Episode 1: A Journey Begins

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The next morning rose gray and dim. The sky was one mass of clouds, and the rains beat heavily upon the roof. Abby stared sullenly out her window into the deep forests beyond. Where are you, little brother? she wondered, gloomily. Guilt wove around her thoughts. She missed her little brother as much as her father did, and she regretted her angry thoughts of the days before. I just wish father would see me, once and a while. Abby sighed and returned to her packing. I'm coming, little brother, just hang on!

Ioan, being born of water, might have been the only person among them who might find the prospect of travelling through a heavy rain as quite comforting, but his thoughts turned curiously to the darkened room before him.

Morning was rapidly passing, and Urqhart had not yet returned. Thinking that the old human had probably just forgotten, Ioan decided that it would be best to go and see the old man himself.

The door had been ajar, and the room had been dark within. A musty, metallic smell wafted out as Ioan stepped in.

And now he stood there, a lamp hastily lit to reveal a chaos. The room was in utter disarray: the normally fastidiously arranged brick-a-brack from a long and illustrious life lay strewn about the room, much of it smashed to pieces. The scroll rack was broken, cleaved in two and slightly blackened, like touched by lightning, and the bookshelves with their heavy ledgers of official records where knocked over or down, leaning against eachother like drunken schoolmates. It was the scene of the aftermath of struggle, but between whom or about what was not apparent.

But then, there was the blood...

Beyond Urqhart's large oak desk -- on which Ioan noticed a large crack which had not been there before -- were pools of blood, thick and viscous. No sign of the source of this blood, no signs of the combatents at all.

Ioan looked around the room. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted fluttering paper in the coals of a recent fire. Humming slightly, a breeze responded to Ioan's call and gently plucked the pieces out, spreading them on the desk. It became quickly clear to him that they were of the same document, but how to reconstruct them was a mystery. Thinking quickly, he pressed the fragments inside one of the old ledgers and made his way out of the room, nearly crashing into Abigail coming into the room.

"Oh, hello Ioan!" said Abigail, startled. "I was... What's wrong?" Ioan's eyes revealed the disturbance beyond. "Is Urqhart alright? He's not --" dead, she almost said, dreading the worst.

"He's not in there," Ioan answered quickly. "In fact, I don't know where he is, I was supposed to see him this morning, and came over, and I found the room like this." Ioan stepped aside and ushered her in.

Abigail gasped as she saw the room. It was so uncharacteristic of Urqhart's room to be untidy in any way -- he was meticulous and exacting in his cleanliness and order -- that the room's condition took her aback.

"There are signs of a struggle... And over here, there is blood," said Ioan, walking around the desk. "I fear that Urqhart was kidnapped."

Before realizing that she was doing it, Abby's voice chanted in a rythm with her twining fingers, and a spell was cast. Without even thinking it, I've cast magick again. I don't even remember learning this spell...

Abigail closed her eyes and concentrated on the aged face of the Chamberlain. Her vision blurred, but finally the image solidified: she could see him! He was unconcious, but breathing; his hands appeared to be cut and bleeding still, although only a little. Abigail struggled to look around Urqhart, to his surroundings. Her vision blurred, but she pressed on, noticing the curve of the wall before it's dull gold, smooth surface. She could almost touch those walls when it all went blurry, and she found herself back in her body. She swayed slightly from vertigo and supported herself on the desk.

"He's alive," she said, quietly. "Imprisoned in a round room of gold, somewhere...."

"Here? Is there such a room on the estate?" asked Ioan.

"No... It was... It felt distant, somehow, but also nearby..."

James was not pleased to hear his daughter's words, but spoke grimly. "This must be some ploy to stop you from going, from saving David! You must go, immediately!" Seeing the distress across his face, his voice softened. "I am sorry, my beautiful Seraphina, to be so abrupt with you. I am disturbed greatly by my trusted Chamberlain's disappearance, and I will tear the house apart to find any evidence of his abductors, I can assure you of that...

"But you must go and find David, rescue my son. Someone is putting a plague on this house, and it will take the best of what we can both do to set it right."

Abigail felt a little ashamed to so totally the focus of her father's words, even for a moment, but also felt in that moment a rekindled love for him. She hugged him suddenly, finding him returning the gesture after a moment. How long has it been since we embraced so? wondering Abigail. Too long, she concluded.

Into his ear, she whispered with all the sincerity and love in her heart, "I will find him, father, and everything will turn out. You can count on me."

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