Chapter Thirty-Five: Like A Stone

“What brings you here, Master Rudric?”

For the third time in a space of two seconds Kilvic wondered at how much he wished to offer in this negotiation without Deidrich’s presence. It was not that he doubted the headmaster capable of understanding the severity of the situation, he simply doubted the man knew how to appreciate it. The man was the brains, at one time he might have also been the muscle, considering his history. But he was the brains now, and the brain only saw in statistics, numbers, and secondary information. The curse of growth, Kilvic thought. He wondered if his mother’s subjects thought of his grandfather in the same way. It made his thought stumble. For a moment he thought to discard his assumption of the headmaster, but logic knew it for what it was: bias. And logic has always, if not most often, been the best guide in the absence of his instructors.

“Master Rudric?”

Kilvic realized he’d remai