[Conclusion, Travel]

  I braced myself for what Ruby had to say. I could see that Opal had been crying, and that was totally on me. Not only might Ruby ban me from studying with Opal, it might even be in Opal's best interest if she did. Should I say I’m sorry first, or wait for Ruby to begin. I should wait right, that would be the right thing to do, don’t let my impatience take away Ruby’s agency. Ruby wants to tell me how she feels. I’ll just have to wait for her to process the events and work through them in her mind.

  I can’t just wait, I have to apologize first, that’s the right thing to do. Isn’t it? Arg, why can’t I make up my mind.

  “I’m sorr….”

  “Thank you, Rose.”

  “What?”

  “What?”

  “I was apologizing, for once again letting Opal get into a dangerous situation.”

  “Opal, told me that the house targeted you, you sent her and Mossbeard off to explore with the caveat to draw. She said that you may not have known it consciously but that is exactly what happened.”

  “That’s true, but that is a very generous interpretation of what really happened. The house tricked me into going inside. Maybe it knew I wouldn’t just leave Mossbeard and Opal outside alone, so it planted the seed in my head of a fun game. But the point is I was tricked, Ruby and as such, I put Opal and Mossbeard both into danger. It was only dumb luck that Sparky got involved and he solved the entire thing.”

  “Opal fashioned it differently, Rose didn’t know that something was wrong, but subconsciously she must have because she would normally not have gone back to the store to give something minor to Sparky that could have waited till the next day. She went on to say that she could see the red magical glow all over the house and knew that she should have asked you about it, but didn’t because she wanted to play the game. So Opal blames herself, for letting you down, for not warning you of a danger that she could plainly see yet ignored, just so she could play with you and Mossbeard. So I told her to apologize to you and ask for your forgiveness.”

  “No, she doesn’t have to do that.”

  “Yes, Rose she does, she put all three of you at risk unnecessarily she needs to appologize so she understands that what she did was wrong. I also told her she needs to tell Sparky and Draco what she’s done, and take whatever punishment they deem appropriate in the situation.”

  “Aha, but she shouldn’t be punished, not when I was the one that fell into the trap.”

  “But you might not have walked into the trap if you had all the information. Draco, Sparky I trust them completely with Opal’s education, but you I trust with Opal. I know that you’d do anything for the girl, no matter the cost to yourself. I’m asking you to let Sparky and Draco hand out whatever punishment they think she deserves. You two are mages, you are both going to get into dangerous circumstances, it’s why I want her to learn defensive magic, it’s why I want you to learn defensive magic so you can protect each other.”

  “Oh, I already told Draco, after our last conversation about teaching Opal to defend herself, that I want to learn as well. You shared with me how you felt, when you two were alone in that wagon. It really made me think, Ruby, how I’ve always been protected. How it’s not fair that burden falls onto Lu, shouldn’t I be able to defend myself and my friends. So when Draco thinks we are ready, he’ll teach Opal and Opal will teach me. That way she’ll be even more capable of defending herself. We even thought of a way to protect herself from evil mages, but that is still a work in progress.”

  “See you really always are looking out for Opal. Ever since the first time, you saved her life and I almost killed her, together we’ll keep her safe and happy, Rose.”

  I sat in the library trying to read a funny regency romance, but it just wasn’t registering with me. My mind was at the guard house, I wondered how things were going, I worried how things were going. I know that Lu blamed herself for the attackers injuries. I just hoped that Opal would be able to heal him. Also for Opal’s sake as well, she had never failed at healing. I particularly didn’t want her to fail this time.

  But I wasn’t going to let my impatience get in the way, so I continued to stare at the book, while my mind was imagining the scenarios that might be playing out right this minute. Being a writer, my imagination is very important to me, but sometimes it’d be nicer to have an on / off switch. I wondered why my mind gravitated to the worst case scenarios more often than the best case. Does that say something about my character? If so, what does it say? Am I a bad person, I secretly want the worst case or I’m just a worrier, someone who enjoys the tension, the suspense of not knowing.

  Maybe I should just go there and see what’s happening, maybe I could help. Is that a genuine desire to help, or is it my impatience tricking me into doing things I'd already decided against doing. I’d already been tricked today, by a house no less so I wasn't about to let my mind deceive me again. So I went back to staring at the book. I’d read the first line over and over. It was a good first line, then my mind drifted to Jaq’s novel. I loved my first line, ‘it was a dark and stormy night’ . I can't believe that I’m the only person in the world that finds that an evocative opening line.

  Finally they walked through the portal together, Lu’s weary but relieved look told me all that I needed to know, but I’d let them tell it in their own time. I was surprised when the usual reticent Opal began.

