Kimra Astin

In the early years of Trá Magnon, two students shone above the rest, Thondaran Astin and Aeral Merchant. The two were always near the top of their class, but as they grew older these two became friends, nemesis, and study partners. They were always studying together and competing for the best grades, the attention of their teachers, and the praise of the other students. By the time they graduated, they were far beyond the other students, and had fallen deeply in love. They were married soon after graduation, and became the first two teachers hired by Selimnaras and Karil to teach in their growing school.

After several years of teaching, they began construction of a large castle-like house that they called Astin Keep. They built it themselves out of stone they magically quarried from nearby hills, moved to the site, and shaped. It was a magnificent site with flying buttresses, secret passageways, hidden rooms, magical traps, moving staircases, all kinds of magical enhancements you might imagine from newlywed mages that had far more magic than wisdom.

Once they finished their home, they decided to retire Aeral from teaching for a couple years to start a family. They decided to have seven children, but they did not want to wait seven years so they decided to have them all at once. But rather than just take the risks of septuplets they decided to stagger them. So once again with more magic than wisdom they decided to use a little magic, and conceive a child every three months. In this way Aeral would would be pregnant with three children at different stages of development and could deliver one every three months.

As wisdom would have dictated, this turned out to be harder than they had imagined. First there was the conception which had to be assisted with magic, then there was the tricky births that had to be assisted by magic and a midwife, then there was feeding and taking care of the babies, which soon required several nurse maids. Thondaran struggled to keep up with his teaching and the magical assistance that Aeral needed, but they eventually worked their way through the two years, and began raising a large family of toddlers.

They brought on a rotating staff of interns to clean, help feed the children, and change diapers, and Aeral was able to return to teaching during the day. The interns were generally young women students that were attending the school and a couple local women that spearheaded the operation.

The Astin home was obviously one of magic, but it was also a home of order and love. Every evening and morning they would gather all the children and staff into the great hall, and have meditation time. This would inevitably end when one of the children would dirty a diaper or fall over and bump its head. As the children grew older meditation time was extended to an hour both morning and night. These longer sessions would often turn into tickle fights, or long talks about magical topics, then as they entered school, they would include topics like boys, magic fairs, new spells, and little wizard duels.

It was truly a home where something exciting was always happening. Thondaran and Aeral’s love grew, but Aeral began to miss having babies around the house, and eventually convinced Thondaran to let her take a year off of teaching and have another baby, this time without a magically enhanced process, but a natural one.

Aeral was able to become pregnant, but to say there was no magic involved would not be entirely accurate. In a household of mages, and a staff of mages, and the lord and lady of the house being master mages, living in a magical house, with a thousand magical devices, it would be true to say that the conception and pregnancy were natural, but they were certain not without magical influence.

They day finally arrived and horde of brothers, sisters, staff, interns, fellow professors, and local dignitaries heralded their arrival with grand celebration that was planned to last an entire week. When it was announced that Lady Astin had given birth to twins, a boy, Therral, and a girl, Kimra, the parties duration was doubled on the spot. So, two weeks of partying in a grand magical mansion was beyond description, and it took almost an entire third week to clean up and return the county to normal.
The babies were never bereft of attention, and even while they slept there was always someone singing, casting spells, or just sitting near reading spell books. All this magic had a profound effect on the children, or at least on Kimra. They quickly learned that Kimra’s hair would change color with her mood. So when she was in pain, or hungry, or pooping her diaper, everyone knew. She also began to levitate at seemingly random times, and her basinet had to be covered with a soft net to allow her to float around in her crib without waking or harming her.

Therral, on the other hand did not show any outward signs of inherent magic, but instead seemed to be the opposite. Magic around him seemed to be weakened, and any spell cast directly on him was almost guaranteed to fail. This actually turned out to be advantageous because as long as the two babies were together, Kimra’s floating about was minimized, and they seemed to cry less when they were close together.

As they grew they both learned to control and focus their inherent abilities. Kimra could float wherever she wanted to go. Often to the ceiling or the roof. Therral found that he could cast simple cantrips if he first concentrated on suppressing his magic resistance. Therral also seemed to have a natural ability to imbue his toys with magic. He could make them move or make noise on their own.

With seven teenagers egging them on and provoking them, their parents soon learned to keep to two youngest in the nursery, and seven older busing with chores and studies. Even so the twins got turned into puppies, turned invisible, given gills and thrown in the tub, turned pink, and magically enthralled on a daily basis.

