His new sword swung nicely at his side Aiden strode through the dusky evening towards Bram's bookstore. Although his muscles were aching from the last two days of hard work at the forge he kept his back straight. Unfortunately there weren't many folks around and those that were out were tired and busy heading for their dinners. No one pointed, complimented him, or noticed the sword hanging from his belt.

Disappointed at not being seen with the beautiful sword Aiden knew Bram wouldn't miss it. And after he told Bram about the odd chamber, the skeleton, and the clever red bird he was sure to have a great evening. He couldn't wait to share his discoveries with Bram and maybe the two of them could devise a plan to outwit the mischievous creature clearing his bird traps. After two days of thinking about it, he was sure it was the strange new red bird he'd seen.

The bookstore's weathered wooden door swung open smoothly to the gentle silver ring of the doorbell as Aiden pushed it open, the familiar musty scent of old parchment and leather-bound tomes enveloping him. Bram looked up from his desk, his eyes twinkling with curiosity behind his spectacles. "Aiden, my boy! I was beginning to wonder if you'd fallen into that forge."

"Horn's plow needed more than a little repair. We've been working as fast as possible to get it done. But I've been wanting to get here and tell you what happened in the forest."

Aiden moved to the pair of reading chairs and turned to give Bram a better view of the sword as he casually used his left hand to unclip its belt and set it next to him as he sat down.

Bram leaned forward, his elbows resting on the desk. "Well then, let's hear it. What mysteries have you uncovered in the ruins?"

Aiden waited a few heartbeats before slumping back with a sigh.

Bram laughed, giving Aiden a wry smile as he moved from behind the counter. "Give me the pig sticker. You are far too young to be wearing such arms. Especially around here."

Aiden sat up straighter and handed over the sword in the new scabbard he'd made over the last two nights after Eldric had gone to bed.

Bram inspected the scabbard with an approving look. "Why did Eldric let you make a sword if you worked so hard on Horn's plow?"

Aiden shook his head. "He didn't. Found the sword in the ruins along with these." He extracted the alms purse and coins from his pouch, placing them on the low serving table between the chairs. "I made it a new scabbard cause the other one was rotted."

Bram's eyebrows tightened, and his lips made a hard, flat line as he pulled the sword out of the scabbard and inspected it. Putting the sword and scabbard down, Bram moved to the front of the shop, glanced out the window at the nearly empty street, locked the door, and pulled the thick curtains closed.

Lighting another lantern, he sat down and examined the blade, gently testing the edges with his fingers. "Tell me exactly how you came by this."

The story had been waiting impatiently like a damned stream. Before Bram's question had finished, the story broke through the damn and poured out of Aiden. He detailed the disarmed traps. The odd bird. His exploration of the ruins, and discovering the crystal skeleton with the purse and coins. He ended by explaining how he'd kept the sword secret from Eldric, who would not approve, but had made the scabbard.

Bram listened to it all. Finally, he sheathed the sword and held it out to Aiden. When Aiden grabbed it, Bram did not release it. Instead, he stared intently into Aiden's eyes.

"Who else has seen this?"

Still holding the sword with Bram, Aiden took in Bram's face and shivered. "No one seemed to notice it," he said quickly.

Bram considered that for a moment, then let go of the sword, allowing Aiden to shift back into the seat and place the sword on the floor next to him.

"Around here if someone noticed it, they wouldn't have been quiet about it. Aiden, hide that. Do not let anyone else know of it including Eldric. You and I have to investigate this, before we even hint at its existence."

"Hide it? Why? I'm almost eighteen! The mayor's son—" he stopped seeing Bram's eyes.

Bram shook his head and glared. The intense look made Aiden gulp. "Hide it away. You nor I are ready to deal with what might become of you carrying such a weapon. Especially that one."

Aiden leaned forward, but Bram didn't continue.

After a few seconds, Bram turned his attention to the artifacts on the table. Picking up the coins, he groused. "Coins haven't changed in hundreds of years. There is no clue to be found with these. But, here on the edge of the empire that is practically a fortune. Hide the coins, too."

"I have some savings from my work and the bird sales."

"Three months of master blacksmith earnings?"

Aiden shrugged, "No, but I have a whole chera and six. I wanted to get some new boots and a cloak."

Bram considered, "You could get away with using a chera of this for now. The rest you need to hide. If you bought so much, it'd be noticed."

"Isn't that the point? Maybe folks would give me more note."

"How would you explain having ten times more than ever before when no merchants have been through to buy your birds since last moon?"

Aiden sighed and rolled his head back to look at the ceiling. "Why do we have to hide this at all? I've heard stories of people finding a stash of coins in fields or trails."

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Bram considered for a few seconds then stood and beckoned Aiden to follow. "Help me make some tea."

Aiden followed Bram into the cramped kitchen. The fire was cold, so he went to the back wood pile and brought in wood. After building the fire up, Bram had the teapot ready and everything else set out on the wood platter.

"You've read the old tales," Bram said, breaking the silence that had accompanied all the preparations.

"I figured the sword had to be magic. Everything else the person had was rotted and rusted, except for the coins and that leather purse."

"If everything else was in such bad repair, how long must it have been there?"

Aiden had been thinking about that question for the last few days. "It has to have been at least a hundred years. The hunting knife and other metals were completely rusted through, like some tools I've seen from around the area."

"Was the chamber wet? You said it was dusty."

"No, it was completely dry."

"So if it takes a hundred years for a knife to rust through in a barn or other storage shed, how long would it take in a dry room."

Aiden didn't have an answer to that. He thought about all the tools they had in the forge. Those tools had been kept in the hot, dry forge. Sure, they were used, but that wouldn't stop all the rust. As far as he knew, Eldric only had to make new tools when something broke.

