[Return, Idea]

  I was looking forward to a few quiet hours in the bookstore, between the farms, the financial war and the real war, I’d just spent my days running around. I portaled to the bookstore.

  “Ahem, is this the time you’ve been strolling into work, I see you’ve also corrupted the senior apprentice as neither she nor Mossbeard have bothered to come in to work either.”

  “Sparky!. I’m so glad to see you, I have things I have to tell you and warn you about. The same day you disappeared. Arjun arrived looking for you, and he is Titania’s adopted son. Are you all right, did you go in hiding from him?”

  “Of course I didn’t go in hiding from a healer's apprentice, I’m the Grandmaster of my order. Now start reporting, why is there a sentient tree in my bookstore, for a start.”

  “You’ll like her, she's quiet but also opinionated, she loves to read.”

  “Yes I can tell that she loves to read. It's all she’s done since I got here, and why is she reading on that abomination instead of one of the perfectly good books that we sell?”

  “I got the trees, Kobo’s to thank them.”

  “To thank them for what?”

  “They saved Lu, Dogberry and my life.”

  “How does working at a bookstore put your, Lu’s and Dogberry’s life at risk. You got involved in some civic project didn’t you after I’d just told you not to get into any new civic projects.”

  “Well what happened was there was this cartel in the hills.”

  “Was a cartel, what happened to the cartel?”

  “They were being cheated by the head of the cartel. But we have a lawsuit, which we will probably win, at least that’s what our attorney just told me, that’s why I was late.”

  “Why is our bookstore involved in a lawsuit with a farming cartel in the hills? No wait, so let's go back to why she is reading on that electronic thing.”

  “Because you wouldn’t want to read a book if it was printed on a person running through a woodchipper right.”

  “No I suppose not, although there were some necromancers on earth who wouldn’t even take notes on anything other than human skin. I never saw the appeal.”

  Just then Mossbeard burst in the door yelling, “Rose did you forget about the free food for the vendors. Oh hi Sparky. Welcome back.”

  “Sorry Sparky, I’ll be right back.” I jumped to Juliet’s World and authored a three day supply of food and jumped it to the warehouse where a gnome waited. I apologized to the gnome and asked if he needed anything special. No, they were all set. I portaled back to the bookstore.

  Arthur was standing chatting with Sparky when I arrived.

  “Oh here she is the woman who single handedly saved the town and ended the war.”

  “No, Arthur, it was very much a group effort.”

  “No Elder Glimmerdus himself told me you took out one third of the army yourself, you imprisoned the entire army including the corrupt guard captain. All while keeping the town fed for free on less. I’m here to give you the key to the city and if you still want to buy the Harris’s estate just let Alvyn know and we'll promise to give you a good price. Not as cheap as those farms we sold you but still a very reasonable price.”

  “Thank you Arthur, I was thinking of setting up a foundation board to run all of that, you know, Nim, Lily, Paula, and Ruby. I have to step back from that because I have so many responsibilities here at the store.”

  Sparky’s right eyebrow crept higher and higher, the longer Arthur gushed.

  “Well, I have to go, Nim wanted me to stop by the market, she said those expensive shrimp are still free till the end of the week. Is that right, Rose?”

  “Yes Arthur, everything is free, even the expensive stuff.”

  “You are so generous, Rose. Please stop by town hall for the key to the town, we want to do a little ceremony with the town council.”

  “That’s really not necessary Arthur, please let’s forget it.”

  “Forget it, never. If I could write I would write the story of the girl who saved Wyldwood. Bye, come see me tomorrow.”

  With that he left and I turned to confront a glowering Grandmaster.

  “Alright, let me see if I have this correct. I have the chance of a lifetime for research. I leave my apprentice a few very simple tasks, look after the store. Enigmatic Parchments, when was the last time she checked in with you?”

  “Well, Sparky, she was asking me every day.”

  “Not what I asked, when was the last time.”

  “There was a war going on. How many copies we sold of ‘Gone with the Wind’, hardly seems to matter.”

  “Again, not what I asked.”

  “Four days ago.”

  “Alright Rose, so I tell you no new civic projects concentrate on the store. The very day, I tell you this you purchase a huge plot of land, invite a demon to Wyldwood, awaken some dormant sentient trees, start a financial war, start buying estates, almost get yourself, Lu and Dogberry killed, then you start a real war, where you almost get Draco killed because you wouldn’t let your army kill anyone. Am I missing anything?”

  “No, Sparky”

  Just then Zac Thompson walked in.

  “Hi Rose, I was just walking by and I wanted to tell you how glad I am that I sold you that warehouse. I love being a potter's apprentice, the master is hard on me but he’s very fair. You and Opal really turned my life around.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “That’s really great to hear Zac, I’m very happy for you. There’s nothing like having a nice master, it makes it a real pleasure to come to work.”

