The Viscountcy of Twistforest

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Ella
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The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Ella »

So far north! Ella huffed silently to herself as she read the parchment with the news of her new Viscountcy. It was practically in the northern mountains. Truly she was grateful to the King for the elevation, but why sooooo far north? Ella had long lived in milder, warmer climates as her body temperature was by nature colder. The witch often complained of a chill even in the warm months of summer. For this reason, she could nearly always be spotted wearing long, warmer clothing or lounging in a fireplace, or even sitting by herself with colorful magic flames dancing across her fingertips. But now she was to move to the northern country where cold winds could still be felt in summer, particularly at night. Still, Ella would be sure to thank the King for his graciousness. Smiling for a second, she recalled how she had ended up with her barony. She had already been serving as Mayor of Fenia City. The King had called her a Lady to which the fiery witch promptly replied, "I'm not a Lady!" And then suddenly she had a barony thrust upon her. That was certainly one way to get your point across, Ella had thought at the time.

But a week later, her belongings had all been packed up from Westhollow Manor and moved to the estate within the Viscountcy of Twistforest. Ella did not bother traveling with her belongs, instead simply moving through the shadows to the large house. The estate had been cleared of the local twisted trees that sprawled in dense forests throughout the region. There were large stone walls that kept back the dense forest. There were several gates that lead off from the grounds, however, the main gate was connected to the house via a long drive. Ella walked alone up the drive, admiring the stone edifice. It was rather lovely, she had to admit — even if she could feel a certain coolness in the air that was not prevalent in Fenia City.
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Ella
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Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Ella »

The first few days at Twistforest Court were rather uneventful. The servants there helped Ella get situated into life at Twistforest. They showed her around the house and around the grounds of the estate. There was a large library with shelves upon shelves of books that Ella's daughter Rosalie was simply overjoyed about. The unorthodox child had a thirst for knowledge unlike anything Ella had seen before — save for Chronicler #2873, a golem that recorded everything It observed or was told. Rosalie spent many hours in the library, wanting to read all the books in one go.

"Careful," Ella had warned the girl who was greedily perusing a large and rather old leather-bound volume. "If you read it all right away, you will have nothing to read later."

"That's not true, there is always more to read. Stories, histories, lessons. Always more. Besides, I can always reread them later."

Ella had merely chuckled at her daughter's words and instead ventured outside the home to the gardens. The fiery witch slowly made her way along the path of the garden until she stopped at the rose bushes. They were her favorite flower: their scent, the soft petals folded together at the end of a thorny stem. Perhaps it was cliché but they made her happy, and that was all that really mattered, wasn't it? Bending slowly down to the one bush, Ella reached out a hand. She traced a delicate fingertip along the edge of a vibrant red petal. Then her finger found the point of a thorn. She traced it, gently as to not cut herself. He who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose. Ella had heard that once somewhere.
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Taliesin

Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Taliesin »

There was nothing religious about Taliesin, but he was very keen on letting the gods decide his fate. Dice was his favourite game, and he couldn’t live without a wager. He was never one to wager gold, though, he would only ever wage his livelihood.

Much to his misery the gods of dice had recently frowned upon him, and so he would be sacrificing a week of his life as a cook to some witch.

She was the finest witch that Taliesin had ever met, and not a shame to associate with at all, unlike every other witch Taliesin had crossed pass with. All the witches Taliesin had met in life were troublesome rebels. Ella only seemed like a powerful lady keen on the drink. Just a normal human, really. Nothing troublesome about her.

If the dice gods had felt differently, Taliesin would be learning some of her witchy secrets instead of treading to her place with a sack of flour on his back. It was going to take a lot of flour to make it through the week, and more than that… Taliesin had no way of knowing what Ella’s estate had in it’s cellar, so he made sure to have the essentials. Over his shoulders, and balanced on the sack of flour he had strapped on his back, was a stick with pounds of onions and carrots stuffed into bags on both sides of it. All of his knives were strapped to his belt, along with several pouches of salt and seasoning.

More important than anything else Taliesin had brought was a portion of the living dough he had always kept with him since leaving home. Gerald, Taliesin called it.

