Solomon Waystone

Overview

Solomon Waystone is one of the two primary protagonists of the fourth iteration of Storytime: Earth Mystical. He is played by Darren. Solomon is the son of Hector Waystone and Laeala Waystone (née Rimbaud), heir to the Waystone share of Barrickea Gem and Mineral, and a young man of considerable intellect, physical capability, and spiritual depth. He is not yet a magic user, though his potential — by every indication available to those who can perceive it — is vast beyond ordinary reckoning.

Solomon carries the coalesced bloodline potential of both the Waystone and Rimbaud lines. This heritage is unknown to him. In-world it is attributed to divine favour. The truth is Narrator Knowledge.

Character

Solomon is a man of instinct and conscience in roughly equal measure. He is physically capable — trained to the sword, steady under pressure, willing to act — but his defining quality is not toughness. It is his capacity for pity. When he knelt beside a dying attacker at Shepherd's Cross and asked quietly if it hurt, he was not performing compassion. He meant it. This quality recurs: in his care for Nessa, in the tokens he chose to keep from his family's house, in the letter he wrote to Zara Brunswick before he had any certainty she would receive it well.

He is also a man of genuine faith. He prays regularly and specifically to Franklin Flinch and the four gods of Troy. His faith is not ornamental — it has produced two documented visions, each granting him a single question and a direct answer from a messenger of the gods. He takes these encounters seriously and acts on what he is told, even when the instruction costs him something significant.

He has twice been told, in vision, that plans exist for him. He has been told not to force his magical breakthrough. He has been told that marrying Zara Brunswick now would prevent him from fulfilling what is ahead of him. He has accepted each of these instructions, at considerable personal cost.

History (Fourth Iteration)

Origins and Family

Solomon grew up in Emberton as the son of Hector Waystone, a respected gem merchant and partner in Barrickea Gem and Mineral, and Laeala Waystone, daughter of the Rimbaud family of Niallis. He has a younger sister, Melisande Waystone. His grandmother is Hemetia Waystone, matriarch of the Waystone gem empire, based in Toth Safira. His uncle is Sebastian Waystone, also of Toth Safira. His mother's surviving family — uncle Steadig and aunt Keshie — live in the Rimbaud compound in Niallis, on the northern Oerendine coast.

Hector considered Solomon destined for the gem business rather than soldiery, recognising his son's intellect and promise. Solomon had other instincts but deferred to his father's vision. He received a few years of public schooling, during which he studied A History of the World — the abridged edition of the Archedex of Earth Mystical.

A note signed Merlin was discovered among papers Hector marked for burning. Hector described Merlin as "an old friend who knew your grandfather too." No further explanation was offered at the time.

The Road to Toth Wynnd

Solomon joined a gem caravan as a scout, riding ahead with Jeffrey to inspect the trail at Shepherd's Cross. Finding the watering hole dry, Solomon went alone to locate the spring's source and fell into an ancient cistern. After a night underground — navigating flooded tunnels, losing nearly all his possessions including his father's sword — he emerged to find men hunting him. He was pursued, cornered, and fought hand-to-hand before Jeffrey and Bucephalus arrived to rescue him.

At Shepherd's Cross he also first heard a calm, disembodied voice warning him to brace himself. This voice and the events surrounding it would prove the beginning of a pattern.

The Mage on the Road

Travelling onward, Solomon encountered Wittich, a musician who perceived something unusual about him. When Solomon confided the voice he had heard, Wittich recognised it as significant. He confirmed that Franklin Flinch is real and living, then demonstrated magic — retrieving a newspaper from Deepdale through a shining doorway. The revelation of true magic left Solomon stunned.

The Crossroads Massacre

At the southern crossroads outside Toth Wynnd, the Barrickea caravan was attacked by thirty riders in black. The camp was massacred. Solomon survived by taking cover in brush, watching helplessly as his men were killed and the wagons looted. When the raiders discovered a man was missing, they searched with torches. Solomon was struck by two arrows — through the ribs and abdomen — and lost consciousness, having heard one name spoken among the attackers: McLean.

He was found, near death, by Wittich, Ossian, and Riva — three mages who had been alerted by a horse they recognised arriving at a Toth Wynnd tavern. They carried him through a magical doorway to the forest dwelling of Vordai, called the Witch of the Forest, where he was healed. The healing involved a flood of emotion — terror, ecstasy, grief, wonder — in addition to the physical repair.

The Factor's Note and the Family's Collapse

Recovering in Toth Wynnd, Solomon retrieved his horse and met the Factor, Malachi Brunswick, who offered condolences before handing him a sealed letter addressed to Hector. The letter, read after Solomon's reunion with his father in Toth Safira, contained five words: You owe me 350 gold. Malachi Brunswick had arranged the caravan attack as insurance fraud. The massacre was collateral damage in a business scheme.

In Toth Safira, Sebastian Waystone was revealed to have made a secret accord with the Brunswick family, intending to force Barrickea Gem and Mineral into bankruptcy so it could be reborn under new structure. Sebastian had not intended slaughter. When confronted, he called his actions "necessary business." Hector disowned his brother and assumed the Brunswick debt himself. The family fled Toth Safira by night aboard a ship bound for Synhoven.

Bucephalus was found murdered in Toth Safira the following morning — throat cut, left as warning.

