“Oh, there, that’s probably him,”
“Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't think he’s going to be very happy to see me…”
“It will be alright; just tell him everything you told me last night, and I’m sure he’ll see the merit in that.”
The voices hushed as Erdrik materialized in the main hall, coming to a sudden halt as his eyes locked on Xandar’s unexpected guest.
“What is she doing here?” he demanded.
Xandar inhaled deeply, blurting the words out in a hurried cascade, leaving no room for Erdrik to intervene. “Mauriel and I got to talking after you... uh... left last night, and I think she could be exactly what you’re looking for in an assistant.”
“Assistant?” Mauriel hissed. “You told me I would manage client relations and communicate requests.”
Xandar ran a hand through his hair, his face contorting briefly, as though he had bitten into a particularly sour lemon. “Well, we never really came up with a name for this role, and it does sound better the way you put it.” He turned to Erdrik, a triumphant spark of realization in his eyes. “See? That’s what I mean - Mauriel is a really good communicator, which is exactly what we need for our more, as she said, client-facing side of things.”
But Erdrik was not about to give in so easily. He folded his arms and fixed Mauriel with a piercing gaze. “And what do you know about working with clients?”
“Everything!” Mauriel smiled, folding her arms and mirroring his posture. “I work as a translator, carrying messages from elves to men, from dwarfs to elves and so on. I’ve served in the courts of kings and queens, worked with lords and merchant guilds alike. I know my way around people.”
“Sure didn’t seem that way the other night,” Erdrik muttered coldly.
They stared each other down for a while, a standoff between Erdrik’s squinted scrutiny and Mauriel’s unwavering smile.
“Alright, if your work truly is that important,” Erdrik conceded at last, “Why would you want to leave it in favor of our dim cellar?”
“I’ve always found magic fascinating, though I never really sat down to try and study it myself. And from what Xandar tells me, this guild is unlike any I’ve heard of before, which makes me all the more curious.” Mauriel said without hesitation. “Besides, it would be nice to take a break from traveling for a while and live close to my mom.”
“It’s not really a guild, but we can discuss that later,” Erdrik said, as always, amazing Xandar with his ability to pick on the least relevant details. “Let’s proceed to my office. I'll explain what is needed for this role.”
Xandar caught her sending a playful wink his way as she followed Erdrik down the dimly lit depth of the hall, a glimmer of triumph in her eye.
“You’re looking quite sharp today,” Erdrik pointed out as Xandar descended into the university’s cellar the following morning.
Xandar had wrapped up his tasks early the day before. He was done with his assignments, and while Erdrik, now accompanied by Mauriel, was out hunting for potential clients, found himself with nothing better to do than count the cobwebs already forming on the ceiling. It also happened to be the day Erdrik delved into the tedium of accounting - counting and dividing the recent earnings their organization had made - and when Xandar departed that evening, he carried a weighty bag of coins tucked away in a secret pocket within his robes, guarded by potent spells.
“Oh, that,” Xandar chuckled, glancing down at the rich, dark purple sleeves of his robes as if seeing them for the first time. “My old ones were quite frayed, and I reckoned a wizard should look more respectable.”
“Good!” Erdrik nodded with approval. “We are, after all, a serious organization, and our appearance should reflect that. You make an impression wherever you go, not just when meeting clients.”
“Right.. So is Mauriel..?” Xandar raised an eyebrow, leaving the question to hang in the air as he scanned the room.
“She’s set to arrive later today,” Erdrik replied, oblivious to Xandar’s relieved sigh. “She’s visiting the jewelers’ guild this morning. I’ve been trying to get their business for some time now. Initially, they needed time to deliberate with all the guild members. Then, they wavered after finding a wizard who promised to do the same work for half the price. It took considerable effort to persuade them to work with us. But finally, last night, a messenger came from the guild with the signed contract.”
“And you already trust Mauriel enough to let her meet with them alone?” Xandar asked in surprise.
