Chapter 1: 1. A Book of Travels

An excerpt from Master Oberi’s ‘Introduction to the Arcane—A Novice’s Guide.’

“The study of the Arcane represents the Desire of our kind to understand the Mysteries of this realm, to see the Threads that sew together our World and learn to pluck them to great Effect. Through various Means, the Arcane Magi can influence the world around them in Practised and Repeatable ways. Where one sees Effect, a Magi seeks Cause, and means to repeat it. Be that through Oratory, Symbolism, the mixing of Reagents or other means, Arcana encompasses the study of magic as science. The World is but a collection of Parts, working together to create a greater Whole—it is your journey now, aspiring Novice, to understand the working of those Parts to influence that Whole."

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All travels start at the home, the place most familiar and comfortable to the traveller-to-be. As such, this book of travels also begins on one summer’s afternoon in the unremarkable town of Ulumaya, the hometown of a certain mage. At the heart of Ulumaya lay an old school, and in that school lay a classroom. As the sun set on the final day of the school term, weary students made their preparations to leave. While farewells and thank yous were sung and gifts were given and received, the classroom teacher, a mage by the name of Yenna Bookbinder, quietly daydreamed of a summer free from obligations. 

Master Yenna Bookbinder was a kesh—a fairly common race of people whose humanoid upper halves transformed at the waist into a deer-like body¹. Her four hooved legs wore grooves in the wooden floor as she paced about the room, tidying the last of her belongings in preparation of a well-deserved break from her teachings. A long, red braid swished around against her tidy black caparison robes, her plain appearance befitting of a teacher.

In the fading light of the afternoon sun it was easy to call the mage Yenna something of a beauty, though the shade of her pointed mage’s hat did well in hiding the dark circles under her jade eyes. Her soft-featured face was covered in a smattering of freckles, matching her slightly messy red hair and standing out against her fair skin. Yenna brushed a particularly troublesome lock of hair behind a pointed ear with a hand covered in rings as each band sparkled with odd gems or miniscule symbols.

“Did you hear about the group that’s just come into town?”

The relative silence was interrupted by a pair of students who had stayed to help clean the remnants of their celebration. Sanri, an excitable kesh with a penchant for gossip, had chosen to temporarily give up on her sweeping and tidying—evidently she could hold back her excitement no longer.

“Oh, yeah!” Sanri’s friend, a more thoughtful kesh with no less love for gossip by the name of Myell, put down the stack of books she was sorting. “They say they’re looking for a chronicler and researcher for some grand adventure. You don’t suppose they’ll take me, do you?”

The pair broke into wonder at where such an adventure might take them despite how unlikely it would be for either of them to be chosen for such a role. Although Yenna tried to bury her attention in a book, she found herself unable to avoid listening into their conversation. After a few choice glances from their master, both of the students returned to their cleaning—though they couldn’t help but continue chatting.

“Master, do you know anything about the adventurers?” Myell turned to her teacher, ready to drag the mage into the conversation. Yenna sighed quietly and put down her book—it had only been a matter of time before they bothered her about it.

“I’m afraid not. Marking final reports has rather kept me isolated from events, you see.” Yenna gave a bashful smile as she delivered a lie of omission—keeping herself away from happenings, rumours, gossip and goings-on was a full-time occupation. Besides, she didn’t need to go hunting for gossip when Sanri and Myell were around.

“You’re all done now though, right? Why don’t you come see them with us?”

“C’mon, Master! Give us a chance to spend a bit of time with you before we’ve got to leave!”

The two young women fixed their gazes upon Yenna with a pleading look as they persuaded their teacher. Most of the students of the school weren’t actually from the town of Ulumaya—each would invariably return to their hometowns or find work closer to the capital, in places where Yenna would likely never see them again. Though the students and teachers had spent the better part of the afternoon celebrating and saying farewell, the mage couldn’t help but feel that she would be wracked with guilt if she denied them one last little request.

“Alright, alright.” Yenna shrugged, a little defeated. “If you two can hurry up your cleaning, I’ll go and see what all the fuss is about. I can’t deny being a little curious, myself.”

Sanri and Myell turned to each other, each of the girls smiling brightly. With a nod, the pair raced to put the messy classroom to order. The two were wonderfully skilled at the art of begging until it worked, and Yenna couldn’t fault them for their enthusiasm—though she wished they had channelled some of that energy into their studies.

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With the classroom cleaned in record time, the trio made their way towards the town square. The walk was rather swift—they had run into a multitude of other curious students on their way to gawk, and Yenna had done her best to pick up the pace to avoid getting caught in unnecessary conversation. If nothing else, it quickly became clear that this expedition was attracting more attention than just her students’, with many members of the town having dropped whatever they were doing to come see the sights.

