WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:23.920 Music. 00:00:23.931 --> 00:00:29.471 The name echoed in the stone library, a name Rafe had associated with a kind, 00:00:29.851 --> 00:00:35.751 elderly thief, now impossibly linked to ancient magic and world-altering power. 00:00:36.311 --> 00:00:42.051 Pietro. Of course, Rafe had expected as much. He had said a similar thing to 00:00:42.051 --> 00:00:44.151 Raylan based on his own studies. 00:00:44.431 --> 00:00:50.211 But to actually hear it, and within the context of Ness's history, 00:00:50.691 --> 00:00:55.611 was something else. The weight of the revelation left Rafe breathless. 00:00:55.871 --> 00:01:00.511 He looked around at the countless volumes, a history he thought was lost, 00:01:00.771 --> 00:01:02.871 now sitting within his grasp. 00:01:03.191 --> 00:01:07.611 His mind, however, was fixed on the immediate aftermath of the battle. 00:01:08.791 --> 00:01:11.751 What happened to them? The magicians? After they fled? 00:01:12.531 --> 00:01:18.291 Cray walked back to his map table, his heavy boots making no sound on the stone floor. 00:01:19.071 --> 00:01:23.251 He shrugged, a gesture that seemed too small for his stout frame. 00:01:23.531 --> 00:01:28.951 They were driven across the teeth, and Pietro brought the mountain down behind them. 00:01:29.431 --> 00:01:33.831 Our knowledge of them ends there. They never returned. 00:01:34.411 --> 00:01:38.571 He ran a gnarled finger along a faded line on one of the maps. 00:01:38.891 --> 00:01:41.251 Perhaps they fled Pietro. 00:01:41.671 --> 00:01:47.151 Perhaps they retreated to where they could wield their power without his meddling. 00:01:48.291 --> 00:01:52.611 Kray slid back into his chair. I do not know the answer. 00:01:53.391 --> 00:01:58.331 His finger paused somewhere on the map. It was a great tragedy. 00:01:59.051 --> 00:02:04.051 All of Barros' work, a continent balanced in trade and peace, 00:02:04.731 --> 00:02:07.911 undone by the greed of a few men in your city. 00:02:08.951 --> 00:02:12.531 He looked up, his icy eyes holding a deep sadness. 00:02:13.071 --> 00:02:18.111 And while Pietro's spell saved Ness, the price was its memory. 00:02:18.291 --> 00:02:24.711 A punishment so complete, it left your people blind to their own history. 00:02:25.211 --> 00:02:32.851 Cray shook his head. I cannot say I approve, and I said as much to Pietro. What was his reply? 00:02:33.651 --> 00:02:37.591 Rafe was totally wrapped in the history and knowledge of the lawmaster. 00:02:38.051 --> 00:02:41.171 He had no memory of what I was asking him. 00:02:41.871 --> 00:02:48.591 He spouted the same false history of a great migration and guild founders and a civil war. 00:02:49.151 --> 00:02:50.951 Wait, none of those are true? 00:02:51.551 --> 00:02:56.891 Alas, young human, those were the desperate constructions of a city that lost 00:02:56.891 --> 00:02:59.731 its memory but desperately needed one. 00:03:00.831 --> 00:03:05.131 Rafe's thoughts swirled. Nothing he had learned was true. 00:03:05.531 --> 00:03:10.231 In its place was a hidden history, a secret guild of magicians, 00:03:10.451 --> 00:03:12.831 and Pietro at the center of it all. 00:03:13.171 --> 00:03:16.111 Do you know more of Pietro? How did he live for so long? 00:03:16.571 --> 00:03:20.211 The lawmaster shook his head. We know little. 00:03:20.731 --> 00:03:26.031 After the great forgetting, the dwarves retreated to our role as protectors. 00:03:26.631 --> 00:03:31.931 Pietro walked his own path. He visited us only once after that day, 00:03:32.151 --> 00:03:36.191 but his memory was long gone by then. Gray sighed. 00:03:36.751 --> 00:03:39.871 Yet another tragedy of Pietro's actions. 00:03:40.311 --> 00:03:47.231 Imagine you cast a spell to extend your life centuries so you can achieve this great deed. 00:03:47.491 --> 00:03:51.491 And then imagine that you can't remember what that great deed was. 00:03:52.011 --> 00:03:55.491 Rafe didn't know where to start on plumbing the history of Ness. 00:03:56.031 --> 00:04:00.511 So he went with a simple question to the lawmaster and his own mission. 00:04:00.951 --> 00:04:03.011 And the dwarves? Where is your home? 00:04:03.891 --> 00:04:10.231 Our halls are carved into the heart of the dragon's teeth, many days' journey to the south. 00:04:10.851 --> 00:04:16.811 Dragon's Watch is our most distant outpost. We have not seen a dragon in this 00:04:16.811 --> 00:04:22.811 region since Pietro defeated the great beast that laid waste to your fields. He paused. 00:04:23.671 --> 00:04:26.031 Still, we keep watch. 