After Aiden hadn't answered for a few minutes Bram chuckled. "I'd guess more than five hundred years. More likely near to a thousand."

"Are those ruins that old?"

Bram poured the boiling water over the tea leaves before he answered. "There is no record of what those ruins are or who built them in the great biblitheca in Surrenth."

"There has to be. They have all the records of the world there."

"That is the myth. The biblitheca has records that go back over nine thousand years. And yet, I can guarantee those ruins are not mentioned anywhere."

"You can't be that sure." Aiden said firmly.

"Oh I can, I made them the center of my historical research project to graduate the collegium. Or at least I tried to." Bram handed Aiden the wooden platter which he accepted automatically. "Here take the tray and we can go sit."

Aiden carefully maneuvered the tray down the narrow hall to the front of the store. After taking his own cup and one of the sandwiches Bram had assembled from some old bread, cheese, and what looked like a mix of some bird and pork meats, he sat. A sip of the tea told him it would be good but still too hot. He turned his attention to the sandwich and took a bite. The salty flavor mixed with some garlic was surprising, as he hadn't seen Bram add any herbs.

Bram took his seat, tea, and sandwich. Sitting down, he somehow took a good swallow of the hot tea and followed that up with a large bite from his sandwich. Leaning back, tea in one hand and sandwich in the other, he waved them as he continued his story.

"I thought I'd found something new and ignored some mild warnings from my mentor about finding something else to research. I bulled on, dug through records, took a couple trips here to explore and look for any kind of carvings or writings. I found nothing in the ruins, nothing in the bibliotheca records, even the outer kingdom records from before Surren conquered all the other kingdoms becoming the first emperor. Lapidara was never mentioned, all records for settle villages and farming communities ended at Nemeth. That was the furthest west any community records held. There are mentions of some small unnamed farming homesteads west of Nemeth. Two hundred years ago, those small homesteads had grown large enough to get tax collectors and that is when Lapidara is first recorded."

Aiden wiped his hands on his pants. "Lapidara is only two hundred years old?"

Bram shook his head, "people have lived out here for about eight hundred years. But, those were just small homesteads and lone farmers. Villages grow where people can create farms and homes. The more farming fields cleared of trees, the larger the crops, the more people can be supported."

"Wait," Aiden said, "if you were studying in Surrenth, how did you learn about the ruins all the way out here?"

Bram smiled, "That is a good question. The simple answer is I came out here with some friends who wanted to explore the mountains beyond the edge of the map. I was here for a whole summer and we marched all over the place acting like little lordlings. When we learned of the ruins, we spent the last few weeks camped out there, poking around and guessing at what they could be. It was all a grand adventure."

"And then you went back to The Collegium and started your research? But, you didn't find anything. Is that why you came back here? Do you go out there on your own to keep looking? I've never seen sign that anyone else is going out there."

Bram laughed, "I'm not a woodsman. Yes, I went back. Yes, I dug deep into the mystery of the ruins. In the end, I had to leave. I took my meager savings and a small collection of books and came back out here. I was planning on trying to do more, but over the years, I still can't find anything more. Now I like my little shop, and Lapidara is a good place to live. I thought it ended there. But now you found something I didn't."

Bram picked up the alms purse and looked at the symbols worked into the leather face. "And here is the complete pattern." He slowly rotated the purse looking intensely at each of the sixteen symbols. He tapped one on the bottom left of the circle. "This looks familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen it before. All the rest are unique."

Aiden ate a second sandwich and freshened their tea as Bram made a second circular examination of all the symbols.

"Do you have that silver token?"

Aiden fished it out of his pouch and handed it over. He had also compared them, so he wasn't surprised when Bram returned the token with a shrug.

"A perfect match." Bram got some paper and carefully copied the entire design, including all the stitching and scratches.

"Well maybe my friends will find something on these and we'll learn more. In the meantime, we need to deal with your interesting adversary and take a closer look at this chamber you found."

Aiden nodded, excitement bubbling in his chest. "I was hoping you'd help me catch this bird that has been tampering with my traps. I was thinking of using the larger parrot traps. But, it won't be stopped by them. I was kinda hoping you'd have some magic I could use?"

A smile tugged at the corners of Bram's mouth. "I know a few trap wards we can add. That should stop this clever bird."

Aiden stuffed the coins and alms purse back into his pouch and scooted forward to take one of the graphite sticks and a paper. He sketched the parrot traps he'd made and explained the trap mechanism."

Bram inspected the design and pointed out how an intelligent creature might break free or compromise the mechanics.

An hour and a couple of slices of cake later, Aiden had the designs for the basic modifications to improve the trap. The first serious modification would be to replace the door hinges with a set of pins with incorporated flat medallions, which Bram could use to inscribe a pair of wards. The other modification would be to add a few extra iron wire bars, which are also attached to an integrated medallion on the bottom, to hold a third ward to strengthen the cage.

"Well Aiden, I believe we have a plan. How long will it take to construct this new cage?"

Aiden considered the work. Now that the major repair was complete the other smithy work that had been set aside would need to get done. "I can have a pair of these cages in a week."

"Can you get me the wire attached to the medallions and the two hinges sooner?"

"Sure, I can get those to you tomorrow. But, don't they need to be on the cage to be cast?"

Bram tried to pour another cup of tea, but found the pot was empty. "I can set the spells to be activated later. It'll take me two or three days to do that work."

Aiden smiled, "Then we'll finish about the same time. It'll be a race!"

Bram laughed, "Yes, it will at that. Once everything is done I want to go explore those ruins a bit more. Especially the chamber you found. Can you come camping with me at the ruins for a few days maybe a week? When everything is ready of course."

Aiden nodded, "Sure that's no problem."

"Good. I need someone to cook and tend the fire while I do my research."