The field trip to the dungeon had been novel, educational, and tiring, but the two prizes that the children won on the [floating stairs] brought more changes than did the experience itself. A fully verbal Artaxes made things both more straightforward and more challenging between Bup and his bird. By gaining the power of human speech, the eagle gained greater independence than he'd had since the two had been magically bonded, and his pride lost some of its endearing quality. Only after several altercations with Bup's mother did the bird's haughty tone lose some of its edge.
Lissa's breakthrough with the [umbral thread of dull sensation] led to more discoveries. She also verified through experimentation that she would need to search for physical fiber that corresponded to a fundament in order to recreate a known spellform as an enchantment. After a few days, she finally shared her discovery with her aunt, and Igmi's response surprised Lissa. The [spinner] bustled to the back room and returned with what remained of an old sample of pale moss-green fiber that Zharim I had given them when they first arrived here. The [caravanner's nettle] was aligned with the [life, flora] fundament. Lissa took the gift with excitement over what she could learn.
Lissa thought that what she had learned about spinning fundaments with fiber was just the proverbial leaf of the tuber, and that she had much more to discover. To that end, she approached the city's elven [archivist], Shlei'alan, looking for anything she could find about enchantments. With very little encouragement, Lissa explained that what she really wanted was to create things like the Lost Treasures. The bespectacled woman's response was inscrutable as usual, but she was able to procure permissions for Lissa to access a few items from the publicly-restricted section of the archive. Lissa wasn't allowed to physically remove any items from within the restricted section, however, so she was required to use a special study room.
She learned little more from the documents that she read. One of them, though, was a fiber-pedia, and contained a small section on fibers known to be aligned with certain fundaments. Aside from the two already in her possession, none listed grew nearby, but maybe her mother or aunt could ask with the merchants' caravan when it next came through.
Occasionally, Lissa would pass the handsome, but extremely shy [prince] Ezharim, who was only a couple months older than her, as the [archivist] escorted her to and from her study room. Even more occasionally, he made eye contact with her, as she walked past, and looked away just as quickly, and Lissa thought she could see his nearly-black cheeks darken further. At such rare moments, Lissa's face lit up as it became a bit of game to her to smile mischievously at him before the incredibly bashful prince looked away.
Lissa had heard that the [king] was in negotiations with a [queen] to marry for a political alliance, and wondered what he thought of that. Eventually, Ezharim began to reciprocate her friendliness, and within a few weeks, she asked, with all the delicate grace of the 9-year-old child of a [shepherd] what he thought about his dad marrying someone besides his mom. To even his own surprise, Ezharim answered her honest curiosity. As elvenkin, his mom didn't want to get married at all ever, so he wasn't concerned for his parents' relationship, but he really didn't want anyone new living in their home. Lissa agreed that that would be very hard for someone like the shy [prince], who had taken years of hellos before he would even have a conversation with her. From then on, she tried to time her visits to the archive to when she thought the handsome Ezh would be there.
----------------------------------------
As the seasons changed, the days grew long under the summer sun. As fall approached and her two human pupils approached the earliest typical age for their coming-of-magic, Mistress Glee began instructing them on the basics of profession selection. Bup's middle brother, Cammind, had started as an [apprentice lapidary] the year before, but Bup hadn't see how profession selection actually happened. Mistress Glee explained that they could pick any apprentice profession they wanted provided they could find a master with at least an adjacent profession to apprentice under, or they could strike out on their own, which would eventually produce a profession with a [wilding] designation. These [wilding] professions were unpredictable and both stronger and weaker than the more established professions. Hybrid or 'umbrella' professions were also possible, especially if someone apprenticed under multiple masters.
One thing that Mistress Glee pointed out was that nearly all professions eventually provided some options for self-defense. Drust's [shepherd] profession gave him skill with both sling and staff, and Mistress Glee suspected that Tecka's skill with shears extended beyond shearing sheep. To her knowledge, only professions that required an oath of non-violence didn't provide some kind of weapon or combat skill. So far as anyone knew professions never gave bonuses to base attributes, but occasionally granted special attributes. Mistress Glee said that it was also likely that Lissa's [precocious] attribute that had allowed her to learn magic faster, would transform into a different special attribute when she took on a profession.
