Forty-One: The Scribe

Fitz writes a private history asserting Forging originated when Elderlings overflew the Out Islands in King Wisdom’s time, stripping memories and feelings. He links Red Ship raids to multigenerational vengeance and suggests Outislander scholars studied Six Duchies lore, acquired scrolls, and experimented with life-imbued black stone to craft dragons, nearly rediscovering true creation. He notes a wrecked White Ship carried such stones, likely holding Forged lives. Troubled by the cycle of retaliation, Fitz burns the vellum, deciding some truths should remain untold.

In the present, Fitz lives reclusively in a coastal cottage near drowned Forge with the aging wolf Nighteyes. Starling had brought him a mismatched-eyed boy, Hap, two years prior; Fitz fostered him, teaching letters, numbers, herbs, and archery. Hap tends the hearth, hunts with Nighteyes, and manages Fitz’s Skill-induced episodes with elfbark mixtures.

Through Starling’s visits, Fitz hears how the world has moved on. Lady Patience prospers Tradeford, turning royal projects into gardens and paper. Burrich and Molly raise children—Nettle and Chivalry, with another coming—believing Fitz dead; Starling returned Reddy and Sooty’s colt to Burrich. Kettricken bore Prince Dutiful, who promises to unite Mountain and Buck; Chade advises openly and is lauded; the Fool, acclaimed a hero, fled and vanished after Girl-on-a-Dragon left him at Buckkeep.

Fitz recalls six wandering years—Mountains, time with Witted folk, travels north and south—before settling by Buck. He keeps Verity’s unfinished map unchanged, writes herbals and accounts for Starling to carry away, and accepts a quiet life despite aches and scars.

Yet the Skill gnaws at him. Summer cliffs and open sea tempt him to reach, but no one answers—neither Regal’s disbanded coteries nor Verity-as-Dragon. On the edge of being swept into the Skill, Fitz relies on Nighteyes’s steadying mind and Hap’s careful elfbark to anchor him. He ends dreaming, with Nighteyes, of carving their own dragon—a wistful echo of purpose.