In the eighth year of the Reign of Phoran, Twenty-Sixth of that name, the Sept of Leheigh died. His son, Avar, long having lived in Taela as a boon comrade of the young Emperor, traveled to the estate the Sept, his father, had bequeathed him. Hidden among those who traveled with the new Sept were a handful of mages who came for secret purposes. They left one of their number, a mage-priest, to establish a new religion in the heart of Leheigh, a land old in power and well suited to secrets - this they thought the most important of their twofold assignment. The second was to steal away a man gifted with the Bardic Order of the Owl, just returning to his family from a winter's hunt. The familiar task was no more difficult than many other such abductions they had accomplished - perhaps easier, for the Orders of Mage and Hunter were, either of them, more suited to resist the attack of wizards than the Order of the Bard. They had no reason to suppose that this man was any different from the scores of such men and woman they had stolen in the past. No more did I - and I should have known, for Tieragan of Redern was no stranger to me. The thought of his eventual death, needful though it was, saddened me. That his death meant anything to me at all told me that I had put it off