AUTHORS NOTES

Archer1eye: Thanks, I prefer to get smaller chapters out quicker, it's easier for me :) Shard is definitely a little sneak ;-) She's conveniently 'beneath the notice' of most deities, despite being essentially a part of a major power. Yes, the information is essentially useless from a strategic point of view.

Slyksylva: Thanks!

Chapter 71

24th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

We woke up in each other's arms; warm, comfortable and content. I looked into Shard's spring coloured eyes and whispered a good morning, giving her a gentle, tender and loving kiss. I had woken from such lovely and wonderful dreams into a reality that matched it, how could I not?

"Did you sleep well?" She asked me.

"Yes," I said with a nod, "I dreamed of you, so it was the best it could possibly have been."

"It's our last day in Castlemere before we go back to Easthaven," I said, "I wonder what Malkarov has planned?"

"Do you think that he will still be sleeping for a bit longer?" She asked speculatively as she brushed her finger tips over my hip and up to my waist. The touch left a trail of goosebumps as it went and a tingling all over.

When Malkarov knocked on our door some time later, we were already dressed and ready to go.

"Shopping!" Malkarov declared when I asked him what our plans were for the day. This brought excitement from both Shard and myself. Shard decided on the spot that she could put off whatever she had to do in order to join in the "shopping experience."

It was a strange and entirely new experience to me. Whenever I had needed any new clothing in the past, Mother had provided it (having often made it herself), anything else was bought or made when required. Kara's doll was handed to her from Illith, from me to Illith and from Mother to me. Malkarov's idea of shopping was to walk from shop to shop and inspect everything they had for sale. I wondered if this concept was required in such a place as Castlemere. You couldn't just go to the General Store with an idea of everything they would likely have in stock, there were just too many shops to keep track of. One shop we went into specialised in ceramic drinking cups of a particular shape, painted in a variety of designs, another shop right next door specialised in ceramic plates. The Mages Guild actually had a shop of their own in the Middle Ring, selling out warding services, enchanted items, potions and material components.

"Malkarov!" The man behind the counter greeted us as soon as we entered.

"Alak!" Malkarov called back, "you drew the short straw today?"

Alek laughed, "I volunteered. I thought that I might head out soon to explore some ruins down near the barrier mountains so I'm building up some credit."

"That sounds like a good idea," Malkarov agreed, "I think I'm still about about ten days in credit, which will easily last until after Sharein here has presented."

"Pleasure to meet you Sharien," said the wizard, "what do you think of our shop?"

"It's amazing!" I exclaimed as I looked around in wonder, bundles of herbs hung from the rafters and glass vials of various potions rested on the shelves directly behind the counter. Other shelves held various pieces of jewelry, weapons and armour, articles of clothing or other strange items. Our side of the shop was basically empty, except for a large wooden barrel full of water.

The wooden barrel looked a bit out of place, so I pointed at it and asked Alek what it was.

"It's enchanted to fill with fresh water, continuously," he exclaimed, "we sell one of them every month or so."

"Bargin's enchanted water barrel or Hesta's variation?" Malkarov asked.

"That one's Hesta's," Alec advised, "but we sell Bargin's for substantially more every so often."

Malkarov hummed and explained to me, "Bargin's enchantement worked by Elementalism, creating pure water from nothing while Hesta's worked through Summoning, bringing in the water from a lake in the barrier mountains," Malkarov turned to Alec, "does Hesta's still bring in fish sometimes?"

Alec laughed, "he mostly fixed that so a fish is unlikely to appear, but it might happen roughly once in the lifetime of each barrel. We warn everyone interested in it, but we've found that often the people buying it consider the sudden appearance of a fish in their water barrel to be providential and the idea of free dinner appeals to them. Hesta is currently working on a barrel that will simultaneously send back the water and bring in new water and potentially fish. He's been having a few problems with it though."

Malkarov asked, "what problems?"

"It summoned a child," Alec said.

"What?" Malkarov we all exclaimed.

"All of a sudden, a young boy appeared in the barrel along with a few fish," Alec continued, "apparently he hadn't limited it to just fish and when the boy went swimming he was caught in the spell. Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Hesta is now on his way to the barrier mountains escorting the child back to his family under the express direction of the Grand-Master Wizard."

Malkarov laughed at this, while I was occupied with worry about the poor child summoned so far from their home.

Malkarov ended up buying a variety of material components for things that were rare and hard to find in Easthaven and sold to Alec small quantities of components that he had excess of. He also bought a copy of the Rune Schemes and Enchanting Discoveries of the Mages Guildhall 767 N.C.

