A young girl stands in front of a large tavern. Made of strong wood, with a sign swinging in the wind above the door, it had many large rooms branching off from the central building. The sign was weathered, but once had been inlaid with gold and silver. “ ‘Valyn’s Might’ huh... I finally made it.” the young girl sighs, “Guess there’s no point in putting this off.” She reaches her hand towards the door. 

 Before she grabs the handle she jumps back. The door crashes open, nearly hitting her, and a young boy shorter than her ran out, nearly tripping over himself. Following him out the door an older, bearded man came out “Don’t come back until you’ve finished that job kid!” He yells, shaking his fist at the young kid. He watches the boy run into a crowd, weaving and dodging. “Kids these days…” he sighs. He scratches his beard and prepares to go back inside. “Ex...excuse me, do you know the owner of this Tavern?” the girl asked stopping him, he turned. “Well, that would be me, lass.”

He stuck out his hand. “Name’s Erik, Erik Valyn. Owner of this tavern, and local guild master. Yours?” she shakes his hand. “My name is Ilya, I’m here for the apprenticeship opening, are you the one who put it up?” Erik, still shaking her hand seems surprised. “Aye, that was me. I’m surprised, didn't think anyone so young would want to take such a position. How ‘bout you come in and we can talk inside?” Dropping her hand he turns and opens the door for her. “Thank you,” she says quickly, walking into the tavern.

She walked inside and looked around. The tavern was full of people, talking and drinking. Many were casting basic spells for entertainment, others were playing cards, but most were around a large board she could only see the top of. The ceiling was large and arched, with many summonses flying around or perched on beams. Erik walked in, and turned towards the bar, “Follow me, kid.” Erik motioned his hand towards the bar. She walked behind him up to the bar where she sat down her bag, then hopped into a stool. 

When Ilya was seated Erik sat a glass of water in front of her. She smiled and took a sip. A woman walked up to the two of them, setting a large book down and throwing herself into a seat. Her black and violet hair glistened like an oil slick  “I’ll take a Firestone, Erick” she set some coins down on the bar, Erik took them up and started making the drink, then looked at Ilya. “Who’s this? Some kid looking for a parent?” she sighs “If you are, trust me it's not worth it.” Erik sat the Firestone down, “Nah she ain’t lost, Vḗra. She’s here for the apprenticeship.” Vḗra looked shocked “Really? Well then, that’s a surprise.” she looked at Ilya. “You want to be a wizard? This life is not the easiest.” she took up the glass and took a sip. Ilya smiled

”Yes, I do want to be a wizard. I always have. I want to follow in my brother's footsteps and be a great wizard like he is,” Ilya said proudly. “He fought in the Great War for the North before the Schism happened.”  At this, she got a little sad. “ That was the last time we heard from him.” she took a sip from her glass. “I want to find him, alive or dead, so we can have assurance at last.” Erik frowned, “Who was yer brother? I fought up North like him and I might ‘ave knew him.” He said then pulling out, from nowhere, a Northern lieutenant-mage badge. It was finely crafted with the symbol of the North, a white snow hawk, in a black circle with runes all around it.

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“Really? Can I see that for a minute?” he handed her the badge. She examined it, tracing the runes with her finger. “He was Ilyat Storm-Handler. Of the Lightning Division.”  Erik and Vḗra seemed to freeze, and all those around her who had herd forze. “Your brother was the Ilyat Storm-Handler? The legendary stormcaller who drowned the southern shores, and laid waste to the Great Plains?” Vḗra asked, shaking. Ilya smiled smugly, “Yes he was. The Ilyat Storm-Handler.” She set Erik’s badge on the bar, he looked at her.

“Well, can’t say I knew ‘em well but,” he adjusted his collar, “I did meet him at the Hall of Talks when the Schism happened. He took his band through a  gate to what seemed like the Jötunheimr mountains.” Ilya frowned, but Vḗra spoke up, “He did take his band up North, I believe it was to the Storm Palace, but they went down to the wastes looking for something. That’s when I meet him there. It was only brief but I saw him there. This was five years ago.” 

At this Ilya smiled and looked up at Vḗra, “DId he say anything to you?” “Alas, no he only looked at me and well… It didn’t feel right.” at the last part Vḗra stiffened. “ What did you mean, it felt wrong?” Ilya said puzzled “Ah, nothing by it just a weird feeling,” she looked at Erik, “Sorry I have to go return this right away.” She picked the book up, turned and walked out. Erik sighed. “Sorry about that. Vḗra’s… kinda blunt.” 

He pulled a stool from under the bar, pulled a pair of spectacles out of nowhere, put them on and unrolled a paper. “I’m going to need you to fill this form out. It’s just some basic information that we need to register with the Guild Association.” Ilya skimmed over  the paper, “Do you have a pen I could use?” He handed her a pen and she began filling out the form. 

She filled the form out and handed it to Erik. “There you go, anything else I need to do before I can join?” Erik shrugged. “Not really, just one question I like asking. Why do ya want to join this guild? With your family you could go anywhere, hell you could probably join the Mage College in Velark. So why this dingy guild?” Ilya looked taken back and thought for a moment. “Well, I want to join because of the history. The greatest wizard in history came from this guild. I can feel the age in the stones, the magic in this place is intense. I can feel it. They left something great with this guild.”

“I didn’t think anyone still knew about that.” Erik eyed her, “Where did you learn this? It’s not classified but it’s still important.” Ilya looked at him and pulled her bag onto her lap. “Well, Ilyat left some books before he went North. This was one of them.” she handed him a book with a red cover and silver inlay. “ ‘The Histories of the Grand Sages, Advanced edition’ Huh.” He hands it back to her. “Well, that’s all she wrote. Welcome to the guild, I’ll get someone to show you around. I'd do it myself but I need to go file these.” He rolled the paper up and put it away. “Merigold! Come show the new girl around.” Merigold popped up from a door behind the bar. “Yes, sir!” She smiled and turned to Ilya. “Let’s go, new girl!”