Prologue: My Origins.
Tabitha Trevelyan ran as fast as she could with the sack and large stick slung over her back. She turned back, looking at her home for the last time. The farm, laying perfectly between Lothering and Redcliff, looked empty in the morning light. She was happy to leave. Hard labor was not for her. No, becoming a mage was much more fun, she was sure of it.
Tabitha had been preparing for the journey for a while. She had discovered her affinity for magic months ago and has been keeping the secret for some time. She was just nine, but she was well aware of how people treated untamed magic. She had a friend in Lothering, a young woman, who had a younger sister who knew magic. She had promised to help protect Tabitha from others and herself, but Tabitha wanted to go to a tower and learn with the great elders.
It did not take long for the young mage to run into trouble. A group of bandits were fighting Templars in the fields closest to Lothering. Enough said, Tabitha got caught and taken prisoner as an apostate. No matter how much she pleaded, they refused to listen. She was not an apostate, she was a prospective student. It was then that she learned the brutality of the world. The taint was there long before the blights.
