In the course of his travels, he had heard of a man who could make himself disappear. He had heard of one who could shape-shift. He had been told of a woman who could transport herself instantaneously from one place to another. The sources of the stories were reliable, and the stories themselves had been repeated often enough that he had reason to believe at least one of them might be true. Finding even one such talented magic user would be invaluable in getting into heavily guarded or magic-warded places that the Druids might come across in their search. He would have preferred someone who could sense the presence of dormant magic—that would have been extraordinary—but he had never heard of anyone who possessed such a talent.

Still, you never knew.

So he had gone to Varfleet, where most of the stories had originated, with certain preconceptions about the sort of people he was looking for.

Men and women gifted with powerful magic tended to be solitary and nomadic. They did not seek out lives involving families, friends, homes, spouses, and children. They were rootless by choice, keeping apart, hiding their talents, and living their lives behind walls of secrecy. They did so in order to protect themselves but also because they saw themselves as outsiders. When people close to you discovered you possessed extraordinary talent, it changed both their behavior toward and expectations of you. Druids avoided the fallout of this reaction by living in a community of magic users. Men and women came to the Druid order with raw, undeveloped talent and hopes for what they might achieve with training. They joined with an understanding that magic was to be used to help others and never for selfish reasons. They became one another’s friends and family.

But men and women like the ones he was looking for kept apart because they had no interest in sharing their talent with the larger world or even one another. Instead they hired out for money or simply took what they wanted because they could. Too much magic, too much talent, too little regard for others—it was a dangerous combination. This was fine with Bombax. He wasn’t looking for new recruits to the Druid order. He was looking for mercenaries who could be hired to perform a specific task and then dismissed to go back to their previous lives. There would be fewer complications that way when the quest for the missing Elfstones ended. Nothing would remain between employers and employees save memories. He left Paranor convinced that keeping a reasonable distance between the Druids and the people they sought would be the better choice.

Aphenglow would have disagreed, but she was of a different character than he was and possessed a different worldview.