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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Velenne" data-source="post: 964712" data-attributes="member: 1856">Broz double-checked the saddlestraps mostly out of nervousness.  He should have been excited, but he couldn't help shake the feeling that it was all too good to be true.The very day he had donated to the lottery, he had recieved a short message in his mind praising him for his good fortune and instructing him to meet city officials at a certain time and place.  The transaction was brief, and merriment was made, -all for a grand public display to demonstrate the generocity of the mages.And so, he simply failed to arrive at the thornople fields the next morning.  He purchased a donkey, a wagon, some travelling clothes and a week's worth of trail rations with the idea that a better life would be discovered in one of the outlying villages.  He had enough to build a small hut, and perhaps a small tract of land he could farm on.  In his wildest dreams, he imagined finding a wife and starting a family. Broz had never been the most charming of men, though.He looked at the world through glazed eyes.  Altogether he would experience moments of great levity, joy, fear, hope, hopelessness, and awe.  Broz Chrukis was a new man.  A clean man, well-to-do and off to start a new life.  And though the people he passed on the street on the way to the gates didn't know it, going along with their same old boring lives, his own adventure was finally starting.  At last, the final obstacle, the city gates, stood in his way.  This morning they stood wide and welcoming like the light at the end of a dark tunnel that had been his life only a morning before.Passing underneath the portcullis, he spied a rose bush off to the side of the road where it had gone unnoticed by those with more important things to watch (like their feet, he supposed).  Sylvana's* hair was said to made of rose petals, so they said.  Soft, beautiful, inpiring, it grew up the side of the outer wall with a careless disregard for the sentries patrolling above.  He decided he would plant a rose bush next to his new home.The look of it fascinated him.  So much so that he hardly noticed the two guards approach to his right.  Behind them stood a balding, heavyset man with a well-oiled grey mustache that grew to his chest.  He wore the red and blue heraldry of his station marked with the magelord's symbol clasping his black cape."Broz Churkis," said the mage, stating Broz's name like a wolf who had cornered a rabbit, "We have searched the city for you, my boy.  You weren't going to leave us without fulfilling your contract now were you?"Broz had jumped at hearing his name.  His heart sank and all he could do was stare at the rose bush.  It had been too good to be true.  No one ever made it out from under the yoke of the mages.  It was impossible.  One of the guards reached up and took hold of the donkey's bridle, stopping his progress."Nothing to say for yourself?  So be it.  So long as you can afford to pay to cancel the contract, recompense my business for the expense of finding you, and the trouble of finding a replacement, all will be forgiven.  As it happens, this totals to precisely nine hundred golden coins.  Plus tax of course . It is most fortunate, then, that I hear you have recently come into such a windfall.  Simply hand over your winnings and we shall consider the debt paid and you may be on your way."The mage smiled wryly and waited for the oaf to digest all that he had been told.  Broz never took his eyes from the rose bush.  He simply reached behind him into the wagon and pulled forth a heavy-laden sack.  The oddest thing happened next.  He could have sworn he heard something whispering to him, but wasn't able to quite hear what it was saying.  The next thing he new, he was giving the reigns a harsh crack.  The guard was knocked off his feet and he was off like a shot.In his left hand, Broz held the reigns, in his right, what was left of his winnings.  It was too late to turn back now, so he gave the donkey every crack and curse he could.  The wagon spurred onward into the panicked throng.  His heart thumped against the inside of his chest like a hammer to an anvil.  People must have seen the fear in his eyes, or were afraid of getting trampled by the wagon for they began diving to all sides. Broz had only a moment to notice the red reflection glinting off the harness's metal bits.  He turned just in time to catch the fireball fully in the back and face. "THUS IS THE COST OF DEFIANCE!" The mage bellowed at the gathered commoners, some standing in shocked silence, others crying in horror. "BEHOLD IT WELL!  TREAT YOUR RULING CASTE RESPECTFULLY AND YOU WILL BE TREATED JUSTLY!  CLING TO LAWLESSNESS, AND YOU WILL BE CULLED AS A DEMON!"He turned and motioned to one the guards, "Somewhere in that carnage is a pile of coins that belongs to me.  Be quick about it; I have more important things to attend to."* - In the human pantheon, Sylvana is goddess of Nature.  Her titles also include The Heart of Ersadia, The Green Mother and others.  Her portfolios are: The natural world, flora, fauna, rangers, druids, and many barbarians.</blockquote>

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