The warning system should be fairly easy. Reaching down to the bag of crystals, he pulls out two more. One will be the transmitter and the other a receiver. The transmitter crystal will be set near the box at its final destination. It will sit dormant until at such a time as someone, or something disturbs the box. Then it will send a burst of power which will come to the receiver crystal.
When the burst of power enters the receiver crystal, he’ll have it set up where a dormant spell within the receiver crystal will activate. The crystal will then glow a brilliant red, alerting him that the Fire has been disturbed. Whether he’ll be able to do anything about it at the time is uncertain, but at least he’ll know something’s going on.
He works on trying to come up with exactly the right spells for this to work. By lunchtime they’re pretty much finalized, he just needs to test it. He’s just imbued the crystals with the spells when someone knocks at the workshop door.
“Come in” he hollers and Ezra enters with a plate of sandwiches and a mug of ale.
“Thought you might be busy and I didn’t want you missing any more meals,” she tells him as she puts the food before him on the workbench.
“Thank you,” he says.
Giving him a brief nod and smile, she leaves the workshop and shuts the door behind her.
Taking a sandwich in one hand, he lets each of the crystals leech some power from him until they begin emitting a very soft red glow. Canceling the leeching spells, he then sets about testing his theory.
The receiver crystal has been set with a certain signature that the transmitter will home in on when it sends out its burst of power. When the actual crystal is placed within the box’s final resting place, he’ll fine tune it a little bit more so the power will flow in pretty much the right direction.
Picking up the receiver crystal, he takes it into the house and places it within the money chest sitting in his room. Shutting the lid, he returns back to the workshop. He activates the transmitter crystal and feels a brief tingle as it sends most of the power it has to the receiver crystal. It still has a faint glow within it, he put limits on how much can be expelled by the crystal. Since he won’t have access to the box once it’s hidden, he doesn’t want to run the risk of any crystal becoming completely depleted and cracking.
Leaving the workshop, he heads back to his room and opens the lid. The receiver crystal is now glowing, just as he hoped it would. He cancels the spell on the crystal and the glow disappears. Smiling with great satisfaction, he takes the crystal and leaves his room.
Back in the kitchen he asks Ezra where Miko is and she tells him he’s likely out back with Roland. “Thanks,” he says to her before heading out the back door in search for him. The unmistakable sound of wood being chopped reaches him as he steps outside. He sees them over in the area Roland has been using for splitting logs.
Roland puts a round section of log in front of Miko who then takes the tool they use in these parts for splitting logs and strikes it with all his might, sinking the wedge half deep within the wood. The tool has a long handle just as a regular axe but the head is fashioned differently. On one side is a six inch piece of slightly curved, wedge shaped metal and on the other is a flat block of metal that can be used as a sledge hammer.
Miko lifts the log splitter with the piece of wood still attached and then slams it back down on the stump as hard as he can. When the wood impacts with the stump, the tool sinks into the wood further, splitting it apart. Roland takes the pieces and tosses them over to a large pile of wood that’s already been split into firewood. He then places another round section of log on the stump as Miko readies to swing the log splitter.
“Excuse me,” he says as he approaches.
Miko swings and embeds the wedge side deep within the wood. Before lifting the wood to finish splitting it, he looks over to James and asks, “Care to lend a hand?”
“No, but I could use your help though.”
He again lifts the wood and slams it down on the stump which almost completely splits the piece of wood apart. Taking the wood in his hands, he pries the two pieces apart and tosses the smaller one over to the wood pile before setting the larger piece back on the stump.
“How?” he asks as he strikes the wood again, this time splitting the piece in two with one blow.
“If you can spare him Roland, I need him to ride into town,” James says.
“Sure,” Roland replies as he comes over to take the log splitter from Miko. “Thanks for the help,” he says to Miko.
“No problem,” he says as he follows James over to the stables.
“This won’t take too long,” he assures him. “What I want you to do is ride into town or maybe even past it.” Holding up the receiver crystal he says, “I’m going to try to have this crystal light up from a distance. As you ride, hold this in your hand. When you see light coming from within it, turn around and come on back.”
Seeing the doubt in his eyes as he glances to the crystal, he adds, “It won’t hurt you. You won’t even feel anything.”
“What do you want to do this for?” he asks as he hesitantly takes the crystal.
James almost laughs at the way he’s holding it. You’d think he had a deadly snake or something in his hand. “Just an experiment is all,” he explains. As much as he likes and trusts Miko, there’re just some things he doesn’t need to know about.
“Alright,” he says. “When do you want me to leave?”
“Right now if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Sure, just let me get washed and I’ll saddle my horse,” he tells him.
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” he says. “I plan on letting you ride for an hour or so before the crystal begins to glow. I want to see how well it does over a distance.” He watches a moment while Miko walks over to the washbasin out by the kitchen to clean up before heading back to the workshop. Now for the defense of the Fire.
He mulls it over back at his workbench for several minutes before he hears Miko’s horse racing down the lane. Glancing out the window, he sees him turning out of the lane and heading into town. Turning back to his work, he continues contemplating the best types of defensive spells he could put in the crystal.
The spells can’t be such that they may pose a risk to the box or the Fire. They need to be more selective, but powerful enough to thwart any attempt to steal it. Of course the spells should be tailored to the environment where the Fire will be as well. Somehow incorporating the strengths of the area where it will lie to aid in its defense.
Throughout the rest of the day, he comes up with ideas and then scraps them. Nothing seems to work the way he plans. He takes a short break for dinner but then is right back to work afterward. When the light outside begins to fade, Ezra comes out and places a couple candles in his workshop to give him light to work by. So engrossed is he in what he’s doing that he barely even realizes she’s placed the candles until long after she’s left.
Finally, exhausted and mentally fatigued, he looks at the defensive crystal sitting before him. All the spells he thinks he needs are infused within. All it’ll take now is to power the crystal and then finally activate the dormant spells within once the Fire is properly hidden.
Getting up from his workbench, he stretches and begins to head to his room where he intends to crash hard. Almost to the door to the kitchen, he abruptly stops as a thought suddenly occurs to him. Miko! I forgot all about him!
It must be well over five hours since he sent him off to check on the receiver crystal. Rushing back to his workshop, he finds the crystal and activates it. He feels a short tingle as it sends its signal to the receiver crystal.
Feelings of guilt fill him as he leaves the workshop and heads to his room. Poor Miko, wonder how far he’d gotten.
The town of Osgrin had long since disappeared behind him when the crystal finally begins emitting the light James had told him about. Finally! Bringing his horse to a stop, he pauses as he looks at the crystal in his hand. A soft reddish glow is coming from deep within it. Wonder how he does that?
Putting the glowing crystal in his pack, he turns his horse around and heads back to Osgrin. An hour, indeed. Been more like five! Miko’s starving and figures James is just going to have to wait a little bit longer. He plans on finding an inn somewhere in Osgrin where he can have a bite to eat before heading back. If he didn’t think James would want to know about his crystal, he would get a room and head out in the morning.
The lights of Osgrin appear ahead of him out of the dark and when he passes the outskirts he comes across a two story building with a sign depicting a pig on a spit roasting over a fire.
