On a chilly day in the middle of winter, a lonely figure wended its way down a small and dusty road. The crisp dry desert air held the dust motes suspended. This was a land that knew cold well, but seldom indeed did snow fall on its dry hills. The solitary figure was wrapped warmly in a dark cloak, but still shivered occasionally at the chill. Ahead, a building could be seen. A small house, it likely was no more than a single room. Beyond it were more, some larger, but most about the same size. A town. The figure continued in among the buildings. At last a destination was reached, and the figure entered. The building was larger than many in town, and a faded sign in front proclaimed to those who could read that it was the Land's End Inn.

Inside, the small commons room was nearly full, with farmers who had nothing better to do during the cold months than spend the few coins they'd managed to earn over the year on drink. A tall blonde woman was handing out mugs among the patrons. At the entrance of the cloak-wrapped figure, she looked up. Then, putting down her drinks on the nearest table, somewhat to the surprise of its occupants, she rushed through the crowd to greet the newcomer.

"Janus! We thought that you weren't coming this year!"

"Serali! My, how you've grown!" He looked up at her. "You're quite a bit taller than me now, aren't you?"

"Oh yes, at least I've stopped now, but I'm still the tallest person in the village. It's something of an embarrassment. Well, never mind that, find yourself a chair, if there's one left, and tell me what you'd like to have. I can't stay and chat, this place is too busy."

"Oh, for now, I'll just go up to my room, if you have one empty, that is."

"Oh yes. All these," she gestured to the crowd, "are from the village."

"Well, in that case, I'll be off. When you're not so busy, you can bring up something for dinner, but I'd rather not try to fuddle my head tonight."

"All right. I'll be up as soon as I can." And with that, she swept off back into the crowd to reclaim her misplaced drinks.

Janus watched her as she went, a peculiar expression on his face. Then he shook his head and began to make his own way through the crowd toward the stairs at the back of the room.

Some time later, as he was sitting in the room's only chair and thinking, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Serali entered, holding a tray on which rested a bowl of stew and a half loaf of bread.

"Here, most of the crowd has staggered off home, so Mother sent me up with this for you."

"Thank you, child, though I can scarcely call you that anymore, can I? You've grown up while I was off."

"Oh yes, with particular emphasis on the up part. It's so awkward. I stick out in a crowd like a black cat in a henhouse."

"Here, yes, but in the city you'd be only somewhat above average. Certainly there would be men as tall, if not taller."

"But I live here."

"You don't always need to live in this tiny place, Serali. There is a whole world out there, and you could go see it if you wanted."

"But what about my family? And the inn?"

"You have brothers and sisters, Serali. Your family would miss you, I'm certain, but they can also get along just fine without you."

Serali noticed that he held a small object in his hands and was turning it over and over as he spoke. He stopped suddenly and held it out to her.

"Do you recognize this?"

"It's the crystal, the one you showed me when you came the time before last."

"Yes. Serali, I've tried what you did with this crystal a thousand times, I've even taken it to other mages and asked them to try and get a chord out of it. One of the best bardic mages I have ever seen managed to coax two notes out of it after several tries. No one else could get anything more than the usual one. I think you have a talent for magic. I think that with training, you could become a great mage, perhaps one of the greatest ever."

Serali looked stunned.

"But what do I know about magic? I've never done anything but that one cantrip."

"Yes, but you did that one cantrip better than anyone else." He paused for a moment, then continued.

"For some time, I have been looking for an apprentice. Far a very long time, in fact, but I've never found anyone with the kind of talent that I want. You see, Serali, I'm a very unusual mage in that I can do more than one kind of magic. I think that you could also master several different kinds, and if you can, then I'd like you to come and be my apprentice."

"But how can you know if I can?"

"That's the simplest part. I have here another cantrip, I'd like to see if you can master it. The crystal song spell is bardic magic, this one is elemental magic, a totally different kind."

He took another stone out of his pouch, but this one was black and opaque. It had a peculiar metallic luster. He placed it carefully on the copper candle holder that stood an a small table next to the bed.

"Look at the stone, Serali, and think of fire. But please, a small fire. I have no desire to burn the inn down. Then, say �pyral' and will the stone to catch fire."

Serali followed his instructions. Carefully, she visualized a tiny bit of flame. Then she carefully pronounced the word.

"Pyral"

The stone burst into flame instantly, a small lick of fire springing up like the flame of a candle.

"It works!" She exclaimed delightedly.

"Yes, quite well, in fact. It seems I was right when I estimated your affinities. You could make quite the fire mage. Would you like to be my apprentice, Serali?"

"I... I would, only... what about my family?"

