“That was, well, how do I put it. It certainly was more than a regular cutting board, that’s for sure.” The surprised look still hadn’t quite left Nelrims face. “How did you do it?”

The man could only smile. “Do what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. How did you manage to put such a complicated system in such a small piece of wood?” The piece of wood that was just mentioned was already in the boy’s hands. It looked as if he was trying to understand all of its secrets by intensely staring at it from all sides.

“Ha! Wouldn’t you like to know. No, I won’t tell you. Years I have spent trying to come up with a method to do it, and I am not going to just hand you the solution behind it.” The man was noticeably getting more restless the longer Nelrim was studying the piece of wood. The boy noticed this and slowly put the piece back on the table.

“Talking about methods, how did you manage to find my house? You said you could because you are a mage, but even a mage wouldn’t have been able to just stumble upon it. Even better, there are close to no reasons to come this far into the forest.”

The boy stood up and walked towards a window. While looking through it he said “Ha! Wouldn’t you like to know.” Nelrim cast a quick glance at the old man and saw that he wasn’t the least bit humoured by it. “Alright then, since you took the effort to ask. You see, I am a runaway student from one of the academia. I can see you are a busy man so I won’t bother with the details. To summarise, my view of things was not what they searched for in a student.”

“It may be quite a few years back, but from what I can remember of the academia they wouldn’t just chase someone out because of a differ in views.”

Nelrim had already moved on from looking out the window to studying the covers of the few books that stood on a shelf. “Ah, but you see, it might also have had something to do with the supplies I stole from them.”

At those last words the man started to move his hands towards his object of research and slowly pulled it closer to him, as if to secure it from the boy’s reach. “You actually stole from them? I don’t know if I should call you brave or just plain stupid. Seeing your eagerness with touching unknown objects I’d say it’s the latter”

Nelrim wasn’t a complete fool and he knew that the man meant he shouldn’t try to touch the books if he wanted to stay on the man’s good side. “You have to believe me when I say that I had my reasons for it.” And to make clear that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore he sat back down in front of the man and just looked at the interior of the room they were in.

“Did you make all of this by yourself?” The boy asked.

“It is surprising how much you can do if you have as much time as I have. My research is important, but once in a while I want to put my mind to something else. That’s when I make improvements to this home of mine.” The man looked at the ceiling for a moment, as if remembering all the moments that he had worked on improving the house. “It may not be pretty, but it functions properly.”

Suddenly sound could be heard coming from the rooftop. It started slow, but steadily grew in volume. The man looked outside and saw that it was raining. When Nelrim looked at the man he could see conflict in his eyes. Just about when he was going to ask the man what he had on his mind the man spoke with a sigh. “Boy, aren’t you a lucky one. Usually I wouldn’t have let you stay here, but seeing how hard it rains I just can’t bring myself to send you out.”

Nelrim was surprised. He hadn’t thought that the man was wondering about something like that. To be honest, he would have been less surprised if the man had send him out of his home anyway. The man walked towards the fireplace and put on a kettle for warm water.

“Since you introduced yourself, and you are staying the night, perhaps it would be best if I returned the favour. My name is Forihr and I have worked most of my life in this house where I study.” That last sentence was cut off because Forihr closed his mouth, not willing to share details about the content of his research. “I can prepare you a meal, and if you are willing I would like to ask about the situation out there. It may have already been forty years since I was outside of this forest and things have probably changed a bit since then.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Nelrim wasn’t the person to turn down a free meal and agreed to the man’s offer. Not long after that they each had a plate with some bread and some vegetables from the man’s garden. “Well, where should I start? Would you like to hear about the academia or about the politics?”

The man smiled and said “Either is fine. I will let you decide on that.” Forihr was not a perfect judge of a person’s character, but he could tell that the boy liked to hear himself speak. He would soon be proven right as the boy began talking.

“I don’t know what it was like when you were still a part of civilization, but in the time that I was alive not much has changed.” The boy paused for a moment to come up with a good starting point for the rest of the conversation. “The academia have gotten more students than other years, which led to the building of a sixth in Ythar. This caused quite a bit of discussion between the scholars”

Forihr frowned. “Why would they have a discussion about that, wouldn’t they all benefit from more students?”

“So you would think. It turned out that is indeed the case. However, those who are assigned to the new academy are more likely to be able to gain a higher position. In the end they decided to have each of the five academia to be equally represented.” Nelrim paused again for a moment. “This will likely mean that the sixth academy will be a battlefield behind the scenes where the academia fight for the most influence. ”

It was becoming dark outside and the rain hadn’t stopped once. The man stood up and lit a few candles. “It is getting late, perhaps it would be best to continue tomorrow. My house isn’t exactly prepared for visitors, but I think the floor will suit you just fine.”

Nelrim took a deep breath. He could have expected this, but still, sleeping on something other than a bed was not his favourite of activities. “At least it is better  than sleeping outside. Thank you for your generosity.”

The man smiled. “Oh but do not think this is all completely free of charge. I expect you to work to repay me. Enough of that for now though. Let us first sleep.” With that said the man walked into a door which probably lead to the sleeping compartment of his house.

Nelrim stood up from his chair and looked around him for a place where he could sleep. He didn’t have to look for long because not long after he left, the man returned with a woollen blanket and spread it on the ground. “There, now I expect you to not wake me up unless it is necessary.” The man started to walk away again, but turned around just before he reached the door. “And please, do not touch anything other than your own property  and that blanket.” With those final words the man walked further and closed the door behind him.

Silence filled the house and before Nelrim went to his designated spot on the floor he blew out the candles. This Forihr isn’t so bad after all. Giving me food and shelter for the night, and that to a complete stranger. This just shows that I did right to come here.

Not long after the boy lay on the ground he was vast asleep. Forihr was still awake, but kept silent. He wondered what to do if the boy were to stay any longer. The boy probably could make himself useful, but in the end he would only hinder any research he was trying to do. The man put a spell on the door to alert him if anyone was trying to enter. Not that he didn’t trust the boy, but you could never be too careful.

 The man slept well that night and the spell on the door didn’t activate once. Yet when morning came and the man walked into the room there was no sign of the boy to be seen.