It wasn’t that Ulumaya was some small village, or even particularly far from the capital. It was simply so unremarkable that one couldn’t help but wonder why anything as interesting as this expedition had come here. The region was mostly farmland, far from the main roads to the capital or places further afield—in fact, Ulumaya’s only notable feature was the small, relatively recent addition of a mage’s college here. If the expedition had come all this way just to find a mage, then they were either exceedingly desperate or heading completely off the usual trail.

It was one guiding fault of Yenna’s that she didn’t like leaving such a mystery unsolved, which meant she couldn’t bring herself to leave until she had discovered the answer. However, something so crass as simply asking was too akin to beginning a conversation with a stranger, so she carefully directed her students into bothering the crew of the expedition. Sanri and Myell needed little encouragement, and soon descended upon the victim their master had chosen for them.

“Stay back, now. Come, away with ye!” 

A disgruntled man in a stained worker’s coverall blocked the path of the two young mages, and no amount of whining or pleading was moving the mountain of a man aside. He was a yolm—another of the common races, a humanoid characterised by their great stature, strength, and a single horn, each yolm bearing one jutting from their forehead². The man in question easily towered over Sanri and Myell, a black stub of a horn catching the waning sunlight, his fierce countenance seemingly indifferent to the pleading of young women.

Yenna was ready to give it up for a lost cause when one of her students turned partway to point out her master, said a few words and seemingly piqued the man’s interest. His demeanour quickly shuffled from indignant crowd-control to an equally beleaguered ‘why didn’t you say so!’ as he directed the pair to retrieve Yenna. It took a moment for her to realise what was happening, and noticing that it was too late to escape, her heart sank—she was going to have to talk with a stranger.

The mage found her legs acting upon ancient instinct as she began to turn herself away, but the crowd was simply too thick. Before she could apologise to the local baker for nearly bowling her over, her students committed the ultimate betrayal and kindly led her into a social situation.

“So, a researcher of sorts, are ye?” His voice was gruff, his muscular arms making for an intimidating display.

The man towered over Yenna and the mage could feel her back legs trembling. Yenna managed to choke out a response that sounded close enough to a ‘yes,’ and was ushered past the established perimeter and into the main group. Both Sanri and Myell giggled with excitement as they followed the man through the crowd, though Yenna couldn’t do much more than gulp nervously.

Apart from the muscular yolm leading her in, Yenna spotted several more members of the expedition that stood out from the crowd. The most prominent was another yolm woman, shouting orders to both her crew and local help alike. She was easily the tallest yolm Yenna had ever seen, and her sword-like horn curved up into the air another two handspans. 

Behind her was a silupker acting as the group’s porter. A silupker was an unusual creature, each person bearing a largely unique form made of fired clay³, though this one stood out from most—they took the form of a massive millipede, ending in a spherical head. Their back was covered in weighty cargo, though they seemed unfazed by the weight. Yenna couldn’t help but gawk at their size, and she suspected that a lot of the crowd were doing the same—they were long enough to wrap around her house, garden and all with length to spare, and still managed to be tall enough to reach Yenna’s shoulders.

Looking around further, Yenna observed that the majority of the crew were mostly yolm. One of them in particular seemed quite young, his horn not fully grown, and another looked far too old to be travelling with a band like this. Though age had hunched her, the elderly yolm still shuffled along and helped with the rest of the hands. A couple of other hands worked busily, loading supplies onto the back of their silupker compatriot. A greater distance away , there was also a four-armed humanoid with deep red skin and an array of blades at her hips that seemed to glance suspiciously around at the onlookers—hers was a kind that Yenna didn’t recognise.

In the span of the minute or so Yenna had been able to stare around, she had waited alongside her students and their escort for the leader of the expedition to have a free moment. Finally, the tall yolm leader turned from her task and blinked down at the assembled kesh as though she had only just noticed them.

“Muut, who are these people?”

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“Mages, captain. This one claims to be a researcher. Maybe ye would hear her?”

With a nod, a smile and a clap on the shoulder, the captain sent Muut back to his duties. She was a little less than twice Yenna’s height, dressed in practical travelling clothes with a curved sword at her hip. The captain’s red eyes had a kindness to them, despite her face looking as though it had been chiselled out of dark stone. Her black hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, in a fashion that was practical and out of the way. The captain waited expectantly, and it wasn’t until Yenna’s students started nudging her that she realised the woman was waiting to hear her speak.

“A-Ahem. Yes, I am Yenna Bookbinder, a mage of the Arcane and a teacher at the local school. I must confess, I mostly came down to satisfy a curiosity, but–”

“Master Yenna’s whiz-bang at spells! She’s always reading and talking about new and exciting stuff from all over!” Sanri had begun filling in where the master was unwilling. “She’s a mage, a chronicler, a researcher, everything!”

