"We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size." - Bernard de Chartres.
First, I must thank Patrick Rothfuss, who laid the foundation stone by stone, word by careful word. There is art in that work. To begin here is to sit beside a fire and listen for names in the dark, to find the world strange and new again. Without such a beginning, I would have wandered off long ago, my interest spent, my feet sore.
Next, let me thank TacticalDo, who offered their own "Price of Remembering" without obligation, let, or lean. In that first version they found the frame of the third book, and in reading their words, I felt a door unlock. I realized that I, too, was allowed to take up that work and shape it with my own hands.
To those who shared their thoughts and theories, I owe you a debt. You struck sparks from flint where alone I would have found none, and we all burned brighter for it. Many of your ideas proved fertile ground, the most fruitful of which I have named in the appendix.
And last, my thanks to the patient souls who sat with hours of interviews and set those words down in careful rows. They built a catalogue from scattered talk, all thorns and snags, so that small truths, long buried, might at last be found.