“She accompanied me on another client meeting yesterday, and she seemed to grasp the essentials. There’s no better way to test her skills than through practical fieldwork,” Erdrik explained, “Besides, I’ll be in and out meetings all day. With his new contract, our need for another wizard grows increasingly pressing.”
When Mauriel returned several hours later, the line of wizards waiting behind Erdrik’s door had already stretched all the way to the staircase.
“Word of this place must have spread throughout town already,” she told Xandar, stopping by his cluttered desk.
“It’s definitely more people than I have seen here the other two times,” Xandar agreed, glancing at the queue.
“Other two times?” Mauriel looked at him suspiciously. “What happened to the previous wizards?”
Xandar could hear Sheila’s voice in his mind, clear and fearful as it echoed in the hall. Blood she could handle, she had told him, but tentacles crawling through the wall were a whole different matter. He smiled nervously. “That’s a long story...” he began, but to his relief, Mauriel quickly interjected, “Great, you can tell me over a drink!”
She moved to the desk opposite his and settled in, scribbling notes in her leather bound notebook. Once the door to Erdrik’s office creaked open, she leaped up and nimbly weaved her way through the line of hopeful interviewees to peek inside before anyone else had a chance to occupy the coveted chair.
“I have the requests from the guild. Do you want to take a look?” she asked and Xandar picked a note of surprise in Erdrik’s tone as the later responded with, “Already?”
But he agreed nevertheless, inviting the next wizard to wait in his office while he went over to Mauriel’s desk, Xandar eavesdropping curiously.
“That’s rather short,” Erdrik mumbled as he read. “You’re saying here that they want to protect the guild building so that no one could steal jewelry, coins or other precious equipment. Well, which is it?”
Mauriel appeared momentarily puzzled. “What do you mean? It sounds quite straightforward to me.”
“It isn’t. Preventing people from entering is one thing - you cast protection spells on the windows, doors, or an aura over the entire structure.” Erdrik explained, his tone growing impatient, “But preventing items from being stolen implies casting protection on certain items, or a particular room or vault where they are kept. Two entirely distinct matters. We need to know which of these they want.”
Mauriel fell silent, and Xandar could imagine her dumbfounded expression.
“Alright,” she said eventually. Xandar heard the scraping of her chair as she stood.
“Go back and sort all of those details. Is it only protection from breaking in or protection to specific items? We must be crystal clear.” Erdrik kept lecturing after her, his voice a blend of annoyance and determination.
It went quiet again after Mauriel had left. Xandar kept himself busy by researching all the protection spells he could find in preparation for the work, pausing periodically to brew himself a cup of tea and watching the line of wizards move slowly as one after the other they left Erdrik’s office, hope-filled expressions painting their faces. From the first moment he saw them, Xandar could tell that they were not accepted and wondered how long it would take for the understanding to sink in. Mauriel returned after another couple of hours and sat down to organize her notes, before settling to lurk behind Erdrik’s door, ready to barge in at the first sign of opportunity. This time, when Erdrik came over to her desk, it took longer for him to review her work.
“Now that they know there’s an option to protect specific items too, they seem interested in that. But we agreed that they would discuss and provide me with a list," Mauriel said after a prolonged silence.
“That’s an entirely different task,” Erdrik pondered aloud. “We’ll need to understand exactly what they want, and perhaps this would be a separate charge as well. However the essence remains the same - we need a comprehensive understanding of how, what, and when.”
“I don’t understand,” Mauriel said, her tone growing frustrated.
“Do they want protection for the entire building? The doors? The windows? And should it operate continuously or on a specific trigger, for instance, when they depart?” Erdrik explained.
This time, Mauriel interjected. “And what, in your esteemed opinion, is the most effective approach?”
“Well,” Erdrik began, his voice a measured cadence of wisdom, “Usually, a trigger is set - a kind of alarm. People would activate it each night and deactivate it during the day. But it all depends on the specific requirement.”
