Chapter 1–Aftermath
The town of Sungrove was neither in a grove nor all that sunny. To everyone in the town besides Elanus, the reason for this name was a mystery none could explain nor particularly cared about. However to Elanus the reason was clear: Sungrove had not always been an insignificant fishing town, no, Sungrove was once situated a couple miles away from where it was now, built on the solar demesne she was now in, which had apparently once been the site of a powerful manse. She now sat here, on the tall green grass, in what could perhaps be called a grove but was really just four oddly-shaped, slightly reflective petrified trees whose branches were in pattern reminiscent of laurels, shields, horns and spears, standing in a square formation in the middle of an extremely sunny meadow. Here, in between the four trees, one was where the sun was shining strongest and where the demesne's power was most palpable.
Elanus' father king Olsef owned this land, but only in name. None could live here, none could tame this place. Until now. Now at last, in the backwater fishing village of Sungrove, a thaumaturgist of surpassing talent had arisen: Elanus herself! She would attune herself to this demesne –the most powerful demesne in the Nexus satrap– with her geomancy because she was that brilliant! She would tap into it's power and awaken her Essence with it, and damn them all for telling her that "It's dangerous" or "Crazy to try that ritual on yourself". Everyone at the college said she was "the most talented thaumaturgist we've seen in years" not to mention "a true genius" and she'd been offered positions as apprentice to some thaumaturgists for free (a practically unheard of accomplishment in Nexus) but she wanted to go further.
After she attuned herself to the demesne, she'd go to the Blessed Isle, study at the Heptagram and then return here and show them what real magic was! She'd show those damn Dragon-bloods, nay she'd show the world that with enough brains and hard work (plus a little excess energy) even a mortal could become a sorcerer! Sure (to her knowledge) it had never been done before, but she knew she could do it because she knew she was special.
She was in a magic circle she'd made with white pebbles, with four lines she'd also made tracing the dragon lines which intersected where she sat to the trees. The trees had geomantic runes brushed onto them with great care, and above each of them were the caste marks of the solar exalted, also known (but not by Elanus) as the Anathema: Dawn, Zenith, Twilight and Night, with the circle Elanus now sat in patterned after the crowned sun of the Eclipse. This way she would tap into the power of the solar demesne and not be fried by the energies (mortal bodies were not meant to withstand that sort of energy, after all).
She began chanting in Old realm. Her eyes rolled up into her skull. She was in a trance, half-hypnotized by her own spell, but still in control. She felt power rush into her as she chanted,the geomancy of the demesne filling her up, suffusing her.
Then something happened. She was too inexperienced so she didn't see the warning signs that the ritual was failing, and not in a way which one could retry. No, she'd awakened a force more within the demesne yet greater than the demesne by far: a seal placed in an older time by one much like herself to keep in a power that no-one wanted to escape, a seal built to last forever but fatally flawed, a seal which needed only a disruption in the demesne to break.
And her botched ritual had given it a disruption in the demesne more than strong enough to break free, but in so doing trap her in a net of eldritch force: the powers of dragon lines, thaumaturgy, the incarnae, fate and sorcery all combined into one roiling storm of energy, and before Elanus knew what was happening she was lifted off her feet and, so far as she could tell, turned into sunlight.
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She awoke face down in the tall yellow grass, four crystalline trees around her. She got up, dusted herself off. Well, she thought, what an odd dream, but she felt… different. As if she'd been infused with great power. Then my ritual worked! she thought, I am master of the demesne! and, laughing, she nearly skipped back to where she'd tied her horse up. However, she found that the horse had ran off and, snorting in disgust but still unable to contain her pride and elation, walked on home through the nigh-trackless meadows, though she knew enough to find her way back.
Walking towards Sungrove, she could not help but wonder why the meadows looked so trampled and why there was a snapped lance sticking out of the ground in front of her. Fearing the worst, Elanus practically ran back home.
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Sungrove was exactly how she'd left it the day before: fishing boats out on the lake which fed into the great river, people walking around the streets… and something which hadn't been there yesterday: plague doctors. Two of them, dressed in the heavy black garments and beaks which spelled doom to a town. They entered a house which, until now, Elanus hadn't noticed had boarded up windows, and closed the door behind them with an ominous thudding sound.
