Chapter 1:New Beginnings

Dliseagh awoke to silence. Her siblings were still sleeping in the other quadrant of the room that they shared. Her parents Iridia and Durthmek Ironfoot were gone. She slipped out of bed quietly, careful not to wake the younger kin, and dressed into dirty casual clothes that displayed the strong, hard-working trait in the Svirfneblin.
Grabbing her dulled spade and a pair of gloves she decided to skip breakfast and head outside into the fungus field early. Upon entering the field she discovered that her parents were not outside, and concluded that they were out working for the Dwarven Clan of the Delzons who her parents were indebted. How they ended up in their possession was something they hadn’t told her, and probably were never going to; however Dliseagh admired the Dwarves, they provided enough for her family to survive on but any money they had belonged to the Delzon family left Dliseagh with barely anything of her own.
But despite the harsh rules of the Clan, Dliseagh had been saving bits of her gold piece income in a tiny pouch beneath her mattress, hoping she would soon have enough to at least survive the amount of time it would take to make it to the surface from the Adbar mines. Alongside all of the rules, Dliseagh and her family also believed in a separate god than the Delzon’s but openly worshiped the same, however, Dliseagh knew that the Delzon’s already had them figured out. In her home, they worshiped Flandal Steelskin; the Svirfneblin deity of Pyromancy, Lord of Smiths, and Master of metal. Realizing her train of thought, she blocked them out, as if someone was around to infect her idea and briskly ran over to the crystal clear pond that shimmered and glowed along the Underdark rocks. Settling down at the water's edge, she watched some of the catfish swim as her silvery-white locks reflected the cyan hue of the water. She reached her hand to grasp one of the water-orbs that were floating close by and took a satisfying gulp of the cool purified elixir inside. This was her home, but she wanted something more. An adventure. As her interest in the fish dissipated she became aware of her parents' arrival and decided to head inside knowing exactly what day it was. When she had entered the house again her two siblings Syliss and Warick were waiting by the forge alongside her parents, chattering about what might happen when she chooses her path. When they noticed her entrance, they fell silent and her mother strode over proudly to her first child.
 
“Have you made your decision on what you wish to become?’ Iridia asked, curious eyes peering at Dlis from behind her. She nodded and cleared her throat.
“I wish to learn the arcane arts!” she proclaimed proudly and confidently, as any 13 year old would. As the last words tumbled from her mouth, flames and sparks erupted from the forge, a token from their god that her decision was approved, alarming Dliseagh who grasped the edge of the hot forge in a miraculous effort to keep her balance but evidently failed as she tumbled over the edge into the scorching flames. The fire danced up her right arm and back over her shoulder in a furious attack, halfway down her back, and began to crawl up the side of her neck before she was finally grasped out by her father who was now just as startled as she was.
Dliseagh looked over her arm in a painless shock, as her mother began to mend the bloody, crisped skin to the best of her ability. The scarring however was unusual and unnatural for a burn of such a degree and left a series of swirling and spiraling patterns that seemed to go everywhere and nowhere concurrently. Syliss and Warick, not so much frightened as amused, made note not to stand next to the forge when their time came to choose their destiny.
It was many weeks later that it was fully healed and now she was sitting at a desk, carefully studying and recreating Arcane runes. Her nose wrinkled in a deep frustration as she scribbled over and over again, with no resemblance of the original rune whatsoever.
“Do you truly wish to become a Wizard?” Her instructor Xanic questioned with his usual tone, instantly irking her whenever he spoke.
“Yes, quite obviously, otherwise I would not be so tenacious in writing these runes.”
She replied, holding back the bite that tried to seep into her words.
“The first step in mastering the arcane is mastering your mind,” he barked back calmly, making her even more infused with frustration before he exited. Many hard weeks flew by, Dliseagh not gaining any new knowledge stuck in the same spot as when she first began. The teacher entered for possibly the eighth time that evening and stood with his hands in front of him, his long greyed face sitting expressionless as it always had.
“Dliseagh you are no longer under my teaching by mine and your parents will, you are simply not grasping the common concepts enough for you to learn magic,” he proclaimed, coughing as if he were completely fed up. Without speaking a single word, Dliseagh rose and brushed herself off, walking diligently past Xanic and out the door.
 