A triumphant smile flickered across Mauriel’s face. “Perhaps they themselves are uncertain about their needs and rely on us to provide them with examples and recommendations.”
“And indeed, we shall,” agreed Erdrik, “But only after we have the complete picture.”
The dance continued for several more rounds, Mauriel’s heels striking the floor with increased determination each time she ascended. On what must have been the fourth or fifth occasion - Xandar had already lost count - they both waited, holding their breaths, as Erdrik pored over Mauriel’s meticulous notes and the summary of the meeting. Even with his back turned, Xandar could sense the silent sigh of relief escaping Mauriel when Erdrik finally pronounced, “Alright, so they want magical protection that would bar people, other than the ones defined as guild members, from entering either through doors or windows. That’s clear. That’s good.”
“And they want to have the flexibility to alter and redefine who is permitted to enter and who is not, as per their need. See the note below,” Mauriel added.
“Excellent. Now, let’s distill these demands into specific, single-purpose statements,” Erdrik instructed.
“And how is that different from what’s written here exactly?” Mauriel asked, the edges of each pronounced word dipped with sarcasm.
“Presently, it’s a jumble of words. All the requests are just meshed together,” Erdrik explained, his voice also growing spikes. “What I want instead are clear statements, each articulating a single task that we need to design and fulfill. For instance, you mentioned they wanted the ability to define who can enter and to alter this definition as required - that’s one statement. It should read something like this: ‘As a guild member, I want to be able to define who is permitted to enter the guild house and modify these permissions, so that the people I select won’t be affected by the spell protecting the building.’”
Mauriel considered his words for a moment. “Isn’t it a bit redundant?”
“No, it’s precise, unambiguous, and outlines what must be achieved and for what purpose. That’s the proper way to proceed; otherwise, we risk wasting time working on the wrong thing,” Erdrik insisted.
“But take the ‘so that’ part, for instance - surely it’s evident that they want our services to prevent theft and break-ins in the first place. Why restate the obvious in each paragraph? It seems self-explanatory to me,” Mauriel countered.
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“There are different ways to accomplish a task, and unless we grasp the exact intention behind it, we might craft the wrong spell,” Erdrik asserted, his tone echoing with authority.
There was a momentary pause, then Xandar had to stifle a chuckle behind his hand when Mauriel, her tone dead serious, remarked, “Were you the sort of child who arranged their toys by size and color before bed?”
Xandar managed to keep his amusement in check, fearing Erdrik’s potential ire. To his surprise, Erdrik appeared genuinely puzzled, as if the jest had flown right past him.
“What does this have to do with anything?” he blurted out, annoyed, but not furious. “In any case, that is how we should work going forward. I’ll review these once you’re done, and tomorrow you’ll need to confirm everything with the guild before we begin crafting the spells.”
This time, Erdrik didn’t linger for a response, retreating to his office. A solitary interviewee still waited in the hallway, and as Erdrik beckoned him inside, Xandar could see that the determination that had previously marked the young wizard’s features had dissolved, leaving behind only a concerned sense of confusion.
“Done,” Mauriel declared, dropping her notebook onto Erdrik’s desk. It landed with a muffled thud. Several hours had passed, during which she was writing relentlessly. Xandar had exhausted all the books they kept in the cellar by then and was now searching for new ways to extend his research, determined not to leave before Mauriel. After Erdrik’s last interview was complete, no more wizards arrived at the cellar, and a pleasant silence settled in.
“I’ll look at it later,” Erdrik said. Xandar heard the legs of his chair scrape against the floor, heralding his appearance in the main hall with Mauriel closely in tow.
“Not one good candidate?” Xandar asked, reading Erdrik’s weary expression.
“There were some bright minds here and there, but none of the attitude I’m looking for,” Erdrik retorted. His expression brightened the following moment, and he looked up. “Mauriel, perhaps you can be of help and prepare more brochures that we can distribute across town. We shouldn’t limit our focus to the university alone; there might be other wizards living here or passing through Rovalia who could be a good fit.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, unless I’ll have to rewrite it five times,” Mauriel retorted, casting a side glance his way, which bounced right back. “Do you have an example of your current brochure?”
