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With this letter you Elm Sittenbruch are Drafted for the war of the 7 Crowns.

You are ordered to be ready to depart on the 7th day of February

You are allowed to bring a small suitcase of Personal belongings with you.

Not allowed are highly explosives Ammunition and or Magical or Alchemical ingredients

You must be at the city center in Keth at 4 pm.

Should you not be there at the given moment you will be seen as a deserter

and sentenced to death.

Long live King Julius Eckhart

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My hands shake, I was the first one to read the letter, something special for our village. No one gets a letter here and especially not from the king, why would we our village is so small it doesn’t even have a name. So almost every one of our family gathered here in our living room to read the letter, only my grandpa didn’t want to be with us, he said “when someone that important begins to be interested in you it’s never something good”. How right he was, my 8-year-old sister Emely snatched the letter, annoyed that I didn’t read it out loud

and with a smile she begun to read “With this letter you Elm Sittenbruch are Drafted… Drafted? What does that mean mommy?”

“give me the letter honey” said my mother with a shaky voice, slowly siting down on the couch the letter in her hand “in a week already! And in Keth? That’s 6 hours away from here”

“Bullshit they can’t do that!” uttered my father

“Ha daddy you cussed! You need to put 10 cents in the cussing box!” giggled my sister

“Not now Emely!” he takes the letter from my mother, and slowly he stands up and stated that he needs to go to the Mayor to talk with him about the letter, and so he rushed outside. meanwhile my grandfather came in looking quite worried after seeing my father in such a hurry despite of his injury, and after he asked what’s going on he went upstairs claiming that he has something, he wants me to have, after a few seconds he came rushing downstairs again to push a little book inside my hands “ what’s that?” I asked surprised “a beginner spell book, I got it as a spoil after I won a bet in a tavern. I tried a few spells here and there, but I was never really interested in becoming a mage, so I forgot about it. I guess it will be useful when you are on the frontlines, maybe it will safe your life” he said with a smile on his face. “but I don’t know how to cast any spells!” I replied. “ remember the things in school where they thought you how to disrupt and gather the weave around you? ” he asked “yeah but isn’t that only to Interrupt spells from forming to defend against people who try to attack you with magic?” I questioned “ yes its used for that but with a little practice you can learn how to hold the strings of mana in place, form it and release a spell, the problem is that the magic materials I had have gone bad so you can’t use them anymore, you need to buy them from the market in Keth later on” he responded and with that he turned around and left because my grandmother ordered him to go to the chickens and bring her a few eggs, apparently every time something bad happens my grandma begins to cook something, the last time was when my father crippled his leg after trying to fix the roof of our house. With a growing curiosity I hurry up to my room to flip through the pages.

I feel the rough leather of the book cover on my bare hands, the outline of a black rose with thorns is imprinted on it and the corner parts are covered in a white marbled bone like material the book somehow smells like freshly cut herbs. Slowly I open the first page, trying to push away the depressing though of going to war. On the first page was a little index describing the different subjects of the book

- 1 circle spells p.2-16

-Potions p.17-20

-Rituals p.20-30

Beneath the index is a small message

/Happy birthday son I hope you like the present, its only a beginners book but I hope that it will bring you a step closer to your dream of becoming a famous mage, but don’t tell your mother she doesn’t like the thought of you chasing a dream that could never come true, but don’t be too harsh on her she only wants the best for you :D

PS: sorry that I can’t be with you on that special day of yours, but you know I can’t be with you because of work

PPS: Don’t lit anything on fire in the house or your mom will kill me

In love Alf Elenor /