“The best way to hide what you’re doing is to actually do it. People’s imagination is often the greatest obfuscation you can ever get.”~Unknown, Founder of the Assassin’s Guild

The new schedule was interesting. It was rather short. Normally, she did 4 or 5 assignments on a single trip. Going from town to town, staying there for weeks before moving on to the next. This time, her schedule had only 2 destinations. Not only that, but they were on the other side of the desert.

Bernin hadn’t studied her history that much, but even she knew the basics. After the great calamity, the continent was split in half. The south used to be the major food production, while the north was where the old mages made their home. When it all came crashing down, the south managed to survive. Only now, hundreds of years later, did they finally begin sending expeditions to the north.

She didn’t know much about the resettlement efforts, it hadn’t really interested her before, but apparently there were some mages that didn’t share her disinterest. She supposed some could survive without creature comforts.

There were only 2 mages on her list. The druid Haspal was the first. She had heard that name before, but from where? Sitting at her desk, she opened his packet and began reading up on him. The information packet she was given had many things in there. Expense reports, categories for what research materials he requested and what kind of things he declared over the years, but for now she focussed on his history of employment.

All who came to the university got a job. Even if it was only a few hours a week, everyone contributed. You could do it in your own way of course, but everyone worked and it all got registered. Haspal had started early, he arrived here when he was 10, his family must have sheltered him for a while then, most kids start showing signs of their talent around 8 or 9. When he came here he requested working at the farms. Not that strange, his family were farmers by trade, he must have sought something familiar, most do.

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What was strange is that he never stopped working there. Sure he moved up and sideways the ladder, but he always worked in the farming complex. Most begin trying different things around puberty, the natural inclination of resisting current circumstances usually cause quite a few kids to just try whatever they can. Haspal didn’t. He didn’t move or push for new work. He was a farmer through and through she supposed.

Some of the letters from supervisors and advisors alike went in on this as well. Apparently he was quite the hard worker and was repeatedly asked if there wasn’t something else he wished to try, but no Haspal was a farmer. She supposed that was a bit more in tune of being a druid, but even by those standards this was a bit much. She set the papers back down and put them back in the packet. She would have time to go over them in more detail on her trip. There was after all, another one to visit.

Gregarious of the mountain. A dwarf. That was rare, there weren’t that many that got sent to the university, even after the first success over a century ago. She opened his packet, it was considerably larger than Haspal’s and began to read.

Time flew by, the documents were long but Bernin never lost interest. He wasn’t just one of the first dwarf mages, he was the first to be trained here. Over a century ago, the dwarves had sent a child over, in dwarf terms at least he was over 40 years old at the time, told to grow and report back he had done exactly that. Eventually becoming a council member in full trust. How in the hell was he in the middle of nowhere?

His history was a lot longer and she would have to go into detail on the ride over, but she was looking forward to meeting him already. A full council member, the first mage-smith and someone who has lived over 200 years, she wondered just what he had seen. She was becoming giddy with excitement.

It took a while to calm herself down after that and remember she had a job to do. She was going to audit a previous council member, one who had been involved in politics for longer than she had been alive, this was going to be one interesting trip.