.... There needed to be More to it. I was was sure!

But I did not know why. Not yet, at least.

Something significant.

But the only thing I could think of was the night we'd shared under that fell, full moon. It was brilliant and round and gleaming. Perfect and bright to behold.

So I selected five silver coins which I had earned from Mistress Margaret, The Mayor's wife for taking care of Aemon and Keimen.

I had no reason for selecting the coins save for dramatic impulse, and I had no reason for selecting five except that there had been five of us by the fire.

'One for The Forerunner. One for The Wizard. One each for Aemon and Keimen and me'.

Significant.

It was only after that that I noticed the symbols, but by that point I had already determined that this was Right, so I couldn't back out.

The symbols, though.

The Tower, Crown and Gull of Leona Mell.

The Dragon and Spear of Felldan and The Tower within a Circle within a Star of Emen Ora.

Astelia's coin just showed a mountain peak and the last was from Kyemen and it just read its name across its face.

Tower Kingdom seals. Also significant, I knew, but the Wrong sort.

So I took the coins to Master Avel the blacksmith and asked him to melt them down to disks.

Master Avel did, but he was no silversmith as he reminded me repeatedly and when I received the coins back I saw that they were bubbled and pockmarked from the smelting.

Still, they shone with moonlight under a crescent moon that looked so like The Forerunner's grin, so, with, eyes that couldn't look too closely at them, I bound them in place.

— Leinan of Landsend (An accounting)

* * *

The Healers Quarters were located at the far edge of the Old District, which meant that they were constructed of that same oddly mottled, red and grey stone every dwelling in the Old District was constructed from.

Also it was big, at least by how Leinan measured such things. She never imagined it to be even as big as a lord's hunting lodge, but it was big enough and with enough rooms and conjoined dwellings, that she had had time to notice the few times she'd had to go deeper in than the doorway.

So it came as no surprise to Leinan that Mistress Heatherly did not appear immediately. More surprising was that Mistress Heatherly did not appear soon after either.

When she did appear, it was with a sigh. If Leinan didn't know better, she would have said it was a relieved sigh.

Except — Mistress Heatherly didn't do relieved sighs.... Other people did relieved sighs... after Mistress Heatherly left.

Mistress Heatherly was the Head Healer in Landsend, and as far as anyone else was concerned, save, perhaps the Mayor himself, the head of everything else as well.

She was a kindly matron who was tall, thin and brusk, with her hair bound up in a tight bun, and wore a black and white habit and a pinched expression.

If Leinan had Blades in her eyes, then Mistress Heatherly had Steel in her spine and all the way up past her hair follicles as well, by the look of her bun.

Mistress Heatherly, Leinan knew, never brooked any nonsense and tended not to with whatever she had near at hand at the time.

And at the same time... "Ah. Leia dear," Mistress Heatherly's eyes brightened and crinkled in a warm smile and stepped over to wrap Leinan up in a brisk hug. "It is so good to see you up and about again. Even if you are wearing trousers."

She cast a disapproving look at Leinan's legs and sniffed. "And are you perspiring? I would have thought you had enough of all that dashing about, what with everything."

Leinan's smile, which had grown to meet Mistress Heatherly's politely, tightened considerably, but what she said was, "I came as soon as I heard, Mistress. The Wizard, Ba — Bar" — Leinan pursed her lips. It felt odd trying to say The Wizard's name.

The Wizard had made sure that they all knew his name was Barnibus, and that he was a Wizard, no matter how much miming that had entailed, but from then on he had just been The Wizard to Leinan.

Now that she thought of it, she had never actually thought to refer to him by his name until... now.

— "Barnibus." Leinan managed, and then swallowed because it was difficult. "That boy said he left the inn again? Is he alright?"

Mistress Heatherly blinked at her... and then blinked at her. "Al—alright?" Mistress Heatherly shook her head slightly and then she rubbed at her eyes tiredly.

Leinan stared. She had never seen Mistress Heatherly rub at her eyes period.

"Oh... I dare say there is rainwater less 'alright' then that man... He's just wandering about and...." Mistress Heatherly fluttered her hand a bit.

Then she looked about, leaned closer suddenly and lowered her voice. "Dear — tell me truly — are you alright?"

Leinan nodded slowly, struggling to gather up the pieces that seemed to be falling all over the place and not adding up. This was... not about the Wizard? "... Mistress?"

Mistress Heatherly sighed quietly, gazed down upon her speculatively and then finally, nodded.

"Alright then," She said heavily. "This is not something I would ordinarily show to a young lady, but circumstances have the better of us, I'm afraid. Come along, dear." And led Leinan deeper into the Healer's Quarters than she had ever been.

