Inexperienced Mage (Reawakening Saga)

by Jackson, D. W.

  A book that could hold more than one book within it, he hadn't thought of that before. While paper was made of wood it was too thin and weak to hold an enchantment, and then there was the problem of copying the books then calling the book you wanted. If he was to use a central core along with a thin metal layer over the cover it could work, but how would he get it to copy. What if he put a second gem and enchantment on the back of the book, for that, It should be possible. "I am sure I could acquire something of that nature in a few weeks' time but it wouldn't be cheap. You're not asking for some run of the mill artifact but one that would have been prized even among the mages of the past."

  “Well if I was to have each of the books I wanted copied it would cost me around eight gold, for a magical book I would be willing to pay twenty.”

  "I'm sorry but that wouldn't be enough we're not talking about a simple item here, but a magical book that can copy any book quickly to be recalled later at any time, for that I would have to demand forty gold." After a bit of haggling back and forth the pick was decided on thirty-two gold with half up front, that being Willow's request most likely to make him work harder to get her product it was much harder to tell someone you couldn't get their order when you had already received payment.

  After Willow had left Thad went straight to the local scribe store and got three thick blank books as well as ten smaller ones for the initial experimentation. The idea of a magical book intrigued him, if it worked he could have Shariel use it to copy some of the books from the school’s library for him to read at his leisure. Making the cover in steel didn’t seem right so he splurged on a bar of silver.

  The next few he spent most of his time working on the magical tome. It seemed like an easy enough idea, just make it copy the book, but it was a lot more complicated than he thought. After a few trial and errors using the smaller books he found that all he needed to do was to have the tome copy anything within a designated area, after that he just had to set the perimeters. After the book was copied gold flowing script would appear on the front of the tome that when touched and read would force the book to recall the selected item. Before he could give Willow her copy he had to see just how many books it could hold. So that night he passed the book to Shariel for instruction on how to make it work as well as what kind books he wanted copied.

  The day seemed to drag on as he waited for Shariel to come back from the school. He tried to keep himself busy, playing around with a few new rings, but couldn't hold his focus due to the anticipation. When she finally returned home she gave him a sad put upon look. "My tutor saw me with the history books and thought I liked them, I had to spend all day reading." The disgust in her voice matched with the vision he got of her sifting through a mountain of books and made him laugh.

  The tome had done much better than he had figured and had been able to store a total of forty-six books. Flipping through one of the books he had been waiting to read, he gave Shariel a big hug. He dug into his coin pouch and pulled out a single gold, and tossed it to her. “For testing it for me.” Shariel caught the coin deftly and began jumping around the room.

  As word started getting around that he could get magical artifacts, he found himself beleaguered by people wishing to have things made from the mundane to the impossible. To solve his problem he started telling everyone to simply send him what they were looking for and if he could procure their order he would be in contact. While the constant interruptions were annoying they did allow him to make a large sum of gold, which brought along an idea of his own. Monique had said he had a way for them to communicate and deliver items over long distances, what if he really could she could take specific orders and he could send them to her.

  A couple days into what he called the sending box the first order of swords were delivered. Though the constant flow of people wanting magical devices was annoying, they had allowed him to gather a large amount of gold, so paying the remainder for the swords was quite easy. He had a fair amount of anticipation when he opened the crate wondering what design Bruno had come up with for the hilts. The blade was simple as he expected, the guard looked like two talons stretching out from a scaled hilt.

  As he began working on the swords the princess made her way to visit him at his sewer home. He had thought she would have come to visit much sooner and have even entertained the idea to go visit her, but he didn’t want to push his luck, one wrong step within the palace and he would find himself in prison.

  The princess watched him closely as he worked on the swords her mother had requested. Sitting down the sword he had just finished he turned to the princess. “I figured that you would have come to visit me sooner, I’ve missed your banter.”

  “I didn’t want to interrupt your time with your new friend.” While the princess’s face stayed impassive her voice showed more than a hint of irritation. He knew she was mad he just wasn’t sure about what; maybe he should have visited her sooner.

  “Monique, she left the day after our audience with the queen, I’ve told you about her she is like my sister. I’m sorry I haven’t visited the palace, but with everything going on I just haven’t had the chance, not to mention I’m still a little worried about spending time around the palace.”

  Maria gave him a harsh stare for a bit, then a smile slowly crept onto her face, and she rushed over to him embracing him in a tight hug. “So tell me everything that happened, the stories we’ve been getting are all over the place.”

  Thad related the story telling her of how he had purchased Shariel from the woman who had been attacked by the bandits. Maria was quite interested in his new charge asking about every question from her age to what her hobbies were. After her curiosity was sated about Shariel he continued on the story. When he got to the part about the Ablain spies she looked worried and fussed over him profusely when he got to the part where he took an arrow in the back. Her attitude changed from concerned to outrage as he related his meeting with Eloen.

