A new friend?

It is yet another late morning for Wilhelm, while it's already midday for the rest of the waterdeep. The past few days have been hard on the lad, so much that he chose to even skip his studies during the week.

Recently his father, a relatively well known man, had left the waking world, he didn't know about it, rather he was the last one to find out.At first a tatoo, identical to his father appeared on the lads body one morning, he knew that it was called the web of faith, his father told him many stories. Stories about Three sisters, seamstresses weaving the endless shall of faith....Quickly He began to question the origin of the tatoo, he showed it to his mother her mood dropped quite fast, she tried her best to look unbothered, but Wilhelm could feel that something is wrong... That night, after returning from the academy he found out about the loss.



Two months ago (from the current point in time) was his father's funeral, they didn't retieve the body... No... They said that they couldn't find it, as if it dissapeared without a trace. The funeral was held both with family and friends, and the grieving continued at the yawning portal after the burial of the empty casket where your mother stuffed a human sized straw doll dressed in your father's favorite tunic....none of the guests saw the doll, it was a closed-casket funeral...

You could bet that you were going crazy during the days... But soon you realized that together with the tattoo your father left you with a living shadow that has a mind of its own and currently the bugger decided that you had enough of sleep, pushing you outside the bed, as you greet the wooden floor with a thud. It looks at you with a message yet again using the songs of old The evening toad will forever be bound to a swamp...

After a couple of minutes you hear your mothers voice behind the door Wilhelm are you awake? How are you feeling? If I'm not mistaken you have evening lessons today. Do you plan attending or should I inform your teacher that you're not coming?

You open the door and are greeted by the worried look of your mother, that quickly melts into joy as she sees your face

Good morning sweetie, come, let's go have breakfast together.

You sit down on a neat table set for four people, with the sisters already at her spot nibbling the porridge.
she looks at the shadow that with a sort of jump to it's step slams the door to your room as you exit... She puffs her cheeks and crosses her arms. Mommy! Why did he get a friend like daddy? I asked him how to get one every day! I also want a secret Buddy! she vents. Sometimes you think that your parents have spoiled her a bit much...then her attention shifts to the extra plate Are we waiting for visitors? If not... Why do we have an extra plate?

Your mother's eyes slightly sadden as she pats her head and explains Well darling, your daddy might want to visit us, while his spirit still walks the earth, that's why we should be hospitable, so he sees that var are doing alright and can move o without any regrets.... after that the breakfast continues in silence.

After the breakfast your mother turns to you If you don't mind... Get me some sugar cane, grave Lillie's and Katnisa plant, i want to make offering incense for your father's altar... she points at the set of, mirrors, wooden statues and candles at the corner of the room, placed so it isn't seen by the prying eyes looking trough the windows. You didn't really pay attention to it after it has been set up, maybe you should look at it in detail once you return?

---

As you head out the house once more giving your shadow a lecture about not going amock in public, you move trough the busy streets towards the academy... A thought crosses your mind... if what mother said is true...Your father's spirit may still bee amongst the living... This might bring forth some answers.... You need to contact him.. somehow...

You walk through the busy streets, passing both large boutiques and small stalls filled with all kinds of goods. You notice a bunch of colored ones at a young blacksmiths stall, the piece itself has no practical properties, but they do carry that elven astetic that you enjoy very much.The pair costs you a gold piece, and after a quick fastening they are good to go, perfectly hiding the tattoo on your wrist.

After skipping a couple of blocks nearly half way to the academy you notice that your bag has gotten slightly heavier, your legs become harder and harder to move, you look down after almost tripping on something. As you look down you notice your shadow playfully tripping you while you walk.

The shadow looks at you from underneath the book, it hugs one of your legs with it's dark tendrils as if daring you force it to stop...

You give a quick look around, thankfully your plan was successful, you haven't gotten anyone's attention, yet ...

As Wilhelm crouches down readying a plan to deal with another one of his shadows antics, something falls out of his pocket and with a clanging sound falls to the ground. He instinctively looks at the object, it's a small quartz, the piece is not big, but he definitely didn't take any quartz with him from home... Heck.... He never owned a piece of quartz to begin with...

The shadow descents back into it's place as it dissapears it sings a small tune...cold flowers picked from the garden of nexus...a fools loss.. the tendrils retract from your leg, by the looks of it the shadow is really proud with your Discovery...

You spin the item in the air with your mage, hand it's a small rough brown gemstone. It shines i the sun, by reflecting the sun on it's many surfaces.Then you heat from somewhere down street, Where is that thief?! as you look at the source of noise a burly man is forcing his way trough the lively street with a couple of thugs.