He had kept the sourdough alive since arriving in these lands years ago, and always had a piece of Gerald under his tunic and over his heart. Gerald had a couple of relatives that friends of Taliesin's had taken to looking after, but the Gerald that Taliesin had was the only real Gerald.

Taliesin could make do with some flour and dough, but he promised Ella a weeks worth of cooking, and there was a lot more to cooking than baking bread. He would have to show her stock and stews, how to tear apart a chicken, how to make meat last, and plenty more if he wanted to provide a weeks worth of learning. How could he do that with the lot he had? He still didn't have celery, and making any stock without celery was heresy in his books. But celery just wouldn’t keep on a journey like this! He would need an extra pair of hands if he was to bring chickens, or any livestock for that matter, and he had no extra hands. So Taliesin was forced to go to Twistforest with only half of the essentials. Still, he had two of the best vegetables known to any creature and enough flour to keep his dough alive.

Knowing that pack mules had it worse than he, Taliesin made his way to Twistforest Court.

It was a smoother road than he was expecting to traverse, and he made it to the estate long before sunset. He stepped up to the front door and kicked it heavily twice, not wanting to risk unbalancing his load by knocking.
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Rosalie
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Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Rosalie »

THUMP! THUMP!

Rosalie looked up from the overly large volume she was reading in the library as she heard a loud thudding at the front door. The girl had been reading about a particularly nasty potion that could cover a creature's skin in painful boils even in the most uncomfortable of places. Really, it was not the kind of subject matter a child should be reading. But Rosie was not your normal child. This was not the first life for her spirit and her mind was that of an adult in many respects. The girl carefully set aside her book and disappeared into the shadows.

A moment later, Rosalie appeared standing on the outside of the front door. She took next to a man she recognized to be Taliesin the Storyteller Extraordinaire. He was presently standing balancing a large pile of good haphazardly.


"Hello Taliesin. Mama said you would be coming. Let me get the door..." Rosalie reached a hand through the shadow as her body remained otherwise in place and twisted the door handle for Tali before pushing the door open. The girl then smiled and led the way inside the house.

"Mama is out back in the garden. I've told her you are here," the girl explained. Unbeknownst to the visitor, Rosalie had spoken to her mother though the shadows to let her know of his arrival.
Last edited by Rosalie on Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Taliesin

Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Taliesin »

Taliesin heard a voice next to him and turned around to see a small child who was not present a moment ago. It wasn’t a surprise that something spooky would happen as soon as he arrived, but it was unnerving to be surprised by a little kid like that. How did the girl sneak up on him? Oh well, best not to think on it Taliesin decided.

Rosalie opened the door with some strange magic and Taliesin did his best not to think about that. He stepped inside sideways, following the girl.

“”Ella’s in the garden? I don’t need to see her right away, I should find a place to set my things first. There’s things I need to ask her though.” Taking a few steps inside he looked down at his boots and asked, “Should I take my shoes off? I’d hate to ruin the floor.”
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Rosalie
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Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Rosalie »

A lighthearted giggle escaped the the young girl's lip. What an odd man Taliesin was. Rosalie could not help but feel that the man was unsettled by her 'uniqueness'. Rosalie was not normal, she knew that. But normal was boring anyway. With another burst of laughter, she led the way down the corridor. With each step she did a little skip into the air, but even that seemed slightly unnatural. She seemed to jump a bit higher than normal and a bit further than was to be expected with each bound. Turning right at a fork, she disappeared around a corner for a moment. She waited for the man to catch up before leading him all the way to the end off the hall. Rosie pushed the door open near the back to reveal a large kitchen situated near the rear of the manor house.

"Mama says she will be inside to see you in about ten minutes," said as she looked up at the man with bright blue eyes. Then with another giggle she disappeared into the shadows.
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Taliesin

Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Taliesin »

Taliesin looked down at his shoes. He didn't want to track any dirt into the house and leave shoeprints throughout the hall, but he had too much weight on him to set it all down just to pick it up again. He would rather mop the whole building than set down his load only to pick it back up again. But it would be rude, so he knelt down and let his vegetable sacks down on the floor then undid his shoes and set them by the door.

