“Are you sure you want me to drop you off here?” The driver asked with concern as he looked around at the large expanse of fields that surrounded them. Apart from a single great oak tree by the side of the road there was really nothing he could see that would warrant his passenger wishing to disembark here. He watched the boy frown as he produced his father’s letter and checked its contents one more time. The frown seemed to furrow deeper but the boy disembarked anyway.

“I think so” Sage said puzzled with the directions wrote down in the letter. The great oak had been specifically mentioned, and with it being the only one around for miles he was sure that he was where he was supposed to be. “Despite my misgivings”

“I had best go and take a look around, just to be sure”

“Alright, I’ll be on my way then, I’ve a schedule to keep” the driver said with an eye to the burning sun overhead. It was already noon and he was making good time, but he was hesitant to push his luck any more than he needed too.

“I understand, thank you once again for your kindness”

The driver chuckled at the boy’s politeness, secretly wondering where in the world this kid was raised. Far away from Corone’s usual troubles for sure, perhaps the boy was one of those other angle people he sometimes heard about.

“Well you stay safe ya hear. And best of luck to you finding whoever you’re looking for out here” he answered earnestly, taking the reins and spurring the wagons horse into motion. Sage watched the wagon leave with a growing curiosity. “Who could possibly live here?” he wondered.

With a deep breath Sage set off to the task at hand and approached the oak tree and looked around its base. Just like the letter said there was a path by the old oak, one that did not see much use he was willing to bet due to how faded it seemed. “Well the information seems accurate so far, so where could this tower be?”

And that was the crux of his journey thus far, he had been sent in search of a man who by his reckoning, was more than talented enough to show Sage how to use magic. The incident with the murderous potted aside, the journey had been rather uneventful so far.

Sage checked the letter again, and then checked the back to see if there was something he had missed, but nothing changed, the words written down still told him to follow the path. Who knows, maybe the tower was located at the base of a cliff, or in a sink hole, there had to be some logical reason that he was not able to see it from afar.

Step after step, the boy followed the faint path until he could no longer see the road behind him, and several times he swore he lost sight of the path only to come across it again and again. He followed the path around a hill, evading a pit and ducking his way past an insect larger than his thumb. He refused to look at the letter one more time he had read it so many times that he felt that it would be seared into his brain. Trudging up a hill that he swore would be the last one if he did not find this tower. Disappointment began to churn in the pit of his stomach as he rose to the crest of the hill. He looked out across the clearing and the open view it afforded, nothing but blue skies, light fluffy clouds and a clear horizon.

“No tower though…oh!”

And then there was a base of a tower less than ten feet in front of him.

“Where did that come from?” It was certainly not there a moment ago. there had been nothing but horizon when all of a sudden he found himself staring at the cobblestone of a circular tower in the middle of nowhere. Oh, wait, of cause, he was dealing with a wizard, so why wouldn’t the tower be magical.

Perception spells, to anyone else the tower may as well have been invisible until you was right on top of it. Feeling a hell of a lot more relieved that he was not on a wild goose Chace he brushed his hair out of his face and approached the door.









“Where is the door?”