The next intermission went by with nothing of note, and the third of the four sections of the auction began. This one was dedicated to magical items, and there was absolutely nothing I could afford. A few growth items came up for sale, but nothing that was remotely affordable to me, and while Orykson sniped a few of them, he was obviously less interested in them than he was the sword that The Craftsman had made.

“I’m surprised that there are so many options for people of relatively weak strength,” I said. “I mean, most of the people here are spellbinders. Terrible ones. But spellbinders. And didn’t the Avatar of Sin say there would be options for all people? Sure, these enchanted items are all in the spellbinder to arcanist range, but…”

“Truly powerful magic items aren’t put up for auction,” Orykson said. “Only someone like The Craftsman does that sort of thing. Frankly, the sword is the entire reason I came. I’m only still here to grab a few items that will work as good rewards for this year’s contestants in the Elysian Mastery Tournament.”

“Hmm,” I said, and Orykson shrugged.

“Most people here are doing things similar. Buying for their sect or their guild or academy or family. Some of them want these things to further their own power, or to fix flaws they’ve had for a long time. But there’s also a political factor, making connections with each other, and with prominent players in the global underworld, like the Avatar of Sin. Or doing what the werewolf girl did to you, and stealing things someone else wants, just to ensure they don’t get the items they want.”

I sighed and went back to sketching and practicing Depths of Starry night.

The third intermission happened then, and we were on to doing the fourth and final part of the auction.

I was immeasurably grateful. With how long each part of the auction was, I was getting exhausted mentally, even while doing something with my hands. Dusk had fallen asleep a while ago, bored by the proceedings – much to my surprise, there was a limit after which looking at cool magic items stopped feeling magical.

The fourth part of the auction was dedicated to spellbooks, spell manuals, and other illicit spells. A lot of them were just combat spells or stealth spells, but one did catch my attention.

“You will, of course, all be aware of the infamous enchanted immovable rod,” Sin said. “Typically, the enchantments within such a rod are those of physical mana. Not so with this book!”

He tossed the book into the air and a circle on the cover began to glow with mana as it hung in the air.

“The creators of this book created an enchantment which utilizes spatial and temporal mana to create the immovable lock,” Sin said. “Contained within are their notes, which includes the recipe to create such an item, as well as a handful of other enchantments, like time-slowing spatial boxes. We’ll start the bidding at two hundred silver.”

I glanced at Orykson, curious. Had he planted this item here for me?

“Not my doing,” he said, shaking his head. “I do know a bit of its story, though. It was produced by a pair of enchanters. One had spatial, the other temporal. They fell in love and worked very hard at what Daocheng calls ‘dual cultivation’, even going so far as to bond one another at spellbinder. They never made it to arcanist, though.”

That got attention, but the item wasn’t especially illicit. Still, there were enough people in the audience who were enchanters that the bidding did go well.

I bit my lip, then ran out of Orykson’s box. I darted into the general crowd, then thrust up my paddle, going three hundred silver over the current bid. I modulated my pitch some, allowing it to become more feminine. It made me feel like I needed a shower, but the entire point of this was to make sure Mallory couldn’t find me.

“Eighteen hundred silver!” I said, thrusting my paddle in the air.

There was some grumbling from the enchanters in the audience, but nobody made a bid to beat it, and Sin announced, “Sold!” happily.

I made it back to the box, and Orykson gave me a look too complex for me to understand.

“What?” I asked.

“It was a good stratagem,” he said. “But I have to wonder… Why?”

“Oh, enchanting is the worst,” I said happily. “But the point isn’t to get the book for enchanting purposes. It’s to get access to the Immovable Lock that they created and based the enchantment on. Even if I have to reverse engineer it out of their notes, it’s a worthwhile purchase. And who knows, I may find some other useful things inside as well.”

“I see,” Orykson said, nodding sagely. “Well, I don’t think an Immoveable Lock spell is worth the hassle, but it is something that most wouldn’t expect out of you, and it triggers your legacy, so I can’t say I disapprove.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“It’ll likely hold similar logic to the Transport Item spell, I figure,” I said. “But it’s still useful, and if it’s able to handle the mana, I could use it together with the Material Echo or Pinpoint Boneshard spell and beef them up. If I work something out, I can even donate the book and the spell I figure out to the library.”

“Not a bad thought,” Orykson said. “It will eventually be able to handle the mana, though I’m not sure exactly when without being able to study the book. It should handle Pinpoint Boneshard before it does Material Echo. Have you placed a Spatial Anchor inside of each of those shards of bone, or the plants you use in combat?”

“No,” I admitted, and Orykson frowned.

“Both utilize spatial effects. Placing an anchor in them should reduce the mana cost of the Pinpoint Boneshard spell, and make calling the Bladegrass easier.”

I hadn’t put nearly enough thought into the use of the anchor spells, apparently. That was a good point.

But right now, I was using all my spatial mana for sketching. I promised that I’d do it when I got done.

