Storyboards: Jeslara

At the beginning of our story, Jeslara is wandering the streets of Tol Vordue, attempting to sell her crystal or crystal making services to the uninterested merchants of the city. Downhearted after no luck, she drowns her sorrows in quite a few glasses of wine. A group of travellers, with whom she has made acquaintance, take her in (Faeline's room in the Inn) for the night, as they have no idea where she is staying.
The next day, Jeslara seeks the opinion of one last crystal merchant and finally finds someone with interest. The wrinkled old merchant offers to buy all of the crystal she has with her, and possibly offer her a job as soon as his apprentice is set up elsewhere. With new found hope, she sets off to the tavern where she had been the night before, and runs into a little excitement with the woman Fieron (which is long and tedious and shall be skipped over). Anyway, Jeslara returns to the shop later that day only to find that the store had been destroyed, and the kindly old merchant murdered.
With haste born of fear and uncertainty, she gathers her belongings from the Inn at which she was staying. Upon her return to the tavern, she asks if she might travel with the small group whom she had befriended. So, she travels with them into the Jungles of Nyissa. It is here, that late one night Jeslara hears the thought of her cousin (in Riva) reach her. Her shop has been robbed, although there was more destruction than theft, and one of her assistant's was attacked.
Urged to move with speed, Jeslara transforms in the form of a falcon, (for, if you hadn't guessed, Jeslara is also a sorceress) and sets out for Riva. Completely exhausted, she decides to take a ship from Camaar to Riva, instead of flying. After a few days, her ship docks in Riva and she hurries up the windy streets to her shop. The destruction was horrible. Bits and pieces of crystal and wood were strewn about the room, many precious things destroyed without a care. Startled, she sensed that the intruders had not been searching randomly, but that they were looking for something in particular. Hurrying to her back room, she rummaged through her desk and found the velvet lined box for which she had been worried. The item within the box, a large crystal rose, was of great import.
Jeslara questioned the neighbors about the robbery, but none confessed to having seen it happen, and most became close-mouthed and worried when asked. When she had given up hope of getting information out of anyone, a small girl tugged on her cloak and revealed that she had seen it all, and that all the grown-ups were too scared to say anything. The two went back to Jeslara's home, where the girl, Cerina, disclosed everything she could remember. Two men, one with a scarred face, and a young blond boy were seen coming from the shop that night. Cerina said the boy had put a glowing yellow thing, she thought it looked like a necklace, into a small pouch. With that, Jeslara knew what they had been after, and was silently cursing herself. She should have seen it sooner.
'They've stolen my mother's pendant,' she said quietly.
After Cerina had finished explaining what she had seen, and had eaten her fill of the food Abeila had made for her, she decided it was late and time to go home before her mother became too vexed with her. Cerina had told Jeslara and Abeila about the men, and boy, who had robbed Jeslara's shop and stabbed Calisra, her assistant. While the two young women were talking, they heard a scream from upstairs, and rushed to see what was wrong.
Calisra, who had been sleeping in her bed, her wound attended to and not life threatening, had screamed when the shadow of a man had entered her room and spoken to her. Worst suspicions confirmed, Jeslara knew then that the men who had taken her mother's pendant, an ancient heirloom with a secret power, were Grolims. She could not allow them to keep the amulet, and so decided that she must follow them. As evening approached, she set out to buy supplies for her journey.
Unbeknownst to her, the two Grolims and the powerful little boy remained on the Isle until late that night, going after the girl Cerina whom they knew had spoken to Jeslara. They knocked on the door of Cerina's house that night, whereupon her mother urged her to leave through the back door and run as fast as she could. Cerina fled, but the boy sensed that she was near, and so intercepted her in the alley near her house.
Cerina, a bright child, realized that he was touching her mind, and with the simple innocence of a child she thought of blankness, and thus close her mind to him. He floundered in sudden shock. Gasping, Cerina realized he was blind and the only way he had been able to see her was with his mind.
'That's right, I'm blind. You finally figured that out,' he had said when her thought reached her. Closing her mind once more, she retreated from his reach, feeling sorry for the groping blond boy. She ran then. She ran all the way to the city's docks, where she climbed under the canvas cover of a beached boat, and fell asleep.
Angered, the small company of thieves left the Isle in the cover of darkness. The following day, Jeslara wandered the city streets, stopping in certain shops to gather what she needed. She couldn't help but feel that she was forgetting something. The strongest of the Grolim thieves had placed a light block on her mind, to close the memory of Cerina from her.
Finally, after she had given a surviving, large glass statue to a friend merchant, Jeslara remembered the girl. Urgently sending a thought across the city, she touched Cerina's mind and breathed a sigh of relief, but was a little surprised at finding her so far away. Now what was she doing at the docks? Hurrying through the streets, she followed the presence of Cerina's mind until she found her sleeping in the little boat. Waking the slight young girl, she quickly discovered much of the excitement of the previous night through streaming tears and sobs which sent the girl's small body trembling.
Recounting her night, Cerina told Jeslara all about the men, her mother, the boy, and how she had run away. Carrying the girl back to her house, Jeslara spoke quiet, soothing words to try to calm her. When back in the familiar kitchen, Jeslara explained to Cerina the concept of the Will and the Word, and how she was probably capable of such things. Urged on by fear and curiosity, Jeslara set off to find out the outcome of the meeting between the Grolims and Cerina's mother. She did not have much hope. Stepping out into the twilight, she set off to seek Cerina's mother...alive she hoped.

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