Fair Sabinnia
The most common myth of Fair Sabinnia originated sometime after the Great Collapse of the Orckid Empire. In the tale, Sabinnia is a speller's daughter who has ambitions of marrying a minor lord. Her mother warns her against this and cautions her to learn spelling, but Sabinnia refuses.
One day, Sabinnia is wandering near a manse when a merchant falls from a maddened horse and breaks his legs. She helps the merchant recover and summons a healer for him. The man falls in love with her upon first sight and offers to marry her, but Sabinnia flees. The man seeks out a speller to write love letters for Sabinnia, and by coincidence hires her own mother. Sabinnia is moved by the letters, but rather than reciprocate, she takes them to her aunt, another speller, and convinces her to rewrite them for a local lord. She delivers these new letters in secret to the lord, who becomes enamored of the letters.
In time, Sabinnia is wandering before the lord's manse when the merchant happens upon her again. He declares his love, but she refuses. As he is begging, the local lord emerges to see what the noise is. Sabinnia sees one of her letters in his hand, and declares her love for him. The lord reacts warmly, but says she is of too low a birth for him. The merchant asks after the letters, and discovers Sabinnia has been passing his spells on to the lord. He grows furious and threatens her, but the lord repels him. The merchant in turn attacks the lord, who slays him and throws him into a nearby ravine.
Though he cannot marry her, the lord takes Sabinnia as a maid at his estate. Sabinnia works dutifully, but becomes convinced she can move the lord with more spells. She begs her aunt and eventually her mother, but neither are capable of creating the same words dictated by the dead merchant. In desperation, she sneaks into the ravine to find the merchant still alive. His back is broken, and he has been feeding himself on local roots and rodents. Though furious at first, the merchant quickly returns to begging for her hand in marriage. Sabinnia rebukes him for trying to strike her, which he counters with moving poetry. Sabinnia says he must cut off his offending hand before she will consider his suit, then flees back to her aunt. Her aunt spells out the merchant's latest words of love, and Sabinnia carries them to the lord.
The lord is moved by the newest letter, and finally confesses to Sabinnia that he is already betrothed to a lady, one of superior standing, and it would mean his life and his family's life to break the engagement. She returns to the broken merchant many more times to acquire words of love, but eventually he grows close-lipped, demanding a hunting knife before he will speak further. She refuses at first, fearful that he might harm her, but finally relents when the lord's day of marriage approaches. The merchant recites one last spell of love, and she flees for the manse.
Sabinnia arrives in time to interrupt the wedding and speaks her last words of love to the lord. The lord is moved and threatens to break his engagement, but the bride's family grows livid. Sabinnia flies at the bride and slaps her, for which she is taken away and imprisoned. The bride's family wants Sabinnia executed, but the lord says he will agree to wed his betrothed if they let her live. Sabinnia is allowed to live, but after the wedding her hand is cut off; the hand that struck the bride.
Still bleeding, Sabinnia flees back to the ravine, where she finds the merchant has cut off his own hand. She gives him her shoulder and takes him home, where a healer is summoned to aid him. Her mother fears that Sabinnia will never earn a living with only one hand, and convinces her to wed the merchant. They are married even as the merchant lies in his sick bed. The merchant dies a few days later, a smile upon his face.
Sabinnia inherits the merchant's small business. Despite her fortune, she finally agrees to learn spelling from her mother, and writes poetry in her waning age.
Variations & Mutation
There are many, simpler versions of this tale that end with the merchant's death in the ravine. Some of them even have Sabinnia wedding the lord shortly after this death.
Older versions from before the Great Collapse say that Sabinnia was a speller herself. In these versions, the merchant usually hires her to write the love letters he then gives to her, and she in turn sends copies to the lord she loves. In some versions, Sabinnia owns a beautiful dress that she wears outside the palace to court the lord's eyes, so the merchant does not recognize her when he buys her services. More comedic versions have Sabinnia hiring her mother, in disguise, to alter the love letters.
There is a little known but even older version of this tale, that likely originated with the Viisianari. In it, Sabinnia is the daughter of a virtuoso, but she still refuses to learn spelling. One day she falls in love with a prince who is betrothed to a great virtuoso, and prevails upon her mother to teach her after all. She is in such a rush to learn, she has no control over her skills, and her magic opens a chasm in the earth that swallows up the prince. In some versions, it is the mother who kills Sabinnia in her rush to teach as quickly as possible. In some versions, the embittered mother agrees to 'teach' the ungrateful Sabinnia by deliberately opening a ravine beneath her.
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