Realms of the Arcane - Brian M. Thomsen [3]
Now of course, I am being coy. Since this should reach you on your birthing day, you're also holding a package from me. It's a present. I did not want to send just anything. No one needs another wool scarf or gilt wand case. Instead, I have a real surprise for you. I researched it myself, and I know you will enjoy it.
Farewell, for now. I'm relieved to hear you have overcome all the obstacles of the past and that something good has come of all that bitterness.
Your old Academy fellow,
Perfect and Absolute Magister of Corsk, Pavish
P.S. Like the title? I've hardly gotten to use it yet, so forgive my little vanity.
Posted from Tyn's Rock Inn
Greetings Magister Pavish (or should I address you Perfect and Absolute Magister Pavish?),
I confess I had no intention of replying, so you can thank Marriana for this consideration. She will not abide my rudeness.
I am sure you can imagine my surprise upon receiving your birthday wishes. I have gone to some trouble to avoid all ties to my previous Academy life, so your note was most unexpected. I do not even know how Timrik knew my whereabouts, though I am less than pleased for it-yes, I remember him perfectly. I remember everything from those days quite clearly-though I no longer wish to remember them.
Timrik's information was a bit dated. By the time your package arrived, I had moved on. Travel is both a necessity and a habit in my life. It was only by chance that I came back through Tyn's Rock. The landlord is a honest fellow and held it for me in hopes I would return.
Accept my obligatory congratulations on your posting. I must say I am amused. You were adamant about not entering politics behind your esteemed father and were set upon being an adventurer. I suppose now that you may have earned your position on your own merits, a political career holds more interest. Minister Pavish must be proud of his son. It is interesting how our lives change.
One thing, though, has not changed-your dramatic sense. The fire sparkle dust you sent was ingenious. Fire sparkles indeed! Unfortunately, there was a slight accident. The inn's spit-boy prevailed on me to let him toss a pinch on the fire. Instead of sparkles we got a rushing blue fireball. The damned thing scorched off all his hair. Fortunately, his burns weren't too bad, and the adventuring life has taught me to dodge well, but the common room here was badly blackened. I would recheck the component proportions before making a new supply. It cost me the purse of the gold I'd earned off that dragon you were so curious about.
Fortunately, he was an old brute with a considerable hoard. The locals called him Silverskin because they kept finding bits of old coins around his kills. It turned out he'd lain on his treasure so long it had embedded right into his skin.
So you can see, from what I am telling you, I have no need or expectation of repayment. I do not wish to be indebted to you. Still, I owe you some little amount for not standing against me like the others at the Academy.
Perhaps in payment, I can offer you an answer to your business about Greenwinter. I believe I have seen the snake-bound pattern you asked about, though I did not know what it was at the time.
I was high up in the mountains, in white drake country, as it is called around here. There was a rock shelf, bare of snow, that thrust out over a gorge. At first I thought what I saw was claw marks on a dragon perch, but when I got closer, the pattern was clearly carved and polished into the stone. I've enclosed a sketch of what I saw, as best I can render it from memory. I would not call it a map, really. That is all I can tell you. Any more you will have to learn on your own.
However Marriana, who has always been kinder, will reproach me if I do not send some remembrance of your birthing day, just as you did of mine. I don't know when yours is, but I'm sure a few have passed over the years. Therefore I have enclosed