by Pirateaba
Explosive? Ryoka could just imagine what that meant, and wished she couldn’t. Hedvault placed the potions back in the pack dismissively.
“Next. The last items of value are this bag of pebbles and ball.”
He pulled out a bag filled with tiny circular, flat stones and a ball which was made out of leather. Someone had stitched an angry face onto the leather in red thread. Ryoka was tickled by it. Hedault gestured to the pebbles.
“Each one is enchanted to shed [Light] for twenty four hours before fading until exposed to sunlight for an equal amount of time. A useful tool I suppose. But this ball…is quite extraordinary.”
He had that look which told Ryoka it was more interesting than the rest. She stared at it. Hedault pointed to the face stitched in the leather.
“Note the symbol. This one is meant to provoke an opponent. If it is touched here, and then thrown—”
The instant his finger touched the ball, Ryoka saw the stitching contort. The face contorted, and then began to scream.
Instantly Ryoka clapped her ears to her head. Reynold did the same, but Hedault just tossed the ball. It immediately shot out of the room and rolled down the corridor, emitting that same ear-piercing shrieking of noise. After a few seconds in which Ryoka shouted and Hedault calmly shook his head, the sound ended and to her surprise, the ball rolled back into the room. It sat at the enchanter’s feet, calm and inactive.
It took a few minutes before the ringing had died down in Ryoka’s ears to hear again. When she did, Hedault calmly picked up the ball and showed her where to press.
“It takes a rather strong force from a living hand to activate it. However, when used it will aggressively seek out any living creature in the nearby area, excluding those in a general radius of activation…if no quarry is found it will return.”
“Useful!”
Ryoka shouted the words. Hedault nodded and smiled.
“Innovative. That is all of worth in the pack.”
Ryoka put her finger in one ear and winced, wondering if she’d lost some of her hearing for good. She saw Reynault shaking his head and turned to Hedault.
“All of this…is this a good haul for a group that went through a dungeon? In your experience?”
He stopped and considered that, hand on the last item, the bag of holding.
“No. Some of these artifacts are indeed valuable—the shield and sword I suppose are most useful—but they are hardly impressive finds. Given the risk, I would say that this recovery is rather mediocre.”
Ryoka’s head lowered. Hedault smiled.
“—If you do not count the contents of this bag, that is.”
Her head snapped up, and Ryoka saw a smile flash over the enchanter’s face.
“You do have a sense of humor. Huh.”
He turned away from her and carefully opened the bag.
“Given the quality of the items recovered, I had assumed the Horns of Hammerad had broken into a competent but average mage for the era, perhaps an intermediary mage in their craft. However, when I finally managed to open this bag…it is clear now that the fire trap spell that triggered consumed many powerful artifacts. Yet this bag was completely unharmed; an appropriate measure given the artifacts contained within.”
Ryoka and Reynold held their breath as the enchanter reached into the bag. The room went silent as Hedault fished around inside and then pulled out…
Three rings and a wand. Ryoka exhaled hard as she stared down at the items in Hedualt’s hand.
“Tell me looks are deceiving.”
Hedault appeared annoyed as he placed the items on the table.
“Always. These artifacts are all exceptionally valuable. Let me impress the reasons why upon you now.”
Ryoka gestured for him to go right ahead. The enchanter muttered to himself a bit and then tapped the table as he pointed to the bag.
“Firstly, the bag. It is superbly enchanted. By which I mean to say there is no magical leakage whatsoever. Do you understand the concept around magical interference between artifacts?”
“I get it from context. Leaky magical items conflict? Can’t have a sword and a shield if the enchantments are bad?”
“Yes. Such a combination would lead to a reaction in the worst cases, or a clash of magics which would unleash the spells, alter them in adverse ways, or simply break one or both of the enchantments. But this—this bag is perfect.”
Hedault sighed as he held it up.
“Despite the limited size—you may be able to fit twenty pounds of weight inside at most—it is stellar. A mage practicing magic may carry it without fear of any kind of magical interference.”
