The Rossem Project

Haven - Part 4

     In the event, though, before he could think of a single word to put down on paper his eye was caught by the pile of old scrolls heaped on the corner of his desk. Encrypyed documents discovered by treasure seekers in an old Agglemonian strongbox that Queen Tabitha had asked him to look at in case they turned out to be something important. Before he knew what he was doing he had the papers in his hands and was scanning his eyes across them as more ideas as to the nature of the key flitted through his head.

     Whoever had written them, all those centuries ago, had been a genius, no doubt about that. Not only had the cipher defied all the usual tried and tested decoding methods, it had also defeated the wizard's translation spell, which was supposed to allow him to read anything in any language even if it had been encrypted. Whoever had done this must have been familiar with the spell, and had coded it in such a way that not even magic could unscramble it, which made it very interesting. Interesting enough to fascinate even the wizards of Lexandria University, he had no doubt. Before he asked the Queen's permission to hand them over, though, he wanted another go at cracking it himself. It was a matter of pride. He had to show everybody how brilliant he was, what a genius he was. If he handed them over as they were, someone else would get all the credit and he'd be left looking like an idiot. Besides, the Queen had given them to him to decipher and he didn't want to let her down.

     Most of the work he and Lirenna did to earn their living was like that. Actual spellcasting made up only a tiny part of their professional careers. Most of their time was spent using the knowledge they'd gained at the University to give advice and solve puzzles like this one, and now and again they also spent a few hours teaching in the village school.

     Lirenna also helped the valley's wizards keep Haven hidden from the people who passed by less than twenty miles away. The Agglemonian Great Road that ran just outside the entrance to the valley was quite busy during the autumn trading season, and some of the travelers who stopped for the night ranged almost all the way to the entrance itself in their search for small game to cook over their open fires. As if that weren't bad enough, prospecting trogs wandered the mountain ridges and valleys in search of new veins to mine and wandering tribes of humanoids prowled endlessly on the search for travelers to ambush. They all had to be gently guided away from the valley without their realising that their steps were being directed by wills other than their own.

     Thomas himself had no part in maintaining the valley's veil of secrecy. Although, as Lirenna had said, the valley's common people had accepted the Ilandian wizard as part of the community, the valley's wizards were less trusting and hadn't yet let him in on the secret of how all the people who might otherwise have stumbled across the valley were kept in ignorance of it. Even Lirenna was held in some suspicion by them for having brought her brand new husband to the secret valley, but Thomas was determined that one day he would win their trust and that he would be allowed to play his full part as a Havenite wizard.

     When Thomas, as a young child, had first learned of the valley, his first thought had not been how the valley managed to remain secret but why they bothered. After all, other small communities managed to survive in remote, isolated parts of the world, somehow managing to defend themselves against bands of brigands and tribes of humanoids wanting to sack and pillage them. Why couldn't Haven do the same? It had been Lirenna who'd given him the answer, that day in the common room of Lexandria University twenty five years before.

     “Do you ever think that all that iron might be more a curse than a blessing?” he’d asked her one day shortly after their marriage. “Why not just announce yourself to the world, let the miners in after charging them a stiff fee to do so, and let them dig it all up? Then, when it’s all gone, they'll have no more reason to bother you.”