Chapter Text
The sun shined brightly through the dim windows of the Marevos tower, the dust in the air clearly visible to the naked eye; one ray shone right on the face of a sleeping woman who quickly awoke from the intrusion of the light. She got up with a long stretch and headed over to freshen herself and get ready for her usual routine using some simple magic to do so. She finished up with another big yawn and turned to her wardrobe to change, but stopped when she heard some rustling from behind her.
“Long night Sophia?” Said a deep voice from behind her. “More dark and foggy dreams I’m assuming?”
“Only a few this time, Hatty, they probably don’t mean anything,” Sophia replied as she turned towards the source of the voice. A black hat with a long point, and a disheveled crest made from mulite was propped on her bedpost; a loud huff came from the hat after it turned itself to “look” at her.
“You never know what your dreams could tell you, you have to be more cautious about them. Also I told you not to call me Hatty, it’s Orintiel!” The hat said as it jumped down from the post and hopped over to Sophia.
“My visions only ever show me things that’ll happen to me; so it’ll probably be something like me breaking my leg, or a relative passing away. You know stuff that is unfortunate but I can deal with, not some catastrophic event.” Sophia told Hatty, though she could tell by the way his point was flipped to the side that he knew she was hiding something. Hatty simply huffed again before hopping up onto a desk for Sophia to pick him up.
“I know you’re hiding something but I’ll leave it for now,” Sophia gave Hatty an understanding nod at this as she picked him up and placed him upon her head. She quickly got done changing into her mage robes and headed down the tower, passing by her younger brother’s room in the process but not before hearing a loud bang from inside followed by her brother coughing and swearing. He quickly stumbled out of his room carrying his familiars with him, he stopped in front of Sophia with a look of mild annoyance; Soohia couldn’t help but giggle a bit at his soot covered face.
“So what was it this time, Malikag?” She asked him, stifling her laughter. Malikag sighed deeply and tried his best to dust himself off, though it didn’t help thanks to his thick fur catching most of it all over again. Of Sophia and her siblings, Malikag was the one who looked the most like their father, a lupun, with Sophia looking the most like their mother, a human. The only thing Malikag seemed to have from their mother was her eyes, while everything else was straight from their father. Sophia wasn’t sure if she envied him or not, as his appearance did make most people leave him alone which didn’t sound half bad to her; however the possibility of fleas was a whole other matter.
“If you must know, I have been attempting to create my own offensive spell; it’s a bit of a work in progress, that was attempt number seventy seven, at least this time it didn’t blow a hole in the wall.” Malikag replied with an annoyed growl in his throat, “I will get it eventually I just have to…air out my room…again.”
“Why don’t you practice outside like I do?” Sophia asked him.
“You go outside?” Malikag joked at which Sophia rolled her eyes.
“I haven’t seen you cast a single offensive spell since you bought me,” Hatty suddenly said from atop Sophia’s head. Sophia huffed up at him and flicked his brim, she started helping Malikag clean up his room before continuing back downstairs; she passed Gobbles, the family Myrum on her way down, she saw that he was looking for a belly rub and happily gave him one before she continued on down. When she got down to the first floor she saw her mother and father sitting in the living room discussing amongst themselves. They turned to face her when she entered and smiled warmly at her; her mother, Delilah, stood up to greet her, with her father, Regalo, following behind her.
“Finally awake? I already prepared your lunch for today, it’s in the pantry. Your father caught a nice looking boar yesterday so I decided to make you some spicy sausages to go with the rest.” Her mother said after giving Sophia a hug; her father walked over and gave her a small forehead bump with his nose before heading over to the pantry. He grabbed Sophia’s lunch for her but stopped before giving it to her.
“I think you should bring a dagger with you just in case.” He said, his gruff voice having a hint of worry to it. Sophia chuckled at this and simply walked over to her dad and took her lunch.
“You say that all the time sweetheart,” Delilah said. “Sophia’s just going to go around town to tell the nobles their fortunes, she does this every day.”
“I know but remember what happened to Pennelope just two days ago?!”
“It was just a cat dad, sis is fine.”
Regalo sighed and paused before letting out a small laugh, he looked back at Sophia and gave her a warm hug; Sophia began to head off shortly after, making sure to assure her father that nothing would happen to her as she left; her schedule was the same as always, just go to each of the noble families within Reugland and tell the heads of their houses their fortunes. She headed for the Thrope family first, since they were the ones who ran the town in the first place and were the closest to her home. When she arrived Malain, the son of the house’s head, greeted her warmly which was as she expected from him. Malain was the closest Sophia had to a best friend, pretty much her only friend now that she thought about it, which was odd given how different their personalities were; unfortunately Malain couldn’t stay and talk as he had to go to a business meeting in another town, apparently some of his “training” to become the next family head.
After getting welcomed inside the manor, Sophia was quickly shown to Malain’s father, Lyonair’s, room. No introductions or preparations were needed as Sophia had done this many a time, and she quickly told the man his fortune; how he would be replaced by his son in the near future, and that he would not have to fear for the family falling into disarray with the change. Sophia bid Lyonair farewell shortly after and made her way to the rest of the noble houses after she had her lunch; the day went on like any other for her shortly thereafter with Sophia spending the rest of the day up in her room studying her magic and honing her prophetic skills. It wasn’t long that she was headed to bed, but not before getting a nighttime snack for herself; she saw her older sister Penelope doing the same when she got downstairs.
“How was your day, Sophia?” Penelope asked her.
“The same as usual, go to the nobles, tell them their fortunes, a few of them get mad that their life isn’t going to be perfect, then go right back home.” Sophia replied with a small sigh. “I wish that there was a library here in town, I would happily take a job there even if it was just to clean up the place. Anyway how about your day sis?”
“Oh you know how tavern work is, thankfully no fights broke out today and I did meet a few traveling warriors though. Very handsome men and very nice, unfortunately they already had women back home.” Penelope said with a huff, “why can't any of the men I meet just sweep me off my feet huh? Is the chance to settle down so much to ask for?” She crossed her arms and put on a pouty face that made Sophia laugh a little, the two went back to their rooms afterwards and Sophia quickly slumped down into bed, with Gobbles jumping up to lay beside her; it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep but it was even quicker for her dreams to cloud her mind. The fog in them was nearly gone, but the dark feeling and sharp pains had seemingly grown in frequency; it wasn’t long for her to begin seeing what her dreams had been trying to tell her and in her mind she braced for whatever it was going to be.
Expecting just a funeral for her grandmother or grandfather, she was surprised to see herself wielding a staff and sword she had no knowledge of ever owning, and just behind her were several people she had never met. She noticed that she and the strangers had the same fearful yet determined looks on their faces, but she didn’t understand why until the elven mage to the left of her cast a large shield spell to block a flying boulder. She turned to see what she and the strangers were facing, and saw a large army composed of soldiers from a foreign land and odd malformed creatures; just above the army she saw several silhouettes of people with dim glowing lights in different places on their bodies. Looking closer she saw they were crystals of some kind but she didn’t get to see anymore before she was forced back to her dream self, and through the version of her dream Sophia witnessed a massive black mass of darkness form behind the approaching army and silhouettes. It grew larger and more intense the more she stared before it consumed everything in its path, and not long after the dream, no, the vision went black.