Passed closed doors and some that were open and some that didn't have doors at all but were just open archways.

It really was odd construction, Leinan had time to think as they walked... now that she thought about it, the village of Landsend had a lot of odd construction for....

And it all fled her mind as Mistress Heatherly opened the next door and led her through.

* * *

The Wizard Wandered.

Specifically Wandered and not at all to be confused with Wondered. Wondering, The Wizard supposed, was far, far too close to Pondering and Barnibus felt very strongly that he needed to stay away from Pondering for a good, long time.

So, he wandered, and right now Barnibus was wandering down what was obviously a main road between stone and wood built store fronts and what he thought were also homes.

It was main, he decided, because it was wider than the other roads he had come across. It was also main, because it ran straight and true all the way up to — and through — the mostly covered market Barnibus could see ahead of him, and then continued for a ways beyond it.

In fact, if Barnibus was not mistaken — and he did not think he was, because he had made sure to weave back and forth searching for those small, unimpeded gaps in the crowd which you could almost always find if you looked hard enough — the road traveled all the way until it eventually gave way to grassland.

Thus it was obvious. This was the main road.

Equally obvious was that this was the only main road and also, though more novel, that it was in fact more of a street, than a road.

It was paved stone, you see, and oddly paved at that.

That stopped him.

Barnibus paused in his Wandering, and peered at the street, reflexively moving his beard out of the way so it wouldn't obstruct his vision. Then he got down on his knees and looked even harder.

'Old', Barnibus thought, brushing his fingers across the stone, and 'smooth' and 'different'.

It was old. So old Barnibus could practically taste the age from it like that scent in the air right after you blew off the coating of dust which often collected on the really ancient tomes in the really really deep catacombs of The Grand Wizard Emanuel Mordechai Menovchinsky's Memorial Library. Old.

Behind him there was a crash and a loud uproar filled with gabbling voices, but Barnibus ignored it.

He had been causing a ruckus since he woke up several mornings ago — he didn't remember how many — in a strange room with none of the usual bathroom accoutrements — even the mundane ones — or even any plumbing to speak of, and, by now, that rapid gabbling and the raised voices had grown a bit old hat so to speak.

He was certain most of it was mostly cursing besides, from the tone and repetition, and not even real curses. Just those foolish mundane ones humans enjoyed throwing about like little pebbles of Animosity and Disdain.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Nothing at all to be concerned over, he thought. Not unless he was in dire need of either very minor amounts of Animosity — not likely — or even smaller doses of Disdain.

This road though was setting his beard hair on end and it was taking a little bit for him to figure out why.

"Hat! Hat, what do you make of this? Its Old and —" Hat, of course, did not respond, and after a polite and longer than normal pause, Barnibus remembered why.

Hat was not on his head where he belonged. Hat was on someone ELSES head where he belonged. Hat was... not his hat. Hat was — No.

It hit him again — as these things often do.

He'd offered his hat for a way home. He'd given his hat to a face as cold as winter snow with eyes as lonely as the mountain's peak. Lips as red as the reddest blood and teeth as —

Barnibus stumbled back to his feet and staggered away.

Dimly he was aware of his hand Wandering up, past his chest level, and then past his earlobe and then — his hair.

His hand touched hair instead of cloth and he lurched sideways until his other hand hit hard stone and he held himself still against the wall of a worked stone establishment.

He — he was hatless.

A Wizard without a Hat, he thought blearily. An un-Hatted Wizard? A — a bare-headed conjurer? What did —

Barnibus struggled to find the spell he'd used before while he fumbled around blearily for the Mana — Misremembered Words? No. Empathic Silence?Silence of the oft Sheltered Mind? No and no! Ok. He breathed. Brute force then.

Barnibus gripped his beard tightly, closed his eyes and spun Anima into his voice — he had eaten at some point today, so he had plenty and intoned — "Away!" There was an almost audible thrum as he spoke, as if a second voice rose in accompaniment or the subtlest of echoes.

"Away foul thoughts! Away I say! Come thee ba —"

Someone touched his arm and he jumped away with a wild yell, "Back! Back FIEND! Can't you see —"

The woman did, in fact, back away, but then she waved at him, smiled, pointed at him, and spoke gibberish in a concerned tone.

Barnibus was breathing heavily, but he gulped down air and squinted at her from beneath his bushy, Wizardly eyebrows. At least — hastily he reached up to check that they hadn't fallen out or — ah, yes, they were still there. He sighed in Relief. At least those were still wizardly. Not like —

The woman, he noticed had mussy brown hair and was wearing a sort of frock with a mostly unstained apron and a kind expression on her face.

