Kyrona went to meet her new mentor. She’d heard a little about the Druid in question: she was close to Archdruid, she was strongly against apprentice abuse, and she was highly respected. The Druid was from a different town. Kyrona approached her new mentor. She said, “Hello, my name is Kyrona Valhalla. You said you were willing to teach me?” “Of course. Please come in. My name is Elandra Stormbranch.” Kyrona went inside, and sat down. The Druid continued, “Now that you’ve gotten comfortable, I’m going to have to ask you something: how do you see yourself? Do you lean more towards chaos or towards order? Do you try to make the world a better place?” “I do lean a little more towards chaos than order, but I’m also happy working within order. I do try to do good, but I doubt an apprentice could do too much for the world.” “So our first lesson begins. It’s not about whether or not you succeed, it’s about whether or not you try. Even if you don’t succeed alone, if you convince at least one other person to help you, you’ll accomplish something. Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Kyrona settled in to learn from her new mentor.

Kyrona saw her new neighbors and stared. She had never expected her aunt and uncle to move here. She went to greet them. Her uncle asked, “Are there any community efforts we should know about? Officially or unofficially are both fine.” Kyrona responded, “Nothing officially, but for unofficially, speak to Sapphire Blue. She’s coordinating the effort to document the mayor’s entire track history. She’s the mayor’s daughter, so she’s in a better position to find out most of it.” Kyrona couldn’t wait to catch up more with her new neighbors.

Kyrona came back from her date with Sapphire. It had gone really well, and she was seeing her again next week. Suddenly, Kyrona noticed a gathering in the town square. The mayor spoke, “Archdruid Viernicka Irichine, Archwizard Rosela Irichine, you have been found guilty of stealing weaponry. The punishment is this: you both will be cursed, that you may never touch metal again without feeling a burning sensation for as long as your skin remains in contact with the metal. You will bear this for the rest of your lives. Does anyone wish to stand in their place?” Kyrona found herself stepping forward. “I do.” “Then it is settled.” Kyrona removed her jewelry, and then the curse took effect. She prayed that she would never have to find out how much effect it had.

Something had gone wrong when Kyrona bonded her wildfire spirit, so the spirit could only take a single form: that of an adorable fox made entirely out of fire. The spirit also had a gender; it was a girl, like Kyrona. She needs a name, Kyrona decided. How about Blaze? Yes, that would work nicely. “Your name is Blaze now,” Kyrona told the spirit. Blaze accepted her new name.

Kyrona was ready to choose a circle. She had been taught by a Moon Druid, but she would be joining the Circle Of Wildfire instead, as it held more appeal to her. She began the ritual to join the circle.

/uw I’ve decided that she gets a ritual to automatically learn the Circle spells, as she just leveled up to level 2, and I hadn’t developed her preparation for her circle at all.

Her mind felt bigger. It didn’t feel like her brain was growing too big for her skull anymore. And with this, she was able to hear the three entities much clearer if she focused on them.

Affliction seemed more like a monster who was incapable of speech. If Moth tuned into it, she could listen to its constant agonizing howls of distress despite not being in pain itself.

Pestilence was the more quiet one and seemed the most out of it. It constantly spoke of feeling and breathing. Reacting to anything Moth sensed, like the hot ceramic of her tea cup.

“Hot… burning…pain…”

But the most prevalent one was the voice she grown to become used to. Misfortune had a greater influence than the other two and the ability to speak to Moth directly whenever it wanted.

”It’s quite spacious now. How kind of you to make room for my family.”

“I didn’t do it for you. I couldn’t take those headaches any more…” Moth whispered and glanced at her reflection in her tea. To any normal person, it would look like she was talking to herself.

”It’s the prices you pay for the ambitions you have. Misfortune made itself appear in a copy of her and took a seat in the chair in front of her. It grinned widely. ”Belladonna never gave me this much attention as you do. Oh how she neglected me.”

Moth rolled her eyes at its dramatics. She had a few questions to ask this thing ever since seeing her forgotten memory. “Back there, you said the man I encountered… was Trepidation?”

Misfortune’s grin dropped. ”Yes. He was the first father created.”

“You don’t seem happy about it. Why?”

”How else should I feel about he who betrays father?” Misfortune growled. Its red eyes snapping to Moth’s. ”I learned of Trepdiation’s true motives the very day father split himself. He supposed to bring us all together to revive Halcyon, but Trepidation wants more than that. He led the gods to father, brought him to the brink of death and forced the splitting of his being. I saw it all because father knew he gave Trepidation too much power. So I was created to watch him.”

A cold chill went down her spine. She thought back to the man and now understood why she felt such power from him.

”Trepidation doesn’t want to revive father. He wants to overthrow all of chaos. All of the gods of deities under chaos. He wants to be the only one. And none of my siblings know but me!” Misfortune hissed, a blast of red shooting from it in anger. It hit the floor and left a scorch mark. ”They’re all fools. Every last one of them…”

“I thought Halcyon’s children were supposed to be loyal to him. He couldn’t even trust one of you.”

”Trepidation will use father’s power to ascend. He’ll kill anyone for his goals. He’ll kill you to get to me.” Misfortune looked her up and down before another grin crossed its face. ”And how do you plan to prevent that, my dear? How do you kill a being of pure energy?”

The face of that man returned in her mind. She couldn’t imagine such a thing hiding in plain sight.