“Mother” she started off whining “could you please find me a new teacher?”She asked trying her best not to beg, which always angered Iridia.
“We have already found you a new teacher, one that will teach you something very valuable that you will need to continue living here in Adbar” Iridia explained to her more than impatient daughter.
“What shall they teach me?” she inquired, curious but also not wishing to continue living in Adbar, but rather wishing to adventure, uncommon for those of her race.
“We have found a great elder dwarf to help you learn the Dwarven language, we believe you would be better suited to stay away from magic for a while…maybe later when you have a fresh mind you can have a try again”
Dliseagh whined quite loudly laying her head down on the table, even her favorite meal of cave crickets could not sate her at this moment.
“Dliseagh, sit up and stop pouting. I told you it was temporary” she scolded and Dliseagh slowly lifted her head, sitting back in her chair.
“You will start early tomorrow”
She instructed and Dliseagh kept quiet this time, she knew better than to act out multiple times in front of her mother. She finished her dinner which brought back some of her jovial attitudes before departing to her room where her siblings already lay asleep. She stared at her scar for a long while, tracing over it multiple times with a sigh, she didn’t understand. It was as if her god had specially chosen her and marked her for the job yet here she lay, a farmer.
Morning came early for Dliseagh as she was woken by her father. He had a chiseled complexion and was stark bald with not an ounce of hair, a typical Svirfneblin male she concluded. The way to her new instructor's house was complicated and strange but with time she became acute to it and could walk there with her eyes closed. She knew where she was located in the mines but wondered what the rest of Citadel Adbar looked like. Long ago it went under siege along with Mithral hall and Many-Arrows proving to be one of the stronger citadels. With a large wall surrounding her city, there was a tall tower that was kept in case of an invasion. It would have its great bronze pins unlatched and forced out by many of the dwarves allowing it to fall and crush any enemies. She often wondered if she would ever get to see it be used or enter a battle herself.
As she walked she saw merchants and military, hundreds of professionally trained dwarven fighters ready for a siege any day. It inspired her, but when she remembered what her mother had said her smile disappeared as if it were smudged into nothingness.
 
Her day progressed with a weighted pen in hand as she desperately tried to recreate the dwarvish alphabet. Her instructor was a jolly old dwarf who went by the name of Edin. He was enthusiastic and kind, but Dliseagh had enough of the discipline, promptly throwing her quill in a fit of blind anger, gaining a loud groan before silence. Her lavender orbs glanced up as she huffed loudly before letting out a shrill scream that sounded through most of the village, catching her parent's attention. The old dwarf was pinned against the wall through the eye...by her pen.
After a long trek home with harsh scoldings from both parents and a very disheartening conversation on her destiny, she went outside to tend to the fields or various Fungi and livestock, noticing that the farmhand boy was sitting at the water’s edge fiddling with a strange polyhedral artifact.
“Dliseagh are you busy?” he called out, looking up from his tinkering and she shook her head, briskly waltzing over enjoying the free time she was granted by his invitation.
She took a seat next to Dubarion and glanced down at the polyhedral shape. “What is it?”
His expression grew serious and he leaned in closer, giving a few short glances around before he handed it to her, closing her fingers over the object.
“Don’t ever speak the words on this artifact, it will open a door far off in some secret place of great evil in which even I do not know the name of...I need you to take this and keep it hidden with this cage of concealment. Please be careful, your parents and the Delzons are planning to move to the surface lands tonight, they are taking you with them so this is the last I will see of you. Take it with you Dliseagh.”
 
Dliseagh looked at the cage in her hands as Dubarion walked off, stopping one last time to smile back at her before disappearing around the corner of her little house. The surrounding area grew dark as she stared into the little clear piece and when she lifted her head, the blue luminescent spores in the pond were shining off the walls and ceiling of the cavern. Her eyes darted around observing this festival of starlight when she noticed something lurking from across the pond.
Time seemed to slow down as she stared back at this elder creature, locking gazes with one of its many eyes that adorned its body. It was fishlike and had the whiskers of a catfish but it was much larger than any creature she had seen in her sheltered environment. It was an Aboleth, a creature of such power that it controls mind flayers and Drow and it looked down at the artifact with a knowing glare. Shrieking, she dropped the polyhedral in the dirt, snapping out of the strange vision before scrambling to pick it up once again, stuffing it back into the cage and down into her pouch. Something in the young Svirfneblin knew the road ahead wouldn’t be easy from this point on.
Later that night her siblings, parents, and the Delzons had loaded up their luggage onto the caravan and piled into the back. Dliseagh sat fiddling with a loose bolt on the side of the wall crammed up against the many items that teetered in the fast-moving carriage, slowly twisting it into the wood. This was the last time she would see her home and she stared back at the field with a heavy heart, closing her eyes to rest for the night despite the everlasting darkness.