“Being prepared is ninety percent of what being a mage is, you want to earn your name? Then you need to prove why you deserve to be called what you are. There are the eleven houses amongst the university each of which will have members amongst the spellswords. Outside of these houses are independant spellsword which have no real limit according to the university charter. In a sense I suppose its to promote the university itself over the individual houses themselves after there is a mark of pride having your own name made by you for you. Unless you plan on using a house like the Lightbringers to do some effective great thing, you’d best just start preparing now what magicks you wish to study, especially you short lived humans and orcs. There isn’t any harm in specialisation, we don’t condone lichdom for ethical reasons mostly due to the required amount of killing people to stay alive but there are plenty of ways to extend one's life beyond expectancy…” Rigar Tillbend, 1203, Magical Philosophy 101

                1509.04.21 Kestar, Varsh

Sally could hear the distant organised shouts of what she could guess was perhaps some kind of training exercise. Sally could feel the room was too hot, something about it made her sweat, the room was seemingly too dark to see as the young half elf could see anything. Sally was surprised as her usually sharp elven eyes could see in the darkest of places, she knew her hearing worked well enough as she could hear everything going on in the building around her.

  The walls must be thin as leaves!

Sally tried to get up and discovered she was on a mat on grass, panic started to settle in. when she couldn’t feel her left leg but something that felt like sunlight washed over her and there was rustling of tent flaps could be heard as well.

“Hey, look who's awake!” masculine voice belonging to no one familiar. Sally still knew it was directed at her judging from the voice’s direction.

“What happened to me? What happened to my eyes?” Sally felt her voice leave her, she had no idea what the rest of her surroundings were like. She knew she could smell the outside, there was an alkaline scent in the air as well as the soft russell of boots crunching across grass and straw.

  “You are among a handful of survivors of the merchant’s quarter evisceration, young lass you survived quite a lot. Do you know exactly what happened?” The figure seemed to be jotting something down quietly, Sally attempted to sit up a bit more and was only able to find some pole to lean against. “Careful! You wouldn’t want to take the tent down with you.”

  “Oh, sorry!” Sally propped one of her arms against the grass on the ground instead.

  “Second thought, let's get you something to sit in first the questions can come after.” In a moment there was nothing but a brush of air from the flap of the tent and the small gentle warmth of sunlight as the forbearing inquirer left. Sally attempted to sit up and try to stand anyways but found there wasn’t anything to stand on her left side.

  “Oh crap!” Sally fell face first in the grass and straw he’d retreated on, her skin began to itch as she fell into the dry grass. The flaps opened and signalled her apparent saviour’s return.

  “Lay still! You still have stitches on that side you foolish girl, I just got here with a sort of chair you can lean against while you heal. Most of the other cots are reserved for the army but survivor’s from fallow treatment are well within their rights to obtain one.” The voice had a tone of frustration to it.

  “I am Doctor Telgman, I and a few others, assistant mageling Saras, and other magical maladies specialist Doctor I’stal’Iphs G’Astel. We were able to restore functioning to most of your body but your eyes were too far gone with Fallow to recover them.” Sally understood that this doctor must’ve been some kind of elf judging from the naming convention and Doctor Telgman stumbling of words as he attempted to butcher the name itself.

  “I’m Sally of Atalar,” Sally couldn’t help but continue to try and blink

  My mother’s name is Ild’anis and that’s still hard to pronounce. That would make me under Ild’sall maybe if we were still in contact. Why can’t I remember what happened?

  Dr. Telgman helped Sally into the cot off of whatever they had ended up getting her to settle in.

  At least I am sitting up now.

  “Do you remember what happened in Fort Julius?” Dr. Telgman had an air of insistence.

  “Not really no, I remember working and then something happened. I felt as though I was melting but pain had left me. Instead now I can’t see,” Sally went to feel her face.

  “Oh! That's still healing lass you really shouldn't be touching your face.” Dr. Telgman moved closer in an attempt to stop Sally however she stopped.

  “I need to know what happened, why can’t I see?” Sally tried her best to not sound ungrateful but she couldn't hide the tone of worry and fear. Dr Telgman sighed deeply.

  “Look kid, I'll tell you truthfully and clearly, most adults aren’t going to be like this with you. Especially the elven community but you barely survived being consumed by a substance called fallow. The Ildrani used to quickly ‘clear’ walls and such.” The good doctor held much disdain in his tone.

