Letter to Hayley I

Dearest Sister,
 
I am sorry I haven’t been in touch lately. Although we are both living in Keralon (well, I guess I live a bit outside of it), the sheer size of this metropolis makes spontaneous visits almost impossible.
 
I suppose I should start with the biggest news. I am engaged to be married to a great girl called Emily! I am sure you will love her as much as I do.
 
I suppose I should backtrack a bit and fill you in on what has happened these past few months.
 
As you know, after Liliana left, I officially became Amarra’s apprentice and moved into Cairn Fussil. Apparently being a fire mage’s apprentice means a lot of housework, interspersed with dusty tomes and brief but explode-y practice sessions.
 
However it was also clear to me that I was her first student, and she was still figuring things out. But this was fine by me, as likewise this was my first apprenticeship. There would often be days when I was left to my own devices and I could just venture out on my own.
 
I had resolved myself to journey to Keralon as much as I could, trying to gain more information about the Feywild, the archfey Ulther and our own strange connection to the Fey courts. Unfortunately a nobody from Tarn, even if he was a mage’s apprentice from Cairn Fussil, wasn’t someone that many wanted to make time for. I even got a few surprised looks that the tower was even open again, and I think some might have suspected that I was some sort of squatter playing at wizardry.
 
So the first few months, I spent most of my free time in every single bookshop in the city. I used my relatively small stipend to buy every book on the Feywild that I could find, which was very few and more fancy tales. I did also manage to buy a few magical books on magical theory that I devoured myself, before arranging them to be transported to the girl Anna in Rosebloom along with a caravan passing that direction. Thinking back on it, I suppose the caravan must have also passed Tarn and I guess I should have sent a message to our father, but didn’t. I suppose it speaks a lot to our messed up family that I’ll send an expensive book to a girl I met for a few hours before sending a message to our father.
 
My time at the library in Cairn Fussil was also proving less than fruitful. There was plenty on evocation magic and the Plane of Fire, which really helped me strengthen my spells, but this only caused more frustration that I wasn’t any closer to figuring out what was going on with us or having a plan to save Liliana. Unless we could just blow up Vivienne. I now have plenty of plans that can do that, but I don’t think they will succeed.
 
I think Amarra noticed my irritation back then. My heart wasn’t in my studies anymore and my initial excitement of learning to be a proper wizard was rapidly fading. This might have been the reason that after about six months, she announced that she needed to take a trip and that it was far too dangerous for me to come along. She also didn’t want to leave me in Cairn Fussil alone and urged me to continue my studies as I had been falling behind. So she arranged temporary enrollment into the Magical Academy in Keralon. I still don’t know how she did that, or where she got the pull or money to do so but I was very grateful.
 
So Amarra took off, and I journeyed to Keralon for my first day at the Academy. I was hoping that it would distract me from my failures, and that it would offer an even greater library to scour for information. When I arrived, I was directly spirited to the headmaster’s office where it was made very clear that my enrollment was only temporary and my access was going to be limited, lest I interrupt the other students.
 
When I attended my first class, I immediately felt like a fish out of water. Every student just avoided me, and the teachers mainly pretended like I didn’t exist. They also put me in the most basic classes, and I was learning nothing that I hadn’t mastered years ago. Even more frustrating, the entire day my stuff would also constantly go missing. I found out a bit later that it was a pair of bullies, Darius and Samuel, both nobles, that were using the mage hand spell to chuck my books and writing utensils out of the window.
 
I had hoped to put that all aside so I could focus on my primary goal, learning more about the Feywild. I started by asking some of the instructors, but they wouldn’t give me the time of day or just give me the most basic of information. Most said that it was far too dangerous a topic that was beyond a first year student, and that I should focus on improving my spell techniques before chasing after fairy tales.
 
When I went to the library, I learned that it was divided in sections and as a newly enrolled student, I only had access to the most basic sections. Higher level magic was apparently also far too dangerous. So the frustrations piled up.
 
Even though I knew it was a betrayal of everything that Amarra had done for me, I knew I couldn’t let this chance pass me by. So I resolved myself that first evening to sneak out of the dorms and back into the library.
 
My plan went well at first, days of sneaking through the Lorewood meant I could be pretty stealthy without any use of magic (which I am sure they could have detected). I got through the entire academy without being noticed and was making good headway past all the classrooms.
 
What I hadn’t counted on was that I was not the only one making an illegal trip to the library that night. As I rounded the final corner, I basically bumped into one of my fellow students. This was, as you might have guessed, Emily, and she was a fellow student from my class who was also stalking the corridors at night.
 
 
 
We quickly realised what the other was doing, despite my somewhat nervous ramblings whenever I talk to a pretty girl. But we didn’t have much time to coordinate, as we heard footsteps from the night guard approach. We hid in a nearby classroom, holding our breaths and hoping that they would just go away.
 
Alas, we had no such luck and the guard caught us. I was already dreading explaining to Amarra how I had gotten expelled after a single day, but it was Emily’s quick thinking that saved us. She weaved a lie filled with so many embarrassing personal details that the guard didn’t dare question it. However, while we avoided a more severe punishment than a quick rap on our fingers, we were shunted back to the dorms past haste.
 