  “Could I please talk to Rose, alone Lu?”

  “Sure, Opal, Rose, I’ll be in our room.” She walked out of the library and turned down the balcony towards our room.

  “What’s up sweetie?”

  “Rose, I’m sorry, I did something bad and I have to apologize. I saw the red magical field all over that house and I didn’t say anything because I wanted to play a game with you and Mossbeard. I put us in danger, I didn’t mean too, but I did and I’m very sorry. It will never happen again, I promise. Also I’m sorry but I did something else, that I know is wrong and I shouldn’t have done. I never refilled my magic levels after healing the stabbing victim. So when I went to the guards to heal the criminal I let my magic drop to twenty five percent, before refilling. I was afraid the man would die and I knew that Lu blamed herself, that’s why I disobeyed and from now on, I will always refill, if it is safe to do so, as Draco and you taught me to do.”

  “It’s alright Opal, come here and give me a hug. I love you and you are forgiven and thank you for healing the criminal, I know that Lu blamed herself for him getting hurt. I think that’s my fault and I have to go and apologize to her. It seems like a night of apologies. But you and I are good sweetie, we’ll always be good, I promise you. Now you better get to sleep, I think we’re going to be taking a trip tomorrow so get some rest.”

  She gave me another hug and ran smiling from the room. Meanwhile I went to our bedroom. Lu was sitting on the edge of the bed, enervated. She gave me a half smile.

  “Opal was amazing, Rose. Healing both of those brothers it’s just incredible. I’m so lucky that she arrived home when she did plus if she hadn’t healed the first brother so completely that he was compelled to go visit his brother in lockup, we’d never have known just how bad, I hurt him when I was trying to disarm him. I’m pretty sure he would have died if Opal hadn't healed him. She’s so focused and professional while she is doing her job, it’s hard to believe that she is only eleven. You, Sparky and Draco are doing a great job training her.”

  “Lu, I owe you an apology don’t I? I thought I was making you safer, boosting your strength, like I did. But in reality I just made your life harder, didn’t I. I don’t know if it’ll work, but if you want to jump to Juliet’s World with me either right now or some other time, I’ll try to remove the extra strength. I don’t want you to keep that strength to defend me either. Opal and I are both to be instructed in defensive and non lethal offensive magic, it’s not fair that you always protect me, I want to protect you sometimes too.”

  “I want to protect you Rose, I’ve wanted to protect you from the first time I saw you, walking to granny’s with her baked goods. I’ll always want to protect you.”

  “Yes but you did a fine job of protecting me, before I boosted your strength, don’t you want me to reverse it if I can? Why don’t we try, if I can reverse it that would imply that I could also boost you again if you felt that you needed to be boosted again. I’m sure that Sparky and Draco would be interested to know if it was reversible, I would too.”

  “Are you just saying that because that’s what you think I want?”

  “No, Lu, I’m always interested in finding the limits to my abilities, even if that just spurs my desire to push them further.”

  “Well then, let's test your powers, see if you can reverse them or not. Either way I’m happy Rose, whether it works or it doesn’t.”

  We jumped to Juliet’s World. I realized that I had no idea how to do this. To boost her magic power I’d just done a simple your magic is full author. It seemed that maybe I should try a simple magic half full author. Then I authored a set of weights so Lu could try a deadlift to see if her deadlift strength limit of eighteen hundred and ninety pounds had gone down. It hadn’t, so I tried again and Lu tried again and lifted it again.

  “Lu, I’ve just been authoring that your magic was at half strength and it doesn’t appear to be working. I could try your magic is empty, but I’m hesitant because I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Thanks Rose but it seems to me if you needed to use your magic is full to boost me, it just seems logical that you might have to say that your magic is empty to drain me a little bit. Please go ahead and try.”

  I tried authoring Lu’s magic was empty. She tried the eighteen hundred pound barbell again, She couldn’t do it. She kept removing weight until she got to fifteen hundred pounds which she just barely managed to lift. So it worked, we can fine tune this.

  “Do you want me to take away more?”

  “Maybe just one more try.”

  I tried the magic is empty again and it worked like a charm, Lu’s new dead lift strength was thirteen hundred and five pounds. So was maybe five to ten percent stronger then when I started messing with her strength to begin with. We jumped back home.

  “Thank you Rose, I was really worried I’d killed that man tonight, even though I hit him as softly as I could. I thought I’d have to give up singing in the pub.”

  “Well you guys are successful enough, why don’t you hire a couple of burly bouncers, I could ask Dogberry or Ryder for recommendations or ask them to come and see you. The pub is making money isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it’s very successful, even though we give away a lot of soup, because it’s magical we aren’t paying for the soup’s ingredients so no matter how much we give away we’re all making a profit.”

