Delde opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling above her bed. It was brighter now than it had been last she’d looked so it was probably morning now. That had been how she spent her nights for the past week or so. Struggling to fall asleep, waking full of anxious energy, and then trying to will herself back to sleep. A cycle that for better or worse would be ending this day.

‘This is ridiculous’ she uttered to herself as she rose from her bed and readied herself for the “trials” she would soon be facing.

‘I’m a grown woman regardless of whether or not I’ve participated in some childish excuse for a “coming of age ceremony”’ she said to her cat Onyx as it joined her in rising from its bed sitting at the foot of her own. Onyx showed no interest in what she said and just rolled on its back to encourage her to rub its belly.

Delde sighed and gave Onyx the attention he craved for a moment before moving on to get dressed.

She looked at her wardrobe of clothes pensively as while she had never been concerned too much about what people thought about her appearance, she was aware of rumours starting to circulate about her. Namely there were ignorant people in town that automatically assumed that anyone who could wield magic and preferred to wear black robes must either be some dread necromancer or aspired to become one. Most days she would never have bothered with what the townspeople thought of her but today was different. Today she would be (among others) centre stage and the focus of attention. If she chose to wear black would people take that as confirmation of her supposed necromantic inclination? Despite her lack of interest in how the townspeople thought of her she didn’t want to gain a reputation as some sort of evil necromancer; Delde had no desire to wind up the victim of a witch hunt with adventurers attempting to bring her to “justice”. While she was sure that she would be fine once people realised the truth the whole scenario seemed like something she would rather avoid.

She decided to settle for wearing a robe of rich, dark purple with red highlights. She put her black robes in the backpack she would be taking with her, she would be gone for at least three days, possibly four. She could change into her black ones if she felt like it or if her purple ones wound up ruined.

Once she was dressed, she brushed her hair and tied it back, then examined herself in her mirror. Delde was not suited for social manoeuvrings and intrigues, but she understood the importance of impressions. Although she didn’t put much stock in the town of Kassen’s final festival before winter, nor the “Quest for the Everflame” that she was obliged to participate in, she did recognise that once she returned to town she would be see as an adult by the townsfolk. There would be plenty of eyes on her today and when she returned, Delde had no intention of giving anyone something to gossip about. If people were going to judge her it would be based off her accomplishments and ability, not because of something insipid like she didn’t brush her hair properly.

Delde looked at her reflection and examined herself. Having her raven black hair pulled back made her slightly pointed ears stand out and emphasized her half elven heritage. It wasn’t something she typically did, but she didn’t want to look like she was trying to conceal it either. She knew that the town of Kassen held no distain for elves or half elves; she had heard that the local bard that performed in the ‘Seven Silvers’ Tavern was a half elf, although she had never attended a performance herself. Still, Delde didn’t want to look like she was ashamed of anything, she intended to stand before the town proud of who she was.

Her half elven ancestry was not the only thing in her appearance that made Delde look like an outsider. Her dark skin also stood out among the paler skinned people in town. From what her “father” had told her, her mother was an elf who hailed from Garund, a continent far to the south of where she was. Even among her eclectic looking family she stood out; a fact that would not have bothered her as much had it not been for her lacking a significant trait that the rest of her family possessed.

She shook her head slightly and pushed the thought back down to the depths of her subconscious, dwelling on such things would only be a distraction. In any case she hadn’t allowed such a thing to stop her from developing a strong understanding of the arcane, better than most of her siblings in her eyes. Delde cast a minor prestidigitation that removed all minor creeses, dust and cat hair from her clothes. She had no idea how ‘normal’ people could go about life without such vital abilities. Looking over the mass of organised clutter from her studies Delde longed for the day she would master a spell that would deal with such mundane tasks for her. Onyx rubbed against her robes for attention and in doing so began covering the lower portion of her robes with cat hair once again.

‘You know, there are some wizard’s familiars that do menial work for their masters. They’re grateful for their position and want to show respect. They don’t just lounge around all day and get cat hair everywhere’.

Onyx looked up at her with large green eyes and meowed in response.

‘Fine, we’ll head over to Holgasts tower. I left some dried fish there in my desk’.

Onyx meowed again.

‘It’s there because if I kept it here you would just end up eating it when my back is turned. It’s meant to be a reward for you for when you act like a proper familiar, not a housecat’.

The cat purred and rubbed against her robes with renewed vigour. Delde just sighed and left her room with Onyx in tow, locking the door behind herself.

As she walked through the manors winding corridors, she found herself crossing paths with one of her brothers, Alro. Delde resisted the urge to rush past him, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that his jibes bothered her. She walked by him at a confidant, measured pace.

‘Morning Dede, couldn’t wait for the big day then? Excited to go out and play adventurer with the rest of your friends?’

