"Jooooon, Ooooooh Jooooon, where are yooooou?" I suddenly heard something absolutely terrifying. Well, you see, this goes back to how I was raised...

The Past...

Ever since my 'reincarnation', all I've done is sleep, eat 'sloppy paste' as food, piss my pants, and cry. I can't even stay awake for more than a few hours before my thinking begins to fade and I faaaaaaaaal ashleeeeeep...

A few Hours Later...

Haa... Haa...Ha, finally awake. See, that is what I was talking about, it is very hard to keep your thoughts in order while taking 4 hour naps every 4 hours! Anyway, currently I can understand a few words like food, and peepee, from the woman who is taking care of me, 'Sylvia'. I know her name because she keeps begging me to say her name, but I can't speak. Get a clue lady, seriously! What does she look like? She's a beauty, an elf... high elf if i was to guess. Normal elves are allowed to roam the world freely, while high elves are considered royalty, and so are kept safe from outside influence on their island nation; Dryadalis. These elves must stay near Yggdrasil (the World Tree), which makes up most of the island, else they form the mark of a tree on their body after 3 months of being away. Which means, if a high elf leaves Dryadalis, they form the mark, and a permanent brand on their body, blatantly stating that they belong to Yggdrasil. Or so the lore says on the forums... and it mostly is true, because I saw the mark on my 'mother'. It is a small one, about the size of an xphone i (just reverse the I and x if u don't get it), and it is on the back of the neck, which she mostly covers with her long, straight, brown hair? Yes she has brown hair, but I'm willing to bet she use some sort of status magic to change the colour (I've learnt British English, sorry) of her hair from golden-yellow to brown to avoid unnecessary attention. My guess is she is hiding from someone, or something. Well, judging by the small size of her mark, she must be born of some consort in the royal palace and ran away to here, and now is hiding from the royal guard pursuing her.

Hmm, now that I think about it, there was one very famous archmage in the game as well, who was born of the 5th consort to his Royalty; Magnitudo. Yes, it is weird how elves call their royals 'high elf', and their ruler ' his royalty'. Anyway, this high elf is supposed to have become the newly appointed head-master of the college of Descite, when the game starts in the year 20,001. Years work differently in this world, apparently 1 year on that planet is about 2.5 years on Earth... something to do with magic is what the forum said. What was his name again... aha he was called Sylma Valhassel.

Anyways, there was also another person who would take 'care' of me, and she would sneak into my room right after Sylcia would go somewhere. She is one hulk of a woman, who looks like a 15 year old girl, who is ripped! All she does, is to sneak into my room, and then hug me so tightly that I can physically feel my HP bar dropping to 1, and just before I pass out, she throws me in the air like a juggler would to a ball, and somehow I always land in the centre of my bed. Her name? Emily Kerkstan! the devil in human form. Just hearing her name makes my skin crawl...

The Present...

As soon as those words were heard in the orphanage, all the children around me ran away as fast as they could. Even Krog and Shem ran away. Who are they? They are popular NPCs in Divinity, as Krog, the first NPC you meet when you start playing, a well-built blacksmith, with a special ability which gets revealed in a secret quest, to be able to use any weapon as though he trained with it for a lifetime. And Shem is the NPC who gives the most lucrative quests in the entire game, because she is the owner of the largest merchant group in all of Divinity. However, it turns out that they were just normal children, and also my best friends through my seven years of this new life. They were so normal, in fact, that Krog was intending to become a travelling merchant, while Shem wanted to become one of the royal guards. Now that would have been a sight to see, but another time. Since they were only 5 when they were discussing this, I decided to intervene slightly, and show Krog the way of the blacksmith by asking him to follow around Bjord, the head smith of the local blacksmith, and helped Shem to choose the path of the money hungry capitalist. Frankly speaking, all I did for her was to whisper to her "Being a royal guard, the maximum salary you can get is about 10 Gold each month. But if you become a merchant, there is no limit... you could even be making 100 Gold each day!" And after that day, their professions were decided by fate, more of my help, but also fate.

Anyway, they all abandoned me upon hearing the words from her mouth. She was coming, and I needed a way out! I could see figures swaying in the shadows. I tried to sense her presence using detection magic, but failed. I know I couldn’t outrun her, so my only options were to stay and fight, which would be suicide, or to preserve my life to the best of my abilities, without caring about face or honour. And so it was decided, I gathered all my will-power to suppress my growing fear, and let out a deafening battle-cry...

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM, Emily is bullying me again!!!!!!!!!"

As soon as I said this, the shadows stopped dancing and a figure dressed in tight leather clothes, a black hood, a white bandana covering most of her face, two sheathed daggers, and a pair of blood-thirsty eye that were glaring at me, came out of the shadows unwillingly. Along with her, another humanoid figure with pointed ears appeared, distorting space behind her. It was MOM! She came to my rescue!

"Emily, why didn't you meet me first when you came back? What are you doing here? Why are you wearing that mask indoors? How was the mission? Come to my room NOW!"

After a long lecture in mother's room, a disheartened Emily left the head mistresses room. I quietly opened the door to try and see what was mom reading.

"What are you doing outside, come in Jon..." she said with a soothing voice.

"Umm, nothing mom, its just that I wanted to know what Emily had returned for. She is always on missions from the guild, so..."

"You see, this was a private mission. I did not go through the adventurers' guild for this mission as it is something very personal. I told her to retrieve a letter for me from the new headmaster of the college of Descite-"

'Wait, why do you have a letter from the headmaster of Descite? Isn't he an Archmage? How do you know him?' where all questions that where wreaking havoc in my mind.

"Oh, I haven't told you yet? My name full name is Sylvia Valhassel."

"Wait, you, wait Valhassel? you mean Sylma Valhassel is you father?!!!"

"Nooooo, you idiot! He's my brother! a very unwanted one at that! It's because of his constant nagging that I fled the college and now am the head mistress at this orphanage. Anyway, it seems some important matters have come up at the college, so I'll have to leave now. I'll meet you at Oppidumpeladus in 3 weeks’ time. Don't forget, you have to depart from here in 2 weeks, else you will be late for the tournament. Be careful my little sugar plum..." She said before vanishing into a tear in space.

And there she goes, teleporting before finishing her words. She is as carefree as always. Wait a minute, now that I think about it, teleport is space magic, which can only be used by advanced elementalists, doesn't that make her an Archmage? Hmmm, but there was no Archmage called Sylvia in the college as far as I can remember... I guess that's the real world for you.

Anyway, I better start preparing for the 1 week long journey...