Maple Wand

The Brynmoor School of Magic fell to fire, and it didn't rally in another location. The school, it was said, had been losing money, and the wizards saw the fire as an opportunity to count their insurance money and cut any further losses. The students were left to apprentice elsewhere, if they could find the work, or practice their magic in other, ill-thought-out manners.

Upon the death of a foremost wizard, an old dean of the School of Magic, a chest was wheeled out. Inside were hundreds of sticks, wrapped in cloth. The wizard's family believed them to be incense sticks or diffusers - scented with holly berries, as per a decoration on the stick's base. The family sold them for a single gold piece each. A poster was attached to the front of the chest with the words 'Fire Sale - Incense Sticks' .

It is hard to describe the carnage that followed. The sticks were not incense but splitbark and maple wands, and those wands were intensely powerful. They were infused not with the smell of holly berries, but with the elements of fire, water, air and earth. When lit, they reacted explosively, and when held, they fired chaotically. Brynmoor was alight that night, and everyone had a different story of what happened to them, from stoves encased in rock to clothes blown clean off by air magic.

Most of the wands were discarded or destroyed. But a few found their way into the hands of commoners - those who were not allowed, or could not afford, to practice magic. Street urchins, scullery maids, chimney sweeps. Each of them had the beginnings of magic in their hands.