At the end of the Third Shadowwar, the forces of evil were defeated so thoroughly, so completely, that no-one thought they would ever threaten civilisation again, but they were wrong. Totally, disastrously wrong...
The Sceptre of Samnos. Volume one...
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Leaving Zebulon's study took all of Thomas's willpower. He wanted to take at least twenty books with him, despite the fact that his backpack and pockets were full of potions, and he was close to tears as he yielded to necessity and left most of them behind. In the end, he took only two. The Pardatano, easily the most valuable book present, in the hope of getting it translated one day, and an atlas of the known world. It was patchy, with huge blank areas that had never been reliably explored, and it was a well known fact that rival mapmakers disagreed wildly in their rendering of even the most densely populated areas, but it was still better than nothing and if they were going to be doing a lot of travelling, he reasoned, it would help if they had some idea of the terrain they would be passing through.
Now that they had Zebulon's permission to take anything they wanted, Diana's attitude to the others softened somewhat and she even offered to carry some of the little treasures they took a fancy to, reasoning that they might need the money during their quest. She made it quite clear, however, that their behaviour had better improve in the future, or else.
The three wizards were fascinated by Shaun's new sword, and examined it closely. "Watch this," said Shaun. He propped the sword up between two piles of books so that the sharp edge faced upwards, and dropped a silk scarf he'd found onto it. The scarf fluttered down lazily until it touched the blade, whereupon it divided into two halves, one falling on either side. "See that?" said Shaun awestruck. "Now that's sharp!"
The three wizards agreed that it was very impressive, although in truth they had seen this sort of thing before. Super sharpness was a common feature of magical swords, indeed, it was the main reason they were so sought after. Not only that, but it would remain sharp, no matter how much it was used. Magic swords never needed sharpening, or any other form of maintenance.
They showed the two fighters the other sword they'd found in Zebulon's rooms, the one whose enchantment had never been completed. It was identical in appearance to Shaun's sword, although the trick with the scarf didn't work on it, and it didn't have quite the same feather lightness and manoeuvrability. It was still better than Matthew's old sword, however, and would last a lot longer, since even the fabulously hard ironwood, which could cut through bronze and had revolutionized warfare in the centuries before the discovery of steel, was still, basically, just wood and would eventually splinter and crack no matter how well it was cared and tended for. Matthew accepted it eagerly, therefore, and Thomas promised him that, when he was a world famous Arch Mage, he would give it an enchantment even better than the one on Shaun's sword. Matthew, laughing, said he would hold him to it.
They returned to their camp for the night, and as they sat around their campfire eating another rich meal from Vantarestin's food stores they chatted to each other about all they'd seen and found. As the sky darkened, four small closely spaced comets were gradually revealed, grouped close together in the east, just above a bright orange star, low down on the horizon. The planet Lamon, the next planet in towards the yellow sun.
