Magical Enkindling

Vivian paused at the alleyway entrance, readjusting her cloak around her slender frame and pulling the hood further over her raven colored hair, feeling insecure about her ability to cover her identity even in the darkness provided on the night of the new moon. She stared across the road at the tavern entrance, knowing that Thomas was there, throwing his newfound wealth around after accepting the role of the King’s head mage for the third night in a row. Anger shot through her again as she thought back to how he had claimed credit for everything after stealing her creations.

The ebony staff, the silk belt, and the black leather notebook. Vivian had spent close to a decade weaving enchantments into each item, imbuing them with power beyond the natural abilities of most magic users, and she wanted them back. The time neared midnight before she saw the mage leaving the tavern, and she quickly cast an invisibility spell over herself so she could follow him. Thomas, like most mages, did his best to hide the location of his home from others to protect his magical property. It turns out he lived close to the tavern, and it was only a few minutes walking to arrive. Vivian decided to risk getting closer to him to try and see what was required to enter.

Thomas glanced around to make sure there was no one around him, and then placed the palm of his hand on the door above the handle. A soft violet light emanated from the wood beneath his hand, and she heard him whisper “Tra zola crom, tra dorin pre” under his breath, causing the light to disappear, and he then entered the building. Deciding to play it safe, Vivian retreated to the corner of the house and dispelled her invisibility. She waited nearly half an hour, repeating the phrase she’d heard until she was confident she could say it right, before going back to the door and slowly placed her palm in the spot Thomas used.

The violet light returned, and to her relief it also disappeared after she repeated the phrase once more. She slipped inside the house, finding herself in a pitch dark hallway. Covering her mouth, she breathed out the incantation for night vision, and the room slowly gained definition as her eyes gained magical sight. Seeing nothing that appeared threatening, she cast a second spell, one meant to help locate her missing items by showing her unique magical auras when they were close.

Vivian slowly crept through the rooms, not surprised that the interior of the house was much larger on the inside than the outside. It was common practice to warp the space inside a mages home to increase the size. She did not find anything on the first floor, but found a spiral staircase that went both to a second floor, and a basement. Going on instinct, she decided to check the lower floor first. She found herself in a single large area, almost empty but for a large table to her left, and right on top was the notebook and the belt.

It seemed Thomas had not truly figured out the power of the stolen items, or he would not have left them unsecured. She quickly donned the belt, feeling a rush of confidence and power, and grabbed the black leather book. She flipped through the pages, and saw that Thomas had not written anything in it yet, smirking to herself at his stupidity. She had bound a spirit to the pages, shackling it inside along with spells of honesty and servitude. She grabbed a quill from the table top and pricked her finger with it, and asked the notebook where was her staff, and could she retrieve it safely. She stood silently waiting for the answer.

“The staff was left at the palace in the head mage’s office. Retrieval will be difficult, if not impossible” Vivian heard the spirit’s voice in her head after a few minutes. She cursed to herself, as the staff was the most powerful of the 3 items. There did not appear to be anything else of value in the room with her, so she wrote in the black notebook again, asking the spirit if there was anything of value in the house she could take that would be of equal value to her lost staff.

Vivian decided to head back up to the main floor of the house while the spirit was searching. She strode up the stairs confidently, as she was sure she would be in no danger if she was caught now that she had recovered the belt. She had designed the enchantments to act as an amplifier, so that her already impressive magical abilities would be even more powerful. Thomas, on the other hand, was barely competent by her standards, he only succeeded through misdirection and outright theft.

Wandering the rooms, she found a poorly stocked kitchen, a small reading room full of arcane texts, most of which she could identify from the bindings, and a tastefully decorated sitting room. Vivian decided to look at the texts while she waited, curious to see if Thomas had anything she had not heard of yet. Standing at the closest shelf, she ran her fingers across the books, not finding anything interesting.

“There is not much of value here,” Vivian heard the spirit speaking in her head again, “a few trinkets on the mage’s person, and the payment he received when he accepted the position from the King, a sum of twenty thousand gold. The gold is located in a secret compartment in the kitchen.”

Her eye’s widened in surprise at the amount of gold Thomas decided to keep in his house. That much money at once with no ties to the city, and Vivian could easily live a life of luxury elsewhere. She abandoned the books, and went to the kitchen, again taking out the black notebook and scribbling down her demands.

The spirit responded instantly this time, “The secret compartment is located to your left, halfway up the wall.”

Vivian looked left, but could not see anything of note on the wall. There were not shelves or cubbies. She put one hand on her belt, tapping into its powers, and waved her other hand, seeking out potential illusions. True to the spirits word, the wall to her left was not entirely real, she could now clearly see that a spell had been cast over the spot, concealing a small door. She waved her hand again, casting a powerful spell to remove the magic, and then calmly opened the door.

Inside was a chest, with no visible locks or anything holding it in place. She lifted the lid and smiled at the sight of thousands of gold coins sitting there. Vivian thought for a moment, and then with another wave of her hand, created a small portal back to her own bedroom. She tossed the chest through so it landed on her bed, and then tore a page out of the notebook.

“Stealing from mages never pays in the end,” she wrote, “especially when you don’t have the abilities to properly use what you’ve stolen. Consider this fair compensation for my losses.”

After placing the note and closing the door, she slipped through the portal, and ended the spell. Vivian then sat on her bed to think. Should she risk staying in the city, or should she play it safe and move on. There is never a shortage for the needs of mages, so she’d be welcomed wherever she stopped, but this has been her home for almost 20 years.

Growling to herself, she stood up again, and headed to her study to grab a map and a goblet of wine. She had never gone very far from her home, having no desires to be an adventurer, and having plenty of mentors and spell books to learn from here. She quickly narrowed it down to 2 coastal cities, imagining it would be very nice to live next to the ocean. Vivian didn’t know much about these places, so she decided she would just flip a coin after she packed.

Packing itself was not difficult, as creating a space in the ethereal realm was a relatively easy spell. All she needed to do was open up a portal, and start moving her important items inside, which were few in number. Vivian carefully grabbed all of her experiments, the chest of gold, all of her clothes, and some of the rarer texts she had collected and placed them through the portal.

Vivian sighed, regretting that she had to leave all of this behind, but hoping that in a new city, she would flourish to new heights indeed, especially with the new wealth hidden in her ethereal storage. Joining her fingers together in front of her, she began a simple fire spell, sending it forward to destroy this house so as to slip away. The fire spread quickly through the rooms, and once she was sure they would do the job, she flipped the coin, and disappeared through one last portal.