We entered a few clothing shops to have a look at the accessories they had for sale. To have clothing made would have taken longer than we had, but each shop had a variety of gloves, scarves, hats, cloaks and bonnets for sale as well. When Malkarov noticed Shard and I admiring a pair of leather gloves he immediately bought them for me, handing over an entire nine silver moons for them! I tried to tell him that it was too much, but he just shushed me and handed me the cloth wrapped bundle to carry. He bought himself a blue dyed woolen scarf from the same shop as well and a new leather belt from another. He bought a new skillet from an ironmonger and commissioned a merchant to bring a case of twenty glass potion vials to us on his next trip to Easthaven. There were a number of merchants who had their schedules written up on slate boards attached to the front wall of their shops. If you wanted something delivered, you could pay them a fee to add the item to their cart or alternatively you could pay them to buy what you needed and deliver it. It was usually more expensive that way, unless the merchant knew exactly the price of the item would be. The merchant Malkarov chose was one that he had used on many occasions and specifically for delivering potions vials so it was a price both of them already knew well enough. In another shop he bought four glass vials of iron gall ink and five new quills. We stopped at lunch time to eat some food from vendors, who each specialised in certain items. One man sold chicken impaled on thin sticks and cooked over a charcoal brazier. Another sold what appeared to be small pancakes that were cooked in a specially made pan with circular divots in it. Each pancake had a small piece of lamb pushed into it once the batter was poured and the batter then would puff up and he would flip them over before flipping them off with a small stick. We bought a handful of them and although they were quite nice (the lamb appeared to have been marinated in a mint sauce before being put inside), I preferred my Mother's sweeter pancakes. We found a shop selling small pork pies next to an Inn and Malkarov was happy to discover that the filling included an ale sauce, Shard marvelled over the buttery flakey nature of the pastry.

We passed an apothecary that was selling a face powder that would make your skin look more pale. We noticed that the apothecary's clientele appeared to either be servants or fairly wealthy looking women. It was around this time that I noticed that those women who were dressed much nicer than the average shopper all seemed to have an unnaturally pale complexion, likely all powdering their faces with a similar powder.

I drew Malkarov's attention to this and he explained, "people who work on the land often end up with very tanned skin. The nobles in Castlemere like to go to great pains to display that they have never had to do any work in their lives, so they even go so far as to put that powder on. They often then put some crushed ochre or dried strawberry powder on their cheeks to make it so they don't look like they are dead."

Shard frowned and I watched her face blur and, although it was naturally pale, it took on a very white shade with her cheeks becoming artificially red. I recoiled in horror.

"Ew! No!" I exclaimed and she laughed as she returned to normal.

"Please don't," I said to her, "you are perfect as you are."

She grabbed hold of my arm and hugged herself to it as Malkarov let out choking noises. I shot him a dirty look and we continued with our "shopping".

It was coming onto dinner time when we returned to the Guild Hall and we decided to have dinner then go to the bath house to have one last soak before the long ride back home.

Our last dinner in the Guild Hall was a happy affair as we were joined at a large table by Jossa, Taura and Venn as well as Yardley and a number of other acquaintances of Malkarov's. The Wizardess Yorsha and Hor joined us near the end of dinner and although they held an active conversation with Malkarov, Yorsha's eyes seemed never to stray from Shard's direction.

It left me a little disconcerted and as soon as we finished I told the apprentices that we were going to the bath house for a soak before bed. They eagerly decided that they would join us once they had finished and we bid our farewell to the rest of the table.

Together Shard and I made our way down to the bath house and once prepared, proceeded to soak in the luxuriously warm water. It wasn't long before we were joined by other women and we heard men discussing things from over the walls.

Jossa engrossed me in a discussion about affinities, she herself had a protection affinity and was surprised that I didn't yet know mine.

"It mustn't be very strong at all if you are yet to discover it," she said, "what is the highest level spell that you have cast?"

I hummed, "I cast Major Image?"

"You can cast third level spells!" She exclaimed, "how long have you been an apprentice for?"

"I started my apprentice on the first ten-day of late winter," I told her, "so… almost three months?"

Jossa stared at me as if I had two heads and I realised that all other conversation in the pool had ceased.

"Three months!" Taura shouted as Venn whispered, "how?"

I looked down into the water and absently fiddled with my fingers, wishing that I could somehow just teleport back to my room. I couldn't just leave Shard like that though, as all attention would likely be directed at her.

"Never mind your affinity," Jossa said, "if you can cast third level spells, you're probably almost ready to present!"

"Oh no," I said, "Malkarov said that I still have much to learn about potion making, enchanting and rituals. Not to mention that I haven't even finished my staff past the power bank."

"How?" Venn asked a little louder, "how have you already learned level three spells in three months? It takes three months just to learn one level three spell, let alone all of the cantrips?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I just did," and offered, "Malkarov is a very good teacher."

Venn and Taura were both frowning at me and I wondered what they were thinking. Jossa just hummed to herself and looked away from me. Nobody said anything for a little while and in the awkwardness I decided to leave. Shard came with me, of course and I paused in confusion once we closed the door into the change room as laughter erupted from the pool. I wondered what was said that was so funny and couldn't shake the feeling that the joke might have been… me. But why would I be the topic of a joke? An anxious feeling welled up inside me, but was pushed back when Shard took me in her arms and kissed me soundly. That made me mostly forget any anxiety and worry as I got dressed and returned back to our room. By the time I fell asleep I had forgotten it completely.