Stillglade Fane, Gridania, 1573
Nearly a cycle had passed since that fateful night in the Black Shroud, and life was significantly different. Covington manor had burned to the ground, little more than rubble remaining. Some bodies had been found, others still had yet to be accounted for, though surely they had perished in the fire. Only Faye and several of the household staff had managed to escape the carnage. Most of them had parted ways, with her parents gone and the family's wealth significantly diminished with the destruction of their home and almost everything in it, though a couple of the former servants would still sometimes pay Faye visits at the conjurer's guild.
Stillglade Fane was home now. Or at the very least, it was where she laid her head. "Home" was gone, a thing that no longer existed. Now, her days were filled with studying conjury and learning to appease the Elementals. They were not exactly pursuits that interested Faye, but the studies were expected if she were to remain there, and she had little else to do with her time but practice spells and take walks through the Twelveswood, regardless. The elder conjurers would never let her do anything too intensive--they told her she had issues managing her aether, that she needed to spend more time among the elements. Though it seemed no matter how much time she spent wandering about the forest trying to learn... whatever it was she was supposed to be learning, she made no improvements.
She still did not know why the Garleans had attacked her home. The Order of the Twin Adder had investigated, but they could offer her few answers. They best they could theorize was that it had something to do with her father's standing among their ranks, and the work they did to protect the Shroud's borders from any Imperials sneaking through. They even feared it might be the first of many strikes targeting their higher ranking officers, but no more attacks yet followed. Faye simply tried to get her mind off the matter. She tried to forget the things she'd seen and heard that night. She tried to pretend everything in her life wasn't foreign and frightening. She tried to pretend she didn't miss her parents, or their staff, or her home. Sometimes, it even worked.
So she spent her days alone in the woods, or in Stillglade Fane with her peers, treating anyone who turned up in need of healing. Perhaps her life had not changed so very much at all, aside from the absence of her home, and her parents, and their fortune. Still, it was a relatively dull and unsatisfying existence, until at last there came a day of some excitement.
She was barely awake that morning as June, one of her fellow conjurers-in-training, zoomed by her, an excitable Midlander girl a couple years younger than herself. She skidded to a stop and whirled around once she seemed to realize she'd passed Faye. "Faye, Faye! The Wailers found some unconscious guy in the woods! Quick, let's go help!" Faye didn't even have time to respond before the girl snatched her by the wrist and tugged her off.
Two Elezen men garbed in the green armor and masks of the Wood Wailers stood on either side of a cot, occupied by the still form of a pale, shirtless man. The Wailers, awaiting June's return, turned attentively toward Faye and her peer as they arrived. "They say they think he hit his head, that's all. He doesn't seem to have any other significant injuries," June explained. As Faye drew nearer, she bobbed to the side to see past the nearest Wood Wailer and get a look at the patient's head, catching sight of a mane of purple-streaked, auburn hair.
Suddenly, she moved forward, nearly pushing the Elezen man out of her way before he skittered aside to let the conjurers work. "Whaddaya think? Isn't he kinda cute?" June asked as she loomed over Faye's shoulder, causing Faye's face to grow a shade whiter than its usual pallor as she glanced over the man's features, a familiar scar etched over his right eye. "No, he's not!" Faye responded, sounding more passionate about her answer than she probably should have.
June exhaled a half-sighed, disapproving "hmph." "Oh Faye, you don't think any man's handsome. I'd think you preferred women, but I never catch you stealing any glances at them, either." Faye paid little mind to the girl, instead settling down beside the cot to assess Zularti. He looked older, bigger, but overall not much different. He was covered in small scrapes and bruises, but sure enough, the only serious wound she could see was a bloody gash upon his forehead.
She reached a hand out to begin healing the wound, but June immediately swatted her hand away, moving forward to scoot in past Faye. "You don't even like 'im, let me have 'im! You're no good at this healing stuff, anyroad!" Faye scowled at the girl but held her ground, nudging her with her shoulder to urge her away as she went about calling upon the elements to tend to him, regardless.
"Jeez! You're so scary when you get like that," June muttered, backing away.
"If you want to help, get something to clean the wound," Faye murmured and June nodded before trotting off, soon returning with a dampened cloth. Once the wound was cleaned, Faye mended it, the two young women simply staring at Zularti expectantly afterward as Faye felt that all too familiar, nagging fatigue set in.
"He's not waking up," June stated.
Faye reached forward to unceremoniously slap the unconscious man across the face.
"Hey! You really need to work on that whole 'kind and nurturing' thing. I told you, you should've let me handle it," June snapped.
A moment later, Zularti's eyes fluttered open, blinking several times in confusion before his gaze wandered over his surroundings, scanning over the faces of the two women before it came to settle on Faye.
"Oh, hi, Faye. Why are you always here when I wake up in some strange place? Do you just follow me around and wait for me to pass out somewhere? Haha, you're a weirdo!" he gave a snort of laughter, grimacing halfway through. "Ow. My head hurts."
"Were you hitting trees with sticks in the woods again?" she asked flatly.
June cast a bewildered glance between the two. "You know him?" she questioned.
"No," Faye blurted out the obvious lie.
"Of course she knows me! We're like best friends!"
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
