The world spread out beneath him and he could see it change.
Slowly the sides aligned, slowly the Immortals disappeared. In the beginning they had all ignored the warnings, ignored the fact that they hadn't seen someone for a decade or two, for what is a decade to beings that do not die? But now the situation was all too clear and Jan cursed for not realising earlier. Too much was coming to a head, too many things balanced on one time in one place; the centre of magic, the centre of the world, the centre of the storm... Glantri. Thankfully that was where his power was strongest. He had followers amongst the werewolves, the humanoids and the humans, both mundane and magical; he had some measure of control over the Radiance and he had a secure fortress, one that had not been entered by a mortal since he left. He also had an ace in the hole. Long ago he said that Moskva, Alonzo and himself had been brought together for a reason, that they were destined to fight side by side. In some ways that happened, in others... well, generally your comrades in arms don't ask you to leave the country for a century. However now three were coming together again and one of them was both his descendant and his cleric; the other two were a half-dragon and an academic girl. They were moving down paths that had been walked before. The universe was changing, Synn would be... well, she would be back and the remainder of the Immortals would have to make a stand. This was the beginning of the end, but of what? Jan turned away from his window and walked back towards his lab, he had much to do...
Seiter awoke with a start. It all came rushing back to him: the party, the drink, the girl (or was it girls)... He'd stayed somewhere, then decided that it was vitally important he should go to the Great School and do some research for his History of Magic essay. The essay was on "The Reasons for the Decline of the Magocracy in Glantri". He'd been tempted just to write "Moskva Koranov", but he didn't think that Master Varien would let him away with that. As all this rushed through his head he looked up to see what had awoken him, expecting to see the librarian standing infront of him, but it was someone else. Thankfully it only took a split second for her name to jump to his lips.
"G... Grand Master Telari! I... I, well, I just... you see..."
"Mr. Vlaardoen. So sorry to disturb your slumber."
"Well, I wasn't exactly sleeping Grand Master... maybe just resting my head?" Seiter could see from her face that she wasn't about to bawl him out of it and while he was still panicing he'd begun to relax just a little.
"Of course you were. Anyway, my office. Now."
Suddenly Seiter was standing in a large office with books on every flat surface. The Grand Master of the Great School of Magic was suddenly standing behind her cluttered desk, she looked up, "Please Mr. Vlaardoen, take a seat."
Seiter sat down, completely unsure of what was about to happen, his previous sense of calm totally destroyed. There were at least a dozen reasons for a stern talking to that he could easily bring to mind, but he didn't think that anyone knew they were his doing. Unless it had to do with Oxhill's daughter and that device he'd used to get in her window...
His reminising was disturbed by the Grand Master, "Mr. Vlaardoen, why did you come to the Great School of Magic?"
"Eh... to learn the art of magic, Grand Master."
"And now that you've been here a while, do you think you're learning any?"
"Well, of course... I mean, yes, yes I am."
"So you believe your various teachers are doing a good job?"
Seiter knew she was leading him somewhere, but he couldn't figure out where, "Eh... yes Grand Master, of course they are, they are the best magic teachers in the Known World."
"And yet you feel the need to go outside their courses? Play with things you shouldn't? Use magical items that are too powerful for you and endanger the lives of your friends?"
"Well, er... you see... it's just that...," Seiter could feel the world fall down around his ears, he could see himself being sent home in shame. He decided honesty was the only option, "...the thing is, I can't just plod along with the rest, there's too much to see in the world and too much magic to learn, if I die before seeing it all, well, I'll be very disapointed." Inwardly the young magic-user cringed, waiting for the tirade. Which never came.
"A very fair answer Mr. Vlaardoen. It does not excuse you your misbehaviour but it explains it. One or two of your teachers have asked me to throw you out..."
Seiter's eyes widened in fear.
"...I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do something much worse. I'm going to invite you into my class so now some of your tutelage will be under my personal attention. This class will work you harder than any other but hopefully you may find some benefit in it."
"T... t...thankyou... thankyou Grand Master." Seiter couldn't believe his ears.
"Students of mine refer to me as Mistress Telari. You may go now."
Suddenly Seiter found himself back at his library seat. He stood up immediately, all thoughts of his essay forgotten, he had to find Vene and Uther. They were never going to believe this one!
Back to the index page.