He finds Jiron and the stranger sitting in the front room, Ezra having already given the man a small bite to eat and something to drink.
“…only hope he can help me,” the man says. When he sees James enter the room he quickly comes to his feet, almost causing the cup holding his ale to tip over.
Jiron catches James’ eye and rolls his eyes as he gives a sidelong nod at their guest.
“Thank you for taking the time to listen to my dilemma,” the man says to him.
“I am very busy,” replies James, as he sits down in one of the chairs. “Say what you came here to say.”
Sitting back down, the man begins, “I shall be brief then.” Glancing to Jiron, he continues, “I was telling your friend here somewhat of my problem and am hoping you might be of a mind to help me.”
James glances to Jiron and then asks, “What sort of problem?” Jiron gives him a brief, amused smile.
“Well, it’s like this,” he explains. “I own a small business in Osgrin.” When James doesn’t respond to the name, he adds, “It’s a town just a little south of here.”
“Oh,” says James.
“Anyway, I’m a dye merchant,” he continues when no further comment is forthcoming. “And recently a competitor has set up another shop close to mine.”
“And?” prompts James.
“And, he’s hurting my business,” says the man. “He’s selling his dyes far cheaper than I’m able to. How, I don’t know. If something isn’t done, he’ll ruin me!”
“And you want me to do what?” he asks.
“Why, cast a spell on him or something that will make his dyes be of lesser quality,” he explains. “Exactly what, I’d leave to your judgment.”
Where Jiron is amused, James is anything but. “Let me get this straight,” he says, coming to his feet. “You want me to ruin a man’s business because he’s cutting into your profits?”
“Yes,” replies the man in all sincerity. “I’d pay you for your troubles.”
Eyes smoldering, he says to Jiron, “Get this fool from my sight!”
“You better go,” Jiron says as he brings the man to his feet.
“But,” the man says as Jiron begins to lead him to the door, “I’ll give you a hundred gold!”
“Get out!” yells James. The frustration he had felt before when this idiot disturbed his experiments blossoms into full fledged anger. “I’ll not take a million for such a deed. How dare you even ask me!”
Struggling against Jiron as he’s being pulled from the house, he cries out, “But you’re a mage! You’re supposed to do things like this!”
Ezra pokes her head in from the kitchen to see what’s going on.
Roland appears at the door, axe in hand. James glances at him and says, “Assist Jiron in getting this man off my property.” To the man he adds, “Don’t you ever come back here again!”
Setting his axe on the floor, Roland takes one arm while Jiron takes the other and they drag the dye merchant out of the house. James watches from the window as they take him to the end of the lane.
“He doesn’t understand,” he hears Ezra say from behind him.
Turning around, he sees her framed in the doorway to the kitchen, “Understand what?”
“You,” she says. “You are not like other mages we hear about. You are kind and considerate, no one expects that from one such as you.”
His anger slowly subsides until he’s simply frustrated. “I suppose,” he says.
“All our lives, the stories we hear of those with the power are ones of terror and pain,” she explains. “People just can’t believe that a mage, wizard, or whatever can be anything but bad.”
Sighing, he nods his head, “I know. Whenever anyone has found out I’m a mage, their first reaction is usually one of fear or trepidation. Only by getting to know me do their opinions change.”
“That is true,” she agrees. “Sorry to have intruded, but I thought you should know.”
“Thank you, Ezra,” he says. “I do appreciate it.”
She then returns to the kitchen to resume whatever it was she had been doing.
Turning back to the window, he sees Jiron and Roland returning, the dye merchant stands at the end of the lane for a moment. It almost seems like the man still hasn’t grasped the idea James isn’t going to be helping him. Jiron turns around and yells something at him. When the man still doesn’t leave, he draws one of his knives and advances on him.
Seeing the drawn knife, he finally gets the idea and starts running down the road toward town.
Jiron replaces his knife and catches up with Roland as they walk back to the house. James moves to the doorway as they walk up, “He wouldn’t leave?”
Shaking his head, Jiron says, “That guy simply would not listen. It wouldn’t sink in that no amount of money could sway you.” Cracking a grin, he adds, “So I finally had to chase him off.”
Returning the grin, James says, “Yeah, I saw that.”
