The next morning

He was up before Gerald but not by much. He had to give it to the portly hedge mage; he may be balding and plump but he had scored a sexy woman last night and he was up early enough to welcome the dawn.

The inn hadn't even opened. Aaralon was sitting on the low wall which ran the length of the garden perimeter around the inn when Gerald emerged from the building. "Ah good," announced the inferior mage, "There you are. We're going and we're going right now." Gerald didn't sound rushed. Aaralon was confident the elder man was neither running out on his bill nor fleeing the attention of the bar maid - the hedge mage simply wished to get going.

Equally, Aaralon was sure he had done the right thing by making sure he was ready to go already. It gave the hedge mage one less thing to grumble at his new 'apprentice' about.

"I hope the stable wasn't too uncomfortable," Gerald asked without really meaning it. "If you serve me well then it won't be long before you're spending nights in inns far more impressive than this backwater building. Now listen up. I'm on a quest. It's a fairly dangerous one. From now on you'll have to obey me without question and quickly. You should also know that we're not alone. I know of at least one other mercenary mage who's accepted the Queen's challenge so we have competition."

Gerald looked around as he closed the inn's garden gate behind him. "Do you have everything you need? Good. Don't discuss the details of this mission when we could be overheard, understand? Good. Here's the mission..."