It was so kind it was a actually little painful to look at, and Barnibus had to look away again after a moment.

Then he noticed the smell and his eyes crept back to the woman and then past her to a large, brown ceramic jug sitting on the counter of the stall she was standing next to.

The woman was asking him something, still in that concerned tone, and dimly Barnibus was also aware of other passerby's looking at him and other stall owners babbling to the woman who would respond every so often back. It was all kind of hazy for Barnibus, because he was still caught mid enchantment and at the same time focused on the smell.

He juggled, briefly and his desire for what was behind that smell won.

The woman went to touch his arm again, but Barnibus pointed a stiff finger at the jug and then mimed a drinking motion with his other hand.

The woman folded her arms and frowned, eyes narrowing suspiciously, but then she nodded at the sign on the wall next to the stall and held a hand out palm up in the universally recognized gesture of 'I would like some cash with that request'.

So Barnibus dove his hand deep into — and cried out as his fingers struck the bottom of a rough and really shallow pocket!

"Gah!" Barnibus shook his hand out quickly and trying to flex the pain from his fingers while the woman at the stall stared at him in Quickly Mounting Disbelief and with just a little bit of — but growing — Apprehension.

A couple gentlemen came over now, talking quickly with the woman and pointing at Barnibus while he stared down at himself with plenty of Disbelief of his own and not a small amount of Horror thrown in.

His Robe too. He somehow managing to stagger again even while standing stock still. His Robe of Mystery was gone too... traded away just like....

'What even was he?' Barnibus accidentally Pondered as he stood in front of the woman's stall while men began congregating around and not a few women as well.

They asked questions of him as if they didn't realize he couldn't understand and plenty more from the woman who answered them in rapid exchanges that seemed to grow increasingly sharp and....

He was a Wizard. Barnibus thought. He was certain he was a Wizard. But he didn't feel — Barnibus felt at his face and no, there was no sharp edge of a Knowing Twinkle anywhere to be found — and by the looks on the gentlemen and the lady manning the stall, his Air of Wisdom and Knowledge of Ages Past had gone much the same way as that Twinkle.

His hands felt disbelievingly at his arms and touched hairy skin and not the warm folds of a Wizard's Robe and as his hand flexed he gripped air rather the haft of a Wizard's Staff.

The woman — the kind one, not the others who were scowling and shooting disgruntled looks — was having a rapid exchange with several of the surrounding folk. She seemed to come to a determination, however, and swiftly produced a ceramic bowl, and poured a helping from that jug into it to cries of outrage.

She responded with something that rang unkindly in the morning air, and then handed the bowl to Barnibus with a kind and motherly smile.

Barnibus nodded to the woman with grave gratuity. And then raised the bowl to his lips and downed the contents in a single draft, while the woman's eyes bulged in sudden, Awestruck Horror and she made frantic movements to grab the bowl back from him with a screech.

Oh. Barnibus thought as he staggered again. Oh. Yes. That... that burned like a cattle iron... that was... whoowww.

Three vestments, Barnibus thought, with a mind that was suddenly Wandering even more successfully than it had been before. Three...

Three vestments maketh the Wizard. It echoed in his brain as if there was suddenly a lot less in there than there had been before.

Three. It was an odd number, and that was alright because Wizards were odd folk. It was also prime, which made sense, because anything that made a wizard had to be primary.

Three... not four, not two.

Barnibus held the bowl back out hopefully to the woman, but her disposition had done a full turn about and she was now shaking her head vehemently at him and folding her arms again around her apron.

Oddly enough, it was now the other group who seemed to be sympathetic now, with wide grins and shouted support. A couple even clapped him on the back and at least one of them was propositioning the woman with strange silver coins in their hands.

She was having none of it and was shooing them away with wide gestures from her hands and was shooting him glances of Pity intermixed with heavy doses of Vexation and Worry.

Barnibus blearily tried to capture a little bit of that Vexation as it passed him by — there were plenty of recipes out there that could use just that little bit of that edge — but his fingers, usually so nimble and quick, seemed to fumble and slip as he grasped. How... odd....

Suddenly the Woman let out a shout and she darted out from behind her stall and placed herself firmly between Barnibus and —

A whoop had gone up and one of the younger men, couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen, was running up with a triumphant grin on his face and the faintest edge of wickedness and another bowl like the one the woman had handed him.

The woman was shouting at them angrily and was trying to position herself to intercept and invoking the name "Leia" over and over again.

