Still, the Emir had guarded these writings, had feared some unnameable retribution.

Yet Gaborn knew that, sometimes, small things could be powerful. As a child of five, he’d often tried to lift the huge halberds that his father’s guards bore in the portcullis. At that age, he’d been given his first endowment of brawn, and immediately had gone out and discovered that he could lift the halberd and swing it with ease, A single endowment of strength had seemed a great thing. Now, as a Runelord, he knew that it was nothing.

Yet he wondered at these teachings. They seemed simple, yet he knew that the Days were anything but simple. An odd devotion, taken to an extreme, could have profound effects on a person—in just the same way that a simple love of food led to obesity and death.

Gaborn had seldom wondered if he was good. In reading these teachings from the Room of Dreams, he wondered if it was possible to be a “good” Runelord by the Days’ standards. Those who gave endowments usually regretted it, in time. Yet once the gift was given, it could not be returned. At that point, any endowment that the Runelord held would be considered a violation by the Days.

Gaborn wondered if there might be some acceptable circumstance when it was all right for a person to grant an endowment. Perhaps if two men desired to combine their strength to fight a great evil. But this could only happen if he and his Dedicate were one in heart.

Yet at the center of the Days’ teachings lay a concept he could barely apprehend: Every man is a lord. Every man is equal.

Gaborn was descended from Erden Geboren himself, who gave and took life, whom Earth itself had ordained king. If the Powers favored one man above another, then men could not be considered equal. Gaborn wondered where the balance lay, felt as if he stood poised at the edge of receiving a revelation.

He had always thought himself a rightful lord over his people. Yet, he was also their servant. It was the Runelord’s duty to protect his vassals, to shield them with his own life.

The Days thought all men were lords? Did this mean that no man was a commoner? Did Gaborn really have no rights to lordship?

For the past few days he’d wondered if he was a good prince. He’d floundered at the question, but he’d had no clear definition for good. So Gaborn began to test the Days’ teachings, to consider their implications.

As Gaborn lay on the cellar floor, the Days’ teachings began to alter the way he would think forever after.

Gaborn wondered how he could protect himself without violating another’s Domains. He saw from the diagram that the outer ring, the ring of Invisible Domains, detailed realms that were often fuzzy. Where does my body space end and another man’s begin?