Latimer acknowledged her with a nod and pulled a tunic over his head.
Selena let out a small sigh of relief. He was dressing, not undressing.
“I should have knocked,” she said shyly, closing the door behind her.
“No harm done.”
Latimer’s new outfit was far simpler—and looser-fitting—than either of the previous outfits she had seen. Selena noted his slight paunch, a telltale indication he routinely enjoyed feasts like the one they had just shared—and a sign he was unaccustomed to strenuous labor too.
“I hope you do not mind my casual dress.” As Latimer spoke, he removed two small diamonds from his earlobes, which she had not seen due to the long, black hair covering them. “We have much to discuss, as you well know, so we might as well be comfortable.”
He gathered his hair and tied it back with a strip of ribbon. “Unfortunately, your nightwear is not yet dry.”
Selena followed Latimer’s glance over to where her shirt and trousers hung over the back of a chair. Feeling awkwardly overdressed, she contented herself with kicking off her shoes and unpinning her hair. She would have liked to loosen her bodice, but she could not reach the knot.
And she was not about to ask Latimer to do it for her.
“Please have a seat.” Latimer indicated the single, small bed.
“Thank you.” She chose the chair instead, careful not to lean back against her damp clothes.
Latimer shrugged and sat at the foot of the bed. “Now, where were we?”
“You were about to tell me who sent you and why.”
Selena held her breath, ready for another delay.
To her great surprise, he said, “I was sent by the Assembly of Magic, and I have come to see if you would like to join our little club.”
“Go on,” she said.
“That is the gist of it,” Latimer replied. “I suppose you have never heard of the Assembly?”
“No.”
“That is the trouble with Superians. They know so little about the outside world, particularly when it comes to wizards,” he lamented.
“I know about Lyrend of Rend…and the Champions who defeated him,” she said, feeling suddenly defensive.
“Oh yes, the Champions,” he said dully. “Well, that is a start, though the Assembly of Magic was not formed until centuries after the Overlord’s defeat. It is rather difficult to build a secret society when there could be, at most, four members. And there was little need for the Assembly during the rise of The Three Kingdoms, since the ruling class themselves were wizards.”
Selena did not interrupt. What little Latimer had already taught her was more valuable than the months she had spent under Briarbridge’s tutelage.
“Reputation has it that you are a woman of intelligence, Selena, so I shall not waste time by repeating things you must already know. Suffice it to say, the world became most unfriendly toward spell-casters following the Wars of Sundering. Mage-hunters were paid handsomely to kill the wizards and wizardesses who had gone into hiding.
“There were those who surrounded themselves with other magi…strength in numbers, and all that…but they were even easier to track. In the end, a mage was better off on his or her own.”
“A mage is a wizard?” she asked, hoping the question did not make her sound like an imbecile.
“The terms are interchangeable, I suppose,” Latimer said, “though some would reserve ‘wizard’ for magi…for mages…of advanced skill. There are many words to choose from, though some are less complimentary than others.
“At any rate, the presence of magic in this part of the world, in Western Arabond, was diminishing at a rapid pace. The hermits and recluses could scarcely hope to pass their knowledge on to a new generation or improve their own skills if they could not come together. The Assembly of Magic began as a network of wizards who were dedicated to keeping in touch in spite of the mage-hunters.
“Probably, it was not even called the Assembly back then because the members never truly assembled in one place.”
Selena sat as still as a statue as she absorbed the information. She did not even want to blink lest she break the wonderful spell.
“The founder of the Assembly, a man by the name of Winston Keptune, was eventually killed by mage-hunters, betrayed by a fellow wizard, or so the story goes,” Latimer continued. “His son, Rellen Keptune, took the reins of the operation, and after some time, there was talk of creating a community where wizards could come together in a spirit of fellowship and enlightenment.
“While Arabond had become a more stable continent in the wake of the Wars of Sundering, the nations that replaced Canth, Nebronem, and Vast Yehlorm remained hostile toward magi.”
“Many remain that way to this day,” Selena said, knowing Latimer was referring, at least in part, to Superius.
She wondered where her new friend was from. He did not have a Superian accent, but his pronunciation was not too far off. She guessed he was from one of the other kingdoms of Continae—West Cape or Glenning maybe.
“Too true,” Latimer said with a grin. “So the wizards of that time constructed a citadel far across the ocean in an uninhabited land, where it stands to this day. It is from there…from the Seminary of Wizardry…that I have been dispatched.”
A cavalcade of questions battled for control of her tongue, but as much as Selena wanted to know about the Assembly of Magic, the Seminary of Wizardry, and Latimer Lanthrop himself, she needed to figure out how she fit into any of it.
“How did the Assembly discover I was learning magic?” she asked.
Latimer tugged at a loose thread on his sleeve. “I do not know.”
“What?”
He looked up. “I said, ‘I do not know.’ It is not my job to ferret out new blood for the Assembly. For all I know, the High Masters themselves do that. There are spells that can measure a person’s potential to cast magic, though it would take a powerful wizard indeed to find one young wizardess from halfway across the world.”
“Who are the High Masters?”
“There are three of them, one for each of three Orders.”
“Three Goddesses, three Orders,” Selena deduced.
Latimer nodded.
“And the High Masters are in charge of the Assembly?”
“The High Masters have authority over the members of their Order, and they preside over their faction in the Senate, but they are not the highest authority at the Seminary. The Mastermage, Rellen Keptune, holds the highest title.”
“The same Rellen Keptune who was born in the wake of the Wars of Sundering?” Selena asked skeptically.
Latimer laughed. “No, I am afraid not. Some wizards are granted longer lives by the Goddesses. Some, I daresay, are nearly immortal. But the Rellen who rules the Assembly today is the son of the first Mastermage. Rellen the Younger, he is sometimes called.”
“Who are the High Masters?” Selena asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
“No one you know, I expect,” Latimer said.
“Is Delincas Theta a member of the Assembly of Magic?”
“Who?” he asked disinterestedly.
Latimer examined his fingernails, which, Selena noticed, were filed neatly and longer than any labor would allow. Lucas had kept his nails as short as possible. She was immediately sorry for thinking of the stable boy and turned her attention back to the conversation.
“Delincas Theta,” she repeated. “He is an ambassador at Castle Borrom. Many people insist he is one of us…a wizard, I mean.”
“Selena, there are thousands of wizards throughout the world that belong to the Assembly. Some of them live at the Seminary, but many do not. I spend the majority of my time on the road, so I probably know fewer wizards than your average Assemblyman.”
She could not decide whether he was dodging the question in an attempt to protect the ambassador’s identity or if he truly did not know him. Either way, Latimer had provided her an opening for her next question.
“And what is it you do for the Assembly that has you traveling so often?”
Latimer sat up a little straighter. “My official title is Assembly of Magic Outreach Liaison, but those at the Seminary refer to my position as an emissary or, more coarsely, a recruiter.”
“Your bosses, the High Masters, tell you where to find a mage, and you try to convince them to join the Assembly,” Selena stated more than asked.
Latimer nodded. “Apparently my High Master thought you and I would be a good match.”
Selena fought back the urge to yawn. Her body was weary, but she never wanted their conversation to end.
“And what, exactly, did your High Master tell you about me?”