The household staff was also reduced as they grew, but was soon replaced with a constant flow of girlfriends and boyfriends coming and going, and the twins were constantly showing off, and challenging the older, budding mages to duels. When the older Astins graduated from school, some of their siblings became teachers, some got married, some became lazy lounging around the house causing mischief, and some went off to see the world.

Therral and Kimra entered the schools at Trá Magnon the year after the last group of their siblings graduated. This allowed them to get all the Astin attention, both good and bad. Some of the jealous upperclassmen would play jokes on them, just to get back at the older Astins that had stilted them in some way.

Kimra immediately became a star pupil and spent as much time teaching the other students as learning. She was the prime girl for crushes, and got more anonymous love notes than everyone else in the school combined. She tried to be kind, but the sheer volume of attention consumed her every moment. One of the favorite activities that he boys of all ages at the school loved, was to go up to her and get her attention for a brief couple seconds to see what color her hair would turn. The lucky boys got a bright blond, the unlucky ones got a dark brown or black. Occasionally some would make her so made they got a red. It was humiliating to her, and her parents would often sit up late with her helping her figure out how to cope with the attention.

Therral was quite the opposite. He was only mediocre at spells. The girls paid him some attention because he was the heir apparent of the Astin clan, but the boys were ruthless and unrelenting in their pranks and mischief against him. He tried to blend into the crowd, but often found himself called out or stepping out to defend some slight or prank against Kimra. He didn’t mind so much the pranks against himself, but he hated the ones against Kimra. He especially hated the other boys’ constant attempt to check Kimra’s hair color when they got her attention. He got in many fist fights with boys of all ages when Kimra was feeling overwhelmed by the stead stream of attention seekers. He was in a way luck because none of the other students could ever get a spell to function against him. This, of course, infuriated them, and their verbal harassment at times was horrible. He also spent many nights up late with Kimra or with his parents learning to cope with the other students.

By the end of their first year they were both beginning to build up a tolerance for the attentions that were poured out on them. Therral generally tried to stay close to Kimra, and she liked having him around, but they were budding adolescents, and many times boys and girls just needed space from each other. Kimra helped Therral with his spells, and he made the cutest little toys for her.

On the last day of the year Therral gathered up his courage and gave a cute little card to a girl that he liked. It was a magical card that moved, and sparkled, and played a cute little song when it was opened. It would have been a simple thing that made both him and the girl blush, and run off to summer break, but some of the other kids saw it, and soon the entire school was begging to see the card. After the final class most of the student body gathered at the central park on campus to see it. Therral was congratulated over and over, and shook hands with most of the student body before the faculty began breaking up the crowds with silence spells. When the park was cleared the girl was finally able to say thank you one last time, and skipped home. Kimra gave him a big hug, please that someone else got all the attention for once. Therral found the attention exhausting, but preferable to the pranks he usually got.

Their second year was much the same, but Therral found himself the target of many girls affections, some just hoping for a magic card, others had a legitimate crush on him. He occasionally reward a particularly touching expression or generous gift with a magic toy or card.

The boys let up some on the Kimra hair assaults, but was able to find some good friends that helped her out when they could. Kimra continued to astound the teachers, and Therral passed all of his classes except the crafting classes where he ran circles around everyone else, including Kimra.

Their third year the boys let up some more on the Kimra hair runs, but the girls increased their pleas for attention on Therral. Therral found himself friendly with most of the boys in the school, but closest to his sister. Even her friends came to accept him as one of the girls so to speak. So Therral went to more baking parties than wizard ball games.

That summer after their third year, The Circle of Astin, as the extended family was called, all pitched in to build a grand crafting workshop for Therral. When it was finished, and with the help of Trell, he made a special comb for Kimra that allowed her control the appearance of her hair.

Their fourth year was better than any other before. They both got a fair amount of attention, but they both began assisting with various magical research projects, and were not around the other students after lunch breaks. During this time, they worked with the faculty and some of the senior students, but quickly became regular members of the research teams, and helped move many research projects forward. Their crowning honor was to be part of the circle that raised the first mithal, or magic covering over the entire school.

