Nineteen
Astralode's Tower, Myst City
Completely unaware to the impending carnage, the blonde-haired sorceress, Marin sat across the table from her mentor, Astralode in the magical tower they called home.
Ever since Marin had returned from The Tabernacle, they had searched every law book they could get their hands on, everything from old crumbling scrolls to the newest texts.
A tower of discarded books loomed over Marin as she struggled to stay awake. Astralode slid a tea cup across the table to her using his mind.
"I think we might need to resort to Fletcher's plan," Astralode sighed, putting away his reading glass behind his silvery beard and rubbing his tired eyes.
"You will be imprisoned if you are involved. You know we need a Chronicler. You are the last of your order," Marin reminded him.
Astralode looked down and sighed. The ancient wizard was one of the few soldiers to survive the Twilight Wars, but he was not above the law. He had personally sworn fealty to the royal family of Myst City hundreds of years ago.
Astralode guarded the knowledge and history of Turbulus since his first King, Auriolis close to eight hundred years ago.
He remembered bowing on one knee in a newly rebuilt royal palace in the waning days of the Twilight Wars. Before he had been given longevity by drinking from the sacred grail; he was the youngest member of his secretive order, and after the final battle of the war he was one of the few survivors.
The secret of eternal life had been lost with the death of his order; it was from that day forth he pledged to preserve the knowledge and history of Turbulus.
He had lost count of the times his position as royal chronicler had forced him to remain uninvolved in political affairs.
He felt like a prisoner in a gilded cage, reading and collecting the stories of the past and the present for a public that grew ever indifferent to their own heritage.
The nobility was only concerned with their next banquet, and the impoverished only concerned with survival.
He was forbidden from having a family or allegiances outside of the royal family, but he had taken many apprentices over the centuries.
He had trained some of the greatest sorcerers Turbulus had ever known, to him it was like raising the next generation of heroes, a way he could benefit the land outside Myst City's confines.
Marin had been the most promising apprentice Astralode had seen in centuries; he had developed a knack for seeing the potential in people.
When he met Marin three years ago, she was a well-mannered young orphan. She had a natural affinity to water-based magic. That power flowed through her like a river, a force of nature.
Most apprentices so naturally talented would become arrogant and egotistical, but Marin was different.
Marin saw her powers as a gift, not only for herself but for those around her and had to be prompted to learn the arts of attack and disabling.
She vowed never to take a human life and stuck by that declaration.
She had defeated werewolves, vampires, ogres, trolls- all kinds of monsters with her unique blend of boiling, freezing, and choking aquatic spells.
Never had Astralode seen such rapid mastery of sorcery, Marin had learned in three years what many took decades to manage. Even Astralode had struggled during his first decade of apprenticeship with some of the spells Marin wielded with ease.
Once she was sufficiently trained, he had summoned forth the untapped depths of her power with a mighty ritual he had perfected over the centuries.
Astralode sighed as he watched the girl, he considered a daughter depart the auditorium.
He hoped she was ready to accept the responsibility of having Fletcher break Umbra out of jail.
Fletcher had only been exonerated for a life of petty crime because of his unrivaled marksmanship. He aced every tournament he snuck into.
Marin had gained a lot of renown from her flawless etiquette and graces when called to fancy parties with the nobility.
But if she was discovered assisting, her favor with the nobility wouldn't help her in court.
Astralode had tuned his senses over the years with the life essences of much of the residents of the city and tonight something was disrupting the steady flow of life.
Something is happening at the barracks.