The apprentice shivered. Hunched over the small desk, his cramped chicken scratch slowly filled yet another page of the wizard's journal. A part of the young man wanted to cup and cradle the lone candle that threatened to gutter with each draft that whistled up the tower stairs, but it would not do to show weakness, nor a fondness for fire. Too many times had he felt his tutor's wrath for feeling the cold, he could probably recite the tirade that would follow.

The ink for his quill thickened again into useless globs and the writing paused. A sigh of relief met the excuse to clasp his hands and the inkwell firmly in the warm embrace of his underarms. As the blue slowly returned to liquid the apprentice glanced over the freshly penned entry, each spiked and frozen letter true to the hastily muttered account of his master.

~~~

Glacian, 656.

That fatuous lizard, he has overestimated his power and we have struck home! Hah! To think he believed he could offer boons to his Warriors and maintain the concealment of his outposts, the fool, this complacency will be his downfall.

Unearthing the dragon's outpost was a much greater victory than I had originally foreseen, the Vicar Aegoth I'llur and the Sempai Fendrel Azon were most useful in protecting my men as they broke through the rock. Not only does my force now plunder it daily, but it has also pressed that volcanic rat to reveal his weakness! My scouts reported that Yudhishthira summoned a meeting of his soldiers and actually admitted that he could not both seek my mercenaries and maintain the thralls for their use. Does he not know that a king gives orders, that choices only convey uncertainty? It surely cannot be long before they recognise his lack of worth and put the mewling beast out of his misery. Better for all that he does not remain elevated upon the might of others, lest the wyrm succeeds in plunging this world into fire.

I do need to do something about these flustered turncoats, thinking they can simply take their strength from me! A declaration is binding, and my Warriors will not be released until Yudhishthira is bested. I do not have the time nor care for their petty little woes and tribulations, cannot they see the brink upon which we stand? They mewl and whine about frost and ash; this clouding of the skies is no concern, my force is inexorable, like a glacier migrating they cannot be stopped and I will prevail. Soon enough that fire will snuff, my ambitions accomplished once the Conclave answers to me!

I will concede my opposition's soldiers are tenacious, I shall have to turn my mind next to earning their goodwill. They could prove most useful should we need to protect the world from the ire of the ravening beast when he does not get his way.

Oughlor's bellows are bothering the mammoths, I will need to send one of the apprentices to find an alternate source of milk until the Reckoning is finished.

~~~

The wizard had always been arrogant, one with his power had the right to be, the young man supposed, demanding that the apprentices scribe his thoughts every month. Occasionally mundane, often fantastical the journal seemed to be the ravings of a fanatic, his great goal, the infatuation with ice, and the grand world ideal, all repeated themes in the closely guarded volumes.

As feeling returned to the youth's extremities, he ended the entry and called up to the study where Maklak was ensconced within. "Master, the account is ready for your mark."


Penned by My hand on the 1st of Mayan, in the year 656 AF.