Their fifth year was more of a first year as sudo faculty. Kimra began teaching some of the entry level evocation classes, and Therral joined Trell, Gabe, and Salanthra in exploring new directions for the school. Gabe and Trell began teaching basic blacksmithing, Trell and Therral began teaching magic item creation, and Salanthra began teaching dance. In addition Gabe, Trell, Therral, and Thane began experimenting with mixing magic and swordplay, not as a class per se, but more as an after hours club. To top it off Therral was elected student body president, and had grown into a very handsome young man causing a never ending stream of love notes and even a few marriage proposals.

Lord Selimnairus was dubious about bringing ‘sudo magics’ and ‘non magics’, as he called them, into the school, but Lady Karil and Heather both pushed to expand the topics beyond raw wizardry. They actually wanted to involve the various professions such as tailors, horse trainers, farmers, chefs, and a whole host of others, but Lord Selimnairus was hard pressed to expand it as far as they did.

The school operated year-round, and students came and went as they were needed on their farms or other family activities, but there was always the largest classes during the winter. This year was larger than ever, with the new classes, the student numbers grew faster than any year before, and by the time the new year approached Lord Selimnairus was no longer trying to stop the new types of classes, but merely trying to control the expansion of the curriculum to a manageable rate. He even began to consider a gnomish engineering class, though he insisted it would have to be taught outside the wall of the school.

The new year in Zelaea begins with the first day of spring. It is still sold during the day, and quite cold at night that time of year, so it is generally an indoor celebration. Lady Karil and Aeral Astin had begun a little tradition a few years prior where they would combine the school graduation with an all-night New Years party. They always held it at the Astin Keep, and invited everyone in the county.

This year Kimra and Therral were graduating from their studies as students at the school, and they would be taking full time positions and teachers the following year. As this was the last graduation of one of her children, Aeral wanted to make it big. The entire family put their full efforts into constructing new grand hall with all kinds of magical trappings. The road from the Keep to the East Road was expanded, and the entire resources of The Inn Between were enlisted to cater the event.

As the winter drew on and the celebration approached, letters of invitation were sent to parents and special guests as far away as Dusara, and Kith. Goods and services began flowing in and out of the county at an unprecedented rate. Some began to worry that the party would bankrupt the entire county, but the acceleration of the local economy brought to bear every able hand. The gnomes even began creating practical, or at least more practical, mechanical carriages and wagons; they were also found be very adept at creating fireworks, costumes, decorations, and as general errand runners. There was not an idle hand from sun up to sun down.

The night finally arrived. The students and their parents assembled in the great hall of Astin Keep for the graduation ceremony before sundown, but already the roads were packed with travelers running to and from the Keep. Lord Selimnairus lead the graduation, giving each student a certificate and a hug. The other faculty and staff took turns escorting the students to the front to receive their honors. Kimra and Therral delivered the valedictory and school president addresses, and Trell offered a few words of advice about the world.

Finally, ceremonies drew to a close, and with one final shout they done. All at once the great doors to the hall were thrown open, and fireworks outside lit up the night. The guests began to flood into the keep, and food began to steam in on platters and huge bowls. The chairs were cleared and one end the great became a dance floor. A local band of gnomes erupted into a dance beat and sailing melody inviting all to tap their feet and clap their hands.

The dance floor began to strobe and glow with swirling colors and caused everyone to float a couple inches off the floor as they danced. Kimra and Therral lead their fellow students onto the dance floor, and soon it was packed with shaking and spinning bodies. They both let themselves relax completely for the first time since they could remember. They danced with anyone that asked, and had a wonderful time forgiving and forgetting the hurts of the years. Everyone was friend, and everyone was included.
As more and more people arrived the Astin’s added a new shimmering magical floor seven feet above the real floor. This was followed by another and another, until there were five floors with matching shimmering stairs to travel between them.

As midnight approached the Astin family began to prepare for their traditional grand finale. Kimra and Therral excused themselves and slipped out of the main hall to dress. This would be their initiation into the Circle of Astin so Kimra and Therral were dolled up and decked out in the grandest regalia a family of mages can imagine.
While they were gone to dress, the faculty and staff joined the dancing. Trell traded fairy fire for kisses, and Gabe showed off by throwing the girls into the air like a catapult. On their way down the other faculty cast feather fall on each student, and before long students were glowing and floating all over the hall, onto the roof, upside down, off the walls, and every other crazy angle they could imagine. The students too joined in the spell casting and filled the hall with sights, and sounds, sparkles, and waterfalls, and animals of all kinds.

