But even so, he really got on my nerves.
Once I got a moment to myself, I let out the big, deep sigh I’d been holding in all day.
We’d stopped for the night in a lodging town along the main road. After dinner, we went to our rooms. Gourry took his next to mine.
My own room was pretty small, with the floor and walls all made of wood. The furnishings consisted of a bed and a table that held a single lamp, which was the only source of light in the room. Not exactly the lap of luxury, but at least the place looked well maintained.
My nose got a heavy dose of the distinctive scent of burning animal oil as I entered the room and bolted the door. I quickly unfastened my cape, which I shrugged off unceremoniously. Whew, that was one burden off my shoulders!
With my cape on the floor, I immediately started rooting through it. It was still jam-packed with the spoils of war from my victory over the bandits—in other words, all the loot I’d swiped. That whole escapade had turned into such a mess that I hadn’t had a chance to sort through it all since I’d first dumped it into sacks. I’d tried to be discerning about what I took—passing over anything too small-potatoes or too cumbersome—but I’d still made off with quite a haul.
I plopped down on my outspread cape and started pulling things out of my various leather bags. Then I held my hands up, palms facing each other, in front of my chest. I began chanting a spell under my breath, and as I slowly pulled my hands apart, a ball of light appeared between them.
I tossed the ball of light up toward the ceiling, and the room was suddenly filled with a radiant glow. This was a little spell I knew called “Lighting.” I needed more than just the oil lamp in the room if I wanted to get a good look at all my new treasure. Let’s see...
Two or three hundred considerably-sized gemstones. Some of them were scratched, but I could sort that out later.
One orichalcum idol... Ooh, that should fetch a good price.
Then there was a pretty big knife. It was technically a magic weapon, but the enchantment on it looked pretty nasty.
“Probably sends you on a killing spree if you use it too much... Well, it still might fetch a decent price at a magic shop somewhere. Next up...”
A dozen or so coins from the Principality of Letidius, which had fallen five hundred years ago. Woohoo! That one got a whistle out of me.
“Lucky me! I can sell these to any collector, no sweat.”
That about wrapped it up for my haul. Not the most valuable stuff in the world, but about par for a random group of petty bandits.
Of course, “valuable” is relative, mind you. Even if I lowballed myself selling all of this, I’d still walk away with enough money to provide a normal person a comfortable retirement.
What? No, I’m not greedy. Magic’s just an expensive business, okay?
“Now, for these puppies...”
It was time to get to work on the gemstones.
I first organized them by type, and then sorted each type into two piles: scratched and flawless. I could sell the pristine ones as-is, but the B-grade ones wouldn’t fetch much in their current condition. They needed a little TLC. Don’t worry. I had a plan.
I pulled a few more things out of my bags. The first was a crystal ball type deal about the size of a child’s fist, which I gingerly set on the floor. It rolled around a little before slowing to a stop with the marker inside of it pointing toward the window.
“Gotcha. That way’s north, so...”
Next, I unrolled a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn in the center of it out over the floor. The paper was perfectly square, just wide enough that I could roll it out without straining, and had the color and luster of an elf maiden’s skin.
(If it sounds like I’m being vague about my tools, materials, and incantations, you’re right. The details have been redacted. They’re all trade secrets. Sorry.)
After that, I painted a small piece of wood with special ink and used it to stamp a smaller magic circle onto a smaller piece of paper. I then set a pristine ruby in the center of the magic circle on the floor and placed the little paper I’d just stamped upon that. And to top it all off, I quietly chanted a fire spell. The little paper burst into flames, incinerated to ash in a flash.
“Okay, that’s step one,” I sighed as I peered at my handiwork.
The small magic circle was now visible inside the ruby sitting on the floor; the spell I’d just cast had sealed it in there.
Next, I took one of the scratched rubies in my left hand and held it over the gem containing the magic circle. I then recited a wind spell, which crumbled the gem in my hand like old clay. The newly-created ruby dust rained down onto the gem below it.
I repeated the same process over and over until I’d disposed of all the scratched rubies the same way, leaving a massive pile of ruby dust lying in the magic circle on the floor.
“Now then...”
I sprinkled some clear fluid from a small bottle over the pile and held my left palm out over it, chanting a particular pattern of earth and water spells. My outstretched palm began to glow, and the mountain of ruby powder let out a flash of light.
By the time I slowly pulled my hand away, what had once been a mountain was now a mere lump.
Success. Now I just had to wait.
The ruby’s surface, rough like unglazed pottery, slowly became more lustrous, almost like it was melting... until at last, it solidified into a large ruby about the size of an adult’s fist, the magic circle still sealed inside.
✦ ✦ ✦