“My my. I find it glowing praise to hear a student talk so fondly of their master. I’m Captain Eone, leader of this expedition. Have you come to sign up? We’re about ready to leave Aulpre entirely, but we’re in desperate need of someone with your skills before we do.”

Yenna froze up, suddenly feeling a kind of pressure. Her students stared at her expectantly and quietly urged her to go on. The captain looked down at her, her kind expression patient and understanding, though still awaiting an answer. If she had come alone, or if she had absolutely no interest, Yenna would easily have been able to turn her down—that is, if the mage had even made it over here in the first place. There was, however, some part of her that wanted this, to go on some wild journey into the unknown, no matter how terrifying—despite that, Yenna couldn’t so much as squeak out an answer of any kind.

“If you need some time to think it over, we plan to leave tomorrow morning.” Captain Eone continued, then shoved a small piece of paper into Yenna’s hands. “This is our plan, such as it is. If we see you before we leave, you’re more than welcome to join us—if we don’t see you, well, we know your answer.”

With a handful of pleasantries that Yenna forced herself through, the mage bid Captain Eone farewell—being careful not to insinuate that there would be a second meeting. Suddenly feeling exhausted, Yenna made her way out of the crowd, Sanri and Myell close behind.

“Wow, master! It sounds like you’ve got the job already!” Sanri looked over the moon—as though she had been the one invited to join the adventure. 

“Isn’t it normally a young hero who goes off on an adventure, not her master?” Myell playfully teased a catatonic Yenna, who simply stared at the words on the paper in her hands. Not getting a response, both students couldn’t contain their curiosity any longer—peering over their master’s shoulders, they read it with her.

The slip of paper contained the vaguest of details for this trek, with no particular destination in mind except for ‘distant and unexplored lands.’ One thing it did make clear was that the expedition wouldn’t be returning to Ulumaya any time soon—the expedition was to take a vague, meandering path through small towns, winding its way through scenic countryside towards the neighbouring nation of Milur. All in all, it bore a startling lack of specifics.

After seeing her students off, Yenna returned to her own home. It was a modest little place, just big enough for the reclusive mage to be comfortable, but it was home all the same. As she settled down, her hat found its usual home on the hook behind the door, along with the ribbon that bound her long plait—her frizzy red-brown locks cascaded unhindered down across her shoulder blades.

In front of her mirror Yenna looked herself over as she changed clothes. The pale skin of her upper half was a sure sign of a lack of sunlight, contrasting heavily with the covering of light brown fur on her lower half. Thin arms and a lack of muscle showed her usual commitment to exercising the mind over the body, though she felt like the exercise of life on the road might change that. With a quiet laugh, she shook her head—it felt as though she had already made half her mind up about going on the journey, and simply needed a small push to convince the other half.

Slipping on a loose shirt, Yenna began to mutter a series of arcane phrases alongside a series of gestures with ring-covered hands. She cast several spells in sequence, causing a flame to come to life under her cooking pot and vague, shimmering forms to methodically prepare a simple soup. With another gesture, the lanterns in her reading room came to life and filled the area with gentle, flickering light.

Her spells complete, Yenna pulled out two books from the bookshelf. The first was a heavy, untitled book bound between two sheets of black, lacquered wood that Yenna used as her personal spellbook. All Arcane mages utilised a spellbook - one could only remember so many spells at a time, so it was a practical necessity for a mage to write down the gestures, incantations and material requirements where they could be referenced. The other was an old, well-loved hardback titled Master Oberi’s Introduction to the Arcane—A Novice’s Guide.

While Yenna had long since completed her magical training—and had become a reasonably proficient Arcane mage herself—this old tome still found ways to offer the most useful little bits of advice. Its most useful feature was the intuitive, careful explanations on how to alter existing Arcane spells to perform other similar functions. Despite her ability to quote every passage in the book from memory, Yenna still had a fondness for reading Master Oberi’s words directly.

Looking over the creased pages and memorised passages, Yenna wondered about the future. She started with a simple question of ‘what spells would make travel easier,’ and threw herself into a pit of questions, problems and arcane equations. Arcane magic was often referred to in terms of a puzzle—extremely simple building blocks came together to make increasingly more complicated machinery, with the usual barb of the instability of magic making it all infinitely more frustrating for a novice. An Arcane mage was like a mathematician, if her numbers were living things that wriggled, squirmed, and metamorphosed out of one’s grasp.

The moon had begun to set by the time Yenna extricated herself from her research, and her bowl of stew had long grown cold, untouched. With a sigh she realised her fatigue and readied herself for sleep. She drank her stew as it was, leaving her books a mess in the reading room, and curled up into her bedding. Having failed to come to the all-important conclusion of whether or not she would join the expedition, Yenna decided to practice the time-honoured tradition of the anxious and leave the decision for the morning.

