Cal heard the front door open and footsteps enter the shop.

“Cal?” Max’s voice called.

“Through here,” Call shouted, and a moment later Max came through.

“Ah, there you are,” Max said. “What are you doing? Oh, I see, you’re planting up those pots. Here, let me help.”

Together, working in the cluttered back court with the back door propped open, they lifted handfuls of the fine compost and laid it in the pots.

“Don’t press it down too hard,” Cal warned as Max attempted to compress the compost into the pot. “We’ll water the compost and that’ll compress it enough. You want to leave a bit of flexibility in the soil so the roots can grow.”

“I didn’t know you were such a knowledgeable gardener,” Max said.

“I used to do this with my uncle when I was a child,” Cal explained. “He never had much space at home, but he had enough to do plants indoors, in pots like this.”

Max looked thoughtful. “We always had servants who did this kind of thing for us,” he said, sounding a little regretful. “I never learned how to do anything with plants.”

“Well, I can’t teach you much,” Cal said, retrieving some water from a bucket and pouring it into the pot from his cupped hands. “I’m doing it like this,” he explained, “because if we just pour the water in from the bucket it’ll be too forceful. You want a gentle touch like this, you don’t want to waterlog the pot or wash the soil away.”

“I see,” Max said, copying Cal to gently water the dry compost in his own pot. “You really think this’ll work? I may not know much about gardening, but I know it’s too early in the season for flowering plants.”

“It’ll work,” Cal assured him. “The growth enchantment on the pot will make the flowers grow quickly - just how quickly I’m not sure, but the plants will grow. I guess a week at the most before we have plants, and two before they start to flower.”

“People will be amazed to see it,” Max said with a smile.

“Exactly,” Cal said. “And then they’ll buy plant pots so they can do it for themselves. We might not be able to enchant in public to get clients the way Yalosh Brindlemere does, but we can show the results of our magic in this way. Nobody sells this kind of product. The only growth boost enchantments that are ever sold go straight to the professional farmers and landowners who produce the food for the city. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it’s just another way that the poorer folk of Jutlyn don’t get to access the benefits of enchanting magic. I want regular people to be able to have this kind of thing, and this is a good way to do it.”

Once the soil was in the pots, they took the packet of seeds and split them, taking half each.

“Just sprinkle them over the top of the soil,” Cal said, “then press them down gently.”

Max nodded. In silence, they both set their seeds into the soil. The seeds were very fine. Max and Cal sprinkled the fine, gritty seeds over the damp soil and pressed gently down. Then they rinsed the earthenware pots to get the extra soil off the outsides and carried them back into the front shop. Tom had given them two simple red clay dishes to go with the pots, so they could be placed on a table and watered without the water running all over the place. The pots sat in their dishes flanking the door, and Max and Cal both washed their hands and looked at their work in satisfaction.

“Right,” Cal said. “I wonder if I can…”

At that moment, the door opened and a small, gray-haired, red-cheeked man stuck his head in. “Are you open at last?” he said. “I really want a warming charm.”

“Yes, we’re open,” Cal said with a smile as Max moved to the counter and took out the ledger book. “Here are the warming charms. Freshly restocked.”

“Thank goodness,” the little man said. He seemed harassed and impatient. “I’ve been on the lookout for one of these for ages. I heard about your shop, but then there was the snow and I couldn’t get out, and then every time I came by you were closed.”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that,” Cal said politely. “We had some issues getting resupplied after the storm.”

The little man waved his hand in the air in a gesture of frustration and gave Cal an understanding look. “You don’t need to tell me about that,” he said. “My wife runs a shop selling mostly Yallishian leatherwork that comes in through the north channel. She’s had no end of trouble getting new stock since the storm, but things are starting to look up a bit for her now.”

“I struggled to get some of my key enchanting goods as well,” Cal said. “But you’re right, it’s good to see that the supplies seem to be flowing into the city again.”

“Long may it continue,” the man said. “I think I’ll take this one.”

He picked out a warming pendant with a dark red glaze that was crackled pleasantly from the firing. Turning it in the sunlight that streamed in through the newly cleaned windows, he smiled, his harassed and impatient manner easing as he enjoyed the play of the light on the gleaming surface of the pendant.

“This is beautiful work,” he said. “Do you make these pendants as well?”

“No, no, I buy them from a local man. His name is Tom. He and his wife have a shop not far from here, just around the corner on Hanbeer Street. These mugs and bowls are by him as well. He runs the shop with his wife Angie, who makes these hats and gloves. If you want good pottery or woolens, I’d have no hesitation in recommending you to Tom and Angie.”

The little man slipped his new pendant over his head and immediately wriggled with pleasure at the sensation of warmth that flooded through him.

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“Oh, that’s excellent, thank you,” he exclaimed. “A most valuable item to me. How soon will I need to return to have it charged?”

“Three hundred days, sir,” said Cal, mildly.

The little man who, in his impatience, had not taken the time to read the signs on the shelves, spluttered in amazement.

“Three hundred…?”

Cal nodded with a smile of satisfaction.

“That’s most impressive, young man,” the customer exclaimed. “I’ll be sure to let anyone else know who might need the same thing. And you do other enchantments as well?” he continued as he counted out coins. Max took his money and slipped it into the box before noting the sale in the ledger.

“I do,” Cal said, “and though I’m only able to sell Level 1 enchantments at the moment I’m able to be pretty sure of achieving the 300-day duration on all my work. Also, I have an interesting new enchantment available - a Voice Volume pendant, which allows the wearer’s voice to be amplified and heard over a crowd. That’s a product you won’t find in anyone else’s shop.”

