Tekin Kashami sat on the deck of his large villa, overlooking the rolling Pennsylvania mountains. Ordinarily he would be studying at this time of day, but he had temporarily forsaken his books to study the rich landscape he had often wandered in. He wore an unbuttoned, starched white dress shirt hanging untucked over black slacks. He was midly aware that there was a war going on, the War to End All Wars, as they said, but was also quite aware that it would end and more terrible conflicts would follow. Tekin was a powerful wizard, with a quick intellect and the ability to swirl time as if it were water. He could make it flow forwards, backwards, faster, slower or stop all together, as the situation required. But beneath his ash blonde hair was a brain which knew how to solve most situations with no magic at all, just a few quick words with the wisdom of experience.
The wise may glean more about a man from how he lives than could ever be told by way of biography, so allow me to give you the tour. In his home were piles of ancient books in a dozen dead languages, each with a thousand pages of common knowledge and one of unique truth which could be found nowhere else. Such esoteric nonsense filled a large library and most of the master bedroom. Down the hall from these two adjacent refuges was a large kitchen, a parlour which entertained no one but dust bunnies and another bedroom which had not been touched since its occupant's blood had been spilled. When he had come home from that great battle, he had simply nailed a piece of paper to the door which read "Carpe diem." But that is another story.
Next to the kitchen was a dining room set for one, a place to take a hot shower (sharing the kitchen's water supply) and a small vault. Had you, upon leaving the library, gone left instead of right and passed up the door to the patio, you would have come up on a large , nearly empty room with a number of strange symbols written on the floor and walls. This was the room Tekin called "The Heart." It was heavily enchanted in a way which prevented a wandering eye from detecting his presence. It did not block someone from seeing him, without an active output of energy, that would be impossible. It simply encouraged them not to linger on this place and to keep searching elsewhere. It had served him well so far.
Past this was a guest room and a training room, where a few wooden dummies were tossed about occasionally to see how precisely Tekin could control them.
It was from this little corner that the wizard observed the world, too lonely to care that he was alone. He was very old by this time, but looked to be about twenty. His blue eyes had all the vibrance of a boy half that as they scanned the mountainside, but none of the joy. His mouth tightened as he looked south east. There was some small change going on there, but Tekin could not put his finger on what. He knew he did not like it. He thought he felt a butterfly's wings flapping in the ominous way which causes a mighty storm. The sky was still blue and the birds still sang, but Tekin felt the need to go inside and study. Like he must prepare. He told himself he was boxing with shadows, but he went in the library anyway and began to examine a tome on healing spells.
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