The view from the top of Wente Tower was spectacular as always. Nimrien flourished in the springtime, with lush green foliage blanketing the land and climbing up the mountainsides. Wildflowers dotted the landscape with splashes of blue, purple and pink, accompanied by the rise and fall of faint birdsong.

“Good boy,” Bartok crooned, stroking the hound laying on the cushion beside his chair. “You’ve been so quiet and patient today.”

The hound yawned and stretched, displaying a flame flickering ominously in his throat.

“What do you think, Astus?” he continued. Astus sat up, scratched vigorously for a moment, then cocked his head to the side, almost like he wanted clarification. Bartok smiled at him and went on. “Do you think the stories are true? Should we intervene?”

Astus sighed, letting out a puff of smoke. He arched his back luxuriously as his master scratched between his ears.

“That’s my good boy,” Bartok murmured. “Yes, we will intervene. We can’t have things going on as they have been forever, can we?”

He reached out to the side table for some parchment, and wrote a message detailing the matter at hand: the existence of a certain grimoire, an ancient and highly valuable tome, hidden somewhere in the wide expanse of Nimrien. It was a message deliberately designed to appeal to the greed of its recipient. He took care to extol the great wonder of the grimoire, its rarity, its beauty… and its value. The grimoire was priceless, in more ways than one.

With a snap of his finger, he summoned the messenger out of the shadows where he had been waiting. “Take this to Lerastir,” he ordered. “Deliver it to the Collector. There will be no need to wait for a reply.”

As the messenger hurried off down the mountainside, Bartok stroked Astus again. The hound sneezed, the flame in his throat igniting more fully and setting the fringe of the cushion alight.

“Things are about to happen in Nimrien, Astus.” Bartok said, not even blinking as he put the cushion out with a wave of his wand. “Things are about to happen, and you and I are the catalyst.”