Journal Entry 27
I met the Stonewood family recently.
Well, the Stonewood Siblings, anyway. Master says that only the twins, Gloria and Bryson, live in the area. Their parents live in the city of Fernsworth, with their younger siblings.
I wasn’t really expecting to meet anyone while I was wandering about the forest, setting up the wards around the area I frequent. It had taken a bit of effort, but I had managed to get Jackson Hill’s bow while he was at the Hog and Heifer, and put a spell on it. So long as another mage doesn’t notice the spell in place, he’ll never know it’s there, and I’ll have plenty of warning if he wanders into the area near my Master’s Tower.
Naturally, they didn’t set off the wards I’d already set up, so I did not know they were nearby until I’d finished setting up a ward by a small pond and discovered them watching me with interest.
Master says that I over-reacted, panicking and running away because they hadn’t started yelling or panicking over seeing someone using magic, but I’ve been betrayed too many times by people I trusted with my secret before to immediately think that these two strangers might not be dangerous to me.
The fact that they know about my magic, that they know about me being in the area, makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Master knows this. Master knows my parents feared and hated me, my village tried to kill me. I do this Observation project at his insistence, but only I can decide when I’ll actually interact with anyone in the village itself.
Drunk miners who don’t remember me and travellers I’ll probably never see again are one thing. People who frequent the town, especially people with influence, are another thing entirely.
Villager Observation 6 - Lady Gloria Stonewood
The Stonewood family is one of the more influential families in the town of Willowdale. They were one of the first to settle in the area, after the Dawnstone Family. They established the Stonewood Iron Mine, half an hour’s walk outside of town to the northeast, and they co-own the Fairwood Coal Mine, which is about the same distance outside of town, only to the west.
The majority of the family moved out of Willowdale about three generations ago, according to my Master, but continued to own the estate they left behind and the mines. They simply left the task of running the mines and the care of the estate in the hands of people they trusted.
However, from what I understand, the estate and mine fell into the hands of a greedy man, who stole from the Stonewood Family, cared little for the health and safety of the miners, barely paid them anything for their work, and lived a life of luxury in the Estate.
Since the Fairwood Coal Mine is co-owned by the Fairwood Family, it only went unnoticed until the problem began to spread to the Fairwood’s Mine. Word was sent back to the Stonewood Family, who acted almost immediately, firing the greedy Overseer - who, according to my Master, now resides in the Dawnstone Castle Dungeons for his many counts of theft, and for endangering the lives of many of the miners - and placing family back in the area to take over the task of running the Mine.
The Family that was chosen were the oldest Twins of the Stonewood Family, Gloria and Bryson. The twins are in their mid-twenties, just a few years older than myself, though they apparently weren’t when they first arrived.
Gloria is not what I expected, for a noble. My general understanding of Nobles, especially Noblewomen, is that they are stuck up, very focused on their appearances, and usually married to equally stuck-up, self-absorbed Noblemen.
After observing Gloria for a while, I have come to the conclusion that Gloria is none of these. She can, of course, be a little focused on her appearance at times, but I’ve never known a Noble - especially not a Noblewoman - who willingly dresses in simple mining clothing, and disappears into one of the mines for most of the day, to work alongside her miners, rather than to simply watch over them and make sure everything's running smoothly.
She certainly concerns her mother, who allegedly visited recently - before Master found me and took me in - and was horrified to discover her daughter deep within the Stonewood Mines, filthy as can be and assisting the miners in pushing a cart full of ore, that had broken a wheel on the way up, to the surface.
Her mother thought that if anyone should be working in the mines like a commoner, it should be her brother, not her and that she should be focused on getting married and continuing the family bloodline.
I can tell that Gloria does not take after her mother.
Gloria is also a very social person. If she’s not in the mines, she’s in the town, talking to everyone she meets. She also does most of the purchasing for the estate, though she has a few servants with her, to help carry everything she buys back.
For a Noble, she isn’t one to take advantage of other people. She assists where she can, from what I’ve seen, rather than expecting everyone to do everything for her. She’s not focused on getting married, or on her appearance.
I’ve not been able to tell what her opinion is on magic, though it seems as though she and her brother haven’t told anyone what they saw me doing. I will have to continue observing, and try and get a little more information on her before I decide if I’m going to approach her. In the meantime, I need to see what I can learn about her brother.
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