  “So the Ablain are riling up the males in order to weaken us so they can attack. This isn’t good and I can’t tell mother or she will wonder where I learned it from. Oh and our plan didn’t work as I hoped mother is looking for you even harder now.”

  That looked at the princess in a new light, though he had talked with her often it donned on him that she acted much older than her age. An eleven year old should be playing, and having fun not talking to a mage in a musky sewer. “Are you sure you’re eleven?” The words popped out of his mouth before he had a chance to think better about it. He looked at the princess for any sign of anger, but she just gave him a glowing smile.

  “I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. Since I was three years old I have been groomed to be the next queen, every day I’m reminded that everything I say and do affect the Queendom.”

  Maria’s face fell slightly and Thad could see she mourned her lost childhood. He himself had been trained since early childhood to be perfect but the mothers at the academy had insisted that they enjoy some time to be kids, he had asked one time and was told that being serious all the time is bad for one’s heart. “I don’t think the Ablain’s will give up on just one attempt, as soon as I have a chance I will visit some of the men’s taverns and see if I hear anything.”

  Maria got up and began pacing back and forth if she didn’t look so serious he would have thought it was cute. “The Ablain are only part of the problem, the men joined them of their own free will because of the way we treat them. Even if we stop every Ablain plot sooner or later we will still have problems if we don’t fix how we treat the men.”

  Thad had thought the same thing but was unsure how to broach the topic with the princess he had few people he could talk to and didn’t want to alienate anyone from his small circle of friends.

  Bruno kept his end of the bargain and delivered the swords a few days ahead of schedule. Considering the timeline he had been given he produced four swords a day, allowing him to work projects from his backlist of orders as well as his sendin
g box. Maria would stop by every few days to talk and inspect what he was working on. He found that when he was stumped by a difficult project, bouncing ideas off her was a good idea, and more than once she came up with a solution that he would have never thought of. He had been having an incredibly difficult time of finding out how to make the sending boxes, when the princess asked him if he could just make the insides like a hallway. While the idea struck him as funny the more he thought about it the more it made sense. He had learned magic didn't exist in a normal fashion but lived on a sub dimension waiting to be pulled on by a mage. If he could build a magical room in a sub dimension where the box lids were the doors to the room but only one could be opened at a time it could work. The only problem is what would happen if the box was ever destroyed, he would have to put in sub enchantments to cause the room to collapse on itself, and just to be safe the boxes would have to be made solidly out of metal not wood. And what if he wanted to make one box able to communicate with several, maybe he could make a revolving room, it seemed possible but just testing the idea on a small scale would require more gold and time than he currently had to waist, so he put the idea to the side and continued on with enchanting the swords.

  He finished the swords a few weeks ahead of schedule and over a two day period moved them back to his house and replaced them in the wooden crates Bruno had sent them over in. With them crated he only needed a way to get them to the palace so he went out and purchased a one horse wagon.

  He was quickly let into the palace grounds and a host of slaves unloaded his wears and transported them to the guards training ground. After a couple hours wait he was soon graced with the presence of the queen and princess who greeted him fondly. “What have you brought us?”

  He signaled for one of the slaves to open up the nearest crate. He picked up the first sword and walked over to one of the training pells and with one deft stroke cut the man sized pell in half, securing gasps of astonishment from his viewers. "From what I was told each sword is magical strengthened to withstand massive blows, as well as magically sharpened to cut through your opponents."

  The queen nodded to one of her guards who picked up one of the swords and took it through a series of strikes, then attacked the pells cutting a score of them into firewood. He gave the sword an appraising look and replaced it back in the crate. “They are well balanced and cut thought the pells with little resistance. I would be honored to have such a blade at my disposal your Majesty.”

  “As per our agreement I will have the fifteen hundred gold sent to the local moneychangers in your name. I would also like to order two hundred more swords and three hundred shields, to be used by my personal guard.”

  “Your Majesty I can’t give you an exact time frame for my source to be able to prepare such an order, but I will do my best to see that it is done.” Thad said trying to hide his irritation.

  The queen smiled slightly. “Tell your source there is no rush and may send them as he has time. I will pay the aforementioned fifteen gold per sword and ten gold per shield, the price is nonnegotiable, now if you would excuse me I have prior engagements I must attend to.”

  CHAPTER VIIII

  With the sale of the swords Thad had more gold than he could honestly spend even after paying off the loan for the house. The moneychangers had given him a small booklet of fine paper to use for notes of payment for large payments as well as recording the signet ring that he had gotten from Monique to verify payments.

  With a light step in his step Thad made his way to the blacksmith where he was greeted by a happy Margret. “Have you come to make another large order lady Clair?”

  "Yes, I have is Bruno available? While I will need more swords, there are a few other things I would like him to make that are going to have to made to a specific design."

  “For one of our distinguished customers I am sure he will be more than willing to step away from whatever he is doing.” She said before disappearing to the back of the smithy.

