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Edan was a dreadful squire. There was no way around it: he was a hindrance. The stout, short-furred canine looked at me with his usual puzzled air, as he held the reins for both of our mounts. The young stable boy who was waiting on us appeared annoyed. Oh, how I empathized with him. I massaged my forehead. I tried to sound patient.

-- We're going inside. As guests. Do you think we need the weapons?

Edan caught on, and began to take the shield and the wrapped equipment off of his shoulders. He awkwardly hung them on his mount with the rest of his saddlebags. Then, amazingly, he did nothing.

"Give the reins to the stable boy, or wait here with him like an idiot. It's your call."

I walked away toward the short drawbridge while my new servant scampered after me. He'd been released from jail after I'd arrested him and two brothers for looting a burned farmhouse. Count Rimet had been lenient on the brothers, but he'd perceived Edan as the ringleader of the group, and condemned him to ten lashes and a fine, which I felt was a bit harsh. He'd taken the lashes somewhat bravely, though his muscular back would forever bear those marks, but there was no way he could pay the fine. Because I felt involved, I then proposed to hire him as a squire, hoping that it might give him a chance to turn his life around, and to do something useful. So far, the usefulness part had failed, but he was my responsibility, now. I'd bought him a horse, and some equipment, and spent an hour every evening training him, with a specific focus on shield usage, in preparation for that time when he'd encounter actual conflict. Maybe, some day, I might be able to extract some value out of him, to justify the rather large investment I'd made. Maybe.

Edan joined me on the drawbridge, and we advanced into the shadow of the Heaven Tower. The tower was more of a citadel, these days. The original actual tower was barely in use anymore. Elementalism was all the rage, and that domain of magic was something of a specialty for my old teachers of the Wizards Guild. Wealthy ambitious apprentices traveled from every corner of the known world to learn from the "most powerful casters of our age" just like I had. Only the reclusive Diviners had a reputation to match the guild's, but divination didn't allow one to smite their enemies with lightning after a few weeks' training, so most seekers came here.

"Edan."

I gestured to follow me, and left the center of the iron bridge. I stepped carefully near the edge to look down the moat. My snout was hit by the warm ascending current. Lava bubbled at the bottom. Edan seemed impressed.

-- Best not to fall.

-- Indeed not. It's lava today.

-- It changes?

I smiled mysteriously, and didn't respond, but yes. It changed. My arcane teachers loved to show off.

The Heaven Tower didn't exactly feel like home, not like the Rusa Monastery. It was good to be back all the same, when we passed under the familiar main gate. As usual, nobody guarded the entrance to the tall, clean, white-granite fortress. The city of Cierra, home to the Wizards Guild, was just as big and safe as the capital. In fact, many called it the "eastern capital" of the kingdom.

There was no vestibule for the Heaven Tower. The stronghold's architecture reflected the dispositions of those that had it built: proud and to the point. As visitors stepped inside, they found themselves in the middle of an immense central hall with high passageways overhead connecting the upper levels of the north, south, and east wings. Highly detailed modern gothic sculptures in the walls ran up to the ceiling, which was composed of wide ebony panels that could be slid open to let the daylight in, or shut when it rained. The sun shone, but the panels were closed, because someone hadn't done their job. No one welcomed us at the reception desk either. The guild insisted on employing their own members for all tasks and chores. Wizards being wizards, all of those chores often remained unattended. It was no problem. I knew how to deal with that situation.

-- Reception! I shouted, imitating the tone of an irritated Head Wizard. There are guests at the reception desk, but no one to receive them! How does that make us look?

I heard a chair tumble over, and papers falling to the floor. Edan stared at me, stunned that I'd dared do something this bold, failing to realize that I personally knew these people.

-- Sorry, sorry! said a feminine voice that I recognized with no effort.

Aerin came out of a side room, frenetically straightening her black-and-purple Head Wizard robes. She had blond fur, and long droopy ears for a canine, but the top of her head was increasingly discolored. At twice my age, she was the youngest Head Wizard. Despite her appearance, I knew her to be the one of the most organized, most decisive thinkers of the guild. As an apprentice, I'd done everything in my power to take as many of her courses as she gave. She saw us, gaped at me, and ceased fussing over the state of her robes.

"Well, well," she said teasingly, "has my forlorn student abandoned his warrior ways to return at last to the path of knowledge and enlightenment?"

-- You bet!

She beamed, and subtly eyed the large dog next to me. I explained.

"This is my new squire, Edan."

-- I'm happy to meet you, Edan. What can I help you two with?

-- Ha! Us? What about you? Did you trip over a table on your way?

Aerin waved her hand dismissively.

-- No, no. Don't even worry about it. It's just, I was entertaining another guest, and we were having a fascinating discussion. I'll introduce you.

She turned to the room she'd just left. I had no time to protest, and to explain that I was here briefly to talk about a specific problem to the chairman.

"Mister Markel, please, join us."

