Oria and the Scrolls
First chapter - fantasy
ORIA AND THE SCROLLS
ONE
My name is Oria of Bacaria. I am the third daughter of Hilia of Bacaria, a magus of no small acclaim. In some ways I’m like my mother. In other ways I most certainly am not.
Magic is one of those ways in which I’m different.
As you might know, my mother has three daughters. The oldest, Turra, was adopted by her. She was born the niece of my father Oskinuf. As her mother died not long after she was born, the only parents Turra ever knew were my father, my mother, and my other mother Brinwa. Turra isn’t my sister by blood, but that doesn’t mean we’re not related.
Nor did it mean she couldn’t order me around now and again.
The first daughter my mother actually gave birth to is Belia. She like Mother is blessed to be able to use magic. Though she’s the middle of the three of us, Belia was more special than Turra or I. My mothers gave her more attention and more instruction.
Not that I was ever jealous of Belia. Almost from the time I became aware of my world I knew that magic had to be taken seriously. To some extent a magus has the power of life and death over others. A healing cantus can give someone life. A truth cantus can condemn another to death by hanging. Bringing rain from the clouds can ensure prosperity, or it can be used to flood the fields of an enemy village.
Belia had to learn to use her blessing with the utmost care. She didn’t just have to know how to command magic. She needed to learn when to call on it and when not to call upon it.
More than that, she needed to prepare for the day when my mothers gave up their own work. My birth mother had created the Travinum School for Magi, in the seat of power for Bacaria. When Brinwa moved to Travinum and became Mother’s partner, she also became the school’s second teacher. Brinwa became a more primary teacher when Mother was pregnant and nursing Belia and myself.
As Belia and I got older, Mother was was able to spend more time acting as the magus to the Regius. Mother could keep at that post for the rest of her life. However, she and Brinwa had made friends in their many adventures. At times those friends had come to Travinum to visit, but not all were able to leave their own posts. The same was true for Mother’s former students.
She and Brinwa talked of traveling once their children were old enough to fend for themselves. Someone would have to teach the students coming to the school, as well as act as the magus for our Regius. That duty was going to fall to Belia.
Here is where I can begin to gossip about my family.
Belia was a good student. However, she struggles as a teacher. It’s difficult for her to instruct younger girls who were a year or so before fellow students, though behind her in their education. It’s going to take her years to become comfortable in her position as a teacher.
The same cannot be said for Turra.
Our father was born among the tribes that used to be called the Forest Folk. Around the time of Turra’s birth the tribes joined to create the domain of Vorstimir. Father wanted Turra to know her heritage. To some extent so did my mothers. Turra grew up learning about the cultures of the former Nuvum Empire and their former enemies in Vorstimir.
During our lives trade between Bacaria and Vorstimir steadily increased. More and more folk from there came here, and more folk from here went there. That included the first merchants of Vorstimir. The son of one of those merchants fell hard for Turra. Just before I came into womanhood they married. Turra and her husband manage that part of the family’s trade in Bacaria. They’re both living here in Travinum.
That is another way in which Turra isn’t like both my mothers. Belia is like Turra, and has her eye on a local young man. But her work as a teacher and magus has to come before any thoughts of marriage, much less family.
I, though, am much like my birth mother, and exactly like Brinwa.
Before I say more about that, allow me to tell you what I look like. Believe it or not, that will help you better understand both my interests and the predicament that caused me to depart from Travinum.
My mothers are not tall women. Indeed, they’re a touch shorter than average. Belia and I are about the same in terms of height. Turra, by contrast, is taller than the average woman. My mothers also have slender builds, with Hilia having red hair and Brinwa having fair hair. Belia has our mother’s color of hair.
I, however, have dark brown hair, more like my father. My build, once I came into womanhood, was more like that of other women, with fair curves. I do have light brown eyes like my birth mother and Belia. All this means that I am more what men think of as attractive than either of my mothers or my sister.
Which would be important, were I interested in men.
My other mother, Brinwa, has no interest in men. She likes my father because she loves my mother. Mother loves both Oskinuf and Brinwa. While my older sisters have affection for men, like Brinwa I only have eyes for other women. My body means that some women have an eye for me as well.