Erdrik vanished into his office and returned with a scroll, which he handed to Mauriel. She unfurled it and quickly scanned the text.
“No name?” she remarked.
Erdrik gave her a puzzled look. “What name?”
“This group, organization, whatever you call it. Doesn’t it have a name?” she asked again.
“Do we even need one?" Erdrik was quick to retort. “Perhaps it sounds even more intriguing this way.”
Mauriel shot him a piercing glance. “We must have a name. This is how all those guilds and adventurers we work with shall remember us. It’s also how they’ll find us if they need our services again. You might want to claim all the group’s achievements for yourself, in which case your own name would suffice. But from what I see, you want people to get an impression of a strong group, not a one-man operation. A group requires a name.”
“I don’t know if the world needs another ‘Silver Moon Circle’ or one of those cliched names that all secret societies adorn themselves with. I’ve been in one, and I can tell you that no matter how impressive the name, people won’t care for the group unless its achievements speak for themselves.”
“These are not mutually exclusive,” Mauriel pressed on. “We can achieve great things while having a great name.”
Xandar had been observing the exchange with keen interest. “I think she has a point, Erdrik,” he stepped in, “Say we relocate our headquarters sometime in the future. How will people find us if they don’t know what we’re called?”
“I’m not saying that a name would hurt, just that it’s not exactly a top priority right now.” Erdrik insisted.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Xandar argued, “I’ve been thinking about it recently. What we’re doing here is offering solutions to people’s problems. Perhaps the name could reflect that.”
“Not just any solutions, magic solutions,” Erdrik emphasized.
Mauriel’s eyes widened. “That actually sounds great!” she exclaimed, “But something’s missing, like a title, or even - wait, what’s your family name, Erdrik?”
“Havnar, but I don’t want to sound like some megalomaniac,” he said, a single laugh escaping his mouth to underline the absurdity of that possibility.
Mauriel shot Xandar a disbelieving look, her head tilted down, one eyebrow raised, and he had to stop himself from laughing again.
“So not Havnar. Something else then, but you get the idea.”
They fell into a thoughtful silence, contemplating the novel suggestion, and all looked up as one when the cellar door creaked from above.
“A late interview?” Xandar asked, looking over to Erdrik.
“Who would wait until this hour to come here?” Mauriel wondered aloud.
Erdrik took a few steps to the side, peering into the hallway, and stopped there, wearing a perplexed expression.
“Hello, can I help you?” he said.
Xandar and Mauriel followed his gaze as the sound of slowly advancing footsteps grew louder. After a moment that seemed to stretch upon several hours, a deep voice slowly uttered, “I am looking for Erdrik Havnar,” and a figure cloaked in robes emerged into the hall. He was a portly man with a white beard, wearing thick glasses over his eyes. A tattered hat was perched atop his head, its tip folded in half and fallen over, and he leaned on a plain-looking wooden staff.
“I am he,” Erdrik said, still suspicious.
The elderly man’s expression brightened. “Fantastic! Then I would like to interview!”
Erdrik frowned. “Interviews are concluded for the day, I’m afraid.”
“It is a little late, isn’t it?” the man admitted, “But, you see, going out in daylight is somewhat of a challenge for my old eyes here,”
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Mauriel asked.
“Nothing, so long it’s dark - well, nothing a pair of glasses can’t fix - but ever since that damn forbidden spell, too much light makes everything a little fuzzy,” the strange visitor explained in his slow, heavy manner, then turned his attention back to Erdrik, adding, “That’s why I couldn’t arrive earlier.”
“Why would you be looking to work with us then? You would still need to arrive here every morning and you can’t just wait until it is dark to leave, right?” Erdrik tried to argue but the older man smiled, unbothered, and seemed far too comfortable to be challenged, or to leave, for that matter.
