Exhausted from a day's work in the Wolf's Howl Inn's kitchen, Callimpsest shuffles into his room knowing that he will not lie awake long. He wills himself to dream of the Knightmare Boarding School, knowing that it will not be a nightmare this time.
He stands in the KMBS library, in front of one of the bookcases. He attends to a book that had been complaining of dog ears, using a small charm to smooth the pages. One of the shelves is offputtingly dusty. Using a miniature broom, he begins to clean the shelf whilst reciting a rhyme that he learned from an old tutee of his.
"Nasty dust, dirty dust
Go the way of grit and rust
Away with filth, begone with mess..."
Movement in the corridor catches his eye. He wanders out of the library to investigate. A child is dashing down the corridor, probably late for class.
"You there! No running in the corridors! And take off your dungeoneering equipment until the lesson starts. You're not wearing your uniform either."
The child in green and blue runs on.
"Do you hear me?"
Callimpsest sprints after the youngster, not quite able to catch him nor his attention. Through the school they run, out into the courtyard, past the statue of the Tin Child and up to the school gates, where the child stops. As the gates open, Callimpsest stares. There is nothing outside the school but a haze, white as parchment. The child is stationery, stationary. Why, wonders the librarian, is the lad not turning back?
The youngster raises his hand and opens it. In his palm, Callimpsest sees glowing embers. The youngster flings them in front of him. Like fireflies, the glowing particles spread out and begin to streak lines and shapes onto the blankness. A map is being drawn. Wolfenden and its taverns and inns, the Forest of Dunn and its falls, the strongholds of the Opposition and the Powers That Be and all who lurk in between. An entire realm from this young person's hand.
He takes off his Helmet of Justice and directs the embers with gestures of his head. But his hair is long, and Callimpsest sees that he isn't a boy at all. Finally the cartography is complete and the young lady turns her head to look at Callimpsest. He recognises the face as one he has not seen for much too long.
"Headmistress... Kulaemii?"
She throws her hands wide. "Welcome to the lands beyond the school gates!"
"...Thank you."
"Adventure forth!"
"I think I may."
Kulaemii walks through the gates, her ears taking on an elfin contour. The man of letters follows - but before he does, he pauses a moment, taking in the nascent surrounds, and says:
"You'll soon be looking at your best."
When Callimpsest awakens, he sits up in bed and contemplates. He gets up and looks out the window. Try as he might, he cannot stop the dream from fading. But he smiles because through his window, the lands of adventure are still there.
Weeks later, after another productive yet tiring day in the kitchen, Callimpsest hands over to the maids and retires early to bed. Buoyed by thoughts of his apparently predestined return to his lost library, he thinks of Lord Dunshelm, a man whose hearth and home were torn from him by utter barbarism, but who faced down diabolical dangers to claim them back. Had Treguard never done so, the fate of these lands did not bear thinking about.
No one quite knows what eventually made Treguard decide to abandon his mercenary existence and seek to reclaim his Dunshelm heritage. Some say that the words of a dying man pricked his conscience; others believe that Merlin called to him. But the most popular explanation is that Treguard looked in the mirror one day, saw how thick his beard had become and simply came of age. Some in Wolfenden even believe that Treguard's facial hair is itself magic, like the locks of Samson, and that wherever Treguard may be now, he and Knightmare Castle are standing strong as long as the beard remains.
Pondering this as he lies in bed, Callimpsest finds himself reciting a ditty that he overheard the village children singing.
"Our old Wolfenden was such a cold dark place
Then over 27 years ago there came a furry face...
The Gruagach was felled
The Norman ninnies were repelled
The dungeoneers began to quest
They wore a hat (it had two horns on it)
Shield, chalice, talisman
And Treguard in his palace, man
It all started with a big beard
Beard!"