In this world, long, long ago, many people had been unable to become Wizards. The Wizards had not acted like the dragons, nor had they imitated the gods. Everything the dragons and gods craved seemed far too insignificant in their eyes, not enough to smooth even the smallest crease in the breadth of their hearts. They had stepped onto the path of the extraordinary in the frail bodies of humans, yet seemed noble from birth. That nobility came not from their inherently brief lives, but from their souls and the breadth of their hearts.
As Ruger pondered this, he opened the Spellbook for the Second-Ring Spell, Invisible Constraint, on his old recliner.
He had already left Mahama's little island.
Clearing up that lovely little misunderstanding, enjoying a hearty meal, and leaving Big Guy with that mouthless senior of his had been the right choice.
He, meanwhile, needed to continue studying spells.
The one blemish on this otherwise pleasant outing was that, while resolving the misunderstanding, he had failed to give his newly completed Book of Resentment the testing opportunity it deserved. Just as that fellow had lacked malice, he had possessed absolutely no resentment either. In fact, after Ruger realized it might be a misunderstanding, he had continued pounding the fellow's face in the hope of stirring up some anger. Unfortunately, this mouthless fellow had excellent control over his emotions.
Of course, this had only been his habitual attempt to test a spell after learning it. The fact that the Book of Resentment could collect his own resentment was enough to show that it worked properly.
An unexpected little misunderstanding, an unexpected little gain.
It meant he had to add another item to his training plan: familiarizing himself with the Word of Flame.
Since this was not particularly urgent, he