Characters:

chancellor – imprisoned by duke

boy-wonder?? – misfit who wants to adventure; well-educated street-urchin;

• family has been working in magical artifact business for generations – power has passed down through them to him (those who are unable to work with artifacts mysteriously die – if they have too little skill, but enough to summon the magic – or leave the village – if they don't have the skill to summon the magic); boy-wonder had already begun his training to work in the workhouse; no peasant leaves village – withdrawal from magic working occurs within two days of leaving

local friends – big, intelligent, unkind bully; female urchin in love with bully; thief-guild contact: very low in the guild and guild is pretty sure he's not going to qualify to join

Setting:

city boy-wonder is born in – large city, half moon ride from capital city; noblemen do well in magical artifact business; peasants do poorly and are worked hard in workhouses to create magical artifacts (requires actual magical skill, which is placed into artifact – peasants don't realize that they have been taught how to work the magical energies of the world; working with magical energy is very addicting though, so while the peasants live poorly, they are addicted to their work and complain little)

Prologue – ex-chancellor in prison given execution message by soon-to-be appointed chancellor

Ch. 1

first scene: robbery taking place – boy wonder and guild-contact are following female urchin into mansion, with bully watching outside

place is crawling with guards, guild-contact is with them and has map of premises

boy-wonder takes time during robbery to work with stones; sets them glowing, which gets attention of guards; female urchin and guild-contact don't understand why he's doing it

trying to rob ivory quill

get away with quill, but thief-guild contact gets news that the guild is going to "duck glaze" them – turn them in as part of bribe

Ch. 2

boy-wonder finds father at his workhouse and tells him what happened

father tells boy-wonder to make a run for it; he gives him some gold and a contact with a failed cousin in a southern city – he then goes back to work (working with magical energy is very addicting, and he could give no more thought to his boy when he had work he could be doing)

boy-wonder returns to his house only to find some thief-guild members waiting inconspicuously outside; if not for female urchin, he would have been caught

boy-wonder insists on retrieving some belongings before he leaves – most notably, his training stones (he's already felt the beginnings of the magical addiction)

female urchin helps him sneak past thief-guild members and they retrieve stone

they meet up with bully at local tavern

city guards raid place and arrest bully, boy-wonder and female urchin narrowly escape; they find thief-guild contact's body in sewers while making for exit under the walls of the city

Ch. 3

boy-wonder and female urchin hit the road leading to southern city

neither has experience outside of the city, and spend money very quickly

after a day of journeying, they are set upon by bandits and narrowly escape, although magical stones are stolen

withdrawal from magical addiction begins to affect boy-wonder as he is unable to practice with the magic – energies begin to be released unintentionally; female urchin is injured by one of his releases

Ch. 4

female urchin leaves wonder-boy when the get to the next town; she's scared of him and what he can do

boy-wonder runs from town into surrounding woods, immediately losing path

boy-wonder meets with master magician who begins to train him in ways of real magic

master magician wants to use boy for evil ends – boy's powers are much stronger than master magician; most of master magician's magic is sleight of hand

World of Nep’l

Sienst – Power to manipulate laws of nature. Once a Sien

Sien – Mage of Nep’l. Siens are born able to practice sienst. The powers of Siens are not passed genetically, but instead occur randomly in families. The more powerful the sien, the less likely the power will be discovered.

Emust –