The canned flame felt hotter than normal. Laz could feel its heat radiating against his face from across the workshop, causing sweat to condense on his forehead. The young wizard groaned and wiped the still-forming beads off with a huff. The sun hadn’t even been up long enough to scare the frogs away and he already needed a breather.

At least winter will be here soon, he thought to himself. Summer had worn out its welcome and his twenty-three years of living in Evermine told him the leaves would start to change color any day now.

In the meantime, he prepared for work. While the flame on his desk coaxed the jar of water above it into a boil, Laz dug out a battered, leather-bound notebook and a pristine gem from their respective drawers. They had both belonged to his mentor. The gem was remarkably clear despite the rich indigo color, and though it was as large as his head, the scrawny wizard had no trouble carrying it under his arm.

He set the notebook on the left side of his desk, far away from the open flame on the right. The gem was placed in front of the notes, balanced on a metal ring to prevent it from rolling around. Finally, he tied his long hair back in a loose ponytail with some spare twine. Laz was ready to begin.

Doing his best to ignore his sweltering position next to the flame, he flicked through to his usual place in the dog-eared notebook. The contents of the page were sparse. To anyone who might break in and steal the book, they would find only ramblings about the stars and a messy doodle of a constellation, with plenty of blank space in between. That was how his mentor liked to keep his notes – nonsensical.

However, unlike a common thief, Laz knew how to see what was really written. He set his hand on the gem and sent his magic through it. The spell he needed had become second nature to him and could be done reflexively, not that he would ever need to use it that way. 

Magic Message.

At once, a warmth built up in the gem. Not a stifling heat like the canned flame produced, but a familiar, welcoming warmth. It was the kind that relaxed Laz instead of stressing him. Though it didn’t last long. The gem cooled, and on the other side, the pages of the notebook glowed with a soft white light. A mess of scribbles appeared all over them, letters and symbols that had never existed until that moment and were unlikely to ever be seen again.

Laz leaned toward the book and whispered the phrase his mentor taught him. “What a beautiful day.” He rushed through the words as he always did. When asked why he used such a common phrase as a key, his mentor just said someone who would steal information would never be the type of person to relax and enjoy the world around them. That didn’t make it any less awkward to say out loud every time he needed to read his notes.

Thankfully, Magic Message didn’t care how enthusiastically a key phrase was said. As soon as Laz spoke, the glowing white mess untangled itself. The intricate symbols broke down into recognizable letters and numbers. Some of them formed a diagram, explaining the exact method for knitting together the spell, while others became sentences explaining those drawings. Now the real notes – however chaotic and counterintuitive they may have been – could be read again.

But that was only step one for Laz. He had tried dozens of times before to cast his mentor’s Exchange Elixir spell. None of the attempts had been successful. He liked to think it wasn’t because he was a bad wizard, though the longer the process carried on the more he believed that was the case.

Laz struggled not to curse as he tried to make sense of the instructions. If only that old loon took better notes. Even when encrypted through a spell, his mentor was vague.

Exchange Elixir - will save the kingdom!!

More water, less plain spirits, mud lily, 4 drops

Boil!

That was all he had to go on for the elixir portion. Brevity like that was enough to drive a man mad. Laz sometimes worried that was what was happening to him. Granted, Laz was never explicitly told to perform the spell. When his mentor left for the town of Devrune on the other side of the kingdom, all he had said was to keep the gem safe and watch over the town. He promised to be back after a few months, when he had found a second apprentice to train. It was a noble task. The kingdom had a shortage of wizards that had only gotten more severe in recent years. While most were under employ of the king, each city had their own to help with minor problems that arose.

Unfortunately, that was two years ago. No letters ever came from Devrune, other than the ones Laz sent that were returned unopened. No news of his mentor ever reached him. Months passed before Laz first considered his mentor may have met his end. Though a wizard dying – and one as skilled as him – would have certainly reached him by now. Instead, it was total silence. Laz wasn’t sure which he preferred.

If Evermine weren’t in such dire need all the time, Laz may have considered taking a trip to find him. Though traveling across the entire kingdom was outside of what he could afford anyway. Wizards in poor towns tended to stay poor themselves.

Perhaps it’s for the best, Laz told himself as he reviewed the notebook for the thousandth time. I was never a great apprentice. Perhaps he found someone better to train. Someone more apt to these things. Keeping me busy looking after a gem for two years… I bet he found a more talented apprentice the day he arrived in Devrune!