Bup began losing his ageteeth as Mistress Glee instructed them on professions, and he lost his last agetooth in the early spring, two months after his 10th birthday. Lissa, roughly two months older than him, had not lost a single one. Within days, his coming of magic opened both magical and professional options for him, much to Lissa's annoyance and Bup's smug satisfaction. He had enjoyed studying under Mistress Glee, but he was excited to begin an official apprenticeship under his uncle Drust, Lissa's [shepherd] father.
After some discussion, all parties decided that Lissa's formal education with Mistress Glee would conclude, and she would return to learning her family's textile trades. Even without the ability to unlock a profession, she had shown great aptitude for craftsmanship and gained significantly more maturity than the first time she had learned from her aunt Igmi. This time though, she didn't want to learn only aunt's trade; she wanted to learn everything she could about how garments were made from seed to satin to sashing. That year, she was even allowed to help with harvesting the fiber grown on the farm in [Hidden Glade].
The following spring, after Lissa's 11th birthday, the [king] married the foreign [queen] Alabashca. A holiday was declared for her coronation, and all the people of Etoleem were compelled to attend. Lissa's family weren't able to get close enough to see her in much detail, but they brought a gift of their finest wool scarves dyed to match the [king] and [queen]'s new colors—copper and rich periwinkle.
Also that spring, Lissa finally lost her first agetooth. It was so frustrating for her to wait, but what could she even do? In the middle of her 11th summer, when Lissa was closer to 12 years old than 11, she finally lost her last agetooth. Weeks later, on the very last day of summer, while weaving at a loom, she had what would have been for another child a coming-of-magic. Instead of the symphony of overlapping voices that she had heard at her true coming-of-magic, she heard only once voice, the same gentle female voice she'd heard just after the multitude had spoken.
"Impatient and ambitious child, prepare yourself. I will help you find what you seek. Forget not my gift."
My bracelet. The thought hit her like stampeding [lowephant]. What had happened to her grey bracelet? She hadn't seen it since she'd forced her coming-of-magic nearly half of her life before, and she had no memories of taking it off. When she brought it up at dinner that evening, her mother sheepishly remarked that she had taken it that night to help reduce Lissa's sensory overload, and then she had honestly forgotten about it. They found the bracelet late that evening at the very back of her mother's nightstand's drawer.
Sternly admonished to examine the bracelet thoroughly in the morning, Lissa actually obeyed, and did not stay up late into the night to discover what she could. Very early the next morning, when even the summer sun was just a faint suggestion of light on the horizon, a single resounding knock woke the small family. Drust blearily walked to the door, and found his oldest nephew, the lean-muscled, 16-year-old Falton holding a scroll out in front of him. The ever-present silvery [oath bead] was bound about his wrist.
Seeing his uncle still fully in his night-clothes, he rubbed the back of his head with one hand, and said apologetically, "Sorry to wake you so early, Uncle. Orders. You, Tecka, and Lissa are ordered to appear before his majesty in two hours."
----------------------------------------
The Brightglenns had visited the [king]'s forest garden only once a year at the winter solstice festival since their initial private audience when they had arrived in Etoleem. Even so, the glow of [aware trees] around them was incredibly familiar as Lissa and her parents walked down the stair that spiraled down the edge of the clearing. The trunks of the enormous glowing oaks, poplars, and alders lined the edge of the clearing, and their branches formed the stairway they walked down. Fluffy clouds lined with morning's golden glow soared high overhead in the sapphire sky visible through the perfectly circular gap in the thick forest canopy. At the bottom of the long stairway waited her cousin Falton and another attendant. Once Lissa's parents stepped off the wooden stairs onto the moss-covered earth behind her, Falton saluted the attendant and led them into the garden maze. As always, it smelled heavenly.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
No matter how many times they had walked through the garden before, Lissa never saw anything she recognized within. The path was never the same on the way in as the way out, and she didn't think she ever saw the same plants twice. Falton whistled a clearly meaningful cadence of notes after they'd been walking for a few minutes. After a moment's pause, the answering whistle seemed to come from behind them, and Falton led them in a short, tight arc and through a thick, soft-leafed hedge into their audience with the king.
