At the Collegia, the plodding scholars still call him Gossorein's greatest student, as if it were an honor, as if he wishes to be termed as a mere pupil, his name shackled to that of a doddering man whose ambition was only ever limited to gawking up at the planets--and who could not, in the end, make the discoveries that came so easily to de Vouger.

But why should the opinions of such limited men matter to Germond de Vouger (de Gautier), heir of the Gautier blood, rightful master of the mysteries of Ixtador and the Veil? And what use this careful cataloguing of the world's natural laws, when with the sweep of a hand he may smash them instead?