Magic makes you different, makes others look upon you with suspicion. Many think those having such strangeness are dangerous, threatening, and also, somehow underserving of such a 'gift.'
What Bertok had not related when the bishop gave him this mission was his greatest, most buried secret—he possessed such an unnatural ability. Now, as a minstrel bard, he travels the four provinces of Kaereya, forced to use his magic against others to expose them, and hopefully, he will not be caught.