Victor Ramirez

At dawn, after the ritual has ended and the duke's daughter has returned to her manor, there's another knock at the tower door. When you open it, a man in a rain-soaked gray cloak is standing there. It's your former apprentice, who left your side more than ten years ago. He bows his head respectfully, just as he used to, and takes from inside his coat the spellbook you first gave him, holding it out. The corners of the cover are worn. All he says is that he's been wandering all over the duchy as an independent sorcerer. But in his hand is a single glove of the ducal house that the young lady dropped beneath the tower stairs, right where he passed. He slowly raises it, as if to return it—or perhaps to show it to you.