“The problem is,” explains Roland, “is that word about you is getting around. People are talking I’m afraid.”
“Oh?” he asks. “And just what are they saying?”
“Mainly that you’re a mage and that you’ve helped some people out,” answers Roland.
“Great, notoriety,” sighs James. “That’s just what I wanted.” Glancing at Jiron, he continues, “Would you mind going into town tonight and find out just what they’re saying? I’d like to know.”
“Sure,” he says. “I can take a couple of the guys and down a few at the Squawking Goose.” Then he smiles and a short laugh escapes him.
“What?” James asks.
“Did you ever hear why the place is called the Squawking Goose?” he asks.
He sees Roland start to grin as he shakes his head and says, “No.”
“Well, it’s rumored that the owner’s wife never shuts up, and, well that’s it,” he replies.
“He named it after his wife?” James asks incredulously. “Doesn’t she get mad?”
“This is the funny part,” says Roland. “The wife doesn’t know, she thinks it’s because they serve goose a lot. But she does talk more than most.”
All three start to laugh. Roland grabs his axe from where he’d set it down and heads back to the wood pile. They can hear his laughter as he walks away.
“Going back to the crystals?” Jiron asks.
“I think so,” he replies. “I might have had it, if it wasn’t for that pest.”
“I’ll keep an eye out and make sure you’re not disturbed again,” he assures him.
“I’d appreciate that,” James says. He turns to go through the house and out the kitchen door as Jiron exits through the front door. Giving Ezra and Arkie a quick nod, he leaves the house and makes for his workshop.
Once inside, he closes the door and relishes the peace and quiet of it. Before resuming his tests, he sits at the workbench and tries to calm himself and to get his mind to stop churning about the interruption.
Picking up another of the crystals that lay on his workbench, he rolls it between his fingers absentmindedly as he recalls the spell he used the last time. When he thinks he’s remembered it exactly and his mind is better able to focus, he takes the crystal and places it on the table after clearing a spot for it among the shattered remains of his previous experiments.
He moves back to where he was before and then concentrates only briefly before letting the magic flow. This time he lets it go quickly and braces himself for the crystal to shatter, but it remains intact.
The leeching of magic from him begins and the reddish glow can be seen growing within it as it holds more power. When it darkens to a deep crimson, he backs a few more steps away nervously, just in case. But, as before, the crystal reaches a certain point and the leeching diminishes until it’s almost imperceptible.
He watches it for several minutes, giving it time to explode if it was going to and then starts toward the table where he picks up the crystal. The deep crimson color isn’t a light, it’s simply a part of the crystal. The leeching of power suddenly stops altogether. Must’ve reached its limit so it shut down.
Satisfied, he sets the crystal down on the workbench. He picks up another of the crystals and takes it over to the test table to see if he can duplicate the results. Setting it down, he moves away from it and casts the spell again.
This time, the leeching of power is much less. Odd, he thinks to himself. I would’ve thought it would be the same.
He watches the crystal and the reddish glow begins to form within, just as the previous one. As it reaches the deep crimson color, it begins subsiding again as if it’s losing power.
The leeching abruptly stops and he watches as the red glow within the crystal begins pulsating from light to dark. Gradually, almost imperceptible, he starts feeling a vibration in the air.
Taking a few steps back from the crystal, he looks around the room for the source of the vibration. Suddenly, his eyes fall upon the first crystal that’s lying on his workbench. It too is going from light to dark and back again. They’re leeching each other!
The vibration in the air begins to get worse and he can see the two crystals begin to vibrate where they sit. Casting out his magic, he tries to stop each of the crystal’s active spells. But instead, his magic is sucked into them, each taking half and almost seems to be fighting for what the other had taken.
Cutting off his magic, he looks to the crystals and now both are a deep crimson after having taken more of his magic. The vibration increases and a high pitched tone can be heard.
Realizing he may not have much time, he dives for the door and hits the ground outside just as both crystals explode at the same time. The resultant explosion is by far the worse yet of any failed experiment and actually cracks one of the walls of his workshop.
As he gets up off the ground, he sees the girls coming out of the kitchen door and Jiron and Roland running around the side of the house. Roland has his axe ready and Jiron’s knives are out as he looks for attackers.
