A scholar who reveres wizards and a street rat who despises them both find themselves apprenticed to a mage with a dark storied past and discover he is not what either of them expected. They may end up learning more from each other than they do from...
Quinn set the pouch down on the nightstand in her room and flopped down on the bed, not even bothering to remove her boots. She stretched out on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling as she tried to make sense of the day. Why am I even here? Because an aspiring wizard asked me to join him?
Wizards were always bringing about ruin, and it seemed aspiring wizards were no exception. She let out an exasperated sigh. But what precisely is Tenet messing up? What are your great life plans? Quinn hated these moments of self-debate between her emotional and her rational side because she invariably came away feeling she had lost the argument.
She knew she was dreading her meeting with the wizard. But there was more. She had an uneasy feeling about this whole town. What was it about this place?
That's simple. It's not what you expected to find. You were expecting a bunch of miserable people living in tyranny under a crazed wizard. You thought there'd be so much magic pollution that snakes and snails would fall from the sky in buckets and nightmares would roam the streets. Instead, you found a friendly and prosperous hamlet where people aren't living in fear.
Surely, there was more to her fears than that. Just because she hadn't yet seen gross misuses of magic didn't mean she was wrong about the wizard.
It doesn't mean you're right either.
Quinn crossed her arms, scolding herself. That wasn't up for debate. Madrigal was a heartless monster, destroying people's livelihoods and stabbing his own friends in the back. Everyone knew that.
Everyone except for Tenet.
Quinn tried to push that thought out of her mind. Tenet and his misguided idealism. He was always trying to see the good in everyone. Even in wizards.
Even in you.
That was his first mistake, Quinn reminded herself. She was only out for her own good, putting herself first because no one else would look out for her best interests.
Isn't that what Tenet is doing?
Quinn groaned and shook her head, trying to dislodge that thought. She steered her own destiny. Not the stars, not wizards, not the military, and not idealistic scholars. She would do what was best for her.
So, what's best for you?
Quinn pondered that momentarily, looking out the window. Her instinct was telling her that the best thing she could do would be to get out of this wizard-infested town.
Then go.
She left.
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Being on the rooftops of Stillbrook at night was nothing like being on the rooftops of Highhold. Quinn was used to narrow alleyways filled with rats, cobblestone streets with puddles of stagnant rainwater, and the smell of filth and excrement. Stillbrook lacked for these things, except perhaps for the rats, but even they eluded Quinn. The hamlet was clean, unpaved and the roofs were simply too far apart for Quinn's liking. Still, she felt more at home up here on the roof than she did in the inn.
