Twenty years after the end of the Fourth Shadowwar, Thomas Gown is a happily married family man with a beautiful wife and a perfect son. When he takes his son back to Lexandria University to arrange for his wizardly education, however, he learns tha...
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"Hey, listen to this," said Thomas half an hour later. They were back in their dwelling tree, reading the script by the light of the sun stone that floated above their heads. Lirenna had handed him acts three and four while she worked her way through acts one and two. "Scene, a deep, dark forest. The priests are camped around a small fire." He looked up. "Okay?" Lirenna nodded.
"Resalintas has moved a short distance from the others to pray and meditate in preparation for the trials to come, and the others are talking in soft voices behind his back. Vasta says 'How hard this is for him. The strength of his faith is beyond my ability to imagine!' Tarros says 'Aye, few indeed are the men bred in that mold. Who else but he could have stood before the witch demon Arta and faced her down by the sheer force of his personality? Who else but he could have stood on the edge of the Pit itself when all others shied away? He is a giant among men. A figurehead for all that is good and holy.' Durgan says 'And yet thoughtful and compassionate, with a soul that cares for those weaker than himself. He is a flame that shines in the dark for all those who are lost and frightened. Wounded and in pain'." He slapped the paper with his hand. "It's like that all the way through."
"Act one's the same," agreed Lirenna with a smile. "There's a battle scene here. The priests are attacked by a tribe of shologs. It's a slaughter! Resalintas just waves his sword around and they all fall down dead. The whole thing’s all about how wonderful Resalintas is."
"You think she's got a crush on him?" said Thomas with a grin. "With the idea of him, anyway."
"She wouldn't if she'd ever met him. I heard a story once about a girl who fell in love with him. He completely ignored her, didn't even acknowledge her existence. The poor girl was heartbroken."
"He won't break any more hearts now he's dead," pointed out Thomas. "He's safe to love now. She can pretend he would have returned her love if they'd ever met. We can use this. If we tell her what a great guy he was, she'll be more likely to listen to our suggestions."
Lirenna nodded but then frowned. "What if she finds out that no priest of Samnos can enter the Maze of Samnos? Then she'll know that he couldn't have been on the quest."
"How's she going to find out? We had to do a lot of research before we found out. It's a fact known only to the priests themselves and a few crusty old sages. Besides..." he added, flicking through act four. "There doesn't seem to be a Maze of Samnos in this version. According to this, Samnos Himself hands him the Sceptre when he's been through enough trials to prove his worthiness to receive it."
"Just how much of it is accurate?" asked Lirenna, also flicking through the pages. "How much of what she's written actually happened?"
"So far as I can tell, nothing at all," replied Thomas. "The whole thing seems to have sprung fully formed from her overactive imagination. There's not even any mention of Rhanov and Zebulon."