  Bruno came out with his normal bluster about being bothered while he worked, that he was sure was more to annoy Margret than for any practical reason. "Master smith just the person I needed to see, I have a couple of new projects and I find myself in the need of your assistance again." Bruno gave him a look that was in-between a smile and a smirk as he launched into the details of what he needed.

  "Well lady Clair the swords can be made easily enough now that the molds are already made, the shields will take a bit to make a mold for, though I don't know why you want the metal so thin, but that's your decision, the chests you're asking for are the real problem making something fit as tight as that will take a bit of working and the five large ones even more work, and lining the inside with silver won't be easy or cheap. I'm sure I can get it all done but it's going to take some time, I hope you're not in too much of a hurry."

  “Not in too much of a hurry Master Bruno, but as you get the items made I would like them delivered, the main question here to me is cost.”

  Bruno and Margret steeped aside and talked among themselves Margret jotting down notes on a sheaf of paper every now and then. When they were done talking Margret turned back to him her smile as big as ever. “For everything swords shields and chests it will be a total of twelve hundred gold.”

  Thad had to keep from fainting from the cost but thinking about it, he should have expected it. He had been doing well with all his projects he had slightly over two hundred gold hidden at his home, but even with that and what he had left at the moneychangers was barely enough to cover the expense.

  After a long bout of haggling he was able to get Margret to come down to one thousand eighty gold, which half was paid up front with the rest paid at increments as the products were delivered.

  With nothing else pressing to work on until some of his orders were filled by Bruno he began working on the many orders by the nobles. Most of the requests were simple and boring things that didn’t grab his interest, but from time to time they would ask for something that presented him with a challenge.

  The days passed by fairly quickly with him working in the sewer during the day and prowling the seedier taverns at night. Most the time he got the same feeling from the patrons of the taverns, unhappy but no diabolic plots.

  Shariel was proceeding well with her studies and seemed to enjoy herself at the school. She had a natural charisma, and seemed to make many friends many of who she brought over quite often. He was glad she was adjusting so well to her new life, but the constant need to hold his disguise while at home was getting annoying.

  The swords came along with two of the smaller chests he had ordered. The chests were sized to fit a few small letters, while not much in size they were perfect to try out his idea on, before waiting time and money on the bigger ones. He had to get the sending chest enchantment perfect before trying it on the larger ones since they would have to be done at the house being too large to fit in any of the sewer entrances.

  With the two small chests in his sack he quickly made his way to the sewer to begin his work. With all the metal work already done for him all he had to do was place them gem and start enchanting. Not having to tax his strength to manipulate the metal himself was refreshing. He was a little wary of starting the project without someone knowing, doing something new especially something as complicated as this required complete concentration until he completely understood where he could stop without the enchantment collapsing.

  While he didn’t want to start on the project without someone to watch out for him, the urge to was almost unbearable. When he was about to give in to his desire the princess was nice enough to grace him with her presence. “I could almost kiss you; I was hoping you would visit today.”

  The princess face burned bright red then she closed her eyes. “Well if you must.” She said closing her eyes. Everything clicked in place for him as he watched her stand there blushing with her eyes closed tight. She was only a few years younger than him, and when she got older she promised to be a sight
to behold, and he had to admit she intrigued him. So with a slight chuckle he leaned in and gave her a light kiss on the lips, his own face burning bright red.

  He explained what he was going to try to do as well as the dangers involved. The princess didn’t like the idea, but finally agreed to make sure he got water and broth at least once a day and that if it looked like it was too much for him to find way to force a break in his concentration, but it cost him a second kiss.

  It took two days for him to finish the sending boxes, it would have been quicker but it took a while to figure out how to link the extra dimensional room attach to the boxes, but once that was done it was simple enough to attach the rooms so that they no matter where they were they were essential the same box on the inside. To test the new sending boxes he gave one to the princess while taking the other back to his house where he put in a simple note saying does it work. After reading a bit from his magical tome he opened the sending box to find a note written in flowing script simply saying yes. It had worked, if it would work at long distances was unknown, but Thad could think of no reason that it wouldn't.

  Each morning and night he would check his sending box to see if anything was in there. He really needed a way for it to let him know as soon as anything was present inside the box, but that could be done on his next set, he still had to try allowing one box to reach multiple ones.

  As his orders arrived from Bruno he went to work to finish them as quickly as possible so he could keep enough gold available to keep all the bills paid. By the time the first large chest had arrived Thad had already completed over two thirds of the swords and around a hundred of the shields. Bruno had let him know that once the molds were finished on the shields he would focus all his attention on the chests, but even so it would take a long time to complete them. With Bruno paid and the amount of gold in his account steadily growing with each delivery to the place, Thad began to slow down his work. Shariel and Maria had been harassing him about his heath, as days of working with little break and often time skips meals were starting to show. The muscle definition of his body from years of sword practice, and exercise had faded, and he had lost a considerable amount of weight.