I
"So, what is it?"
"This, dear Gerrit, is a Rod of Wonder," Sanna proclaimed, gesturing to the finely wrought bronze bar lying on the workbench in front of her. The elegant metal surface of the rod was intricately etched with runes and a delicate engraving of vines wrapping around the item's two and a half foot length, and the leaves had even been tinted a faint green. As always, Sanna had outdone herself in the rod's ornamentation, but the simple creation of a Rod of Wonder, an ultimately unpredictable magical wand, was about as defining of the wizard as the charming decorations. Gerrit, a wizard of no small magnitude himself, was one of four mages sharing the diamond shaped tower that pointed out of the center of the Magie Vierkant, a plaza devoted almost entirely to magic and home to more than a dozen spellcasters of varying strength in Utrecht's port city of Tierwaal, and he had known Sanna for almost a dozen years. Sanna, going on her fortieth summer, still managed to retain the looks and fitness of woman nearly a decade younger, with flowing golden blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. Although she was not the most beautiful woman in Tierwaal, Gerrit had initially been very taken with her when they had met, but his appreciation of her looks and amazing magical talent had quickly been tempered by Sanna's equally astounding absentmindedness. For one to be so intelligent, and yet so unable to use common sense…
"A Rod of Wonder," Gerrit echoed, forcing a smile onto his thickly bearded face. Approaching his forty-sixth summer, Gerrit's black hair and beard were just beginning to show a few streaks of gray, but his blue eyes, a similarity he shared with Sanna, were as keen and sharp as ever. Gerrit spent another moment smoothing out his unadorned, dark gray robes as he looked back to Sanna's proud smile. "I'm sure it… I'm sure it works exactly as it should," the wizard said, deciding not to pry too far into Sanna's reasoning for creating the item.
"I am too!" Sanna exclaimed enthusiastically, snatching the rod from her workbench and twirling it in her hand. Gerrit nearly ducked as the tip of the bar ended up pointing at his head, but through sheer exertion of will he managed to remain calm and smiling. "Although I haven't gone through too many tests with it, I am certain it will perform perfectly. I mean, look at these engravings! It's my best work yet!"
Gerrit cringed at that. Sanna's last "best work yet" had nearly sunk their tower through the cobbled square of the Magie Vierkant.
"Why don't we put the rod back down," Gerrit suggested, far too aware of the fact that rods of wonder occasionally threw out lightning bolts and fireballs upon uttering the command word. The last thing Gerrit wanted to see was one of the other houses in the Magie Vierkant demolished when a destructive bolt of magic arced out of one of the many windows in Sanna's spacious workshop.
"I'm curious," Sanna said. Those two simple words had often led to fires, sudden storms, swarms of insects, or sometimes even downfalls of brass buttons. "I wonder what this will do."
Gerrit did not even have time to prepare for the sudden action. A cloud of bluish gas issued from the rod and surrounded the wizard in a heartbeat. Gerrit stumbled backward, choking on the gas as he tried to fan it away with his hands, but within moments the blue vapors had disappeared without seeming to have any effect.
"What was that?" Gerrit asked quickly. The wizard glanced around the workshop, searching for any sort of disturbance, but nothing seemed out of place.
"Um…" Sanna started, a sheepish smile on her face. Gerrit turned back to her.
"Um, what?" the wizard asked. Sanna stifled a giggle. "What happened, Sanna?" Gerrit demanded.
"You… you um…" the sorceress started. Gerrit looked quickly down at his hands, and found that they had turned a deep indigo.
"What have you done?" Gerrit demanded. Sanna stifled another giggle as Gerrit rolled up his sleeves. His arms had also turned the same dark shade of blue.
"Sorry?" Sanna asked, still unable to hide all of her smile.
"You turned me blue!" Gerrit shouted angrily. "How in Pelor's name am I supposed to go out in public like this!"
"It… you look good, it complements your eyes," Sanna tried, backing up a step from the enraged wizard.
"Sanna, I'm indigo!" Gerrit roared. Sanna nodded, her smile finally fading away as she backed up to one of the windows of her workshop. "It's permanent, Sanna! You turned me blue for life!"
"You can reverse curses," Sanna observed, growing more timid in the face of her enraged friend.
"That's not the point!" Gerrit shot back. "I am supposed to be at the Council of Mages tomorrow, and now I have to spend my time reversing this curse instead of preparing for it! Sanna, you idiot! What were you thinking? What is the command word?"
"Um…" Sanna began hesitantly, placing the rod on the windowsill behind her. "I… I thought… 'wonder' would be a good command word."
"It's a Rod of Wonder, and you made the command word 'wonder'!" Gerrit bellowed. Sanna nodded meekly.
"I… I'm sorry," the sorceress said, dropping her head as she finally seemed to realize her error. The devastated look on the sorceress' face was enough to stop Gerrit's tirade; there was still something about Sanna that could end his rages when she put on her hurt face. "I'll… I'll help you get rid of the curse."
"No, please no," Gerrit replied, unwilling to see himself turned any other shades of color before regaining his normal pigment. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Sanna. But you have to think a little more before you make these things. A Rod of Wonder ends up being more trouble than it's worth, and a command word of "wonder"? Come on, Sanna. You have to be smarter than that."
"I'll try, Gerrit," Sanna promised, folding her hands contritely in front of her.
"Okay," Gerrit said, turning to the stairs that led down from Sanna's workshop. "I'm going to go try get rid of this… blue. You put that rod somewhere and don't take it out again until we decide how to fix it. Okay?"
"Gerrit, please, I'll help with the curse!" Sanna said, leaving the wand on the windowsill and rushing after Gerrit.
"I can do it myself," Gerrit said curtly, disappearing down the spiraling steps. Sanna rushed after him, ready to make any kind of reparations for her error.
She had only just disappeared from the workshop when the rod of wonder rolled off of the windowsill and fell to the street below.