Sure, let’s do another early callback with Gravedust’s “I suppose you will find out,” which he also said in Chapter 1 and which he’ll riff on in the series’ closing line.

My favorite kind of scene to write is one that unfolds like this one did. All I really knew was that this page would be Gravedust giving E-Merl some encouragement between the interview and cave scenes, and every line of it was just how I thought each character would react to the previous line I set down. It’s like playing ping-pong with yourself. (Phil did edit in the insult “wastrel,” improving on “oaf.”)

A few readers noticed that E-Merl’s “candle exercise” is pretty similar to the beginning of Robert Aspirin’s Myth Adventures series, in which the fallen magician Garkin trains his apprentice Skeeve. But Garkin’s a more complex figure than E-Merl’s masters seem to have been. He may have insulted Skeeve and even smacked him now and again, but overall he was more nurturing than abusive (as seen in the Phil Foglio adaptation at right). E-Merl hasn’t gotten that kind of praise from a fellow magician until, arguably, now, and he’s not quite sure what to do with it. Once Gravedust realizes mere compliments won’t do, he retreats to being a bit cryptic, hoping that the puzzle will motivate E-Merl to chew on his words rather than dismiss and forget them.