Chapter 52 - Next Stop, Magic Shop

From the moment Hump stepped into the enchantery, all sense left him. Hundreds of artefacts surrounded him, made of all sorts of precious metals encrusted with heartstones. Swords, rings, amulets, shields, wands—everything that an adventurer might need.

Almost everything Hump owned was on his person right now, yet all around him he saw items of that were incalculably better quality than his own. His staff might be his most trusted companion, but in the cabinet beside him was a wand made entirely of mithril, with a bright blue hearstone the size of an eye at the base and a smaller stone of the same colour at its tip. Runes spiralled all the way along the handle in lines so fine they were barely more than scratches.

“Are you lost, sir?” a man asked him. Hump glanced up to see a man in his fifties wearing a fine black suit looking at him. He had a horseshoe haircut with a bald patch on the top of his head, and wore round glasses that were only slightly bigger than his eyes.

The sight of him made Hump feel out of place, like he was back to his days as a street urchin ducking into a shop door to lose the older boys that were chasing him. He didn’t belong in a place like this, with its fine purple carpets and… His eyes widened as he saw the walls. They were tiled, patterned to form a giant formation that covered the entire shop. He’d been in enchanteries before, but never in any of the big cities.

This formation wasn’t just for show. It was one of the most complex runic formations Hump had ever seen. It was no wonder he felt so uncomfortable, now that he was aware of it, he noticed that his connection to his own essence had been cut off. He could still sense it within himself, but his control over it was gone. It was just dormant within him—useless.

There was more to the formation than just that. From the looks of it Hump guessed that there was some sort of alarm system at the very least, but it likely added a layer of magical protection to all the cabinets and items inside too. Perhaps it even bound them to the shop to prevent their unauthorised removal.

Is that even possible? Hump thought. He only recognised a fraction of the runes, and even less of the structure used to set them. The most he could do was guess at their application based on context, and the context told him that anyone that dared to rob this place was signing their own bounty.

“If there’s nothing I can help you with, I must ask you to leave.”

The man’s voice shook Hump from his daze and made him realise he was standing there like an idiot. He was not that street urchin from before, he was a wizard, bonded to a dragon. His good clothes may have been filthy after the three weeks of travel, but he’d washed at the inn, and he was still a wizard. Wizards needed artefacts.

“Sorry,” Hump said. “I was just marvelling at your protective formation. It’s extremely impressive.”

“Well yes,” the man said matter-of-factly. “This is an enchantery. Runes are our specialty.”

Hump felt himself blushing and forced himself to smile. “Of course.”

The man sighed. “So how can I help you, sir?”

“Oh, erm, sorry. I’m here for an artefact.”

The man tilted his head forward and peered over his glasses, inspected Hump, then sighed again. “And what type of artefact are you hoping to find?”

Hump gulped. He looked around the shop, feeling as if he was being watched, but nobody had even glanced his way. Stop being an idiot, he told himself.

“I’m after something to help me with my control,” Hump said. “I’m a wizard,” he stammered, holding up his staff to make it clear. “I’m having difficulty regulating my essence when spellcasting. It sort of surges out of me.”

“Might I suggest practicing?” the man said blandly.

Hump’s cheek twinged. “I am practicing, but I need something to help me in the short term. Right now, I worry I’m a danger to my party.”

“I see.” He stepped back, eyeing one of the cabinets, then gestured at an item inside. “If you would look here, we have a ring of essence focus that would satisfy your needs.”

Hump let out a relieved sigh now that the man was actually helping him. Well done, he told himself. You only embarrassed yourself a little.

He approached the cabinet to see a silver ring embossed with a complex series of runes, and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Sixty gold coins. Sixty. For a ring. He gulped again. “I was hoping for something a little cheaper.”

The man gave him an impatient frown. “How much can you afford?”

“Do you have anything in the single digit range?” Hump asked. “And by single digit, I mean one.”

“Ah,” the man said. “I think perhaps some of our apprentice made items might be better suited to your needs.” He turned over to the sales counter where a girl stood. “Lilanda, would you show this young man around the workshop.”