He grabbed the stick that he'd been balancing his bags on, rested it on his shoulders, and marched down the hallway. Stepping through the door into the kitchen he forgot about his heavy load and aching body and was amazed at the facility before him. You could feed hundreds of people! Maybe even a thousand! There was a great hearth with a spit in the center of the kitchen, and a long ironwood table next to it. Across from where Taliesin was standing was a clay stove big enough to fit a cow. Not a whole cow, but all the bits after being butchered. There was a sizable pantry off in one corner, and cupboards stacked with dishes next to it.

There weren't enough plates to feed a thousand people, Taliesin noticed, but more than enough room to have a team working on scouring dishes at all times.

There was another long table on one end of the kitchen, and a few smaller ones about the room.

Taliesin stepped towards the pantry, eyeing it in awe of the size. It was as big as the pantry in the castle he trained in... He set down all of his foodstuffs and began taking inventory of the kitchen. He didn't hear Rosalie when she said that Ella would be another ten minutes, but it would take longer than that for Taliesin to finish exploring the kitchen.
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Ella
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Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Ella »

December 1660

Three years. It was hard to believe it. In November it had been three years since Ella arrived in Fenia City. At the time, she had only a thin dress, a dark cloak, and a heavy pair of leather boots. The dress nor the cloak hid the large swell in her stomach which indicated she was with child. She had come to an unknown land after fleeing her home and leaving everything behind. When people had asked her where she came from, she never truly answered them. She still didn't to this day. If people asked then she would tell them she came from a far-off land. Occasionally she would point in a random direction to indicate 'that way'. Since coming here so much had changed, but at the same time, nothing had changed. She felt she was very much in the same place she was three years ago. Alone, isolated in a strange land. The land wasn't so strange anymore, but still full of surprises and strange creatures. And she wasn't entirely alone either. She had some friends and some extended family. Mostly, she had Rosalie.

The girl was a paradox. It was nearly three years since her birth, and yet she physically appeared to be about twelve or thirteen now. And her mind...well, Rosalie had the intellectual capabilities of an adult. Ella remembered the shock at hearing the child speak just moments after entering the world. From birth, Rose could perfectly articulate her every thought and need. She was also incredibly curious. It was not unusual to hear Rosalie peppering a new creature she met with lots of questions. In her free time, she enjoyed exploring and reading in the library. Rosalie was her light even when she felt surrounded by darkness and loneliness.

Bundled in a cloak, she watched as her daughter played in the fresh blanket of snow that covered the otherwise empty gardens of Twistforest Court. Ella had a piece of charcoal in her hand as she carefully sketched the scene before her. A dark-haired girl building an elaborate snow castle complete with a moat and a bridge.
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Rosalie
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Re: The Viscountcy of Twistforest

Post by Rosalie »

Unlike her mother, Rosalie greatly enjoyed the winter months and the snow that it brought with it. Mama was perpetually cold and seeking the warmth of a bright hearth, sometimes even going so far as to sit in the flames. It was not a peculiar sight to see her mother sitting in a large fireplace where she could sit and enjoy the flames lapping at her body. It didn’t hurt her or anything like that. Ella’s skin never damned from the heat. This was due to her kitsune heritage. Grandpa had similar powers, at least that is what Rosie has been told. She hadn’t met him or her grandmother. Grandma didn’t live in Fenia though, she lived in the Kingdom of Arassa. Rosalie was curious about this place. She wanted to visit and explore, but Mama said it wasn’t safe to go back there anymore.

"Mama, look!" The bubbly girl jumped to her feet suddenly and spun around to address her mother. Mama’s skin was paler than usual in the cold northern air but she smiled brightly at Rosalie as she showed off the castle. It was three stories but with several taller towers around the perimeter.

"Quite the castle you’ve got there. Perhaps one day you will build it for real. Then you can have your own castle," Ella mused as she stood from her seat to come and better inspect the snow castle.

"Why would I leave you?" Rosalie looked up at her mother curiously.

"You won’t want to stay with your mother forever. One day you will leave and make a family of your own." Ella looked a bit sad at the thought, though she tried not to show it.

"No. I don’t think I will," the girl said definitively. She took her mother’s icy hand and tugged her back towards the manor house, "Let’s go inside! We can bake cookies." Rosalie knew that Mama was struggling to be out in the cold for so long. It was better to go inside now and warm up by the oven. Not that Ella could cook or bake, but she could sit by the warm oven while Rosalie did.
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