Cheers to @optimisticgrey (WIP), @emmyandthetieflings (not-WIP), @cep-stories (WIP), @hollowharp (WIP) for the tags!
I'm gonna go really off the rails this week, then I'll return to regularly scheduled programming. So a couple of years ago, before I ever wrote a fanfic, I started writing what might have been a Gale-fic about a lonely wizard in a tower who received an unexpected visitor. But as I wrote it, the characters turned into original characters, and somewhere along the way a plot presented itself (causing me to have to rewrite the whole thing).
Anyway, this is what I'm working on this week. I'm almost done with it now and I am trying to gear myself up to let other people besides my husband see it. 😓There's a writing group I want to try joining, so eeek, I need to prepare myself. To that end, I'm letting you see some of it first. Feel free to skip this, it's not BG3, but it does have a wizard!
The MCs:
Charlotte Arundel: A librarian who's been assigned to a library in the small rural village of Belthane. She's discovered a tower in the woods that shows signs of habitation. Some townsfolk believe it's a wizard, but no one's ever seen them. Charlotte's never met a wizard and would like to.
Dorian Rynne: A wizard who has been living an isolated life in a tower and would prefer to keep it that way. He has a whole philosophy about it that he will quote to you to prove he is not in the least lonely or unhappy that way.
The Plot: When Charlotte shows up at Dorian's doorstep he conceives of a brilliant plan to prove to himself that he's not fit to associate with other people. He makes a deal with Charlotte that leads them to discover that magic doesn't work at all how they've been told, and their small town becomes the center of a conspiracy that threatens the magical and political power structures of the entire country. (And obviously they fall in love too).
Ch 1: Charlotte Meets a Wizard
The door yanked open with such force that Charlotte startled backward. The man who filled the doorway looked as though her very existence offended him. He wore long robes over his trousers with arcane symbols embroidered along the hems, though the effect was rather undermined by how thoroughly wrinkled and stained the fabric had become.
He was much younger than she'd expected, perhaps around her own age. Wizards in books always had long beards, but this man was clean-shaven with thick dark brown hair that looked as if it rarely saw a comb and golden-brown eyes that currently regarded her with the intensity of a falcon regarding a rabbit.
"What?" Even though he didn’t say it, she somehow heard “and make it quick” at the end.
"Hello." Charlotte lifted her chin. She hadn't come all this way to be cowed by rudeness. "I'm Charlotte Arundel. I work at the clockwork library in Belthane, and I have a question for you."
"Do you." His gaze flicked over her with evident disinterest. "Let me spare us both some time. I don't make love potions, I don't hex your rivals, I don't cure baldness or impotence, and I certainly don't entertain idle curiosity from townspeople with nothing better to do than poke around my tower." He started to close the door.
Charlotte thrust the bakery box forward. "I brought tribute."
He paused, and something shifted in his expression. His eyes dropped to the box, and she could have sworn she saw his nostrils flare slightly as he caught the scent of butter and vanilla. "Tribute," he repeated.
"It’s cakes. From the bakery in Belthane. They’re vanilla with strawberry frosting." She kept her voice level and businesslike. "The formal magical literature mentions tribute. I assumed cakes would be acceptable for a single question."
"You've read the formal magical literature." His tone suggested this was about as likely as pigs taking wing.
"Well … perhaps ‘formal’ is overstating it, but Farmer Jacobs said this is how it’s done," Charlotte said coolly. "Though I'll admit he was somewhat vague about what constitutes proper tribute."
The scowl reasserted itself. He stared at the box for a long moment, and Charlotte could practically see him waging an internal war. Finally, he stepped back from the doorway with evident reluctance.
"One question," he said sharply. "And if it's about love potions or hexes, you can take your cakes and—"
"It's not."
"Fine. Come in, ask your question, and then leave me in peace."
He led her through an entrance hall where afternoon light filtered weakly through grimy windows. At the end of the hall, stairs spiraled upward into the tower's higher reaches, but before they got there, the wizard turned into a small room. The receiving room he brought her to looked as though it hadn't received anyone in years. Dust coated every surface in a fine gray blanket, books were piled haphazardly on chairs, and heavy curtains were drawn against the daylight, giving the whole space a gloomy, neglected air.
Charlotte started to set the box on the table, thought better of it, and produced her handkerchief to dust the surface first. Only then did she set the box down properly. When she looked up, the wizard was staring at her with an expression somewhere between bewilderment and irritation. "Did you just dust my furniture?"
"It needed it," she said simply, taking a seat and putting away her handkerchief. She made sure to display how black it had gotten from the table before tucking it away.
Okay, I did that. I'll go back to BG3 stuff now!
Plus tags for my homies, show me your WIPs: @tynithia, @the-font-bandit, @grandninjamasterren, @carnivaley, @penguintreblemaker, @fireflyeyes, @ginateeth, @mysticxmoonlight, @defira85, @glitterandmoondustofficial, @the-real-housewives-of-waterdeep, @nateeseart, @nora-darling, @theendofanerror, @bladesingerlily, @lucretiouswept, @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream, @87000beesinapersonsuit, @drow-drow-drow, @thesanguinesonnet, @cinder-rellish181, @optimisticgrey, @lolthwoven, @rdekarios, @amuletspore, @zigloo, @dutifullylazybread, @elandra-beltharys, @naiatabris