This was not the same intimate clearing in which they'd first had an audience with the king, nor was it the large entertainment space that the solstice festivals were held in. Instead, this space felt uncomfortably formal. Two imposing thrones dominated the dais at the far end from where they had entered. Everything that she could see seemed to draw the eye toward those thrones; the branches of the blooming trees seemed to reach toward the royals, and the mossy ground had been carefully planted to create the impression of a carpeted pathway leading to the seated regal figures awaiting their audience.
As Lissa took in the scene, she noticed more figures than just the [king] at the far end of the large, circular space. In a silver throne on the imposing raised dais, sat the onyx-complexioned human [king], Zharim I. In the copper throne at his right hand, the unfamiliar and hauntingly lovely figure of a bronze-skinned human woman sat stiffly beside him. This must be the new [queen], Lissa thought. Both wore shiny silk garments that exposed their midriffs and covered their shoulders that were accented with periwinkle. The [king]'s voluminous pants cinched at his ankles, while the [queen]'s many layers of gauzy silks flowed freely over her long graceful legs.
Even as the daughter of a skilled [tailor], Lissa felt under-dressed looking at them. It took her another moment to realize that she recognized the three others that were also here: Ezh the [prince] and his mother Tri Twilliwig were tucked into much smaller thrones behind the [king]'s throne at his left hand. Lissa hadn't seen Ezh but once or twice since she'd ended her tutelage under Mistress Glee a year and a half prior. The handsome boy was entering the gangliness of adolescence, and she smiled in spite of her nervousness before the king. Ezh, however, out of his father's view, looked absolutely miserable both to be awake and in front of an audience this early; he refused to make eye contact. His mother, willowy and beautiful as always, looked bored.
The final person in the room, besides the royal family and her own family members was an elven woman she knew well: Shlei'alan, the stern royal [archivist], stood beside a small table in front of the dais off to Lissa's right, positioned so as not to stand in front of Ezh and his mother. From what Lissa could make out at this distance, she held a scrollcase in her hands.
Intrigued, Lissa walked with her parents behind Falton as he led them toward the dais. When they were about three man-heights from the seated royals, Falton halted, and knelt before the [king], bowing deeply.
"My liege, I present Drust, Tecka, and Mellissa Brightglenn as you requested," her cousin's voice announced.
Lissa and her parents bowed as he spoke, and waited for Zharim I to address them before they stood again.
"As sovereigns of this kingdom, we greet you. Rise," the [king]'s deep baritone and the [queen]'s high alto intoned formally.
The three Brightglenns did so, and Tecka began to shuffle nervously.
"I have called you here today to celebrate yesterday's auspicious occasion of Mellissa's non-tradition coming-of-magic and to make a proposal. Shlei'alan, if you would." Zharim I motioned to the [archivist] who indeed held a scrollcase in gloved hands.
How did the king even know that she'd gained full access to professions the previous afternoon, Lissa wondered. Her parents must have wondered the same thing, since they exchanged a nervous glance, as the archivist responded to the [king]'s instruction.
The elven woman placed the scrollcase on the table beside her and very carefully withdrew an absolutely ancient scroll. Parts of it crumbled under her touch, and Lissa saw the [archivist]'s magic, a pale yellow thing nearly the same color as the scroll, reach out and reinforce the document's physical structure as she unrolled a small portion of it.
She held it up to read and glanced over the top edge of the document, giving Lissa the barest of smiles before she began to speak. Lissa's eyes were locked onto the elven [archivist], and Lissa didn't notice that all eyes on the dais were fixated on her.
"When a new [king] arises, on occasion, the gods will give a gift in accordance with the [king]'s request. His majesty Zharim I prayed for the lost history of the kingdom he had reestablished. When the archive was established here, extra scrolls were found among those the [king] had procured for its shelves. This scroll was one of those extras, a relic from a former time. We estimate it to be more than 1000 years old."
After her short preamble, the [archivist] began to read:
"This is the sworn testimony of Watches-The-Sea, daughter of Lights-Treacherous-Reefs, as recorded by Webs-Always-Stained, chief [scrivener] to his imperial majesty [Emperor] Earned-His-Laurels, son of her radiance [Queen] Salt-Blessed-Hands, daughter of the conqueror [Emperor] Soars-Under-Moonlit-Waves, son of... "
[King] Zharim I cleared his throat, and Shlei'alan, with very well contained but clear irritation, skipped over the lengthy genealogy and the long appellations after it.
