By nightfall, we were eating snared rabbit and drinking copious amounts of wine. We had set up camp in a small wooded area. I cleaned myself up a little, then took a seat by the fire.

“Last I heard,” Foster said, “You had been traveling along the coast a little. Lingering about the ships. I even heard you went to the southern islands.”

“One of them.” I said. “I really hate sailing on ships though. Glad to be back.”

“And you were coming to pay me a visit?”

I wondered for a moment if it would have crossed my mind to visit him. I hadn't been in Artis for a long time. “Maybe.” I said, “My plans were a little... unplanned.”

“Figures. Running around, half asleep, not knowing where you're going. You could get yourself killed like that!”

“I knew the direction I was more or less heading.” I leaned back and took a sip from my flask. “I just didn't know exactly where I wanted to go.”

“Rawlin?”

I shrugged, “Too busy, too noisy, too many guards with my face in mind.”

“Wherever you go, guards have your face in mind.”

“Yes, this is true.” I considered this a moment. “Likely I would have stayed there for a little. I would have planned on going to the forest, but...”

“People you know there?”

“I worry that Almond has people there keeping an eye out for me. I could go there if I needed to, of course. But, I wanted to go somewhere and stay for an extended period of time. Rest a little. It would be harder to do that if I'm always watching out for people wishing to slit my throat.”

Foster stretched before the fire. “Frigidis?”

“Snow. Cold. No.” I sighed. “There's no point for that place to even exist, and less of a point for me to be there.”

“An exploration effort gone wrong.” Foster mused, “they wanted to cross the mountains, but only found that little clearing after making their way through what they could of the mountains. They only stopped because they couldn't go any further. The Unpassables stopped them.”

I nodded. However, in reality The Unpassables weren't really unpassable. You just needed to go around them. Past lord Necanda's castle into the savage wilderness, or past the forest into the desert.

Unpleasant either way, and likely certain death.

I shrugged, “It's not really important. I'm sure I would have been hired somewhere along the way.”

“If you wanted to rest, the southern islands-”

“That involves sea-travel.”

“Then you're stuck. You're welcome to come to Artis with me though. You know that.”

I nodded, “Well, you've paid me to at least bring you there... and you are going to tell me how you got three horsemen on your tail, yes?”

Foster seemed to ponder a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah, sure.” He said. “It's supposed to be secret, but I know you won't go around blabbing anything I tell you. By the way, I admit I was impressed with how you dealt with the guards, however I thought that your method of attack lacked thought.”

“I didn't have much time.” I said.

“True. Were it me, I would have climbed into the caravan, and grabbed a weapon in there. Maybe a bow or dart, and then I would have taken them out from the back of the caravan.”

“It's easy to talk like that after the fact.” I muttered. “Anyway, I got rid of them.”

“Three of them, yes? Are you sure they're all dead? If not, they may come back. I thought I taught you to complete jobs properly.”

I sighed. He was always like this. He thought that no matter how well I did, I could always do better. Foster: the only person not impressed with any of my stories.

I waved aside his complaints. “Ignoring that, tell me already.”

Foster drowned the rabbit he had been chewing on with wine. “Fine, fine, keep your pants on. You're too impatient. Look, I'm old, Stiri. Perhaps too old for all this. But when I hear of a cause I actually agree with, how can I deny my calling to aid it? Even as an assassin, I was much more picky about my jobs than you were. Perhaps thats why I was never as renowned as you.”

“Why should I be picky? A job's a job.”

“I suppose,” Foster said, “You don't pay attention to much. While you're out ignoring the world and simply killing, I'm learning. You could afford to do so as well. There are forces in the kingdom, and even in the world that effects us more than you could know.”

Hey! I don't 'simply kill'. I am the swift unstoppable arrow of the rich and desperate. I am the sharp and deadly dagger, wielded by the hand of gold. I'm the most efficient weapon in existence.”

“Also, you're a poet.” Foster sighed, “If I had put a quill in your hand, not a dagger-”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I'd be starving on a street-corner somewhere.”

Foster snorted and leaned back against a fallen log behind him. “Perhaps if that were the case, you would at least hear the goings-on of the kingdom.”

“I know plenty.” I snapped, “Much more than you think I do.”

“No doubt. But that's petty, personal information you have. Who cheated on who, and who wants whose land.”

“That's what interests me at the moment-”

“But do you know larger things, bigger, more important things that involve the entire kingdom?”

“Such as?”

Foster shook his head. “There's a war going on, and you don't even know about it.”

“....Were there a war, Foster, I think I would have seen a few more soldiers mulling about in the fields, that seem to lack various bodies and body-parts.”

“Not all wars are fought on the field.” Foster sighed, “However, I'll grant that it's not something just anyone would know about. I thought you might, but you don't”

“Know about what?”

“About the fight for magic. You know the myth, yes? How magic first came into this world?”

“Of course I do.” I said, “Many many years ago, before known time, people lived on the islands in the south in bliss. One man, however, envied the beauty of the moon. Little did he know, however, that Chaos was trapped behind the moon. Chaos felt his lust, and reached out to him, telling him how to break the moon so that he might have a shard. The moon shattered, and Chaos mixed with the logic of mankind. The world was a mess of chaos and darkness, unspeakable beasts and monsters for several hundred years before mankind could truly control the new power. This was the Chaos Night. After that-”

“After that, we had magic.” Foster said. “We thought that the magic was in our world forever. However, it has become obvious that magic is... Settling down, so to speak. Fewer men are able to understand it, and even fewer are able to wield it. How long has it been since a human blocked out the sun? How long since a single mage pulled balls of fire from the heavens? It doesn't happen anymore, because the magic needed to do such things is gone.”

