4

Mayor Stephan of Elith had grand magical ambitions, ones that went beyond the knowledge of the chancellors of the Royal Arcane Academy and certainly beyond the knowledge of the crown. Non-traditional talents like your illusions were a source of particular interest to him, and he needed all the knowledge he could get. More of it even than you realized when he hired you.

Odd magical quirks like your illusions are so unfashionable that you've learned to keep them secret, and most of your previous employers had no use for them lest they bring the wrath of the elemental mages of the Royal Arcane Academy down upon their heads. It took a true eccentric like Stephan to find some interest in the false sights and sounds you could create.

As Stephan studied the lengths and limits of your powers, you became privy to the nature of some of his odder research. In addition to magical peculiarities, Stephan was fascinated by demons. Not merely in ways to defeat them when they broke past the sealed portal that mercifully separates their realm from the mortal one, but in their realm itself, their natures, their history. He had a whole volume on the life of the half-demon sorcerer Damian Fairgrieve, who tried to open the portal two hundred years ago, and the grotesque rumors that his descendants still worked to make his plans a reality. You had to admit on glancing at it that it was more complimentary than a book on the man who nearly tore the world apart had any right to be.