Summer Vacation is Over!
The summer passed relatively uneventfully for our heroes. For Sylas, he spent time trying to avoid thinking about his heritage he had recently learned about. As such he focused himself on his guard duties and in turn becoming a better leader because of it. His swordsmanship skills also improved and unbeknownst to his friends, he learned a new spell from Bjark. On his one day off a week, he usually spent it painting. Luckily for him, Sorgusa is beautiful in the summer. Grainne, meanwhile, also worked on her painting, but couldn’t ever really focus herself to actually improve much. Regardless, there are a lot of pieces of driftwood that if you squint hard enough can imagine there being a seascape painted upon them. Hours were spent with Adarte renovating the temple, cleaning out the old giant rat’s nest, and cataloging the old scrolls that were found. She would often take her siblings in the afternoon swimming when they reached the point of driving their parents nuts. Most evenings were spent at one of the taverns, telling stories and hearing stories of visitors that would come through. More importantly, with her new fascination of mermaids, wrote a letter to Liliana in Paradise Cove.
Eldaria spent the rest of spring and early summer going to the strapalot patch encouraging it to grow and spending time with the farmsteads on the outskirts of Sorgusa being friendly with the farmers and herders. Many an evening was spent writing letters to her old goblin friend, Guuj’bo’tin, who with funds from Grainne made them a new bow. The bow was crafted to look like vines and leaves, but he enchanted it for his friend so that they would not miss. Many mornings, at least until the worst of the summer heat, was spent on the family fishing boat with her brother trying to convince him that they will be fine in Temparat, really convincing no one. El made sure all the nets were fixed, at least for the fall oyster harvest. A week or so before the end of summer, they made sure they had a new haircut.
The two boars, Carver and Currie were given the opportunity to be wild boars once again, but honestly they had learned to kind of like being around humans. Though the current human, Elzy, seemed to be nicer and let them roam and eat and did not make them do too much work. Plus he seemed to be able to talk to him. They found it weird, but why would they want to go back and be a normal boar. So over the summer, this human taught them a couple of new tricks, including being scruffleshroom hunters, which allowed the human Elzy to sell for shiny baubles for the rare moments when he needed to repair his clothes or to replace a pot. The boars would watch Elzy most mornings working on his sword work while munching on nuts and tubers they scrounged for. They remember the past humans swinging around similar objects, but they clearly didn’t look as skilled as Elzy did. For a few weeks, Carver and Currie had to fend for themselves, as Elzy and that flying creature went away. Apparently they were looking for someone named Marbin “Jack” Flyntella to have him keep an eye out for another human named Rynne that they met in one of the towns up north on the other side of the large lake. That was their first boat ride and though scary at first, they remember it now fondly. Still humans looking for other humans just sounded so complicated to Carver and Currie. Apparently one evening in town, they could hear that Elzy discussed the dealing of the not nice human Rynne with a much nicer human named Bjarke. Bjarke would always give a nice pile of vegetable scraps for them whenever Elzy would spend the evening getting very wobbly. The innkeeper seemed alarmed, because apparently only their human survived some disaster upon a large lake.
On a beautiful fall day, Savorat Huyn, one of the older students at the Arcane Order came into town on a wagon with two other students in tow. They learn over the course of the three days they stay in Sorgusa, that Savorat is a rising star in Weather Magic at the school, having already graduated in the Spring as member of the Order of the Gryphon. His Arcane Order of Temparat insignia brooch holding his cloak having had been embossed on the back with this creature. Sylas learned one afternoon when Savorat was invited to the keep for a proper luncheon with the Lady Mourava and few of the more prosperous members of Sorgusa, including Nuno and Carina, that his family owned the majority of the copper mines around Golan to the north. During that luncheon they always asked how his mother was doing, given that she ran the Golan Mining Company and is one of the wealthiest merchants in northern Tempore. What was left unsaid was that Savorat’s father left when his was a young lad and he feels like he has to prove himself to the world.
The other two students hailed from Vilhana one of the settlements along the road north of Sorgusa. These twins were the youngest of a minor silversmith family that Grainne’s parents have traded with in the past and some of their wares could be found at the newly re-named Hor’gh’s General Store. Their older brother is slated to inherit the family business, so perhaps it was by the will of the gods that the sisters both discovered they could cast magic. Though not the richest family in the region by jar, they were clearly are well off enough to send two children for proper magical training. Grainne immediately became infatuated with them, and completely missed that both of them could cast magic. They definitely bickered and got on each other’s nerves, but Eldaria was able to notice that their magic wasn’t very strong when separated, but got much stronger when they were together. Serafina, with blue and white hair, frequently would make small cubes of ice to cool her drinks down, while Aldina, would often use a small burst of flame to heat up her drinks to keep them from cooling down.