  “Speaking of profit, I need somebody to run the winery, who does the bookkeeping for you, maybe they could work at the winery too, I really need someone I trust. The winery is pretty much the lynchpin for my whole plan for the estates.”

  “I do the books, Rose.”

  “I never knew Lu, have you run a business before?”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Remember when I used to live at the Black Dog Tavern, Marley was a great boss and friend but a lousy businessman so I got free room and board for taking care of the books and ordering stock and such and my salary to make some cash was from tips singing. That’s why he was dead set against me moving here, he blamed himself for loaning me the camping equipment. Maybe you would consider trying me out for a month.”

  “But what about the pub, Lu?”

  “Mastat has been asking about coming back to the pub. There is not enough work he says at the theater, but I know the real reason is he misses drinking dwarven ale all day.”

  “I was hoping to hire a bard for the winery maybe three days a week, I thought we could do wine tastings. But you had a big shock today, and I don’t want you making any hasty decisions tonight. Of course I’d love for you to take over the winery, but I also don’t want you deciding because of that either. I don’t really expect the winery to make a profit for at least a year, because I tanked the business by selling their five hundred gold a bottle of wine for one gold to the wine merchants far and wide. I’m hoping when that supply runs out they will come back to our winery. Oh and Paula is opening her new bakery right by the winery and she’s asking Eldara to move in with her.”

  “Wow, it’s about time, they spend all their time together and with the portal network you can live anywhere. If I didn’t love living in the tower with everyone, Rose, I would have suggested we live in your granny’s cottage with a portal to Wyldwood. Speaking about everyone, I think your new friend Hal saved that man’s life tonight. He suggested I put him on the man’s chest to stop him from bleeding to death before Opal arrived. So I am certainly glad you found him.”

  Opal went down to tell Draco about her part of not revealing the fact that she saw weird magical fields all over the evil house and why she hadn’t said anything about it. For his part the softie of a dragon’s punishment was no cherries tonight on top of her vanilla ice cream. Lesson learned was his last comment on the subject.

  I was more worried about what Sparky would have to say about the whole thing, I certainly wasn’t going to leave Opal to tell him alone. So we portaled to the store early right after Opal had gotten her no cherries punishment.

  “Um, Sparky, Opal has something that she’d like to tell you, that she has already been punished by Draco for.”

  “I see, go ahead senior apprentice, what is it that you have to tell me.”

  “Sparky, I could see magical fields all over that house, and I never mentioned it to Rose or Mossbeard. Because I wanted to play the game. I promise I’ll never do anything like that again."

  “Senior apprentice, do you think that you could create a magical field that subtle?”

  “Yes, Sparky.”

  “Alright go ahead and try. Cast a subtle magical field around an object you can see from where you are standing. Do not say aloud what object you cast the field around.”

  “Yes, Sparky.”

  “Junior apprentice, what object did the senior apprentice just cast a subtle magical field around?”

  I looked everywhere I could see in front of me and couldn’t see any magical fields.

  “Sparky I don’t see any magical fields around any objects.”

  “Senior apprentice as punishment for not informing the junior apprentice that you were all walking into a trap… your punishment is… for the next week… you will… teach the junior apprentice how to see subtle magical fields, do you understand your punishment?”

  “Yes, Sparky.”

  “Good, it was also brought to my attention this morning that you saved two foolish men’s lives last night. Very good work, senior apprentice. Junior apprentice, what is the plan for today?”

  “Draco thought that we should go to Duskhaven to find Michael Brown and retrieve anything from the house that Brown might have taken away with him. Draco also said that I might have to compel him to do so. He also suggested that Opal accompany me as she can see the ‘subtle’ fields I could not. Also since both Opal and I are going I was planning to also bring Mossbeard along. To install a portal right outside the town gate. That way if our winery or farms need to ship any products to Duskhaven we will have an advantage over our competition.”

  “Yes but while you are there, don’t jump Brown to a fictional world, portal him right back here to the store Enigmatic Parchments can determine if he is compelled or lying. While you are there I want both of you to try gathering, I’ll want a report from each of you about how it differs from gathering magical energy here in Wyldwood.”

  “Sparky, Draco said that you had special bags that any objects we collect from Brown can be safely stored in.”

  “You won’t be needing any bags, have you thought about how such a weak magical field could possibly have such a tight grip on you, junior apprentice?”

  “No, I hadn’t really thought about it.”

  “What’s your best guess?”

  “Maybe because it was evil and I’d never encountered evil magic before?”

  “Nope, nice try, senior apprentice. Do you have any theories?”

