On the eighth night in the Pit, Hrafn Herulason realized that he was going to die. Worse, he realized he was going mad. No food, no drink, and precious little sleep for eight days, and little to no hope of escape from the Pit in which he found himself trapped.. He was beginning to go mad, for certain, reciting little verses in his head to distract himself from his hunger, thirst, and impending doom. And now he was hallucinating – he was certain that he had heard a bird speak to him. Madness.

     Hrafn was an apprentice runecaster, studying under the guidance of a wizard known as Finnur of Uppsalir. Finnur had taken on Hrafn despite the fact that the young man had no money to pay for his apprenticeship, and though Finnur worked Hrafn hard, as any good master works any...

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