One of the many useful abilities available to an accomplished mage was the ability to retain some awareness while dreaming. A byproduct of mental discipline, this lucid dreaming enabled Yenna to use her sleeping time to work through problems. In the hazy realm of her dreaming mind, Yenna galloped through a dream-blurred vision of open roads and pondered her favourite reading nooks. What dangers would she encounter? Even on the patrolled roads, it wasn’t unexpected to find a stray beast or a quarrelsome ruffian—though, a meeting with a strange creature could be fascinating in its own right, despite the threat of tooth and claw. What would become of her home? It wasn’t uncommon in town to leave a spare home open to guests, so it would hopefully not be an issue—even if she would miss it.

Yenna wandered down an imagined road, thinking about how she had approached this point to begin with. Apart from her years spent in the capital city of Sumadre studying to be a mage, she had never travelled. In fact, she had spent nearly all her life in the quiet town of Ulumaya. All that time, she had read about distant lands, foreign wonders, brilliant sights and sounds and smells that existed in an unreachable distance beyond the borders of her home. Yenna Bookbinder had earned her epithet quite early in life—she read books of all kinds as if they were planning to escape if not read that very instant, and learned how to bind pages together to repair well-loved tomes. Yenna had read just about everything she could get her hands on, but the books that had taken her attention the most were the books about far-off lands.

When the chance for her to study in the capital had arisen, Yenna had spent frustrated days in panic at the prospect of going alone to some new place. This time, she wouldn’t be going alone—and she wouldn’t be quite so unprepared. If things went awry, she could always turn tail and leave, knowing full well that her spells and abilities would keep her safe. Even in the comforting haze of her dreams, she could feel her determination rising—she wouldn’t repeat her fretting from leaving home the first time, she would simply go and not even give herself time to panic.

Come morning, her mind was made up. Yenna picked up her dust-covered travel bag and clapped her hands together. The cobwebs shook from it, the dust and crumbs fleeing in terror as the enchantments on the leather satchel rumbled to life once more. With a sweeping wave of her hand and a string of incantations, the treasured items of her home danced free from their places and poured into the open mouth of the bag. Books, scrolls, writing pens and scribing brushes, pouches of reagents and little containers of magical materials, cutlery and cups, blankets and pillows, spare sheets of paper and everything else made its way inside the enchanted container. In a matter of minutes, the whole house looked bare except for the essentials.

She dressed herself in a mage’s traditional travelling gear. Yenna donned a white button-up blouse subtly embroidered with tiny golden stars and moons, along with a navy blue caparison patterned quite liberally with images of mystical creatures. Her pack was bound across her lower half’s back, and she tied her hair into a singular long plait, its end bound with a navy blue ribbon. Her pointed hat completed the look—there could be no doubt she was a mage. 

She glanced back at her home one last time. As almost an afterthought, she hastily scrawled instructions to care for the house, which she tucked into the frame of her neighbour’s door. The old lady that lived next door was already quite fond of having a second garden to tend to, and now she had herself a second building to have guests. With everything sorted, Yenna made her way through the town to meet up with the expedition group. When she arrived, Captain Eone was in deep conversation with the silupker porter and a mereu woman seated on her shoulder—a tiny creature, only slightly taller than the captain’s enormous handspan, with wings on her back much like that of a sparrow.

“A kesh? Really? Are you sure they won’t bolt at the first sign of trouble? We haven’t the time to chase her down if she flees.” 

The mereu’s shrill tone and deep frown spoke volumes. A series of chiming sounds echoed from the porter, and the tiny creature’s brow furrowed even further until one of the silupker’s antennae gestured in Yenna’s direction. The mereu turned and looked Yenna dead in the eye, still making her disapproval clear—the captain clued into the fuss and looked over, a beaming grin on her face. With a simple beckoning wave of her hand, the captain welcomed the new arrival.

Just like that, on what felt like a summer’s whim, Yenna Bookbinder took the first steps on her travels.

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¹ - Kesh are somewhat unusual amongst the various peoples of the world, being culturally without assigned genders. Being hermaphroditic, they instead have a softer short-hand for one’s appearance that can be changed, ignored or defied at will. A fair kesh is what you might imagine as softer and calmer, a fine kesh is noble and refined, and a rough kesh is, well, rough. In this text, I have used feminine pronouns for most kesh as a largely evocative choice.

² - A yolm’s horn is a matter of identity—no two horns are the same, though they may have extreme similarities. A yolm child is born hornless and grows a horn over the first several years of their life.

³ - Silupker bodies are made of hollow segments of fired clay. Depending on the region the silupker is from, they may be made of different kinds of clay—typically, a silupker has a body made of something like terracotta or earthenware. Far sturdier than they look, but still prone to chipping and cracking, silupker are a mystery to many—including silupker themselves.

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