I’m not certain when I knew I only wanted to love women. I do recall spending more time looking at certain students in the school instead of staring at the young men and boys of the town. While I might have had feelings of lust for certain students, I also recall having more of a desire for a relationship between my mothers than the one between Mother and Father.
I did not act upon my lust. Both my mothers taught me that it would be awkward for everyone if I took up with one of their students. As it was hardly any of those students would have taken up with me. I don’t think it was because they found me unattractive. I suspect it was partly because they’d also been warned about taking up with me. Looking back I feel some regret for being cautious. A few of those young women were not only pretty but wise and caring when they became magi. They might have made fine partners.
We will never know if that would have happened. My life took a different road.
Of me and my two sisters, I was the troublesome one. From a young age I was smart enough not to play tricks with magic. Other tricks, though, were fair to my young mind. I once brought a snake into the school to see what would happen. It scared some of the students, but as it wasn’t a poisonous snake, I only got stern words from my mothers.
And no, I’d never been so foolish as to pick up a poisonous snake. Or any other dangerous animal. Even inconvenient ones like skunks I kept clear off.
I sometimes watered down wine or beer, or slipped a little of one or the other into students’ mugs. I was fond of putting little cakes on chairs, especially if the “victim” had been mean to me. More than once I switched the clothes of students to see how they’d react.
At first it was fun to play silly pranks. I’d get a few tough words from my mothers, perhaps a glare from my father, and that would be the end of it. However, as I approached womanhood the students were more willing to use me as a subject for their experiments with magic if I’d gone a step too far. I had to shift from pranks to telling jests and tossing out an insult every now and again.
Then, about a year after I came into my womanhood, I met a young woman of Travinum named Lunia. She was a year or so older than me, with pale skin and dark hair. She was the daughter of one of the soldiers serving the Regius.
She was quite pleasant to me when we met as women. She seemed charming and wise. She had an interest in making something of herself in Travinum. She was the first woman I kissed and meant it.
She was also the first woman I made love to. Both my mothers knew where my preferences were. They told me how a woman could give intimate pleasure to another woman. They encouraged me to try certain deeds with Lunia and discover if she truly loved me.
While Lunia and I had fun at first with each other, over the next few years the relationship became much less of a joy for me. I was usually the one bending down to put my lips to her body, or winding my hands over her breasts and between her legs. At times she would oblige me in return, but at others she expressed “concern” we were about to be seen and we had to part company.
After a whole season went by of me being the one giving pleasure and not being given any from her, I confronted her. “I feel like I’m the one doing all the work,” I said to her as we walked to a quiet spot past the town, “and you’re getting all the joy.”
“I can’t help it if I have to worry about being seen,” she replied.
“Why do you worry? You know who my mothers are.”
“I do. I could be persuaded to be more giving, Oria.”
“How?”
“Aren’t there formal roles for someone like me in their school?”
I shook my head. “No. There’s never more than ten students at any one time.”
“Belia cannot do everything herself.”
“That would be for her to decide.”
She smiled, pulling up her gown to reveal her shapely calves. “You have no influence there at all? I find that hard to believe.”
“Why?”
“You’re the same sort of woman as your mothers. They must see something in you to keep you around.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You have no talent for magic. All you can do is read and write.” She smirked. “And make me happy.”
“I think I can do more than that.”
“Can, or will?”
I huffed a breath at her. “Are you saying that you’re only fooling around with me to get to my mothers? To get into the school?”
“I would never say that.” She smiled. “And you can’t get me to say that.”
I waved towards the town. “What if I tell you to go on your way, and I’ll go my own way?”
“Then I’ll tell my father you seduced me and abandoned me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You seem to forget whose parents hold the higher status in Travinum. In all of Bacaria, for that matter.”
“It would be your word against mine.”
I grinned. “Not if you’re forced under a truth cantus.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me!”
She glared at me for a moment, then slapped my face. I didn’t move a muscle, even though between my father and Turra, I could have beaten Lunia easily armed or unarmed. Instead I let her turn and march back to town.