The reality of leaving this small town, perhaps permanently, finally hit home, as the heroes had just a couple of days left to pack up everything they would need in chests provided in the wagon. Clothes, weapons and armor, and the like were all hastily gathered and prepared. Elzy made sure to get some salted fish from Nuno’s Barrels and Salt, incase he would run into a bear along the way. He felt very unprepared the last time this happened. Eldaria went out on one last fishing trip with her brother Remy. He was very proud of her, and so was their mother, though she had a harder time expressing it. She tried to hold in tears when Eldaria got her last hug, but she didn’t succeed. Grainne’s family were sad to see her go, but also, it was time. More room in their small house for the rest of the family was desperately needed. Sylas, ended up letting a secret out of the bag to Eldaria that he can in fact cast magic, though he only knows a couple of spells. In his mind, especially with uncomfortable news about his heritage, if he’s using magic, he feels like he has failed.
The ride to Temparat was very uneventual, but it took almost four days by wagon as long the main road, it was about 125 miles from Sorgusa. And for those such as Grainne, and especially Eldaria who had never been to a big city, it felt huge. Elzy, though not particularly fond of cities, had docked in Temparat more than once during his time as a sailor. At least in port he was a sailor, others might have called him a pirate once he was upon the ocean waves.
As they approached the capital of Tempore, they first came to the outskirts known as The New City. The prosperity of the last 70 years or so has caused the city to grow and now the New City numbers at least 10,000 residents, many of whom can live almost their entire lives without entering the gates to the city proper. Once they entered through the main gates, they entered the Prosperous Fish District, passing by all the shops and markets selling any good imaginable. From there they could have turned left to the District of a Thousand Huts, but instead headed towards the District of the Sun and Waves. Here the Arcane Order campus resides among many temples and shrines, along with many noble or merchant family mansions. From the campus they can see the castle where Queen Fillappa resided, looming down upon the entire city. Towards the see they could see on an island just off shore the largest temple to Farlun in on the continent, the Temple of the Broken Waves.
Savorat led everyone, including the twins and heroes of our story to a tent where they could check in. From there they were, they were escorted by second year students to their respective dormitories. Sylas was shown to a suite, with rooms adjacent to Savorat. Though not exclusive to him, Sylas found out that he was also given a valet to aid him in any additional needs he might have. It was a weird, and slightly uncomfortable moment for Sylas who had not yet come to terms with his status in society as a knight of the realm. Grainne, meanwhile, was shown to where the majority of students reside, often in groups of two or three or if there are lots of students in a particular year, as many as four. She discovered that her roommates were going to be the twins (Serafina and Aldina). Elzy and Eldaria were shown to a relatively exclusive floor of the dormitory where those few students who focus on nature magic often reside. Even with Elzy and Eldaria, there were only seven students at that time, including those who are working on advanced degrees, residing on this floor. But both of them were amazed as they walked in and saw a forest on one end with a savannah between that and what looked like a rainforest on the far end of the large room. Coming towards them was a large black panther who as it approached turned into a woman. She introduced herself as Akosua and they realized that she was perhaps a Feral Human. Elzy quickly set up a hammock and felt at home immediately, as well as Harvee, Currie, and Carver. Eldaria just stared at everything in awe.
After a couple of days, allowing the students to set in and wander around, they are met by Professor Teo Braga, who has for 50 years taught the introduce to magic courses for all new students, to understand the structure of the school and to aid them in picking their electives, though for the first semester they only get to pick one. Sylas choose the Magic of Movement 101 with Professor Boreira, Elzy chose Beasts and How to Tame them 111, so he can perhaps learn how to control Vermin better. The Ice Scorpions still lingered as a bad memory. Eldaria was having a hard time choosing between Alchemy and Potions 101 or Culinary Magic 131.
The first week was a blur, but they did remember Professor Braga’s insistence on getting even a basic spell right. That first spell they learned was Diver’s Blessing on how to hold their breath. It wasn’t until the end of the week they were even allowed to cast the spell and dip their heads into giant cauldrons of water. They were surprised by one student they didn’t expect to see. Aline Flyntella. One could see a moment of jealousy in Aldina’s eye, as Aline mastered Diver’s Blessing faster than any other student.
The World of Lycretia 