The Pursuit and the Escape, Part Two

The low whinny of a horse and the sound of deadwood snapping were close behind him, but Dahl didn't look back. He knew that looking back would do nothing but waste time, so he focused on running forward with Little Anvina in his arms, occasionally leaving one or two opened leather scrolls on the ground behind him.

Mages were rich. The more powerful a mage was, the richer he was. That was because there was no shortage of people who had money but no power, and what such people lacked most was a sense of security. The security a mage could offer them was beyond what any other profession could provide, because mages could make magic scrolls.

Just like Dalaran's slogan said, "Bodyguards can betray you, weapons can break, but magic scrolls are a person's best companion. Magic scrolls—you deserve to have one." Magic scrolls didn't require mana, and even an ordinary farmer could use one. They were simple to operate: just open one, silently recite the activation phrase, and throw it. Most importantly, and the reason wealthy people without power coveted them, was that the scrolls were in their own hands. As the saying went, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush. Someone else's things would always belong to someone else. No matter how loyal that person was, you would still trust the magic scroll in your own hand more, because it was yours to control.

The scrolls Dahl threw were just that kind of magic scroll. As a powerful mage, he'd have been laughed to scorn by his peers if he didn't carry a few magic scrolls with him.

Dahl's magic scrolls differed from ordinary ones because they were all trigger-activated scrolls. They were much more complicated than scrolls that could be used simply