Recommendations
After becoming the "hero of the Gold Road", I was pooped and done for the day, really. Though it was bound to generate gossip, at Carahil's gentle insistence I dallied with her till morning. I fully admit that I was fond of her and our delightful conversations and I really needed no nudging on her part, though in the back of my mind I knew it was a mistake. We woke late and had a lovely private brunch upstairs, leaving the Mages Guild to putter along without Carahil's oversight for a few more hours.
As the head of the Anvil Mages Guild, Carahil had a reputation for "running a clean hall" -- everything aboveboard and a bit strict -- so it nagged at me that I might be a corrupting influence. I think there was a similar feeling in her, and somehow we came, not awkwardly (thankfully) to an agreement that our relationship (at least in its current form) had to come to an end. The public manner in which it had unfolded so far, and her being quite a bit older than I -- these things wouldn't be overlooked by the rest of Anvil much longer. Ultimately it would make things difficult for Carahil, and politics could get nasty. As I well know.
No one else in the Guild made any mention or treated us any differently than before, so I was quite certain that out of respect for Carahil, they were still on our side and willing to overlook her one day out of character. Still, I needed to do something more, and things came together when Carahil stamped with her seal my recommendation for the Arcane University.
It would go out in the next post, she said, but I'd need more than just her word. Carahil advised I make more connections and advance in standing with the Mages Guild as a whole by seeking out the other chapters and seeing what else was to be done. She added with all the bitterness of a painful disappointment in the past that in the end it would do me no good: "Though I must say, I doubt it will do you much good in the end. You'd be surprised how easily they forget about the little people."
I wasn't sure where that came from, and just as quickly as it had come, she caught herself, and her eyes told me not to ask.
Then Carahil slipped me a letter. She said it was another recommendation, which should get me the attention of the Steward of Castle Anvil, Dairihill, with whom she was acquainted personally. Then she excused herself to catch up with her assorted administrative duties.
By all this I didn't know if she hoped I would leave Anvil soon and out of her life, or if she were merely retreating into a professional distance. She was very confused that morning -- I think something about penning the recommendation had opened an old wound. And combined with our indiscretions, things had turned out much more complicated for her.
I wasn't ready to move on yet, however. I felt I owed her something. And I needed to do some actual Mages Guild grunt work to smooth things over with the others even if they weren't complaining about favourtism (even if I was the "hero of the Gold Road" for the week). And then there was Dairihill. I was resolved to promote the Mages Guild -- specifically, the head of the Mages Guild -- with her. And through her, the Countess of Anvil.
I was really so fond of Carahil that if I had to let some ugly hag of a steward have her way with my body that my dear lover might get ahead, I was willing to make that sacrifice.
As the head of the Anvil Mages Guild, Carahil had a reputation for "running a clean hall" -- everything aboveboard and a bit strict -- so it nagged at me that I might be a corrupting influence. I think there was a similar feeling in her, and somehow we came, not awkwardly (thankfully) to an agreement that our relationship (at least in its current form) had to come to an end. The public manner in which it had unfolded so far, and her being quite a bit older than I -- these things wouldn't be overlooked by the rest of Anvil much longer. Ultimately it would make things difficult for Carahil, and politics could get nasty. As I well know.
No one else in the Guild made any mention or treated us any differently than before, so I was quite certain that out of respect for Carahil, they were still on our side and willing to overlook her one day out of character. Still, I needed to do something more, and things came together when Carahil stamped with her seal my recommendation for the Arcane University.
It would go out in the next post, she said, but I'd need more than just her word. Carahil advised I make more connections and advance in standing with the Mages Guild as a whole by seeking out the other chapters and seeing what else was to be done. She added with all the bitterness of a painful disappointment in the past that in the end it would do me no good: "Though I must say, I doubt it will do you much good in the end. You'd be surprised how easily they forget about the little people."
I wasn't sure where that came from, and just as quickly as it had come, she caught herself, and her eyes told me not to ask.
Then Carahil slipped me a letter. She said it was another recommendation, which should get me the attention of the Steward of Castle Anvil, Dairihill, with whom she was acquainted personally. Then she excused herself to catch up with her assorted administrative duties.
By all this I didn't know if she hoped I would leave Anvil soon and out of her life, or if she were merely retreating into a professional distance. She was very confused that morning -- I think something about penning the recommendation had opened an old wound. And combined with our indiscretions, things had turned out much more complicated for her.
I wasn't ready to move on yet, however. I felt I owed her something. And I needed to do some actual Mages Guild grunt work to smooth things over with the others even if they weren't complaining about favourtism (even if I was the "hero of the Gold Road" for the week). And then there was Dairihill. I was resolved to promote the Mages Guild -- specifically, the head of the Mages Guild -- with her. And through her, the Countess of Anvil.
I was really so fond of Carahil that if I had to let some ugly hag of a steward have her way with my body that my dear lover might get ahead, I was willing to make that sacrifice.
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