PlayerOliver

When you were a kid, you lived with your grandmother in the small town of Silvertree, on the edge of a magical forest. Grandma is a witch, and she taught you how to use your magic to affect the natural world, too. “Magic is a part of you,” she always told you. “Learning how to use it means figuring out who you are.”

Now you’re 19 and on your own. After years of living in the forest while you perfected your witchcraft, you’ve returned to take care of your grandmother’s house and crow-familiar while she’s gone. Figuring out who you are feels more important than ever - not to mention, figuring out what Silvertree is. A lot is just as you remembered: the friendly generous next-door neighbors with a kid just your age, the proud town council, the quaint little shops with quirky punny names, the gentle shadowy forest full of magic.

Stone in the shoe

Your grandma hesitates—and from the way her hands seem to hover in midair, you wonder for a moment if she is really considering taking you up on your offer.


But in the end, she turns around and looks you in the eye.


"Thank you, Huknock, but…no. It wouldn't be right," she tells you with an anxious shake of her head. "I know I haven't been open about what I've been doing so far, but now that you're here, I think it's best that you know what's going on. It concerns you as well as me, after all. And—well, I think I need to show you that I trust you, too."


She swallows and gives you a small nod before going back to whatever she was doing before. Eventually, however, she seems to have finished with whatever was distracting her, because she relaxes her shoulders at last and comes back over to where you're sitting.


"I haven't asked you why you came to the forest today," your grandma says, sitting down and pouring herself some more tea, "but I think I can guess the reason. Did you feel it?"


You open your mouth, about to ask "feel what?" But then you realize: Of course. You did feel something emanating from the forest. Something connected to all the malfunctioning electronics.


And it stopped right before your grandma appeared.


"That was you?" you ask, amazed. "You were making all the lights and stuff act like that?"


"A side effect of what I'm trying to do. Not something I planned for, and even now, it's not something I quite know how to solve. I don't want to risk anything by doing this, either over there or out here. Especially not if…if it means anyone could find out what's going on."


She fixes you with an unwavering stare. She's still being as vague as ever—but you think there's only one thing she could really be worried about people discovering.


"You don't want anybody to find out about the magic?"


She shakes her head emphatically. For a moment, you see her grip the arms of her chair.


"I'm not willing to risk that. If it comes to it, I'd rather take our chances—wait and see if these developments do affect our magic at all—before I risk exposing it to everybody while trying to save it."


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