He sighed as the lack of progress he had made the past two years sank in. Any breakthroughs he did have were met with another wall straight away.

No… It’s my fault. I can’t even get his Exchange Elixir working after all this time. And now Evermine is in worse shape than ever, and there’s this damn hole in the roof–

Laz might have sat there pitying himself all day if he hadn’t heard a gentle knock on his front door. In past months, a knock would have been a welcome sound. It meant someone wanted to use his services. That someone in town needed help that only he could provide.

But as of two months prior, it took on a new meaning. A hindrance in his everyday routine. Not every knock, but always one knock, brought him with it.

He frowned and resigned himself to whoever was on the other side of the door. “Come in.”

To his delight, it was not the usual pain in his ass. It was a boy who he recognized as the farmer’s son. No older than nine, though Laz had never held the strongest grasp on time.

“Hello? Wizard?” The boy’s head popped through the doorway, his short mess of golden hair hanging to the side. “My folks told me to come talk to you.”

“Oh, yes, come in. I’m just doing some reading.” While Laz wanted to focus on his research, he was glad it was a regular customer and not him.

The kid entered the lab. Laz was surprised at how tall the boy was growing. Still shorter than him, but he wagered that wouldn’t be true in another five years. I can’t believe I was at your parents’ wedding, and now you’re here paying me on their behalf. And that somehow I still can’t remember your name…

“They want you to keep the crops warm again.” He lifted a small coin pouch from his belt and held it in front of him. “Frost is supposed to come this week, mom says.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Oh thank god, I can be rid of this heat.

Laz tried not to show his relief as he took the pouch. “Of course, I can manage that.”

Conform Climate was his signature spell. Out of all the ones his mentor tried to teach him, he picked up on that one the fastest. And he made good use of it, keeping the town’s crops alive longer in the fall and cooling them off during droughts. It made him feel useful to those around him. Like less of a burden.

As he opened the pouch to inspect the contents, Laz saw the boy frown. He was picking at a scab on his elbow and looking down at the floor.

“This is embarrassing, but what was your name again?” Laz asked.

The farmer’s son looked up in surprise. “It’s Bek.” His voice was shaky and he dropped eye contact as soon as he was done speaking.

“Well, Bek, can you tell me why you look so nervous?” Laz pulled the string of the coin pouch closed before counting any of it. “You’ve been here before, am I scary or something?”

“No!” Bek said. “But, my folks wanted me to tell you…” He wiped his nose with his sleeve and squeezed his eyes tight. “There’s less coins than last time. And if that isn’t enough then we can make up for the rest in food! The crops aren’t growing as well this year, and grandma needed a type of medicine so–”

“Okay, please stop.” Laz hated hearing about the misfortune of others. It made him feel sick and powerless. The fact that he couldn’t help more because he didn’t know the right spells, that he hadn’t perfected the Exchange Elixir despite having years to do so.

“Here, Bek.” He threw the coin pouch back to the boy, who clumsily caught it. “I was going to spend it on food anyway, so let’s skip ahead. I don’t eat much so a basket and a half should last until the spell needs to be redone.” Laz stood up and held out his hand. “Deal?”

Bek stood still, clutching to the pouch with both hands. “Do you mean that?” He tucked the coins back on his belt where he got them from and grabbed Laz’s hand before getting an answer. “Okay! I’ll have the basket ready for when you come by later! I’ll give you the biggest, reddest tomatoes!”

“Perfect!” Laz was caught off guard by how strong the kid’s handshake was. I suppose working on a farm makes you a little tougher than a guy who reads all day.

When Bek turned to leave, his eyes stopped on a point behind Laz’s back. “Woah.” He took a step toward the desk. “Is that magic?”

Laz spun around. Everything looked normal to him. A jar of water almost at a boil, the massive gem, the notebook with the glowing text. Ah, he probably means that.

“It is, yes. A new spell I’m trying to learn. Well, kind of a potion and a spell in one. But it’s supposed to be a secret.”

Bek nodded and moved his gaze to the precious stone. “And that’s your gem, right? The one everyone talks about?”

“They do?” Laz asked with a nervous laugh. An entire town gossiping about the treasure he was tasked with guarding didn’t sit well with him.

Maybe I should be more careful. A simple locked drawer wouldn’t stop a real thief with his heart set on it. He glanced down at Bek and sighed. It obviously wasn’t the young boy’s fault, and he had already seen it. No sense in ruining his interest.

