Lyndross Origin

Inella had rescued Lyndross when she was a prisoner. It was during a war between Hokurr and Ko’fell when fire twisted in the sky, incorporeal dragons of doomed strength. Lyndross was the youngest of three sisters in a family made wealthy from mercantile. When she was 14 her mother dragged her out of her room in the hillside mansion she called home. A posh fur pelt was wrapped around her neck to match her mother and two sisters. They all wore deep shades of blue and purple, sitting still for hours so that a painter could make a family portrait. Her mother’s smile had been so austere, almost a frown, lips tightly pressed together. ----These were not those times.

The painting prior mentioned had been knocked askew, lighted on fire as Lyndross had her home raided by soldiers from Hokurr. Her mother lay dead in the hallway, throat sloppily slit. Her last words had been “Girls, run!” Then, she fell limp. A wealthy rock, but a rock has no wealth, and neither do the dead. Generational wealth was a question. Would any of the girls live to inherit? Their father had died outside the house, trampled over as soldiers flooded the house. Lyndross’s eldest sister had died sending Lyndross and her other sister out of the escape tunnel. In a heroic act, the eldest sister threw the key that unlocked the door to the escape tunnel through the vestibule. The key landed somewhere in the dark brown dirt of the tunnel. The eldest sister said “go” before she locked the door to the escape tunnel permanently. Lyndross could not see through the door, could not see her eldest sister adopt a limp posture, slide down to the ground with her back pressed to the door, her hands covering her crying eyes.

Lyndross and her living sister were eventually found, just a few days after they had escaped. They were taken prisoner by Hokurr soldiers. Lyndross lost her last sister to a famished sickness that ravaged the concentration camp they were corralled within. All Lyndross knew how to do was cry and dig holes. The soldiers made Lyndross dig holes in exchange for eating, which she often refused. The soldiers never told Lyndross that what she was digging out would become a mass grave.

After weeks as a lonely prisoner, Lyndross was out of hope to hold and to have. This is when Inella showed up. The plan had been to attack the camp that Lyndross was at to free as many women as possible. The team was small, just a two woman squad of Inella and Nehaynosh. Nehaynosh would later be wounded in such a way that practicing magic became harder.

Small trees had been chopped down and skinned, shaved at the head and then planted in the ground in a wide circle to protect the labor camp. They were the white teeth of a slumbering giant. Guards walked cautiously along the unsturdy planks at the top of the teeth to watch guard. The camp was deep in a forest, completely isolated from anything. Inella had caught word of it from a soldier she had captured, one who was moving from the camp that Lyndross was at to a new post up north.

The steel caps of the soldiers covered their noses- made them look like thin stemmed mushrooms. They wore stoles of bright red over chain mail while sweaty, sooty men worked shirtless in the camp building ballista, catapults, and siege machines. There was only one entrance to the camp, a gap in the round smile, an absence of two teeth. The entrance was narrow, watched from guards above, and guarded constantly by men on the interior of the vestibule. It was barely wide enough for the sweaty, sappy, bark covered, shirtless men to carry logs through. They worked tirelessly chopping the trees down (which were a kilometer away). The captain of the guard had once proclaimed that no tree within a kilometer should be chopped because the natural defense of the forest around the fort should not be edited or disturbed.

