I returned to my shared rooms with Master Glimmerblade, but he was not there when I arrived. I wanted to review some of Damascus's writings to plan my next steps for trials, so I retired to my room. There was a lot to do, and I had yet to discover the many mysteries of the Archcrafter.

  Arturo Damascus was one of the great mysteries of enchantment lore, with scores of legends and legendary items associated with him and his apprentices. My current focus was on his magical living wood lore writings. He had either learned from others, most likely elves, or discovered that living wood held unique properties for the singer whose magic shared life with the wood. An interesting fact about living wood allowed the singer of the Elven Wood Song to add magical rings onto the wood as if it were an extension of his fingers. For a living wand, up to seven magical SUS rings can be placed upon it and function as expected if no other special enchantments were added. If the wand is enchanted with additional spell abilities, a maximum of three SUS rings could be added. Of course, sockets could also be added, but three was the maximum number of allowable sockets for living wands. Both sockets and rings could be added to a living wand so long as it was used by its singer.

  Up to twenty-one or three times seven rings may be placed along the length of a living rod. Rods were thicker and usually three times longer than wands, but those dimensions were not exact. For a living staff like the one I just made, seven times seven rings may be placed anywhere across its length. There were additional restrictions for rods and staves that were similar and yet distinct from wands.

  Magic was so cool.

  Damascus added a short and humorous anecdote about a mage who found wearing rings on his toes fashionable, but generally, no magical benefits accrued. In fact, according to his writing, neither did rings placed in noses or other piercings, although it was hard to measure if this was a personal bias on his part or if there was some kind of magical resistance to body parts other than fingers and earrings. In any event, only the singer who created the living wooden object can place and use the SUS rings. Damascus explained why he thought that this unique application was viable. However, he admitted that some of it was still just recent guesswork and that he was looking into further research for explanations.

  Unfortunately, that was several thousand years ago, and I suspect I will never discover what he may have uncovered in his research. To my knowledge, no enchanter understands or uses these principles in magic today.

  Regardless, with a living mage staff, which I sang into creation, I was set for the next stage of my magical plans in preparation for trials and journey.

  Some hours after I had returned from Pond Park and was deep in personal research, an acolyte approached me in the library with a note in his hand. “This is for you, Gwyd.” He paused, noticed Master Link looking at him through the stacks, and corrected himself. “I mean, message for you, Sir Apprentice.” He bowed, glanced over at the master, who was now deep in his own thoughts, winked at me, and darted back out of the library before I had time to open the letter.

  I shook my head slowly, “What’s the world coming to? The young don’t properly respect their elders.”

  A snort from the master told me that he had witnessed the exchange and that I had not followed protocol with him as a master enchanter when I had entered, either.

  I grinned.

  The envelope was from the sage guild and had a return address from Madame Clutch. “This could be interesting,” I said out loud.

  There was another snort from the master, and he walked deeper into the rows and rows of books found in the enchanter’s library. Like most students, I had spent a lot of time in the stacks, as the section of shelved books was known. Of course, with a librarian as a father, I had spent considerable time in such places my whole life.

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  I opened the letter.

  The note was not from Madame Clutch but from another sage. His letterhead identified him as Lord Patron Grandmaster Sage, Lore Master Doctor Professor Davon Alias Judas, Guild Lore Master of Keelwell, Fifth Order, Seventh Volume, Fourth Concentration. The message read:

  I chuckled as I read his letter. This sage was not your typical stuffed shirt, full-of-himself kind of mage. He also showed me trust because if his sarcasm got back to the good Madame…I shivered to think of it.

  Davon had kindly added his personal office address, which I recognized was on Patrician’s Way near the intersection of Chagrin Blvd and not too far from the Round. It was an expensive neighborhood. The sage did well for himself, or given his lord title, perhaps he came from old money. Or both.

  Looking around the room, I saw a yawning acolyte at the entryway beside the kitchen bellpull who was on book duty. That meant she would carry a master’s book (or books) around or fetch things on errands. We spent many hours on such duties, ranging from mind-numbingly dull to back-breaking labor. After jotting a note on the letter below the sage’s signature, I waved her over.

  I resealed the letter before saying, “Ceci, please see who is on city message duty and make sure this gets delivered as soon as possible.”

  She shuffled her feet. “You know, Sir Gwydion, because you are on trials, you have the authority of a master in such matters and could send me on the errand if you wished.”

  Ceci was bored, and I understood. “Well then, Lady Cecelia, you are so directed. “ I pulled a silver coin out of my belt pouch. “And please do me the favor of spending this on some treat on your way back to the hall. I only wish I could join you, but my duties call me elsewhere, and I fear you will have to suffer the task alone.”

  She grinned widely. “Thank you, Sir Gwydion!” Then she looked around quickly, having been much too loud, and awaited a reprimand from some wandering mage. All we heard was another snort from further back in the stacks.

  Ceci giggled again and said more quietly, “I’m on my way.” With that, she started to sprint across the floor, stopped herself, walked more slowly to the doorway, and then sprinted off again once she entered the hallway.

  I remember those days well.

  I gathered up the book I had been researching and my writing materials and returned to my master’s chambers. I wanted to check in with him before getting back to work on more enchantment and ring making. I had requested a meeting with Loremaster Davon this evening and was confident my master would support the decision.

  When I arrived at our shared chambers, my master had a lot of information to share about Davon, and I began to think that this might be another one of his setups for me. Regardless, Davon was a prodigy himself, and while around ten years my senior, he was still extremely young by mage standards for someone so accomplished.

  He was already a grandmaster at half the age or maybe a third of the age of his peers.

  Being a prodigy of lore was unlike being a prodigy in jewelry making or gem shaping. It meant his mind was encyclopedic with knowledge and also nimble enough to draw conclusions and speculate on myths, legends, treasures, magical spells, items, and stories about adventures and mages of renown. It was a big deal, and Keelwell was lucky to have him. My master told me that the capital had been trying to lure him there for several years, even before he earned the rank of grandmaster sage.

  I also learned that Davon is the third son of Baron Judas, a local lord and next in line for the duke’s throne after the duke’s son, Lord Finndo. The sage’s family had a colorful and checkered history in the city, but my master did not want to cloud my opinion of the sage based on the actions of his ancestors. But curious about it, I looked up their family history and discovered that one of Davon’s ancestors had opened the gates to a goblin invasion, nearly destroying the city. It was a wonder that the family line still survived at all.

  While I had a ton of things to do, I admit that I was looking forward to meeting him. Of course, if I knew what would happen, I might have stayed in the library…