MagiStream

The woman handed over the last of her gold to the wagon driver, who accepted the payment an unsettling grin of mockery on his face. She was certain he had over charged her, that there ought to be some sort of discount for bump-shaken bones and a pounding headache. If it wasn't for the fact that nobody else in Ageti had been willing to bring her to this apparently forsaken part of the world, she might have attempted to argue the point. Instead she merely watched tiredly as he trundled back towards the city, the beasts (//species tbc//) hooves and rickety wheels churning up a cloud of dust. Suddenly reminded of her own dusty state - and an aching need to wash, eat and rest - the woman picked up her bags and eyed the cobbled track branching off the road.

The forest had made substantial efforts in reclaiming the area, so much so that no cart nor even a mount (//species tbc//) could make it through. Grunting as she forced her way through the grasping tangle, she resisted the bitter doubt-laced thoughts that threatened to take hold. The decision had been made, and she was here now. Second guessing the decision wasn't going to make her any less weary, or any less scratched, bruised and filthy. Ten minutes struggle later and the woman finally emerged victorious from the forest's grasp, her track opening out into a weed covered cobblestone yard and beyond it the place that would be her new home.

It wasn't much to look at, but then what could one expect when inheriting a castle from a elderly relative you didn't know you had. Castle? That had been the the name on the deed, glittering golden ink declaring her the new owner of Oakfall Castle and the surrounding land for (//insert suitable distance once I figure out what the site uses//). What lay before her had clearly once been an elegant keep, if the vine-laced skeletons of towers and walls were anything to go on, situated atop a small rise with a backdrop of dark green canopy and the Me'chuan peaks. An old apple orchard could be seen to the left, nearly completely taken over by the forest, and through the crumbled break in the wall she could see the wild overgrown chaos of a once-beautiful garden. From the right came the chatter of a fast flowing water, a snow-melt fed stream which would eventually find it's way down to the plains and eventually the Great Tagg river. The woman recalled it being labelled in the deed as Apple Brook, a quaint name for something so seemingly untamed.

Abandoned and passed between generations of increasingly indifferent owners, the ruin had a hushed sombre aura feel to it. Like it was waiting for something, or someone, to breath life back into the cracked weathered stones. The thoughtful frown on the woman's face slowly morphed into a smile as her imagination stripped away the crumbled debris and encroaching vegetation to reveal all the potential the ruins of Oakfall Castle presented. Reaching into her robes she pulled out a piece of parchment, creased and crumpled, and opened it to read her great great aunt's letter once more.

(//this letter will probably be rewritten at some point//)

To Elizabeth Corcull - Ageti Minor College (//need to work out if this is a place//),
Elizabeth, I suggest you read this letter in a comfortable private place, preferably seated if at all possible. I am about to give you news that, I expect, will be shocking, but hopefully well received. You no doubt have often wondered about your family, my sources informing me that you were raised in an orphanage in the city, living off the streets until a college magi noticed you possessing untrained magical talent. Whilst I am glad that chance ensured you eventually received training in the arcane arts, I am sorry that your early life was spent alone and without the education deserving of one of our blood. For you were not born Elizabeth Corcull of the streets of Ageti. You are Viviette Chloe Wrytrust, youngest descendant of a magical family as old as the first magi of this world.

Your father was Gordon Wrytrust, my nephew and a magi of the highest laurels, (//insert more about him later I don't know enough about the site and world yet oops//). He was raised by myself and my brother following the death of his wife. Gordon was a charming and inspired magical talent who fell in love with a notable poet, your mother Calendra. It was in your first year of birth that your father and mother were taken from us in a tragic accident, a fire ripping through the northern sectors of Ageti. Believing you to have perished with your parents, my brother and I made the foolish decision not to search for you. Twenty years passed and my brother followed his son and wife to the other side, falling ill to the same plague that took your grandmother from him. In my grief and perhaps driven by an interfering thread of fortune, I visited a fairgrounds fortuneteller with the intent of conversing with my dear brother. It was this woman, a foul smelling cackling creature, who informed me that I was not alone. That in the chaos of the fire my nephew's daughter was rescued and then delivered a nearby orphanage.

It has taken me near a decade to track you down, and as such things go I am afraid that my success is marred by the fact that I will not be able to meet my last surviving relative in person. Would it be possible, I would prefer to tell you of your father and of your lineage in person. Yet here I am with mere days remaining to me, and so I commit this to ink and entrust it to my faithful servant for delivery. By the time these words are read by you, I am sorry to say, dear Viviette, that you will be the sole remaining Wrytrust magi.

With this letter I send a package holding the family seal and documentation pertaining to your inheritance of all remaining fortune. The man who delivers this letter and package to you has been in my employ for half a century. He is a crafty old weasel but loyal to a fault. I've instructed him to take care of you, and to serve you as he has me. You can trust him and rely on him. All property owned by our family has since been liquidated and is held within accounts at the Triathe Bank, with the exclusion of a particular holding. Oakfall Castle was built centuries ago by a Wrytrust member whose name has long been lost to time. I myself have never visited the place, but I entrust it's keeping to you and hope that it might become to you a home.

In final parting I send you my love and regrets. By all accounts you've grown into a fine magi and I believe you will do the family line proud.

With care and compassion
Your great aunt,
Trilda Wrytrust.

Following her year at Oakfall Castle she takes on the name given her at birth. Viviette Chloe Wrytrust. Events after this point will use this name rather than Elizabeth.

Setting notes: stony alchemist's rooms beneath The Keep.
One of these days her curiosity was going to be the end of her, of that Viviette was certain. It wasn't often that she traveled to the Keep, and even more rare was a venture down to seek an audience with Mordecai. But she needed gold for her own research and running errands for other magi was a reasonably reliable way to earn it. At least she hoped she was going earn money for this. If the cretin tried to pay her with some sort of mystery potion again she was going to seriously displeased.

The task itself was a problem. Scowling, Viviette glared at the rippling surface of the koi pond, trying to think of an affordable way to collect four eggs. Lacking a better plan, the magi sighed and tossed 15gold into the water and waited hopefully. A few minutes passed and not so much as a guppie broke the surface. "This isn't going to work."