Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress of Ashtown

Hidden in Plain Sight

Callisto De'Falco Genitore held a very high rank within the nobility. He was a duke who had swiftly risen through the ranks after the unfortunate death of his parents; may the Spirits bless them. Ever since their deaths, he'd been striving to uplift his own status within the nobility, pushing himself until the low-class noble house of Genitore finally became a house of high-class nobility. He was only the second person to have ever risen from low to high-class, and his house was the only one to have risen in such a short amount of time.

Many people often said that he pushed himself too hard. Most of these individuals ran under the misguided belief that he worked hard because he was trying to cope with the loss of his family. They couldn't have been more wrong―not that he would ever let them know that. Sympathy had its uses, after all.

He sat behind his desk, leafing through the many papers sitting on top of the polished wooden surface. Even though the nobility were nothing more than figureheads these days, no thanks to Sylvia disbanding the monarchy several hundred years ago, there was still a lot of work to be done. Most of the tasks were mundane: Reading through documents, signing those that were unimportant, then delivering those that were important to the Sorceress who oversaw whichever city the noble in question was stationed in. They also occasionally oversaw city affairs if the Sorceress was too busy with other matters, but that was rare these days.

Generally speaking, there were normally anywhere from five to fifteen noble houses in each city, sometimes less or more, depending on the size and population. Each noble had duties that dealt with a specific jurisdiction that kept the city running smoothly.

Callisto lived in Casadina, the capital city of Arcadia, located within the Temarian province. This city, which had a population of over 550,000 people, contained 56 noble houses, each one varying from low to high-class, and each one responsible for a very specific duty.

His house's jurisdiction was the lawful distribution of MagiTech.

Magical technology was a relatively new creation. It had only been two decades since the first piece of magical technology had been created by Karen Hildegarde, one of the more prominent Sorceresses on the Sorceress Council. Since the invention of magical items such as the MAFTs, Arcadia's economy had thrived. Economically speaking, Arcadia was more powerful than Terraria's other four nations combine.

Yet Callisto was still dissatisfied with the way things were. Their nation may have been strong, their people may have been strong, but it was due to the strength of their Sorceresses, not the nobility. He longed for a return to the old ways, where those who had the lineage, the pedigree, and the right to rule, were the ones in charge-not those who'd stolen that right through unnatural powers beyond those of any mortal.

Deciding to take a small break from his work, Callisto spent a moment looking around his office. Like all members of nobility, his office was fit for royalty. The carpet was a dark purple, royal and grand, the white walls were covered in expensive artwork and various pieces of the latest MagiTech. A bookshelf stood off to the side, up against the wall, its shelves lined with scrolls and books, each one ancient and containing much wisdom-as well as costing more than a small manor. Even his desk was an expression of opulence; carved from red-wood with a lacquered finish, intricate motifs colored in silver and gold running along the front and legs.

Being someone who enjoyed the finer things in life―finer things being an euphemism for expensive and exquisite objects be they paintings, artwork or artifacts―Callisto had spent a good deal of time, effort, and money acquiring many different items that interested him. His office, his entire mansion, in fact, reflected this.

The soft beeping of the intercom installed into his desk―one of the newer MagiTech inventions-alerted him to the fact that he was being called. Pressing the red button, Callisto leaned forward and spoke into the device.