When she awoke, she remembered none of it. Rising quickly, she left the room and hurried to her own. It was still very early; the sun hadn't even come up yet, it was still dark out. Rivin dressed, acting with the same rushed attitude she had used when she fled Raistlin's Room. Once done, she crept down the stairs again, into the inn. There she sat at a table, thinking. It had been a long time since she had been in Solace; it had been a long time since she had been in her house. A long time in coming. Rivin sighed. She remembered now why she had never come to visit. Solace was a sleepy little town, where everybody knew each other's name. It annoyed Rivin; she liked to be by herself much more than being around the children of Solace, who she thought were bred into idiocy. A tapping disturbed her from thought. It came from the door leading into the inn from the outside. Rivin glanced out the window; it was still very dark out. Who in the world.? She thought. Getting up, she opened the door. At first, she thought no one was there. Then she saw a figure in a dark robe, standing just beyond the light of the inn. "Excuse me," she said politely. "Do you wish service?" The person turned to her and nodded, face hidden beneath a hood. Rivin stepped back, holding the door open for the person; she wasn't sure if it was a male or female. When she saw what the person was wearing, she gave a small gasp and sank into a deep curtsy. The man (And she saw it was a man, now that he was in the light) standing before her was no less than the Head of the Order of the Black Robes, the elf Dalamar Nightson. She rose only when he told her to, keeping her head bowed and her hands in her sleeves. Rivin had admired Dalamar since she was young, something that worried her parents; they may be grudging friends with the dark elf, but they wanted him to give no influence on their eldest daughter. "I believe I said I wanted service?" Dalamar asked lightly. There was amusement in his voice. Rivin's cheeks reddened slightly. "Yes, of course. What does my lord wish?" "Wine. Red and chilled, if you have it." "Yes, my lord." Rivin curtsied again, then went into the kitchen, deftly sifting through wine bottles until she found one of the best they had, a five-year-old red, cold to the touch. She grabbed a glass on her way out of the wine cellar, bringing both to the table Dalamar had chosen to take. She began to pour out the wine when Dalamar asked, "So, do you work here, at the inn?" Rivin looked up at him, and her hand shook, jerking the bottle away from the glass and onto her white robes. She muttered a curse, blushing at her clumsiness. She fetched a towel quickly, and started to clean up the mess. "Wait a moment." Dalamar said. Curious, Rivin drew the towel away from the mess. The dark elf muttered a few words, and snapped his fingers. The wine disappeared, leaving the table and Rivin's sleeve clean. Rivin's eyes widened. She had heard of the spell he had performed, but had not been bale to find a copy of it in Theobald's library. "Could you teach me that?" she asked, awe inspired. Dalamar chuckled, smiling. "Very well." He glanced at her robes. "I don't normally take on apprentices unless the wear the Red or Black Robes, but I suppose I can make an acceptation in the way of a deserving student." Rivin flushed at his praise, tainting her cheeks as red as the wine had been on her sleeve. Dalamar taught her the spell quickly; he didn't let it show, but he had never had a student as well as her. She reminded him forcefully of his shalafi, Raistlin Majere. The glint in her eye as he taught her.it made him wonder. "So," he said at length. "You haven't answered me. Do you work here?" Rivin flushed slightly in anger. "Of course I don't," she told him, only a hint of haughtiness in her voice. "I am studying to be a magess. I was studying to be a magess." "Was?" "I was.expelled from my school." Rivin flushed in embarrassment. Dalamar was the last person she wanted to know about her expulsion. "Really now? And, might I ask, who was your teacher?" Rivin's eyes narrowed, and her voice grew scornful. "The.Master Theobald." Unexpectedly, Dalamar laughed, and Rivin looked up, alarmed. "Don't let it upset you. I expect you stood up to him in some way?" She nodded. "Well then. He gets on many people's bad side. What, pray tell, did you do?" She was silent a moment. "I threatened him." This caught the dark elf unaware. "Threatened?" he asked sharply. "What did you say, exactly?" "I told him that one day he would regret what he said to me. That he would regret that he doubted me. I said that someday I would come back to pay my debts." Her hands clenched and her face twisted in anger. "And I will." She said fervently. "By Lunitari, Nutari, and Solinari, I swear, it will be so!" It took a moment for her to gain control of her emotions, which had been welled up since the day of her expulsion. Dalamar regarded her coolly, and with no small amount of curiosity. A time passed in silence, but it was a comfortable one. At length, Dalamar asked, "You say you don't work here, yet you seem to know your way around well enough. Who are your parents?" Rivin hesitated a moment, a moment that was well noted by the dark elf. "Caramon and Tika Majere," she said sullenly. "And what is your name?" he asked, for they had not made introductions. "I am called Rivin Majere, my lord." There was another long silence; the sky was steadily lightening. Dalamar made ready to go, Rivin sweeping him an eloquent curtsy. Dalamar was halfway out the door when he looked back at the strange, powerful young girl who had hosted him at the inn. He felt a pressure at his neck, and stifled a gasp. He knew who it was. Dalamar took a step forward, coming close to Rivin. He stooped and kissed her upon the brow. Startled, she tried to take a step back, but Dalamar held her arm fast, keeping her in place. He stepped back, the ghost of a smile on his face. "If you are as daring as I think, come visit me in the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas. I would apprentice you, if you question your faith." With that, he turned in a flourish of black robes, and was gone. Rivin sank to her knees, putting a hand to her forehead. A faint smile was on her lips as she rose. She wouldn't tell Caramon about the visit. She collected the steel that Dalamar had left, depositing it into the inn's store. She went to her room, quietly, slipping pass her awakening parents. She had many things to think about.