First Witch's Tale
A thousand years before Emily was brought to the Nameless World, the concept of magical education was very new and the early magicians were struggling to codify the laws of magic and devise ways to cast spells safely. It was a very different and dangerous time, with inhuman threats lurking in the shadows and magicians often at risk from their own spells. It was rare, in those days, for women to study magic, let alone practice openly.
This is the story of the first female student at Whitehall, and how she blazed a trail for so many others.
The novella is written to be stand-alone, but it is – at least partly – a direct sequel to Past Tense (Schooled in Magic X). If you would like to see the novella expanded into a full novel, please feel free to let us know.
Foreward
Despite the importance of Whitehall School, there have been surprisingly few attempts to unlock the secrets of the school and its history. Successive grandmasters have been reluctant to permit archaeologists to explore underneath the school itself, or to search the pocket dimension for clues that might lead to whoever built the school. Worse, a significant amount of historical material was destroyed during the wars and what remains is not informative enough to put together a full picture of just what happened, the year the Whitehall Commune stumbled across the castle and turned it into the first school of magic. The result is a hodgepodge of historical sources that regularly contradict one another, and even contradict themselves, and can therefore not be considered reliable.
No one knows who built the castle. Lord Whitehall discovered it, through some unknown means, but it was not he who laid the groundwork for the building itself. (It is generally believed the castle builders made a failed attempt to control the nexus point and were killed in the backlash.) Lord Whitehall did take control of the nexus point under the castle, allowing him to turn the building into a fortress capable of standing against almost anything, yet precisely how did that is another mystery. We know some names that have been passed down through the years - Bernard De Born, Lady Julianne, Lord Alfred, the enigmatic Dark Lady - but precisely who they were and what they did is unknown. Indeed, we have no idea why Lord Whitehall chose to found the school in the first place. The concept of a formal educational establishment was largely unknown at the time.
Regardless, we do know that Whitehall grew and flourished in the years since Lord Whitehall took control of the castle. The growing population of trained magicians laid the groundwork for the magical community we know today, as well as improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The concept of educating every magician, regardless of their origins, took root at Whitehall and spread, despite opposition from various senior magicians. We know this, but we don’t know the details. Precisely when, for example, was it decided to accept female students? Or how, precisely, did Lord Bernard succeed Lord Whitehall as Grandmaster of Whitehall?
It was not until Grandmaster Gordian succeeded Grandmaster Hasdrubal, four years ago, that there was a serious attempt to open the tunnels under the school in a bid to answer some of those questions. The process caused considerable disruption to the school - quite by accident, a pocket dimension was nearly collapsed - yet it did reveal previously unknown chambers within the school. Many of those chambers had been emptied when they were abandoned, for reasons unknown, but a surprising amount of historical material was recovered, transported to the surface, and examined.
The manuscript you hold in your hands is one of them.
I cannot swear to the historical accuracy of the information contained within the scroll. Manuscripts we know to date back to the founding often contradict themselves. The unknown author of Life of Whitehall later wrote and published Life of Bernard, which appeared to indulge in a certain degree of historical revisionism. Lord Whitehall’s accomplishments were given to Bernard. (It is worth noting that Bernard’s own account of those times went to some pains to correct the record, returning Whitehall to his place of honour.) Life of Whitehall insists that Bernard was Lord Whitehall’s son as well as his apprentice; this manuscript, by contrast, states that Bernard was in fact Lord Whitehall’s son-in-law and notes that the historical Lady Julianne was Lord Whitehall’s daughter. It is worth noting that Life of Bernard glosses over the question completely.
I also cannot swear the scroll is genuine. Forged historical documents are common and fakes difficult to spot without the proper spells. The sheer lack of hard data ensures that fast-talking conmen can explain the historical discrepancies, even when dealing with a properly trained academic archaeologist. My guild has spent years developing techniques for verifying the age of new documents, particularly when they were discovered under dubious circumstances, yet we have to admit that we have been fooled more than once. Indeed, one particularly good forgery remained undiscovered for nearly a decade and was only revealed as part of a confession when the forger was arrested for an unrelated matter. This was, of course, hugely embarrassing. A number of careers had been built on the forged document.
This scroll was discovered under the school, in a sealed compartment that was only revealed by chance, and it has passed all the tests. However, it contradicts so much of what we know - or think we know - that it is difficult to be entirely sure.
I advise you to bear that in mind.
Historian Titus, History Guild
Chapter One
Chapter One
On my fifteenth birthday, I ran away from home.
It was something I had been mulling over for the last two years, ever since I’d turned into a young maiden, ever since I had realised I had magic. I had grown up in Bramble Fire, and never gone more than a few miles beyond the town’s perimeter, but I had never truly fitted in. People had pointed and whispered from the very first day, when my father introduced me as his daughter, and it had never gotten any better. The magic just made it worse. Women with magic were dangerous. Everyone said so.
I hadn’t meant to hurt David, really I hadn’t. But he had tried to kiss me and I had panicked and my magic had sparked and now when he looked at me I saw nothing but fear in his eyes.
I’d laid my plans carefully, ever since a passing Peddler had told me the news. I had packed a knapsack with everything I needed, everything that belonged to me. Never let it be said that I was a thief, picking what rightfully belong to others. I did my last set of chores as I waited for nightfall, for the brief hour between sunset and complete darkness, then slipped out of the house - bidding my siblings a silent goodbye - and made my way across the fields to the trees. I was a skilled woodsman. There were few who could match me when it came to slipping through the forest without being spotted. As long as I left without being noticed, I would be well away by the time the alarm was sounded. If it ever was. I suspected Bramble Fire would be quietly glad to see the back of me.
My father caught me at the edge of the fields.
“And where,” he asked, “do you think you are going?”
I tried not to flinch, caught red-handed. My father - Gurdon - was a decent father, as fathers went, but I was trying to run away from home. I hesitated, torn between the urge to tell him precisely where was going and a strange guilt for leaving him and the rest of the family. Children had obligations to their parents, including the obligation to look after them as they grew older. I might not be a son, or even his eldest child, but I still had duties. And I was planning to travel much further than one of our neighbouring villages. If something happened to my father, I might never hear about it - or if I did, it would be too late to do anything about it.