Over the next couple of days, I met with the remaining master mages on my list. Each provided me with additional magical rings, and I began building relationships with them and their guilds. My master was well regarded by all of these masters, and he had collaborated with them on many projects across multiple decades. My master never sought power, wealth, or public prestige, but he was a close friend and confidant to some of the most powerful mages in this part of the realm.
It became clear that he was setting these meetings up to protect me and position me for my next steps as a mage. My fondness and respect for him grew after each meeting I attended. He laid the groundwork for my recent guild hall visits several weeks or months ago. When I tried to thank him, he laughed and said I was exaggerating his part and that these mages were genuinely interested in me.
An example of the relationships my master entertained over the years came into clarity when I met with a stodgy old conjurer who openly claimed to be a professional rival of my master’s. Grandmaster Peter “Popim” Keelwell alleged that his lineage went back to the very founders of our city. However, according to my father, the Royal Librarian, the city had actually been named for its calm and deep harbor by the ruling Medici family. In fact, prior to two centuries ago, no Keelwell family surname had ever existed in or around our fair city.
When I sat down with the master conjurer, he began by flipping over an hourglass and told me I could ask any questions about his life and career that I liked, but as soon as the sands ran out, I would be dismissed. Partway through our discussions, the crazy old mage got so excited about gem work and sockets that he turned over the hourglass twice before I was finally dismissed due to an enormous backlog of students awaiting his attention.
For someone who outwardly and proudly announced his rival status with my master, he praised Master Glimmerblade up and down for his wit, intellect, and honor. Ultimately, the grandmaster supported me, and my work so much that he gifted me with the rarest of all conjurer spells as a SUS ring.
“Few sages have heard of this spell, let alone other mages.” He began. “The spell is called Utter Destruction and is a seventh construct spell. It is designed to break an object into its component parts and transfer the magical essence, if it exists, into the spell caster.”
Here, he leaned forward, and despite being alone in his guild hall chambers, he whispered to me. “This spell is so powerful that the archmage once used it to destroy an artifact. It could just as easily demolish fortresses and even legendary creatures.”
He leaned back and waved his hand dismissively. “There is a chance that the object or creature could resist the spell or some aspects of it, but it is unlikely that an object or creature could avoid all of the destructive power of the spell.”
The mage looked off into the distance. “I had planned to award it to my prized apprentice on his return from journey, but he fell into darkness and was lost to us all.”
I felt a presence around me for the briefest of moments, and a chill went down my spine. But the master did not seem to notice, and I could not see anyone or anything out of place.
He was quiet for several moments before returning to our conversation and offering me a simpler version of the powerful spell as if he had not already given me the OP version. He insisted this other spell had a lot of uses and was more practical than the seventh construct spell. It was a second construct spell called Lesser Destruction. He said, “Its power limit is right around what it would take to deconstruct the wood of a nonmagical door that you can’t get through and perfect for someone about to go on journey.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It was as if the grief of the loss of his student had wiped the past few minutes out of his mind.
Just as I thought our meeting was ending, he stared into the flames of his fireplace and surprised me with a third offer. “Another little darling of mine will require a silver ring. It is called Unravel, and I will leave it to your creative mind to see how that spell could be used in your adventures!” He added with a laugh, seeming to come out of whatever lethargy had taken his spirit.
I handed him a silver ring, and he cast the spell. The grandmaster hinted that a return visit could result in being granted even more assistance, and he wanted to discuss my unusual relationship with both gems and sockets with me. I did not explain to him that I also had a weak ability to sense gems (magical or mundane) in a 70-foot radius when concentrating on them. I could not yet differentiate the gem type, but I felt it could be something I developed over time. Neither did I reveal to him that I could imbue crystals with first-level spells regardless of their shape or size, although these crystals still had to be cut to fit one of the magical styles to fit into sockets.
I was doing well with spells and gathering quite a collection for my journey from my master’s colleagues.