She knew that he knew that she disliked that nickname. Still, at least her siblings had grown past Smellde. Something that coincidentally coincided with when she learnt how to shoot gouts of fire from her hands.

‘Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the game the town insists on playing every couple of years or so, but if I must participate, I intend to get it over with as quick as possible. Besides it would look bad for the family if I went running out at the last minute, hungover and half dressed’. She said with a smirk remembering Alro when he had to go on the ‘Quest for the Everflame’ two years prior.

‘Hmpf, I just couldn’t be bothered with it. Unlike some people I have friends to spend time and have fun with. Better than spending all my time with my nose in a book surrounded by a bunch of junk with some stray cat pawing at me’. He glanced at Onyx dismissively.

‘Besides’ he said without giving Delde a chance to respond ‘I never had to worry about it. I have real power within my blood. I don’t need to waste my time trying to learn cheap tricks to make up for a lack of ability. Alro said, his voice dripping with scorn.

‘Perhaps you’d like a display of what someone with an ounce of discipline is capable of?’

Onyx arched his back and gave off a threatening hiss.

‘If you’re going to fight do it outside and clean up your mess when you’ve finished’. A voice said that cut through the growing tension like a dagger through parchment and seemed to emanate from Delde’s very mind.

She and Alro turned around to see their father, Moltus Vargidan looking back at them. He walked out from an alcove that Delde knew was empty a moment ago. At 6’7 he towered over her and Alro and looked down at them with piercing eyes that changed colour every time he blinked, which was rare. He was clean shaven, but his bone white hair a top his head almost touched the floor and slowly swayed in a breeze that did not exist.

‘We… we weren’t going to do anything father. We were just talking’.

Alro’s proud attitude had evaporated like the morning mist before the midday sun. Out of all her siblings he bore the strongest resemblance to their father, but it was only in the most superficial way. He looked like a younger, shorter version of him with blond locks that barely reached his shoulders, but for all his bluster and pride he didn’t even possess a fraction of their father’s magical might. Nor did he have the fickle fury that made Moltus Vargidan so feared by his children and the town at large.

‘Alro’

Her brothers face grew pale.

‘The dumb village girl you snuck over for the night just set off one of the wards on the third floor. She currently bleeding out in front of the music room. Deal with it’

His voice left no room for dissent, but also left it ambiguous whether he wanted Alro to save the presumably badly injured young woman, or just get over the fact she was dead.

‘RIMA!’

Her brother ran as fast as he could towards the stairs and presumably to his paramour of the week. It was just Delde and her father in the hallway now.

‘…You’re doing the Everflame… thing today?’

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘Yes’

‘Hm… go along then’.

He gave her an utterly inscrutable look, blinked once changing his green eyes to pure black and then walked away. Delde didn’t waste her time trying to discern whether her father had any interest in her or what she was doing. She had concluded a long time ago that Moltus Vargidan lived according to his own rules and had no interest in anyone but himself and his own incomprehensible motivations. She didn’t know why he had bothered to have (or adopt as some of them suspected) so many children nor why he kept them all at his home when he so clearly didn’t care about them. She turned around and left the manor with Onyx in quick succession.

As she walked through the grounds to the gate for the estate, she glanced at a bare patch of lawn that looked incongruous with the verdant, well-tended grass that covered the rest of the grounds. She remembered how it had come to be like that with a shiver.

It was about a year or so ago that one of her ‘brothers’ who had left the family estate behind on a quest for power returned, challenging their father to a duel. Crazraa was a half orc and easily the most powerful out of the many Vargidan siblings, the elemental bloodline that ran through his veins was so strong that he used to claimed to be half orc and half fire elemental. Delde had never liked him, but even she had to concede that his magical power and even his arcane knowledge was superior to her own.

When he returned to the Vargidan estate that dreary autumn morning he bellowed for his father to come forth and face his doom. Crazraa had always been strong, bold, and proud but whatever he experienced in his travels appeared only to enhance those qualities. When their father eventually came out to see him, he was utterly dismissive of his prodigal son and showed him no more respect or interest than he did the last time he saw him. Crazraa took offence to that and proceeded to cast a fireball spell of such size that it was larger than even Moltus. Their father still showed no concern, even when it was inches from striking him.

The ball of fire that seemed so unstoppable simply fizzled away to nothingness before it touched him. And as Crazraa stood dumbfounded at his attack being utterly nullified, their father just gave a small, dismissive gesture with his hand, as if brushing away a speck of dust. A ray of sickly green light shot out from him and struck his son in the chest.

