Brian stretched at the table, working the crick out of his back as he looked over his notes. The pages were filled with small, surprisingly neat, handwriting, as much information squeezed onto the pages and into the margins as he could manage. It looked somewhat chaotic, especially as the writing covered both sides of the pages, but he could understand it, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Right, I think that’s everything,” he muttered, checking his notes one last time, before slipping them carefully into his satchel and getting up, heading over to the front desk of the library, “Excuse me, Teresa?”
“Yes?” the girl behind the counter said enthusiastically, smiling up at him, “How can I be of assistance, Sir Mage?”
“Just call me Brian,” Brian sighed, having told her his name the previous day when he’d learned hers, “Anyway, I think I’m done gathering all the information I need, so I was wondering if you knew when the trading caravan would be here?”
“Oh, I believe it arrived this morning,” the girl replied, a slightly forlorn look on her face, “Does this mean you’ll be leaving soon?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Brian nodded, “I need to get to the nearest city as soon as possible so I can get…for reasons.”
“So you’ll be going to Loftford?” the girl asked, Brian nodding, “Okay. It was an honour to meet you, Sir Mage.”
“Don’t be so down,” Brian laughed slightly nervously as the girl seemed to deflate, “I’ll probably come back here at some point in the near future. I mean, everyone…well, most people have treated me well. I think I’m going to miss it.”
“Oh!” Teresa gasped, “You’ll come back? Really?”
“I think so,” Brian nodded, before pausing and looking down at the girl, “How about I give you a small present. Do you have a scrap of paper I can write something on?”
“Write something?” Teresa asked, before nodding, handing him a small slip of paper.
Brian quickly wrote a short message in English on it, before handing it back to her, the girl staring at it in amazement.
“Try to decode that before I come back,” he grinned, Teresa nodding enthusiastically, “It’s a short sentence, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Good luck.”
“Thank you, Sir Mage!” the girl called as Brian headed out of the library, turning down the street and walking towards the main square, where the main market was held, and the trading caravan should be gathered.
------
“And that’s the last of it,” Lucas grunted as he placed the box on top of the pile, “Pretty good trade, salt and herbs for preserved Greater Bear meat, wouldn’t you say, Master?”
“I agree,” the older man sitting on the cart the younger man had just off loaded nodded, “Now, how about you take a rest and then you can load up the meat. Once that’s done, we can get ready to head out with the first group tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lucas laughed as he hopped up beside the old man, sitting on the front of their small cart.
“Excuse me,” the voice said, making the pair of them look down at the Mage standing beside them, “I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment?”
“Of course,” the old man nodded as he smiled kindly, “Unfortunately we don’t have much to sell, as we just traded away most of it.”
“I’m not looking to buy anything from you,” the man said, before shaking his head, “Well, I suppose I am, in a way. Are you heading back to Loftford? And if so, would you mind allowing me to travel with you?”
“Loftford?” the pair said, looking at each other, Lucas nodding as he turned back to the Mage, “Yes, that’s where we’re going next.”
“Excellent,” the Mage nodded, “I can’t offer much in the way of payment, but I can also act as a guard for no cost should you need one.”
“A guard?” the old man chuckled as he patted the well weathered wagon, “For this old thing? Sure, why not?”
“Master,” Lucas hissed to the old man as he looked at the Mage, “We don’t know anything about this man, are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“When you get as old as me, you get a good judge of character,” the man replied frankly, nodding to the Mage, “Name’s Gustus, this is Lucas, my apprentice. We’re both Merchants, and you?”
“Brian,” the man replied happily, “I’m a Scribe.”
“A Scribe?” the old man whistled, “What kind? The storyteller, the accountant, or the scroll maker?”
“I dabble in all of them,” Brian shrugged, “Though I haven’t used my Scroll Making Ability bef-, I mean, in a while.”
“I see, pretty expensive to get started with that stuff, what with you needing all those magical components and such,” Gustus nodded, “Profitable once you do get going, though. Well, if you dabble in the lot, you should have a decent story or two to tell, and you could help straighten out our finance ledgers. I’ve been having Lucas do them as practice, but he has a habit of over estimating values, so it’s a little off.”
“Master!” the young man gasped, his face going red as he slouched slightly.
“Sure,” Brian nodded, “When are you planning to leave?”
“Dawn break tomorrow,” the old man nodded, “See you then.”
“Sure thing,” Brian smiled as he walked away, Gustus watching after him carefully.
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Master?” Lucas asked as he watched the Mage leave as well, “He seems…odd.”
