"The Long Way Around"

Princess Carly of the House Rotan watched the sun rise up from behind the watery horizon. Every morning for the past 12 years -- since the morning of her 6th birthday -- she'd come out here while the dark sky was still awash with stars to watch the new day begin. But as breathtaking as each new dawn was, there was something else that would draw Carly's attention once the day had begun.

She walked the gravelly path to reach a point where she could look north across the Strait of Death. Ten miles distant, a similar rocky cliff shore was visible, dark and jagged and ominous. It was the southern edge of the Kingdom of Rotan, the land of her birth. It was a land from which she'd been exiled since before she'd taken her first steps or spoken her first words. And it was a land to which Carly knew she would one day return.

Yet as near as Rotan was, she knew she would never reach it by simply boarding a boat and crossing the narrow water passage. Many men had tried to cross the Strait of Death before, only to again and again remind themselves and others of how the waterway had gotten its name. Fishermen, adventurers, fortune seekers, and soldiers still loyal to the House Rotan despite its fall from power almost two decades earlier had attempted to cross the Strait. But no one had completed the short journey. Few, in fact, had ever returned at all. And those who had returned with tales of long tailed sea monsters who broke ships into kindling and wide winged flying creatures who snatched sailors off ships with talons the length of swords.

No, if Princess Carly was ever to return to her homeland she wouldn't be crossing a narrow strait of water but would instead be taking the long way around, by land. She looked to her left to the Inner Gulf around which the arc shaped island wrapped. The land was shaped very much like the first letter of Carly's name, an curve that began here in what was now known as South Point, circled around for over 200 miles, and ended in what was once the Kingdom of Rotan but was now more often than not spoken of in hushed tones as the Black Magic Mountains. It was a trek that no one had made during Carly's lifetime, but it was one that she'd sworn to complete since -- at age 8 -- her mother's death had left Carly both an orphan and the heir to the Kingdom of Rotan.

But before Carly could even contemplated such a dangerous adventure, she needed something that thus far she had been unable to find in South Point: a hero.

(This role play is closed.)

He was a Mage who had been born Wallace of West Riverdale, but for most of his life those who knew of him had called him Wally the Wizard. It wasn't meant as a term of endearment, though. The words were usually spoken with a snicker and a smirk.

Most of those who knew Wally didn't have much appreciation for his magical ability. First, most thought he was just a magician, not a Mage; a sleight of hand artist. He'd often attempted to explain and demonstrate the difference between a magician and a Mage. But Wally tended to get nervous when confronted with skepticism. And when he was nervous, his abilities deserted him, leaving him standing there shrugging with a dumb expression on his face.

Even worse than the skeptics, though, were those who believed Wally truly had magical powers. Magic wasn't well appreciated these days, not after what had happened in the Kingdom of Rotan.

Rotan...

People didn't talk openly about what was now called the Black Magic Mountains much anymore. But shortly after he'd arrived in South Point seeking work, Wally heard people talking about a Princess from Rotan. He didn't believe such talk, of course. Wally had never met anyone from Rotan, and he'd been wandering about from town to town, County to County, Kingdom to Kingdom for most of his life. Yet after making inquiries about the woman Wally had learned that not only was she a Princess of Rotan, she was the Princess of Rotan, the heir to the Kingdom. And she wanted to return home!

"Maybe you should ask her for a job," one villager offered when Wally asked about the Princess. The villager laughed, and his companion joined in, "I'm sure your great magic is more powerful than that of the Wizard of the Black Magic Mountains. You could save us all!"

Wally was offended, but he wasn't sure whether it was because the two were mocking his abilities or the Princess's desire to return to her family's homeland. Didn't matter, though: Wally wasted no time searching for and locating the Princess.

"My Grace," he said, giving a deep bow when he found her. "My name is Wallace. I am a Mage. And I humbly offer you my services."

Carly was sitting in a gazebo overlooking the Inner Gulf when the stranger approached. Her two Guardsmen -- two of the only four remaining protectors loyal to her House -- casually intercepted him. After finding him unarmed, they escorted him forward.

"My Grace," he says, giving a deep bow... "My name is Wallace. I am a Mage. And I humbly offer you my services."

Carly's face fills with an expression of curiosity. A Mage, she thinks. Since the Wizard of the Black Magic Mountains -- of Rotan! -- came to power nearly two decades ago, few people have been both brave enough and stupid enough to reveal themselves as practitioners of Magic.

She gestures the man to rise from his deep bow, asking him, "And what services can you offer me, Mage?"

Wallace studied the Princess for a moment. He looked out over the Inner Gulf. He had discovered that the Princess came here often. He looked to her and answered, "I can tell you things about our world, about its creation, that no one else knows. Would that please you, my Grace?"

"I know how our world was created, Mage," she responded quickly. She thought he was questioning her knowledge and intelligence and quickly continued, "The Gods created the world. Landus, Arius, and Seanus."

The Gods of the land, air, and sea -- siblings, the Priests told -- had each had a hand in the creation of their part of the world. Everyone knew the tale of creation. What could this young Mage -- a handful of years older than Carly if even that -- possibly be able to tell her that the Priests hadn't?

(Challenge presented, haha. )

"Yes, but the Priests do not speak of Furious, do they?" Wally responded. "Their Gospel of Light and Goodness forbid such tales of destruction."

Wally looked for the Princess's reaction to his words. He was touching on subjects that had gotten friends and mentors of his exiled from their homes, jailed, even executed. He wondered whether she new of the fourth God and (if she did) was it a subject about which she was comfortable discussing.

It was not a subject about which Carly was comfortable speaking, because it was a taboo one. The Mage was correct about the Gospels: they were entirely positive in nature, all about goodness amongst Man and doing right toward others. Not that that was a bad thing, of course. But, bad things did happen at times. Bad things happened to good people even. The Priests never talked of these things: bad things weren't the work of the Gods upon Man but were instead the work of Man upon Man. The Gods weren't at fault. They weren't to blame.

"Of course I have heard of Furious," Carly said with determination. "It is, after all from where the word fury comes ... from where furious comes."

Carly realized that the tip of her left index finger was beginning to twitch. This happened sometimes when she was nervous or afraid. She clenched the hand into a fist, then held in the curled fingers of the other hand as if afraid the Mage would detect its tremble.

"I can even use the word in a sentence," she said, rising taller before the Mage. As in ... I am going to become furious ... if you don't get on with the tale you are obviously eager to impart."

She smirked a bit, pleased with herself. Carly may have not even reached the end of her second decade of life yet, but she was a confident, bold person. She was a Princess after all, even if she hadn't set her feet in her kingdom since before she'd learned to stand steadily on those feet.

Most of those in South Point showed her the respect due a Royal or, at the least, a Noble. But Carly knew that that had more to do with the vast wealth she and her mother had possessed upon escaping Rotan and arriving in South Point.

But after 17 years, that coin was about to run out. And when it did, Carly had no doubt that the respect and good will shown to her by Royals, Nobles, and commoners alike would quickly dissipate. Carly figured she had about three Moons before she was broke, and Eloise -- the Noble woman who'd become the then-8 year old's guardian after the death of Carly's mother -- had already begun inviting Royals and Nobles to meet and greets as which Carly was very much on display.

"So, tell me of Furious," she urged, her finger tip twitching despite being bound tightly within her other fingers. "Tell me of this fourth God ... and what he had to do with the creation of our world."