As we sat back from our feast of rolls and coffee, Count Pelisir sighed. “Okay, Mister Bascombe, this is the important part. No more taking chances that others will spot these illusions and save your life in the future. Now, I take it that you saw how I took out the quartz and replaced it?”

“I think I can replicate the maneuvers, My Lord.”

He handed me back my rapier and indicated that he wanted me to show him.

“By the gods let me do something right,” I was thinking to myself.

Just as he did, I pressed down on the top of the pommel, gave it a light twist, and the new gem popped right out.

“Excellent, Sir!” he said while clapping. I had to smile myself , feeling I had actually accomplished something.

“Now, Mister Bascombe, what you have in your hand there is called a Gem of Pure Sight. I'm going to let you give it a quick test.”

He left the room momentarily and I could hear glasses clinking together. He came back into the room with a wine bottle and two wine glasses that he was holding by their stems.

“Do you know your wines, Mister Bascombe?”

“I should fancy I do, My Lord. Will you prove me wrong?”

“I should hope not, Mister Bascombe, for this is an easy one. Read this label and tell me the vintage.”

It was one I recognized certainly, a vintage from one of my father's own vineyards. “I see you recognize it!” He laughed. “Shall we have a glass?”

“In all honesty, I'm not a fan of my father's grapes but this one does sell very well. It's a favorite of the royals in Feersland.”

“Now, humor me Mister Bascombe. Put that gem to your eye and see if you can read the fine print on the label.”

Doing as he said, I put the gem to my left eye and read the label. To my horror, the bottle was no longer the same at all. Rather it was a quart bottle of rat poison! Jerking my head back I said, “What in blazes? What trickery is this, My Lord?”

“I merely used a little cantrip I learned as a child to create an illusion. Not a strong one mind you, but if you're not looking for it it's effective enough.”

He walked over to the window behind the settle and beckoned me over. “But that's mere parlor tricks, Mister Bascombe. You hold a powerful bit of magic there. Come, let me show you.”

Intrigued, I walked over quickly to see what there was for me to see that made him so anxious.

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“Now, hold the gem to your eye and just take in what you see out there.”

I did as he said. I looked at a few groups of Elves gathered by the road, with and without the gem. Nothing of note appeared to me other than one of the women looking decidedly older with the gem than without it. But then I noticed something glowing in a tall unoccupied tree across the boulevard. Maybe too thin to be built upon.

As I concentrated on the glowing, it was as if I flew through the gem and came face to face with a Swalesian, sitting in the tree and obscured by an article of clothing that blended in perfectly with the needles and bark of the limb in which she was sitting. She had a crossbow cocked and ready for something. I couldn't gather her intent except to know it was obviously malevolent.

“There, My Lord, in that tree there!”

“Yes, Mister Bascombe. She's been there since yesterday. It really is impressive how they slip in undetected. I've counted twelve.”

Then, there! I saw a child at play across the boulevard, but it wasn't an Elven child at all, it was an Aardgnoll Assassin. And another over there by those horses!

“There, Sir, you see that we have countermeasures out to meet the Swalesians before they'll have a chance to act.”

I studied the gem closely. “No,” he said, “obviously that's not the only gem of its kind out there. And the good news is that the Swalesians don't have comparable toys at their disposal. We're not sure about Mag'stula though. She may well have that and better. Her magic really is extraordinary. By Élois, if she had the Mana inside that amber, she'd be ruling us all in no time.”

“She must not know you possess that, Mister Bascombe. If she tries another deceit with you, you must play along if you can. It won't be easy, I know.”

Now here is where I might have my chance to shine! “I've actually had plenty of acting classes, My Lord! This might be the most qualified I've been for anything I've been tasked with since I've been here.”

“Yet, and no offense, I can't help but notice that you aren't a famous actor if that ever was a dream of yours.”

“Quite so, My Lord, quite so. I wanted to be a Wizard, a famous general, an acrobat, an Elf even! The acting bug did not stay with me past my first year of college. I fell in love with the law instead. Then mercantile law, and, well, here I am.”

“I also wanted to be an adventurer, and I see that I'm finding here, on this trade mission, elements of adventure. Does that make me an adventurer, My Lord?”

“So little time, and you Humans spend so much of it daydreaming! To no end whatsoever!”

He sighed again and sat down. The light was getting low outside and night would fall shortly.

“Why don't you go to your rooms and freshen up, Mister Bascombe? They'll be calling us for supper in the Great Hall within the hour I would imagine. I shouldn't have eaten those rolls! Argh!” We laughed together at that. I had no appetite whatsoever.

Back in my rooms, I fiddled with the gem. Looking out my window at the world passing by as the sun went down. Miraculously, I could see perfectly clear in the dark with the stone, as if in broad daylight.

There was a loud rapping at my door and I realized I had dozed off in my sitting room.

“Mister Bascombe,” it was the fake Greer I'm guessing, “I've come to fetch you to the Great Hall. You have five minutes before they begin to sup and you need to be there. I'll be in the corridor.”

Maybe I did have a little bit of an appetite. Perhaps they'll have something with meat for a change! This forced vegetarian diet was getting to me!

image [https://i.imgur.com/umRWrrn.jpeg]