As for me, I needed to express some of my anger at having chased off the first woman I’d been in a relationship with. I continued to the edge of the wilderness and practice fighting with my arms, my legs, and then with my knife. I didn’t return to the school until it was almost time for dinner.
I wanted to be alone that evening, but Mother followed me to my chambers. “There’s something the matter, isn’t there?” she asked. Her voice was often soft but at times her tone was hard as a rock. That was one of those times.
“I’d rather not say,” I replied as I stretched out on my bed.
She closed the door behind her. I didn’t want to sit up, but I found myself doing so.
“Lunia’s father came by just before you returned.”
“What did he say?”
“He said his daughter accused you of trying to force yourself onto her.”
“You don’t believe him?”
She snorted. “You two have been at it for almost three years. He didn’t believe it. But as a soldier, he felt it was his duty to report to the Magus of Bacaria.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“Why don’t you talk to me about it?”
I finished sitting up. She came to my bed and sat down at the foot of it so she could face me. I took a breath to think of what I would tell her.
“We had a fight,” I said.
“That I’d gathered. About what?”
“Can I be direct with you?”
“When haven’t you been?”
I nodded to her. “I’ve been the one going down for her, or fingering her. She hasn’t been doing the same for me.”
She coughed. “I see.”
“You and Brinwa taught me about equality in such things.”
She sighed. “That we did.”
“So I told her I didn’t like that.”
“That’s all?”
“No.” I let out a deep breath. “I think she’d been having fun with me to get to you. You, or Brinwa, or Belia.”
“Intimately?”
“No. To get a place here.”
She sucked in a breath. “At the school?”
I nodded to her.
She clenched her jaw. It was only for an instant before she relaxed her face again, but I know I saw her angry. “I should have known.”
“You should have?”
“Indeed. That girl has always wanted a place of higher status in this town.”
“And you let me be intimate with her?”
“I had hoped and prayed you’d tame her, or that she’d be happy being with you. That being with you would be as far as it got.”
“It didn’t.”
“What was she in search of here?”
“Being a teacher, I think. Alongside Belia.”
“Teaching what?”
“She does know how to read and write.”
“Yes. Quite so.”
I would guess all you know the Travinum School for Magi as the school that my mother founded. As magic and magi are spreading around this part of the world, you knowing of the school would not surprise me. My mother’s six tomes involve the school. It’s mentioned in the histories of more than a few domains. There’s even tales told about it.
What most of you do not know is that Mother also founded a common school in Travinum to educate children. It’s not paid for by taxes, the instruction isn’t as intense or vital as what goes on here, and boys and girls don’t spend a decade there as girls do here. But it does exist, and the children of those of any importance in Travinum spend at least a few years there learning reading, writing, numbers, history, and the like.
Lunia attended and was a quite good student. It was only after my conversation with Mother that I began to wonder why that had been so.
“She thought to be a teacher here, and thus advance herself?” Mother asked.
“That’s what she said,” I answered.
“And what did you say to that?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t hit her. She slapped me.”
“You didn’t turn her down?”
I pressed my lips together. I had nothing to feel guilty for, but it seem as thought I might not have been as clear in my refusal as I should have been. “She ran off angry before I could tell her no.”
Mother arched an eyebrow at me. “You did not express any interest in helping her, did you, Oria?”
“No, Mother, I did not.”
She gave me a nod. “That’s a relief.”
“I wasn’t about to, either.”
“What were you going to do?”
I let out a breath. “I don’t know. I was bothered by us always sneaking off. About pleasing her and not not pleasing me.”
“Pleasure isn’t everything, Oria. You should know that.”
“I do. But I felt as though I was giving and never being the one given anything.”
“Pleasure? Or affection?”
I stopped for a moment to think about the question. It was then, considering what I would say, that I understood what had been going on between Lunia and myself. “I was giving her both, and she was giving very little in return.”
“Do you know why?”
I paused to think once more. “I suppose it was because we’d moved beyond having fun.”
“Towards what?”
I sighed again. “Towards her trying to get something out of me.”
