Varin sat nearby. She had spent most of the past few days meditating, occasionally getting up to prepare food or brew tea, taking it upon herself to handle the chores for the two Wizards.
As for Mona, who knew what she was doing?
To Ruger, she did not seem to be meditating. She sat upright on a rock a little farther away, her eyes closed as though resting, and had remained that way for two days. Only just now had the aroma of food drawn her over. Wearing that same sweet smile, she had risen to enjoy the meat soup Varin had prepared. The rather short Prophecy Wizard had eaten half a pot of soup all by herself, large chunks of meat and all.
Ruger glanced at the two ladies, then leaned against a rock himself and began reading the notes he had obtained earlier.
At times, he took out the fragmentary Fireball Spell notes from the thick-browed old man; at others, he brought out the astonishingly extensive Flesh Seed notes. Come to think of it, that old man from some family or other had actually been a distant cousin of Varin's.
Ruger had a feeling Varin's troubles were not over. Only by becoming a powerful Wizard could she change her fate. A so-called Wizard family probably had no shortage of people like Varin. Whether she was there or not did not matter, and that supposed marriage arrangement with a fairy might not matter much either. What they absolutely could not tolerate was her defiance. If they tolerated it too readily, that first act of defiance would become the start of something.
So-called Wizard families were probably stubborn things like that.
Ruger still remembered Layden's assessment of Wizard families.
He shifted slightly, settling his back more comfortably against the rock.