Geon trailed Villara back into the guild. In the few minutes they had been outside, a number of people had come in looking to buy new weapons, and Villara spent a few minutes with them, selling them wands to replace the ones they'd lost on their recent contracts. Those cheap wands broke pretty easily; it was one of the reasons that Vane/Gloria's was able to keep a weapon shop inside, as the expensive stuff didn't sell nearly as much. They made nice showpieces though, and Geon looked at the stuff on the high shelves as Villara took care of the other patrons.

The fact that his wand was impeding his development had hit hard, but on waking up this morning, he could already feel a big change looming over his life. He hadn't wanted to give up his father's wand for it, but if that's what it took to make him stronger – and in the long run, keep him alive – then that was the clear path to take. Now that the path was chosen, he looked over the weapons on the wall behind Villara with a new curiosity. He seen them before, even marveled at them as works of art more beautiful than his own wand – but he hadn't seen himself holding the weapons, using them in his own work. So as he poured over them, reading the small cards that gave small hints as to their utility and purpose, he was able to think, Is this weapon for me?

Villara watched him studying the weapons as she finished with her last customer. She frowned, wondering if he was thinking about a more fundamental change to his role than just a new weapon. That would make her job a little harder, and might open him up making a similar mistake to the one that led him to spend these years with his father's weapon. He had this idea in his head of the sort of mage he wanted to be, sure, but choosing a wand that would force him to push himself in ways that would lead him to grow could contradict that goal.

Once her customer walked away, she didn't even talk to Geon about any of the weapons. She raised her left hand, the Telekinesis rune lighting up, and she lifted a few wands out of their boxes, bringing them towards her. Then, for good measure, she grabbed a staff as well. You never knew.

She gestured for him to follow her back outside.

As they approached training yard again, she passed him one of the wands. “I've picked a few of these beginner wands, just to see if you have been able to progress more than I assumed.”

Geon took it, studied it for a moment. “What's it do?”

“Similar to your father's, it just has less range and less power. But it should also have the kind of resistance you're looking for.”

Geon grimaced. He didn't like the idea of losing power, but...he already was. It just wasn't immediate power he was missing out on; it was potential power. A height he could train for, but only on a new path than the one he was on.

He took a deep breath and stepped up to the shooting range. He cycled his mana a little in preparation. Runelight flashed and trailed through the air as he flicked the wand forward. He instantly felt the difference in mana flow – with his father's wand, he had to control his mana output because the wand would chew through his entire core in one shot if he let it. Here, the mana built up pressure in his arm's mana channel, and at the last second he pushed against that resistance as the wand lashed out.

In front of the closest target, a brief flicker of red flame flicked against the hanging metal plate. It rang a low, muted note. The plate hardly shifted at all. Geon coughed into his hand, a little embarrassed.

Villara's smile was kind, and she nodded for him to try it again. “It was your first time using a wand like that in a while, you'll get used to it. Remember not to push too hard, now. It's the wand you're feeling resistance from, not your rune or channels, and if you go overboard, you could just hurt your own channels. Push it a little bit, until you can feel the strain, but then hold that pressure steady.”

Geon took a deep breath and shook off the worry. He lashed out again, this time only building the pressure a little bit. The flame that struck the metal plate this time hit more solidly, pushing it back a few more degrees.

“Alright, good. Now aim for the next distant target, and the next, until you feel you can't reach anymore.”

Geon did so, flicking the wand out each time and striking the next two targets easily. On the target that sat about thirty yards back, his face screwed up as he focused on the area of space in front of the plate. His felt a tugging in his arm, like he would when aiming too far away with his father's wand. But the range now was less than half of what it used to be. His heart wrenched when he felt the familiar stretching of will, and the flame hit the edge of the plate with a lazy flap.

Geon started down at the wand, incredulous. There was no way this was a sniper's wand!

Villara's Telekinesis flashed, and she tugged the wand from his hand. She wore a stern face as Geon turned to gaze at her.

“That wand! Is that really-”

“Stop.” Villara held her other hand up to quiet him. “You need a quick reminder of something, apparently. Go, strike the targets now.”

