Benni was quite relieved that it was simply Olivia, her friend for many summers since the age of 9, and not a Ministry agent coming to cut her open to see how her magic works
They went through a lot together, once they were part of a plan to put on a show to raise enough money to save the summer camp they went to from an evil business tycoon attempting to buy the land to build condos
Olivia was a very talented Artificer at the local magic school and known to specialize in a creation called The Clunker-Armour, she only constructed the head and left arm portions which both look like monstrous sharp body parts of brass with some magic material canisters on them, but they both are very powerful and even have different effects based off the material loaded into the cannisters, now she is a very talented Artificer working
She and Olivia also had that one weird thing in the school closet that time during prom but that was just a friend thing, buddies, gal pals...... you cannot prove they did anything more than platonic, Olivia still owns The Clunker-Armour, she has a license, it has a long ranged attack function, you'll never be safe again if you tell anyone, they're still in the closet about this (Pun intended)
Their history and possible homosexuality aside, Benni had to get ready
"Sorry Olivia, just had some stuff on my mind"
"What kinda stuff? I'm here if you need someone to listen"
"Nothing much, stubbed my toe, some guy on the rail carriage sneezed in my face, someone at the library was extra rude, inconvenience kinda just built up so I took a minute to lie down, forgot about my schedule sorry" Benni lied
Olivia gave her a hug and let her go "Sorry that happened, you don't have to come if you don't wanna, I mostly just want to bring you along so you don't just spend almost all the time in the library or at home"
Benni was already walking back to her closet, Olivia closing the door and turning around to let Benni get ready "Oli, don't worry, I'm planning to come along, soon people will no longer associate the name Benni with introverted nerd!"
She put on some casual clothes and a pair of oversized incredibly tacky looking glowing novelty sunglasses she got from a theme park when she was 8 "Cause this will make a wonderful conversation piece"
Olivia turned around, visibly cringing, before getting up and throwing away Benni's sparkle glasses "Let's save that for another occasion, spare the people from the overwhelming... charisma of those glasses"
"Hhhmmm, good point, welp time to go"
Benni really didn't want to go, but Olivia was already prepared and seemed really excited to go hang out, so she reasoned it would all be fine if she just didn't use her potentially forbidden magic, keeping it hidden forever sounds great
Later
They had arrived at the party on the richer side of town via rail carriage, in the home of a particularly rich magician who was both and Artificer and Alchemist, a young prodigy named Altro Goldberg, 4rd in line to inherit the Perpetuum company, but uncaring of that status aside from all the money in his allowance he uses to have a ton of fun
Like the parties in the spare estate his family has, which were awesome and available for everyone except party poopers
Benni tried her best to mingle with the crowd that gathered, but failed miserably cause of multiple factors
Most of them were magic users, in the beginning his parties only attracted magic users trying to rub shoulders with a powerful magician, soon this changed over the years and magic users just came over for fun and to socialize with fellows
Benni knew tons of magical theory, about legal Arcana authorized in the country, but she had none of the experiences they had, not much to share
She didn't socialize or get out much so she didn't have many normal stories to share or relate with
And lastly she was accidentally separated from Olivia in the crowd and so couldn't have been introduced to anyone, so she just had a drink of some rainbow punch and stood in a corner, but then she saw Olivia looking around for her, Benni attempted to call out to her over the crowds and the music made by the mechanical orchestra that Altro built, but her voice was too weak against their clockwork songs
Then she saw it, a shelf holding all of Altro's rewards and trophies, it shook when some Stonecutters had become drunk and accidentally reshaped a section of the wall to be covered in spiral patterns
These trophies were right above Olivia and one was about to slide off thanks to the shakes, it would break her neck if it hit, she called out louder, the noise drowned her warnings
She tried to get closer but she wouldn't make it in time at this rate
Benni simultaneously desperate and pissed, since she wanted Olivia to be fine, and she had an option that she promised herself to NOT use at all, not even in public
Trophy was wobbling, Olivia looking around, too busy to notice
Crowd too busy in each of their own things too, and Artificers and Alchemists required tools currently unavailable to do their miracles, Stonecutters were not fast enough to do this
Appearance of the item estimates that it is above the weight a human spine can handle
In this moment she weighed the chance of being outcast from society, of losing everything and dying after being considered less than human, and spending the rest of her days wondering if she should've used the coin
The choice was obvious, it wasn't guaranteed to work but as the trophy finally leaned over the edge, she knew this was her best short
COIN FLIPS
SHE CALLS HEADS
CHAOS TAKES HER UP ON HER BET
IT LANDS ON HEADS
FATE ITSELF BENDS TO HER DESIRE
The trophy fell past Olivia surprising her for a moment "Holy shit! That was clos-" She turned to see Benni and ran over "By the 11th I was worried sick! Sorry for leaving you alone like that, even if by accident"
"It's okay I'm a bit more worried about you" Benni replied while looking for any surprised faces in the crowd, finding none, luckily she had done this act of blasphemy unnoticed, or did she?
Later she and Olive had left the party after it died down, hugged, and went back to their own homes for the night
As Benni reached into her pocket for the keys to her apartment, she felt some paper, she pulled it out to examine, her heart dropped at the contents
"I have finally found you, lost heiress to the Bloodline Of Stars, come to the old manor in the woods and assist me in my endeavours tomorrow, if you refuse I will work on revealing your use of Forbidden Magic to the public, I will be there waiting"
As Benni started to internally break down, across town the one who snuck into the party, put the letter into her pocket, and sought those descended from the Bright Man, The Living Star, Grand Magi Of The Old Courts Of Zaalor, the forgotten demigod from ages past
Erikor Veltz sat there clutching his blade in the dilapidated manor, he was a young man with soft features, wearing a tied white headband and with a large zweihander sheathed at his side, a ghostly figure came forth from nowhere and used its influence to make Erikor stoic in the face of the building's condition, allowing them to converse
Erikor asked "Brother dearest, are you sure this course of action is wise? What if the Heiress retaliates against us? I do not feel comfortable with these threats" even with the stoicism from his minor possession, hints of his usual nervous nature leaked through
The ghost replied "If we are to succeed in our goals we must make sure she has incentive to aid us, one way or another, if she dare harms you I'll simply spread the news of her heritage and magic to the far corners of the earth, don't want her to leave her part of the job half-done, the mission we undertake is dangerous, many others will want her, and they will do far worse with her than us, our method hurts the heiress the least"
"I hope those words are true brother"
Erikor raised his necklace, on it was what appeared to be a small orb of light, this was a bit of Star Flesh, the last remains of the Bright Man, always reaching for those with his blood flowing through them, which was how Erikor came to Goldhill and discovered Benni
He looked into the distance from the manor's broken window, from the hill the structure rested on, across the lands, many forces schemed
Sorcerous bastards with many Arcana up their sleeves
Beasts that tore down homes and defiled corpses
Rulers gluttonous for power
Gods vain and cruel
So many foes, so little chances of success, but Erikor and his ghostly older brother Muln were going through with this path no matter what, and a major part needed for this...
Was her help
