In the next months Gorian tried to learn the art of hurling the dagger as his father was able to. He succeeded in influencing the trajectory with the help of his will, but a growing dissatisfaction arose in the boy, for he felt how far he was from really controlling the Old Force.

"You have the gift, Gorian. And if you also have the will, then you will manage to master the Old Power," said Nhorich when they were in a meadow not far from the farm to practice. An old tree stump served Gorian as a target. Out here he only endangered himself, but none of the farmhands or any of the animals.

"The priests say that magic is a divine gift, whether you receive it or not, without anything to contribute," Gorian said.

Nhorich laughed."I see you're really decidedly at the priest school in Twixlum too often!" He shook his head."No, Gorian, on this point the views of the Order and the priesthood are completely different. According to the Order, magic is not a divine gift, but a skill of the individual that must be trained and developed and for which one needs a talent. You have that talent - and everything else depends on yourself, on no one else."

"When I am sixteen and the Seekers of the Order go out to find novices - will you then allow me to be trained in the Order's castle?"

Nhorich was silent at first."That's a long way off," he said.

"What if this were today?" Gorian demanded a clear answer.

Nhorich hesitated."You know that I divorced from the order in the quarrel and resigned my rank as swordmaster. Look at the sky. The Shadowbringer shifts from year to year more before the sun. For several generations this has been the case, and every year our harvests get worse, the weather colder and more unpredictable, and up in the north Morygor, the lord of Frostfest, sits in his cold palace and ensures with his perverse magic, directed against every life, that his cold empire continues to expand. He brought the ice gods back into our world through the world gate and made them his servants. His eerie hordes of warriors of horror continue to expand their master's realm. Already years ago, almost all of Torheim and the northern parts of Orxania were conquered. The few refugees who made it to the south reported terrible things that happened there. Everyone knows it's only a matter of time before this kingdom of cold magic of an undead magician also haunts the Holy Realm - but do you think they would have tried to take any precautions? The mission of the Order is to protect the empire. Instead, his Superior Intrigues spin and bought the voic