Savar was a white mage, a colleague of Tsauderei and Evend of Bereth Ferian, though a couple of decades older. He discovered his magical calling during the then-required ten hear hermitage that the great mages must complete before they were granted access to the study of higher magics. He actually spent twenty years as a wandering hermit, eventually ending up in the mysterious Shendoral Forest in Sartor, where he established an excellent relationship with the Loi, the indigenous race who live there.

On the strength of that contact, when he returned and finished his studies, he was appointed Sartor's land protection mage, young as he was, at not quite fifty. And so began many years of happy, productive life until Norsunder struck against Sartor in the 4730s. He was separated from the court and Twelve Towers mages, did the best he could to protect the land and in fact succeeded enough that Norsunder's time freeze did not wither and eventually kill all living things. He then set himself the task of rescuing whoever he could, beginning with the Landis family, for he knew that having at least one of them alive would do much to heal and hearten battered Sartor. He discovered the youngest of the royal children alive, in the hands of her governess, but by then Norsunder had lethal tracer wards lying in wait for transfers. So Savar used some Loi magic to bind the two in a time stasis, where Norsunder could not find them, and left a message that his old friend Tsauderei would understand. He had faith Tsauderei would be risking himself to help from the outside, a faith that was not mistaken. It took Tsauderei a very long time indeed, but he never laid aside the task until he located them, and then he had to prepare with extreme care so that Norsunder would not be alerted to his discovery.

Savar scooped to Shendoral as many refugees as he could, mostly finding children, as the binding spells affected them more slowly than it did adults. He had been aided in his work by the Loi through the Aroel (their spokesman in human form) and Merewyn Dei, who was learning Loi magic. But the two nearly got caught in Norsunder's binding, and when they shifted, their child, also named Merewyn (but she became Linet early on for the sound of her laughter) was inadvertently left behind. Savar took the baby to his own place, expecting the Loi to find a way to reclaim her.

The Loi couldn't find her due to magical interference, except in dreams, but she of course did not have the training to find them except in the dream realm. Savar had no notion of taking care of children, so when orphans fetched up in Shendoral as refugees, he made a safe place for them, and left them to themselves. He also left Linet to herself: he'd lived in the forest his entire life, and felt it was perfectly safe. And he was so unworldly he tended to forget about such matters as education: in his memory, he'd just always known how to read and study. He also kept expecting the Loi to find a way back to Linet, so she could learn Loi magic, which was different than what humans learned.

Later--before he vanished--he discovered signs that he'd been aided in his great spell. In seeking who, and why, he risked himself increasingly and eventually he was caught, just before the enchantment was broken. But even then he'd managed to lay some small traps to trip up Norsunder, and to instruct Linet to find her cousin as soon as she broke the ward laid against her and entered the kingdom. Because he had no doubt that Yustnesveas Landis would come to reclaim her land: she was a Landis, and perhaps more important, she'd been found and educated by Tsauderei.

Categories: Sartor