《Elenwynd》


 Prologue

    It was nighttime, shops were closed, streets were empty, and the tavern lights dimmed in the quaint town as it was a time for rest, the town shrouded in peaceful silence.


    Suddenly, the silence of the night was disturbed by a loud shattering sound as a hooded figure, with a strange tome tucked in their arms, defenestrated1  themselves from the tavern window. Shortly after, seven armed soldiers, all donning pale featureless masks, threw the tavern door open. Quickly righting themself, the hooded figure took off in a sprint, tome in arms, through the somber town of St. Clementine, the masked warriors in tow.


    The hooded figure weaved through street and alley alike in an effort to lose their pursuers, but to no avail. Even as the hooded figure dashed through the town gates, it seemed like the assailants only got closer.


    As the chase continued, eight figures dashed through the clearing between the town and the forest. One in a hood ran frantically, but the seven others ran calmly as they chased the former.


    In an attempt to lose them in the nearby forest, the hooded figure darted into the bramble, their hood getting snagged on a branch revealing long scraggly blonde hair and a goatee.  Past trees and brushes, the tome-bearing man ran and ran but was eventually cornered by the masked heptad2.


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    Upon further inspection, one of the seven soldiers was dressed slightly differently from the rest, with a leather vest and an insignia under the left eye hole of the mask. This unique soldier stepped forward and spoke in a raspy voice ¡°it doesn''t have to be this way, just hand over the tome.¡±


    Despite being outnumbered and backed in a corner, the blonde man sneered ¡°we both know that once you have the tome, you will dispose of me, do you take me for a fool?¡±


    The masked man sighed, raising a hand signaling the others to be at the ready, and said ¡°you are making this harder than it needs to be, last chance, Edmund¡±


    The blonde man, Edmund, didn''t acknowledge the speaker, instead incanting ¡°otromf fpjxdiedm¡±3  as he was subsequently impaled by the spears of the masked group upon hearing the first syllable, yet it was too late. As the spell activated, Edmund looked the leader in the eye, and snarked ¡°you¡¯re right, I like this way better¡± as everyone was enveloped in a lavender light, and a boom woke the town of st. Clementine.


    The following morning, upon the insistence of the townsfolk, A small party was sent to investigate. Although, as the team arrived at the scene, no evidence of what happened that night was found, only a crater remained, but unbeknownst to the search party, a tome launched from the blast was nested in the hollow of a tree. A tome that could change everything, a tome titled elenwynd.

 Ch. 1: Local nerd gets nosey

    The people of  St. Clementine were all curious about the disturbance in the woods the prior night, but none so much as the junior scribe, Fluer. Especially after the town guard blew it off as some lightning strike of sorts, and the fact that there was no storm last night struck Fluer as odd.


    As a child, Fluer would have a question for everything, always wanting to learn, and never taking anything at face value. In her teenage years, her curious nature landed her an apprenticeship as a scribe. It turns out that she never outgrew her curiosity as she was currently sneaking into the forest to get a look for herself.


    Pov: fluer


    That noise last night was an explosion, and it doesn''t take a genius to know that explosions don''t just randomly occur. Well, save for mana rifts, but those only happen in areas with high socerzxo1 , or mana density, and frankly, St. Clementine is on the low side when it comes to mana. Especially when you consider that St. Clementine is number four out of the ten locations with the lowest mana density in the kingdom of Capri.


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    While I was walking, two things hit me; the realization that as much as it is fun to recall trivia, I should save the theories for when I see them myself. The other thing that hit me was much more simple, a tree branch that I walked into while lost in thought. I constantly lose my sense of awareness when something is on my mind, and the explosion was just that kind of something.


    ¡­


    Arriving at the scene, it was clear that magic was involved. Throwing off my satchel, and retrieving the socerzxometer2  I got as a gift for acing my first-year final exam in record time, well, record time for the town of St. Clementine at least, and scanned the around the crater. Unsurprisingly, the readings came out high.


    I knew it! I tried to get the town council to assign socerzxometers to the guard, but it was boondoggle.3  because nooOooOo, ¡°ThE GUarD WouLdN¡¯T hAvE a UsE fOR ONe¡± bah, I can complain to the council later, the socerzxometer is picking up wild readings by this tree.


    Huh, what¡¯s this? A book, just right there, how incompetent is the town guard to miss this? But the readings are definitely from the book. Since nobody else will and I am quite curious, I reach out to take the book.


    THAT WAS A MISTAKE

 Ch. 1 part 2: me and my big mouth

    It was a mistake indeed, because when Fluer¡¯s hand made contact with the book, she instantaneously felt a sharp stabbing pain throughout her body and became short of breath. After a minute of suffering through ¡°Insta-pain Express¡±, Fluer experienced something she never expected, a glowing box with strange characters floated in front of her head. The characters shifted wildly for a couple seconds before settling on common and a voice blasted in her head.


    ¡°CONGRATULATIONS YOU¡¯VE BEEN SELE- erm sorry, you''ve been selected as the new bearer of the tome, the one, the only, Elenwynd! It is now bound to YOU until death!¡±


    Fluer blinked a couple of times, cleared her throat and sputtered ¡°uh wha- i don- i didn¡¯t mean t¨C¡± the voice cut her off.


    ¡°Well, too bad, didn¡¯t your mother tell you not to touch weird books in the woods? Anyway, as the newest tome bearer you are responsible for mastering and protecting Elenwynd and maintaining order in the land of Paternea.¡±


    Each word uttered upon Fluer¡¯s mind made her heart sink a bit more. Composing herself she tried to reason with the voice meekly saying ¡°uh, clearly there are better options than me, maybe you should reconsider this?¡± Unfortunately for her, the book would not even dare entertain such an egregious1  idea, so it quickly righted her folly2.


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    ¡°Balderdash3  , You are Perfect for this role, You are sharper than the average tool in the shed and you are uh- hmm- erm, wow these stats are unimpressive, hold on, i got it you are full of untapped magic potential. Besides i¡¯m already bound to you buddy¡±


    Fluer sat and assessed her situation, she snuck to an anomaly because she was curious, touched a book without thinking, and now it is bound to her and keeps talking in her head, quite unprofessionally she might add. She sighed, ¡°look, if i nod and say yes will you shut up?¡±


    ¡°Absolut-¡± this time the tome was the one that was cut off. ¡°Fine, ok i''m the new tome bearer, i will do my duty to learn and protect this almighty tome, and ¡®bring order to the world¡¯ yada yada yada, we good now?¡± Fluer conceded as she retrieved her satchel and threw the book inside, for a nerd, she really doesn¡¯t think things through, huh. And at that moment a glowing light appeared on her neck and left a mark that resembled these symbols ¡Ù¡Þ, and as a coup de grace a new message appeared in her vision.


    [You have just sworn an Oath, breaching this oath will cause IBS (you don¡¯t want that) This oath is a binding agreement and is non-retractable. Upon following the oath for a varied amount of time, you will receive boons for your loyalty. Good luck tome bearer]


    And just like that, Fluer¡¯s day went from bad to worst in record time, and not just for the town of St. Clementine. But as Fluer neared that same town, she soon found out that ¡°a town¡± was now a bit of an understatement