You get back up and rush to the academy, the building where it has been located for more than a century was an an old repurposed castle. Historically the building itself used to belong to a line of failing nobles that decided that it would be better to hand the building over to the academics, then to have another aristocrat purchase it and smear it into the previous owners face...

The castle had three wings where new aspiring minds could learn their worth amongst the great minds, The arcane wing where Willam is currently heading, the militia wing, where the the young people are taught a more hands-on approach and the science wing which is mostly occupied with aspiring researchers. When a student got accepted into the Academy they usually are tasked with choosing the main wing which will be the focus of their studies and some side-courses from the remaining two, the result usually is a specialist either with a very deep and specified profession, or a wide one, that can be applied in many situations.

William dashes trough the gate and the building complex towards the arcane study wing, not knowing the exact time the lad can only hope that he's not running late...

As he enters his classroom, he looks around, quite a few students have arrived, it looks like he made it just in time... he looks around and picks a seat for himself..

As Wilhelm sits down he hears faint clinking in his pockets, when he sneaks his hands into them he discovers that the shadow didn't limit itself with a single pretty stone, it looks like there's at least 5 of them. As the lad goes through his pockets he discovers even more new items, a hairbrush, a round stone, a funny looking twig that is naturally shaped as a loop, a needle, two candies and an unfinished Cookie....

The red skinned tiefling looks at you going trough the pile of stuff on the table So... What's up with this... Have you finally decided to share your treasure hoard with me? I will gladly pass on the creepy stuff, by all means, though dem rocks look good, where did you get em? he leans in accessing your findings.

The little monologue gets the young evocators attention as he looks at the two of you, makes a snobbishly exaggerated sigh and comments Treasure hoard? More like trash hoard... Tell me Willy, are you sure that you don't have any goblins between your ancestors?... You know no...not goblins, trash-bugs... he doesn't even spare you a glace as he speaks...
He looks at the elf next to him for approval...

but receives yet another cold-shoulder as the lass doesn't even budge, keeping her whole focus on some kind of magic theory book.

Natasha on the other hand Snickers after Theo's words, sometimes her childishness can be slightly annoying.... She probably imagined you green-skinned or as one of those large beetles...

the tiefling quickly picks up on the joke as he attempts to support you with a comeback OOOOO.....look out William here might become a dragon.... after which he pats you on the back

Natasha having calmed down a bit leans in and whispers to the two He may have more chances with her if he was a dragon... pointing out the long lifespan of the race of his love interest.

The fun discussion is cut short as the teacher enters the classroom and begins his lecture.

The teacher is a blond high elf, dressed in a flowing green robe with golden ornaments, carrying a heavy tome in his hands and another one is strapped onto his belt. He puts the tome on the table with a heavy thud and looks at all of you. His forehead is adorned by what it looks to be a tree symbol, you are pretty sure that you have seen it before...

He does a roll-call and then announces the topic of the lecture with a followup question that is meant to test your knowledge. Today we will be talking about familiars and other creatures that can be summoned from beyond our plane for certain tasks. Can anyone give me a distinctively bad or good example of such summon before we begin the lecture?

The elf nods to Wilhelms response Not bad... Let me add a bit to your answer...first off the unseen servant, last decade it was affirmed by Irvin academy that the unseen servant is indeed an elemetal, if specific the most primitive kind of air elementals, without a whisk of self awareness and only able to act by following an order. An instrument, if you please... the elf takes a crystal from his pocket and squeezes it in his hands, it slightly glows and an illusory images projected on the wall. It is a comparison between an air elemetals and unseen servant's magical aura's, the two indeed do look alike... Though the elementals aura is really bright and we'll visible, compared to almost non existent servants aura....Now can someone tell me why the unseen servant is not a construct?

The elf quickly raises her hand and without waiting to be called out answers It is because it lacks any form, it is shapeless,when in turns constructs all have a physical body...

Good. Now onto the next topic, while devil's, fiends, monstrosities, fey and celestials do indeed have questionable moral compass, the beasts will always be a safer bet, though their potential in turn is quite limited. While some creatures can still be bound by a contract, we summoners still should be really careful when voicing our orders, so that we don't get stabbed in the back. Unfortunately a badly given order is one of the top5 mortality causes between casters... the illusion changes showing some poorly formulated orders, that can be easily used in a loophole against the summoner and a better alternative next to it. After a moment the Elf continues But at all costs wizards should be weary from coming into contact with the creatures classified as chaotic, their behavioral patterns are impossible to study, hence they are absolutely impossible to predict.! he quickly goes over some scenes and creatures bringing demise over the unfortunate summoners .... He stops at a strange image of a human - shaped dark veil looming over a woman, she looks unsuspecting....you recognize the creature, have seen it many times because it's a shadow Can someone tell me about the creature?? the teacher asks.