  “Oh no Rose, my master is a real bear, almost everyday he comes close to taking my head off. But he’s fair, I keep screwing up, but still it’s better than running a stall everyday. When are you going to open your stall?”

  “I’m not sure Zac, I need to find the right person to run it.”

  “Oh you should run it, you are the most popular person in Wyldwood after giving away free food for two weeks. Well I gotta go, my master is ready to kill me if I’m one bell late. Thanks again.”

  “Rose, you just told me I didn't miss anything.”

  “Well buying out Zac was all about the financial war, I didn’t mention every tiny detail, I also didn’t tell you the stuff that Opal and I learned, that Draco thinks we need to keep a deep dark secret at least until we talk to you about it.”

  “Speaking of Opal, aren’t you supposed to be giving her magic and writing lessons?”

  “The first day, I gave Opal a magic lesson and she was already better at magic than I am, so I asked Draco to teach her, because the first day I taught her everything I knew and I was afraid I’d do her more harm than good. Opal is doing great at magic and she loves it.”

  “Alright, we’ll see about that, let’s see what she’s written.”

  “Well she hasn’t exactly written anything yet.”

  “Then let me see her outline.”

  “I’m not making her write an outline, I hate writing outlines. If my teacher had made me write an outline, I never would have become a writer.”

  “How long did it take you to write your first novel?”

  “Seven years, but that was Juliet’s fault, she never liked my ideas for her character.”

  “Your idea of making a lesbian have sex with a male chauvinist.”

  “First off, at the time I had no idea that she was a lesbian.”

  “The fact that she spent half the day in the barn with Ivy didn’t tip you off at all?”

  “No, at the time, I was kind of clueless about lesbians.”

  “Even though you are a lesbian?”

  “Honestly I’m not sure that I am. I just know that I love Lu. I’m one hundred percent sure that I’d be in love with Lu no matter what gender she was.”

  “Hmmm, that is very perceptive of you. So I asked you to do four things, you did one of those four things once then you got Draco to do what I asked you to do for the rest of the time I was away. Is that about right?”

  “Yes Sparky, but I did learn something, a few things actually. I mean I didn’t discover them, people actually taught them to me, but I did learn them.”

  “What marvelous founts of knowledge do you wish to impart on me?”

  “Magical fields repel bullets, or at least stop bullets from hurting you.”

  “Yes of course they do, they stop rain from falling, why wouldn’t they stop bullets. That’s not even interesting unless you are in a war. Which you very much are not supposed to be in.”

  “Magical fields stick to the ground.”

  “Yes indeed they do, what did you think they stuck to?”

  “I can make moveable magic fields, Sparky.”

  “Alright Rose, that is interesting, but not for the reason that you think it’s interesting.”

  “How do you know what I think would be interesting?”

  “Rose, you think it’s interesting because it blocks bullets. I think it’s interesting, because you could use it as an article of clothing, you could walk up to the top of a peak in the winter in your underwear, it could save your life in the desert, arctic, even underwater, if you had any Earth electronics the battery would never die. See interesting. What other interesting things did you learn?”

  “Portals also work in a fictional world, I can set up a portal location in the fictional world and a person with a portal drawing could travel to my fictional world without any help from me.”

  “That may be interesting for mundane people but not for wizards. What else did you learn that was interesting?”

  “I learned some demon magic from Nyx.”

  “What kind of demon magic?”

  “How to create a magical field, the same way Nyx does, but nowhere as fast as her.”

  “How does Nyx create a magical field as compared to the way I taught you to create a magical field?”

  “Nyx doesn’t use any of her own magic, she uses the ambient magic of the environment, she claims she has less magical capacity than I had. Even though she cast a magical field over eighty farms in a few seconds.”

  “Wait, Rose, that is really interesting.”

  “That’s the thing I mentioned before that Draco wants to keep a deep dark secret, but you, Draco, Opal and I think Arjun suspects.”

  “Tell me more about the process, describe it.”

  “Draco compares it to having Bibliomancer powers in the real world, because you never run out of magic, at least in Wyldwood. You can fairly quickly gather large pools of floating magical fields, which you can use to create permanent magical fields of any size with no fatigue because you aren’t using your magic or like how we used it yesterday. Opals was pouring her magic into Draco, trying to heal him. While she did that I gathered large floating magical fields, once Opal was drained, she'd pause healing and absorb magic from the magical fields I was gathering. I don’t know how many cycles we went on like that, then Arjun joined us and he started doing the same thing as Opal”

  “Alright, let me see you create one of the magical fields.”

  I closed my eyes and imagined my huge magical arms gathering magic. I kept pulling the magical arms toward my chest, like I was swimming the reverse butterfly stroke.

  “Okay, that’s enough. And you can absorb this magic instantly?”

  “Yes, just like a magical field that you create with your own magic.”

  “Hmmm, interesting, interesting indeed."