“Huh. Twenty pounds? Doesn’t sound that great.”
The look Hedault gave Ryoka said he was considering fitting her head in the bag and giving it a good kick.
“Bags of holding rarely contain more than a hundred pounds of weight—and those bags are very magically unstable, let me assure you. This is the work of an artisan above my ability. You would be lucky to find another bag so well made.”
“Oh really?”
On a hunch, Ryoka pulled out her bag of holding, the one Teriarch had given her.
“This one holds a bit more than twenty pounds. I’d say fifty five is the upper limit. Mind telling me how good this one is?”
“Hah. This is…this…”
Hedault’s voice trailed off as he took the bag from Ryoka. He peered at it, and then his eyes bulged. Ryoka snatched the bag back and smiled.
“Good to know.”
It was just a hunch, but why would a Dragon ever have a bag of holding that was less than perfect? Hedault stammered as he stared at her.
“Who made—where did you…?”
“What does this ring do?”
Ryoka lifted a ring up. Hedault had to visibly compose himself for a second—in the corner of her eye Ryoka could see Reynold writing something down. She turned with a frown, but he had tucked it into his waistcoat before she could see.
He was recording all of this down—not just the artifacts, but what she had as well! Ryoka bit her lip and made a note to have words with him afterwards. Hedault shook his head and turned back to the ring Ryoka was holding.
“It is inadvisable to touch something until an [Enchanter] has identified it. In this case, the danger is to me. Please hand it to me.”
Ryoka did. Hedault slipped the ring onto his finger and sighed, going back to his business-like self. Nevertheless, his eyes still glittered as he showed the ring to Ryoka.
“Note the circular diamond in the center.”
“It’s large. Flawless. My g—wow. And perfectly cut.”
“Yes.”
Hedault nodded, acknowledging Ryoka’s insight into the gem itself. Ryoka had seen valuable gems—she was aware of the difference between cheap cut stones and the really important stuff. The diamond was the later kind.
“Pure. Without faults. And large—yes. This gem acts in tandem with the metal—it is not, in fact, silver but platinum.”
“You’re kidding me. People knew how to work platinum back then?”
“Oh yes. Platinum is a very powerful metal when used for enchanting or spells…in this case, it acts as a conductor for the spell with the gem. When the ring is put on the finger and the hand is flicked like—”
Hedault paused as he put the ring on his finger. Ryoka saw Reynold duck out of the way, and she herself felt uneasy the instant she saw it go on his finger. The enchanter stared around the room and shook his head.
“…If I used it, my walls would suffer damage. I shall avoid demonstrating it now. Know that this ring can be activated and deactivated. But when activated, a flick—”
He demonstrated after taking the ring off. It was a quick snap of the wrist.
“—will send a piercing spell flying at the target. I believe it would be…difficult to aim without practice, but let me assure you that this spell far surpasses any Tier 2 or Tier 3 spell of a similar nature. It would be…around Tier 4 in potency.”
“Blood on my grave, that’s nasty.”
Reynold muttered out loud and clapped a hand to his face as both girl and mage turned to him. He colored, but Hedault nodded.
“A powerful spell, designed to cut past any quick defense. A perfect tool for an assassin—or a mage disinclined to fight fairly in a magic duel. Very powerful.”
“So I see. And this ring?”
Ryoka pointed to one made out of wood. Hedault shrugged, losing interest.
“Very powerful. Very common. [Barkskin].”
“Do you mean literally bark for skin, or…”
“There may be some physical alterations given time, but only temporarily. The skin will indeed grow tough—not as strong as armor, but certainly far more durable which would be invaluable against daggers and to an extent, swords…but [Barkskin] also provides the wearer with a degree of cold resistance due to the thicker exterior, and of course, some users simply prefer it when travelling outdoors as the sun will provide them with energy…”
“Wait a second, you mean you’ll literally have bark for skin, as in, you can take in light like a plant?”