“Like you said, I can arrive just before sunrise and leave at dusk. And if the occasion demands it, my son drives a chariot around town so he could help me out,” the man said.
“That might be so, but what I am looking for are mostly newly graduated students, people who are open to learning and have a lot of energy and-" Erdrik started to say but the visitor interrupted.
“Learning new things isn’t a problem. I’ve been doing it for years, only never as part of a group. And as for energy - whatever I do here won’t be nearly as demanding as if I’d stayed home with the ol’ wife, I can assure you that,” he chuckled, a throaty, wet sound, which caused him to clear his throat. “But jokes aside, I work hard, at my own pace,”
“Oh, come on, interview the nice man already, Erdrik,” Mauriel jumped in. “He made it all the way here already.”
“I’m not saying I won’t interview you,” Erdrik said, getting defensive. “I’m just raising a few points for everyone’s consideration about possible challenges.”
No one replied, and after Erdrik was convinced that no further arguments were coming, he cleared his throat and said, “Alright, step into my office.”
Almost an hour had slipped away when the door creaked open once more. Xandar and Mauriel remained to watch the unfolding events. Xandar would have departed if it were up to him, but Mauriel insisted on staying to ensure Erdrik was not “being mean to the nice grandpa”. Xandar had to admit that the prospect of spending more time in her presence somehow made the fatigue and hunger recede. Both men seemed engrossed in their conversation as they emerged from the room, but their dialogue was abruptly interrupted when Erdrik looked up in surprise. “You’re still here?”
Mauriel deflected the question with one of her own. “How did it go?”
Erdrik’s lips curved into a rare smile. “Quite well, in fact. I’ve given Blombardon here a contract to review, and if all checks out, he’ll become a member of our group.”
“I wouldn’t sign this contract if this group hadn’t worked from a cellar,” the man called Blombardon said, his wet chuckle turning into a cough.
“Speaking of which, you never told us what that spell was,” Xandar suddenly interjected, raising the question that piqued everyone’s curiosity. “The one that gave you this sensitivity to light.”
“That’s a nice way to put it,” Blombardon laughed. “I was young and foolish and decided to try this spell my friends and I found in a very old book. It was called Elminestor's Dragon Eye, or something like that.”
“Never heard of that one. What does it do?” Erdrik asked, intrigued.
“It’s supposed to grant you the ability to see in all levels of light and darkness, to distances where you’d usually need a telescope, and down to the distinct outline of every speck of dust. That sort of thing. Doesn’t sound very convenient now, as I think about it, but it sure did trigger my curiosity when I was fresh out of university,” Blombardon reminisced with a smile. “Kinda backfired, the whole thing. Now light feels overwhelmingly bright, but I can see in the dark like a drow,” he stopped mid-sentence, noticing Mauriel’s presence, and quickly added, “No offense.”
Mauriel waved her hand dismissively, her mind clearly lost in thought.
“I did read about dragon sight. They say that it’s more than the physical spectrum of light and color. It can perceive good or evil as if they were distinct shades,” Xandar added, and Mauriel, who had been quietly listening up till that moment, suddenly sat up, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
“That’s what we should call this group!” she exclaimed, turning to Erdrik. “Think about it - a wizard can see things that others can’t and possesses power that is neither good nor evil. He embodies the full spectrum of freedom and choice, just like the entire spectrum of color made visible by the spell. Not to mention it sounds fantastic!”
“What, something like The Dragoneye Society? Circle of the Dragoneye?” Erdrik scoffed. “I’ve said it before; I don’t want this group sounding like another obscure magical society. And if I do decide on a name, it should clearly convey what we do and what we offer.”
“Which is magic solutions,” Xandar absentmindedly added and found Mauriel staring at him as if she had just heard the most beautiful melody.
Turning to Erdrik, her eyes gleaming with triumph, she declared, “Dragoneye - Magic Solutions!”