The old mage's
pipe had gone out, so he stopped recounting his tale for a moment as
he refilled it's bowl. Looking out over his audience, he said, "As
you can undoubtedly see, Jerrod was a young man with a great deal of
growing up to do. While he acted as if he had seen no more than
fourteen summers, he had just lived through his eighteenth. However,
in terms of maturation he had little to show for it. He was still
filled not only with delusions of his own grandeur -- a fault for
which I, as his mentor and surrogate parent for the last several
years prior to his encounter with the warrior twins, must take some
of the blame. Perhaps I spoiled him a bit. Ah, well that is water
under the proverbial bridge. But Jerrod also was saddled with
several foolish and obviously erroneous preconceptions for which I
take no responsibility about the magically challenged. These were
perhaps the result of his noble background. Like many nobles,
Jerrod had embraced the notion that the nobility was somehow superior
to everyone else because of who their parents were. Obviously a
foolish notion, but try telling them that. They can't or won't
accept that everyone is unique and special, let alone the idea that a
person's value to society is determined by what he or she does not by
who her or his parents are."
"Jerrod had
adapted his notions about nobility to include magical talent as an
indicator of nobility. As a result, for him, anyone who couldn't
cast spells was inferior to anyone who could. Now, if the
individual in question was both a noble and a spellcaster.... Well,
you can undoubtedly see the problem. Perhaps belatedly, but
hopefully not too late, I was determined to correct Jerrod's
misconceptions, for he would need all of his talent and the help of
those with other, dissimilar skills to survive the challenge which he
was soon to face. That is why I sent two of his companions-to-be to
fetch him. And why I chose Enki and Urki, two charismatic and sage
warriors whose force of personality even Jerrod in all his stubborn
ignorance could not ignore. But enough this of persiflage. You are
interested in the story which I recount -- not my own musings -- so
I will accommodate you and continue the tale."
* * * * *
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