Jaime was an artist. A pretty damned good one, if you asked me. But what did I know about art? I can’t even draw stick people to scale.

The world for our role-playing sessions was one I had created in high school. The gang had liked it so much, we just kept playing with it, expanding it almost constantly. I even got a friend who is a professional cartographer to make up a large wall map from my crude sketches of the world.

Jaime had gone through and done drawings of all the major NPC ’s (non-player characters, for you non-gamers who might be reading our little tale). And one of those pictures was exactly what I was looking at right now.

“Oh, wonderful!” he said, smiling. “Master Adrovan will be so pleased you’re awake!”

“Castus?” I asked, no quite believing what I was seeing.

“You recognize me, my lord?” he said.

“Recognize you? I created you! You and your master…” I felt my jaw drop. “Did you say ‘Adrovan’?!”

A voice from the hallway said, “Yes. Master Delisu Adrovan, Fourth Wizard, at your service.”