Presumed Deaths

After reaching Synhoven, Solomon waited twelve days for his family to arrive. They never did. Wreckage of the ship Nina was found along the route. A dark northern vessel had been sighted in the same waters. Hector Waystone, Laeala Waystone, and Melisande Waystone are presumed dead. Solomon delivered the news to his grandmother Hemetia Waystone and confronted his uncle Sebastian with fury before leaving Toth Safira.

The Ocean Crossing and Zara Brunswick

Aboard a ship from Synhoven to Van Oerendia, Solomon encountered Damon Brunswick — brother of Malachi Brunswick and a more measured figure than his siblings. Over the crossing, Damon suggested that Solomon speak with his sister Zara Brunswick. Solomon and Zara spent more than an hour over coffee. He felt a connection unlike anything he had previously known — not lust, but depth. He did not yet act on it.

After receiving an Instrument of Executory Authority in Van Oerendia, Solomon and Zara travelled together to Niallis to inform Steadig and Keshie of Laeala's death. At the Rimbaud compound, Solomon met his aunt Willow Rimbaud for the first time — a Felix of the Olympic Order, who had enough resemblance to his mother that he nearly mistook her for a ghost.

The Vision of Prohibition

That night, in vision, a messenger of the gods appeared to Solomon and permitted him a single question. Solomon asked whether — if he married Zara now — he could still fulfil the gods' plans for him. The answer was no. If he married her now, all that he was to accomplish would not come to pass. He could choose later, but not now.

The following evening, Zara kissed him. Solomon held back. He confessed everything — the instant attraction, the desire to ask her to marry him within an hour of meeting her, and the prohibition. Zara wept and spent the evening outside alone. They parted shortly after with courtesy and evident pain on both sides. Solomon later composed a letter asking that they remain fast friends and expressing uncertainty about whether that would be possible for her.

Return to Emberton

Back in Troydon, Solomon discovered that Nessa — a young woman he had helped and briefly befriended at the Great Monastery — had been taken by a bounty hunter posing as her uncle. He did not learn this at the time; he was told only that she had "left with her uncle."

At the monastery, an impression he could not place compelled him to write out everything he remembered. Among his own writing appeared the name OTHO — a man in a coma at the infirmary, carrying an unopened letter addressed to Hector Waystone from Count Lucius Malgrave. Solomon broke the seal and was eventually admitted before Duke Titus Barrickeus, High Priest and Duke of the Wynndic Order, who assisted in setting the matter in motion. Otho awakened from his coma moments later.

In Emberton, at Vespertine Hall, Solomon met Count Lucius Malgrave, who offered to hold Barrickea Gem and Mineral in provisional county trust and, in a subsequent meeting, to train Solomon as a statesman. Solomon accepted the latter.

The Felixi and the Second Vision

Willow Rimbaud appeared in Emberton with three Felixi companions — Bryony, Felicity, and Chennyth — to invite Solomon to study in Deepdale. Solomon confided the messenger's warning against forcing his breakthrough. He agreed to raise the subject with Count Malgrave and request leave to visit Deepdale.

That night, in his second documented vision, a different messenger permitted him one question. Solomon asked whether he would break through as a magic user. The reply: it would shock many if he did not. The warning followed: he must not attempt to force it.

Following an evening of unexpected intimacy with Chennyth and subsequently with Willow — an encounter that crossed emotional lines neither could fully undo — Solomon woke to a changed situation. The Felixi renewed their invitation. The choice between Malgrave's path and Deepdale remained before him.

Key Relationships

• Hector Waystone — Father. Presumed dead. The stones in Solomon's character were shaped by him. Solomon carries his father's onyx as a token.
• Laeala Waystone — Mother. Presumed dead. Her silver-and-bronze comb remains with Solomon.
• Melisande Waystone — Younger sister. Presumed dead. Her carved wooden camel remains with Solomon.
• Hemetia Waystone — Grandmother. Matriarch of the Waystone gem empire in Toth Safira.
• Sebastian Waystone — Uncle. Disowned by Hector. Declared dead to Solomon.
• Steadig and Keshie — Mother's brother and his wife. Rimbaud family, Niallis. Warm, welcoming.
• Willow Rimbaud — Maternal aunt. Felix of the Olympic Order. Their relationship crossed into something complicated.
• Wittich — Mage, travelling musician. Twice instrumental in saving Solomon's life. Perceives his potential clearly.
• Zara Brunswick — The connection between them was immediate and genuine. A vision forbade it. A letter followed.
• Damon Brunswick — Adversary-turned-unlikely-ally. Solomon trusts him with a caution he cannot fully explain.
• Vordai — Called the Witch of the Forest. Healed him. Teased him about grandchildren.
• Count Lucius Malgrave — Solomon has agreed to study under him as a statesman. Malgrave has lost an heir; Solomon has lost a father.

Magic and Potential

Solomon has not broken through. He is not yet a magic user. He has heard a disembodied voice at Shepherd's Cross, received two visions from messengers of the gods, and been perceived by every magic user who has come near him as possessing potential of an extraordinary order. Willow Rimbaud described it to Zosimus, acting head of the Felixi, as "vast as an ocean." Wittich called it limitless and expressed surprise that the breakthrough had not yet occurred.

He has been explicitly warned by a divine messenger not to attempt to force his breakthrough.

Faith

Solomon prays regularly and specifically to Franklin Flinch and the four gods of Troy. He has received two visions — each granting a single question and a direct answer. He treats these encounters as literal and acts on what he is told. His faith is practical and personal rather than institutional.