"No mages? You're lucky. All of them who I've met have relished the power they hold over others, viewing the rest of us as entertaining animals at best and pawns on a game board none of us can see. As for what they said? The High Mage had some sort of issue with me from the moment he pulled me out of the well."

He strokes his chin, thinking. "The apprentices, they were reacting to him--whatever he saw, I'm not sure they perceived the same flaw. But what the master declared was clearly law in their eyes."