Amais is surprised to find Master Anok waiting for him outside the infirmary.

  The cleric holds back a groan as he sights the short man with an unpleasant expression.

  “You spoke for quite a long time with the stranger, what about?”

  “Personal business. Our guest has lived quite the life.” Amais replied with a bow of respect to the older master.

  Anok sneered, a lesser man would have flinched but Amais was too used to the man’s dislike of him. The sneer doesn't faze him like it once would have.

  “Does this personal business have a topic?”

  “You are free to ask Boaz yourself, he’s quite talkative.” Amais said with a barely concealed smirk. “A former paladin of Edain even.”

  Anok glared at the tone, unamused by Amais’ joy. The younger cleric had found something out and refused to share. It irritated him. He lifted a finger towards Amais’ face in warning.

  “You will do well to remember whom you owe for your mastery when Gaius deserted you.” Anok said.

  “Uncalled for and unprovoked.” Amais replied. losing the good humor he had only moments earlier. “You never let me forget it to the point where I would rather have just not become a master at all.”

  “Blasphemy!” Anok hisses under his breath. “It is the greatest-”

  “Burden one can receive once granted by you.” Amais said with a tired sigh. “Why do we do this every time? I am running out of responses and I’ve spoken my truth. I am a master now too, I choose to call you Master Anok only out of respect.”

  Anok curled his hand into a fist ready to land a strike on the younger master cleric. Amais folds his arms, waiting for it to come.

  “You will end up just like Gaius, a deserter with no faith!”

  “Better him than you.” Amais responded with coldness in his eyes. “I’ve told you not to speak poorly of him within my presence.”

  Anok spat, the glob flies out of his mouth ending up a sticky wad on the temple floor. The older man stormed away, muttering words of anger and dissatisfaction.

  Amais wondered if he’d taken it too far. He shook his head. No, Anok from the moment he had met him, hated Gaius.

  Amais never knew why Gaius made no big deal of it, but the moment his master went missing Anok reveled in it, making sure everyone knew what he thought of the other man’s disappearance.

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  It was disgusting.

  For the longest time, all Amais wanted to do was prove him wrong, and now thanks to the mysterious stranger from the tower, he would have a chance to. Amais leaned against the stony temple wall with a lightness in his chest.

  “I thought I was going mad for the longest time but I was right.” He inhaled, a grin breaks out across his face. “I was right, I was right.” He stands straight, heading to his room to think further about his decision to challenge the tower.

  What would he take? How would he find it? Thoughts race through Amais’ mind as he climbs the spiral staircase to the upper levels of the tower past the library and back to his room. The sun is already setting by the time he looks out the windows.

  Pushing open the door he just about remembered to lock it before collapsing on his bed for the night.

  He groaned as his body sunk into the mattress of his bed, for a well deserved rest.

  Tomorrow he would think about how he’d find the tower, knowing he could ask Boaz where he last saw it.

  Did the tower remain stationary? Did it come when called? Was it summonable? As heavy as his eyelids become, Amais continues to think about the heavy subject matter of the Tower of Wynd.

  Amais wasn’t a fighter and though he could handle himself would it be enough to battle the demons there? Could he stand to fight something as deadly as a Primal?

  “I mustn’t think about that now, my only goal is to see Master Gaius again, and I will.” he said stubbornly.

  Sleep eventually comes and all his thoughts fade to blackness.

  ===

  Amais woke to the sound of a cock crowing and a round of banging outside his door. He jumped, nearly falling off the bed in a bid to get to the door. He pulled it open, nearly ripping the wood off its hinges.

  “Is somebody dying?!” came the universal question of a healer.

  Talien, his acolyte stood before him, her robes were disheveled as if she’d run a marathon trying to get to him. Her usually vibrant face burned red, nearly falling over herself panting from her trip up the long, winding spiral staircase.

  “Talien, Talien what is it?” Amais asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Master Anok!” she said in a hoarse whisper, looking up at him with troubled eyes. Taking a deep breath she blurts it out all at once.

  “Master Anok says he went to the grand master about you, he says you’re determined to follow former master Gaius’ path!”

  Talien collapsed on her Master's bed, while Amais’ eyes widened from the shock of the news.

  Master Anok had done what?

  “Talien, where did you hear this?” Amais asked. Talien sat up, blushing. How would she tell her teacher she was spying on someone else when she’d overheard Anok’s furious words.

  “Out in the gardens with Master Astra.” she replied, brushing her dark curls out of her face. “He wasn’t exactly subtle in his hatred. Everyone knows he regrets helping you reach mastery.”

  “I still wonder why he did it.” Amais said under his breath, he rested his hands on his waist wondering what would happen now that the matter had been taken to the grand master.

  “I don’t want anything to happen to you because of that stupid old man!” Talien yelled.

  Amais turned suddenly to admonish her until he saw the look on her face was pure anger.

  “He carries on however he likes, insulting everyone and everything and it isn’t fair.”

  Amais came to sit beside her, placing a gentle hand in her curly dark hair. He remembered when he was her age, asking Gaius the same thing about Master Anok.