"I will ask your parents' approval, Serali, but I think they know as well as I do that you don't belong in this town. You will grow old as an outcast here. In the city you will not be such an oddity. And there, as my apprentice, you will be able to be a part of society. Of high society, in fact. Mages are considered to be noble, no matter what their birth. It is one of the few ways that a commoner can join the nobility."

"In that case... yes, Janus, I would be honored to become your apprentice."

"I would have said something about you going to the city myself, one of these days." Said Falio. "You don't really belong here."

"Oh papa, I may not belong to the rest of the town, but I certainly belong to you."

They all agreed that Janus was to stay on at the inn for another day, to give Serali a chance to prepare to go, and then the two would leave together for Barona.

Serali made her goodbyes to her family and to Breck, who gave her a steel tipped walking stick as a going away present. When Serali saw it she asked Breck how he happened to have such an appropriate thing on hand.

"I always knew you'd be moving on someday, child, and I figured that since it was likely to be on short notice that I'd better have this made already. Though you nearly caught me by surprise, you did. I finished it only last week."

She laughed and hugged him

"Everyone seems to have been expecting this but me."

"Well, I imagine you were expecting it too, only you just didn't know you were."

She frowned briefly, then broke into a cheery smile.

"You know Breck, I do think that you are right!"

"Well, never mind all this, you need to be off girl!"

"Goodbye Breck, maybe we'll meet again."

"Goodbye"

She smiled at the thought and put everything in her pack. Picking up her new walking stick, she headed for the center of the village. The sun was just touching the bluffs to the north with light as she reached the inn. Janus was already in front, his own pack on his back and his walking stick in hand.

Serali first went inside, to say goodbye to her parents, who had gotten up early to start work. With some tears but many smiles, they wished her well. Going back out front, she greeted Janus cheerfully.

"Good morning!"

"Good morning indeed, Serali. We're off on a grand adventure."

"Adventure? I thought we were just going to the city?"

"And quite an adventure that will be. Do you know how far off Barona is?"

"No, why?"

"Well, Getrel may be able to make it there and back in a month, but he has a fine team, and goes faster than we can walking. For us it will take three weeks at least on the journey. Perhaps longer, if we run into trouble."

"Trouble?"

Don't worry your head about that, child. I'm mage enough to deal with anyone we're likely to meet. The trip will go fine. But the shorter it is the better, and if we want to make the next good camping place by sundown, we'd better be off."

Swinging his staff and whistling cheerfully, he set off down the road, Serali trailing behind, as her parents waved farewell from the front of the inn.

"Just be grateful that we've had no excitement, Serali, because the only excitement available about these parts would be bandits, and we're better off without meeting that kind of excitement."

"I thought you said that you could handle bandits?"

"And I can, but it's one of the first lessons that a mage needs to learn, though many never do, that you don't use power if you don't have to. I could take care of an attack, but why should I want to waste power when the bet thing all around is to not have to use it in the first place. Besides, I hate to see people get hurt, and if we were attacked, there would be hurts a-plenty.

"Though not," he added, "to either of us."

Serali grinned. "I hope not, because..."

She never got to say why though, because at that moment, a voice spoke up from the trees by the side of the road.

The pair had left the open desert just that morning to enter the beginnings of a forest. Now, surrounded by tress, they could have been in the middle of an army and not seen them.

"Stop right there." Said the voice, authoritatively. "Otherwise, I'll have to have my boys here put a shaft or two through you."

Janus sighed and halted. "If you insist, sir. Though I'd rather speak to someone I can see, if you don't mind."

"Oh no, I don't mind a bit. Though those that have seen the face of Red-eyed Jack seldom live to tell the tale."

"Save us the dramatics, and show yourself."

"I'm the one giving the orders around here."

"Pardon me if I decline to obey you when for all I know you could be by your self and bluffing about these �boys' of yours."

"On, I'm not bluffing at all. Come on out, boys."

From the woods on all sides emerged a number of raggedly clad men. Each one held a spear or a long bow. At first is seemed there must be hundreds to Serali's frightened eyes, but a closer look showed their numbers to be only a dozen or so. The apparent leader of the group was a large man dressed in clothes only slightly less ragged than his men.

His hair was dirty blond, and he stood only in inch shorter than Serali's six foot two, but he was much broader. He carried a long bow of mammoth proportions. The reason for his name was readily visible. His eyes were indeed blood red, a rather disconcerting color.

"You see, here we are. I wasn't bluffing. Too bad isn't it?"

"Yes." Janus agreed, shaking his head sorrowfully. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to drastic measures." The he looked the bandit in the eye.

"I will warn you once and once only. There is a reason you've found no competition in this area. You just move in without a thought to why the forest is empty, didn't you? Well, I come through here every other year, and whenever I find bandits, I deal with them. I don't like to cause pain, but I value my skin a great deal, and I think that getting rid of menaces like you is a worthy task. I happen to be a great mage. You think you have me outnumbered, well I will give you this one warning. I outnumber you. Leave or be driven away like all the others."