“Such as a position here at the school.”
“Yes.”
“Do you now think she wants love from you?”
“No. She was fooling around with me for her own reasons. Her own feelings. My reasons, my feelings, didn’t matter to her.”
She moved closer to where I sat. She took my hands in hers. “It’s a hard lesson for you to learn, Oria. Sometimes there are those who like us, who love us, for who we are. There are sometimes those who love us in spite of who we are. But there can be those who wish to like us, even love us, for what we are. For who our parents are.”
“I thought that only happened to the wealthy.”
“Are we wealthy?”
“No.” I frowned, as much at myself as at anyone else.
“It usually does happen to those who are wealthy. But it can happen to those who don’t have much wealth but do have power. I know of two families of Dusis here in Bacaria who have had to deal with such troubles.”
“I’m not in trouble, am I?”
She shook her head to me. “You were foolish in your affections, but Lunia was your first relationship. I suspect you’ll be wiser from now on.”
“Is all well, then?”
“That I cannot tell you and be truthful. Lunia might just be spiteful enough to try to claim you seduced her.”
“But you or Brinwa could make her tell the truth.”
“We could, so long as she accepts having a truth cantus placed upon her.”
“What if she doesn’t? She said she’d refuse.”
“That would be very foolish of her. To refuse, even though I’m your birth mother, and Brinwa and I raised you, would be an admission to everyone that she was afraid of being compelled to speak the truth.”
“That’s good, yes?”
“Good for you? Yes. Good for everyone else?” She shook her head. “There would be some harsh gossip around town until Lunia’s humiliation set in.”
“Then what can I do?” I sat straighter. “I’d be willing to go under a truth cantus.”
She smiled. “I’m proud and pleased to hear you say that. I doubt you’d have to, but I’m happy you offered and didn’t have to be asked.”
I could only not in response.
“That said, you do still lack a direction in your life. You need a purpose.”
“What purpose?”
“I wish I knew. But, seeing as how your relationship with Lunia has gone sour, it might do you good to get away from here for a time.”
“And go where?”
She grinned. It was the sort of grin that tended to unnerve Belia and I. “I’m so glad you asked.”
My gaze narrowed. “Why?”
“My old friends Matra and Begri, in Nuvus down in Luthgenicca, sent me a message on an interesting matter. It seems someone is crafting scrolls that are untrue and selling them for quite a lot of coins.”
“What of it?”
“If those writing or selling the scrolls know what they write is false, and are selling the scrolls as true, then they’re cheating folk out of coins. It’s an unusual crime to be sure, but it’s a crime all the same.”
“Why can’t they do anything about it?”
“That’s just it, Oria. If the writings are known to be false, it’s a crime. But if the seller doesn’t know the writings are false, they’re not committing a crime. Matra and Begri have strong connections to the council that rules the city of Nuvus. For them to get involved in this matter when they can’t be sure a crime is being committed not only risks them being criticized for overstepping their authority, but also for wasting time that could be better spent doing something else. It could also be that no obvious crime is being committed.”
“No obvious crime?”
“No. Nuvus is a large city, Oria. Perhaps the largest in this part of the world. As such not every crime will be robbery, or beating, or the like. It could be that the sale of the scrolls hides another crime. Nor can it be ignored that the Novium Empire wasn’t pleased at being driven from that part of Nuvia. This could be part of a scheme on their part.”
“What’s all that to me?”
“I think it would be good for you to go south and determine if you can help Matra and Begri. Find out if there is a crime being committed. Perhaps by doing so you’ll figure out what you want to do with your life.”
“And if I don’t?”
She grinned again. “You’ll have an adventure you can write about while you determine what you’ll do with your life.”
Blurb:
Oria is the youngest daughter of the famed magus Hilia of Bacaria. A rough end to a relationship and a message from one of her mother’s friends sends Oria to the great city of Nuvus.
Someone is selling scrolls with false tales written on them, including ones about Hilia. Is this a scheme to get coins? An effort to undermine Luthgenicca? Oria is tasked to investigate. Will trying to solve the mystery take Oria’s life in a startling new direction?
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