14th of Vortas 2717
Dearest Daughter,
After some, we've decided to grant you an opportunity to improve your meager allowance. Long have you made do with a modest allowance, owing to that to your brother's stipend, which has cut into our finances considerably.
Here she seethed. It wasn't like she needed confirmation of why she was given such a small allowance compared to her brother as soon as he arrived in school. They'd always ground it in her nose that he scored higher than her on initiation. Given his promise, ever since she was twelve, she'd been given a tenth of what they once did. Pleasance had always suspected that her brother was to blame for that. Now she knew. She read on, her fingers still curling into the pages.
However, given your aunts sudden passing, our fortunes have adjusted slightly. We are willing to forward you the difference in the form of a greater allowance, but you must prove worthy of it. We will want a glowing recommendation not only of your behavior report (which has always been stellar), but also one recommendation of academic achievement—namely one of the conversations.
Should you acquire the recommendation of one of your professors, we will grant you a higher allowance. This is not a short term request, daughter. We will expect to see the letter from one of your conversation professors by the time of your graduation. Should you fail, you may expect to be disinherited, the rest of your allowance will go to your brother (who has excelled in every area that matters, by the way).
Your loving parents,
The Hedgethornes.
Pleasance could have screamed as she finished reading it. How could they be so cruel, so unfair! So...
However, as it dawned on her, she realized she could turn this around on them. It wasn't unheard of that such academic turnarounds could and did occur. She would see their wager, meet it, and one day when they died, grind this exact letter into their dead ashes at their funeral! A sly smile crossed her face. They underestimated her, thought her unclever, unintelligent. Pleasance knew herself to be anything but that. Lectures and schooling were annoying, but the promise of treasure at the end of academic excellence might be the push she needed!
Yet, this letter - this promise of more wealth, of earning her way into their inheritance - was in fact signed. It was a binding agreement, a contract like any other. If she could meet their terms and prove it in a court, she could finally wiggle her way out of their influence, and land some wealth into the bargain. She would see them bleed from every stone that founded their household and precious 'Legacy'.
This thought in mind, she readied her study materials and headed for the office of one of her professors. There was but one magical conversation that she had a good command of, that of the physical conversation. And she knew just who to go to, to expedite her mastery of the conversation. Pleasance would have a recommendation for them!
She wound her way through the dormitory, down the stairs, eventually out of the door. The young woman strode with purpose toward the faculty building. Asking for directions to his office, rather embarrassingly, she inquired after Professor Nauleth Siordanti.
Once Pleasance had the directions, and a rough idea where to find him, she began tracking him like a bloodhound. The letter from her parents was tightly clenched in her fist.
