Overview[]
Karinda is constantly overlooked. She sets out to find someplace she might belong.
Characters[]
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story.
Main character[]
- Karinda - a Bard Trainee
Major characters[]
- Bellgrove - mage, possibly adept
Minor characters[]
- Master Bard - instructor
- Innkeeper
- Splendid One
- Companion Arissa - unpartnered Companion
- Companion Ashlen
- Herald Anselm - Ashlen's Chosen
Places[]
- Petras, Rethwellan
- Vitimish, Rethwellan
- Pelagiris Forest
Referenced places[]
Terminology[]
Synopsis (WARNING! SPOILERS!)[]
Karinda is not doing well at her Bardic School in Rethwellan. Her parents gave a heavy donation to the school when Karinda went to become a Bard. She studied hard and practiced, but her playing didn't get better, she couldn't remember complicated songs, and her songwriting was no good. Although she never missed a day of class, her Masters all said that she rarely attended. The teachers and students acted like she wasn't there. She had never really wanted to be a Bard, and was only there at her parents' insistence. She thought to herself, "Somewhere out there is something I'm good at, something that will make people notice me. There has to be." She decided to just walk out.
She hitched rides on carts - the drivers asked her no questions and didn't even ask for money. The innkeeper at Vitimish didn't notice her until he'd registered everyone else. He asked where she was headed, but she didn't really know. The innkeeper mentioned Valdemar, but also told her a rumor of a ruin in the Pelagiris Forest, where an Adept Mage guarded a living node. Karinda knew that after the Storms, concentrated magic was a rarity. But the innkeeper implied that it might make her dreams come true.
After five days hiking in the Pelagiris, she is ready to give up when she finally encounters the mage among the strange ruins of a city. The mage, Bellgrove, says she has a spark of talent, and promises to teach her, although with a leer he keeps saying there's an "easy way." She refuses the easy way, but after two months, Karinda is no better a mage than she was a bard, having mastered only simple kitchen magic: lighting tinder, stirring pots. The adept isn't really teaching her any more, just laughing.
One day he turns up in crimson robes, and she realizes he is offering Blood magic. He insists that he is not. He calls forth a beautiful person, who asks if it's Solstice already. The mage says it's time for an offering - but the Splendid One does not see Karinda, and becomes ugly. Just then, a flash of light shows two horses at the city's edge at the forest - one riderless. The demonic Splendid One is furious, claims Bellgrove, and disappears.
The horses approach, and the rider looks around and doesn't see Karinda. Mentally, she groans. The riderless horse indicates her immediately, and then the rider sees her. The horse, Arissa speaks inside her mind and says she has been looking for her a long time. Karinda is shocked to hear her, knowing that she doesn't have Mindspeech. They say that she has such an unusual Mind-Magic Gift that they don't even know what to call it. He explains it: he saw her, but then his mind "skipped over her." Karinda realizes it explains so much about her childhood. Anselm says that they will train her Gift, and Karinda realizes they mean training a Herald. Arissa says they noticed that she never abused her Gift no matter how much she was provoked. They say it is her choice. As she mounts Arissa, she knows there will always be someone who knows she is there.
Chronology[]
After the Mage Storms