Hedault gave Ryoka a confused look.
“That is the implication with the spell, is it not? In any case, it is a valuable item, especially given that it is a permanent spell. Again, I impress on you the difference between temporary and permanent. [Stoneskin] is a powerful enchantment, but I have heard of only a handful of cases where it was ever successfully imbued into an artifact.”
“Good stuff. Got it.”
“Yes, well, this ring is far more interesting.”
Hedault shook his head as he pushed the other two rings back and picked up the third. Ryoka’s eye was caught instantly by the way this one was clearly magical. It looked like it was made up of air. That was to say, it was practically invisible, but for shifting…waves in the air. It looked a lot like the shimmering that came off of pavement in the heat, only twisted into a band.
“A ring that allows the user to jump up to six times their height without consequence. Weight will affect the spell naturally, but this…”
The enchanter breathed the words out loud, eyes shining. Ryoka and Reynold blinked.
“Oh come on. That’s your powerful enchantment?”
Ryoka glared at Hedault. The mage looked insulted.
“This enchantment is splendidly made. And though it is not a physical enhancement, the use of gravity magic is—”
“It’s a ring of jumping. Tell me how that’s as useful as a ring that turns your skin into bark or shoots missiles?”
“Well, you could crush a man in armor with your foot if you put it on.”
Ryoka paused with her mouth open.
“Explain.”
“This ring does not simply allow you to ‘jump higher’. It allows you to jump higher and maintain the weight of your fall while protecting the user. To put it in simpler terms, this is not a ring that has a simple [Featherfall] and [Lightfoot] dual enchantment. This ring uses gravity. Thus, if a warrior in plate armor were to jump twenty feet into the air and land, the impact would—”
“Holy crap.”
“Quite. Do you understand? This is no ordinary ring. In fact, a ring of jumping completely misses the point. With it, a user could grab hold of say, a team of adventurers and leap to safety, or use it themselves to travel up a cliff without fear of falling.”
“But there are limits, right? You couldn’t just jump off a cliff and…”
Hedault raised his eyebrows. Ryoka gulped.
“Seriously?”
“The ring will come into focus the more its energies are exhausted. See, it is practically opaque? It will slowly stabilize and its true form—I believe it is a brass band—will emerge. Thus, a user will be able to calculate if it is becoming drained from usage. Although I doubt it would be drained from anything other than a powerful impact. And it will recharge within days at most…”
It was odd. Throughout her talking with Hedault, Ryoka had just marveled at the magical items, wanting to try one or the other, but without any real desire to use any of them. What was she going to do with a sword? Well, it would be fun to chop a few things apart, but…
But now she couldn’t stop staring at the ring Hedault held. She wanted it. Ryoka Griffin wanted it more than anything she’d ever seen in the world. She wanted to climb a cliff with it. Or a mountain. She wanted to jump. She wanted to fly.
“Okay, that one’s good.”
“Relatively speaking, it is the second-most powerful item discovered. But this—”
Hedault sighed and picked up the wand. Ryoka’s eye fixed on it. It wasn’t a wand made of wood. It was metal. Iron? The dark grey—almost black metal was twisted like it had been alive, though. It was fashioned as though it were a bit of wood taken from a tree, ending with a blunted tip.
The [Enchanter] looked at Ryoka as he cradled it in his hands.
“Before I inform you as to this item’s usage…I don’t suppose you would consider my offer? I realize it is completely unconventional, but I feel compelled to make it.”
“Which is?”
“Allow me to pay you eighteen thousand gold pieces to purchase this wand from you. I will not make this offer again, and if you desire to accept you must not ask what this wand’s usage is.”
Reynold sounded like he’d inhaled his tongue. Ryoka blinked a few times and put her hand to her ear.
“Eight…eighteen? Not just eight?”
“It is the number for silence, for not inquiring. The wand may be worth less, but this is my price. Will you take it?”