  “The weak field was somehow linked to a stronger field somewhere in the house that we didn’t see.”

  “I can’t negate Draco’s punishment, that wouldn’t be right, but tomorrow night you get double cherry portions for hitting on the exactly correct answer, senior apprentice. There must have been an intense high density magical field in either the attic or the cellar or possibly both. That was connected to every subtle magical field in that house. Once Draco’s dragon fire cleansed the area, it was gone. I teleported the few remaining artifacts into the sun.”

  “Sparky, I do have something interesting to report, I’d boosted Lu’s strength like I boosted Opal’s magic. But because Lu was worried after injuring that man, we tested if I could reverse the boost and yes it was possible.”

  “Well, Rose, that is interesting. I’m glad your brief brush with mind control couldn’t stop you. Mossbeard is in the back, you three better get going.”

  We used a portal muffin, when the demon appeared I requested he hold open the portal for one minute to give the three of us enough time to walk through the portal. We were standing right alongside the Duskhaven town gate. I set Mossbeard to drawing as I created a magical field the older and faster way, it used up magic but I thought I probably had at least half left. Plus Sparky had instructed us to gather magic anyway.

  “Opal honey, let’s stay on Sparky’s good side and do our gathering first.”

  “Yes Rose.”

  So while Mossbeard drew we attempted to gather magical energy. I say attempted because while it was possible, it was nowhere near as efficient nor as fast as it was in Wyldwood. I was hoping that was exactly what Sparky wanted us to notice. But aside from noticing, he probably wants our theories on why it’s more difficult to gather magical energy here. My best theory was that it’s more difficult because there is less ambient magic to collect in other parts of the country. I wondered if there was a place that had a higher ambient magic than Wyldwood. I’d be willing to bet that Quintessence has a higher ambient magical energy than anywhere in Emain Ablach and that density is probably why the fey and the dwarves fought a war.

  After about twenty minutes I had a fair sized sphere of magical energy, enough to enclose a police box or a privy. But instead of enclosing anything, instead I absorbed the magic to replace that magic I’d spent on creating the magical field around the portal. I felt strange, a little lightheaded for a second, but then I felt completely normal again. Another little detail to add to my report to Sparky. The man did love details, everything must be analyzed to death.

  As soon as Mossbeard finished the drawing, Opal activated it. I had, Mossbeard portal back to Wyldwood to test the new portal. I'd brought an extra portal muffin in case this was too far a distance for our portal network. But Mossbeard was back in less than a minute. Proving that it worked, I jumped to Juliet’s World and made a bunch of copies along with more portal wallets.

  Then we got in the line to enter the city.

  “State your business in the town, gnomes are not allowed entry into Duskhaven.”

  “We are here to visit a friend, why can’t gnomes enter Duskhaven?”

  “Who’s the friend?”

  “Michael Brown of Brown Associates, but you never answered, why aren’t gnomes allowed in Duskhaven?”

  “You may enter.”

  “But you never answered why aren’t gnomes allowed in Duskhaven?”

  “Because they are short and dirty and the only thing worse than a gnome is a thieving hobbit. Also because there is a law that states gnomes, hobbits, sprites, imps, goblins, and pixies are not allowed inside the city. Now either enter the city or go home, you are holding up the line.”

  “Mossbeard just go home, I’m sorry we have to find Brown, otherwise we wouldn’t enter this racist town.”

  “Hey, lady, we ain't no racists, we just have standards. We let all the other races in, but this is the last time I say it, in or out?”

  Opal and I entered, I couldn’t knowingly put Michael Brown at risk just because this was a racist town. I’d meant to ask the gate guard where we could find Brown Associates but his blatant racism had driven it from my head. This street was loaded with merchants so Opal and I just walked from shop to shop asking for Brown Associates. But none of the owners had heard of the firm. Finally I pivoted and the last shop who’d not heard of the firm before, I asked where the courthouse was. If you want to find a lawyer, try where he works.

  We quickly found the courthouse, but the court clerk had never heard of Brown and Associates. We asked for directions to town hall. What kind of law firm never appears in court. I didn’t have a clue. We walked over to town hall. We asked the receptionist if the town had a list of the businesses that operated in town. Yes she told us the Tax collector has a complete list of every business that operates in town.

  She gave us directions to the tax office. We found the office, entered and stood at the counter.

  “How can I help you?”

  “I’m looking for a friend, Michael Brown, he moved here a few days ago to work for his uncle’s law firm Brown and Associates.”

  “There is no such firm operating here in Duskhaven, sorry.”

  “Maybe I misheard him, are there any businesses run by a Brown family?”

  “Just one Brown and Sons Tombstones.”