A breeze carried the fragrance of flowers, brushing over leaves and slender blades of grass, slipping through gaps between pink and purple petals. Invisible, it brought visible changes as it passed, making them sway gently, each in its own way and to its own degree.
Was there any point in doing something destined to fail?
Wizards might offer all sorts of answers, not merely yes or no, but the answer most of them shared would surely be yes.
For Wizards, failure came in many forms. Sometimes, failure was success on another level. It could yield rewards every bit as valuable as success, and sometimes, satisfying their curiosity was reason enough.
Ruger listened to Lady Kailyn and found himself pondering.
There was also a practical question.
If the Old Wizard stopped everything, what would happen to them?
Would they escape this predicament?
Was this predicament being sustained by one new failure after another? That was possible, and highly probable at that. If he stopped his experiments, the Old Wizard would not simply enjoy an unconventional life here with Kailyn, nor would they break free of this looping predicament and leave for good. Ruger had seen that dilapidated scene, like the ruins of some unknown place. He had wandered through the dust-filled Corridor and climbed those creaking spiral stairs. Those images still surfaced in his mind.
So, if everything stopped and the Old Wizard gave up tinkering with his experiment, they might receive nothing more than a brief holiday before waiting for the end to come.
They would face a final, ultimate silence, one that would never give way to another beginning.
That, too, was an undeniable possibility.
Even Lady Kailyn could not be certain. She merely had a vague sense of it. Only the Old Wizard knew the exact answer.
With