For a minute the gnomes on the roof began shooting fireworks in through the windows, and that excitement was quickly subdued, and they returned to shooting into the gardens and into the sky. Most of the people in attendance were common folk from around the county, but mixed in were kings, queens, princes, and princesses from far away. There was a band of satyrs from the fey wood, and elves with wings from the tops of the Keltorin Mountains.

Midnight began to approach and ticking sound began to grow louder and louder, and a four story globe began to appear in the center of the room. The lights within the globe showed the new year approaching and the old settling into a comfortable looking bed. After a few minutes Thondaran, Kimra and Therral’s father floated into the center of the globe. He wore the traditional blue robe, with its silver trim, but as head of the house he also wore silver pauldrons on his shoulders. Beside him was Aeral dressed in a blue and silver dress, but with a silver belt of interlocking links.

Both of them set a silver ball whisking about their heads like an orbiting comet, and raised their hands. From all over the hall, through the windows, and doors, similarly dressed members of the Astin set silver balls in motion around their heads and floated up to join the circle. But rather than simply forming a circle, then hold of hand and feet in a sphere drifting and floating around Thondaran and Aeral.

When the sphere was complete, Thondaran gave a signal and they all turned to face the great doors. The fireworks outside stopped, the band went silence, and all the light in the hall went out except for a couple magical spotlights that shone on a magnificent figure in the doorway.

There stood Kimra dressed in a matching dress, but her hair billowed in a magical breeze. It was the color of fire: yellow and red. It truly looked like fire flowed from the top of her head down her back to her waist.

Her hands and feet suddenly erupted in fire, and chorus of magical trumpets shattered the silence. She set a silver ball spinning about her head floating up to join the family, when a flash in the doorway drew everyones attention. There stood Therral in his blue robes with his hood over his head. The silver around the trim of his rope and hood flowed and flashed like a living creature. He too set a ball spinning about his head and joined their parents where they all joined the sphere that began again to spin and float like a human planet rotating in the center of the room.

The ticking returned, and the band improvised to its beat. The fireworks again began to explode outside the windows, and everyone in the hall began to mingle and dance once again. One minute passed, then another. The sphere of Astin spun faster and faster, and the ticking grew louder and louder. Then a booming voice that shook the entire building began counting down, and everyone joined in.

Ten… Nine… Eight… The new year appeared in the circle again, and the old one slipped under the covers. Seven… Six… Five… The trumpets began to rise in a great crescendo. Four… Three… Everyone was yelling at the top of their lungs. Two… One…

And suddenly time began to slow down. The air in everyone’s lungs stopped. No one could move, but it seemed as if time continued to pass. A darkness began to grow in the center of the sphere, and still no one could move. Their lungs began to burn as the air expanded threatening to burst their lungs.

The darkness expanded erasing the walls and world around the party goers. It was as if they had all been teleported into lightless space with no gravity. Suddenly a great red and black dragon burst into being. Its horns, twisted and sharpened, dripping with red were as big as a horse. Its jaws were lined with wicked teeth that could turn a man to jelly in a single bite. It circled the crowd, bellowing until their ears began to ring uncontrollably. It breathed pure darkness from its mouth. The black clouds erased all hope and joy from the hearts of the helpless onlookers as the dragon passed again and again. Still they could not move.

Then a small voice rang out, and the dragon was silenced. Somehow Therral had broken free of the evil spell. His robes flickered and flashed lashing out at the dragon that flinched as they connected. In his hand was a thin blade of silver that crackled with lightning.

The dragon dove at him billowing massive dense clouds of despair, but small fan in his left hand simply brushed them away. As the dragon approached Therral stood in front of his family and the guests as a small candle before a hurricane. The opened its mouth to devour him, but a swift sidestep and stroke from the crackling sword lit up the dragons head, and sent burns racing across its snout.

As it passed screaming in pain the dragon struck Therral with a wing sending him tumbling through the darkness. One leg was clearly smashed, and the side of his face quivered precariously as if every bone had been smashed. The dragon circled thinking to easily swallow the tiny mage. Meanwhile, Therral quickly swallowed a glowing plus potion, and his entire left side erupted in blue flame that quickly faded healing him of all injuries. He stood and pulled a something from his robes.

A quick incantation later he breathed fire on the end of a firework that flew straight into the dragons face momentarily blinding him. Therral again unleashed the lightning from his sword, this time punching holes in the dragons wings.

