Chapter 14

It did not take long, once the Wizard Eliun had introduced himself, for the rest of the crowd to disperse.

"They'll be back at dinner time," Fenthil offered as he too prepared to leave. He paused at the doorway and looked back at me. "This is communal living for the most part, Pacasin. A small community of the elderly men and women, who for the most part, had only one hard choice outside of accepting a life in the hermitage. Remember that while you're here, please."

I nodded bowed to show my thanks for his help. He waved in a friendly, casual fashion and then was gone.

"I understand you have come seeking me, young apprentice," Eliun the Elder said when I turned to him.

"I have sir," I answered bowing again, more deeply. " I have an interest in Old Cunish, and Artuma, master of the Three Seasons inn in Cairncross and a friend, told me you might know more of it than most."

"Artuma, the name is familiar. I've known three Artuma's during my lifetimes. The only one I can think of who had any interest in Old Cunish was Artuma of Mardain, a warrior of some skill, a tall, well muscled man."

"The Artuma I know is tall and muscular as well," I answered. "We've not spoken of his life before he became an innkeeper. He said that you told him you were happiest as a researcher and hated the things most wizards did as their duty to whoever they served."

"That does indeed sound like Artuma of Mardain," Eliun nodded. "He too often found himself in a role he had no taste for, which is what brought us to sit together, many an afternoon and drink and talk." His voice trailed off then, lost in memories of another time, I could tell. I glanced at Kei and Labo and found the boys were fine, no telltale fidgeting that told me they were bored or restless.

"Odd that I didn't know until now that he was from Mardain. That is where I was born as well, having fled the Red Death with my parents, only to be tested and found to be of the Might Born. Ethric took me in then and took me to the Vale with him."

"Not so odd perhaps," Eliun offered, having been brought back to the present by my comment. "Tell me how Artuma looked to you. Was he a man of middle age, or was he older?"

"He seemed to be of middle age, perhaps young middle age, for he seemed a hearty fellow."

"He is your friend, and if he hasn't told you, I hesitate to do so, but he sent you to me knowing, so assume he would not mind. Artuma is of the regeneros, able to live many lifetimes as wizards do.

"Regeneros!" I said, stunned. "I'd always thought there was something different about him. Something ancient buried behind his smile, but regeneros!"

"It is one of Gaen's rarer gifts, for certain," Eliun agreed. "I've only met two in all my own lifetimes. It would do your friend no good for it to be known, apprentice, so I advise you to be close-mouthed in the matter."

"Of course," I agreed. "It does explain some things about him that had always puzzled me. It gives me pleasure to think that I will not lose this friend the way I would most that I might grow close to over the years."

"It is also the reason he had an interest in Old Cunish, I suspect," the old wizard said with a laugh. "I think he probably knows Old Cunish far better than I do, or else has forgotten more of it than I learned. It might even have been his native tongue — but no, that would seem impossible, even for a regeneros. Old Cunish is old, older even than mankind's presence on Gaen, some say."

"I thought I'd read, somewhere in my studies, that there were no written languages on Gaen before the coming of man?"

"The coming of man was a cataclysmic event, for man and Gaen both, apprentice. You're master doesn't seem to have stinted on your education, so you should know this."

"I do, or at least I understand that to be the case, based on what I've read."

"But..." Fenthil read my hesitation. "Those were chaotic times, and what did or didn't actually happen, and what Gaen was truly like before our arrival and how our coming changed it are largely unknown."

"Largely unknown and poorly understood." I added, shaking my head. "You sound like my master when he gets into one of his lectures."

"Well then you are perhaps more fortunate than most. Wizards are like most men when it comes to teaching. Few have a knack for it and manage it only through sheer persistence."

"You are probably right," I agreed. "I've not spent a lot of time with other wizards, and the few times I've done so in recent years have tended towards a more martial atmosphere. Still, what little exposure I've had to wizards and their apprentices, has always left me feeling that their relationships seemed somehow unhealthy, or ... unnatural somehow."

"You are perceptive then, because that is often true when it comes to wizards and their apprentices. The relationship tends to become overly focused on duty and obligation, especially when an apprentice reaches their majority, as you have."

"This is something Ethric has warned me would happen, to some degree," I admitted. Eliun raised an inquisitive eyebrow and I continued. "He warned me a few years ago that he would be more and more likely to be sending me off to represent him in this or that matter. I did not mind it so much — I did not have to set my studies aside for it, and most of the things I was asked to do were also opportunities to learn."

"But you say it with some regret," Eliun observed.

"Yes, well, you heard me speak of my great failure, and how I broke the Wards of the North."

"Perhaps you had succeeded too well in your earlier efforts," Eliun offered. "Ethric was fooled into believing you were ready for something that should have never been given to an apprentice to do."

"So he has admitted to me," I agreed. "He has never blamed me for my failure, saying instead that the blame is his to bear."

"And that is as it should be, otherwise a Wizard would always be taking the credit for his apprentice's successes while casting off the blame for their failures. The responsibilities of being master to an apprentice is not as light a burden as most think."

"So I always understood, but recently have truly come to appreciate."

"Ethric is sworn to a king?" Eliun asked and I nodded. "How did his king take your failure?"

"I have had occasion to swear fealty to the King Tynis more directly than just as the lord of my master," I explained, looking around to see who might be listening. "So my failure laid its own onus on the King, and in truth I understand now that the decision to send me at this task was partially his."

"I see ... Tynis you say? Not Tynis, son of Ogardis?"

"I don't think so," I answered, looking at what I knew of King Tynis' bloodlines. "His grandson or great-grandson I think."

We had been walking as we talked, heading up a long series of walkways and stairs, moving further into the depths of the hermitage. We stopped suddenly, and our conversation with it.

"What?" I asked, knowing something was up.