Inella and Nehaynosh waited for the midday guard switch. They had scouted the camp for several days and memorized when the guards changed posts. The sun was high in the sky, shining down on the pine trees, cutting a smooth line of shadow that differentiated from the sunshine on the upper branches. They went in palms blazing, fireballs hitting soldiers square in their mushroom heads. The metal helmets of the guards turned into ovens. Inella went into the encampment first, her back pressed against the log wall. Then she stepped forward, aiming fireballs at the soldiers inside the circle. Nehaynosh snuck in behind Inella and went to the girls in chains. Nehaynosh cut through the chains with a superheated finger, a magical saw. She cut slowly so that she did not burn the imprisoned girls. Nehaynosh pointed at Inella and asked each girl, “do you see that woman over there who is fighting the people who are holding you prisoner? She is here to save you. Her and I are both here to save you. If we take you with us, will you promise to learn and practice magic with us? We women live together with no men. Will you come, sister?” When Nehaynosh got to Lyndross, Lyndross listened attentively. Lyndross nodded her head, and Lyndross left with Nehyanosh and all the other girls, sneaking along the wall, under the protection of a spell that was acting as a stone barrier. Inella stood in front of the grey, smooth, cylindrical-arching barrier. She shot lightning at men who peaked around the corners to line up shots with a bow. She hurled discs of flame at men advancing behind their shields. She ducked and juked and danced gracefully around the inner circle of the camp, not a single man could hit her with anything. Not from close, not from far away. A few soldiers pretended to be dead- laid on the ground… but only a few soldiers. Inella met back up with Nehaynosh outside the circle of trunk teeth. The camp was now white, gleaming, and bubbling sap in fire heated sunlight.

“Are you okay, mother?” Nehaynosh asked Inella. Inella had quite the stoic composure put together for herself just moments after killing several men.

“I am what they are not.” And that was all Inella said. Lyndross heard that and immediately respected Inella. She thought that someone who could compose themself so completely would be a good role model. Lyndross did not always agree with Inella’s tactics, but she never for a moment thought to usurp her. Lyndross owed Inella her life, and she owed Hokurr and all the other warring nations a bath of blood.

Childhood

As a child, Inella loved the idea of magic. She didn’t understand why it was outlawed; it made all tasks more practical. Chores could be finished with the flick of a wrist, and food could be cooked away from a fire pit. Inella was yet to understand how systemic patriarchy worked to oppress all women. A curious, and sharp-witted child, Inella spent much of her free time in the vast libraries at Palace Celith. The average child in the kingdom of Celith was illiterate, and besides that? starving, poor, and dirty. Inella was forced to be clean, forced to read, and ate in extravagance. Much of Inella’s life was thrust upon her, it left her with little room to make the choices of an individual, so the greatest choice that Inella ever made was leaving her home. She wouldn’t leave home for many months after studying voraciously.

King Eric put his daughter down to bed at night, and she would wait until he left- then wait a little longer. She would sneak to the library and study, read, make flash cards, copy important passages, and dream. Inella went straight to the library of the arcane, which was locked to her, and everyone else in the palace besides the court wizard of Celith, Segaris Wiseborn. Within the library of the arcane were enough books on magic to last any wizard a lifetime, and Inella thought at first that she would spend a lifetime sneaking into the library of the arcane and reading. There were so many books that if she were to steal one, it would go unnoticed. When she became brave enough to take a book out of the library to her room- a book on resurrecting that which was dead, titled: Black Magic Vol. 6 (it was the final volume in a set of books that taught the most abhorrent of all spells)- she heard the next day that Segaris performed a spell each day which accounted for the thousands of books on magic being in their precise place.

“Someone has taken a book from the arcane library, my king.” Segaris Wiseborn said to King Eric. Segaris was dressed in a blue tunic, it did nothing to hide his paleness, or his nearly bald head. King Eric was shaken by this news, knowing how sour the repercussions could amalgamate themselves to be. His golden armor clinked together as he moved his hand off his great sword. Eric turned to face Segaris, who was at his side. King Eric’s sun of full blond hair was a glorious contrast to Segaris’s bleak winter of near baldness. Each had equally cold blue eyes. Inella’s cold blue eyes were straight from her father. The eyes of a leader. Of a killer. For most leaders are killers, but most killers weren’t leaders.

“Who was it, Segaris?” Eric asked, his words calculated. Eric was a king who had made too many mistakes to ever let words pour from his mouth without them being calculated.

“I believe it was your daughter, Inella, my king.” Segaris’s expression was grim. It was common sense not to accuse a king’s daughter of a crime. Segaris knew that Eric would not be brash towards him, but that knowledge did not improve the slouch in his posture, or the caution in his measured sentence.

“Leave me. I will speak with her.” Eric got up from his throne and left the throne room and all of its components unattended. The strategy map, the laws yet to be signed, the wine goblets, and the purses of gold coins all unattended, the high wooden arches and long windows were left unattended. Inella’s door had no lock. The king intruded into his daughter’s room while she sat on the floor, played with a doll, looked entirely harmless- innocent.

