Sorceress of the Crown (Carly and Penitency)

[Carly]

Alana De-Grande was a sorceress of the Queen. Queen Margath of the Kingdom of Greensla, to be exact, and had been under her service for five years. Ten years before that she had studied at the mage tower in the capital city of Diama to perfect her talents with a handful of other students. Only very few were talented at magic, and those showing the gift were all under strict rule to be trained and subsequently employed for life by the crown - or risk being hunted and burnt at the stake as a rogue witch.

Even though the threat convinced many to become loyal to the Queen, the queen was not liked and some chose their own path. Some voluntarily choose to suppress their magic - neatly avoiding service, by being "stilled", a painful but thorough procedure where master witches would remove the gift from another. Those that chose this path generally were nobles with family connections or wealth which would be sufficient to live a happy life, preferably without being at the beck and call of the queen. For better or for worse Alana wasn't born to a noble family, being the single child and daughter of dairy farmers.

Alana had mixed feelings about studying as a student of the gift. Unlike many students she was doubly gifted at magic, something not unheard of but rare among mages of any sort. Alana had the gift of Telekinesis, the art at creating invisible forces to effect the world, as well as the art of portals, the ability to make magical gate ways to other places where one or more people could use - effectively teleporting them to far away locations through a rift in reality. The latter could only be used to places she had already visited, but the former made her particularly powerful, even among mages. Alana wasn't the best student, nor the most talented in any one of her arts, but the fact she had two gifts set her heads and shoulders above her peers. When not on a Crown Mission, Alana practiced the art of Alchemy, and created potions of a semi-magical nature. It wasn't a strict magical art by most standards, and the effects were deemed possible by the ingredients used and the manner of preparing the potions, more than the magical gift of the maker. Still Alana excelled at creating balms, tonics, potions and the likes as well as studied herbology.

Alana had her own successful apothecary called "The Garden's Gift" in the town of Nullhaven, which was situated on the edge of a bountiful forest. She collected and harvested herbs herself, not trusting others to do it properly. Some druids lived close by and had taught her much of their ways, and in return for their knowledge Alana provided potions for different ailments effecting them for free, for what she knew and could make anyway. Druids were not really gifted in magic as the Queen would suspect, but Alana had learned that they had abilities they kept from the Queen, preferring to serve the land in their own way rather than the crown's whims. Alana and the druids of Nullhaven were friends, and although they initially didn't trust each other, professional kindsminship grew to friendship long ago. As the years past, Alana bought every scroll or tome she could on herbs and plants and their medicinal or semi-magical effects, as well as all books she could on alchemy, and her talents at creating potions began to match her magical skills.

It was enough for the Queen to take particular interest in Alana, and for the past five years Alana had been given many missions to earn the privileges being a Crown Sorceress entailed. The privileges were several fold. The initial benefit was being boarded and taught to use the talent, once being sworn in to serve the crown. On graduation Alana (like all mages) was given a magical ring called a "Renki Ring" that acted like a portable magical storage container. It could hold up to one hundred cubic feet of anything in a magical dimension, as long as what was stored wasn't living. It was simply a matter of will to store something in the ring or retrieve it, and when full it weighed the same, simply that of a ring, and was solid gold in color, but had arcane runes etched on the surface that glowed when storing or retrieving something from its magical dimension. The rings were a sign of being gifted, and proof one was a Sorcerer or Sorceress of the Crown. How they were made was a secret known only to a few masters of the mage tower, but they were the envy of many, mostly merchants though. There were other privileges too, each month she would receive ten gold barrons (gold coins) allowance from the crown to pay for living as well as could practically be envisaged and buying reference books she needed. Lastly Alana had the licence to make as much money from anything she sold from her apothecary. Alana could make a lot more money than she did, but she choose to give away much of her healing balms and potions to commoners for free if they were needy, or at cost if they were not. She only made a profit from the wealthy, which went to the effort of visiting her from far away places due to her excellent reputation as a healer. In truth Alana liked practicing Alchemy for the sake of it, being content to master the art without bleeding those she sold her produce to dry.

Nullhaven was a town of moderate size, but quite far from her home village of Daggersee which was about five hundred miles away. Her parents, Abatha and Erst De-Grande, still lived and she wrote to them every few months to check on their health and let hem know she was doing well. She sent them healing tonics for minor issues they complained about, but more or less they were happy, healthy and proud of her. Unlike many couples her parents loved each other dearly, and time had only bonded them closer. They were talking of retiring now, but never seemed to quite stop the family business. Alana mentioned she had enough of an allowance to pay for their retirement regardless, but they were too proud to take her up on the offer. Much to Alana's amusement.

Alana was twenty seven years of age as of yesterday, but had not had time to meet men romantically. She was beautiful, and many did desire her, but her service to the crown and her apothecary left little time for such things. A sore point for Alana, but perhaps that would change one day soon.

It was a fine spring day in the year 1123, when Alana entered the town's main tavern called "The Bandits Den" and sat down at her favorite cushioned seat that had a view out one window that looked over the main street. She ordered an apple cider and beef and vegetable stew and waited for her meal to be served while drumming the wooden table top with her fingers....

The Kingdom of Greensla was mostly forest or rich lush grass fields, or pastures governed by crops of varies kinds. The town of Nullshaven, where she was in now, known primarily for its lumber. The Kingdom boarded three others, with relationships that varied greatly on the ruling members latest desires. Alana stopped trying to keep track of it, there had been wars in the past, but as she fathomed currently, the bickering between the royalty of the different lands was mainly to keep themselves entertained than any true desire to see their downfall. What Alana expected soon, any moment now was a messenger with a sealed scroll from the Queen, directing Alana on her next mission. Every month, mid month, they appeared. Alana knew it was payment for the training and privileges she enjoyed, but some missions were better than others ...