elixirs to hold it at bay but they broke when the caravan threw us to the ground and without supplies, I can't remember more."

Skylar leaned a little heavier on Jameson, struggling just to keep his eyes open. Hopefully, they would find a relatively safe place soon.