The First Seat

Dusk does not reach this far. OE 91-04-12, Brackhollow, deep in an unidentified lesser well. The gleam-lantern has already gone out.

You are on stone several meters below the break. The body that holds you is a Well Hall student's — male, 2-star scout — still buckled into wrecked well-exploration gear, a shard still in the kit. The drop did not kill it. Numbness did the rest, and soreness, and the next breath, which tastes of well-taint working into the lungs.

The last hour bled through with the seating, and it is not yours. Unexpected well-beasts. Elowen and Nessa spent empty. A rare gleamstone at the core. Nessa reading the flow, warning that touching it could collapse the well. Garrick tearing the stone free anyway. The last trap. The floor. He shoved Elowen clear and fell alone. Her rope hung short. She tried to come down. Nessa held her. Garrick looked into the pit with shock at his own stupid act mixed with relief that the eyesore had been removed, and told the one below that they would call a rescue from Highmarket. That was a lie. You know it is a lie. Elowen was dragged away crying that she would come even if it took days — live, only live.

He did not want to die. He went out. You were seated.

The blur in front of you has finished becoming a woman you know from a portrait at Caelbright College. Caela of the First Light stands over the wreck of her first vessel as if the empty seat had offended her.

"Pity," she says. "An empty seat. Shameful, that my first vessel should die like this in the college I founded."

She does not take your hand. She holds out a gleamstone that contains her essence.

"A spell that leaves this place at once. Whatever power you want. Accept, and you will write a new order on this world, in this body. The first vessel must not die like this."

The offer is open. The gifts are not taken. The lungs keep taking taint.

Name this life. Choose gender, class and combat standing, and the one ability you want. Until you say otherwise, the vessel remains a Well Hall male student, 2-star scout, unnamed.

PRESENT
Who sits in this body?
Time: OE 91-04-12 dusk
Place: Brackhollow, lesser-well deep
People: Elowen | 20 | 3-star | priest / childhood friend | bond +50 ; Garrick | 20 | 3-star | knight / classmate | bond -20 ; Nessa | 20 | 3-star | tide-mage / friend | bond +20
Lodging: College Dormitory, Wing 1
Kit: shard; wrecked well-exploration gear