Geon furrowed his brow as he glanced down at his empty hand. “What? But...”

“Yeah, that's right. No wand. Go.” Her voice brooked no argument, and the air hung heavy as she glared at him.

Geon swallowed. Ah yeah, I guess she does take a bit of pride in these weapons. He saw what she was doing, and she was making a good point. He sighed, resigned to eating his bit of humble pie. He struck out with his bare rune, firstly at the closest plate, then at the second, ten yards away. The strikes that hit them were large, uncontrolled, red and orange balls as wide as the targets they struck. As he aimed for the twenty yard target, he felt the stretching again, and the red flame didn't touch the target before it petered out.

He shuffled as he turned back to Villara, half petulant and half contrite.

She handed the wand back with a satisfied grin. “Every mercenary needs a reminder sometimes. You are not the wand you're holding.”

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Geon nodded as he took it back.

“Now,” Villara continued her lesson, “keep trying to hit that thirty yard target. Pay attention to the feeling of your mana as it hits that wall between your rune and the wand's channel.”

He starting lashing out as she spoke, the flames still falling short of the plate. This time he didn't let it dishearten him. This is practice, Geon thought. Like lifting weights. It's only tough because it's still helpful.

The pressure he was putting on his channels felt similar to the resistance of pulling on the last bit of your core's mana. Using that last twenty percent or so of mana was like pulling a sledge, a strain on yourself.

As he flicked out strike after strike, he thought he might be getting an idea of what Villara was talking about. It felt like he could direct his mana in a way he never needed to with his father's wand. He could tighten the stream of mana pouring out from his rune, instead of pushing less mana out as a whole. As he adjusted over the next few strikes, he could feel his mana pushing through the narrow channel faster than before. It was like his mana channel acted as a sort of funnel, with his rune itself being the opening at the end. The flame grew closer to the target, licking it with a deep red tongue that gently tapped out a low hum. The ringing grew louder, the hum turning to a bong, bong, bong, that reverberated across the yard.

In his core, Geon felt the spells draw from an emptying well of mana, and pushed harder for three last strikes. Bong... DING! Bong...

That second-to-last strike felt damn near perfect to Geon, and the last hit only weakened because he was casting from the dregs of his core.

Villara was surprised. He'd picked up on that rather quickly. Geon turned his head to look at her, and Villara wiped the shock from her face too slowly for him not to notice. He bit his cheek, though, only letting the hint of pride show in the corners of his eyes, instead of plastered all over his face.

Villara cleared her throat. “Well, you've got the idea, there. That wand should be able to hit out to around forty meters, so keep stretching that limit.”

Geon smiled at the implication that she would let him keep it, but then he shook himself out of it. Wait, she runs a shop. It won't be free. The reason she brought me out here is because I told her I'd sell her my wand.

“How much of the price of my father's wand is this worth? What will I get back afterwards?”

Villara waved him off. “I'm not buying your wand off you. That thing is an heirloom, and a fairly unique one. I'm not a pawn shop, I won't want to keep your prized possessions to resell them. I want to keep you alive. So here's what I'm offering: I hang on to your father's wand. I've got a lockbox in the backroom. I'll tag your wand and keep it there. In return, I give you that wand. And also,” she held up the other three weapons she'd brought with her, the staff and two other wands, “one of these.”

Geon smiled. “I can try all of them out first?”

“Sure thing,” Villara said with a laugh as she turned back to the guild. “Let's go let your mana recover first, ok?”

Geon thought, for a second, of taking a mana potion. He quickly thought better of it, though. With how cheap those beginner wands are, he might be able to buy a third wand after borrowing the first two. He smiled at the idea as he trailed after Villara, seeing each new weapon as an extra piece of training equipment, and dreaming of the heights of power he could reach.

----------------------------------------

Later on, Glory’s relatively peaceful afternoon was interrupted by a crowd walking into the front door.

A group of just under twenty people, all in loose but Official-looking attire. It was a sleeker uniform than was typical for visitors from the Office, only seen around the guild rarely since she’d taken over. But she knew about the Elite Scout teams to respect the symbol they represented.

