I grasped the rod and tensed my hand to snap it, but on a sudden inspiration, I kept searching in the same area, hoping they fell close together. I felt a second and then a third smooth rod.

  I pulled them all in close to me and held them securely in my grasp.

  It was a lucky thing I did because Blinky charged me again and sent me rolling in the opposite direction. He kicked up burnt turf all around me, but the ground absorbed most of its impact. He launched himself into the air for yet another attack. The last impact was significant, leaving a three-foot-wide and half that deep hole in the ground next to me. I was glad that most of it missed me, even with the protective field up and running. Blinky’s launch back into the air had bought me a little extra time.

  As I thought that, my protective field shimmered and blinked. It was a sixty-second warning that it was about to fail. I knew the standard elemental spell would last four hours. I had one in my ring collection. But rune magic had to function differently, which, given the circumstances, was not in my favor.

  I felt each of the rods. I identified the second shield rod first and quickly transferred it to my left hand. I held it tightly in my palm as if my life depended on it.

  Which it did.

  But I could not tell the difference between the other two rune sticks. Maybe my hands were too sweaty, or I was too worked up. As time began to run out, I chose one and snapped it.

  The explosion of electricity all around me was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

  I had seen light shows and electrical effects before. I had just never been on the inside of them. The entire glade lit up brighter than noon and in dozens and dozens of flashing colors. Each of the little wisps had grown dramatically, and they were like beacons of colored light across the darkened glade. As best I could tell, each wisp tripled in size after Davon’s lightning spell had hit them. The wisps strobed and sparked in all imaginable colors. They hovered in space before me, apparently as surprised by their situation as I was.

  And then there was Blinky. Blinky was like a lighthouse. He had been twice the size of a large watermelon. Now, he was a sphere of shining gold electricity larger than I was. I was uncertain if the magic of the protective spell, which would soon run out, would even hold against him and all of the lightning elementals now.

  After a high-pitched sound from Blinky that sounded like a whiny trumpet blast, the dozens of wisps and Blinky dove toward me with a single collective movement. I closed my eyes and snapped the other rod held in my right hand. Part of my mind also told me to break the second shield spell meant to cover my retreat should I need to run away. But the explosion of white light and heat that erupted around me drove all other thoughts from my mind. I blinked for several seconds before I began to see again. I felt objects like stones hitting my head and shoulders like small debris after an explosion. I realized a few seconds later that they were platinum coins and gemstones.

  When I was able to get a good look around, I stood in the center of a small crater that had burnt the grass all around me. There were no wisps and no Blinky in sight.

  But I did see a lot of shiny objects strewn around me in the ashes.

  Before beginning to gather the gems and platinum coins I could see scattered near me, I ran around the glade and stomped out the flames so that they did not spread to the trees. Fortunately, the grass was damp, and I was able to put out the small fires around the edges of the spell before a bigger problem arose.

  I used my ability to locate gems and collected all the fallen gemstones. I would need better light to determine their types because the wide range of colors suggested some rare gems among them. After three or four minutes, I recovered fourteen platinum coins and fifteen gems. There were fourteen small 7pt magical gems and one 28pt diamond that had to have been from Blinky.

  It was a haul that was worth a fortune.

  Magical gemstones came in a range of types. I could make the lowest type, which was a 7pt variety, but they also came in 14pt, 21pt, 28pt, 35pt, 42pt, and extraordinarily rare 49pt varieties. A rule of thumb for jewelers to determine sale value was to multiply their point value by one hundred gold pieces. Individual gems could be more or less based on rarity. But diamonds were even more valuable and often were double the value of another magical gem of equal size and quality. The additional value occurred because all mages could store casting points in a diamond for later use. This load was worth thousands of gold coins, and the timing couldn’t have been better with my need for gems in my trials.

  I dusted myself off, made double sure the fires were all out, gave one final look around the glade, and started to make my way back toward the city. I strode straight across the wide open field at an angle that would bring me back to the North Gate. I wouldn’t chance the late-night graveyard all alone. Tempting fate a second time seemed like a terrible idea. And since I didn’t need to worry about scaring off the wisps, I walked directly across the open fields toward the city’s northern gate.

  I wouldn’t notice until I was halfway back that I still held the second protective rune stick in my left hand, ready to get activated. When I did realize it, I decided to keep it there until just before I entered Davon’s office.

  Davon had a warm cup of tea waiting for me and a wash basin to tidy up. As I washed my face, he said, “I thought you were a goner when you dropped those rods.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I paused and looked up at him. Staring without blinking.

  He took a step back and held up his hands. “Sorcery, remember? I followed you with a Farsee spell. I could not interfere, but I was able to watch.”

  “Oh?” That was all I said in reply as I finished wiping my face and then sat down to sip my tea.

  “Do I need to report, or did you learn what you needed?”

  “I think I got what I needed, but I would appreciate your thoughts and observations before you depart.” He asked as he lifted a book and a pen to take additional notes.

  We discussed the experiment for the next half hour. He was surprised that there was physical contact and that momentum passed through the protective shield spell, but was pleased that it did not harm me. We debated whether rune magic allowed it because we were both confident that elemental magic would have blocked all contact.

  “Of course, it could have been because they were a hybrid elemental and not made up entirely of one of the five.” Davon offered, and that led us into yet another discussion. By the time we were done talking it through, he had me laughing at my antics. What was terrifying in the moment when it occurred was quite funny in retrospect.

  We searched through the gems and classified them all before I departed. There was one amethyst that was used by sorcerers that Davon eyed, and so I gave it to him despite his promise to let me keep all the spoils.

  He placed the gem on a shelf with jars of powdered materials. He explained that one of the benefits of being a conjurer was creating pure substances or breaking objects down into their pure substances.

