You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.” ((How do you respond?))
Slightly unnerved by the woman, I do as she has indicated, setting down on the cushion with my legs together, knees to the side. Years of harsh tutoring drive me to hold my back instinctively straight, despite the weariness I feel. "I admit," I begin timidly. "The fact that you seem to know who I am, and have even been expecting me, has put me somewhat ill at ease. I thought I had escaped the city unseen."
The tent falls into silence as I await her reply. However, after several seconds of quiet, yet insistent staring from the hag, I decide it probably best to continue.
"I am Anna'leika, though you seem familiar already. I hail from the fallen city of Asul'hilsia, though I remember it not; I was very young when it fell. I was raised in Tala’nor by my mother, Mari. I never met my father. Mother said he was a wood elf, and that he died during the fall. Despite my mixed blood, mother worked hard to have me fitting in. She taught me how to hold myself, how to speak with respect, how only to draw attention when absolutely necessary. It still was not enough. All my life I have been treated as lesser--impure--simply because my father was not highborn. All of my schooling was given either by my mother or by my own research, as my teachers treated me like a child or worse. When I sought a teacher to grant me knowledge of alchemy, I found nothing but cold backs and mocking laughter. Eventually, I had enough. I left, seeking my own path, where I could learn as much as the world would give to offer, without the scornful looks of those people I once counted as my own."
I sigh heavily, having said a lot more than initially intended. "Thus do I find myself here. A wanderer, with neither coin nor comfort of home, all so I could study the ways of magic and nature without fear of scorn from my own kind. Yet my knowledge of this realm proves more incomplete than I initially believed, and I admit to finding myself somewhat at a loss as to where I should go."