James holds up his hands and says, “It’s okay, I’m alright.”
“What happened?” Tersa asks as she comes to his side.
“Just another experiment that didn’t go quite the way I planned,” he explains.
Replacing his knives, Jiron says, “You need to be more careful.”
“I know, but there’s no one to teach me about this stuff,” he tells them. “I try to be, but magic isn’t exactly the easiest thing to work with.”
“Probably why there’re darn few mages in the world,” Roland adds.
Nodding his head, James replies, “Most likely.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ezra asks. When she gets an affirmative from him, she says, “Alright then, just don’t do it again.” Then she turns and with Tersa in tow, returns to the house.
“Let’s see what happened,” Jiron says as he moves toward the workshop.
The interior of the workshop is a shambles. His desk now has a large hole in it and the test table has completely disintegrated, shards and pieces of wood coat every surface of the workshop. The other crystals that had been lying on the workbench are gone, most likely are part of the crystal shards scattered all over. He checks the sack of crystals on the floor and finds them unscathed, much to his relief.
“Man, what a mess,” exclaims Roland as he enters the ruined workshop. Shaking his head, he picks up a broom in a corner and begins to sweep up the debris.
“Here,” Jiron says to James as he takes one end of the ruined workbench, “let’s take this out.”
Taking the other side, James lifts it up and they carry it out where they set it down along the side of the building. When they come back in, Roland pauses in his sweeping and says to James, “You go on in the house while I clean this up. You look like you could use a rest.”
Suddenly feeling how tired he really is, he replies, “Thanks, I think I’ll do just that.”
“We’ll get this place cleaned up and you can start again tomorrow,” Jiron assures him.
“Alright,” he says and then leaves them to finish cleaning up the mess. Returning to the house, he’s greeted by Ezra in the kitchen with a cup of ale. Taking it, he says, “Thank you.” He then moves on out to the front room where he sits in a chair by the window and stares out while he sips his ale.
The spells had taken more out of him than he realized, must’ve been concentrating too much on the effects of the spells and less on the effects they were having on him. He sits back and relaxes as he thinks of what went wrong.
When the second one began to leech from its surroundings, of course it would take magic from the other one. Then when the first began to drop in power, it started leeching from the second, and so forth.
The strain of working against each other must’ve been what caused them to begin vibrating and ultimately explode. Going to have to find a way around that.
He must’ve dozed off for a while, for when he comes awake, it’s near dusk and he sees Illan coming back with the hunters. They have several large game animals and Miko seems very happy with himself. Getting out of the chair, he opens the door and goes outside.
“James!” hollers Miko exuberantly when he sees him come out. Rushing over, he says, “I got the biggest one!”
Uther comes up behind him and claps him on the shoulder. “He sure did,” he affirms. “Put us all to shame.” Giving James a grin and a wink, he returns to the others who are taking the animals around back where they’ll begin getting them ready for the fire.
“You better go with them,” James tells Miko. “If you killed it, you better help butcher it.”
“You’re right!” he says as he turns and rushes to follow them.
James grins at the exuberance of his friend. He’s sure come along way since James first found him on the streets of Bearn. The changes the Fire had wrought doesn’t seem to bother him the way it does James. Guess most boys wish to grow up quickly.
He walks around the house to the workshop and again sees the ruined workbench sitting outside. When he goes inside, he’s amazed at just how well they have already cleaned up most of the mess. They even brought in another workbench for him, though not nearly as nice as the other one had been.
His sack of crystals rests on the floor beside the new desk. Going over to it, he reaches inside and pulls one out. Holding it up, he peers within it, not really looking for anything.
From the door, he hears Jiron says, “Haven’t you had enough for one day?”
Turning to him, James gives him a sheepish grin and shrugs. “I hadn’t planned on doing anything more tonight,” he replies. “Just came to see how the workshop turned out.” Glancing around, he continues, “You guys did a good job, thanks.”
“Not a problem,” he says. “Just try not to make it a habit.”
“I won’t,” assures James. “Promise.”
“Tersa said that dinner’s almost ready,” he tells him. The aroma from the house makes his stomach cramp and growl.
