It was two or three hours later when Linden returned, a golden bow in one hand, reins in the other, and a small goat loaded on top of the monstrous, vile beast that Linden called a horse.
Thadus’ garments were still drying, the wind sprite blowing smoke in any direction it saw fit.
Thadus himself had left the fireside and moved over to the poor mutilated tree. It was old and he couldn’t regrow its branches for it, but he could relieve its suffering somewhat, though that took effort and time.
Following the thumping of hooves, he heard a snort and a neigh, and he looked past the trunk to see Linden arrive. He furrowed his brow. He walked around the tree, watching as the thing got closer.
“Where did that come from? That’s not the pipe, is it? Did you not say that it would only take shapes akin to its own? I’m not too familiar with mortal weaponry, but I certainly doubt it can bend enough to make up a bow and string.”
Linden looked over at him as they halted their mount. “Lord Thadus is not wrong. This is indeed not Dart. This is an enchanted bow I received from…” Linden seemed to seek a word before they continued, “a tutor might be an apt description of Sir Enloï. He graciously gifted it to me, as a show of pride for my progress as his student, after my first victory in the biennial archery competition arranged by the His Majesty, the exalted Silver Rose King of Rosecrest, and the Ministry of Culture.”
They dismounted, and took the game off the beast’s back, before once again unsaddling it, leaving the bow by the saddle on the dry grass. Much like Linden carried a child over their shoulder, so they did with the goat, with just as much ease. The fire crackled excitedly over as they placed the goat in its vicinity.
The mortal then went to get their saddle and bow. The monstrous thing had moved to the stream to drink water, unbothered by the fact it had carried a dead goat on its back.
Thadus eyed the goat.
He had never truly considered where the meat he ate came from. His service would handle the purchasing and gathering of the ingredients, while it had nothing to do with him before it was cooked and presented before him. He had never had to see a whole deceased goat as it looked before preparation before. He wasn’t sure whether he was more disgusted by its appearance, or revolted by its stillness.
Linden walked up to the tree and held the bow toward him, “Would Lord Thadus like to examine it? It is nothing of great value to a spellcaster, but it is useful to those who know how to use it.”
Thadus gave this lunatic a suspicious look.
A few strands of their fiery hair had come loose, and the locks framed their pale face. Dust had coloured both their complexion and the coat a more greyish hue from riding the dry lands surrounding Rockforge. They must have been feeling warm, because they had opened their jacket, their light blue shirt visible, and at this time, they used a silk handkerchief to wipe off some sweat from their neck with their free hand.
He noted they were no longer wearing their earrings. Considering their movements in Rockforge, he couldn’t accept the idea that they would simply remove them while hunting.
“Your jewellery is weaponry?” he asked, eyeing the gold wrist guard.
Linden chuckled. “My bow is the only enchanted weapon I wear on my body. None of my other jewellery is enchanted. If Lord Thadus must so desperately know, I only have these two enchanted items that you have now seen with me. I did own a couple more before I had to leave, but whether they have been forcibly displaced by other after so many years, I cannot say.” They urged him to take the bow and said, “Jewellery is rather subtle in terms of being armed. Were I to carry a gold bow with me in any city, I would never be left alone, no matter who I may seek. It is naturally too conspicuous for a humble wanderer such as myself, as it aligns with the striking appearance of a hero from the tales of old.”
Thadus hummed noncommittally.
“However, I must tell Lord Thadus that this bow was engineered this way when it was crafted, and not a choice of my own. I have worn it every day ever since I received it because Sir Enloï had it enchanted this way, and chose how they would look when stored away. Needless to say, I find it a practical solution.”
That was indeed efficient, but Thadus refused to agree on this matter, lest the mortal became arrogant.
Instead, he took the bow. He could feel in his hands how it was quietly singing with pure magic. That was magic staying activated, surely, but not something a mortal or lower kin would notice. The body appearing to be gold, yet when he gripped it, it felt flexible. He pulled the string and realised this was silver. It was one of the better conduits of magic, although not as useful as gold by far. He could see why the body would require gold to hold the enchantment to be used this way.
The body was heavily ornamented, but to Thadus’ eye he could tell that this ornamentation was to hide the true enchantments of this weapon. He ran his hands over the ornamentation, his fingers trying to find the core of the enchantment.
However, it was so thoroughly made that the two were fused, and he could not tell the enchantment from its hiding place. He took it not to heart. Instead, he noted to himself that, once he had time, he would need to revisit the library of Paradise Tower and study the craft of enchantments to understand this matter. This was outside of his areas of study. He held it, weighed it in his hand, felt its coolness warm up in his hand. He was not foolish enough to try to channel his own magic into an object that already held a magic core. The difference between this item and his sceptre was not only the use itself, but that his sceptre had no magic of its own, and it was merely a tool to cast with more precision. This was made to fulfil a specific need.
He returned it with a disinterested expression.
“You have a bow and no arrows. Is that not useless?” he said.
They kept not even a quiver.
Linden smiled slightly. “I carry the arrows in my heart. Only the most accomplished archers could use this, because one cannot use it with a crafted arrow. Sir Enloï was proud of my accomplishments after having taught me, so naturally he rewarded me with something that required many more years of continued practice for me to ever use.”
Thadus huffed and turned back to the tree, flicking the borrowed cloak hem, to fully show that he was curious about this no longer.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Linden break the bow at the middle, and the halves turned into the earrings. Linden put them on once more with little care of Thadus’ thoughts on the matter.
