Penance or reward?

---- Dalen Archives, midday till sunset, 2 years later, day 1 ----

During the entire episode with the younger mage, Lucian, Gareth remained quietly behind the old man fearing how this would turn out. To be honest Gareth felt greatly relieved when they finally moved on and entered the room.

The tower room was spacious and covered with rolls of parchment. He glanced at the mess before turning his full attention back to Gareth. "Give me your arm," he ordered. He rolled up the sleeve of his arm. He presented his finger, touching the bare, rather cold skin with force. Arcane magic poured forth from his finger as he traced a sigil, his own personal wizard mark. When he finished, he spoke.

"You are now marked with my own sigil, Master Gareth," he explained calmly as the man grasped at his marked arm. "So long as your penance needs to be served, you will wear it. You are free to leave at anytime, just know that I am aware of you. I ask that you do not flee from here, for it will be unfavorable.

"So long as you wear that mark, you can pass without harassment. You do not need to fear the others, I shall deal with them."

This man, Enanth, just kept on surprising Gareth. He had absolutely no clue as to why this old man was being so kind to him, after all he had just broken into the restricted section in hope of stealing one of the books.  

When the old man summoned all the scrumptious food Gareths jaw dropped. All of this was for him? This was deffintly the strangest punishment he had been subjected to.

Gareth waited until the old man had left before taking a seat by the table. He tried hard to focus on the text that he had asked him to transcribe, but it was impossible for him to ignore the delicious scent of the food right next to him. Slightly hesitantly, he decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to start out by simply tasting one of the dishes. He grabbed the nearest plate where a steaming hot roasted chicken was laying. Having decided only to have a taste he just took on of the legs. As he sank his teeth into the light meat he was a bit surprised by the taste and consistency. Normally he only had raw meat so this was a whole new experience for him. Nonetheless it tasted amazingly. It even made him forget about saving the rest for after he had done his job. Before long the only thing left on the plate was a few bones, though not all of them as quite a few of the bones had been crushed and ended up the same place as the meat. 

Despite how nice it was finally to feel full, Gareth felt quite guilty for being this greedy. Now he really needed to start working if he were to be done before the old man returned. He pushed the plate away, grabbed a pen and quickly began the transcription. 

Just as the sun began to set Gareth finally finished the last sentence of chapter nine. He sighed in relief and leaned back in the chair. He had made it. Now he could finally reward himself with a little something. During the last hour or so he had had his eye on the sweet smelling ham so it was an easy decision. He put the parchements away and replaced them with the large ham. This time however he remembered to use the cutlery provided as he had been taught that this was the most polite way of dining.

The ham too was really tasty and quickly went down in big mouthfulls, though he had to admit that he still preferred anything raw and bloody.

When there was no more of the ham left Gareth took a break. He reminded himself of Ceridens words on how he shouldn't be overeating, though it was a bit late thinking of this now. Despite of how full he was feeling, he couldn't help but think of how nice it would be with a pint or two of fresh blood now, just to wash it all down with.