The Vineyards

Each time I go back to Temuair, random people stare at me and yell "OMG Deoch 1!!!". I have been there too long for their standards. Most of them only heard of Dark Ages by Deoch 50 or more. They have no idea that contests were once judged by the director and that people actually hunted in Mileth Crypts, and that it was hard to gain experience. I stand there as a sign of these times, a museum piece. Of course, walking around in full Grand Master gear, it is obvious I am not exactly the same as in Deoch 1, but I still feel completely anachronical. My friends from yore are either gone or have become Master Rangers and Knights and some Medenia class and have ten times more health and mana than I ever dreamed possible. I am still afraid of puinsein and mess up if I have to switch staves because I never expect to cast more than mor fas nadur. I look pretty but I am still a museum piece.

Today I went to USP after a few months away. As I walked into school I felt all the students there staring at me and screaming "OMG enrolled in 2001!!". I realized I am even more anachronical in USP than I am in Dark Ages. The wizard Etienne has grown, become a Grand Master, even if most of it happened while he was being dragged around by caring friends. Me, I am still in my earliest levels. They point and stare and say "2001!" and they are right. I am a museum piece, I am the same I was in 2001 - and here without the Grand Master gear. Early levels, "low insight" as said in Temuair but literally correct here, desperately hoping someone will leech me to higher levels or a friend will drag me around and make me gain experience and levels. My friends, they all already left and have health and mana in the heights while I fear failing grades as much as puinsein. Students in USP say "2001!" and I look embarassed and respond "You mean it is not 2001 anymore? Oh, I must have dozed off for the last five years. My bad." and make haste away from them.