“Well, what does this have to do with you?”

“Well... At first, nothing. I'm no mage, so if magic was settling, I, like you, thought that it didn't matter to me. However, it's not so much that, but what people are willing to do about it.”

“A few desperate mages don't want to see it go I suppose...”

“Something like that.” Foster said, “There was only one group at first: Vitam. They decided that the myth of magic was true, and decided that all that needed to be done was to perform the same spell again, and shatter the moon once more. They believe that they will be able to control the demon, the chaos that comes from the moon, and become masters of magic and of the world.”

“They don't want to revive magic then, they want to have power.”

Foster shrugged. He sat up straight, and pulled some meat from a roasting rabbit from the fire. He gnawed on that before continuing. “Well, of course, they didn't exist long before they met with opposition. A group of people got together and called themselves “The Vanguard” They believe that to summon the monster again is to throw the world into a thousand years of chaos. They believe that magic was never intended to enter the world. They see the loss of the moon as punishment, and think that magic should just fade from the world and let nature control.”

“They don't want Vitam to have power that they themselves cannot have.”

“A third group, Baliancia, thought that the other two groups were being to hasty. Now, for hundreds of years earlier, this group had existed as more a... school of thought, practicing balance and understanding of all things. They thought that magic was good, but needed to be studied more before chaos was pulled into the world. With research, it was thought that we could have the magic, without chaos coming into the world fully.

“And they don't care who has power, just so long as they control it in the end.”

Foster shrugged, “If you wish. I don't think you can attribute everything to simply a desire for power.”

“I can and I will. It's true”

“These three groups manage to run all the politics in the kingdom. Vitam is by far the most powerful, led by a man called Kos. He is a powerful mage, and desperate for the power of true magic.”

“See! Even you admit it's about power.” I said, but I was thinking about Kos. Of course. The man in the porcline mask.

“I do not believe that all the people in Vitam simply desire power. I'm just saying that Kos is desperate for power.”

“Why.” I asked. “What makes you say that he's desperate for power.” I leaned forward, the heat from the flames caressed my face. Foster sat, holding the mouth of his bottle of wine to his pursed lips.

“To redo the spell, several things are needed. The easiest are a full moon, and a clear lake. Also needed are things from the very first summoning. The feather that the First Mage used to fly. The pendant he used to freeze the water to ice. The rock he used to shatter the reflection, and a shard of the moon. The same spell needs to be used in the same manner. Freeze the lake, bind the moon to its reflection, chant the words, and shatter the ice. Then, and only under the condition that all the right items are used will the moon shatter, and magic will flood into the world once more”

Foster paused a moment, and from a pocket in his tunic, pulled out a golden feather. “ I have allied myself with Baliancia, and was instructed to steal this feather. Mostly, I spend my time in research, but I knew where to get the feather, and so I went after it. Kos found out, and since he controls the king, he had royal guards sent after me. Things were getting desperate. Kos almost got the rock, and he has a shard of moon. We have the feather and the rock. The pendant... is still lost.”

“This pendant,” I said. “what does it look like?”

“I don't know. All I know is that it's made of silver, and has the sign of ice on it. That is, one thin line running up it. If one knew how to use it...if I knew how to use this-” He brandished the feather. “then perhaps the struggle would be over.”

I pondered a moment, then took the pendant out. “Do you think this is it?” I asked.

Foster gawked at the pendant as it glittered in the firelight. He swore under his breath and reached out for it. I let him take it. I really had no need for it.

“Stiri, where did you get this?” He asked in amazement. I told him of my adventures with Lord Whyte.

“You're a fool, Stiri.” he muttered, “Kos knows you now, he won't forget you easily.

“I don't really care. I can stay out of his sight.”

Foster looked carefully at the pendant. “It's cold.”

“Yeah, it's always cold.”

“You never thought it strange that it never warmed next to your body all the time?”

“...I never really thought about it; it didn't bother me, I think I just got used to it. However, now that you mention it...”

“Stiri, let me take this. If you take it, you will be in more trouble than ever. Not that I don't think you can take care of yourself, but you would have three groups after you, and you're all on your own.”

I shrugged. “Take it. I can't use it, and the last thing I need is more trouble... I had a little run-in with Almond not too long ago, he's all the trouble I need. I just want to rest for a while now.”

Foster smirked. “ You couldn't do that with this around your neck... Almond, you say?”

“Yes. I was actually working with someone from The Vanguard not long ago.”

Foster swore. “You're the assassin?”

“I suppose”

“Well, you made an enemy of Kos, but you know that. Almond was already your enemy... Almond works with me, he's part of Baliancia. He didn't say you were the assassin, though..”

“He and some friend knew it was me for sure, and they wanted to kill me.”

Foster smirked. “His 'friend' isn't really human. Ah, but that's not important now. You'll give the pendant to me?”

“Yes, take it! Last thing I want is to get involved in this. I'll just keep killing for whoever hires me. No matter what the outcome it, people will still desire my services.”

“As for a vacation, come with me. I need someone to guard my house for a while now... I have some... Business to do.” He held up the feather and the pendant. “Research.”