Several of the bandits looked nervous at this proclamation, but Jack only laughed.

"You say you're a frog-maker, eh? Well where's you robe, where's you mage's staff hmm?" He shouted to his men. "Come on, he's no mage. I've seen mages, where do you think I got my peepers here? He's the one that's bluffing!"

With that, he leaped at Janus, drawing a knife from his belt.

He ought to have shot me the minute I spoke, thought Janus critically. He's obviously new at this. Then he grinned as the big man cam toward him. He's going to be surprised!

Janus took a pinch of powder out of one of his pouches and threw it into the air in front of the charging bandit. Whispering a string of syllables, he willed the powder to life. Suddenly the air in front of the bandit was on fire. With no space to slow down, Jack hit the flames full force and passed through them. That didn't help him any. The fire clung to him, flickering with green and blue as well as the usual flame colors. His men began yelling, running off into the forest in all directions. Jack screeched horribly, rolling on the ground in a futile effort to quench the flames before he collapsed and was still. Immediately the fire faded. Serali looked at the bandit in horrified fascination, and was surprised to see no sign of burning on him at all.

"What did you do to him?" she asked curiously. "And why isn't he burned."

"The fire was only in his mind. It hurt him a much as any real flame, but it couldn't have harmed him if he hadn't expected it to."

"What will we do with him now?"

Janus looked down with pity on the still form. "He's no harm to any one any more. After what happened here, he'll have lost too much face. I doubt he'll even try to regain his control over the other bandits, and I think that a great many of them may be re-thinking their profession right now."

"Why didn't you use real fire. Wouldn't that have been easier?"

"Yes, it would have. But I told you before, I don't like to hurt people when I don't have to. This way he learned a lesson without any serious damage."

"But what if he didn't learn his lesson?"

"Well, I suppose I can make sure of it."

He reached down and shook the bandit's shoulder. "Wake up you."

Red-eyed Jack sat up. He looked at Janus and promptly cowered back from him.

Janus pushed closer to the big man, looking him in the eye.

"I don't want to leave you running around loose. I've put a geas on you. If you haven't turned yourself in at Brighting inside of a week, the fire will come back, and this time you'll just keep burning."

"Please, I'll be hung if I go to Brighting."

"I'll put in a word with the constable when I reach town myself in three days. Come in after then, and maybe he'll only put you in prison."

Jack stuttered out a brief thanks and stumbled back into the woods.

Janus looked at Serali. "No point in staying around here. Let's be off. We need to make Brighting in tree days." He set off down the road at a brisk pace.

Serali, thoroughly amazed, turned and went after him

"Good, we've arrived on market day. You can go look at the stalls while I go speak to the constable." He handed her a few coins. "Go buy something, but be careful, there are people here who'll try to cheat you out of that, or even steal it."

Serali nodded her agreement and after thanking him, lost herself in the crowd. You could have put Land's End into Brighting five times over, and still have lots of room, thought Serali. People thronged the central square where at least a dozen merchants had set up shop. They shouted their wares to the passing crowd. Looking over all the things she could buy, it was amazing! There was everything from vegetables, to fine cloth, to jewelry. There was even a blacksmith making a sword, off in one corner. She lingered there for long moment to watch, remembering many hours spent watching Breck make plowshares an horseshoes. He had never made a sword, she wondered if he could. She wandered over to where a collection of metal goods hung on one wall of the smithy. Apparently they were for sale. As she inspected them, a young man came from helping the smith.

"Would you like to buy one of these, lady?"

"Oh, I'm no lady!"

"Nonsense, any lovely girl is a lady indeed, no matter her birth. Now, are you interested in a fine dagger, my lady?" He held up a slender dagger with a jeweled hilt.

"I would be quite interested, but it's most likely more than I can afford."

"Ah, you're the practical sort then? Perhaps this is more to your taste?" He put down the fancy dagger and held up a plainer one. The hilt was wrapped leather, and the short blade was good steel.

"Yes, I think it is. Only my funds are quite limited. Even this may be beyond my means." She hesitated, then said, "How much is it?"

"For you lady, three silver"

Serali made a show of looking through the pouch she had put her coins in. Then she sighed.

"I only have two silver and a few pennies. And I wanted to get something for the midday meal too."

"Well..." he paused thoughtfully "Perhaps I could see lowering it to two and a half."

"I said I had a few pennies. A few is not enough to make a half silver."

"Two then?"

"Two? And what will I eat? Bread and water? I couldn't go higher than one." Serali was beginning to get into the spirit of the bargaining, she loved to dicker.

