>>5790989You pored over records from 18 years ago, then 19—Henzler’s age being betwixt the two—for evidence of the adoption. Nothing emerged—no birth name, no circumstances. You decided to delve still further into the records, backward and forward a year—the precise age of an adoptee could be difficult to determine. Nothing! Still nothing!
…But Izirina Henzler WAS a legal entity. She was enrolled at the school. You DID find documents whereby Theresa Henzler, by then appointed Archmage, made an ‘Izirina Henzler’ her legal heir.
>12: no precise answersHow could one record exist and not the other? How was this ALLOWED? Weren’t humans supposed to be organized and orderly?! You could have banged your head against the wall…
>12: enough for a clueBut then you paused. Something occurred to you. You flipped back through the archives as if in a fever. You found the record of this transfer of inheritance again. If Izirina was a mere experiment, why would the Archmage genuinely make her heir to her worldly possessions? Nobody was under any OBLIGATION to make a foundling their inheritor, after all, as they might occasionally be legally bound to a biological heir. There WAS something more to this…
And there, on the document, were signed two other names. Two other people, involved and with possible answers.
A signatory official of the Crown… And a witness.
You mulled over the matter as you returned to your studies—how best to approach the curious case of Izirina Henzler, the girl-from-nowhere who became heir to the most powerful human spellcaster of a generation—perhaps of the last hundred years! What was she? Where did she come from? WHY was the Archmage crafting and caring for a chimeric progeny… if, indeed, that WAS what was happening behind the scenes. You couldn't even be certain of THAT much, damn it all!
