We spent a long time in the broken restaurant, discussing strategy – both for my duel at the end of the school year, and for the upcoming Applied Mage Combat class – before Salem suggested we go out to a different, not-blown-apart place for food. Shé Rui left us then, though he said after what happened, either he or his wife would be near Yushin at all times.
That weekend, I trained.
Jackson’s bottled explosion training method was incredibly painful, so I hadn’t exactly spent a great deal of time training it, but that changed. While the raw amount of ether I had in my pool might not be the deciding factor in all fights, I did need more – casting a single third circle spell wiped half my reserves, which was less than ideal.
Effective power was good, but like Shé Rui had said, a clipped fingernail couldn’t compare to a sword, no matter how skilled the swordsman.
I wasn’t quite so bad as to have a metaphorical fingernail. Maybe I was a butter knife?
But I did need more power to call on.
I used the bottled spell failure technique until the pain overwhelmed my spirit, then I shifted to reading my grimoire. I focused entirely on misfortune for now – I wanted to be able to use my affinity on the fly by the time I fought Gerhard.
Once my spirit had recovered enough to use my power, so long as I didn’t take any damaging steps like the bottled technique, I trained my bloodline. Right now, I had a similar problem to my ether pool, but even worse. My power was denser and better controlled than most dragons born five generations before me, but I lacked quantity.
I didn’t have any special tricks to train that, so instead I focused on releasing dragon’s breath as quickly as possible to drain my bloodline dry. That wouldn’t be any help against Gerhard – dragons could consume fire – but nothing drained my power faster.
After my fire ran dry, I worked on arcane armor, missile, and shield to train my ether manipulation. I needed to shape them with clarity and raw focus that professor Alydia had demonstrated.
Finally, with all my power exhausted, I read more on my affinity, but also on the bloodline spellcraft spell.
It was a ritual, and one that was thankfully not as absurd as the mental defense or naiad’s kiss rituals. It only needed my blood, copper wire, and a half-carat ether crystal. All in all, I figured it probably cost around three hundred silver? Maybe a touch less, given how close we were to a site that grew and mined ether crystal.
The actual casting would be complex. The etheric manipulation would be more fickle than any I’d ever done before, and I needed to weave together portions of my bloodline as well, releasing it into specific spots in the spell array.
The spell diagram went on for multiple pages, with different sections for the various days of the ritual. It took seven days of casting consistently and perfectly at dawn, then again at dusk, while keeping the runes drawn in blood, copper wire, and ether crystal all in contact with the skin.
So that Sunday left me heading out to visit a components store. The one Yushin had brought me to, Hex and Legend, had been reputable, but it was also expensive. The kind of place that made its money by selling the convenience of its main street location to the people who cared more about saving a half-hour’s walk than an extra hundred silvers. Well beyond my means.
I pulled out the advertisement and coupon from the other store, Charm and Fable, and left to track down its location.
Funnily enough, now that my secret was exposed, I was able to walk the city without fear. My family was many things – rich, arrogant, evil – but their pride demanded they be good to their word. Assassins and kidnappers were too underhanded for the mighty Dreki family. They would shatter my hopes and dreams legitimately.
I turned off of the road that had Hex and Legend, and began wandering down the side streets. First one, then another, then another, and another, until I was deep in the city. There, buried amidst roofs stained with the soot of oil lamps and candles, windows fogged over with the chill of autumn touching the sea air, and the old brickwork coated in moss and lichen, I found it.
Charm and Fable was a low, squat building, surprisingly long, with a brick base and a wooden roof. The brick was covered in ivy, all save for the shop’s large central window. It was made of sixteen slightly wavered panels of glass, each one a different color. As I looked in, I could see the shimmering of different streets, all similar to the one that I was standing in, but also, all different.
The door was old, thick oak, but good quality and kept in good repair. Set into it were the same sixteen multicolored panes of glass, much smaller, and a worn brass handle. I unlocked the door and stepped inside.
Immediately, my nose was awash with scents of all sorts: incense, herbs, stones, and more, as well as a strange tingle that I was completely unable to determine the origin of.
The inside of the shop was slightly dusky and dim, but in a sort of cozy, homey way. The multicolored glass of the window made what light the place did have slightly ethereal, and the whole shop had an air of mystical power.
There were a few shelves in the shop, but not many, and a low glass counter. There was also a sitting area, with two chairs, a rug that was woven in patterns and with a method I’d never seen before, but was clearly nice, and a stone fireplace that crackled merrily, adding a scent of pine woodsmoke into the air.
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I started wandering the shelves, and despite the fact there weren’t that many, each seemed stuffed to the brim with all sorts of components.
“Ah, hello there,” a voice said. I leapt, turning to see an older man standing behind the counter. I was very certain that he hadn’t been here before, and stranger still, I hadn’t smelled him appear. Nor could I smell him now – he seemed to smell exactly the same as the rest of the shop.
The man looked to be around fifty, with graying hair, skin that was paler than average, but still far darker than my own, and blue eyes. Piercingly blue, the kind that seemed more like ether crystals than actual eyes on a person, even one who had a bloodline. He wore nice clothes, though not rich ones, just a well made tweed suit.
“My apologies for startling you,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got something of a… Well, you could call it a spatial magic affinity. My name is Fable.”
For a moment, I wondered if I should be wary. Was he a faerie, trying to take my name? But no, he’d introduced himself without asking for mine.
“My name is Emrys,” I said after an uncomfortably long silence. Uncomfortable for me, at least. Fable seemed to be as placid as a frozen lake, gently dusting off one of the shelves behind the counter.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Emrys,” Fable said. “What might I do for you? Are you here to buy, sell, or trade?”
