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From the Journal of Theagnosia Dilakar, Aeromancer Adjutant

Halima is one of the characters who may join your party in The Broken Hourglass.

halima pic I cannot put off nominating that new senior assistant any longer-that insufferably smug Badem remains the most qualified, although I fear I might shove him off a cliff as soon as entrust him with anything important. But the position must be filled, as my Chief Assistant, H. Phaenon, has decided to spread her wings and fly.

(Did I just write that? Age rears its ugly head in many forms, it would seem. I had not expected trite metaphor to be one of them.)

Yes. Halima is gone, leaving tomorrow for Mal Nassrin, wherever that is. Never to return? I doubt that. The same easily-given affection and near-depthless capacity for sentiment which urges her to her birth family will bring her back to us in time. Probably far less than is average for those on Tour.

They all have it difficult, these young men and women. No matter what they recall, or what word their correspondences bring from the mainland, they invariably have an impossible, distorted view of what Tour means for them. Halima, I suspect, will find it more trying than most. She will seek anyone and everyone who was a part of her life before her training here, and whether they find her over- or underwhelming, they will not, and cannot, be what she expected. And oh, how Halima hates unmet expectations, most of all her own failure to meet them. As many years as she has worked under my tutelage, it never ceases to amaze me how she can project such a calm air of rationality one moment and the next, explode, a ball of nerves and emotion. As if, unsure what the best response to a given problem would be, she decides to try them all, to show how earnestly engaged she is in the situation.

(Did I just write "calm air"? I really must spend more time on vocabulary exercises.)

It's a guilty thing, I know, but I rarely hope for our young Adepts to have a truly enjoyable Tour-after all, if they enjoyed themselves too much on the mainland, they might never return. I find myself only holding out that good tiding for the likes of Halima-the ones I know will find their visit to the Empire draining, disappointing, and all around unsatisfying. Hardly karmic insurance, but perhaps on some level the exercise is good for my soul, nonetheless.

Before she left, she spoke glowingly of her parents and siblings-too glowingly. The pattern is common enough. Families are usually more than eager to correspond with our trainees for the first few years on Argoniss. They worry about their young ones and still feel attached enough to want that active hand in their development. But absence, if truth be told, promotes detachment and forgetfulness. The young men and women who were once coddled children become adults with abilities far beyond the imaginations of the peasants who gave birth to them. And they know it, as surely as we know it, and gradually they let go. Most embrace or accept this change in time. Halima denies it exists entirely. Was it the same for all of us? Perhaps.

Perhaps I am just burying myself in thoughts of Halima to avoid writing a letter of introduction to Badem. I would like nothing better for her to glide in tomorrow, her plans forgotten. I know it may be a few years before Halima ends her Tour and comes home. But I will be happy to welcome her back.

-- Thea.

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