Whew...
Finally, I got the first installment through without it being eaten...
Prelude
Nystyra Mageblood was lost. Very lost, both literally and figuratively.
She had been an apprentice to Adrin Emberlord, Keeper of the Flame of the Brotherhood of Merlin. For nine years, ever since she was 8 years old, she had been learning the Art of Magic under the watchful eye of Adrin himself. Al though there had been many other apprentices in the Brotherhood of Merlin, she was the most talented, or so Adrin had said. He hinted it was due to her mixed heritage. In truth, she was only part-human. Her mother had been a hardworking farmer's daughter, but her father...he had been something else entirely. Erwyll Mathkeir Haddryn yn Ymwng'Tylwyth yn Dwr'cadaeru*, as the name implies, was not a human man. Some folk in the village near which Nystyra was born whispered that her father was an incubus, a carnal demon come in the night to Nystyra's father. The truth was, Erwyll was neither man nor demon. He was a Fey, a reclusive spirit that lived in the the forests and danced in twilight meadows and sang under the full moon. Nystyra's mother, Petra, had one ngith wandered far into the forest and gotten lost. She was lost and afraid, but Erwyll, captivated by her charms, made himself known to her, and he wooed her. She stayed in that forest for many months, emerging almost 7 months later in the advanced stages of pregnancy. To her poor morified father, this would have been strange enough, but the Elfinwoods played strange tricks with time, and, though Petra had been lost for nearly a year in the woods, when she came out of thoses forests, she had only been gone for two days.
Thus, she never married. Instead, when her child was born, she moved away from the village and away from the talk that always followed her. There, beside the road, she made a small living gathering and selling firewood. Nystyra grew up the daughter of a poor woodgatherer. Until Adrin came.
He had come in the middle of the night, during a fierce storm, seeking shelter, disguised as an old and wayworn traveller. He stayed for two days, while the storm lasted, and meanwhile, Nystyra discovered him studying a spellbook by the fireplace. She watched, amazed, as he conjured up a candleflame out of thin air and made it dance around her like a firefly. It was then that she decided that she wanted to be a wizard, too. Meanwhile, Adrin had heard the story of how her mother had gotten lost in the woods and emerged two days later, in the late stages of pregnancy. His guess that Nystyra was a special child was confirmed when she showed a surprising aptitude for wizardry.
Her mother had not wanted to let her go, at first, but Adrin had persuaded her that it was a golden opportunity for Nystyra, for wizardry is a difficult thing to master, and it must be learned young. She had better chances of success in life as the favored apprentice of a wizard high in the hierarchy of the Sorcerer's Guild.
So she had spent most of her life being educated to become a master wizard, an adept, in her own right. Only the day before she had been presented with her spellbook and Charm**, showing that she was considered a fully qualified adept in the ranks of magicians. Now it was time when she should go out into the world to make her fortune.
The only problem was, she didn't know where to go, or what to do.
End Prelude. Next Installment: Nystyra's First Adventure
*Literally, "Erwyll the son of Mathkeir the son of Haddrynn, of the Clan of Wellspring Rock" Note that among the Fey, lineages are traced through the mother, not the father.
**A sort of Arcane focus. A character can put up to 25 XP in it at one time, then the XP stored in the Charm is used to cast spells. A first level spell costs 2 XP, a second level spell costs 3 XP, and so on.