One of them stepped forward to the booth, shaking Glory’s hand firmly.

“Hi, Glory. Sorry, it looks like you weren’t expecting us.”

Glory shook her head. “I wasn’t but I guess I should have. You are the advance team, right?”

The lead man shook his head. “That’s right. My name is Wiren, I lead these Scouts behind me. Have you ever an advance team if your area before?”

Glory frowned. “I haven’t. My mother did, back towards the end of her tenure here, but I haven’t yet, no.”

“Alright, well, this is your head’s up. You’re about to get a lot of new contracts coming through here. We’ll be digging up every trace of imps and demons that we can. We’ve read the reports about the spectres that have come in recently; we’ll be on the lookout for that kind of escalation as we go.”

“Oh, ok. Yeah, sounds good.” Glory hadn’t expected these men so soon. She thought she would at least be meeting with an Official in regards to the expansion before the rush of new jobs. “Which way are you all heading first? Or are you going to split up?”

“We’ll be splitting up for a day or so while we scout the immediate area. Best to be thorough. We’ll get started tomorrow.”

Glory nodded to the group as they turned away, some of them heading to the tavern, some heading out the front door. She took a deep breath before turning to Villara.

“I guess it’s starting.”

Villara hummed agreement. “You did say you were hiring someone else, right?”

“A few people, really. I’ll need someone to run contracts overnight, but I also want someone else that can take over this booth during the day. I need extra days off to deal with all the nonsense this new war is going to make.” Glory stood up and stretched her back out. “I’m supposed to meet someone today, some young girl from town.”

“Rune-age, hopefully.”

“Hopefully.” Glory turned from side to side to work the stiffness from her lower back. It had been a morning busy with contracts. “Even if not, though, it might not be so bad. It didn’t have my first rune when Mom started training me to take over. It’s a learning process.”

“Especially your process. I don’t imagine you’ll encourage your assistant to be more lax than you are.”

“No,” Glory laughed, shaking her head. “One of the reasons I want to hire someone now is so I can train them before all my time is taken up by the extra work I expect around here. Expansions and repairs, extra contracts and...” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Expense reports…”

Villara chuckled empathically. “You did kinda set yourself up for a big one, there.”

Glory just nodded. “Yeah, I know. All the guard patrols, and all the new contracts, converting to an always-open model. It’s a lot in a short span of time. It should be expected, though, shouldn’t it? With the whole military getting ready to move this way.”

“I don’t talk to the Office as much as you do, but from what you tell me, that all depends on who’s looking at your case, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, basically. There are some political considerations, too. Nobody wants to take me to task for anything because my mom would likely get involved, and she’s already ended a few careers over guild shenanigans. But there are some that are less inclined to hold their tongue.”

Glory thought of the Inspector’s interrogation. She’d heard the man was still lingering around town, visiting other shops and restaurants in the area, and Durza still wasn’t forthcoming about the report he was supposed to be handing in.

Glory shook the thoughts away. Future problems can be handled by Future Glory. She turned the talk back to Villara.

“So, how’d it go with Geon? I saw him walking out with half your stock of Fire wands.”

They'd been in and out over the course of the next couple hours, and he finally walked out with two wands and the staff.

Villara smirked back at her. “I think he’ll do alright. He was using his father’s old wand this whole time, and it made him unable to progress his power. He’s pretty excited about the new weapons. Even bought an extra after trading in the old wand.”

“He sold it to you?”

Villara raised her arms defensively. “Come on, Glory, I’m not that bad. I’m hanging onto it for now. When he’s ready, he can trade those back in for the old wand back. Of course,” she trailed off suggestively, “if he breaks one, he’ll have to replace it or pay for it before he gets the old one back.”

“Okay, that’s pretty good,” Glory chuckled. “How many do you think he’ll go through?”

Villara shrugged. “Like, five?”

Glory reached into a pocket and pulled a large coin out. “Eight.”

“Bet.”

Glory flicked the coin over to her with a grin.