She perked up at the request and gave Hump a smile. “Of course, Mister Erel. This way, please.”

After a moment’s pause, Hump thanked the man for his help and hurried after her.

Lilanda was shorter than Hump, with curly brown hair that came down to her shoulders, held in place by safety goggles. She led him out through a door at the back of the shop and into a large workshop. The moment Hump crossed the threshold into the large room, the quiet of the shop vanished and the sound of hammers rang out. The formation that encompassed the entire front of the shop was nothing compared to the back. The floors, wall, and ceiling were covered in runes. At the room's centre was a steel box from where all the other runes stemmed from. If the front end of the shop was secure, this was a fortress.

“Are you alright?” Lilanda asked. “You look a little shocked there.”

“I’m fine,” Hump said. He looked around the workshop to see a dozen people bent over their tables as they worked on runes. “How do you do all this with such a powerful formation in place?”

“Each of our employees is incorporated into the formation,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe the background checks that go into that. So what is it you’re looking for?”

“Something to help regulate my essence when spellcasting,” Hump said. “Mister Erel suggested you might have some apprentice made items that fit my needs.”

“Essence regulation, huh.” She scratched her head. “We’ve got a few things that might do you.”

Unlike the fine cabinets on the shop floor, Lilanda led him to a shelf full of wooden boxes. She ran her finger along the labels as she looked for the ones she wanted, each label classifying the items inside. Dozens of them, containing everything from spell storage artefacts to essence pens.

“Here we go.” She pulled out one of the boxes, placing it on the table beside him. Inside was a pile of unsorted jewellery and trinkets, mostly made of copper or steel from the look of it. “This is our scrap pile. We’ll sell anything worth selling to the auction house every few months, but as you might expect from apprentice work, it’s of varying quality.”

“Are you a wizard here?” Hump asked.

“I am.” She smiled.

“Not a Chosen though?”

She nodded. “Not a Chosen. I was found to have magical talent when I was younger and enrolled into Sheercliff Academy. I don’t have much of an essence pool, but I’ve got a knack for control, so I was studying runes from the beginning.”

“Is that strange?” Hump asked.

She looked at him quizzingly. “No. Most practitioners study crafts while usually it’s only Chosen get combat training. A few warrior practitioners might get entered too, if they have the right connections, but wizards almost always go to crafts. It’s where the money’s at after all.”

“I could never get into runes, though my master did his best to drill them into me.”

“Still, I’m impressed to see you as a working wizard. It’s not an easy position for one of us to reach. Are you from Elenvine Academy?”

Hump smiled. “If only. No. My master was a hedge wizard, and he took me on very early. Now I’m an adventurer too.”

Her eyes widened. “Huh. How old are you?”

“Sixteen-ish.”

“No way! I don’t believe you.”

Hump pulled out his medallion and her mouth fell open.

“That’s amazing. I... I don’t think any wizards here make it into the guild that young.”

Hump grinned as he tucked his medallion back into his shirt. “Well look at me! The talent beams off me, right?”

She snorted. “If by talent you mean stink, sure.”

“Wouldn’t be much of an adventurer if I wasn’t a little filthy,” Hump said, staring into the box. “So do you have any recommendations then? I’ll default to your expertise on this one. He picked up a well-polished copper ring with a single heartstone fragment embedded inside, and held it up to the light. “I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at, but that’s definitely the rune for control, and it’s definitely shiny.”

“Shiny is often overvalued,” Lilanda said. “And you’ll find control on all of them.” She held out her hand and he gave it to her. She pulled a magnifying glass out of her pocket and inspected the ring. “This ring acts as a partial focus, helping to restrict the amount of essence flowing into a spell. It’s pretty good.” She looked at the price tag attached to it. “Three gold.”

“Three gold for a copper ring?” Hump asked. “You’re kidding?”

“Probably took four months to make,” she said. She put a hand in the box and searched through the pile of items inside. “They don’t get much cheaper than that. How much can you spend?”

“One gold,” Hump said glumly. “If I have to.”

She laughed. “No wonder Mister Erel was frowning. You won’t find many artefacts for that. Hmm. You’ll need to go less versatile.” she paused. “Much less versatile. But I might have something for you. Hold on a moment.”

