The Minting

It was not so long ago, as some count time. Abez was just an apprentice and quite happy and full of life. Oh, I knew he was happy. Especially when that girl Aria came around the store.

You see, Abez worked for me in my shop here in Jahar; copying manuscripts, selling healing potions and elixirs and cleaning the storefront. In return, I taught him. He was a very bright student and took to the arts naturally. I should have known something was going on when he started asking lots of questions about fate and luck, fortune and tragedy, karma (as a traveling friend from India would say) and chance.

This is what disturbs me now, so I shall try to relate, as best I can, what I believe to have happened and spurred Abez to do what he did.

As I said before, Abez was happy. He loved Aria and she loved him. But where he was a focused person, she was easily distracted. And it is this that I believe caused Abez his anxiety.

One hot day, as if there were any other kind in Jahar, Aria came into the shop to see Abez. She told him of a party that evening at the Shizar's residence. She was to attend with her parents, who were wealthy enough to be invited. This was nothing new to Abez. Aria went to social functions with her parents often. He knew he would never be invited to go with her. Her parents were not exactly disapproving of him, but they would prefer their daughter to take up with someone a little more to their standards.

The next day Abez came into the shop quite angry. Usually, I discounted his mood swings to the emotions of a young man, but this seemed a bit beyond his normal moods. I asked him what was wrong, but he would not explain. Again, not knowing at the time, I did not press matters. I went back to my work. It was then that he must have slipped into the back where I kept the more powerful of my enchantments and tools for their making. When he approached me a few minutes later and asked if he could be dismissed for the day as he was not feeling well, I noticed his anger had seemingly settled down, so I let him go.

I did not see him the next morning, nor the day after that. It wasn't until the third day that he returned. He apologized for missing work, telling me that he must have been more ill than he thought. Then he asked if Aria had been in to look for him. I told him she had not. That seemed to sadden him then, and he set about catching up on his chores in quiet fashion.

That evening, Abez left the shop at dusk. He stopped on his way out the door and looked at me for a moment, then thanked me for everything I had done for him. Thinking he was just put out by not feeling well, I told him he was welcome and that I would see him in the morning.

I did not see him the next morning. In fact, I never saw him again. This is where I must tell the tale from what I have learned from others and what I have surmised from the items I later found to be missing from my shop.

The next day after Abez thanked me for all I had taught him, his mother came to see me. She asked if I had seen her son that day. She was worried about him as he didn't come home the night before. I told her the last I saw him was when he left the previous evening. She said he had come home and ate dinner quietly then went back out; she thought to go see Aria.