Almost immediately archy jumps to his feet answering. It's a shadow right? I heard that they live beyond the mirrors edge and that if they ever encounter their owners they will attempt to kill them on sight to end both of their existences, is it true? fires burn in the lads eyes as he answers...


He nods Yes you're indeed right, the good thing is that it's almost impossible for them to enter our plane, if a portal is not opened from our side and that the things are pretty specific, when it comes to their victims... Every living creatures has a shadow in a recently discovered plane that is parallel to ours, it is called the mirrors edge. Why? Because the place where the two planes are the closest turned out to be a broken piece of a glass mirror .... There was an expedition to the plane though, all that went there and returned soon dissapeared without trace. The association of arcane research believes that their shadows killed them, so that both of them could ciese their existance... then he moves on to other bad examples such as mephits, lesser devil's, monstrosities and why summoning a swarm is a closed space is a bad idea... At the end of the lecture, he sits behind the desk and tells everyone We're done for today, please hand the essay on the analysis of a certain creature, review on summoning pros and cons, in by Monday.... If you have any questions please stay behind, i will address them shortly...

The first tome contained a theory of possible binding rituals using the magic of old, it depicted a ritual which included the binding of an additional entity to a living vessel... the description was vague but Wilhelm did notice a similar magic pattern that was used by the student that helped him with the opals... what was he doing? summoning a familiar?

The next one was a thick guidebook on summoned creatures, but the content mainly repeated what was looked over in the lecture, as he closes the book, he sees that the author of the tome indeed was his teacher - Honair.

The first article binder was mostly contained with failed experiments on forcing good creatures to be bad and vice versa, that mostly ended up with the death of the assistants doing the experiment, it contained many pictures and schematics, though none of them were even close to yours...

On the other hand the other binder contained a bit of info on a man named Alex Magewell, the surname rings a bell - yes your father had a friend named Magewell, you can say that his citations were all over the articles that researched, well mostly speculated about the possible way to alter moral compass using an ancient method preformed by the hags of old, where the creature was given a new moral compass via branding, unfortunately those branded didn't survive for long taking their own lives, to end the suffering...there was an incomplete schematic image of the brand. Magewell must be the leading researcher.... only if you could get your hands on his work for more information...

The last one was a scroll that contained the basic instructions and steps needed for summon familiar spell, the scroll is useless for casting, but good enough for transcription, next to it there were a couple of crumpled papers with the compass scheme and a bit of blood, it looks like someone wanted to change familiars moral compass and wasn't lucky with the endeavour.

---

As you finish going trough the literature you catch yourself yawning, how long have you been here?? you dont know, for the library Is located underground, so that time and weather doesn't affect the process of studying, but you do know that you have been here long enough to feel absolutely exausted.

Another thug (3) gets shoved towards the street with well worked foot work he keeps onto his feet as he calls out Hey I think that the damned demon ran this way! While he does the the shadow sinks into the wall leaving the men confused, with a then the same one calls out to others Come on! We must stop him, I bet the clergy will pay handsomely for catching a demon worshipping scum!, it looks like that one, was the courageous one of the group. As you run you can hear footsteps leaving in the opposite direction.

After running for good 10 minutes you are absolutely out of breath. The shadow was pretty quick to catch up to you, tough trough the connection, that you share, you can clearly feel that he is not happy with the lack of violence... the raw emotion that you receive is akin to disappointment and hunger...

When you decide to lift your head and look around you notice that you are 2 houses away from your mothers apartment, you recognise the family shop "Arcane Cleaners" located on the first floor of the property, it is mostly a provider of clothing cleaning services, though the shop does sell some hand-made products on the side, such as cleaning supplies, both for body and clothing, body mists and basic cosmetics, but the fact that made the shop popular, was that it handled the cleaning of arcane items, overseen by Anja herself.

Wilhelm's mother used to be an adventurer, a spell-caster, just like his father hence the good knowledge about item upkeep, but she left the carrier quite abruptly when she found out that she's carrying a child... the woman doesn't let it show but sometimes at night she cries, blaming herself about Wilhelms fathers, Johans, death.

