Prolog
The eastern edge of the Palmin Kingdom was marked by the Crystal Sea, which gains its name from its clear blue waters. Though this wasn't true at the mouth of the Chattering River. There the silt and mud of the river washed out to sea and made clear water brown and murky, but it is also from the murk that growth came. The vast and fertile Emerald Delta was created where the river and the sea meet. The delta was all rich soil and plentiful crops. Its people were peaceful and happy far from the politics and petty wars of the capital, but still significant enough to have the King's Rangers to take care of bandits and monsters.
That was why in a small town just over three days ride from where the river meets the sea, a wizard lived. He arrived a few months ago just as winter's chill began to pass, all alone, his pack overstuffed with what appeared to be everything he had. He was tall with a thin frame, and he walked with a good deal of help from his staff. It was a wooden thing made smooth with craft, and a clear crystal orb at its top held in place by claws of wood marked it as more than an ordinary piece of wood. The hat which helped show his profession was almost comically oversized, wide-brimmed with a floppy point dyed a bright yellow. The hat hid much of his face, and a red scarf hid the rest.
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He stayed in the Drunken Toad for two days; each day, he would walk around the town and the fields around it with his pack on his back and his weight on his staff. People watched as he went and noticed how he would stop to examine seemingly random things like a dew-covered spider web or the soil at the edge of a neighbor's vegetable patch. Most just ignored the strange man as it wasn't too odd for a wandering wizard to stop in a town for a few days before leaving again.
Things changed, though, when the wizard went to the towns Reeve, a man by the name of Waylen, and bought the old mill at the edge of town. The squat little tower had sat for about half a year since the new mill had been finished just before the winter. Waylen said that the man's name was Clay, and he was a certified Spellwright. Clay had even shown him the papers to prove it. Waylen agreed that the man was a little strange, but he had paid in the king's coin and paid in full, so what was he to do? He also said that he would be selling his services as a spell right as soon as he finished unpacking, so if anyone in the town needed a bit of magic, they should come and see him.