  “Is there anything you can do?” Sally’s face felt a little emptier knowing she didn’t even have eyes to begin with anymore.

  “Without a compatible half elven donor we wouldn’t be able to graft you new ones with your body rejecting the new organs and with how little research there is in half elven pairings and physiology we aren’t exactly sure what we can do. Magical grafts that would work would be magical runes and they have consequences and won’t be the same as sight necessarily.” Dr. Telgman spoke at a daunting pace and it took Sally a moment of silence before she fully realised what he said.

  “So what would magical runes do to help me see?”

  “They wouldn’t let you be able to see so much as help you know what's around you, we would need to go to the Old Capital if we wanted to get that done. At the Imperial College of Medicine, there could be complications but with the procedure you avoid having to use more primitive methods of ‘seeing’ your surroundings.” There was something about Dr.Telgman’s suggestion that made Sally uncomfortable.

  Travelling so far from home? I don’t even know where to start in Julius let alone somewhere else? I can’t even see though, what is my life going to be like from now on?

  Sally started to feel a deep anger and loneliness.

  I wish Nico was here, he may be a bit of a desk goblin but he still would’ve had my back.

  “What are the risks? You said there might be complications.” Sally could tell her body had been lying on the ground for a while. The fear and adrenaline in her body finally dissipated and she could start to feel the real pains of her body start to filter in.

  “Well the runed stones that will take the place of your eyes are made of a rare material called Arcanium, its found near the leylines deep in the oceans and the ground of the land. It means that if you are near those leylines that the ‘sight’ you are granted could become quite overwhelming to your senses as well as the fact that Arcanium is not wholly stable and thus has to be depleted somewhat in order to make it function as it should and safe to stay in your former eye sockets. You will also know where leylines are whether you are near or far away from them. From the testing we have done so far we know you should also be able to tell those who are attuned to leylines as well.” Sally tried to keep up with the information, there seemed to be a lot to these new ‘eyes’.

   “Why me? Why do I get to have this operation?” Sally felt the doctor get uncomfortable as he started scratching something.

Stolen novel; please report.

  “Well it is experimental and expensive… The Empire is in the throes of war right now and we need strong people to continue the Empire and her legacy.” There was something else that the doctor wasn’t telling Sally but she could not quite discern what that might be.

  “When do we leave?” Sally tries to stretch the tightness in her back to no avail. The pain slowly aching and creeping along her back.

  “As soon as you are able we are in Vaellae right now in the field hospital outside the city, when you and the few others were recovered by the thirty-first Legate.” Dr. Telgman recited from some piece of paperwork in his hand. Sally felt that she couldn’t help but feel like a trapped animal and somehow in a ceaseless unending void. Speaking seemed to offer some semblance of where Sally was in the world at least, she knew when either her or the doctor spoke that she was in a tent of some sort that took the doctor no more than three strides for him to cross the tent to her. It was clear she was the only patient in this particular tent which made her think there must be some other reason as to why she was getting such special treatment.

  “I still don’t understand why you or even the Empire is even bothering though, surely others have survived Fallow before me.”

  “Nobody who has been brought back as well as you have, I promise you this is for the benefit of many, many fallow victims that this war and many others that this weapon will likely produce.” The doctor left something drop onto his clipboard.

  “That makes sense,”

  “Its also very tragic what happened to you, the military doesn’t exactly have the most compassion… Especially during a war, I need you to place your hand here.” Sally felt something appease in front of her.

  “What is it?”

  “Its a release form for your consent to be sent to the Imperial Medical Academy where you’ll be operated on and then we might be able some version of sight that you utilise. This is ground breaking research miss uhhh…. Sally, sorry I’ve seen a lot of patients today.” Sally felt that she could maybe trust the doctor.

  “When would we leave,” Sally attempted to feel around for a quill but could only find some kind of pointed device that left some of residue.

  “Tomorrow evening, that's when the next ship arrives from the Old Capital to drop off the Second Legion. We then take that ship, Posidon’s Trident, and we sail for half a week to the academy. From there on Dr. I’stal’Iphs G’Astel will be taking over the file and continuing the research and necessary augments in order for you to get walking again too.” Sally could still here the human stumble along the words though she knew she would fair no better, the tone of reverence was still very prevalent. In elvish you may know what a word or name sounds like but its still difficult to pronounce. Hyphen often create a soft ‘h’ sound and are used to break up words, Dr.Telgman repeated the name a few time before finally giving up on pronouncing it correctly.

