EHLISSA'S STORY (A CASTLE GREYHAWK PROLOGUE)
By Scott Casper, 2007
Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Ehlissa, and she lived in the City of Greyhawk. Of course, so did about 30,000 other people, so that alone did not make her particularly special. Nor did she feel particularly special. True, her parents had managed to afford the tuition for her to attend the University of Magical Arts, but so had the families of many young ladies. The standard curriculum for ladies, which did not remotely seem special to Ehlissa, consisted of learning to read magic, plus a simple mending spell, and useful cantrips for magically washing clothes, concealing blemishes, and plucking eyebrows. The final spell before graduation would be an incantation for conjuring an unseen servant. After graduation would be a ball, where the ladies-in-magic would be allowed to dance with the new journeyman magic-users and seek out a prospective husband. At least, this was the tradition, but it was an old tradition and these were more enlightened times. Male and female students were now allowed to interact well before graduation and even take the same classes. This was a good thing too for Ehlissa, because she was often mistaken for a man and would have once received demerits for being mistaken for a man on the wrong side of the college, or for being a disruptive influence in the classroom. Ehlissa steadfastly refused to engage in the practice – so popular at the time – of plucking off the majority of her eyebrows, probably because she happened to have large, bushy eyebrows. And she felt much more comfortable in men's cote and hose than she ever did in a corset and dress.
This particular day, she had just finished with classes for the morning, had doffed her classroom hood and gown, and was wearing a particularly manly pair of boots she had borrowed from her father. Her boots had worn thin, and money for replacement boots was scarce for merchant class families paying guild membership dues and tuitions. Of course, had she looked more demure and lady-like that day, then nothing special would probably have ever happened in her life. Destiny favors nonconformity.
"What ho!" a young man called out to her as she was leaving the main entrance for the front lawn of the walled complex. The young man was thin, with lightly-tanned skin, black hair revealed as his classroom hood fell back, and just the hint of a moustache. He immediately struck her as boyishly handsome. That he had donned his hood and gown before entering the facilities was somewhat of a breach of protocol, though at least he was still in the compound. "Are you in Freyson's class?" he asked nervously.
"What?" Ehlissa asked back, surprised by this stranger's informality.
"Freyson? Divination? What about Vantolainen for conjuration?"
"I don't—" she began.
"No, I don't recognize you," he continued, "but I thought you might have enrolled late since I last attended class. I was – oh no," he said as he spotted two young men approaching them. One was a paler fellow with a blonde-moustache and wearing a long green cote that parted at his codpiece and ended over his thighs. This man stared at Ehlissa's new companion with an angry glare.
"There you are, Tenser!" said the man with the angry glare in a tone to match.
"Ah, Gleep," Tenser said, "how was class yesterday?"
"You wouldn't know because you weren't there!" Gleep shouted as he advanced across the lawn's paved path to the main entrance. "You were my research partner!" he continued to shout, advancing so menacingly that Tenser and Ehlissa both began to back away from him. "Because you weren't there, I couldn't complete our experiment. And because I couldn't complete it, I earned demerits. And if I earn enough demerits because of you to cost me a spell in my spellbook, I'm going to cast a magic missile right up your—"
Gleep had wanted to finish his threat, having already decided that it would feel pretty good to say it. It was certainly not of Tenser's doing that Gleep stopped, as Tenser's defense seemed to amount to no more than silent defiance. Actually, Tenser did have a pretty good retort in mind, along the lines of "Is that where you use your magic missile on your roommate?" but had not yet decided if he would risk using it or not. No, what made Gleep stop in his tracks was that Ehlissa had stepped in between them. She was not even offering more than her own silence defiance, with her mostly-flat chest puffed out and her mouth clenched tight, yet their combined defiance seemed to ward Gleep off. It was not Ehlissa's gender at all that made him demure, but the fact that he did not recognize her. While he had no compunctions against hurting Tenser, he had no wish to antagonize someone who might be an upper classman.
In another moment, it would have been over anyway. Gleep had made the mistake of confronting Tenser too close to the entrance and the door guard inside had overheard. Farin was a dwarf, long in the employ of the university, who had never allowed an unauthorized wizard duel on the college lawn on his watch. "Is there trouble here, young wizards?" Farin asked, friendly-sounding, but with his hand on the axe hanging at his side.
"There is no trouble," Tenser said, "Is there Gleep?"
"No, no trouble here," Gleep concurred. "We'll talk of this again, Tenser." He kept that angry glare focused on Tenser until he and his other classmate were inside and out of sight.
"Well!" Tenser exclaimed, exhaling a breath he had been holding. "I imagine I should not show up in that classroom again for awhile." Then, while Ehlissa stood there dumbfounded and wondering what was going on, he took off his gown right in front of her, revealing an outfit with a blue-embroidered surcote. "Come on," he said to her, "I owe you for standing up with me just now. Maybe you'll join me for a drink at the Roc and Oliphant?" And, without waiting for an answer, he started to walk away.
"Excuse me," Ehlissa said, starting after him. "But how can you afford to be missing classes?"
"I have my own private tutor," Tenser said as they left the compound and entered the semi-crowded street outside it. Street vendors tried to sell wizard-themed merchandise, like ceramic mugs glazed with "magical" glitterdust. Most of the other people idle in the street were mercenaries employed by the guild who chased off vendors that drew too large a crowd and blocked traffic to the guild entrance. Tenser set off in the direction of the Roc and Oliphant tavern, leaving the still-curious Ehlissa to simply follow.
