AUTHORS NOTES

Hey all, sorry for the delays. I caught a throat infection off my middle child and was laid up in bed for a few days. My computer hard drive decided to die as well, which limited any access to write even if I were feeling up to it.

How does everybody feel about these short chapters? This chapter is one of the smaller ones, but I just wanted to get something out. I read some fanfics with chapters up to 8k words, but before I started writing this I looked up online and it suggested that chapters between 1-5k words to be best, so I usually aim for 2000.

Archer1eye: a cover story would be… handy. Magic for powers is a little bit different, she doesn't have to remember every spell's signature, she just pushes magic to do what she wants.

Slyksylva: Big things are still a few chapters away :)

Havok22: Thanks for the follow! Haha! Most of this is pulling out my old 1st ed, 2e and 3e books out of storage ;-)

Chapter 70

23rd Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

We got so distracted learning new spells that we had missed lunch entirely, I couldn't even remember hearing the first chime let alone the two chimes to say that the lunch service was over. We both decided to have a quiet afternoon and so returned back to our accommodation to collect the books we had borrowed from the library. It was a quick walk back to the library, where Malkarov directed me towards a side room filled with comfortable chairs similar to those back in his tower. We set up camp in that room, reading through the books we had borrowed or returning them to get new ones. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Perhaps too relaxing I noted when I glanced over at Malkarov to find him asleep with the book open on his chest. I giggled to myself at the sight but let him snore away while I got even more invested in the book that I had. Eventually though, I noted a single high pitched chime ring out and I realised that I should probably wake him.

He started awake with a slurred, "jus' resting m'eyes," that made me burst into laughter (that was immediately shushed by someone walking by the room).

I informed him that the dinner chime had rung and we made our way back to the food hall to eat. On the way I sent the call out to Shard to let her know what we were doing and she soon manifested herself right next to me, her arm interlocked with mine. With a quick look around to ensure privacy, I gave her a kiss and asked her how her day had been.

She gave me a sly smile in return, "I went to spy on Gruumsh the One-eyed."

"You what?!" I shouted and heard Malkarov echo my exclamation.

"It's no big deal," she said, "he won't notice me if I don't want him to… besides, aren't you more interested in what I've discovered?"

"What have you discovered?" I repeated.

"He's only directing his followers to attack you humans so that they can get to the dwarves and the elves," Shard explained, "He wants them to get the parts of his banner back of course, he made it for them after all, but he's much more interested in his long running feud with the dwarvish deities, especially Eitri Brightaxe who is responsible for taking his eye and the elvish god Alii'alarana for blinding him and allowing the blow to pass his defences."

"So long as you're not putting yourself in any danger," I warned her and she smiled again, brushing off my concerns, "he won't catch me, I'm much faster than him."

"What does that mean for us though?" I asked Malkarov.

"Not a lot," he explained, "the orc armies still need to get through Carn to get to the dwarves and the elves. If they built ships they might be able to sail around, but the cliffs to the ocean from the Irongap Mountains are treacherous. If they could fly, the quickest way would be across the mountains south of Easthaven, but thankfully they can't fly either. Their only real bet is to push through in a very narrow point, but it would leave their army without supplies."

Shard pouted a little, "I'm a bit sad that I couldn't discover more," she gave a child-like grin of delight, "but it was so much fun!"

I smiled with her excitement as we walked together to get some dinner. Once we had filled our plates with delicious food we were waved to a table by Jossa, Taura and Venn. Malkarov had spotted Yardley and told us to go and join the other women.

"So," Jossa said to Shard as soon as we had sat down, "Venn tells me that you're a wizard too."

Shard blushed a little and demurely said, "I have some magic."

"Some magic?" Venn whispered disbelievingly.

Taura added, "we could feel it, outside of us as strong as it is inside."

"It wasn't like she turned herself into a dragon though," I said, hoping to distract them.

"Were you there for that?" Jossa asked.

I nodded, happy that my distraction had worked, "Malkarov and I asked some wizards to demonstrate spells for us so that I could work on recognising them. The wizard Alladrax demonstrated the Polymorph spell for us, out in the gardens."

"I heard that he squished Candor's flowers again," Venn said.

I nodded in confirmation, "he didn't seem very happy at all."

"He loves dragons," Jossa said, "and he loves to demonstrate Polymorph with it. It's good entertainment whenever he does so."

"It was exceedingly entertaining," I admitted, "although we left quickly a little a'feared that we'd be caught up in the consequences."

Taura laughed, "Candor does get worked up when anyone goes near his flowers and Alladrax has a habit of squashing them on the regular."

A young wizard strode into the hall and a cheer resounded all around as soon as everyone saw him. People throughout the room turned to see who was causing the stir and joined in on the shouting. Shard and I looked a bit confused as the other women started shouting in the same way. The room calmed down after a short while and I watched another wizard bring him a giant mug of ale. The mug appeared to be made of gold and the young wizard took a long pull from it to another round of cheers.

Jossa noticed our confusion and explained, "he's just passed his presentation. It's tradition that he come in at dinner time and drink from the Wizard's Mug, brought to him by his Master. Once he's finished that one, other wizards who know him and wish to congratulate him will take the mug from him and refill it. Sarrow there was very popular as an apprentice so he'll likely be feeling very poorly in the morning, but for tonight he will feel on top of the tower."

The young wizard did indeed appear to be in a very celebratory mood and was getting clapped on the back by the other wizards surrounding him.

"What's involved in the presentation?" I asked.

"Mostly just a demonstration of the spells that you know, but there is supposed to be some other sort of test that nobody talks about," Taura explained, "nobody is allowed into the presentation but the Master Wizards and the Grand-Master and no other wizard will talk about it, except perhaps just to tell you about the demonstration of spells."

Once we had finished dinner and Malkarov had come to collect us, Shard and I headed up to our room to relax, read and sleep. It had been a very long and exciting day and I looked forward to the next one before we journeyed back to Easthaven, back home.