  “For now I am saying Dr. Astel, that's her prefered name anyways.”

  “What do you mean?” Sally could feel the doctor stare at her.

  “My mother was elvish, Caellic elvish actually and they always shortened their family name and then go by that name instead.”

  “Huh? Noted!” The doctor then got the laf elven girl to scribble a signature in the right place and proceed to chat further about the expectations of sailing and what to try to prevent when it came to being blind on a boat.

___________________________________________________________________________

1509.04.21 Kestar, Varsh

  The Augustus Vin finally pulled into port after a few long weeks of travel, Nico could help but stare at the massive pillars around their ship. It was much colder down here below the entrance of the dry dock, electric blue runes inlaid into the walls surrounding them started to alight as the ship slowly crawled to a stop. Suddenly a similarly coloured beam carved into a seemingly innocuous recess in the stone comes blasting down light on the opposite side.

  “Look the water is receding?” Vick peered over the edge then realised the error in their observation.

  “We are rising?” Nico knew he didn’t need to correct Vick, it was more a tone of astonishment as the ship was being pulled out of the water in its specially carved holder.

  “Dwarven masons truly are amazing eh?” Captain Teratha stood with the two teens, stones being cut in such a way that individual pillars supported the underside of the watercraft and held the curvature of the boat itself. Nico ran to the crows nest to get a better view, the momentum of the boat moving made it surprisingly difficult for Nico to climb to the top and thus it took nearly twice as long. Exhausted Nico clambered up the last few steps to finally get a physical look at the docks of the famous Arcane University. Warmth and sun greeted Nico as he stared in paralyzed astonishment, there were about half a dozen dock workers waiting to unload the ship.

  “Oh wow look at this place.” Vick snuck up on Nico in his somewhat self paralyzed state. What seemed like walls in the distance was actually an aquifer, water being siphoned from the ocean itself and magic more then likely being used to filter out the salt from the water. A soft glow could be seen from the tops of each pillar, this particular dry dock had the emblems of the school of Necromacy embedded into the stonework of the walls and the floor. A simple skull with a white rose growing out one eye socket and a wilted dying black rose grown out of the other. Nico could see that the dock workers themselves also had very specific attire, bluish looking steel harness that followed the limbs of the workers in question. With them was a very stern looking dwarven man, tangled beard and dark shadows under his eyes, the dwarf had the attire of a mage instead of some of profession which Nico had expected.

  I suppose dwarves could be mages too, just hadn’t thought about it before.

  “The dwarf sure looks grumpy, definitely looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.” Vick snickered until Teratha lambasted them upside their head.

  “‘Nough of that, can’t have yee insulting a dwarf, ‘specially one that has my ship in such a precarious space.” Teratha motioned to the dry dock below, Nico hadn’t looked down yet but the ocean did seem rather far away for a fall let alone an entire ship.

  “I suppose we’ll be unloading soon?” Nico leaned back onto the bannister of the crow’s nest.

  “Aye we’ll be saying goodbyes soon lad but I have something for you,” Teratha started to rummage in her overcoat until she seemed satisfied with what she found. Then with a flourish the dwarven woman pulled out one of the two wands Nico used in the last week that had just passed.

  “As I have told yee ‘fore, both of those wand were my late husband’s things,” Teratha seemed to be holding something back, her hands tightly holding onto the wandfan itself.

  “This is now yours, I am keep’n the other one as a keepsake but the one should do fer now.”

  The captain then placed the wand in Nico’s hand, Teratha quickly let it go as soon as she knew Nico had a good grip on the wand itself. The dwarven woman had shed a single tear and she let it roll down her face.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Don’t be make’n me change my mind now boy, I might take you up on that and you’ll be need’n that I can tell.” Teratha put a reassuring hand on Nico’s shoulder. “We be need’n more wizards like you an’ my husband in the world lad.”

