More than half of the prospectors had now passed through the entire hall and their minds were searing with a mixture of headache and anticipation. Every time a new figure would emerge from out the hallway to the wide courtyard, the discussions would begin again as they quietly compared the graduates in order to gauge their competitors interests.
“Getting almost any of them would be a huge cultural victory.” Master Tashi murmured to a small group he’d gathered with. “There’s no doubt this will lead to an ‘Academy Wave’, at that point the value of each of them will soar, for lack of a better term.”
A few chuckles came from around him as they all recalled the third to final room.
“It goes without saying, Rafael is coming to build a new industry at the heart of Fint’s Pointers.” Chaz boasted hopefully with a hand to his chest. “There’s no better place for him, don’t you all agree?”
“While I kinda hate to, It probably is best I back down on that one.” Juan Rizel, who’d been the first into the courtyard agreed halfheartedly. Although it’d be a great addition for SikSik, it isn’t a reasonable investment just to bring in a few new menu items.
Clearly, he’d not fully grasped the extent of the man’s wand-making capabilities, and thought it merely ended at cupcakes.
“Okay, but who was that last idiot supposed to be?” The man who’d followed behind Chaz asked, missing the point of the demo completely despite an entire fifteen minutes spent looking at it.
“Aa—” Tashi began with an uncertain expression.
“That…” Chaz spoke, with similarly little to add.
“The dud?” Juan chuckled with a shake of his head. “There’s always gotta be one.”
None of the small group had been able to make sense of the simple sculpture left sitting plainly on the table centered in the final student’s room. Juan had thought he was just crazy when he’d left the room, so hearing the others making similar remarks made them all feel slightly more comfortable.
“That’s right, did the final Prospector show up once I went inside?” Chaz asked, remembering the missing figure from the small group. The ancient monarch had always been present at the graduation ceremony for as long as any of the group could remember. Even Master Tashi, who’d been attending the event since the mid 80’s had never recalled the legendary Avalonian Monarch failing to attend the event.
“The fourth prince arrived via the port-gate a few minutes after you went inside.” The man who’d been fifth in the line filled in for Chaz, similarly curious about the unexpected change.
No one but the monarch and his entourage had ever been allowed passage to Isla Lantis via the port-gate, so how had a fourth prince been permitted usage. It struck all the men as odd but gossiping about it aloud would likely only cause trouble so they held their tongues until they could find out more information once they’d left the Island after the Graduation Ceremony the following day.
As a bell rung, and another new figure joined the courtyard to discuss the massive potential; again, the eighth room was occupied by another clueless prospector.
On the table centered in the room, a handful of feet away from where a messy headed lanky student stood, sat a simple-looking device made from a handful of components.
Resting on the table, two short L shaped brackets rose to secure a small copper tube with a dark line bisecting the entire contraption.
In front of the pile of scrap metal, a short five-inch-long pencil was left carelessly.
The student didn’t say much, he responded to the questions he needed to, but he refused to speak a single word about what sat on the table.
Unless the Prospector was willing to accept his condition, but who would?
“I’ll tell you exactly how it works if you agree to become my partner.” The student again explained after another Prospector laughed his way out of the room a few moments prior.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Greedy, aren’t we?” Yan Zi huffed with a chuckle. “Most would hesitate to ask for even half the profits, yet you want half the sky?”
“I am a good judge of value.” The student shrugged with a quick glance to the simple demo unit that’d gone over the heads of every single Prospector so far.
“As am I.” Yan Zi agreed, turning on his heels and walking out before the bell even struck once.
Again the student could only sigh, he knew he was asking for a lot, but it was either this or he pretend it’d never even existed. Unless he had the security he needed, he wouldn’t reveal his hand.
He’d gotten used to waiting alone in the room after the first few left, but still the nerves inevitably grew, as more and more Prospectors came and went through the hall.
‘They’re nearly done’, he thought to himself as he glanced up at the clock hanging above the door. Two more to go.