“Hello, father. What are you doing here?” Inella asked her father sheepishly. Eric ignored his daughter’s question and began to rummage around her room in search of the stolen book. “Are you looking for something, father?” Inella had always been smart, and had not hidden the book of tainted magic away in her own room. Of course, she had done this without the slightest idea that she would be found out by anyone, it was rather obvious to her that keeping a book of definite evil in her room would not make for a pleasant discovery by anyone, and she even had a slight superstition that the writing between the pages could corrupt the ambiance of her room; it was a subtle fear, but even the most subtle of fears can attract a warranty, or other protections.

The king left without finding anything . Inella was confused, but had a general idea that the book of spells was what her father was looking for. She decided that she would have to be more careful in her search for arcane knowledge. She would stay out of the library for the next few weeks, and when she came back, she would use her literacy to replicate the information of the books into her own personal journals, so that she wouldn’t need to take anything out of the library.

Inella’s relationship with her father had always been from a distance. Naturally, the king did not have time for his children to begin with, but he spent the least amount of time with Inella out of the lot of them, six children in all. When Inella would eventually leave her home, leave her father? She would not hesitate in any way. Her father made Inella want to leave more than he made her want to stay.

Inella was the second youngest, she was only older than her sister Lucille, whom everyone fondly referred to as “Lucy.” Inella and Lucy were very close. Inella had been a good baby, and as she grew up she wasn’t bad, but she was overly curious. Her curiosity led her to build things like a trap that accidentally maimed Lucy’s cat. Her lifelong curiosity led to her interest in magic. Something that was illegal for women, and for most men. Inella didn’t see the point in the laws about magic, though. In fact, magic laws were the only laws Inella had ever put any effort into studying, although at this point in her education she should have known about most every law. But laws are meant to be broken, especially if it is a woman who is to do that sweet thing called ‘breaking.’

Inella unrolled a crumpled piece of paper that had a spell written on it. The way that the spell was performed was by concentrating on the energy that came from the stomach, and by moving your wrists in small circles. The result of the spell was that someone would feel a crippling hunger. It was a nasty trick that Inella was looking forward to playing on her brother after he had finished a meal. Her brother Eric II was always eating, so it would be extra funny. Her father would be angry with him for asking for more food, and his mother would scold him.

That’s what Inella thought would happen, that he would only be scolded. Instead, what happened when she cast the spell on Eric II and he went back into the dining room to tear off a pork leg; Eric II rapidly gnawed at the meat until he got down to the bone. At this point his face started turning green, and he threw up all the pork he had just eaten and then some. Inella stopped the spell immediately. She RAN to her room distraught. Inella considered what happened- how she had made her brother vomit, and she decided that she wouldn’t cast any spells that could have gruesome or harmful side effects on people. How long do you think that would last? Considering Inella would sacrifice someone from her own brood in order to perform a revival spell years later.

Eric II came into Inella’s room, clearly upset. He had not knocked or announced himself in any way. The way he announced himself was by grabbing Inella by the hair and lifting her up to face him.

“You cast some kind of spell on me, didn’t you?!” Eric II screamed at his sister. Inella flailed her arms about helplessly, clearly overpowered by her brother.

“Eric, I don’t know what you’re talking about! Let go of me.” Inella said with a mix of pain and anger.

“Everyone knows that you have been stealing spells from the Court Mage, Inella, don’t pretend like I’m an idiot.”

“Eric, I didn’t steal anything, and I didn’t cast any spells on you. Put me down, you’re hurting me!” Inella started to hit Eric’s arms in an attempt to free herself from his grip.

“Prove it, you witch.” Eric II sneered. Inella’s mother came in the door, reacting to all of the screaming.

“Let go of your sister, Eric.” Eila said to her son. Eric II immediately obeyed, fearing his mother would scold him. Eric II was at the point where he could overpower his mother, but he knew that if he raised a finger to his mother his father, King Eric, would beat him into submission. “What is going on here?”

