“I have in fact never tried that. I am quite sure there should be a spell or two t make that possible. I like that suggestion actually. “He was surprised that he didn’t think of it himself. “I like you.”
wanted to take today to discuss how evelynn, orion, and juniper spent their time long before meeting one another / the story proper. going to be pretty informal! mostly for my own development.
surprising no one, evelynn spent most of her youth as an acolyte in service of the goddess. she joined the chuch at a pretty median or even older age for this sort of thing (given that she had a family to take care of her beforehand), probably around 14 or 15. along with the other acolytes, she was there to learn how to utilize the goddess's magic. there are a number of different specialities one might use her magic for: many acolytes plan to become healers, for instance, combining the goddess's magic with medical training. some others want to use magic to enhance their or their allies' fighting prowess; a few only care to train themselves to receive and interpret the goddess's visions, and become prophets. evelynn didn't really care much for a niche, though she worked primarily on protective magic (so that she could support others)... but honestly, she wasn't too attached. she was, on paper, training to become a priestess, which essentially meant she would use that magic to stay within the church's employ going forward.
things probably didn't go too poorly for her until she was an adult, at the very, very end, but there were always signs that she was lagging behind her peers. she felt that she had to work four times as hard as others to get a fraction of the same results. evelynn's magic wasn't terribly strong to begin with, and she never seemed to get a good connection to the goddess. she was certainly going through the motions, and there was a time that she was purely, genuinely, devoted to the goddess, but for some reason, it never came back the other way. if evelynn was not so incredibly stubborn, she might have been able to get away with a career that wasn't as prestigious as the one she'd planned. maybe (though she didn't exactly have the previous experience, nor education) she might have transitioned to learning about herbal and physical medicine and become a healer. she could have shown her devotion to the church and been kept on as an assistant to a sympathetic priestess. but that isn't really evelynn's personality - and besides, it would have been difficult, at that point, to find someone who'd vouch for her. so she stubbornly kept at it, got angry and jealous and lashed out at those around her, was alienated from her peers, it got worse, so on and so forth until it all came to a head and she was let go from the church in disgrace.
at the same time evelynn was an acolyte, juniper was an apprentice. in magic, to be precise, although that was chosen well before her deficiency came to light. juniper's parents passed when she was a child; she was raised by their coworkers, in an extremely hands-off way. when she was young, she had the distinct feeling that she needed to be "useful." her parents were tremendously useful, after all, and there was a tacit expectation that she'd follow in their footsteps. it's why she tried to study magic to begin with - both her parents were remarkable mages - but after a long time trying with no results, it became clear that she just wasn't going to be able to fill those shoes. people around her became generally less interested after that.
both juniper and the man she was apprenticed to thought that maybe she just needed more time, or a different way of learning, or any number of things that might help magic make sense to her. but though she could fully understand the runes and theory, she couldn't perform even the simplest spells. eventually, the two worked out that she simply lacked any capacity to channel magic through her body, and that she'd never have that ability. they still needed to teach juniper something, particularly for her to stick around, so they pivoted - her mentor was a hunter, so he taught her how to track, how to travel, how to fight both monster and human. he was an archer, mostly, but she flourished most with swordsmanship. (juniper does actually know how to fire a bow, but her aim is almost comically bad. it's not a skill she'd advertise.) the two stalled for time in admitting juniper's complete lack of magical ability until, eventually, the expectations had waned enough that it didn't really matter.
oh, right, orion. orion's family has worked for generations in a small town in the southwest part of the country, working in tandem with nearby farmers to process animal goods (specifically, wool). a decent amount of children or adults would choose at some point to move away and pursue other careers, education, passions, romances... it's never a huge deal; there's no shortage of hands nearby that they can hire on when someone decides to move away. orion and his sister sophia both chose to pursue their careers elsewhere, and their parents were reasonably supportive, if a bit accidentally clingy. sophia decided to become a tailor's apprentice in a larger city near the capitol, and orion studied to attend the imperial mage's college. sophia did just fine; orion's application was rejected. from there, he ended up self-studying, getting into forbidden magic, etc. etc. he still kind of keeps in touch with his family, but it's extremely infrequent, like sending a letter every two years. sophia has to be the one telling their family that orion is still alive, since she gets the most frequent communication (and even that's rather sparse). of course, there's the obvious caveat that orion can't exactly tell his family what he's doing nowadays, since it's so dangerous. but it's also true that he probably feels a bit embarrassed about having to tell them that in the years since he left, he hasn't really accomplished anything he can share.
“That is absolutely disgusting! I can assure you that none of the... that... that no such things were done. I would have rather jumped into the Abyss again than do anything of the likes.”
