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[GreyPawn]

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"Battle seems to have become more and more of an inconvenience in my advanced age." the old wizard spoke aloud into the light breeze that buffeted his frame.

"That is true, ah, but you are no spring chicken yourself." he smirked, addressing the windswept grassy outcropping nearest the Tower headquarters of the Council. Many in the guild knew that the Founder spoke at length to the island, an open secret he no longer bothered to keep hidden. The mage had at one point tried to teach a Vice Mayor, and then not only one, but two Mayors that followed - to no end. The knack was a thing of exclusivity, he surmised. Best to stick with oracular messages if Moonglow needs to speak to the current crop of leaders.

"I'm afraid so. No Grishnak this time, but some other ravenous orc with a similar sounding name. Perhaps related?"

"The Bridge Builder cantrip? I'll take it down when I'm good and ready. It's for your own damned good, anyway. You know there is a lich lord out there just itching to lob a handful of really nasty globals our way, don't you?"

"Purportedly, the son of Azalin."

"Well, apparently he had two, then. I can hardly keep track."

"Not at all. The last thing he asked was that I repay my debt for trying to kill his son with the whole Stranger business by swearing to protect the brat. So I have. His mind was washed and pressed like fine linen, and he'll make it well into adulthood without ever even knowing. The one gift I have to give I gave the Aeirs, that is that their line shall endure. Sound familiar?"

"You used to impress a lot easier! A single wooden shack in the woods out by the Lyceaum and you were all a flutter. Now, half the island is draped in the dark stone of the council and your own chromatic taste and you couldn't be bothered. Fickle like a rich man's wife."

"I most certainly have not! Granted, the lack of reagents is...convenient. And yes, I may have a good dozen or so runebooks, but that hardly makes me spoiled. Besides, I should be allowed additional considerations in my retirement. Hrmph!"

"Short of civil war, no. I'm rather keen on entrenching myself as a kind of 'last resort'. Only if and when your survival falls into question will I, but apart from that, you've got a very efficient, shrewd, cunning Mayor to attend to your whims."

"Don't worry too much about the lich. He's got a bounty on my head, so he knows I know what I know, thanks to the Book of Truth. If he fancies his own undead life in perpetuity, he will cast his eye anywhere but you."

Twilight begins to cast dull gray shadows on the trees, and the worn dirt road is almost completely engulfed in the umbra of the council building. On the horizon, dark clouds loom in the west over the warm ocean, a menacing reminder that a storm is on the move.
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