“Eric stormed into my room and grabbed me! He says I’m a witch.” Inella quickly proclaimed. Eric II looked surprised, even though all of it was truthful.

“It isn’t true, mother!” Eric II exclaimed in a believable lie. Eila looked on at her son with suspicion.

“Who am I supposed to believe? My daughter? who I saw being held up by her hair? Or my son, who was holding someone by the hair? And there was a great deal of yelling in all that, besides you being the aggressor, Eric.”

“I’m sorry mother… I’ll leave.” Eric knelt down on one knee, begging his mother to let him walk free.

“You’ll have to apologize to your sister first. And when you apologize to Inella, I want you to mean it.” Eila wagged her finger sternly at Eric II.

Inella had no idea how much she needed her mother in her life; on the day her mother would die, Inella’s tragedy would be high drama . Informed by such grieving fits of pain, black clouds of suicide would swirl quickly in her thoughts. Bolts of lightning shot through the holes in donuts- holes of dark grey. Eric II turned to Inella and put on his best fake smile.

“I am sorry, Inella.” Eric said meekly. Eila looked at her son, seeing through his empty apology. She often told her children that ‘where a simple apology is weak, it can be strengthened with a promise, or an offer.’ And thus, Eric II continued to his sister “If you want, you can play knights with Dorin and I in the courtyard today.” Inella’s eyes lit up at Eric’s comment. She so very much loved to hit people with sticks- loved plaything swords.

After Inella was finished playing with her brothers, she came back to the comfort of her room. The ambiance was pleasant, but it was not representative of Inella’s personality; there was too much pink, too many soft things. Inella found one of the spell journals she had hidden in her room (this one was hidden conspicuously behind other books on the top shelf of her personal library). The journal was a worn brown leather with few pages in the binding. Inella had inscribed the most important thing for any magician to know on the first page of the journal: the three keys. The three keys to magic are a chronological guide to casting almost any spell. The first key is imagination; you have to imagine yourself doing something magical- imagine perfectly what the spell will look like/be. The next key is concentration, the step which focuses the magic in your body. The final key is creation- you need to make the magic out of the energy you have concentrated.

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Boats

“Inella, I’m not sure if I can manage on my own.” Nehaynosh said. Inella, who was standing behind her, was watching Nehaynosh attempt to construct a boat out of lumber. The injury Nehaynosh had suffered while rescuing Lyndross years ago had injuries compounded over it, and now novice magic that she could have done in her sleep was difficult.

“My darling, you know that we need these ships if we are to sail to Cullah. You want to see your people again, don’t you? You haven’t seen anyone since the diaspora. Inella walked underneath the floating planks. If Nehaynosh lost her concentration, the lumber would fall onto Inella. This was an added incentive to succeed, even though Inella would easily be able to push all the wood away so that none of it would fall on her if it came to that; Inella was in no real danger, but that’s not what Nehaynosh thought in the heat of the moment.

“Why can’t we just hold a conference in smoke?” Lyndross asked. Lyndross stood to the right of Nehaynosh, and she was also attempting to assemble a ship. Inella took the opportunity of Lyndross posing a question to walk underneath Lyndross’ construction, and pressure her. A ‘conference in smoke’ is a conjuring spell where a fire is lit in two places, and people can communicate through the smoke that results from the fires.

“It’s very simple, Lyndross. The chief of Cullah prefers we meet face to face. Nehaynosh would know, she can tell you- she grew up with their customs. I could easily construct all of the ships needed. However, it behooves you to practice a spell like this; they will be useful in the war to come.” Inella walked back under Nehaynosh’s boat. “Lyndross has an excuse considering her age. She hasn’t had the time to master telekinetic spells, you on the other hand, Nehaynosh, have had ample years to master telekinesis. And I don’t want to hear a rebuttal of your age restricting your power, Nehaynosh.” Inella had the most affection for old Nehaynosh out of all the witches under her service, but that did not mean she received any special treatment. What it meant was Inella expected Nehaynosh to be astute, masterful, and focused at all times, because she was the only person Inella trusted enough to do a task without supervision.