Mister Markel appeared, cloaked in a hooded dark-gray robe. The tall, bony, black-furred feline padded softly to us. He didn't appear much older than me, but his body gave me a weird impression, like he was half-dead already. Aerin pointed to me with her open hand.

"This used to be one of my students, but you've probably already heard of him. The king appointed him Guardian of the Silvergate."

She sounded proud. It made me happy. This Markel character nodded knowingly to me.

-- It was after you destroyed this magical construct, in Blackpatch. Yes. I've heard of you, Silver Warrior. It's an honor.

The feline extended a near-skeletal hand. I was surprised by the firm grip when I took it.

-- The other is his squire.

Markel gave a curt nod to acknowledge the squire.

"Markel is currently studying the links between shamanistic death curses and some necromantic practices, and hoped to consult some of the tomes in our library. Captivating stuff."

As I had no immediate escape, I humored them with conversation.

-- Are you a practitioner of shamanism yourself? I asked the hooded figure.

He smiled bleakly, and shook his head. Necromancer, then. So that was why he didn't get any further than the entrance.

-- What domains are you interested in? inquired Markel, evaluating me.

-- The domain of things that can be applied in battle.

-- Ah, practical magic. But one does not always know what secret will be of practical use before they discover it.

-- I trust casters of far more skill and patience than myself to take care of that part.

Markel was pleased to discover my respect for fundamental research. I saw his face warm up. Necromancy was one of the oldest forms of magic. It had been practiced widely -- hundreds of years ago -- but by today's standards, it was considered a weak force. What was the point of expending colossal energy to raise a few shambling corpses, when a single, easily conjured wave of flame could both destroy them, and do ten times more damage? There was also little point in attempting to directly affect an enemy's life force, when an ice spike could simply be shoved through their head. Necromancy was dead. A few minutes prior, I wasn't even aware that people still actively practiced it. For all I knew, Markel could be the very last one. I wasn't terribly interested, and I was beginning to fear being dragged into an actual theoretical discussion. Consequently, when Aerin threw me a rope, I seized it.

-- You still haven't told me what you came for. You did call for reception, after all.

-- Yes! Absolutely. And it is a rather urgent matter, I'm afraid. I've scheduled a meeting with the guild chairman.

The Head Wizard showed her surprise.

-- What, today?

-- Yes. I was told to come here by messenger weeks ago, when I discovered the problem.

-- But that's impossible. Our Chairman the Head Wizard Darios left the day before yesterday to visit the Fair King.

I was pissed.

-- He did what?

To his credit, Edan loyally echoed my feelings, although I suspected he might be genuinely aggravated that we had to travel all the way here from the capital, only to learn that the chairman was absent because he went to the capital. It was that fucking absurd.

-- He gave him that appointment! I saw the letter! protested my squire.

Aerin shrugged with an apologetic look. It was clear that no one could do anything about it.

-- I'm so sorry, the chairman is a very busy person. He probably forgot. What was the problem you wanted to meet with him about? Perhaps someone else can help.

Since she was putting it this way, it occurred to me that, while Darios was an outstanding teacher with a profound grasp of theoretical elementalism, he was also a self-important old coyote that would probably not have listened to me. If I wanted someone at the guild to hear me out, my best bet was standing right in my face.

-- Six weeks ago, some farmlands outlying the capital were attacked by a Lowlander raiding party. The attack was fast and efficient. The perpetrators disappeared without a trace, and focused on movable goods, and things useful for an invading army, like cattle for food and slaves for constructing camps. Since then, there have been a dozen more similar incidents, at regular intervals. I think a northwestern army is moving about in one of the forests of the Midlands, preparing a full scale assault. I went to the king with this, and he listened to me, but I don't think I convinced him that there's imminent danger. He was mostly worried about preventing further incidents by temporarily increasing patrols near isolated villages and farms. I wanted to convince the chairman to send a representative of the guild to observe the situation behind the border. The king trusts the guild more than anyone else. If the chairman tells him that there is cause for worry, he'll believe it.

Aerin smoothed her ear between her index and her middle finger pads, pondering the information.

-- That does sound worrying, but it is unlikely that any Lowlander faction is strong enough to represent a threat to the Southern Kingdom. Do you think that it might be a combination of multiple allied factions?

I was about to tell Aerin about the dead river reptile armed with a steel Bonehead war axe, but, to my surprise, the necromancer cut in.

-- Of course, he said matter-of-factly. It must be the Blood Masks.

Neither Aerin nor I said anything. Markel gazed at us with some despair regarding our blank reactions.

"It's the Blood Masks... You two are kidding, right? You do know what I'm talking about."

Aerin and I shared a look.

-- I'm afraid we don't, she admitted.

I got the distinct impression that Markel was unimpressed by our knowledge of what was happening on the other side of the northwestern border.

-- The Unification wars?

Our silence endured. Markel was more and more agitated.

"You can't. You must... The big conflict that's still currently going on in the Lowlands that thousands of refugees are pouring into your realm to run away from, you know about that, don't you?"

I attempted to save face.

