Part 1
You are a mantis nymph of Shatalek, a dinky farming village so tiny you need to squint to find it on a map — but it’s all you’ve ever known.
Currently, you’re in pre-vesper training, studying in hopes of one day becoming a mighty vesperbane to slay fell beasts and uphold the Kindling Dream. But for that, you’ll need countenance from the Pharmacium of Wentalel. The mentors say it’s simply a matter of when, and of course it is; you’re the brightest mind among all of your classmates. If anyone is getting sponsored out of these duldrums, it will be you.
Hervanium Alcha got sponsored just after her third instar, three years ago. (You haven’t forgotten, you never forget what’s important.) But you didn’t get picked at your third instar. You didn’t get picked at your fourth. Your fifth is coming up, and it gnaws at you. Why haven’t they accepted you yet? Your physicals can’t be that important. And your histories, your ethics, your logics! They’re the best anyone in town’s ever seen! And the examiners weren’t even impressed…
You cope how you’ve always coped. You have in front of you the month’s assigned reading, and you’re going over it for the ninth time. You know it word for word (you never forget what’s important); but it always serves to review. Other scrolls pile up around you too, dozens of miscellaneous volumes on the history of the heartlands, the policies of the syndics, what few scraps of vesper lore are admitted to the laity…
It’s the 984th paragraph, you’re almost done with review, and you hear an abject scream, loud and distant! You turn your head. Did it really… Yes, it came from in the ambrosia woods, you’re sure of it. Right now, you sit on a massive stone whose flat top pokes from the earth (your favorite quiet place to study). It crops up two thirds of the way along the path from Shatalek village to the ambrosia woods. A minute’s walking would take you to the woods’ edge, and two minutes would take you back to the village outskirts.
A glance up at the sky shows it’s already darkling. Your father expects, no, your father knows you’ll be back for dinner this evening. You’ve never missed it, you’re always on time (after all, you never forget what it’s important).
The other nymphs would be out playing, even now. You might even encounter a few on your way back into town.
Still, that scream was horrible, agonized. Could you conscious leaving that poor mantis to whatever awful fate befell them? Vesperbanes save people, after all.
So, what do you do? Do you enter the woods and see what happened? Or do you return home to a quiet family dinner? (You are hungry.)
You could even remain on your study rock, but focus will prove elusive with the two responsibilities weighing on you.