"One! Why with what that will leave you, you could have a feast fit for a king! I'll give you two and eight" The young man seemed to be enjoying himself too, putting on an exaggeratedly outraged air.

"Nonsense, the feasts of kings are measured in gold, not silver. Two flat."

"And deprive me of all profit? This is fine steel! If it were iron you cold have it for two, but as it is..."

"If it were iron, I could have it for five coppers. I'll give you two and three."

"And leave me with a mere three coppers profit? How can I make a living on that, I ask?"

"Your profit is closer to a silver my friend, but I'll be generous. Two and five, my final offer."

"It will break me if I give everyone a deal like this, but for your sake, two and five it is."

Serali counted out the coins and accepted the dagger in return, smiling at the young man who grinned back, both of them acknowledging a fellow bargainer.

Janus found her admiring her purchase.

"I see you found something to your taste. Did you spend all your coin on it?"

"No! I've always liked to bargain. Papa has let me argue with Breck over pricing for years. He says I'm the best in the family. I got this for two silver and five copper. I still have eight copper left, to buy something for lunch with. I'm starving."

"Two and five? Not bad at all. It looks to be good steel too."

"Do you think after watching Breck smith for all those years I don't know good steel when I see it?"

"I suppose so. Where shall we eat, now that you've mentioned food."

"Is there somewhere we can get things that are different from what I've always eaten? I want to try out new things!"

"All right. I think that Brighting has an elven place, is that exotic enough for you?"

"Elven? I've never even seen an elf!"

"You've come pretty close, I have a drop or two of elvish blood a long ways back in my family"

"Really? I should have guessed."

Janus smiled. "And how would you have known if you've never seen an elf? Well, never mind that, I'm famished, let's go eat."

He led the way down a small side street, out of the bustle of the main part of town. They wound down narrow alleys until they reached a discreet building tucked away in a quiet corner. The atmosphere inside was surprisingly light and airy. The room was two stories tall, and open in the center with an upper balcony running around the edges. A huge skylight in the ceiling let in sunlight that filtered down among actual trees that had been planted in large stone basins here and there throughout the room. Janus led her to a table that sat just under the balcony, next to a small tree of a type Serali had never seen. She looked around at the other occupants. Quite a few were humans of varying age and gender, but the majority of them were not human at all. They could be nothing but elves. They were slenderly built, with the pointed ears that she had expected, but what she had not expected was their large slanted eyes and alien faces. There was no way that you could have mistaken one for a human even if you couldn't see the ears. Their dress ranged from plain brown tunic and trousers to elaborate outfits that were more like costumes than real clothes. Most of them wore their hair very long, men and women both, and many braided it into elaborate styles.

The room was filled with soft conversation in musical voices that blended with another sound that Serali could not immediately identify. When she did pin it down, she was quite startled at the source. Over in one corner a waterfall was running. It fell from the ceiling down a series of tumbling leaps, through a hole in the upper balcony and to a pool on the lower floor. The rocks over which it fell were mossy and irregular, the kind of rocks that one expected to see in a real stream, not an indoor fountain.

A graceful elf whose age was impossible to determine came over to their table. He seemed to be acquainted with Janus, which made sense since Janus came through this town as often as he did her own. Janus ordered something that Serali couldn't even guess the nature of, or pronounce either, in the same musical language that most of the patrons here seemed to be speaking.

When the food arrived, at was interesting fare, with a meat that she thought was venison, cooked to perfect tenderness and with none of the gamey taste that an inexpert would have left. It was accompanied by a number of vegetables, only a few of which she had ever seen before. The meal was followed by a selection of fruits, even more exotic than the vegetables had been. Serali selected something green-brown and a little fuzzy. It proved to be tart and juicy, and it was all she could do to keep the juice form dribbling down her chin.

The dining establishment proved to be part of an inn, and they spent the night there before setting out early the next morning. Serali soon learned that Brighting was not the huge metropolis she had first thought it, but only of average size as they continued their travels. Some two weeks after leaving Brighting, having passed through a half-dozen towns of equal or larger size and an uncountable number of tiny villages, they came withing sight of Barona, the capital city of the country of Barona. Serali had always known that she was a Baronian citizen, but that had never made much impression on her. Now she could see the city that was the heart of the nation stretching away before her, and her citizenship seemed much more relevant.

"You live in all that?" She asked in amazement.

"Not really in all that, no. My home is near the edge of the city. You won't be going into the city proper today, not are you likely to for several days to come."

He led the way down the stone-paved road that lead to the city. They entered among houses, small shacks at first that became larger until they cam to a tower built within bowshot of the walls. It was surrounded by a sturdy stone wall more than four feet thick, and a shorter building was built up against the base. Janus unlocked the gate that led through the wall and ushered Serali in.

"Here we are, home sweet home"

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