James removes the five crystals from his pouch. “Now, there can be no flaw in the crystals,” he insists. “And they must be centered in each of the sides as well as the top.”
“I understand,” the smith tells him. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it for you.”
“Thank you,” he replies. “If you can get it done by the end of the week, I’ll throw in another ten golds.”
“Doubt it,” says the smith, “but we’ll see what we can do.” The smith takes the golds and the crystals into the building adjacent to the forge area.
“Back home?” asks Jiron.
“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of work to do before the chest is done,” he tells him.
As they’re riding back and after they’ve left town, Jiron asks, “Is it for the Fire?”
Nodding, James replies, “Yes, and I’d appreciate you not saying anything about this to anyone.”
“No problem there,” he assures him.
They see four people standing at the end of the lane to The Ranch, three women and a man. Uther, Illan and Jorry are standing there barring their way.
“He’s not here,” they can hear Illan’s voice telling the people.
At the sound of his approach, they all turn toward him. He can see relief evident upon Illan’s face at seeing him returning.
“Is that him?” a lady with a red hat asks the man she’s with.
“I think so,” the man replies.
The other two ladies both back up a step, their eyes never leaving him.
“What’s going on?” James asks as he comes to the group.
Everyone starts talking at once, finally Illan’s voice roars over everyone else’s. “Enough!” he shouts and everyone stops talking. Turning to James, he says, “They’ve come to see you, but they wouldn’t say why.”
The lady with the red hat steps forward though she’s obviously nervous about approaching him. He sees her and asks, “Yes?”
“We were told you could help us,” she replies.
“Who told you that?” he asks incredulously.
“I don’t rightly remember his name,” she tells him. “You see, I need a charm for my daughter here,” she says as she brings forward a comely looking girl of about fourteen. “You see, she’s infatuated with the butcher’s son but he has his eye on another.”
“Despite what someone may have told you,” he says to her, “I don’t do charms or anything else like that.” When he sees the disappointment on her face, he softens his voice and says, “I’m sorry.”
The girl seems almost on the verge of tears, he dismounts and comes to her. “You shouldn’t need a charm to ensnare a man’s heart, your beauty should be able to get you anyone you desire,” he says. “Where I come from, the girls don’t rely on magic, but on their own charms and abilities. There’s a saying where I come from, ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’. Maybe you should try to impress him with your charm and cooking abilities. Find out what he likes to do and tell him how well he does it, how impressive he is, that sort of thing. You’d be surprised how much you can turn his head with the simplest things.”
“Do you think so?” she asks, hope springing to her eyes.
“Never know until you try,” he tells her. “Besides, if this boy is blind enough to not want one such as you, then he’s probably not worth your time anyway.”
She gives him a shy smile and says, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replies and then gets back up on his horse. To the mother, he says, “A good day to you ma’am.”
As he goes by Illan, he leans over and whispers, “Keep them out.”
Illan gives him a brief nod.
Turning to Jiron he says, “Let’s get back. Still lots to do.”
“You got that right,” he tells him.
He glances back to the end of the lane after riding a dozen yards and he sees that Illan has moved them along. The man and the ladies are walking back toward town. This could get irritating. No wonder all the stories of mages and wizards always have them living in far away and inhospitable places. Probably move there just to get away from this sort of thing.
Before reaching the house, Sean the master builder comes over from the construction site and waves him down. Slowing down, he says to Jiron, “You go on ahead and I’ll be up shortly.”
“Alright,” he says as he continues on while James stops and talks with the builder.
“Sir, if you have a moment?” Sean asks. He’s the one who’s overseeing the entire construction project.
“Sure,” he says as he gets down from his horse. Holding the reins in his hand, he follows him over to where the house is being constructed.
“The cistern you wanted us to put in on the second floor is going to need more support than we had originally anticipated,” he says.
James ties his horse to a wagon parked nearby loaded with lumber and other building supplies while he follows Sean within the skeletal construction.
He shows him where the additional support beams are going to need to be placed. “I’m afraid it will shorten your reception area by a foot, but I don’t think we have a choice,” he says.
“Very well,” he tells him. “If we need to sacrifice a foot, so be it.”
“It won’t be completely wasted, however,” he explains. Bringing him closer, he shows where the pipes are being set to allow the water to flow from the cistern above to a smaller tank below. “We can reroute the pipes to run within the new support area, so will save some room there.”
“Good thinking,” James says, agreeing to the idea.
“Never seen anyone do this before,” he tells him.
“Well, the idea is to have water in the house without having to go outside to fetch it,” James says. He had to explain this several times before Sean was able to understand the rationale behind it when he first started the construction project. He wanted at least partially running water, and a way to heat it for baths in the winter time.
“Other than that, we’re running right on schedule,” he says. “We should be able to finish the main house by fall and the rest before Solstice.”
“Excellent,” comments James. “You’re doing a great job.”
“Thank you sir,” Sean replies.
James leaves him to his work as he goes back and retrieves his horse. The barn not being too far, he decides to just walk him over to it. Jiron has already taken care of his horse and has gone to the house by the time James enters the barn. His is the first stall, being master of the house definitely has its perks. Of course in the winter time, he may want the last stall to be as far from the cold as possible.
The sound of Roland splitting more firewood can be heard while he removes the saddle and tack. A quick brushing and his horse is set. Leaving the barn, he checks in with Ezra and finds lunch still an hour away so he heads over to his workshop.
The ruined workbench has been removed, probably chopped into kindling. Not good for much else now anyway. Inside he takes out another of the crystals and sets it on the workbench before him. The spell he applied last time had worked beautifully, as long as there isn’t another crystal in close proximity.
Maybe I could incorporate a ‘signature’ of some kind within each of the crystals that would prohibit another from leeching from it. If so, that would solve the problem.
He finally comes up with an idea. When the crystal feels a drain on it, it will send a signal to the source. Each crystal will be set up to recognize that signal and when they receive that signal from a source of power they’re attempting to leech from, they’ll stop.
When he has it set in his head exactly what he wants to do, he releases the magic. The crystal on the workbench before him begins to leech from him. He again sees the now familiar red glow that will eventually deepen into a crimson color.
Allowing the crystal to leech power from him for a minute, he then sends the signature signal to tell it that it shouldn’t leech from him. And sure enough, he feels the leeching abruptly stop. The glow within the crystal stops growing and remains constant. Without the primary source from him, there’s not very much else close at hand to draw from.
