'Vendora's decision frees me of any further service,' he shouted aloud. 'I need pursue her no further. What concerns the lord and craftsman is no longer an affair of mine.' He turned to Aeriel and spoke with rising excitement, 'The consort has been chosen and your obligation is done,' he said. 'Aeriel, Aeriel, we have not lost the final battle after all. The way is clear for us to plot our future together. There are no more gauntlets to be run.'
Aeriel started to smile back but then caught herself in mid-expression. Her brow wrinkled and she stiffened in the saddle. 'It is well enough for you to exercise a second option, once the first is denied you. But despite how I may feel, the man who possesses my spirit will be the one who chooses me freely over all others, no matter how exalted they may be.'
Alodar raised his eyebrows in surprise and then for a long moment was silent. He glanced at the kneeling men and back to Aeriel. 'I pursued the queen to find the glory and honor it would bring,' he said slowly. 'And Handar stated that the first trek was but the shadow of another. But through it all, I was on a third quest as well, Aeriel, the one that all of us take, the quest to find oneself.'
Alodar stopped and looked at each of those who faced him. 'The man that I have found is not the one that you seek,' he told them at last.
He turned to Grengor with a sad smile and gave him a salute. 'Neither am I a warrior. You and the other marines have served me well, Grengor, but a far better future will be yours if you seek our Cedric, the grand marshall and place your trust under a proper master.'
He turned to the wizard. 'Continue your journey southward, Handar. Your task is far more important than any pomp and circumstance here.'
Alodar looked back at Aeriel. 'Through the random factors of fate, I am the makings of an archimage, the master of all five of the arts. Who knows what will happen when I am as proficient as Handar and the others intended me to be? And the answer to that riddle is my destiny.
'I still have the option, Aeriel. I believe what Festil and the others say. One more campaign and it would finally be over. But I choose to turn away from the queen, step aside from all the paths that I could follow to pursue what she represents. I elect to seek instead teachers of the arts. I will study with them all until I can rightfully call myself master. The beginning will be thaumaturgy under Periac in the north as quickly as I can find him.' He stopped and breathed deeply. 'And more than anything else, Aeriel, my choice is to have you at my side.'
Aeriel's face softened but her eyes kept a hint of fire. 'I have been a counselor of state, a molder of a kingdom's destiny,' she said. 'I do not intend to replace it with stoking dinner fires and beating clean the laundry.'
'Come with me,' Alodar said softly, 'and we will journey on your quests as well as mine.'
Aeriel finally smiled. She headed her horse around the way they had come. Alodar nodded and turned his mount to follow. Without looking back, they galloped away into the pages of the sagas.