“Hello,” A man finally said after a few additional long minutes of waiting. “My name is Carter Walsh, I’m here representing W.C.A.F. as Chairman as well as the Bureau of Magical Usage and Ethics as Chief Inspector”
“Good afternoon,” The student said, growing a wide smile as his target finally landed in sight. “My name is Victor Forsynth, and my specialty is thievery and black magics.”
“…”
“Well, technically I grew up working as the in-betweener for a couple of ‘fences’ but once I got older, I found a knack for the craft. I specialized in art forgery and ghost theft.”
Enter and exit without even being known, commit the crime without the victim ever becoming aware. Ghost theft is often a phrase that makes the extremely wealthy shiver in their boots because there’s practically no way of even knowing if you’ve been hit until decades down the road when the forgery is detected, or the illusion is somehow disturbed.
Carter knew the crime better than most as he’d been on the front line of a number of notable cases of the crime.
“You know what the Bureau of Magical Usage and Ethics is responsible for, don’t you?” Carter asked with narrowing eyes as he held his gaze with Victor.
“How could I not?” Victor asked with an almost shocked tone. “But we aren’t here to talk about the ‘Hope Diamond’ case; come take a look.”
Again, Carter bit down on his lip almost hard enough to draw blood. This kid was clearly trying to rile him up, but Carter couldn’t understand the purpose behind it.
One thing he knew for sure of though was that this was the man Katie warned him about.
Following Victor’s motion, Carter was then put face-to-face with the same device that’d left the others scratching at their scalps.
“What—” Carter began to ask as he probed it with his mana as well as a few easy spells designed into his wand. He detected neither energy, nor any vibration from the device so he slowly began inspecting it visually.
Victor again smiled as he watched the respected engineer inspecting his workmanship.
“May I?” Carter asked, motioning with his brow towards the pencil.
“Of course,” Victor assured him with another gesture. “You can do whatever you want with it.”
Carter nodded to the approval and slowly plucked the pencil from off the desk. It seemed normal, so clearly this wasn’t the key he’d been searching for.
Holding it loosely in between two of his fingers, Carter considered for a moment, glancing between the implement and the device left sat on the table.
Finally after a few long moments of consideration, an idea clicked into Carter’s head, and he gingerly slid the point of the pencil into the open end of the copper pipe sat above the set of short legs.
Immediately Victor grinned as the second person realized a piece of the riddle. He was hopeful in his heart that Carter would notice the next part, but he was anything but confident.
After pressing it slowly and watching the pointed end eventually appear from out the other side, Carter stopped, mumbling a few words quietly as no noticeable result came from his actions.
With the pencil now half-way through the tunnel, Carter paused as he considered how next to go about interpreting the demonstration. A feeling pestered him as he looked down at the dull point of the yellow pencil. Stepping forward again to grab the pencil and try a different technique, Carter bumped the table subtly and watched as a strange thing happened right before his eyes.
Although the tube and stands moved as he nudged the unsteady table, the pencil stayed strangely still as if both side were securely locked within the halves of the tube.
Thoughts aligned instantly, and Victor needn’t even give a nod as Carter reached down and grabbed one of the segments of the copper pipe.
Just as he’d predicted, the section easily slide away from its partner, creating a gap of several feet between the two short segments of piping.
Still however, the pencil didn’t budge, with the point sticking out safely from the right-side, while the eraser sat feet away still nestled on the left-side.
Stepping a bit closer, Victor flicked the eraser and sent it rocketing out the other side of the device, smiling brightly as he did.
“This…” Carter began, looking between the pencil rolling on the floor and the huge gap it’d clearly just passed within a manner of moments.
“It’s the future of transport.” Victor answered for him with a nod. “And all it costs is fifty percent.”
The offer was almost too good to be true, Carter thought to himself as his eyes widened the more he considered the possibilities this enabled.
“Fifty percent, as in, everything.” Victor reiterated in case it hadn’t been fully clear. “So yeah, unless you agree to hand over half of all your assets and bring me in as a legal partner in all future business dealings, I’ll destroy my research, and silence everyone who knows about it.”