I had a dream that I was apprentice to a sorcerer (played by Jason Voss). He was a sorcerer specializing in Fire, and so that’s what I was learning.

Well, he had me cleaning his apartment, because I was his apprentice and he could do that sort of thing. He got frustrated with how long it was taking, so he crafted a spell where he would erupt flames everywhere in his apartment, but they were programmed to only burn dirt. In that way, everything could come clean at once.

He cast the spell. Everything was a blaze for an instant, and then all the dishes, clothes, and carpet were clean. He looked around in satisfaction.

But then there was a rumbling, and we heard the voices of the Spirits. They said that his use of this spell was too far from the nature of Fire, and his abuse of the power of Fire showed that he was unworthy to receive its gifts. He was thereby stripped of his powers.

He was so depressed after that. I tried to come up with something for him. After all, I was still his apprentice.

“Wait,” I said. “What about those dark sorcerers who are always doing horrible, unspeakable, unthinkable things? They clearly don’t have the approval of the Spirits, and they are able to keep their powers. Why don’t you do whatever they do?”

Jason thought about it for a second. “The dark sorcerers are in league with the Dark Spirits. I suppose I could negotiate with them.”

He performed the ritual that opened a gate to the realm of darkness. He saw, on the other side, the charred, ruined remains of what had been a world. Fire had everywhere consumed everything. This was the realm of the Dark Spirits of Fire. One of the Spirits approached the gate, asking “What do you desire?”

Jason saw the world that they lived in, and thought about the world that he lived in. Sure, his apartment gets dirty sometimes, but at least he doesn’t live in a horrid, scorched, nightmare moonscape.

“Never mind,” he said to the Spirit, and closed the gate.