“Then let’s go. I’m starved.” Leading the way, they go into the kitchen and find that dinner is about ready to be served. The table is set and many of the dishes are already upon the table. They don’t take their seats, instead they move on into the front room to wait until all is ready. One of Ezra’s rules is no one sits down until everything is on the table. Miko had tried in the beginning and was thumped in the head with one of her spoons.
When the meal is finally ready, everyone comes to the table except Miko, Illan and Uther. They’re still out getting the animals ready for the smokehouse. One of the dishes on the table is boiled tubers, one of Ezra’s favorites. One of these days, James plans to suggest mashed tubers and gravy. He hasn’t seen anything like that since coming here, seems too simple an idea to not have been tried.
Midway through dinner, he clears his throat and once has everyone’s attention, makes a couple of announcements. “First of all, I’d like to let you all know that I finally got the letter of account from Thelonius in Cardri today. I went to Alexander’s and cashed it in so will be able to start paying you all.” He gets a round of applause at that.
“Now, before you all get excited, let me explain a few things. First of all, Roland will be in charge of the money seeing as he’ll be here when I’m gone and is going to be my administrator as well. If you should need extra money for equipment or supplies, see him. I’m going to sit down with him later to figure out exactly how much each will receive a week. After dinner, I’m going to give each of you two silvers and then we’ll go from there.” He sees several heads nodding agreement to what he’s saying.
“Now, another thing. Today, a man walked in here and disturbed me while I was in the middle of an experiment and it almost killed me. I want you all to keep alert for any strangers approaching the property and turn them away, gently and nicely if possible. If they seem to have a good reason to see me, and I mean it had better be a good reason, then take them to the house and have them wait while you get me.”
“What would constitute a good reason?” Jorry asks.
“Imminent death, perhaps,” suggest James. “I don’t know, just not for their own selfish reasons.” He then goes into the reason the man had come here seeking his help and what happened. When he’s done, he asks, “Do you understand now?”
Nodding, Jorry replies, “I think so.”
“Good,” he says. “I really don’t want a repeat of earlier today.” He takes another bite and then continues, “Also, I understand there are rumors circulating about me. Jiron is going to go into town after dinner and try to find out just what is being said and by whom. If any of you wish to go with him, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Jiron nods his head indicating he would welcome any and all who want to come with him.
“Be subtle, don’t ask any questions,” he explains to them. “Just sit back and enjoy the evening, but keep your ears open. Oh yes, and don’t get drunk or cause any problems, please.”
At that, several grin and one even chuckles.
“I mean it,” insists James. “I don’t want to go down tomorrow and pull your sorry butts out of jail.”
“Alright, James,” Yern says. “We’ll be on our best behavior.”
Once dinner is over, James goes into his room and returns with the promised silver pieces. He hands one sack of coins to Ezra saying it’s for the household expenses.
With money in hand, Jiron and the others going with him leave for town. Roland stays at the Ranch, as well as those assisting Illan and Miko with the carcasses.
By the time James goes to bed, Miko and Illan are still out there slicing and preparing the meat for smoking. He can smell the meat that has already been placed within the smokehouse.
The next morning when he wakes up, the sound of a wagon leaving can be heard. He quickly gets out of bed and looks out the window, only to find farmer Hunst heading back to the road with his load of milk jugs. A local farmer, he sells milk and butter to the various people living in the area.
He gets dressed and takes out his shaving kit and mirror, something he acquired shortly after coming to The Ranch. The dull knife he uses to shave the stubble off has been magically imbued with the ability to only cut hair. You could run the edge along your wrist without the fear of opening a vein, yet run it along your jaw line and the stubble comes off easily.
Breakfast is the only time when he isn’t required to be at the table before anyone else gets to eat. Others rise much earlier than he does and that wouldn’t be a very practical rule. He scoops a cup of soap out of a large barrel sitting in the corner of his room and then grabs a set of clean clothes.
Leaving his room, he goes through the kitchen where Ezra hands him a towel before he exits out the back door. A little ways past his workshop is a good sized stream where he had a deep pool dug adjacent to it, allowing the water to flow in and out. His bathing pool, at least during the summer that is. He’s not about to use it when there’s snow on the ground.