Walking, stunned, through the streets, Elanus approached her father's house. It was a big tall house with rooms by the dozen right in the middle of the town. It had a red tiled roof, grey ashlar walls and a fine green maple door. Windows could be seen on the second story, square windows partitioned into four parts which one couldn't see anything in, at least not from the angle which Elanus was standing.
Flinging open the door and rushing in, Elanus was greeted by the stunned face of the household maid, Rebecca. Rebecca was a short, tanned woman with brawny arms and a round face. She stood there for a moment, staring at Elanus, and then asked, in a somewhat disbelieving voice "E…Elanus? Is that… you?"
Elanus was taken aback by Rebecca's incredulity, but responded "Yes, it is. Who did you think it was?"
Oh thank all the gods!" Rebecca cried out, though Elanus could not dicern why she'd used such a strong (And technically heretical, but no-one listened to the Immaculates anyway) oath.
"Are you alright?" Rebecca asked, and, not waiting for Elanus to answer, followed it up with a storm of questions: "Where have you been? It was Cole's men, wasn't it? Did they hurt you? Oh gods, that means you're queen now, aren't you?"
That last one caused Elanus' world to spin. If she was queen, wouldn't that mean that her father was… dead?
"Wait, wait, wait," said Elanus, "What exactly happened?"
Rebecca grew pale. At that moment, Elanus' friend Davian Erazmus the physician showed up. He was a mousy, unassuming man of short stature and pale blond hair. He was quite intelligent (though not as brilliant as Elanus) and made for good company. Right now, however, most of his body was concealed by the heavy fabric of a plague doctor's outfit, with only his face exposed and the mask held in his left hand.
"Elanus!" he sighed in what appeared to be relief, embracing her, "I thought we'd lost you."
"I'm sorry," said Elanus, breaking away, "what are you all talking about? I have only been gone for a day, at the most."
Erazmus looked at her incredulously, slowly saying "Elanus… you've been gone for four months… there was a war. Your… your father's dead."
No. It can't be. I couldn't've been gone for months. That doesn't just happen! Elanus thought, Getting trapped in a demesne is a myth! It's impossible! It can't happen!
Unless… unless you go out alone into a high-level demesne and try to channel it. They told me anything could happen if I tried that… but I went about it anyway. And I failed! I, Elanus Margaren, failed! How?!
"Why?" Elanus choked out. "Your father thought," began Davian, "that you'd been taken by King Cole. That he was going to use you to help him take over. And so… he launched a rescue effort to castle Betancuria before he could attack. And it failed. Then Cole attacked, and your father led the other kings; Cecil and Arthur; against him. We won… but it was hard, and your father. Then the plague hit. We've done well to fight it; Kings Torm and Arthur have sent doctors, but…"
She pushed past him, trying to get upstairs to her chambers. flinging open here door, she barked "Get out!" to the servant there and flung herself onto the bed. She cried for thirty minutes, absorbed in her own failure and loss, before having another coherent thought. This is weak, she told herself, you are queen now. And queens have to be hard. Harden your heart. and, miraculously, it was so. She did not know how she did it, but she staunched the tears and got up, her will as hard as steel. She knew she was something more now: the ritual had worked.
In that moment, she decided she would leave for a time. Sungrove would recover without her, and she still had every intention of being a sorcerer and damn them all if they tried to stop her! She was their queen and they'd thank her when she showed them her power and made all their enemies quake in fear.
She got her horse from the stable, put on her reinforced buff coat, packed her bags, got her bow and arrows and headed out. The road to sorcery stretched out before her; long and treacherous, but she would get to the end of it, and woe betide any who would try to stop her!
AN: This is a concept which I had a little while ago: Why not put down the more awesome backstories and games I do with my friends on ? (obviously rewritten to be more dramatic and coherent and blah blah blah) if it goes well, I may continue and even do it again sometime. Note that in my game Nexus was conquered by the Realm and then every little landowner around it started calling themselves kings due to the Realm wanting a king of Nexus to puppet (much easier than having to puppet individual landowners!)