'Lei-a'... that sounded familiar Barnibus thought fuzzily, but not nearly fuzzily enough he thought. 'Leia — Ah! Leinan'. He smiled suddenly.

"Yes." He announced happily. "Leinan!" And then he brushed passed the woman who released an outraged hiss like a kicked goose and accepted the bowl from the young man who was practically vibrating with unrepentant Glee.

"I know Leinan too," Barnibus informed the young man while clapping him on the should genially. "I'll let her know I met — " and then he upended the bowl into his mouth to shouts from the crowd, and the rest of that sentence didn't seem be nearly as important anymore.

Barnibus wandered off.

And Wandered off. And, my was Wandering far easier now than it had been before. 'Why on Fell Doom and Grand Demise did I ever try to Wander unaided,' Barnibus thought. This was far more effective.

He wandered and Wandered through the market district underneath multi-colored overhangs meant to ward against all forms of weather and at one point he tried absently to stuff the bowl into his Robe for safe keeping.

Of course, he didn't have a Robe, nor a pocket big enough, so it fell and shattered against the oddly paved stones of the main street — which was also odd, though he couldn't remember why he'd thought so.

Barnibus blinked at it curiously for a moment and wondered whether he should attempt a basic Mending on the bowl, but he couldn't seem to find the requisite Mana for it when he looked about and couldn't find any he'd stored on his person, so he left it there and tottered on.

Absently, Barnibus realized that he had accidentally Wondered and nothing bad had come of it this time, so he allowed himself to partake just a little bit.

"Three vestments doth maketh the Wizard" he Wondered aloud. "Not four, not two."

"Firstly the Staff of Power. Secondly the Robe of Mystery. And thirdly but ne'er leastly The Hat of Wonder." He recited as he walked. Three... and he had not a one.

One he'd left against the wall of his Grandfather's library. The second he'd lost in a Beautiful Game that was anything but. And the third he'd lost trying to reclaim the second.

"I wonder what that makes me?" Barnibus asked, to a blank stare from one of the stall owners.

The stall owner answered him and Barnibus nodded agreeably.

"Yes, Hat was right. I really am a terrible Wizard."

* * *

And the Wizard Wandered... and Wondered but mostly Wandered.

He Wandered up and down the Main Street several times, and found himself stumbling down those branching roads which twisted and curled and doubled back in a fashion that he would also have found Odd if he'd thought about it.

He Wandered down winding alley ways and into peoples homes and through their closets and sometimes he had to Escape from the people living in those homes.

Once he found himself peering soulfully at a woman laying in a bed with Death in her lungs while her husband babbled ridiculously at him.

When he Escaped — again — he took that with him too.

Barnibus Wandered... and presently he wandered right past the abrupt end to Landsend, and into the grasslands beyond.

Up ahead there were mountains, distant, but so vast that they blotted out the sky ahead. To his right were sparse patches of trees that, as his eyes wandered on, thickened into a forest that he grimly recognized. And, in front of him he heard the sound of rushing water that he also recognized.

He plopped down on the bank of the rushing river, close enough that he could have stuck he feet in if he had so chosen and watched the river rush by.

He watched as the alcohol he'd imbibed threw fuzzy clouds about his brain and his mind Wandered and he remembered another time, not that long ago, when he had flailed in this very same river after a Hat, as blue as the midday sky and with a brim like a halo.

A hat with a trunk heavy with the accumulated knowledge of all the Barnwinkles who had come before, and, at the same time light as a feather, from all their Wonder.

"It's an Old hat." Barnibus remembered his grandfather's lined and bearded face saying to him as he presented the hat to Barnibus. "Very Old. This hat has been passed from Barnwinkle grandfather to Barnwinkle grandson since nearly as far back as The Merlin himself. And it will hold you well, Barnibus, my boy. But beware!"

And even with all the fuzz clouding his mind, Barnibus remembered the stern expression on his grandfather's old, lined and Grand face. Sterner still as Barnibus dance and pranced and tripped in Joy and listened only with half an ear.

"This is a Hat of Wonder! Not of Wisdom, and certainly NOT of Goodness. It is a Hat! It looks up and sees only the sky. It know no boundaries and asks only why!"

"You, my boy, are the Wizard. The Wizard wears the Hat and never the other way around."

"Oh, Hat." Barnibus said to the River. "I never wanted to give you away. I just wanted to hurt you as you hurt me. But you're just a Hat, though Grand you may be. And you did what Hats do. You Wondered endlessly."

'Who knew?' Barnibus thought. 'It turns out Wondering is dangerous too.' And Barnibus Wondered at how much Wandering it took to finally come to this conclusion.