While my stealthy operation was a failure, I had managed to make a friend, or at least a partner-in-crime. We met up the next day before class to compare notes. Emily is the sole daughter of the Dumont noble family in Keralon. Apparently they used to be quite prominent, but have fallen into obscurity in recent times. Emily has her hopes pinned on becoming a powerful mage to re-elevate her family’s standing. This was why she has been trying to (unsuccessfully) sneak to the library at night. She wants to gain an edge over her fellow students and get ahead of the game. In return, I explained most of what had happened to us on the way to Keralon, leaving out a few details that we had promised Vivienne not to spread. And I guess I really caught her attention as she spent the rest of the day asking me about every single detail.
 
Suffice to say, we got very close over the next few days. We agreed we wouldn’t risk another trip to the library at night as getting caught a second time would certainly get us expelled. I honestly think we were both just glad to have found someone who would listen to us and was walking a similar path.
 
Emily also helped me deflect some of the worst follow-up pranks of the bullies Darius and Samuel. She revealed that they were from some of the most prestigious noble families of Keralon, and while her house was technically allied with them, she personally couldn’t stand them.
 
With Emily at my side, the weeks at the Magical Academy flew by and my temporary placement came to an end. But we promised to keep in touch as much as we could. My heart still flutters at the goodbye kiss that we shared (Sorry for the personal details, sis, but I can’t help myself).
 
I returned to Cairn Fussil just as Amarra had made her own way back. I told her about everything that had happened at the Academy. And while she wasn’t surprised that I had tried to sneak around at night, she was more worried about Emily. She made me promise that I wouldn’t let a teenage infatuation become a distraction for my studies. I did make the promise, but I already knew that it was more than just a silly crush.
 
The next few months, I took every single excuse to head to Keralon that I could. Letters that needed to be sent, no problem. New supplies to be picked up, I was Amarra’s man. Placing an order for a magical utensil, I was already on my way.
 
I discovered that if I left early enough in the morning on horseback, I have enough time for my errand and I could then join Emily for her lunch break. My temporary student assignment, while passed, still does allow me some access to the Academy grounds. After lunch, I then rush back to Cairn Fussil, reaching the tower before nightfall.
 
Most days though, Amarra keeps me busy with studies. She recently had me transcribe an entire tome of magical circles by hand! I had begged her to let me use a magical spell to make it go easier, but she refused as she said that it might interfere with the magical spell constructs. It took me eighteen days and my wrist still feels sore.
 
Luckily Emily knows a bit of communication magic, so we were able to keep in touch every day. It was in one of these sendings that she asked me to join her to the Soltice’s End Grand Ball of the noble families in Keralon. It would be a proper date, and it would give me a chance to meet her family.
 
I did have to beg Amarra that I could then stay overnight in Keralon after the ball as there was no way I could get back in time. While I did get permission, I had to agree to mucking out the stable from top to bottom first. Even with the best of my magic, that was not a fun job.
 
In preparation for the ball, I met up over lunch a few times with Emily, where she would take me shopping for new clothes (I couldn’t really show up in the patched up rags I had been wearing since Tarn) and she also taught me a bunch of proper table manners (There are like seventeen types of spoon, it is crazy stuff).
 
Before I knew it, the day was finally there and I left bright and early for Keralon, dressed in my new clothes and went to the Grand Theater for the ball. Inside, I was directed towards the Dumont family by the ushers, which was good because there must have been a thousand nobles present. I had hoped to see Alistan or Elsa, but if they were there, I completely missed them in the crowd.
 
A table had been set to the side of the Dumont family along with several other closely related houses. Unfortunately that meant that my former academy bullies, Darius and Samuel were also around, but I managed to mostly avoid them. I met up with Emily, and she looked stunning in her fancy ball gown. But when she tried introducing me to her father and mother things soon got awkward. Her father kept dismissing her, saying that he didn’t have time for her as it was important he have a discussion with Lord so-and-so. Her mother at least acknowledged our existence, but then she kept going on about how Samuel -of all people- had grown up into a handsome man. Suffice to say, we didn’t tell her parents about our relationship that evening. We tried to make the most of it, ate some food, tried some dancing, but Emily’s heart just wasn’t in it.
 
The entire evening came to a head, when we accidentally overheard Emily’s father make a comment to another Lord that he was disappointed by her performance at the academy and that he was doubting if the price tag wasn’t wasted on her. Emily reacted but he dismissed her that she shouldn’t act like a child. She ran outside and I found her a bit later crying in the garden. As the bells of Soltice’s End came and went, I comforted her. We both know that we are destined to be together, so under the sky filled with fireworks, I told her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and to marry her. Tears were in her eyes as she said that she felt the same, so we made the commitment then and there to always be there for each other. We also both resolved to prove her parents wrong together. Emily would show them that she was a powerful mage that could restore their family, and I would make them accept me, despite my low birth.
 
So any wedding is of course still a while away, it’s our plan to only get married after we have both finished our studies in a few years in any case (beyond any hurdles that Emily’s parents may still throw our way). But I would very much like you to be my best (wo)man (or maid of honor, I am unsure what the right term is to use).
 
Your loving brother,
 
Luke