Fit for the King

A Piece of Gold - Chapter One

//I will add illustrations and a cover soon//

There was never a dull day when you ran the only consignment shop in Vanadelsh. Janet Lewis must have seen ten times the wonders of most aged men by the time she turned 17 years old. She felt that she had thoroughly traveled all of Vanadelsh, possibly the world, and yet she never strayed more than a block or two from her modest house. Lucky Janet didn't have to go anywhere at all to get her fill of excitement. The adventure always came to her through the shop's heavy brass door.

Every day, all sorts of treasures were brought in and out of the shop. Janet was careful to display the clothing, books, and maps in the front of the shop. Old chests, tapestries, artwork, jewelry, and anything else that caught her eye went in the back. That way, they would stay in the shop longer. Her most favorite things were tucked away where they would be looked right over, or even buried under the broken things that nobody ever bought. After the shop closed, she would pull them out to admire them. Until they were sold, they would be her treasures.

The people who sold such treasures to the shop were often quite fascinating themselves. They told marvelous stories that were more interesting than any of the books Janet had ever gotten her hands on. Some told wild tales of exploration, some bewildering stories of mysteries and revenge, and others heartbreaking stories of great love. In her fifteenth year, Janet had taken habit of writing them all down in a journal, so that she might read them again and again. She thought she might publish them someday, if she ever ventured out to explore Vanadelsh for herself.

Now fantastic stories of faraway lands were not all that Janet heard from behind the shop counters. There were a group of regulars who she saw every week and had gotten to know quite well, and they brought stories of a different type. The regulars kept Janet and her brother informed in all the important things as they happened in Vanadelsh. Most of it was boring to Janet – she never did understand foreign affairs or royal decrees – but now and then there was something worth listening to. Janet would put down whatever it was she was doing and lean as far as she could over the counter to hear every word when a regular told about a magician.

It used to be that magic was something you'd expect to encounter any time you left your home to go for a stroll. It was hardly anything exciting. Magicians were easy to seek out, and schools for learning the trade were a popular choice for the children of the wealthy. Magic was used in everything. Daily tasks as small as farming, to the destruction of an ominous war, were taken care of by it. Janet herself had been exposed to much of it as young child, but those memories seemed distant and fanciful, like a misty dream.

Janet's brother, George, knew a lot more about the magic than she did. He was five years older than her, and it comes with the age that he should remember more than her. Janet decided it was for the better that she didn't remember, as George always got worked up about the topic. Prior to his adolescence, he always said he wanted to be a magician. Janet had a hunch he had never gotten over it. Adulthood seemed to spoil everyone, but George was the worst martinet Janet had ever met when it came to magic. She never opened her mouth around him, in fear that he might disown his own sister and report her to the King's soldiers.

Magic, it was now taught, was a terrible thing. For all the good it could do, twice the evil was done. As with all tools, it was up to the worker how it should be used. Higher technology created for the good of the common people meant a raise in the power of a criminal world. The power hungry would use anything they could get. Magic was no exception. There was quite the black market for it, and under the reign of King Haskell, it bloomed into a rather ugly, thorny weed. Beautiful Vanadelsh withered away into a kingdom of dishonesty, destruction, and deception.

The worst of all criminal magicians was King Haskell himself. He used the power he possessed to bully and cheat neighboring countries. Worse still, he used his power to bully and cheat his own subjects. A dictatorship unlike anything Vanadelsh had seen before unleashed. You were never safe from the King's greedy claws.