00:04:27.491 --> 00:04:32.771 Kray must have seen the uncertainty in Wraith's face. I am the master of arms, 00:04:32.771 --> 00:04:35.611 after all. Do you think there are still dragons? 00:04:36.251 --> 00:04:40.711 Kray looked north, as if peering through the very stone of the mountain. 00:04:41.311 --> 00:04:43.911 Aye, they came from the north. 00:04:44.571 --> 00:04:48.571 Pietro perhaps frightened them. They will come again. 00:04:49.851 --> 00:04:53.811 The sheer scale of the history laid before him was overwhelming. 00:04:54.211 --> 00:05:00.311 The conflicts in Ness, the squabbles between guildmasters, even his own desperate 00:05:00.311 --> 00:05:05.771 mission to Goutland, it all seemed so small now, so insignificant. 00:05:06.431 --> 00:05:10.851 He looked at the dwarf who held all this knowledge. He was finally ready to 00:05:10.851 --> 00:05:12.711 once again focus on history. 00:05:13.011 --> 00:05:16.891 And it began with the dwarf in front of him. And you? You? 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:20.720 You are clearly more than a Master of Arms. You are called the Lawmaster. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:22.560 What is your role in all this? 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:29.120 Cray gestured to the room, his arms sweeping across the library of scrolls and books. 00:05:29.540 --> 00:05:31.440 I am the Lawmaster. 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:38.180 I protect the history of this land, from the eastern forest of Drac to the glittering 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:39.960 coastal city of Callisto. 00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:44.040 Your people have set up an important library, at a military outpost. 00:05:45.020 --> 00:05:49.800 Cray laughed, which was a gentle rumble that reached from his belly to his throat. 00:05:50.140 --> 00:05:54.140 No, my dear boy, this is my passion. 00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:59.420 My official position is Master of Arms of the Order of the Dragon. 00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:05.180 All of this, Cray waved his arms, encompassing the books surrounding him, 00:06:05.580 --> 00:06:10.900 is simply my continuing a long line of masters who gathered the knowledge of 00:06:10.900 --> 00:06:16.780 travelers like you and saving the history from those that feared it would be lost. 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:22.400 The old dwarf stood and wandered over to a distant shelf. Rafe followed. 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:25.320 You're interested in Barrows, aye? 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:33.880 These books were gifts from him, or so I was told. He turned back to his desk. They are very old. 00:06:34.580 --> 00:06:40.620 At that, all thoughts of Ness, of Raelynn, of the petty politics and the raging 00:06:40.620 --> 00:06:43.980 civil war, evaporated from Rafe's mind. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:48.220 Before him stood the keeper of the entire world's true history, 00:06:48.520 --> 00:06:52.340 a history he had only ever seen in tantalizing glimpses. 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:59.460 His mission to find Pietro's books in Goutland was the quest of a child chasing shadows. 00:06:59.900 --> 00:07:02.860 Here was the source. Here was the truth. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.860 So you protect us from dragons. And our own ignorance. 00:07:07.997 --> 00:07:15.517 Cray scratched his chin as he walked back to his desk. There is a wisdom about you, young human. 00:07:16.897 --> 00:07:22.097 Rafe was completely captivated, seeing in Cray not just a historian, 00:07:22.397 --> 00:07:26.197 but the mentor he had unknowingly missed his entire life. 00:07:26.537 --> 00:07:31.777 Can I? Rafe began, his voice filled with an awe he couldn't contain. 00:07:32.137 --> 00:07:33.917 Can I study them, your documents? 00:07:34.577 --> 00:07:41.597 I must know more. Kray looked at the young human, a rare, genuine smile touching his lips. 00:07:41.877 --> 00:07:46.277 He saw the hunger in Rafe's eyes, the desperate need to understand, 00:07:46.617 --> 00:07:49.777 a need that had driven him from his forgotten city. 00:07:50.037 --> 00:07:57.197 You seek knowledge, boy, Kray rumbled, his voice echoing in the ancient library. 00:07:57.477 --> 00:08:03.117 But tell me, are you prepared for the burdens that come with it? 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:26.160 Music. 00:08:25.177 --> 00:08:27.517 A podcast alchemy production.