Delde had watched from a window as Crazraa Vargidan, the most powerful of all the Vargidan siblings that she knew turn to dust in an instant. Moltus Vargidan then walked back inside his manor as if nothing at all had happened. The only thing that stood as proof of what happened was the bare patch of grass that was where her brother had been standing when he was killed. Not even nature seemed to want to cross the will of her father.

Onyx meowed at Delde, stirring her from her memories.

‘No, it’s nothing, nothing at all. Yes, let’s get going to the tower, I’ll get you your treats. Then I can go over any final preparations I need to make for this childish exercise’.

She walked past the patch of baren earth, purposely not looking at, it and closed the gates to the estate behind her.

Delde walked with purpose through the dirt streets of Kassen in the early morning light. She met nobody in her brief walk to Holgasts tower, although that may have been less to do with the early hour and more to do with the fact that few people would choose to wander around this part of town. It wasn’t that it was unsafe, far from it, Kassen had very little crime in it and this section of the town even less. No, it was more to do with the fact that the southeast part of town held both the Vargidan estate, home to a well-known powerful, eccentric sorcerer alongside his magical brood and a few streets away was the tower of the local wizard. People generally wanted to avoid Holgast as much as they did her father, though for different reasons.

As she went down the street the tower of Holgast came into view, lit by the light of the rising sun. Delde was no architect, but while the tower seemed to be built in the same rugged manner as the rest of Kassen, it seemed to be ever so slightly crooked. It was the only such building in town that suffered from such an issue, but she could see no specific reason for it. She had spent years inside it, learning the arcane ways of the wizard and had never noticed any tilt in it. Either it was built to look crooked or there was some magic at work that made sure that architectural issues weren’t a problem the owner had to worry about. She didn’t think that Holgast was powerful enough to enact such magic himself, so she presumed the former rather than the later. She had heard Holgast mention in passing that the mayor was concerned about the tower toppling over and crashing into the town wall next to it that helped protect Kassen from outside threats. So, if it was meant to only look like it was crooked then that secret was known only to Holgast himself.

Reaching the door, she found a note pinned to it with a weak cantrip that dissipated when she touched the note. It read:

‘TO DELDE

I APOLOGISE FOR MY ABSENCE BUT I MUST MAKE PERPERATIONS FOR THE FESTIVAL AND YOUR UPCOMING QUEST (THINGS WOULD PERHAPS BE QUICKER IF OTHER SPELLCASTERS SUCH AS YOUR FATHER WERE MORE WILLING TO HELP WITH THE FESTIVAL, BUT YOU KNOW OF MY ISSUES WITH HIM. IN ANY CASE YOU HAVE ALREADY PROVEN YOURSELF TO BE A MUCH MORE AMICABLE PERSON THAN HIM BUT IT WOULD BE INAPPROPRATE FOR YOU TO ASSIST ME IN THIS). I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO USE MY TOWER IN MY ABSENCE TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE UPCOMING TRIALS YOU WILL UNDERTAKE (DON’T BOTHER LOOKING FOR CLUES ABOUT WHAT YOU WILL BE FACING I’VE TAKEN THEM ALL WITH ME. I THINK. IF YOU DO SEE ANY NOTES ABOUT TODAYS EVENTS, PLEASE IGNORE THEM. ACTUALLY IF YOU COULD PUT THEM ON MY DESK THAT WOULD BE NICE OF YOU). DO NOT INVITE ANYONE ELSE IN (save for Onyx of course) AND PLEASE TIDY AWAY ANY MESS YOU MAKE.

SINCERELY,

YOUR PROUD MENTOR,

HOLGAST

A faint smile formed on her face but just as quickly she forced it down to her normal, neutral expression.

‘As if I make any mess compared to him’ she said to Onyx, ‘at least I can have some peace before the spectacle begins today’.

Delde entered her mentors tower and looked around it. The walls were all lined with bookshelves that were bursting with books and an assortment of knickknacks, all sorted in an order that probably only she and Holgast could divine.

Holgast was a traditionalist when it came to educating an apprentice. That meant that he expected her to clean, tidy and perform a variety of menial tasks for him for the privilege of getting taught the magical arts of wizardry. Of course, Holgast was an old man and spent most of his time taking naps, reading books and doing little in the way of education Delde. It had gotten so bad that she had taken to reading his books on magic whenever he was asleep or wandering about town, which was often.

It had annoyed her a great deal at first that her only chance at ever learning the control of magic that for all her siblings came naturally could only be achieved by working as a servant for an old, possibly senile wizard who was far beneath her father in terms of power. But now she wondered if there was more to Holgast. She started to realise that in the rare times that he did teach her something it was always in relation to whatever she had been studying in private. It was possible that it was just coincidence, or that he noticed books out from when she studied and decided to use them to teach her. But there was something about the way he spoke that made her suspect that he was not as absent minded as he acted.