“Very good,” the little man said. “Though the truth is, I work in a library and so it wouldn’t be much use to me!”

Cal laughed. “Well, I expect to have others available in due course. Do spread the word, sir. I’ll be happy to discuss the various things I can create and make bespoke enchantments to order if there’s something desired that I don’t have in stock.”

The customer bobbed his head in satisfaction. As he was about to leave, he turned and gazed for a long moment at Cal. “Very impressive indeed,” he repeated. He stepped back into the shop and stuck out his hand. “Sandish Clegg,” he said, introducing himself. “Assistant head librarian at Lisyl Tower library, over in the west end. Visit anytime, and look me up if you like. We have a decent selection of books on enchanting, too - nothing instructional, you understand, those kinds of books are all in the guild library - but plenty of histories and so on. But I say,” he added with a confidential smile, “if you do visit, wear one of your warming enchantments. The library may be many things, but warm is not one of them!”

After Sandish Clegg the librarian, there began a steady stream of customers through the door. Most wanted warmth enchantments, some just wanted to browse, and nearly all had the same thing to say as Sandish Clegg - they had been looking out for Cal’s shop to open again, but that they understood about the delays after the recent difficult weather conditions.

The warmth charms were flying off the shelves during the first part of the day, but as the day wore on things eased up a little bit and Cal had a chance to spend a bit more time with the customers. They were interesting people. Though he was keen to do a bit more enchanting - and also not to leave absolutely all the enchanting work to the evening - he found he was very much enjoying just sitting behind his counter, greeting people, and talking to them about his wares.

A beautiful, alluringly-dressed lizard woman came in specifically to buy two of his enchanted mugs. She was one of the Yelzan, a strange reptilian people whose native land was far south of Roon and the nearby countries, but who had traveled farther and settled in more places than any other people in the world.

Two short, grim-faced dwarves came through, buying a warmth charm and a voice volume charm each. They were dressed outlandishly, and Cal recognised that they must have traveled up from the southlands of Roon, where the Iron Mountains and the heart of dwarven power in Roon lay. They spoke together in rapid undertones in their own strange, hard-edged language, but then they spoke to Cal in the heavily accented Roonish speech that was his own native tongue.

Politely, they explained that they were, as Cal had already guessed, part of a trading flotilla which had traveled north, downriver from the Iron Mountains to Jutlyn. They had stopped at a dockside inn and had happened to meet their old and respected kinsman, Hutgyrd, the leader of Cal’s adventurer team. Hutgyrd had told them where the shop was, and they’d come straight up, hearing about the marvelous pendants that Cal sold.

“We have often found,” the older of the two explained slowly, “that enchanters are not friendly to people of the Iron Mountains. We dwarves have… how do you say it? A strained relationship with the enchanters. We were glad to hear that you are doing things in a more friendly way.”

“Always happy to serve anyone and everyone,” Cal said, truthfully. “But if I may ask - and I hope this is not impolite - how is it that your relationships with the enchanters of Jutlyn are strained? I thought that it was only through your efforts that the enchanters were able to gain the runes for their enchanting tables?”

The dwarves consulted together briefly, and then the one who spoke better Roonish gave a laugh like stones grinding together. “It is because we are the ones who have to pay for the service of getting the magical runes,” he chuckled. “We think that enchanters are not good at handing over money, but dwarves are very good at getting it. That is why there is little friendship between the dwarves and the enchanters.”

Cal laughed too. The dwarves were right, of course. Enchanters had a reputation for being miserly, as well as being haughty and pompous. There was, in fact, not much good to be said about enchanters in general in Jutlyn, and this was the main reason that Cal wasn’t interested in becoming an enchanter like the others. As a young person, and a person in relative poverty who didn’t come from a long line of enchanters, he’d already faced plenty of disdain from the established enchanting community, who tended to close ranks and be unjustifiably suspicious of anyone who didn’t fit in.

“Because you are the sworn friend of our kinsman Hutgyrd,” the dwarf said, leaning in close to Cal, “I will tell you a secret that other enchanters do not know. We charge more to them because they are unfriendly. The more unpleasant they are to us, the more we charge! Oh, the runes are expensive, no doubt, and the silent elves… Well, we say nothing about them. But you, Cal, if you want to buy new runes, well… when the time comes, you say my name, Grondir Silvertoe, and the name of my friend here.”

“Kroznik Makbal,” the other dwarf said, bowing.

Cal did not know the correct form for greeting dwarves politely, so he simply stood and bowed as well, and the two seemed satisfied with that.

Max, seeing that Cal was happy manning the front of the shop, had popped out to get a few supplies. Max was pleased that there was a little more ready money available now, and while there was still stew left from last night, he had a hankering for something sweet for afterward. Shortly after the dwarves left, Max arrived back at the shop, carrying a promisingly heavy-looking bag with him.

“Get what you were after?” Cal said as Max came in, bringing a gust of cold air in with him.

“Yeah, got some early fruit and some cakes as well, and… by the gods!”

“What?” Cal asked, surprised by the sudden exclamation. “What’s the matter?”

Max had stopped where he stood by the door and was staring at the pots by the window. “They’ve all sprouted!” he exclaimed. “Cal, we only put the seeds in the compost this morning, it can’t be more than seven hours ago at most, and they’ve all sprouted!”

“You never quite believed it would work, did you?” Cal said with a smile.

“It just seemed too incredible, at this time of year and everything,” Max admitted.

Cal came around the counter and joined Max by the door. Sure enough, a forest of tiny seedlings were all gleaming with the fresh green of new growth.

Cal grinned and slapped his friend on the back. “New products, Max,” he said. “Next time we go see Tom, let’s get ourselves a bunch of plant pots to enchant!”