This choice: Kairi, the female human mage • Go Back... Kairi was a young woman of legend. Born to a family of humble librarians, the young Kairi discovered in herself an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. She poured over countless magical tomes, absorbing their wisdom and insight by the dozen each day. By age seven she had already mastered the basics of pyromancy. Not long after her thirteenth birthday, she earned an honorary diploma from the Academy of Elemental Magics, completing her mastery over fire, ice, earth, and air. Alchemy and Restoration came easily to the quick learner, shortly followed by Illusionary magic. Enchantments and Conjuration were little more than child’s play for the up-and-coming seventeen-year-old girl, and at age twenty-three she began creating her own magics by combining the highest artforms of each school.
Yes, at age twenty-five the prodigal sorceress had attained incredible fame and magical power, earning her legendary title: Omnimancer. Indeed, her crowning achievement was the discovery of an ancient spell which could only be cast by one who had mastered all other magics: Eternal Youth. Confident in her abilities, Kairi created the proper magical array and attempted to cast the incantation upon herself, thus assuring a limitless lifetime of seeking knowledge. However, the spell did not cast as she had expected. The young sorceress created the correct runes, spoke the proper incantations, but the spell had no effect. The grand mages of the six schools stood dumbfounded at the failure. In a fit of furious disappointment, they threatened to revoke her title of Omnimancer unless she could perform the ritual. She pleaded and begged, but the magisters abandoned her without another word.
Kairi was not prepared to give up so easily. Although still young, she was determined to reclaim her title through research. Surely there must have been something missing from her practices, perhaps a spell or cantrip slipped past her studying. For weeks she scoured the archives of the six academies to no avail. Kairi returned home in defeat, visiting her parents for the first time in several years. They welcomed her home and consoled their sorrowful but talented daughter. Her father suggested she find something relaxing to read for a change, and she accepted, returning once more to the first library of her studies. It is here that our real story begins…
*****
“Ouch!” For all her cunning, Kairi tended to fit the label of clumsy. She buried her hand into her golden locks, rubbing her head with more than a few curses beneath her breath before bending down to fetch the assaulting book. A soft velvet cover halted her fuming, and the girl examined the strange tome with the keen eye of an appraiser. “Where did you come from?” She had never seen this odd book before, and it bore no writing on its purple, velvet cover. Turning it over, she blew the dust away from its spine, revealing one word carved into the broad spine of the heavy tome.
“Lipomancy? This must be a joke…” The omnimancer sighed and cracked open the book purely out of bland boredom. If this was a ruse, it was an elaborate one. The pages were absolutely filled with diagrams, runes, and magical arrays she had never seen likes of. Unfortunately, none of the writing made sense. The words were all in common tongue, but the syntax was just gibberish. “What madman wrote this nonsense?” Kairi began to shut the book but paused as she remembered all of those ancient tomes written in code. “Could this really be some long-lost form of magic? A seventh school of sorcery?” Still sitting atop a pile of dusty books, the young mage drummed her fingers along the spellbook’s spine, lost in thought. The runes and arrays were useless without the proper incantations, but it was worth some investigation. If by some sort of dumb luck she accidentally discovered the spells missing to cast the Eternal Youth ritual, she could reclaim her title!
“That settles it!" Cracking her knuckles, Kairi opened the creaky, dusty tome once more, landing on a random page near the middle. As it opened, something fell from between the parted pages. It hit the floor with a light clink, drawing the girl’s attention. “What is this?” It appeared to be a solid ring of gold, inlaid with three of the most beautiful garnets she’d ever seen. Even in the dim light of the empty library the ring seemed to shine with a light of its own. “Beautiful…” Captivated by the golden trinket, Kairi unwittingly slipped it over her finger. She quietly gasped when it fit perfectly, almost as if it were crafted just for her! Turning her hand over, she admired the beautiful gold against her fair skin. “It would seem this is my lucky day.” With a contented sigh, the young girl dropped her hand to the book, landing her ring finger directly at the center of an unusual array spanning the whole page. A flash of purple light erupted from the spell tome, swiftly engulfing the girl in its blinding aura.
Whatever spell had activated from her touch left the poor unsuspecting girl unconscious. Before Kairi even awoke, she was no longer in her family’s library. No, the ring and spellbook had actually teleported her away, but where will our heroine’s journey begin?
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