Can you keep a secret?
After his meeting with Professor Agathias, Malmr seeks a friend to lean on, but instead sees Lucie's powerful appearance of magic. Chaos ensues, and he invariably ends up taking the new little mage to Namarast, which appears as a kidnapping to those not around.
51 Gold for Lucie, Malmr completes a Fortune Quest and earns +1 Corruption and +2 Discipline.
Málmr
Arm bandaged from the house fire he’d escaped from, scarf tied around his mouth to hide his tusks, his cloak edge tattered and worn. He was tired. Tired and lonely and unsure of himself, Professor Agathias’ words turning round and round in his head like a stone tumbling down river until it smoothed down into something he could act on.
He’d been assigned on another patrol after the healer Kerelas had seen to his arm and returned his lost letters to him, and he’d spent the nights camped on the side of the road reading each one by firelight, clinging to gentle words of support from friends he’d made here in Ivras. Would they accept him, given his new signs of corruption? Or would they turn away from him like Sylen had, condemning him to his fate?
He kept the letters tied up with a ribbon in the cloak pocket over his heart, patting it every so often to recheck that he hadn’t lost them again as he made his way down the road. He desperately needed a sympathetic shoulder to lean on, and he hoped Danaë would listen.
As he made his way down the hill, the bend in the road lined by trees turning autumn yellow, he saw Danaë’s little daughter, Lucie, playing outside with dirt and sticks all by herself. He relaxed, knowing Lucie would be gentle, a ray of spring sunshine on his tired heart, and readjusted his shoulder pack to continue down the hill to greet her.
He had to chuckle when her returned greeting was launching herself in a hug around his waist, and he lifted her up into the air, planting a scarfed kiss on her brow. “Hello to you too, auðœfi,” He called her the word for ‘treasure,’ and would have called her princess, had the Stalhúð had the word similar to it. “It has been far too long.”
He had to set her down quicker than he liked, his bandaged arm protesting. “Should we go in and say hello to your mother together?” He looked up, peering at the cozy home she’d made for the both of them here. “....her forge isn’t lit,” He noted to himself.