“It should technically be called a ‘focus’ since I use it for my spells. But it grew deep in the earth like every other gem.”

The child raised an eyebrow. “It grew? In the ground?”

Laz was always disheartened by how little the town knew of gemstones. Evermine’s name once had meaning, his mentor told him. A town rich in gems and minerals, with a community that could properly mine them from the ground without destroying the nature they were embedded in. That was centuries ago, though. The mines were abandoned and many townsfolk didn’t even know they ever existed. Now the only gem anyone was likely to see was either a part of an heirloom or at the castle. The one Laz got from his mentor – and the one in his bracelet – were exceptions. He was the only one in town with any connection to their roots, and he didn’t even know if he was born there.

Bek blinked and seemingly lost interest. “Alright, I’ll get the produce ready for you!”

Before Laz could say goodbye, the boy had rushed out the door. The interest he had shown in Magic Message stuck in his mind, however. Do I need an apprentice of my own at some point? I’m not old or anything, but what if I get sick. Or if a spell goes wrong and… He looked back at the hole in his roof. It was covered with a patch of rough fabric but sunlight still seeped through and made his house that little bit hotter. I’ll worry about an apprentice when I actually know more.

Compared to his mentor, Laz knew very few spells. Which was why he had to stretch the ones he did know to their limits. Other than Conform Climate, he knew Magic Message and Rapid Refresh. All were taught directly from his mentor. The latter allowed him to perform some minor healing on the townsfolk, or sometimes a knight who got bruised on duty. Rapid Refresh could fix up small scrapes, cuts, and blemishes, but was no substitute for a real doctor. At the very least, it kept the physician of Evermine from having a waiting room filled with non-issues.

And Magic Message, while he couldn’t find a way to make it useful for the town, gave him the hope of learning more spells to add to his arsenal. It was how he ended up trying to master the Exchange Elixir for the past year. Upon his first perusal of the notebook, he couldn’t help but be intrigued by the one labeled “Will save the kingdom!!”

Though he had begun to wonder if he made a mistake committing to it so early on. A disciplined wizard, even with notes to follow, needed months to learn a spell from scratch. And Laz tended to need twice that. Even with help from his mentor who could perform remarkable feats, from levitating a boulder to help with house construction, to transforming an angry swarm of wasps into a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of butterflies. It inspired a young Laz that there was so much for him to learn. He once dreamed up his own spells he would one day use after he mastered the notebook. It pained him to think he had gotten the hang of so little since then.

It’s no use worrying about my own accomplishments and breakthroughs. I have to help this town. This whole kingdom! Laz sat back at his desk and returned to his studies.

The jar of water was now at a rapid boil, telling Laz it was time for another attempt. He was mid-reach for his bottle of spirits when he heard it.

Whistling. Him.

It was carefree. A hearty melody that was likely an off-key rendition of whatever they were singing at the tavern the night before. But even though the song was different, it was the same whistling as always.

Goddamnit, and as soon as the water got boiling. Laz shifted his reach to a rag he kept on the desk and dabbed the sweat off of his face again. The heat always gets worse when he’s around.

The whistling grew louder each second, and the steps of heavy metal boots could be heard on the stones of the walkway. There was no denying that it was him. The biggest nuisance Laz had ever met. A man who was somehow a larger distraction than the time a bat was stuck in his lab for a week. A man who could annoy him more than any infant wailing in the market square while he browsed through garments.

I bet I’d have figured this stupid spell out by now if it weren’t for him. He tried to focus on the ingredients he needed but it had gotten too hot. All his thoughts had turned to pure loathing of him. The reason the past few weeks had the slowest amount of progress in his life.

When the whistling reached the door, it stopped. Laz set his head down on the wooden desk and begged whatever powers were out there for some relief. A firm knock on the door was all he got.

“Hello? Lazzy?” The voice was deep, confident, and cheerful all at once. “Sorry I’m late, hope you can forgive me.”

Maybe he’ll leave if I pretend to be dead, Laz hoped.

The door creaked open, and in walked the nuisance, the hindrance, the enemy of Laz’s research. A knight who he was forced to see every day, in his usual steel-plate uniform with the hideous crest of Abol – a tasteless depiction of a man holding an animal skull – over the heart. He was even grinning, as cocky as ever, like he enjoyed how much frustration he could bring Laz just through existing.

“There aren’t any new holes in the ceiling, are there?” He started laughing at his own joke before he even got the whole sentence out.

It was Calder.