“Probably because he is,” Gustus hummed, “But you don’t get to my age without having a level in a Tier Five Ability or two, and mine is telling me that man just reeks of profit.”
------
“Okay, transport secured,” Brian hummed to himself as he walked down the street, looking at the various shops as he wondered through the town, “Now, what to do until tomorrow morning?”
He continued walking, just taking in the ambience of the town and enjoying himself after having been cooped up in the library for the past couple of days. He read a few of the shop signs as he went, soon finding himself on the main road through the town, pausing as his gaze passed over a particular sign.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Arcanus Emporium,” he read, “Sounds like the name of a magic shop if I’ve ever heard one. Let’s check it out.”
“Buy something or get out,” the gruff voice called as soon as Brian entered, making him start slightly as he looked around the shop, not seeing anyone.
“Uhm… I was just hoping to look at some of your scrolls, if you have any,” Brian called out, a loud huff coming from behind the counter as a small figure rose up as though climbing a set of stairs.
The person was about the size of a child, though his body was proportioned like that of an adult, giving a strange impression.
“What?” he barked at Brian’s strange look, “Never seen a Gnome before?”
“No, actually,” Brian shook his head, “At least, not in the flesh.”
“Well congratulations,” the man huffed again, “Now buy something or get out.”
“Okay…do you have any scrolls?” Brian asked.
“Have any scrolls?” the Gnome spat, “This is a magic shop, of course we got scrolls! Far wall, whole shelf of them. Left is the basic stuff, up to intermediate on the right.”
“Right, thank you,” Brian nodded, heading in the direction the gnome was pointing, quickly finding the rolls of paper and other materials, each neatly tied shut with a ribbon, “Okay, let’s see…”
Brian carefully undid the ribbon on one of the left most scrolls, opening it and scanning over the complex magical circle drawn on the inside. He furrowed his brow as he looked over it, noticing a few problems in the formation that just seemed to pop into his head, the entire tangle of magical script making perfect sense to him.
“What the hells do you think you’re doing?” the gruff voice barked, making Brian jump as he turned to look at the gnome scowling back at him, “What? You think you can understand that? Wrote it myself, so I can guarantee the quality. Bet you don’t even know what kind of scroll it is.”
“It’s for a basic Torch spell,” Brian replied, looking back at the scroll, “It should be able to last about two hours and fifty minutes as it is.”
“Aye,” the gnome nodded, staring at Brian with mild astonishment, “Makes a ball of light that lasts about three hours or until dismissed.”
“Yes, but if you straightened this line, swapped these two runes, and inverted this circle, you could get it to last at least six hours,” Brian explained as he pointed out the features on the scroll, “Or until dismissed, I suppose.”
“Six hours?” the gnome snorted, looking at the scroll, “Ridiculous, just straightening a line and swapping a few…and inverting the…wait…that…that could actually work!”
“I’m fairly confident it will,” Brian smiled, before rolling up the scroll and retying it carefully, before grabbing another and opening it, “Hmmm, a food and water purifying spell? But this only purifies up to five pounds of either. If you swapped these two circles and connected them like this…you could probably purify the same amount of both in one go.”
“That’s…” the gnome gasped as he stared at the scroll in amazement, “That’s bloody genius! Are you some kind of idiot savant, kid?”
“No?” Brian blinked, “I just have a fairly high level in Scroll Crafting.”
“Fairly high?” the gnome snorted, “Kid, I’m level eight in Scroll Crafting, the only way you’d ever be able to improve my scrolls is if I purposefully made them badly, or you had a higher level than me! So, what is it?”
“I mean…” Brian said slowly, the gnome just glaring at him as he sighed, “It’s level ten.”
“TEN?!” the man shouted, “Why the bleeding hells didn’t you just say so?! Come on, I have something to show you!”
“Show me?” Brian blinked as he followed after the gnome, the two of them entering the back of the shop, which was crowded with various interesting looking items and towers of rolled up scrolls of various materials.
“Right, sit here,” the gnome ordered, making Brian sit at a small desk in the corner, before dropping a massive book in front of him, “This is a copy of my work, I want you to go through it and improve as many of them as you can!”
“Improve?” Brian asked, the gnome nodding enthusiastically, “Why?”
“What do you mean “why”?” the gnome snorted, “If I get a level ten to improve my designs, I can profit even more off the scrolls I sell!”
“No, I meant why should I? Are you going to pay me?” Brian asked, the gnome freezing for a moment, before he let out another snort.