"'I hereby swear on my magic by the name of the goddess Amhalean that one fortnight past, I found, washed up upon the rocks beneath the lighthouse, the half-dead bodies of five youths. We learned upon their waking they hail from the merchant fleet venturing South on the sea two years pasttide who have never returned. My father and I brought them into our home and have nursed them hitherto. Their unfamiliar professions are [wilding] professions all, and they claim to recollect nothing of the two years lost other than the first fortnight of their sea voyage and a sudden horrible storm wall that spanned the whole horizon. They bear on their persons strange tattoos and magical objects of material, power, and utility I cannot [identify]. These treasures they use without conscious thought to perform all manner of magics unknown to me.'"
Lissa's breath hitched and her whole self resonated with the word 'treasures' that Shlei'alan has purposefully emphasized. A small part of her wondered how long the inscrutable glorified librarian had known about this document? Lissa had told her years ago that she wanted to try to make things like the lost treasures, and she'd never said anything. The larger, louder, more hyper-focused part of Lissa though, squashed those errant thoughts until after Shlei'alan was finished reading the ancient account.
"Here ends the testimony of Watches-The-Sea. The five youths have been taken into the [Emperor]'s palace to receive the finest memory care available. The five have been momentarily relieved of their powerful burdens, which have been given to the [imperial scholars] to study. Initial findings indicate they are made from materials heretofore unknown to the empire and bear high-order enchantments of unknown construction methods."
Shlei'alan paused her reading for a moment to skip over the next section, and said, "This entry is from three months later:
"'The Five Enchanters, as we have taken to calling them, still recall very little of what occurred in their two lost years, despite the expense and effort put into their treatment. What can be known for certain is that they passed through the horrible storm and arrived at a distant, unfamiliar shore on a vast and vivacious land. They did what they needed to survive, which brought about their yet unknown professions. Before they left, their professions were [apprentice beast-tamer], [apprentice apothecary], [apprentice weaver], [knights squire], and [apprentice bard]. The new professions they possess have no recorded precedent in our annals: [wilding hextanner], [wilding alchemist], [wilding worldweaver], [wilding spellwright], and [wilding spheresinger] respectively.
"'As the scholars teach, memory has a strange effect on professions, and I have included several reports of the Five Enchanters using a professional skill without conscious intent, but they cannot perform the task when asked to do so. It seems perhaps that the [wilding alchemist] is beginning to regain some of his memories, and the ability to use some of his professions skills.'"
The [archivist] looked up from her scroll, which obviously bore more details, and Lissa took every ounce of self-control she had ever gained to keep her feet planted where they were.
The [archivist] had concluded her reading and very carefully rerolled the scroll, keeping a tight rein on her spell that reinforced the document until the entire artifact was once again nestled securely within its case. She gave a deep, formal bow to the royals on the dais before exiting the audience garden unaccompanied, scrollcase under one arm.
Lissa realized she was unconsciously reaching out for the [archivist] as she walked away, and thus failed to notice the almost predatory gleam that had entered the [king]'s eyes.
The [king] resumed the narrative where his [archivist] had left off, and Lissa's attention snapped back to the dais. "Obviously, we have [alchemists] in the world now, so that [wilding alchemist] must have regained enough of his memories to train an apprentice. But, alas, there are no [hextanners] or [spellwrights] and there are certainly no [worldweavers]."
The tall [king] leaned forward in his silver throne, speaking to Lissa directly, "It has come to my attention, Mellissa May Brightglenn, that you wish to reforge the Lost Treasures..."
There was nothing else in the world beyond the [king]'s expression. He wasn't asking a question, but Lissa practically vibrated with affirmation, nodding in stunned compliance.
Zharim I looked down at that 12-year-old girl and knew, he *knew* she would pursue this course if he put it in front of her.
Tecka and Drust both instinctively sensed the lupine hunger in the [king]'s words, and protectively gathered around their precious lamb.
The silver-crowned, silver-tongued sovereign opened his perfectly formed mouth.
"I'm going to make that happen."