She hurried along down the workshop to a desk and started rummaging through one of the draws. She pulled something out and wandered back over, holding out a copper bracelet. “How about this? I made it actually.”

Hump took it and looked at the runes, seeing only a few simple patterns. “What’s so special about this one?”

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s simply an essence channel, but it’s narrower than most. If you channel your essence through it, it will restrict anything that doesn’t fit. To a point of course. It will heat up as you use it, and if you’re not careful you could explode.”

“There’s no heartstone?” Hump asked.

“Doesn’t need one. The bracelet only does one thing. The size of the essence channel can’t be changed, so you won’t be able to change how much essence passes through either. But if you’re having trouble controlling your essence, this will straight up restrict how much you can channel. If you ever want to do something more versatile... well, you can always use the other hand.”

Hump slipped the bracelet on his wrist—it was a little loose, but it would do. “Can I test it out?”

“Sure,” she said, leading him through another door and into a small garden.

The moment he stepped outside; Hump felt his essence fall back under his control. There was a large hay bale at the other end that had been shredded to pieces.

“Does it matter if I break it?” Hump asked.

She laughed. “You’re not going to break it with that thing on.”

Hump smiled. “Challenge accepted.”

He held his staff in his right arm, and began channelling essence into his staff. Channelling through the bracelet was like trying to blow through a really tiny straw. It slowed his essence down to a trickle and made him feel as if he were pushing against a weight.

But he forced his essence into his staff, forming the spell in his mind. He felt an improvement to his essence control already as the spell took form. It took twice as long as normal, but it felt correct. Like he was in command, not his essence. “Blast,” he said.

A faint blue wave burst from his staff and a moment later the hay bale rocked back, tearing open a gash in the middle and blasting hay up into the air. Hump blinked. He’d never casted a blast spell that was so faint.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“It’s definitely an improvement,” Hump said, looking at the bracelet. It felt warm against his wrist. “How much for it?”

She paused, tapping her chin with a finger, then said, “Five silver. And only because it would be nice to know someone’s using it. I made that at the end of my first year and my master wanted to add it to the scrap pile, but it seemed a shame to throw it.”

“They really throw out things worth that much?” Hump asked.

She snorted. “It’s got a very specific use and it will likely break on you eventually. Like I said, it was my first year.”

Hump frowned. “How soon would you expect it to break?”

She shrugged. “Depends on how often you use it, how much essence you're trying to shove through it, whether you leave it out in the wet or scrape it on some rocks. The gods know how many ways there are to break it, but if you’re careful I’m sure it will last you a couple of years.”

Hump scrunched his nose.

“What?” she said, offence clear in her voice. “I’m doing you a favour.”

“It’s just... well, if it’s so easy to break, I’m apprehensive.”

She glared at him. “Four silvers. Take it or leave it. Less than that and I’d rather keep it in my desk.”

Hump smiled. “Deal.”

***

“So how did it go?” Celaine asked. “Did you get everything you needed?”

“Most of it, yes,” Hump said. “I probably poisoned a couple of Chosen with induced paranoia, and I picked up this neat bracelet thing, here.” He held up his wrist. “What do you think?”

“You did what?” Celaine yelled.

Hump frowned at her and shook his wrist, jiggling his bracelet. “I found myself a bracelet.”

“Hump,” she growled.

“Relax,” he said, waving her off. “They won’t even realise anything was off. What did the artificer have to say?”

Celaine frowned at him as if considering whether to scold him some more, then sighed. “It’s imbued with sharpness, and won’t break to weapons of similar quality. As we already knew, it has an ability to absorb essence from blood. They also detected accents of darkness essence, but I’m not sure what that means.”

Hump frowned. “It means that it attracts darkness essence.”

“I gathered that much,” Celaine said. “But what’s the point?”

“I don’t know. Some blades are imbued with fire, and obviously that makes the blade hot. But I can’t think of the point to adding darkness essence.”

“You have a face like you want to do an experiment,” Celaine said.

Hump smiled. “Great idea.”