My prodigy skills in lapidary permit me to cut magical gemstones. I have only mastered the ability to cut and imbue 7pt magical gemstones so far, but I am confident that the other gemstones will just take a little time and focus to reveal their secrets. I could call upon the hidden powers of my crafted 7pt gems to reveal their first-level spells. But I can also take a quartz crystal of any non-magical type or relative size, craft it into a 7pt shape, and make it a Single Use Spell wyrd or vessel for first-level spells. Of course, the crystal is used up on casting like all single-use wyrds, but it widens my prodigy benefits dramatically. The added benefit of doing this with crystals is that they do not need to be prepared beforehand or purified as metals do. So long as they are not damaged or flawed, they will hold a spell anchor. I need to bless them to remove random magical forces, but I can just pick them up off the road or in shops as I discover them and carve them to fit sockets or use them as they come in raw or some polished form.
Because of this ability with crystals, I retrieved from my parents' home a collection of nonmagical crystals that I used to practice shaping my magical 7pt gemstones in the middle years of my apprenticeship with Sundance. I had a whole shelf of these that I shaped under the master jeweler’s careful instruction, including clear quartz, milky quartz, smoky quartz, spirit quartz (light purple), rutilated (hairy) quartz, scenic quartz, and even the rarer blue quartz.
Since mages were fond of multiples of seven, I had a bag of seven of each type cut into 7pt magical gems made of unusual and beautiful crystal. There were forty-nine of these shaped gems in total. I remember thinking that making them like that would be good luck. I had no idea how lucky it would prove until my prodigy powers revealed themselves.
A few days later, on the way back from Sundance’s to my rooms at the enchanter’s guild, I came across a street peddler trying without success to sell a bag of 33 crystal marbles of various sizes and colors to passing children and families. I gave him a silver coin for the bag and considered the many ways I could use these crystals. A bag of marbles was something nobody would suspect to be dangerous, but it was a source of first-level SUS spells for me. I could assign them prepared elemental spells such as Firebolt or Pebble Blast, but they could never be placed in sockets unless I shaped them to fit magical cuts. The spells were also limited to the first level, but with enough of even weak spells, they could become powerful and be used by anyone as a Single-Use-Spell once I made them. Their applications were endless.
My master suggested that I hold this new talent close to my vest, along with my other abilities, although he offered to approach the duke or baron about sponsoring future research. But for now, he didn’t want anything to distract me from my upcoming trials. He insisted that there was plenty of time for more work in this area later.
In the meantime, I acquired a medium chest full of rose quartz pieces at a low cost and began making some objects like arrowheads and sling stones for practice. I did not have the fletching skill, but I did have some mad woodworking skills, which, combined with my gemwork, gave me arrow shafts and arrowheads. The feather fletching would have to be learned at a later date. Eventually, I saw a whole product line of trick arrows and slings stones in my future as an enchanter.
Things were looking up!
Another odd meeting was with the emeritus Illusionist Guild Mistress, Shantra Shining. She met with me for three minutes in the middle of the guild hall entranceway. Without much discussion, and before I told her anything about my background, she asked for a silver and a gold ring.
On the gold ring, she cast a sixth vision spell, Greater Phantasm, on one of my prepared gold rings. It was a powerful illusion spell as realistic as the caster's mind could make it. It supported sounds, sights, physical touch, smells, and tastes, and could last for weeks until it was dispelled or something happened to the target object at the center of the spell. She suggested casting it on a rock since impermanent objects could rapidly decay the spell. I suspected that blessing the object first might strengthen or prolong the effects even more.
On the silver ring, she cast the third vision spell, Greater Stun. It could affect multiple targets at once or a single, more powerful target. The spell pits the caster’s knowledge plus magic scores against a target’s endurance. It was one of the more game mechanic spells I had come across. But given my scores were around fifty-five, that should take out close to half a dozen normal humans in one shot.
She handed me both rings and then, after a nod, she abruptly turned and departed, leaving me alone in the center of the illusionist guild atrium. After a moment or two of looking around at passing students, I shrugged my shoulders and exited the hall.
