I hope Leila won't be like those girls in Breeze City... Annan thought, pretending she had convinced him.
His Second Sister was so obsessed with Jack in The Mage Tower's Fall that she no longer pestered the real Jack. Annan wandered through the Castle instead. Its maze-like corridors, black stone walls several inches thick, and moat beyond the ramparts made it a fortress built for war.
He stumbled into the Library, where the ancient books made him pause.
Annan loved reading. Reading these words felt like listening to the world breathe. What surprises might these old books hold? He opened one to the first page:
[It is said... of the... but... it has always been so... seven...]
He quietly closed it and put it back. He pulled out a second book, found that he could not even read the title this time, and left the place of heartbreak without looking back.
Mastering the Common Tongue went straight onto his list of priorities.
The Reeves family truly was in decline. As Annan walked through Blackstone Castle, he saw none of the Count's Estate's expensive decorations or young, pretty maids. Even the guards were townsfolk serving as Militia.
If Annan had not appeared, the Reeves family, bereft of an heir and losing its Subjects, would soon have become what Blom called "a King of the North who poses no threat—the best kind among the Twelve Kings of the North."
Back in the bathroom, Annan collected the Water Elemental and headed out to look around Town.
The sky outside was overcast, but the biting wind had stopped. A night of wind and snow had turned the vast plain into rolling hills.
The Water Elemental beside him flowed faster. Annan could not tell whether it was grumbling or fending off the cold, but apparently