The frozen wind howled outside the Master's Domicile, though it was warm inside. The orange glow of the firelight danced and played with deep shadows in the 'den', and Janus, a young man almost 17 summers old now, hovered in the entryway. His blue eyes looked troubled as he tried to summon the courage to do what he had to. He knew that there would be a fight. The Master was not one to brook willfulness in his pupil, a lesson Janus had learned early in his apprenticeship. He half turned away as his nerve slipped away from him. He then steeled himself and turned back, squaring his shoulders. He froze, caught between his heart and his respect for the old man who sat smoking a pipe entranced in the dancing flames.

"Come Janus, sit.... and tell me what troubles you" Goentryx's voice split the crackling of the logs in the fireplace as easily as it split the hesitation in Janus' resolve.

The young man responded, moving to the floor beside the Master's favorite chair. He sat on the floor and drew his knees to his chest. His own eyes settled into the coals as his mind whirled and tried to find the right way to frame his opening statement.

"Master... Tob is leaving when the weather breaks. He is going to join the High Kings Justifiers in the Northlands."

Janus' voice stopped short.... his eyes flickering up to the old man, to try to guage his reaction. (of course, the Masters face betrayed nothing, but he nodded, listening.

"I would ask your blessing to join him. The Kingdom needs me. Tob needs me. We've always looked after one another...." Janus tried to leave it at that, but the words started to tumble from his mind, quite unbidden. "My Brothers have gone North and farmer Wallace's sons have gone as well. The Steward has sent out a call for all able bodied men. I know I'm not much with the scimitar, but I know how to use Beldrems embrace to heal well enough. (a slight exaggeration). Everyone is going, and I would do my part." His voice caught in his throat again, and he cringed inwardly, realizing that he'd overstepped.

Goentryx turned and inclined his head to look at the boy as the firelight lent his eyes an eerie glow. "Janus, you are young. Your training is incomplete. You are apprenticed to me by your own vow until such time as I say you are ready to leave and become a Druid in your own standing. Janus, you're not ready." He turned back to the fire, and in his mind the discussion was over. Janus,however, felt anger in his chest. It burned hot as the coals in the bottom of the bricked fireplace.

"I've been your faithful pupil for nine years, Master. In that time I've learned much, and I'm grateful for your teachings. But the world turns outside of this Grove!!" Janus voice crested, the first time it had ever been raised in the Masters earshot. Janus was beyond caring. His anger boiled out uncontrolled and seething.

"Tob is my Brother-in-Choice. He should not be there alone. I am supposed to watch out for him, and he for me. He will find himself on those frozen fields alone and sorely pressed, and here I will sit with my nose in a book and my feet before your fire! If he dies in those frozen hills, and you've held me here I will......I will...." Janus voice trailed off, unable to think of a threat that wasn't hollow words.

To the apprentice's surprise the Master did not react in anger or stern harsh rebuke. His voice was filled with understanding and commiseration.

"You think your friend will perish cold and alone, and the trials of these times will pass you by leaving you here anonymous. You think you will be branded a coward by inaction. These feelings are just and valid, my pupil. However, it is not your destiny to write your name in the snow of the North with the blood of Dolfanc. The Father has another plan for you. You must trust me on this."

Janus opened his mouth as if to rail some more, but the Masters track had caught him off guard... Valid...just? He's never given me such credits before. He struggled to find a way to circumvent this tactic by the old man as his eyes darted to the fire and back to the Master's.

"How do you *know* that Master? How do you know Tob is to go off without me? That just does not seem right."

Goentryx looked back into the fire, and pulled out his pipe. He began to load it absently as he thought about his response.

"Faith, Janus...that's how I know. One more sword arm will not win this war or even end it. There is something in you, lad. I saw it that day at the gulley when you watched the flock of vultures at their business. Step back, now, and see the bigger picture as you saw the bigger picture that day. You know that you cannot win this war with a staff in your hands, nor will Tob win it with his bow. That boy will live... or he will not... You dying alongside him, will not serve the Fathers plan. I am sorry, Janus...but you must remain and finish what you have started. Now sit with me this evening. Try to ignore the trees and see the forest."

Janus fell silent.. he did not want to accept this. He wanted to curse the old man for being a fool and join Tob at the ships setting sail for the battlefields to the North. He did not, though. He sensed the old man was right, and he was behaving the petulant child. Even so.... if Tob died in the Northlands, he didn't know if all the deep thought and big picture wisdom in the world would ever be enough for him to forgive Goentryx ....or....himself.