-- Yes, we know that this is a time of massive infighting between Bonehead clans, but that's hardly a change. They fight all the time.

Markel wagged his finger in my face.

-- No, no, no. This is no ordinary infighting, you can trust me. I was there recently myself, doing research, and I'm going back as soon as I'm done here. The whole region is in turmoil. A single Bonehead clan called the Blood Masks has been systematically conquering all of the others for years! They're united, now, under the leadership of Matriarch Asnor, and are busy stamping out the rest of their fleeing opponents. Marsh tribes and river people everywhere are terrified that they might be next, and many are pledging to them of their own volition, as a safety precaution. The Lowlands have never been so unified since -- well -- since the very first Bonehead Kingdom, of which all the Bonehead clans have always claimed to be the rightful heirs.

Shamefully, I had to admit that most of this was news to me, but it made a whole lot of sense considering my little problem.

-- That could explain a lot. So you think this victorious Bonehead clan is preparing an assault on our lands?

-- Yes and no. Technically, no, the Blood Masks themselves are not your problem. The Outsider is.

-- The Outsider?

-- As you can imagine, the Unification wars was an ideal ground to form many competent generals and other military leaders. The Outsider was one of those. He fought for the Blood Masks, but grew more independent in his methods as years went by. He started to attract a lot of attention when the rumor spread that he was invincible. That he was some sort of demon. Apparently, he went into combat with his troops all the time, and systematically escaped unscathed. This is nonsense, of course, but the fact that he is a most powerful witch is generally accepted.

Witchery wasn't an actual domain of magic. It was what casters called other casters when they were unable to effectively identify the domain that they used. Most often, witches were polyvalent magic users with basic or advanced skills in multiple domains that they tapped into according to their needs. Other times, they simply used new unknown magic. The first elementalists had been called witches. Markel continued:

"Whatever the case, the Outsider used the unification as an opportunity to recruit for himself. He successfully formed a diverse army out of people that had traditionally been sworn enemies. Do you know how he achieved this?"

I was beginning to see, yes.

-- He made us the enemy, the only people that Lowlanders hate more than each other.

The necromancer raised both indexes high above his head, and then pointed them to me.

-- But this Asnor, the new chief of the Boneheads, she tolerates his recruitment of her troops? shrewdly interrogated Aerin.

-- No. She actively supports him.

We all shut up for a moment. This was several orders of magnitude worse than I'd imagined. This was a full-scale kingdom versus kingdom all-out war kind of situation.

-- Didn't you tell about this to anyone?

Just as I angrily asked my question, I understood how stupid it was. I was a national hero, and I couldn't get people to listen to me. He couldn't even get access to the library. Besides, he thought that we knew. I caught myself in time.

"Sorry, don't even answer that. I'm dumb. I have a better question instead. How did you learn all of this?"

-- I'm unaffiliated with any realm. I've worked closely with shamans for years. They respect me. They talk to me. Nearly all of them have been recruited or trained by the Blood Masks. They call themselves blood shamans, nowadays. The matriarch fully grasps the importance of arcane support in warfare.

Aerin crossed her arms gloomily, her concern apparent. Even if the news were bad, I felt tremendously happy that I wasn't the only one in the know. It relieved much of my anxiety that had built up over the last month or so.

-- You said you will be returning in the Northwest soon. If these blood shamans are friendly enough, do you assume we might meet them? she asked. We need to know exactly what's going on out there.

-- They're friendly to me.

Markel was visibly unwilling to make any promises, but he did seem to appreciate that this was one way to get what he came for.

"I guess that if I was the one to introduce you, it wouldn't hurt your chances. Once I'm done with your library, of course."

-- By all means!

The Head Wizard wrapped her arm around the feline's back, and guided him further into the citadel, once again deserting her post at the reception without a second thought. She turned to me, and winked.

"This is all your fault, you know. I hope you're up for a little trip."

-- I would never let my old, defenseless teacher endanger herself alone.

Aerin spoke to the necromancer again, as they engaged into a tight corridor, and soon disappeared from my sight.

-- How long will you need?

-- We can depart tomorrow morning, if I'm left unbothered.

The voices were weakening, but I still heard Aerin's shout distinctly:

-- Did you hear? Be back here tomorrow morning!

I yelled in turn, probably causing a lot of people in the other side rooms to hate me.

-- I'll be there!

And then they were gone. When I'd arrived, I was alone and unsure of what to do. Now, we had a plan, a nice little group, and I was going to get the opportunity to travel with my beloved old teacher. I wasn't troubled anymore, I was excited. I didn't know about the necromancer's prowess, but I wished good luck to any northwestern barbarian that would stand in the way of Aerin and me. I stood near the desk, grinning, while Edan waited for instructions.

-- What now? he asked.

-- Now we eat, we enjoy the city, we rest, and we return in the morning.

Edan wasn't the best squire by a long shot, but he certainly knew how to do all of these things.

-- You were right, he announced. Helping the kingdom is great!

At least, he made me laugh.