Totentanz

Book 1 Chapter I: Der Anfang

DER ANFANG
German, "the beginning; the outset".

Vimes took the view that life was so full of things happening erratically in all directions, that the chance of any of them making some kind of relevant sense were remote in the extreme. -- Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

Some things stayed the same no matter how many other things changed. Monsters periodically crawled up from the beach and were dispatched with relative ease. The alchemists at Laoivere Academy were always one bad decision away from blowing up the mountain range, so everyone else took precautions that would seem insane to outsiders. And a young woman named Diarnlan Kergínelsdóttir attended the academy for twelve years.

As students went she was a good but not outstanding one. She certainly wasn't a genius who knew all the answers without studying. She worked hard, passed all her exams, and was tenth in her class when she graduated.

Then she disappeared. For years no one knew or heard anything of her. Rumour had it she was studying under one of the Great Mages. Others claimed she was a hedge-witch somewhere in the countryside. No one knew, and no one truly cared enough to investigate further.

Until the day she returned.

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Some other things never changed either. A mayor offered his young son as a sacrifice to the Hraoghenn[1]. A mountain spirit took pity on the boy and rescued him. He grew up amidst the spirits and govhy[2] in his adopted mother's home. And when he was an adult, he fell in love with a glacier-sprite. Their first son was born a year after their wedding. The boy showed considerable talent at magic, so his parents sent him to the academy on his eighth birthday.

Half-humans were neither common nor popular. Karandren Hriaþansson was always near the top of his class, always raised his hand when the teacher asked a question, and never caused trouble. Outside the classroom he was ignored, sneered at, and outright bullied.

That abruptly stopped one day, when his most vicious bully fell into a lake and drowned. No one could prove Karandren had anything to do with it. But everyone knew what his mother was. He inherited some of her water-magic. He was a better swimmer than anyone and could hold his breath underwater for up to an hour. It wasn't hard to draw certain conclusions.

When he turned fourteen he began looking for a magician he could become apprenticed to, so he would never have to return to the academy. Teenagers were only allowed to become apprentices when they turned sixteen. Karandren knew that. He also knew he was a much better magician than any of his classmates. Surely someone would make an exception and take him on two years early.

No one did.

Then the first skrýszel[3] crawled out of the sea.

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All the bards and poets had a great deal to say about people loyally protecting their family. Every minstrel knew a library's worth of songs about someone willing to give up their life for a relative. Diarnlan was convinced none of those song-writers had any relatives. Certainly they had no sisters.

This was not a good day for her in general. (People who had the dubious privilege of knowing her might be surprised to hear she had any good days.) First she woke up with a splitting headache. Her sleep had been disturbed and full of strange dreams. Then she made a mistake in brewing a potion and melted her cauldron. Now her obnoxious younger sister had come for a visit without so much as a by-your-leave.

Since she left the academy she had gone in search of a more powerful magician willing to teach her. Diarnlan knew only too well she was naturally only an average magician. Yet with years of study, hard work, and a proper teacher -- not like those fools at the academy, who picked their favourite students and never cared about the others -- she hoped to become a much better one. But she was never going to become a better one if she couldn't get a minute's peace to study!