Peek: Thing

Threads of mana, a place of death, a single hand, life without breath.

The first seconds of existence are confusing.  His nature says to seek and choke, to grasp and grab, hide and hinder.  To be seen is to be destroyed.  The directions from the Master are completely contrary to that.  He is not to lead the subtle hordes of hands, but to learn the secrets of magic.

He's not even supposed to be learning how to destroy with the magic, unless one counts destroying magic itself.  The Master has Subsumed another dungeon, and finds magical workings he doesn't wish, and so he wishes them destroyed.

It's a shame, really.  Taking a look at the enchantments, they're works of deadly art.  He no more understands their actual construction than he understands how one would paint a picture, but he knows he'll need to learn if he's to follow the Master's desires.

The Master is understanding, knowing how well-made the enchantments are, and so doesn't expect immediate results.  Instead, he is allowed to research and learn, using a lab deep behind the enchantments to discover the secrets of the arcane.  He can feel the Master observing, but doesn't feel any compulsions, his Master content to let Thing learn on his own.

He can feel vague concepts drift past the bond, echoed and distorted whispers of the true workings of reality.  Perhaps he'll be able to understand those secrets some day, but for now, he needs to understand the basics.

Learning is a humbling and time-consuming experience.  The books and research materials are dense and carry the weight of the power of the knowledge within.  They give their secrets reluctantly, seeming to fight him for it.

And yet, he sees and meets with those who seem to grasp the ideas so easily.  The aged ratkin is knowledgeable, and accepting his help stings of inadequacy, but he has plainly been working on this sort of thing for decades.  Thing would be a fool to ignore his advice.

But the truly humbling teacher is Rocky.  A zombie, intended to be a simple fighter, and yet he progresses in magic as if he were born to it.  At first, Thing worried the Master may have been favoring the zombie, whispering the secrets into that rotting ear, but no.  Rocky is simply driven, and Thing suspects he's smarter than even the zombie understands.

Conversing has been... a learning experience for them both.  Rocky seems to have an innate understanding of the style of Master's magic, but little idea how to convey it.  Thing understands the formulae, the structure, but has to rely on his instruments to actually manipulate and observe the mana flows properly.  Working together, however, improves them both.

Time passes, and he dismantles the magic traps left behind, and creates the enchanted mandible swords for the Master's Residents.  He also failes to undo lifedrinking, yet the Master doesn't rebuke him for it.  He knows it is a nigh-impossible task, so is prepared for it to take time.  Even with Thing hitting a wall in his progress, the Master is patient, and gives him a new project: an Axe.

It's a strange thing for the new earth elemental scion, employing thunder and lightning mana to create an instrument.  The complexity is staggering, but the Master provides guidance.  The process is... so strange, so different from what Thing is used to, and something about it sticks in his mind.  Something about the similarities between how thunder and lightning function.  He can't quite place his finger on it, but he knows there's something profound there.

He will have to put that aside for the moment, though, as he has hit a wall in the progress for the Axe as well, and the Master has seen fit to give him an assistant in the form of the young goblin that frequents the Master's territory.  She is seeking her class, though Thing doesn't know what he can do to help her with that.  The Master seems to think she can help with the Axe, and though Thing doubts it, he will not defy the Master.

Rocky is an unlikely source of arcane knowledge and expertise.  This goblin could be the same.