It was mostly family at the funeral; Omigger had never socialized much even before he was wealthy, and thereafter he spent most of his time and a good portion of his money on books.  Filp and Torelle and their families were there, and Slade, and just a few others, most of whom were book dealers and scholars.

He had never married and had no children; but he had written a will, and a lawyer was present to execute it.  Torelle received a few key items of treasure; but for a few specific bequests to people unfamiliar to him, Slade received the books.  The rest of the treasure including the property went to Filp, who it seems was actually the wizard's closest relative.  No one was disappointed with his portion, although at first Slade wondered what he would do with the books.  He almost left them behind, but at the last decided it would be interesting to see what he could learn beyond the few bits of tricks he had gleaned from the first book he was given.  He borrowed a couple of carts from the estate (Filp said to keep them--after all, he had never expected to be lord of two castles), and spent a few days moving the books from the library.

Again he stopped at Torelle's for a few days.  Although Torelle was clearly touched by the loss of his cousin, the children hardly knew their strange uncle and were little affected.  When Slade left for home, Torrence and Shella traveled with him, and again spent the summer.

It was different this year.  Slade still spent time sparring with Torrence, and also got the young man involved in the affairs of state; but as he was unpacking his books he found several which particularly caught his interest.  Thus he began spending time each day sequestered in his new library, reading his new books.

And to everyone's surprise, Shella took a genuine interest in reading those books as well.  After she had read pages from several books and asked Slade many questions (and he was surprised at how many of the simpler questions he already could answer), he gave her the primer he had received from Omigger.  In fact, he found the other copy the wizard had said he owned, and let her have that.

And Slade began letting Torrence run the daily affairs of state, holding court and settling problems.  They still spent time working on their weapon skills; over the years Slade had picked up skills in quite a few weapons, including superb skill with the sword and the dagger; but Torrence was able to match him almost every time.

Autumn was upon them all before they realized it, and Torrence and Shella said their good-byes and prepared to return home.  Slade wrote a letter to their father, sealing it, and sent it with them.

There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of the novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #37:  Character Diversity.  Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter.

As to the old stories that have long been here:

The Online Games

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Books by the Author

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Go to Other Links

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M. J. Young Net