open my eyes and see... nothing. Why do I see nothing? I must not be awake; I close my eyes and sleep.

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The office, once so lavish, now in a rather sad state, had far too many people in it, Agamedes thought as he turned to look his wizard. The man was supposed to create for him a way into the King's grace, make his family irreplaceable, maybe even outshine the Chigurh; instead he was handed a rock. It didn't show any sign of magic, awareness, or even the shine of a useful gem. Such a waste of time.

"This is another failure Maduras. This was your last chance, and this is what you give us?" Agamedes turns and began walking out. "Please, you said I had a month. It's barely been a week," the Wizard Maduras begged, "It was almost complete, just needed to charge and it would be done."

True he had given the man longer but sadly, "the timeline we had was shortened, the king declared he would visit us in a fortnight, and you know the man's opinion on magic users," mainly that any found in his presence were to be killed presently. It's too bad that he promised the wizard a healthy living space when he bought his service, or he would have let the man continue on the project and find out about the King's visit when his majesty arrived. But that's how it is with magically binding contracts.

Then turning from the rapidly paling wizard to one of his guards, "dispose of this."

"Sir, what do you want us to do with it?" the nervous man asked.

"I don't care." He really didn't. He had more important things on his mind. Like wondering if they had enough meat for a roast or if the king was on one of his No Hat trends again. He rather hoped for a roast.

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I wake, still mostly asleep. It was warm, why was it warm. I move my head to a cooler spot. Perfect. I go back to sleep.

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Accius of no last name belonging to the city of Misal, or Accius Misal, guard to one Lord Baron Agamedes Amatello. Accius Misal guard to a Baron that quite really wanted to be at least a Viscount and was doing quite a number of things to get to that position. And the only reason he knew that was because his family had been serving the Amatello for generations and his family had nowhere to go if things turned sour.

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Contemplating over his family and loyalty, he wondered how exactly he was to discard the stone Maduras had made. Normally if the baron wanted someone gone, it was an easy fix (a blade and a shovel did wonders), if the Baron wanted things gone, that was also usually an easy fix (fire has many useful applications after all). But the problem is, it was a rock. Rocks generally don't burn, sure he tried, but it didn't work. He couldn't just toss the thing with the trash, because it was made by a wizard. And one of the first rules with magic is to be careful how you treat things with it.

(His grandfather once told him a tale about a magical teacup. Someone broke it and just put the shards in the trash. The next day there was a flood of water came out of the bin and wouldn't stop until someone tipped the thing over. Ruined 3 carpets and a Lady's dress. The maid that had tossed the teacup was whipped and then thrown out.)

Sometimes when the Baron told him to discard things, he could hand them to his wife. She made a lovely handkerchief for him out of one of the Baron's shirts he took a disliking to (it was soon after Lady Auton said he had no fashion sense, funny that). But again, the thing was a rock. Accius and his family didn't have a use for a rock and they didn't of the means to change the shape to make it look different in case the Baron came by and noticed (being confused for a thief would not help his family at all, and he liked having both hands).

Turning the troublesome thing over repeatedly in his hands, Accius wondered. Too bad the wizard already left, or he would have given it back to him and later told the Baron someone matching Maduras' description stopped him from being able to properly discard the thing. Well, he can't burn the thing, can't throw the thing out, can't use the thing, can't change the thing. That left passing it off to someone else. Someone that didn't know it was magic; someone wouldn't treat it like a magic thing that could cause a random flood. But it also meant it wouldn't be directly his fault if it happened.

Plan beginning to form Accius now had to find some poor schmuk he could hand this off to and be in the clear.

Humming along he decided the marketplace would be perfect. Besides, his wife mentioned needing carrots today.