There were certainly witches who had more responsibility than others, but none ranked as high in Inella’s favor as Nehaynosh. Ihe was an incredible ritualist, but struggled with quicker sorcery. Ihe had been with Inella for several years, and in being reliable in that time, Ihe also was given quite a bit of responsibility in the conclave. Lyndross was almost the opposite of Ihe, quick tempered and always casting her spells as fast as she could. Lyndross was a superb fighter, capable of killing (or injuring) quickly. However, Lyndross had the seeds of disrespect within her, and was not accountable. Lyndross was suspicious and skeptical, always wanting proof of something. Kota was the only member of the conclave from Luzan, and was in the conclave for a vastly different reason than almost every other woman. In Luzan, voodoo was commonly practiced, although publicly taboo, it happened in the dark of the city, walking backwards up its underbelly. Kota had sought out Inella because the voodoo conclaves of Luzan thought that Kota was too much of an extremist (and they didn’t like that she was a cannibal), so Kota fled her city to find the caves at Leired and the conclave that waited there for her.

While Kota was inclined to do her dark magic at any cost, nothing she had ever done went against Inella’s will or overall plan. Kota was a powerful witch, one of the most powerful in the conclave, and had quite an amount of responsibility. Although she refused to be put to the bureaucracy of having to teach every witch in the conclave about voodoo, she did allow one understudy. Kota’s understudy was Nestelle, who hailed from the mountains north of Zoboru. Nestelle was one of the few women also from Nehaynosh’s home region. Using everything Nestelle had learned (and continued to learn) from Kota, Nestelle taught all the apprentice witches about voodoo. Very few had success in anything beyond the basics.

Similar to Kota, Ihe was often too busy with her own rituals to teach the other witches, so Ihe took on an understudy. Ihe’s understudy was Beyla, and Beyla taught ritual magic to any who desired to learn. Lyndross was the finest student of sorcery that Selena, who was the teacher of battle sorcery, had taught. While Lyndross was undoubtedly a faster magician, Selena knew a greater range of spells and was actually willing to teach. Lyndross was only ever willing to debate.

Many of the younger girls in the conclave were scared of Lyndross because she always looked angry; she was always yelling and stomping her foot impatiently. Everything came so quickly to Lyndross, and when it didn’t come just as quickly to others, Lyndross became ill-tempered. There were rumors around the cave that Lyndross was actually a blonde, but her attitude made her hair red.

Then there was Dremeira, who was the witch in the conclave most knowledgeable on the subject of druidism. To be a druid was, in its most base properties, to have a heightened understanding of nature. The greatest of philosophers would debate if such a thing was actually magical, or more spiritual, but what Dremeira could do was certainly magical. A basic druid could feel inside of a tree, or sense out an animal. Dremeira could communicate with wildlife, both plants and animals. This was a level of druidism few reached, as druidism was a hard magic to learn; it was intuitive. On top of communicating with animals, Dremeira could turn into one, a cougar, a fish, or a seagull- perhaps more, her powers were unknown (she was inadvertently secretive, hermetic, and feral). Few druids had been as strong as Dremeira, but most druids were hermits, so the data was hard to gather. Dremeira taught the aspects of druidism to any woman or girl who could learn it, if only even just a touch of the form.

The last three teachers are June/Heather/Rasha. June taught shamanism, which can be boiled down to elemental magic. June had the tan skin of a Namellian, small brown eyes, wispy eyelashes, but thick eyebrows. She had a smile that looked like a frown, but a laugh that was universally pleasant. Heather taught healing magic.

Out of all the girls that came to the Caves at Leired, most of them wanted to be healers. Heather had the most students, and was decisively the most overworked of the teachers. In the time that she had off teaching she was often required to heal someone. Heather was one of the few who could fix grave injuries. Before Heather became a witch, she was a midwife- a natural healer.

Rasha was the illusionist teacher. You might think that being an illusionist teacher and all that she would be hard to find- and you would be right. Rasha was the oldest of all the teachers, older than Nehaynosh as well. She had brown skin, wrinkly biceps, and curly grey hair. She was often propped up against a wall, sometimes invisible, sometimes not.