The dragon circled away, and Therral drew out another firework preparing to light it. This time the dragon seemed to calm and shrink as it approached Therral who still stood between the dragon and his family suspended like the rest of the crowd behind him.

The dragon transformed into a man and approached Therral at a leisurely walk.

“Very well done, young one.” said the man. “We shall surely have to continue this another time.”

Therral responded with a growl, “Leave, or we will continue this right now.” he said raising his sword.

“Do not worry, little man” said the man. “You, and your puny village will not be harmed. I only need to enlist the services of your sister.”

“Over my dead body.” said Therral.

The man raised both hands and took a step back. “No, no. No dead bodies, please. I would be honored if you would come as well. I could use a good general to lead my armies.”

He pause with a disgusting happy little smile on his face waiting.

“Your armies?” stuttered Therral, a bit flustered.

“Oh yes, you would be impressed. They are flooding into this world as we speak, but they are just paltry little devils and demons. What I need are men like yourself to give them a little guidance.”

“Never!” spat Therral.

“Very well.” said the man raising his hand to toward Therral, and speaking a strange incantation.

Suddenly the firework Therral was holding launched right into the mans chest and exploded. The man yelled out, and lost control of his spell. A ripple of magic swept over area freeing everyone from their invisible prisons. The Astin family was sent spinning in all directions, and the rest of the guest gasped for breath or collapsed on the floor.

“Foolish boy, you sister will pay for your insolence.” said that man as he leapt into the air grabbing Kimra, pinning her arms to her sides with one hand and clamping his hand over her mouth with the other. He transformed into his dragon form again and transferred Kimra to rear claws. He began casting a spell as Therral, and everyone else in the room lunged at him.

But the dragon was too fast, and quickly sped out of reach. Finishing his spell a cloud of blackness formed again and he dove into it. Just as the portal closed, Therral grabbed the silver ball from around his head, and threw it after them. The ball and darkness vanished and great hall returned.

The next few minutes were frantic, as medical care was administered, and everyone searched for their loved ones. Only Heather noticed that Therral was not moving. He was not crying, he was not casting a spell, he was just standing there as if he had been turned to stone. She walked up and lightly put her arm around his shoulder, but he immediately threw it off, and snapped: “Don’t touch me.”

He continued to stare into nothingness, and she realized that he was concentrating, but she couldn’t see what it could be.
He raised his hand, and said, “Watch with me… don’t move.”

Minutes passed, and Heather shielded him from the chaos around them. Still he didn’t move. The crowd began to disperse, and several others came to see what was happening with Therral. They opened their mouths to ask questions, but were shushed by Heather before they make a sound.

Trell and Gabe came and stood as sentinels around him as well. They tried to follow his gaze, but he stared at nothing. Just a plain section of the wall. His right hand still gripped his sword, and his left was raised slightly were it had frozen after throwing the tiny ball into the portal.

Twenty then Thirty minutes passed, and still he stood there not moving. Tears began to roll down his cheeks, and he set his teeth in determination. Occasionally he would mumble, “So far. So far.” and fall silent again.

The Keep was cleared, and the dawn began to approach, and still Therral did not move. His eyes had no more tears, but a fire burned there that was frightening to behold.
The other family members began casting divination and scrying spells to try to locate Kimra, but no matter what they tried they could not find her. The debated, and read books, and cast spells, while Therral just stood there with his sword and intense concentration.

Trell and Gabe began to look for a bench to sit on, and Therral spoke with a pleading that reflected the deepest tortures a soul can endure. “Stay. Watch with me.” He said no more, and Trell and Gabe steeled their bodies to stand with him as long as he needed.

The family had all given up, and most of the had collapsed into tears or fitful sleep when the sun began to rise. Trell and Gabe began to wonder if their strength would hold out when suddenly a whistling sound began to grow. They could not tell where it came from, but Therral turned slowly raising his empty hand toward one of the stone walls. In an instant a tiny silver ball burst through wall leaving a tiny hole in the stone.

The silver ball stopped right in front of Therral’s hand, and then began to circle his head. “There!” cried out Therral. “Mark that direction.”

In an instant Trell, Gabe, and Heather understood, and sprang into action. They marked the spot where Therral stood, and drew a line in the direction of the hole.

Therral said one more time as he lost consciousness, “So far.” He collapsed and would have injured himself if not for the ion stone that kept his body suspended in the air.