Used to be we'd also thought the conjurers' son was just a bit of an idiot. You'd see him now and then around the village. If you were one of the lucky ones he'd stare at you while you worked. No harm in it, we figured, long as he stayed out of the way. Don't know how old he was, but he was dumb enough not to cause any trouble. 'Course, none of us knew why his ma and pa didn't just keep him out of the way, but them conjurers never have much sense.

All that time he never looked to have an ounce of magic in him. We thought it was like dogs, where they get all sick and weak if you breed'em too pure. Really we thought we'd just find him dead some day, either from fever, or turned up in the river or at the bottom of a cliff or somewhere else he hadn't the sense not to play in. Would've been better if he had.

For awhile we thought we were rid of him. Neighbors said they saw him at the edges of their fields now and then. Strange to think where he went off to, but there's been stranger. The conjurers said he was around, whatever that meant. We didn't think much of it.

Then one day, I come back from trading for dye and the whole damn place's blown to pieces. I found some of the people living in the outskirts still alive, helped them out from under the rubble and asked them what happened, they didn't know right away. Well I was mighty worried about my own place. Lucky I didn't have a wife or little ones, but I lost everything I owned save a wheelbarrow of dye and that ain't no pretty thing either.

I stand there thinking it was a real bad storm wind, or a message from the gods even, though I don't reckon I knew what we'd been smote for. All of a sudden I hear this crying and moaning, so I go look if someone's hurt. So I climb over the rubble, and I'm getting real nervous 'cause everything's in worse and worse shambles as I go and I'm seeing them, you know, my neighbors and friends and other townsfolk lying there, and I know they're not all right. Though it doesn't hit me that they're dead 'til later. Then I find what's causing the crying, and it's the idiot boy right in the middle of this ring of bodies and blood tossed out away from him. Like a scene straight out of hell! Scared me so bad I snuck away before I knew well what I was doing. By the gods, I saw it every night in my sleep for a month and I still can't tell you exactly what I saw.

So you see, sir, he looks all harmless but I'm sure it's him and he's terribly dangerous all right. If you're not gonna kill him you'd best lock him away somewhere so tight even magic can't get through. You don't know when he'll go off again.