"Was that man's name really Gleep?" she asked.
"Gleed, actually, but everyone calls him Gleep because it annoys him," Tenser went on. "I'm surprised you don't have him in any classes, as he's taking quite a few. You're not taking combat casting this semester?"
"Um…no," Ehlissa answered, wondering how much that would have set her parents back.
"I took that last year. I'm actually in my last semester now, but I feel like I already know everything they can teach me that I'll need. I'm just hanging on until graduation for the guild discount on spell components."
"Oh," was the last comment Ehlissa made until they reached the tavern. This Tenser was either very full of himself or trying awfully hard to impress her. Either way, she had never met anyone quite like him before.
The Roc and the Oliphant had a good-sized midday crowd, mostly older patrons playing or watching games of draughts and nine man morris. Tenser found a small table, straddled the bench, and produced a leather flask to slap on the table until he received service. Ehlissa entered more cautiously, having never been to a tavern unescorted and this Tenser was not doing a traditional job of escorting her. Eventually, she sat down on a bench across from him.
"I thought I'd lost you there," Tenser said with a nice smile. "Good to see you joined me. I was just wondering what classes you might be taking. I'm guessing you're studying to be an abjurer."
"Not exactly," Ehlissa said, looking down at the tabletop.
"But I'm close, aren't I?" Tenser asked as a serving lad filled his flask with ale. After a sip, he mused out loud, "Hmm…I would guess conjuration, but you would have to be a freshman to not have a class with Vantolainen…"
"I still don't understand why you miss classes," Ehlissa said, changing the subject. "I mean, after spending so much money to attend these classes in the first place, and to not feel obligated to attend them – you must attach little value to money."
"I haven't spent a copper piece on my tuition," Tenser said with a mischievous smile, as if he had just shared a secret.
"What? No. But that – are you taking a loan for the full tuition? Do you realize you can be paying that off for the rest of your life? They might even raise you as undead and put you back to work paying it off."
"I will have it paid in full after my first adventure."
"Your what?"
"Adventure!" Tenser said with great excitement, but in a hushed voice, as if he had changed his mind about sharing his secret any farther. "Who knows what destiny will throw my way? Maybe I'll loot the ruined city of some lost civilization, rob a sleeping dragon of its treasure trove, or steal an elven princess from her father's court. Or maybe all three. Regardless, I'll walk away from it a wealthy man."
"That sounds like a lot of looting, robbing, and stealing to me," Ehlissa said without enthusiasm.
"Yes, yes, but I'll be no common thief," Tenser countered with pride. "None of that is bad if it's done for a good cause."
"And what is your good cause?"
"Well, I don't have one yet, do I?" Tenser responded defensively. "If I did, I'd already be out there, adventuring. Haven't you ever thought about using your magic spells to live a life of adventure?"
"No…" Ehlissa confessed. Adventure was something she knew of only from stories. She had been told some as a girl, even though her parents were mostly practical people with no time for nonsense. "Nonsense" is what they would surely call wasting one's education, risking one's life for ill-gotten riches, and sitting in taverns with strange men. Then her mother would, she imagined, become weepy and complain that Ehlissa was trying on purpose to make it difficult for them to marry her off to a good suitor. "Besides," Ehlissa said at last, "what use does a lady have for adventure?"
"A what?" Tenser asked with a start.
Ehlissa noticed him scrutinizing her face for the first time since they had met. "What?" was all she could think to ask Tenser back.
"Nothing. Er…nothing," Tenser said, turning away to hide the blush in his cheeks.
Now Ehlissa's cheeks were turning red too, but from embarrassment and anger. "You did know I was a lady, didn't you?" she asked, boldly stating the issue between them.
"Of course…of course I did," Tenser answered unconvincingly. "And why not? I'm sure there are plenty of women training for a life of adventure," he said, though he could not actually think of any he knew.
Ehlissa could also not think of any examples, but was not about to bring that up now. "Of course," she said. "Dozens at the least."
"Then I will make you the same offer I have intended since you stood up beside me against Gleed. When I am ready for my life as an adventurer, I will need adventuring companions. We will form a small company, pool what treasure we acquire, and share it evenly between all even partners. How would you like to be partners?"
There was a good reason why she could not and that was her complete lack of education in any form of magic that would be useful for such a career, but now she was backed into a corner and could not admit to such a thing.
"You will have to be more specific as to when you will be ready to start this company," Ehlissa stated as self-importantly as possible. "I have a lot of options to consider and I can't guarantee I will be free to pursue this venture of yours by the time you are ready to start it."
"Fair enough," Tenser said. "No promises now, then, but we will stay in touch?"
"Yes, I suppose we should," she said.
"You told him you would what?" Johydee asked.
Ehlissa was back at home, sitting in the small room she shared with her sister Johydee. Joyhdee was the younger sister, named for the famous Aerdy heroine, as was briefly popular around the time of her sister's conception. Like her namesake, Johydee tended to be the more adventurous, if not reckless, sister, while Ehlissa had always been the dutiful daughter who did everything proper – or so Johydee was fond of reminding her.
"We didn't make plans," Ehlissa said, lying on her bed, her speech muffled by the pillow over her face. "I just told him we would speak of it again when we met at the guildhall."
