dragonqueen Posted October 31, 2003 Report Posted October 31, 2003 A young girl with shining red hair sat at a large wooden table in a tavern. Bored, she drew designs on the tabletop with her finger, while her mother and father talked with her cousin, Rayon. “Rayon, how do your studies go? And how is your mother?” the girl’s mother asked, leaning foward, eager for news of her family. “My studies are progressing well. In just a year I shall be a full-fledged water mage! Mother is fine. She had a mild cold in the spring, but now she’s right as rain!” Rayon told his aunt. His cousin, not interested in the news, began to talk to herself, muttering nonsense things. The three adults looked at her. Shaking his head, her father said, “Here Flairette, see if you can do anything with this,” and tossed her what looked like a translucent glass ball. It was an element sphere; mages could summon images of their element in it, and it was often used to visualize spells. Flairette caught it neatly, and began to study it. The conversation progressed, but Flairette, occupied with the ball, did not intrude anymore. Holding the ball firmly in her hands, she concetrated on her favorite element, fire. Slowly, a faintly transparent flame appeared in the bauble. The fire grew to fill the entirety of the small glass ball, and Flairette smiled triumphantly. She formed the flame into a fiery unicorn, and her grin grew broader. “Flairette, what’ve you got there?” Her mother leaned over to look at Flairette’s handiwork, and Flairette proudly gave her the bauble. “Why, look, Tirone, look what Flairette’s done!” Flairette’s mother exclaimed proudly. Flairette’s father took the glass ball from his wife. “Amazing! She’s conjured a flame! Arina, she’ll be a mage!” he said excitedly. “Send her to the school when she’s old enough,” Rayon suggested. “She’ll need it. Looks like she’s got a good, strong affinity, and if she doesn’t learn to control it, I reckon she’ll hurt someone.” “Why, of course she’ll get all the schooling she needs! Flairette, you’re going to be the greatest fire mage ever!” Arina said fondly to her daughter. Flairette grinned, pleased by the praise the adults were giving her. She held her parents’ hands as they walked out of the tavern, and the crystal ball lay behind on the table, forgotten. Rayon stopped and picked it up, and as he did a shadow came over it...
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