Head Mistwalker Family

Dear Timothy,

I wasn't lying when I said I would do anything to get back my grandmother's journal--even die, as you saw. I'm sure you didn't believe that my family is immortal. Even many of the Seers do not, at least until they challenge our authority. I know you still have it, and I trust that you have kept it safe.

I don't hear stories of The Traveler anymore. But I have begun to hear word of the Librarian, a Scavenger who doesn't work magic, but trades in knowledge. I know all Scavengers deal in knowledge, but they say he almost never leaves his library. He'll give you a spell in exchange for another. I don't have a spell for you. I have a story, and I think it's worth what I'm asking.

As I told you before, my family has dedicated their lives to preserving its own history. This became a lot easier once the Mechanicals developed technology to help us digitize things. As such, I feel I can pretty confidentially tell you about Haley, my direct ancestor, and the first Seer.

Haley was born in Nideon, one of the two planets in the old system with magic. He was a teenager when he discovered, very much by accident, that he could not die. This was, apparently, an ability he inherited from his father, who died the night he was born. I know that doesn't make sense, but this is how our family line has always worked. My mother was immortal until I was born, and I shall be until I have a child. There are stories that someone back even farther than Haley made a deal with Death, but no one knows for sure.

Anyway, when the war broke out on Nideon, Haley fled to Svene, with many others from his planet. As you know, they were followed. Haley held out with a small group of rebels, who eventually determined they would be unable to defend themselves against the anti-magic forces of Milon. So they made a pact to protect themselves, each going their own way and teaching the magic they knew to any followers who could keep their secret, and so the war raged and died around them, and magic lived on. I told you before that magic was fractured, but I did not tell you the secret my family has been sitting on for centuries: we caused it.

You must understand, Haley and his counterparts always hoped that these magical groups would one-day reunite, but Haley also came from a family of storytellers. When he established the structure of the Seers, he gave us a monarchy. His family line would have complete control over the Seer community, and yet, he pressed upon his son the importance of letting the Mistwalker Council run itself. We were only to step in if it suited the mission--repairing magic. Likewise, we were only to reveal our immortality if we absolutely needed, like if our control was slipping. We shrouded ourselves in story and mystery, so that any who might oppose us would have no idea what what we were up to.

But no one can predict what will happen over so many generations, and I think it's time we changed tactics. I hear that in the last couple of decades, you've crowdsourced far more information about our original, unified system of magic than my family has in all our generations. You might be wondering, then, why I want my grandmother's journal back. I don't. I want your assistance. I think it's time we expanded our numbers. If a little rebel group fractured magic, I think it will take a similar one to piece it together again. That is, if you'll forgive me for not getting on that tram with you and falling to my death.

Sincerely,

Flourine

Head Mistwalker of the Seers