Ryoka gulped as she met Hedault’s eyes. She looked at Reynold—the man was blinking rapidly as his eyes fixed on the iron wand. There was quill and inkpot balanced on his hand as he held a small book in front of him.
The young woman turned back to Hedault and sighed.
“Damnit, if you knew me…I have to know what the hell that wand is. Sorry, no deal.”
Hedault nodded. He looked visibly disappointed—Ryoka supposed that was crying and weeping on anyone else. He stroked the wand and then looked at Ryoka.
“Very well. Then, an explanation first. This wand is not metal as you might surmise. It is iron wood—it comes from a rare tree that is extinct as far as I know. But inside the wand…there is something. A core.”
“You mean, the thing that gives it magic?”
“Yes. I do not know what it is.”
“You can’t tell?”
Hedault shook his head.
“It is something I have never seen before. Something…powerful. This wand is powered by the core—it is a classical wand. I suppose you do not know the difference between a classical wand and variation designed for spellcasting…? No, I see not.”
“Let me guess. One’s better?”
“Substantially.”
Hedault nodded. He indicated the wand he held.
“This wand has no spell attached to it. It is…well, I suppose you could call it an aid to spellcasting, but an aid hardly encompasses…it will boost any mage’s ability to cast spells immensely. Not like the modern wand. Those have cores of course, but these are almost invariably small mana stones. They are consumed with every cast of the spell embedded in the wand—you understand?”
“One’s temporary and helps cast a certain kind of spell, the other one’s good at everything and doesn’t run dry?”
“Exactly.”
Hedault nodded as he reluctantly let Ryoka inspect the wand. It was heavy she found—and the iron wood did indeed feel like wood. Cold, metallic wood.
“Such a wand is…valuable does not begin to describe it. Consider, please, the limits of modern construction. A—a wand made today would have to be of some high-quality wood. Perhaps meltwood, or cerabark? And the core might be unicorn hair or unicorn horn if you were so unimaginably lucky—it would be inferior to this wand by a substantial degree.”
Ryoka whistled as she held the wand.
“Ceria and Pis
ces are going to tear each other apart over this thing.”
“Any mage would. In fact, I advise you to take care in transporting it—it is not magically significant so a casual [Detect Magic] spell would not identify it immediately if concealed correctly, but any mage worth their salt would do almost anything to obtain such an object.”
Ryoka eyed Hedault.
“Why didn’t you lie about what it was, then? Seems odd you’d just tell me what it is after making one offer.”
The enchanter glared at her, outraged by the suggestion.
“I make my living based on my trustworthiness. I would not lie—even when sorely tempted to.”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just—wow, this is the big one, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It is.”
Hedault grew silent as Ryoka turned the wand over in her hands. He sighed.
“Congratulations, Ryoka Griffin. I am told there are two mages in the Horns of Hammerad. One of them will benefit greatly—assuming the other does not attempt to kill them to possess this wand, that is.”
“We’ll see.”
Ryoka put the wand down and turned to Hedault. She felt lightheaded—possibly because she’d listened to him chatter on about magical artifacts for the better part of an hour. Or was it more? She couldn’t tell how long she’d been standing here.
“Was that it? You said something about repair costs…”
“Ah, yes.”
Hedault flicked his fingers and levitated the buckler up.
“This is the only object in need of repairs to function. The hilt of the sword enchanted with weight could use touching up, but that is a minor cost. Now, I estimate that this buckler can be fixed with a modicum of effort and time—say, five days? I could do it myself for a small reduction in fees.”
Ryoka nodded.
“And the price?”
Hedault tapped the buckler twice as he thought.
“I would think that the least I would ask is…one thousand and six hundred gold coins for the buckler, and four hundred…and fifty for the hilt. Now, understand that an error might occur in the repair process in which case the fee will be refunded, but the enchantment will in all likelihood be completely lost.”
He looked up and saw Ryoka had gone dead white.