  I needed many pure materials for my work, and I said as much. He offered to send me some samples and to let him know if there were specifics that I needed.

  In turn, I offered to convert any amethysts he encountered into 7-point magical gems if he needed them. I planned to learn how to make the more powerful versions over time, but I could only work with crystals and 7pt gems right now. However, I could also use gem powers to choose his gem’s effects and offer that service.

  He was delighted with the offer and said he would send me some gems to work on as I had time.

  “In fact,” I said as I pointed to the amethyst I had given him, “you can claim this one’s spell now. What feature would you like it to give?”

  He paused in thought. “I am familiar with most conventional powers of 7pt amethysts, but they do tend to vary across encounters. Please tell me what is available, and I will make a choice.”

  I concentrated and expended a casting point to seek the powers of the gemstone. It felt slightly different from the five elemental gems I had recently worked with, but I did not sense danger. “While it is not a hard and fast rule, seven choices are often available. There are usually two common choices, an uncommon, a rare effect, a very rare, an extremely rare, and an extraordinarily rare option. In your case, it follows the typical model. You may choose one of the seven choices for your 7pt amethyst. They include: Spirit Guardian I, Ectoblast II, Identify Auras, Summon Lesser Spirits, Infernal, or Divines, Ectoarmor II, Talk w/Presences, and Scry Known Location. The rarest by far is the Scry Known Location option, which is a second essence spell.”

  “In my line of work, the Scry Known Location would serve me best.”

  I concentrated, and the spell power shifted into place.

  “Done,” I remarked.

  We also discussed the possibility of creating a line of magical runes, gems, sockets, and jewelry together that could fund our personal experiments and interests. It would be a while before I had my own practice, at least years after I completed my journeyman work, but we could still do some things together until then.

  Davon offered to hire my services with commissions to place sockets in some of his magical constructs. I asked him to assemble a list, and we could discuss it. Given our family wealth, we would probably prefer a friendly in-kind trade more than gold and platinum. His family wealth was exponentially more than my own, but I had never gone wanting for something and had a nice nest egg laid away in preparation for my shop someday. In fact, I hoped to partner with Sundance and expand his business into magical ware as well as fine jewelry.

  Including the 7pt gemstone I gave Davon and my diamond, I had thirteen others. I had one complete set of the five elemental stones, with two each of topaz, ruby, and emerald. I also had five other gemstones, including a citrine, amber, jade, peridot, and aquamarine. I also had the 28pt diamond, which was the real prize on this adventure.

  Before I left, Davon handed me a stone amulet with four hand-carved runes and a leather thong threaded through a hole in its center. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a sister amulet that he was wearing, which was made of a different type of stone. “You can use this amulet to contact me. It acts two ways, just like a regular conversation. It is one of my inventions, and I give it to trusted friends and ask that you use it sparingly. Like you, I value my privacy, but I value friendship more.”

  I accepted the gift. “Thank you. Do I need to have it around my neck for it to function?”

  “No, but it should be on your person somewhere; a pocket is fine. It is best to keep it nearby. The conversations are out loud, but you must mentally accept the communication to activate it. You will sense a vibration or buzzing sound if a call from me comes to you, and I will sense the same. You accept it if you are somewhere appropriate for a spoken conversation, or wait until you are. If no immediate reply comes, try back again later. We are not always somewhere private or appropriate for a private or confidential conversation.”

  “Understood,” I said.

  As Davon escorted me to the door of his offices, he promised to send me some samples and materials, including an introductory book on magical runes, for me to review.

  We shook hands, and I returned to my chambers in the enchanters' guild hall. I considered both my rewards for an evening's dangerous work and the options this new friendship opened up for future opportunities.

  It was a good night.

  I shared a shortened version of my evening with Master Glimmerblade, who was initially upset and surprised by the level of danger involved for an apprentice. However, he ended up chuckling and appreciating how the grandmaster treated me more as an equal than a servant, which is how many mages view their apprentices.

  I went to bed after our talk, yawning widely near the end. I slept deeply and awoke rested and recuperated.

  The following day, when I went to work at Sundance’s cellar forge for a few hours, there was a crate waiting for me with my name on it. I opened it and discovered several small boxes filled with seven powdered metals: copper, iron, silver, gold, nickel, zinc, and platinum. Additionally, there were labeled glass jars with powdered marble, granite, obsidian, rose quartz, jade, hematite, and jasper. Sitting under these boxes and jars were two additional boxes. One box held fourteen brown sandstone blank rune sticks that were 3.5” long by ?” wide by ?” deep. The other box held fourteen blank rune stones also made of gray sandstone, and each was 1” x 1” x ?” thick. And finally, under those boxes wrapped in protective thick paper were three books: a history book taken from the university with a note for me to return to my father, the librarian, with Davon’s apologies. It was a book about geology and forms of stone across the Seventh Kingdom. Under that book was a skinny book of beginning magical runes written by Davon with an encouraging inscription to me. Finally, under that text was another thicker textbook for beginning sages with a note from him that stated, “Inside can be found, through hard work and diligence, sage spells including five, volume one spells: Transcribe, Locate/Transport Text, Audiobook, Map, and Sketch. Additionally, two volume two spells can be learned: Copy Book and Locate Text Passage.

  I sent the missing library book off to my father with Davon’s apologies.

  Davon was a man of his word. Sharing a beginner’s textbook from another guild was a bit of a taboo action. It may have been why he sent the crate here to Sundance rather than the enchanter’s guild.

  Davon was demanding, but he appeared fiercely loyal to his friends, and I was lucky to be counted among them.

  A book with access to seven different sage first and second volume spells was worth a lot to me, both financially because of its rarity outside of their guild and professionally because I knew that I could use every one of those spells in some capacity.

  It looked like a very promising morning...