Quoted By:
Many years have passed since that night. I am nearing thirty years of age and Waroon nearing forty. Our fellows in Firstlight have moved away from our dream. <span class="mu-s">And worms still stir inside us.</span>
Presently we are met with a matter which chiefly concerns the youths who as of late have become our fellows.
We firstly met the youths during the summer of ‘82, the year of the swine. To ready the folk for the forthcoming fencing school the surgeon Lumduan held a gathering in which she instructed the folk about worms and ways of voiding them. Waroon and I were present and helped with painting the picture through the use of the Art. Following the end of the gathering the three youths approached us.
<span class="mu-s">Unshun</span>, a woman who had some interest in the Art and a good grasp of how our illusions worked.
<span class="mu-s">Baiyok</span>, a giant who heard of the doings of our earlier years.
<span class="mu-s">Ging</span>, a young man and like myself a practitioner of the Art of Defence invited to the fencing school.
We talked for some time about <span class="mu-s">Kommgal Vunnapar</span>, a fellow of ours and the fightmaster of the soon coming fencing school. The Child of Messengers is disliked with some intensity in this part of the country caused by him spearheading a suit against the cutlers guild for poorly made and unsafe featherswords - purging many cutlers from the business. Following our talk it would be some days before we saw those youths again.
The fencing school was large, the largest by far in the years owing to the lord of the province backing and attending it; several dozen backsword, battlesword, and halberd fencers were invited. At one point Ging challenged the fightmaster himself, winning one bout and losing thrice after. I tried my hand against Aeg, Kommgal Vunnapar’s second, and lost much like the youth. However the most vivid picture of that day was what followed the bout between Ging and Achirawit; thinking he had been insulted Achirawit struck the youth with his battlesword when his guard was down. He caught the blow though it still tore up some skin on his cheek.
There was a short quarrel between Vunnapar and Achirawit before he was turned away and brought to the jailhouse. He later told me had Achirawit ran in before he could say his piece he would have removed rows of his teeth with a punch.
In the after Vunnapar held a gathering with the youths explaining the difficulties which often follow such a quarrel and asked his fellows in the province to look after them; Id, a highcrafter, Gar, keeper of the province’s clocktower, Oubshei, a alehouse and brothelkeeper, and us.