Wilhelms head meets the pillow as the lad thinks about what happened today and what is ought for him tomorrow.... A stray thought crosses his mind ... He forgot to buy the flowers his mother requested for the father's altar .... Soon, after turning over on another side and closing his eyes Wilhelms mind begins to drift... What does the lad dream about?

While the lad is looking at at the sight, he notices that there's another Wilhelm by his side, he smiles at the lad. Then everything flashes and the other Wilhelm is replaced by a large, formless figure draped in black. It has a white porcelain mask of Wilhelms face, an emotionless or relaxed expression. After the image disappears everything goes black.

Wilhelm opens his eyes, he's drenched in cold sweat. When he looks outside the young mage notices that it currently is an early morning, everyone else is probably still asleep.

When the hair gets fixed your shadow theatrically crosses its arms, showing discontent.

When you walk down the hall and take off the painting you look at it, your parents had the luck to travel with a quite an interesting party - it had most of the minorities of the populous as members.You begin to prepare breakfast (Slight of hand please, DC depends on the dish you're making) filling the room with the aroma of food.

In a couple of hours your mother exits her bedroom and sleepily sits down and has a coffee after which she gets up and returns to her room, just to be back in 20 minutes, already dressed, washed up and with a fresh layer of makeup on her face. the woman yawns and lays her head on her hands while telling you about the picture. Oh... you were curious about this old thing... Now let me tell you about them. Theres me and Johan, she points at herself and your father in the picture. The tall one is Grol. she points at the orc. Next is Friedrich and Ulrich, I believe that Ulrich now has a pretty high status in the clergy she points at the 2 human men, monk and cleric. Next is Bunmir and Maria the dwarf and tiefling. And lastly - Sasha and Alex she points at the haflig and the goblin next to her. After that she turns to your sister, trying to hypnotise her with her eyes.

In the middle of her monologue Sicilia joins the two of you in the kitchen with a mumbly Good morning.... The little lass sits there waiting for the food half-asleep, completely ignoring Anjas mother-exclusive stink-eye.

Wilhelm quickly makes a simple breakfast - fried eggs, boiled chicken breast and fresh salad.

The little girl wakes up, as if on call, as soon as the table is set and begins to scarf down the food.

The woman facepalms Thanks for the breakfast Wilhelm. Are you alright? You woke unusually early today... is something bothering you? What lessons are you having today? Do you want to take a day off? She showers you with questions before paying her attention to the food.

Anja nods and yells out to Wilhelm to not be so late and return shortly after sundown. After which you slam the door behind yourself and make it to the still sleepy streets of the city, you run catching a couple of rumors along the way from housewives and stall oners... It leads you to a thought there might be a problem with healing potions...a lot of people are discussing them.... Soon Wilhelm finds himself in the harbor district, before the cathedral - he stands before "The Spires of the morning".



The building is built of pink marble, the three-story cathedral is capped by seven spires of copper, gold, and silver that gleams with the reflected glory of dawn's first light. It really is a sight that leaves an impression.

Before the main entrance there's a lonely man in simple clerics robes, probably an apprentice. He's sweeping the stone pathway to the entrance and yawning while doing so

While not liking the answer Wilhelm takes the matters into his own hands, via rushing into the chapel and screaming for Ulrich.

Luckily he's there, preparing the altar in the main room. Once the Cleric sweeps the boy into his personal office (akin to the hidden rooms in churches on both sides of the altar) they have a thought talk, shadow reveals himself and after a little Panick from Ulrich and trough reach trough the University's library, thankfully the clerics political disposition was enough to grant you full access.

With the help of the old goblin named Alex, you find out that the only way for you to have a shadow like this is to begin your existance, as a fetus, beyond the mirror, respectfully start existing as an organism in the same plane as your shadow, from his words Shadows are the manifestations of self-destructive behavior and self-hate. That's why they only hunt the respective object. Think about it, hating something with your whole being for 10+ years and then meeting them. It's only logical that you would want to kill them, especially if it leads to your own 'salvation'. Won't you agree, lad? And about the shadow being with your dad... I think that every child wishes to protect those dear to them, no? And the tatoo... Well...that's just a form of contract you made with your old man... It will protect you when you'll need it the most ... you'll see... (when in Mortal danger tattoo would Activate and cast ancestrial guardian to protect Wilhelm...)

Now that the mystery is beyond, knowing full well that the lad has someone who will never betray him by his side - literally himself. He steps into a new chapter of his life with newfound vigor and same child-like curiosity.