Removing his dirty clothes, he steps into the cool water and then sits on the sandy bottom. It’s just a couple feet deep and only comes to his mid chest when he sits in it. Using the soap liberally, he gets all the dirt and grime of the day before off as well as thoroughly washing his hair. All that he needs now is a toothbrush and he’d be set but he hasn’t been able to locate one yet, not to mention a suitable toothpaste. He figures he’ll have to make one himself, but hasn’t had the time yet.
Once he’s clean, he rests in the water and just enjoys the sensation of being surrounded by it. Everyone here thinks him slightly crazy to want a bath every day, except Miko who tends to join him more often than not. Most of the others wouldn’t bathe at all if he hadn’t made it a requirement. Everyone has to bathe at least once a week, more if they’re exceptionally stinky. He’s going to have good hygiene on his place.
When he finally brings himself to leave the pool, he dries himself on the towel Ezra had given him and then dons the clean clothes. Back at the house, he drops the towel and the dirty clothes in a basket for Ezra to wash later on.
She already has a plate of eggs and tubers ready for him upon his return. Jiron is there as well as Jorry, both looking as if they had too much fun the night before. Between bites, he asks, “You guys okay?”
“Just a little hung over is all,” admits Jiron.
“We didn’t get into trouble though,” offers Jorry.
“Did you hear anything?” he asks them.
“Not too much,” says Jiron. “They might’ve known we are with you so didn’t gossip as they might of otherwise. But the general opinion of the people there is that you’re okay.”
“That’s it?” he asks. “Just okay?”
“Well, it’s better than being called evil or demon spawned,” jokes Jorry. “At least they accept you and aren’t afraid of you.”
“That’s something, at least,” agrees James. He sees them exchange glances and asks, “What?”
“Well, one traveler who was passing through asked if you were possessed by a demon,” Jorry explains.
“Why did he ask that?” he asks.
“Seems someone fitting your description is said to have been possessed by a demon a while back,” replies Jiron. “In some town called Willimet, there’s a woman who’s claiming that you were.”
“Oh my god!” exclaims James. “That’s absurd.”
“You know this woman?” asks Jorry incredulously.
“In a way,” he admits. “Here’s what happened…” He relates to them the events as actually transpired back in Willimet. When he gets to the part where he and Miko are forced to leave the angry crowd, Jiron can’t stop himself as he starts laughing.
“You needn’t worry though,” Jorry says, a grin on his face as well. “The people around here don’t take any stock in it. They just dismiss it as idle gossip.”
“That’s good news,” James says, breathing a sigh of relief.
“But it makes for a good story,” Jiron adds. “I expect it to spread fast.”
“Can’t be helped I suppose.” Changing the subject, he says, “I plan on going into town today. Need to see the blacksmith.”
“What for?” Jorry asks.
“Want a special chest made,” he replies, not expanding any further on why.
“Like some company?” Jiron asks him.
“Yes, I would,” he says. “Plan on leaving right after breakfast.”
Finishing his last bite, Jiron says, “Well then, I’ll just go get the horses ready while you finish eating.”
“Thanks,” James says.
Jiron gets up and leaves the kitchen through the back door. James finishes eating quickly and then goes to his room where he fills one of his belt pouches with thirty gold coins. Then he returns to the kitchen and leaves through the back door. Making his way over to his workshop, he searches through his sack of crystals for five of the largest, all roughly the same size. Once he has them in another of his pouches, he leaves the workshop and heads over to the barn.
Outside the workshop, he can smell the meat being smoked in the smokehouse. Glancing over to it, he sees Miko and Illan sitting in a couple of chairs, talking. Looks like Illan is instructing him in the finer points of smoking meat.
As he approaches the barn, Jiron comes out with the horses. They mount and are quickly on their way. Uther’s standing guard at the end of the lane leading to The Ranch where it meets the road into town.
“What’re you doing?” Jiron asks him.
“Making sure no one approaches the house,” he replies. “After hearing what you said at dinner last night, Illan set up a schedule for watches out here.”
“Seen anyone?” James asks.
Shaking his head, he says, “Not a soul.”
“Be back in a couple hours,” he tells him.
Uther just gives him a nod as they turn on the road and head into town.