As I returned to sketching, I wound up having to thank Orykson for making me do something so boring.

Thus far, with my second gate mana, I’d been taking a more traditional path, casting spells via sketching and letting them master and ingrain at their own speed. But by forcing me to spend countless hours working on nothing but sketching, I felt the familiar cracking in my spirit as the Transport Item spell burst out of the soil of my spirit and mastered itself.

I took a deep breath and then grinned. In my pocket, Dusk cracked an eye open and let out a very drowsy babbling cheer.

I spent the last half hour or so focusing on sketching the Material Echo spell, but the event concluded before I could get very far there.

“Your paddle will glow slightly when its your turn to come down and fetch your items,” Orykson explained as his own paddle lit up. “I’ll trust you to make your own way home. We’re still in the capital.”

With that, he teleported away, and I was left alone in the box.

I went back to sketching while I waited, but there was a stirring in the shadows and a strange popping in the air that made my hair stand on end.

I drew my staff out of my spirit and turned.

Just in time to see a wolf made of shadows finish materializing. I activated Briarthreads a split second before the wolf slammed into me, pushing me back as the threads bit into him.

“Mallory!” I called out. “What in the primes name are you even doing?!”

She had to be nearby. Spells usually required line of sight, or else some sort of anchor or link that allowed them to target the area.

“I really should thank your master for giving me the opportunity,” Mallory said, the cloak of shadows she had been concealed under slipping away.

“He isn’t my master,” I said. “Not anymore. You’re not supposed to be here. This violates the contract you signed to keep out of my way.”

She studied me for a moment, then a wolfish grin spread across her face.

“No, it doesn’t. Nobody knows I’m here. You could press me for bidding, but this is a public function, no court would take that. And let’s be honest… do you even have the money for a lawyer? Let alone one that’s willing to take the case against me?”

“Then what did you want?” I asked. “To spook me? Ah, I’m shaken, you win, go away.”

Mallory flicked her fingers, and I tensed, the grip on my staff tightening. My mana was fairly low from all of the sketching, but if I made enough noise, someone would hear. Unless the popping in the air had been a silencing talisman…

Which it probably had been. I’d have to get through her to get to the door. I drew on my time gate, prepared to take power from my Temporal Well and blitz through her.

Instead, her bidding paddle appeared in her hand.

“I have some things you want, don’t I? And you have something I want from you.” she said, tilting the paddle back and forth. “Let's settle this in a civilized way. I challenge you to an official, legal duel.”

I opened my mouth to say no, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to.

“If you win, you’ll get the crystal and the potion,” she said. “Not the other things I bought, those are actually quite useful for me.”

“And if I lose?” I asked. Mallory was still at second gate, so I thought that I should be able to win, but her power also felt a lot stronger than before. Maybe she hadn’t plateaued, but had instead gone back and seriously worked on herself, and made her power more solid.

“I want you to refuse to go to the Idyll-Flume,” she said.

“What’s that?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Mallory stared at me and sniffed the air.

“You’re not lying,” she said. “Weird. Anyways, the Idyll-Flume is a contest. I’ve just won a token from my guild that will let me attend, and I was told you’d be going, it’s something your master has planned.”

“Huh,” I said. “I guess Meadow does have a pretty good knowledge of that stuff. She brought Ed to one recently. And congrats on getting in! Was it the Nightheart Guild? That’s the one you wanted to get into, if memory serves.”

I was being half serious. I didn’t like Mallory, but I didn’t hate her either. I thought she was rude, self-absorbed, and arrogant, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want her to have a happy life.

I just wanted that happy life to be far, far away from me.

But I wasn’t entirely being altruistic and nice. I figured that meeting anger with anger would just make her angrier. I’d disoriented her the most last time when I’d been neutral. What would happen if I was just… nice… to her?

Mallory stared at me, and her fists clenched, spasming a few times.

“Anyways,” she said after a few long seconds. “Do you accept?”

And then I heard Aerde’s voice in my head.

“Orykson wishes to contact you,” the spirit said telepathically. “If you agree to cause Mallory a permanent injury in the duel, he will forgive you of one hundred thousand silver of your debt. If you are willing to kill her, he is willing to forgive all of it. Assuming you succeed, of course.”

I didn’t want to speak, so instead I sent Aerde a thought, telling him that the legal trouble wasn’t worth it. A moment later, Aerde sent me another telepathic message.

“Orykson assures you that he will shield you from all legal repercussions of either, as well as lean on her family to ensure they do not seek retribution outside of legal channels. You will be perfectly defended.”

“Well?!” Mallory prodded, and I realized that from her perspective, I’d just been staring off into space.

“If I do, and I'm not saying I will, I want the crystal now, and the potion if I win.”

“Are you kidding me?” she said. “No, that’s the thing I can actually use! Potion now, and the crystal if you win.”

“Deal,” I said.

She took out a sheath of papers from her storage ring, and I looked over everything.

“Well?” Aerde asked in my head. “What is your response to Orykson?”