Bio: Zacchaeus was born to a family of a successful squire in England, the fifth of who knows how many children. He was christened Henry but his parents joked about wondering if he had been switched at birth with a changeling, as he was small while all the other children were large and quiet while all the others were boisterous and asked questions about everything if given the slightest encouragement.
Henry went to church every Sunday and listened with amazement to the stories that were told. In particular, he remembered the story of Joseph, as how Josephs brothers treated him seemed similar to how his brothers treated him. Thus, when the dreams started, he kept his mouth shut, he was tormented enough as it was.
At five, he was sent away to school. His father did not see what else his son would be good for but go into the church, and the neighbors kept blaming the child for things. This seemed the simplest thing.
Henry loved school. True, all the students hated him, but that was no change from home. He had been entrusted to Father William, who was a fair man, and treated him based on the things he could see, not the dislike that Henrys Gift caused. Here, he learned to read and so was then able to learn about the world though books, without interacting with people face to face. When interacting with people, everyone seemed to hate him, but reading books, the authors taught without bias against him.
Henry had been at the school for more than half his life when he was spotted by Artos. Artos was a Jerbiton mage who was purchasing nonmagical books for his covenant. Recognizing that Henry would make an excellent apprentice for someone, but not being interested in Henry himself because of Henrys lack of the Gentle Gift, Artos passed on his name to Vurvenio, a Verditus archmage who he owed some favors. Vurvenio looked into it, decided that Henry would make a good apprentice and made arrangements with Henrys father to take him on.
It did not start out a happy aprenticeship. While not affected by Henry’s gift, Vurvenio was a prideful, mean spirited man, old and set in his ways. He named Henry “Puny” and would call him nothing else. Vurvenio was part of no covenant, living alone with only his mechanical devices to serve him. He had his network that brought him supplies and who picked up messages from the Redcaps and that was it. Even though magic itself was fascinating, But the dreams “Puny” had kept him from running away, it was part of the plan for him to remain here.
Three years into the apprenticeship, Vurvenio went into Final Twilight. If Vurvenio had been part of a proper covenant, “Puny” would have been sent to another master. But no one liked Vurvenio, and having fallen into extended bouts of Twilight before, Vurvenio had given “Puny” instructions of what to do, which were to study from his library until he returned, concentrating on Magic Theory. So that was what “Puny” did for 10 years.
It was only then that the Order as a whole discovered what had happened to Vurvenio. An old enemy had finally decided to declare Wizards War, and asked the Redcaps to find him. The Redcaps made the determination that Vurvenio was gone, that he had an apprentice and passed on that information to the order as a whole. The Tribunal disposed of all of Vurvenios things, and found another Verditius mage (Antonio) to finish Henry apprenticeship with him. Henry went and lived in a proper covenant for his last two years of study. He completed his masterpiece and was inducted into the order.