Was it perhaps a key point of educating an apprentice? A way of forcing them to show initiative and the drive to learn while providing a safe and controlled environment to allow them to pursue their studies? If it was the intent then Holgasts method had been effective, Delde in her effort to learn something from her time in the tower had read almost all the books she could get her hands on. Would she have learnt more if she had a more structured education? Perhaps, but she personally preferred the freedom to study what she wanted when she wanted.

Onyx meowed loudly and pawed at the door to the kitchen.

‘Yes, I know, I’m coming. I’ll get breakfast for both of us then organise my spells for the day’.

She entered the cluttered kitchen and gave Onyx his morning meal in a small bowl, while she found some fruit and bread for herself. Then she returned to the main room on the bottom floor and went to the desk and comfortable padded chair that Holgast had given her and looked over her spell book. It was probably the newest book in the tower, with a bright red leather cover and clean crisp pages, the majority of which were still blank. An unblemished field ready for her to make her mark.

Delde had only just begun to truly understand the basis of magical theory and so she was limited to the most basic of spells, cantrips and spells of the first level. She hoped that making use of them in a practical environment would help her further her understanding. Holgast himself claimed to be a proponent of ‘real world’ applications of magic being the best form of education and encouraged Delde to look at the ‘Quest for the Everflame’ as an opportunity to test herself and what she had learnt so far.

She poured over it now, carefully selecting which spells she would prepare for the day. Unlike the rest of her family, who were sorcerers with an innate ability for magic, Delde was a wizard and could not simply cast magic on command. It took her time and effort to learn how to wield magic and part of that included a requirement to focus her mind and choose what spells she would want to cast for the day. In this early point in her training, she was limited to five cantrips, which were weak enough that she could cast repeatedly, and two spells of the first level, these she would be able to cast only once. It was something of a challenge to predict which spells she would need for the day ahead, so she took her time in her selection. By the time she had finished her preparations she could tell that it was almost time for her to go to the town square.

Delde collected her pack that contained all the clothes she felt she would need for the trip and gently placed a sleeping Onyx inside on top of her robes, closing the top but not clasping it shut to let him leave when he wanted. She had been told to pack light bringing only what clothes and other necessities she felt would be absolutely needed, she had been assured that she and the rest of her group would be provided with the equipment they needed for their ‘quest’.

Just as she was about to leave the tower Delde spotted something leaning in the corner of the room that she hadn’t noticed before. The only reason she took notice of it now was because she had tided this room yesterday and was certain that it wasn’t their yesterday. She went over to it and saw that it was a plain, but well make quarterstaff with a note like the one on the door attached.

‘TO DELDE

WHILE IT WOULD BE MORE TRADITIONAL FOR A FAMILY MEMBER TO GIVE A SMALL GIFT OR TOKEN PRIOR TO YOU UNDERTAKING YOUR QUEST (AND YES I USE THE TERM UNIRONICLY, WHILE YOU MAY NOT APPRECIATE IT NOW THIS RITUAL HAS BEEN A VITAL PART OF OUR TOWNS HISTORY SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN – WAIT, IM STARTING TO RAMBLE ARNT I?), I FEEL IT WOULD BE REMISS OF ME NOT TO GIVE MY APPRENTICE SOMETHING BEFORE SHE SETS OUT. AS I AM A PART OF THE COMMITY IN CHARGE OF ORGANISING THINGS I CAN’T BE SEEN TO GIVE YOU SPECIAL TREATMENT, BUT I FEEL THAT IT IS ONLY RIGHT THAT AS YOU SET OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A TRAINED WIZARD THAT YOU HAVE A STAFF AT YOUR SIDE. WHILE IT IS NOT MAGICAL IT WILL STILL HURT ANYONE YOU GIVE A GOOD WHACK WITH IT (ALTHOUGH I HAVE HEARD OF SOME EXTRODINARY THINGS SOME MONKS FROM TIAN XIA CAN – WAIT, I’M GETTING DISTRACTED AGAIN). I HOPE IT SERVES YOU WELL IN YOUR JOURNEY AND I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING HOW YOU IMPRESSED ALL OF THE OTHERS IN YOUR GROUP WITH YOUR MAGIC.

SINCERELY,

YOUR PROUD MENTOR,

HOLGAST

She looked over the, no her staff. It was made from a dark wood and polished until it was gleaming, capped at both ends with what looked to be bronze. Although Delde was in no way an expert in weaponry and she had no intention of ever wielding it in battle, it looked to her to be an excellent example of a staff and the perfect accompaniment for a wizard. She picked it up and left her mentors tower, trying and failing to supress her proud smile. It took her a little practice to get used to walking with it but by the time she reached the town square it felt comfortable enough.