Nico couldn’t help but stare at the wand now, it had very clearly gone through some polishing because there were careful wearmarks that he hadn’t noticed before. There were faint swirls of Caellic Elven calligraphy that Nico couldn’t understand but they seemed to run up every single blade of the wandfan. Adorned with faint little flowers and had mostly worn away from use, Nico knew that this was a lot more detailed than what he initially gave it credit for.

  “Its beautiful!” Nico turned the wandfan over and over in his hands, trying to see all of the old markings the device had.

  “Should’ve see it in it’s hay day, everything embedded there lad used to be adorned in silver but alas.” The captain’s voice trailed off, she looked at Nico fondly and another tear started to fall.

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” Nico had no words, his heart ached for the captain but he felt so excited to be in possession of not only his first wand but such an intricately designed piece.

  “You can thank me by make’n sure you don’t be hurt’n folks that don’t deserve it,” Teratha had a grim look on her face as tears started to pour down more readily.

  “Is everything alright captain?” Nico put the wandfan in his belt pouch.

  “I’ve never seen you like this m-, captain.” Vick cleared their throat.

  “My husband was a good man, a good elf too, too good fer dis world,” Teratha wiped away the onslaught of sorrow and grief. “We used to smuggle kids out of Elantra back in 1350s, I met ‘im while I was delivering supplies to Alghast during the last vestiges of the last war. We’d been stuck in port for weeks while he was impersonating a dockmaster and orders a bunch of slaves to be transported on my ship. Oh I hated him in that moment, then slavery was legal and what the Elantrans were doing was for the Empire and they were known as the Southern Imperial Protectorate.”

  “He be’n an elf ‘imself made the venture much easier of course and my anger only helped ‘im keep ‘is cover. It was only when we were finally well and able to leave port that he revealed what that mad man was truly up to.” Teratha’s voice shook with certainty, her hands now more still and the tears barely flowed. “That man and I saved about forty souls that day. We played that gambit to save as many as we could making trips across the endless ocean to Red Rock, eventually we even adopted one of them, the first one to call me mah.”

Vick and Nico’s eyes started tearing up now, Teratha had new tears as well though she held her composure.

  “That’s why I think it's best that Vick goes with yay, its clear to me that I can’t keep my da-, my child goes with yah, I am going to be talking to a headmaster here and get you set up as well Vick. I know I haven’t been the best mother, I have been harsh and cruel at times and I have entirely shut you out when you be need’n me most but when Adam was killed, executed for such injustice… I couldn’t be baring to look at you like I used to, I am sorry Vick an’ this wand will be for you when I know I can handle bein’ without yer father’s spirit any longer.” The sounds that could now be heard were the jovial shouts from below, dockworkers using their metal harnesses that started to glow with faint rune magic that allowed their users to carry three or four crates at a time. Nico leaned back as Vick and Teratha embraced each other.

  “Mah I-, I don’t know what to say, I always knew Adam was my father but I hadn’t realised just where I was from and why I was so different from you guys. I thought that maybe you guys found my real parents but something happened when Dah died?” Vick pushed Teratha back lightly and the dwarf released them.

  “Aye we sailed further west after we dropped off the freed peoples in the Bao Jang region, Justicars caught our vessel but they were only interested in your Dah.” Teratha seemed to take an odd comfort in saying the title. “He saved us, made us… Forget ourselves I guess though its still a bit fuzzy for me, I was so angry when he took that bullet but I know now why he did. I thought it was to be a stupid self sacrficing martyr but nay…. Nay it was to save his only child from a fate worst then death Vick. you need to be careful in the world Vick, you might not know this but you Dah was yer real father. I am yer Mah but… I didn’t be bringin’ you to the world, that was a dark elf of ill repute that yee must be staying away from. She’s an evil creature that be bringing pain and suffering to those how be mettin’ her. And that goes doubly for you Nico, yer both half breeds of a different sort. Vick you are half Saesean Elf and half Caellic Elf, and Nico I have no idea what your parentage is but it certainly isn’t pure Ashokian. Your skin takes to sun like a fish takes to water, if I be a betting lass I’d say yee father be from Acirfae deep in the north west of the Frozen Forests.”

  Silence overtook that moment, the unloading didn’t seem to take long, finally goodbyes were said, more tears flowed much more freely. Nico and Vick departed the dock but not before seeing the ship lowered safely and its tiny wooden silhouette was nothing more than a dot in the horizon.