More than a week had passed since the metal worker had left his pregnant lover behind, head shaved and disguised as a young lad, in the capable and unclean hands of Ar's Second High Initiate.

During the time spent apart from his lover, he'd remained at the forge. Many days without reprieve or sleep. At some point he'd cleared his meager belongings out of a rented room at one of Ar's many Inns, only to vanish without a trace. Vedric had left Ar garbed in a slaver's ensemble and joined himself with a large merchants' caravan that was headed due west as far as Bazi, and then south to the world's edge. Destination... Turia.