They went to the stream and left Thadus with the carcass. Revolted, Thadus moved to the other side of the tree, to away from it and to continued to handle the problem with the aspen’s branch stumps. The smell of blood mixed with scent of smoke and he couldn’t tell which was worse.
After some time, Linden returned. “Lord Thadus, whilst we can agree that a caster cannot carve a bath from stone, is it possible to flatten one and move it for me?”
“Flatten it, that I can indeed do, yes. However, I am still merely a human,” Thadus said with a sniff. “I can’t make boulders as light as leaves. That’s the work of gods.”
“That is of not a major issue. If it is too weighty, could you cut it to a size I can carry myself? I merely ask of you to make it a decently flat surface.”
“What are you requesting from me? A tabletop?”
“Yes, but I need not the legs of one, only a slab to work upon.”
Thadus looked past the trunk and at the goat on the ground by the fire. He hardly needed to speculate what it was for. He also couldn’t believe he had to agree to this, but he owed Linden for lending him their soap and, later, their cloak. Not to mention they did wash his coat…
That he fell in because he was pushed, that he would demand silver for. They now owed him a whole fifty coins. They had got his coat wet, indirectly, because of their monstrous beast. They wouldn’t be able to get out of this, as long as that beast caused him inconveniences, he would make Linden pay for each of them.
He wanted to beg some god to relieve him from these unjustified trials he had to suffer through. This was truly an injustice to his person.
“Fine. I shall make you your stone slab,” he replied reluctantly, and followed Linden to try to do a task better meant for a carpenter, in his opinion.
Once by the stream, the mortal pointed at a rock they had seen in the water. “That one seems decent. I don’t mind wading to retrieve it.”
It was already rather flat.
“…”
Somehow, Thadus felt underestimated in his skills as a spellcaster. Did the mortal not believe he could do better than some additional work on what nature had already provided? He could certainly do better than that! This lunatic was asking high kin to slice a thin layer of rock off to make a slab? Of high kin!
He really ought to have rejected the request. If the mortal wanted to remove it, so be it! Let them do it themselves! This truly had nothing to do with him!
The more he thought about it, the more he bristled. The gall of this creature!
“Bring it here,” he told them. “The water is obscuring me for this.”
Linden gave Thadus a look. “Can you not have the water moved to the side to see better, Lord Thadus?”
“The sprite in the stream is ancient. Why would I disturb it with a purpose so foolish?”
“The Lord Thadus may not blame me if I season our dinner with grass and soil by accident.”
Thadus rubbed the bridge of his nose and held his tongue with great restraint before he returned to their camping site to get his sceptre.
Fine, he thought. Ask me to act a god and divide a river for a single rock then.
He returned with his water saturated sceptre, but he made no call to the water spirit, instead closed his eyes and called to the earth spirits and the deep roots nearby. He took a deep breath.
Rise.
The ground rumbled as it began moving to do his bidding. He could feel the grass, dead and alive, tremble. The oak shook its branches. The fire crackles in the background. A vine in the pouch around his neck, slithered out and crawled along his arms to the sceptre. Another followed, choosing the other arm. They wrapped around his sceptre.
He opened his eyes and focused on the stream. The bed of it started rising, but as it did, he ensured he the earth sunk along the opposite shore to make space for the water of the stream.
Indeed. He used his skills not for something useful, but to move a whole stream for a single rock.
How foolish the mortal world was to make a spellcaster to do this. How foolish he was to ever have been curious enough to visit Rockforge.
How foolish he acted for no more than an evening meal.
The water spirit threw a wave over the shifting silhouette of its stream. A root broke the ground surface and whipped at the wave. The wind spirit wanted to join in the game and rushed along the changing path of the clear water. At the camp, the fire cackled.
Thadus tuned it out. He did not perceive it. He did not take notice of it. He did not see a thing, not hear a sound.
Another vine rose from the pouch and brushed against his cheek before it slithered behind his neck and down his back to wrap itself around his waist.
He slowly continued to command the earth spirits to shift the stream until the rock was above the surface, was something he could see, could walk to without entering the water once more.
Once he had, he lowered his sceptre and gave Linden a sideways look. “I owe you nothing now.”
The mortal was looking at the stream, holding their chin in thought.
Thadus added, “I will not return it to how it was. This isn’t a construction. It can’t be ‘repaired’.”
Linden looked up at him, their eyes looking a greenish grey at this time, with only the blue streak being truly vibrant. “Lord Thadus, I am struck speechless.” A quiet beat followed, before they merely said, their tone coloured by disbelief, “I suppose I need to adjust my map now…”
Thadus flicked the cloak and moved to the rock. He placed his hand on it, letting it rest there for a moment before he simply brush it away, and dust and pebbles went along with the motion. The rock hand now turned to a slab for Linden’s use.
What a waste of his abilities.
He returned to the fireside, sprinkling water onto the cackling fire spirit, punishing it for trying to distract him.
When he looked up, he noted Linden had turned to him, gazing at him thoughtfully, as if they had something to say. The breeze played with their coat and the loose strands. Behind them the stream furiously was making noise in protest.
Then they abruptly smiled at him before they went to get the slab. Thadus turned to get away from this infuriating mortal, but to his horror he nearly stumbled over the carcass and in the process almost collided with the beast.
Truly! What injustice he had been given!