I hefted the miniature bundle of copper wire from the shelf.
“I need this. Also a half carat ether crystal.”
Fable’s eyes sparkled, almost literally.
“Well well. Building a wand? Or perhaps doing some other ritual work?”
I almost told him I was making a wand. After all, that’s what the coupon was for. But something pricked a warning in me, that lying to this man was a phenomenally bad idea. I decided to trust my gut.
“A ritual.”
I was tempted to explain more, but held back. I could trust my gut, but spilling every detail was just foolish. Fable seemed to study me, then smiled.
“Very good then. Well, a half carat, aye? I can get that.”
He moved his hands through the display case and produced a jar of ether crystals, small ones. I stared, certain that the jar hadn’t been in the case before.
Fable hummed as he extracted a few of them and began weigh each on a jeweler’s scale, until he found one that was a half carat. He placed the rest back in the jar and tucked it away on the shelf.
“Let’s see. That totals out to… Two hundred and eleven silver.”
I stared at him. I had expected the prices on ether crystal might be a bit lower than usual, since the Mesa grew them, but that was a full third less than my estimate.
“I am assuming a student discount,” Fable said. “Might I see your slate?”
I scrambled to withdraw my student ID from my pocket and passed it to him. He smiled warmly, then passed it back.
“You’re close to the barrier in terms of ether pool acclimation,” Fable told me conversationally. “I expect the completion of your bloodline spellcraft ritual will push you over.”
I paused in digging around for the eleven silver coins to add to the two platinum I had out already.
“How did you know?”
“The components, plus the fact that while your suppression is good, I’m old. Older than I look.”
He laughed and patted his slightly rounded stomach.
“And I know I don’t look young. But I’ve seen a thing or two, and learned the odd trick here and there. I might not know much, but I know enough to see a dragon where others see a man.”
More than anything else, that sent shivers down my spine. My bloodline suppression wasn’t perfect, not with me having just used it earlier in the day, and without the enshroud spell, but it hadn’t been seen through in… years. Even Yushin hadn’t been able to do as much, only having overheard my talk.
“Don’t worry Emrys, your secret’s safe with me,” Fable said gently. I believed him, oddly enough. “When you come for components for your wand, staff, or amulet, though, consider a barter. Plenty of alchemists, refiners, and other crafters need dragon parts. Blood, tears, shed scales. I cleanse them of their link to you, then sell them.”
“I know a place where you can get an adult dragon’s blood,” I said. “A fourth generation son of the Dreki Matriarch bleed on a street after having his nose broken. It was on Friday, but few enough know exactly what that blood was.”
Fable leaned forward with a grin.
“Ohoho. Now that is an interesting proposition. Charm’s always looking for a challenge, and getting that out of the street, constable lockup, or the dump… Now he’d enjoy that.”
Fable drummed his hands on the table.
“Tell you what. If Charm can retrieve it, and depending on the amount, I’ll give you your choice of either the gold for it, or ten percent more than that in store credit.”
“I hope you know that if I don’t get a fair price, I’ll haggle with you until I do,” I said. Fable put a hand to his chest, as if I’d stabbed him, but his face was a grin.
“You wound me sir! I would never. If I cheated every novice, then when some of them returned as powerful archmages, immortal souls, or grand composers, they’d strike me dead on the spot.”
He gave me a conspiratorial wink.
“At least, they’d try. Well, then, what do you say, hmm?”
“Sounds fair,” I agreed. “And I’ll probably take store credit – I get the sense I’ll need a lot of ritual components.”
“Marvelous! Check back next weekend, aye? And if Charm likes the look of you… What do you say to a part time job?”
“What?” I asked.
I had been thinking about a job, but to just be handed an offer like that? That didn’t happen. It threw me off almost as much as him knowing I was a dragon.
“Well, we were looking at taking on a clerk,” Fable said. “And you’ve not only found the shop, but also made a good impression.”
“Before I agree, what would it entail?” I asked, not wanting to enter a fairy compact or such.
“Well, we were hoping for someone to tend to the shop two or three times a week, from six in the morning until one in the afternoon. We’re flexible, but Charm hates filling in as the opener. You can quit whenever, though a two week’s notice is always nice. We’re closed most holidays, and as long as you help the customers and finish the store chores, you’re welcome to read or work on assignments. Even practice magic, if it isn’t destructive.”
“I have Tuesday and Thursday off,” I said quickly, knowing better than to let this opportunity pass. “And I could do a weekend. What do you offer?”
“Two gold an hour base salary, a yearly bonus, plus the right to purchase components at cost for as long as you’re employed here. You’ll have to learn a few of the rules, though – currency conversions, working the shelves, and navigating the storage, mainly. And languages. Are you any good with them?”
“I speak nine fluently, and have a smattering of words in a dozen more ” I said, a bit prideful. My wandering had given me a lot of time and met a lot of strangers, even in an ether poor area.
“I assume you know the bloodline dragontoungue, Ceyish, and other mortal tongues, but what about the other innate planar languages?”
“I’m fluent in radiance,” I said. “Otherwise I can muddle through some flamespeak, and a bit of earthspeak. Oh, and I can swear like a sailor in deviltongue.”
We went back and forth for a while, with Fable suggesting I pick up a bit more deviltongue, as well as round out and sharpen my skills with the bloodline elemental languages, plus a reminder that my employment would depend partially on if Charm liked me or not.
After that we chatted about the war, the Dreki family, and my own situation, before I left the shop with the small crystal and copper wiring.