The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

“How about this? I will do a bundle just for you,” Tanisha said with an award-winning smile. “Since you need the draught of strength too. I will do it all for two and a half silver. You won’t get that deal anywhere else.”

“Two and a quarter,” a night-hand wendigo man said.

Tanisha had been haggling with this man for a while. He was trying to be a tough sell, but this was reasonably relaxed compared to the people in Lavi, who were always in a hurry. In Lavi, hundreds of other merchants sold similar products if someone didn’t like her prices. Here, she was the only alchemist, as the town only had an herbalist and an apothecary. The fact she had five platinum coins and over fifty gold also helped to settle her nerves.

Tanisha said with a clap, “Two silver forty-five, lowest I’ll go. You should see what the town herbalist can do if you need anything else. Although I am sure Bodil was here a few minutes ago and was looking for ingredients, I doubt she has anything. So, do we have a deal?”

The man tried to haggle a bit more but buckled and paid when Tanisha went up on the price instead of down.

“Thank you for your business,” Tanisha said.

Tanisha and Bjorn were in the town of Birchgrove. It was a larger settlement then they had been expecting but the fact it was on a through road to get to Lavi it should have been expected. The town was well defended with a stone wall  that had some slight enchantments. It was definitely to keep out monsters and beast not for a prolonged assault from wizards or especially mages. The town also had the distinct architectural design closer to that of humans than wendigo. Structures were colorful and needlessly complex, at least much more so than was expected in a wendigo town.

Tanisha and Joha had to get permits to set up in the town, and the process took a day, so to make up for the registration cost and the day they lost, they decided to be there for the next week. So far, Tanisha and Joha had great business and couldn’t complain. On the other hand, Bjorn looked bored out of his three heads. He would help with setting up and then sit around and watch.

Tanisha was loading her unsold potions back into their proper cases. “Hmm. Joha, do you think there is something Bjorn can do around town?”

Joha rubbed his chin. “I am not sure, no. Is something wrong?”

“No, I just kind of feel bad he just sits around and watches all day. I am sure he would rather not have to lay around me at a stand.”

“He can hunt.” Joha said with some more contemplation. “Although I have noticed that wendigo don’t seem to mind him walking around even alone. It was the same in Lavi when he was larger. Are wendigo just fine with large animals wandering around unattended?”

“Sometimes I forget that you can’t sense mana. Umm, people can sense a familiar and at what stage of their familiar bond they are. Anyone that has any sensitivity to mana should be able to tell the difference between a wild animal and a familiar.” 

“Then he can run errands and hunt when you don’t need anything. We can pick up some paper, so if you send him to buy something, he can take the list with him.”

“That would work for most things, but I would still have to go to the herbalist myself,” Tanisha turned to Bjorn. “How does that sound, Big Man?”

Bjorn hissed his agreement and wrote out, great, in the dirt at his feet. Tanisha smiled; he was getting better with his spelling. She corrected him a little and nuzzled him to encourage him to continue trying. She couldn’t believe how fast he was improving and resolved to continue teaching him how to read and write Valish. He could do simple sentences in dirt, but his hands weren’t designed to hold a writing utensil.

The inn Tanisha and Joha were staying at was quaint and cozy. The proprietor was an old human and his wife was a woodentail wendigo. It was unusual that a wendigo and human would be together but not unheard of. The biggest challenge came with the large difference in lifespan. There was also the issue that humans and wendigo can’t have children together.

The inn was nice but not the nicest in the town by a long shot. Despite the windfall in funds they received from the princess, Joha firmly believed in not spending more than they made in a day. Especially when a bed is a bed, no matter where they slept. Tanisha couldn’t help but agree; she would be fine sleeping outside on a rock, thanks to her constitution.

Tanisha sat cross-legged on the floor of her room and leaned back onto Bjorn’s side. He was curled around her as she read and showed him the corresponding words. She only had one of her textbooks from the academy that wasn’t specifically on alchemy. This was a general overview of magical implements and brief histories of their creations. It ranged from Spellcraft to alchemy equipment and everything in between if mana was somehow involved.

Tanisha read. “Wands are an essential magical implement that acts as a medium to control and alter spellforms. They allow mana to be more easily controlled through a series of movements, adding a physical element to a magical effect that splits the load of magical strain on the mind.

“Sjó found that to create a medium, a material that is conductive to mana must be properly prepared before saturation, and the representation of a mage’s core must be carved onto the item. The more directly the mage can carve the wand themselves with their mana, the closer their connection with the medium. In this way, it is similar to prana and how they must bind a part of their essence to their weapon.”

Tanisha stopped reading, which caused Bjorn’s three heads to look at her in confusion. She pet him and smiled as she contemplated a little longer.

“I didn’t know about this part,” Tanisha said to the curious Bjorn. “I thought wands could be generally used after they were properly inscribed to make them mana conductive. Staffs too, although those are usually for amplifying magical effects. Staffs can have a certain amount of spells resonated into its structure so a mage can activate them without the need to vocalize the spell.” She stopped her explanation for a moment. “Ragnar has a staff, I wonder what spells he has in it? Anyway staff are less versatile but far greater at channeling magic. Oh, I wonder.” 

She opened her hand before her, and one of her twin daggers appeared. She looked over the blade at the runes in the spine. From what she knew, they seemed pretty standard for spell-casting implements. They weren’t specialized to her core or anything like that.

These aren’t real wands, though; the one I had before was a training wand from when I was little.

She ran her seiðr through the weapon, and the runes lit up, but now that she was paying attention to it, she could tell that the blades were a poor conduit for her new power. Most of the seiðr slid by the blade without amplification or using it as a medium. It was better than casting by hand, but not by much.

Tanisha pressed her lips in frustration, then looked at Bjorn, who had shifted to get a better look. “It said in the book that a mage can carve the wand themselves with their mana. Do you think I should try with my seiðr?” Bjorn hissed affirmatively. “Yeah, I thought you would.”

Tanisha read a few more paragraphs in the section, although there wasn’t anything on how the process worked since the book was mainly a general overview. She sighed at her lack of information and decided to give it a shot. She channeled her seiðr, which this time appeared closer to that of a silver-gold mana.

She slowly forced her power into the weapon without letting any of it spill out. She assumed saturation in the book meant this. The weapon started to glow brighter from the infused power. She observed the blade for any changes, but nothing seemed to be happening. She pushed in a little more, and the glow intensified. Suddenly, Bjorn swatted the weapon from her hands, where it slid across the floor.

“What was that for?” Tanisha asked frustratedly as she was about to stand up to get the weapon when Bjorn stopped her. “Is everything alright?”

The blade exploded with a loud bang! Most of the shrapnel went flying into the far wall. Residual seiðr unraveled violently into its base components of mana, maya, and aether, all of which vanished quickly. Tanisha rubbed her ears, which rang after the explosion.

“What in the Infernal Planes?” Tanisha groaned as she pulled a metal shard from her arm. “Are you okay, Big Man?”

After checking on Bjorn and then herself, Joha entered her room and was already on high alert. He saw the black mark on the floor and half the blade of her dagger sticking through the wall.

Joha raised an eyebrow and questioned. “Uhh? Is everything okay?”

Tanisha, after she saw the mess her little experiment caused, blushed. “Yes, just a little magical accident. We are fine, and I will have to pay for the damages to the room, though.”

“I see that,” Joha said while inspecting the glowing knife fragments from the doorway. “What happened?”

“I found out that knives are not wands.”

Joha looked out of the room when he heard footsteps. “Looks like the owners are coming right now. I would put on your best merchant’s face if I were you.”