>>6100603The Archmage sighs, not exasperated or angry, or even disappointed. Theresa Henzler, as young as she looks, leans forward with the hunch of a very old, very tired woman, and the boniness of her body seems to protrude though overlarge robes which now droop and flatten out like a jellyfish on dry land.
“I suppose that is how it’s done, isn’t it?” she mutters. “Your ‘solution’ would only be a partial replica, carrying forth some of my knowledge and legacy? Well, I already have such a thing, for better or worse.”
“You do?” you ask, alarmed.
“It is called a ‘child’, Apprentice.”
You’re almost more shocked to hear THIS from such a woman.
“You can leave now,” she says. “You don’t need to remind me of the duties of a mother. I’ve performed them more than adequately for nearly thirty years now, and if this is not a long time relative to the span of my years of work and study, it has still been more than ample for a mind such as mine to master the particulars.”
You are VERY skeptical of THAT, but you deem it best not to say anything directly in reply. Instead, with a faint hope of good news emerging from bad, you ask: “Does that mean that you plan to make her the next Archmage?”
“I suspect I have less than five years left,” the Archmage says, simply and dispassionately. “nobody will accept a young girl of barely thirty as Archmagus of the Hawksong Tower. Even disregarding the circumstances of my own promotion to the position, which were abnormal, each of my predecessors laboured for decades and decades to ascend to this height.”
There would have been something to say for Izirina attaining such a prestigious position, of course. It would have meant financial security for your family in your absence, utterly unquestioned and secure, and a great deal for magical and legislative freedom for future research upon your return. You’d feel bad for thinking of such thing under these sad circumstances, but, well… It’s what your master would WANT you to think about, of course. She plainly has, also.
“She’ll have to do her time as head of a department, obviously, after some time as a Field Researcher and Mage proctor.” The Archmage pauses. “Between her skill and the nepotism of her adopted surname, this will prove no great obstacle to her. Anyone who challenges the validity of the latter will be easy defeated by the former, as I’d intended it.”
“Intended…?”
“Weren’t you listening?” the Archmage. “Why else bother with a child at ALL, fool?”