“Right, should probably do that,” the man growled, “Anything you want in particular?”
“A storage ring would be nice,” Brian shrugged, “Maybe some materials to make my own scrolls?”
“Deal,” the gnome nodded, “Though I don’t have anything too big in the storage ring department, just up to the size of a large backpack, and that one is especially expensive. How about we say you improve at least ten of my designs to the same degree as that Torch scroll, and the ring is yours, and any above that I’ll throw in the equivalent value in materials?”
“Sounds fair,” Brian nodded as he opened the book, seeing the same torch scroll design he’d just been looking at on the first page, “Do you have a pen and some ink I could borrow? I have my own, but I’d prefer to save it.”
“Sure thing,” the gnome nodded, rushing off and returning with a large feather quill that had seen better days, and three bottles of ink, the labels too stained to read what they said, “Now, get to work!”
“Sure,” Brian chuckled as he started writing out the notes on the page, making sure to write in the common script this time, before pausing, “Oh, I don’t even know your name. I’m Brian, by the way.”
“Fontworth,” the gnome nodded, “Now, less chatter, more working!”
------
Brian groaned as he stretched his back, having been hunched over the book for a good eight hours. It was probably already dark outside, not that he could tell, as the backroom of the magic shop he was in had no windows. Fontworth had closed up the shop about four hours ago, only a couple of other customers having come in during that time. Now the gnome was sitting at a gnome sized desk in the other corner of the room, carefully and laboriously drawing out a new scroll, occasionally pausing to look over at Brian.
“I think I’m done,” Brian yawned, getting up and stepping back as the gnome nodded, just finishing up the scroll he was working on as well.
“Too tired?” the gnome chuckled, seemingly unaffected by the later hour, “How many did you manage to do?”
“No, I mean I think I’ve done the whole book,” Brian said, Fontworth freezing for a moment, before he rushed over and started leafing through the pages hurriedly.
“I see, so doing this here…but doing that would, no, if you combine it with this change it remains stable…” Brian watched as the gnome paged through the book, pausing to inspect each page for less than a second before flipping to the next. It took him almost five minutes to get through the entire massive tome, before he sat back heavily in the chair and just stared at the wall in front of him.
“Mr Fontworth?” Brian asked, before the gnome gave a loud sniff, tears suddenly running down his face, “Are you okay?!”
“Okay?” The man asked, turning to look at Brian, “Boy! No, Brian! What you have given me here is…I can’t even express what you’ve done! This is…it’s amazing! I don’t think I could ever repay you!”
“Oh,” Brian said as the gnome wiped his face on his sleeve, leaving a thick trail of snot on the fabric alongside the ink stains, “Uhm…we can just go with our original deal, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not!” the man roared, “With this book as it is, I could sell to the King himself and he would be impressed! No, I must pay you back accordingly! That means enchanted robes! Something better than that piece of twig you call a staff! All the scroll making materials I can fit in that ring! And that’s just to start!”
“J-just to start?” Brian blinked as the gnome ran out of the room, following after him to see the small man grabbing a variety of strange and wonderous items from the various shelves, dumping them on the countertop, “This is too much, Mr Fontworth, I can’t take all this!”
“Ah, of course, you’ll need another storage ring…no, two storage rings, to carry the lot! I can do that!” the old gnome said gleefully, “I am set for life, and it’s all because of you, young man!”
“Please calm down,” Brian groaned as the pile in front of him continued to grow, “I don’t even know what half this stuff is supposed to do or be used for!”
“You’ll figure it out,” Fontworth cackled, “Just read the enchantment runes and you’ll be able to figure it out!”
“Enchantment runes?” Brian asked as he picked up a small glass globe with a brass band around it, looking over it. He quickly spotted the runes carved into the brass, reading them, “A Wayfinder? Can be attuned to a specific place…or point north? A magical compass, then?”
“See, I told you that you could figure it out!” Font worth huffed as he carried a large dark cloth bundle over to Brian, tossing it up onto the counter, “Try that on, it should fit you perfectly thanks to the enchantments. It’ll also keep rain and mud off you and is self-cleaning. Plus, it has some decent defensive charms on it, one of my best pieces!”
“I…I don’t know what to say,” Brian gasped as he unfolded the simple yet elegant looking robe, “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, Brian,” the gnome chuckled as he paused, patting the man on the thigh, “You really have no idea what you’ve done for me, do you? This is the least I could do to repay you. Now, here are your rings, so put them on and store all this stuff!”