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

You swallow as you look into your grandma's eyes. Lying to her—especially about something as significant as this—seems like it could have serious consequences. But whether because you don't want to bring an end to this plan before it's begun, or because you just can't face your grandma finding out how much you might have given away, you're going to take the risk.


After only a short pause, you start to tell your grandma all the ways in which you've been cautious, gone out of your way to hide your magic and make sure nobody suspects you're a Witch. You tell her that not only have you never done magic in public, you've never even spoken about anything that could relate to it in any way. As far as anybody else in Silvertree is concerned, you're as much a Witch as any of them.


And to your slight surprise, as your grandma listens, she nods along quietly—and never so much as raises an eyebrow at anything you have to say. In fact, the longer you speak, the more a smile begins to dawn on her face, and you realize that there's no doubt she believes what you're saying. If she thought you were lying, she wouldn't hesitate to try and find out.


Eventually, once you've said everything you can think of, your grandma takes a few moments just to think—and then, she gives you a simple nod.


"You know—I wouldn't have blamed you in either case if you had struggled to keep our magic a secret, Huknock," she tells you, and something squirms in your gut as you meet her eyes. "Something like that is a difficult thing to keep to yourself. But…thank you, Huknock. Thank you for all of your efforts."


There's no mistaking the total sincerity in her voice just then. And even though you've gotten what you wanted—some part of you wonders what it is you've just done. Not just lied to your grandma, but succeeded in keeping the planning going forwards, even though there might be a risk of accidentally exposing your magic to everyone. Could that really happen as a result of this plan? And if it did—


You try your best to push those thoughts out of your mind. You've made your choice now, and if you want to go ahead with this plan, then you'll have to live with the consequences.


But—if you decide that it's not a risk worth taking after all—maybe you could still change your mind about doing the plan altogether. And maybe, at the same time, you could come clean to your grandma about what you just told her.


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