Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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After an entry from Bee’s dream journal, “Departure” begins with a gloss of Fitz’s ongoing preparations to leave Buckkeep in pursuit of the Servants at Clerres. How he equips himself and plans to proceed are described, as is how he is sent off by his family and the assembled court of Buckkeep. Fitz notes some unease and sets it aside as the formal farewell proceeds and Fitz sets out with a party suitable to his station towards the Skill-pillar that was Bee’s last known location. Arriving there, Fitz gives a few final instructions, steels himself, and proceeds through the pillar.

Fitz is surprised to find that Lant goes with him, and he is more surprised that Perseverance accompanies them. To their questions, he makes harsh answer, and then he directs them to set up camp as best they can, given their situation. Matters proceed as well as can be expected, and the three take stock of their supplies, making clear that neither Lant nor Perseverance had thought through their actions. Fitz manages to calm himself and assess matters more rationally, although he is still displeased, and he sends through the Skill to Nettle and Dutiful, updating them.

The night passes uneventfully for the three, and the next day sees Fitz go out to hunt, setting Lant and Perseverance to tasks while he purposes to do so. As the pair address them, Fitz makes his way to the old stone-garden, visiting once again Verity-as-Dragon, tending to his lost king and confessing himself thereto. The man within responds to his nephew, easing him into sleep.

Returning to Lant and Per, Fitz makes a kill of a rabbit and learns that the Fool and Spark have been by, using the Skill-stones to travel. Fitz is incredulous as he receives report of their actions.

I‘m minded as I work through this that one of my scholarly somedays–and there are many, as I’m sure those of you whose continued reading I appreciate will have noted–is correction and updating of the work in this webspace. More than one of the prior pieces of writing I’ve referenced in putting together this commentary has needed some adjustment, and I cannot think that those I’ve noticed this time around are the only ones that are in such need. While it’s good to have something to do, it’s an annoyance to have made easily avoidable mistakes in my work; I really should be doing better than that. For such things, I can but apologize, work to proofread what needs it, and try to do better as I move forward.

It might also well be written that the present chapter seems to make some use of deus ex machina, an old device about which I’ve made some comment. There’s setup for such things as might appear so, though; Verity-as-Dragon is hardly new to the Realm of the Elderlings, after all, and the capriciousness of travel through the Skill-stones has been amply and repeatedly attested, in the present volume and others in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. Verity’s response to Fitz might be a bit of a stretch, although it has been noted that the extent of Skill-knowledge that was available exceeds what is available; the recovery of what Regal had sent off to the Pale Woman was incomplete, and much of what was recovered was described either as damaged or at the leading end of substantial language change, such that it was unintelligible to modern-to-the-narrative-milieu readers. Verity, in isolation and seemingly interpenetrated with what might well be called a physical manifestation of Skill and which is used expressly to store and make available for consultation memories, has had time in which to plumb the mysteries of his magic. So perhaps it’s not quite so much deus ex machina, after all, but some variation on Chekhov…

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