Moving Up

Famden put the wand and Fate's chosen Will Stone together in a long wooden box and placed it aside.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"I need some nice clothes. And a crystal ball, a knife, a fire starter. And if you have them for cheap, a storage ring."

"We have all of those. The cheap rings have a four-foot cube of space, is that fine?"

"That works."

"And what kind of crystal ball did you want?"

"There's more than one kind?"

Famden's eyes, tired and lazy once more, side-eyed Fate as he reached under the counter, pulling out a catalog. "Honestly. Kids your age should know all about the different types of crystal balls."

Fate ignored the jab and rifled through the catalog. He learned that there were two main types of crystal balls: those that could scan someone or something for an answer, like those Alessandra used during his admission to the Academy, and crystal balls that could access the Magiweb. There were also the rare hybrids, but those were way out of Fate's price range.

Each of these two types then had dozens of variations, but Fate only focused on the Magiweb crystals. Some kinds could project light, others could transmit sound directly into your head for private calls, one could be used as a hand warmer, and many more.

Fate didn't need anything fancy, so he went with the basic one, a crystal ball that could access the Magiweb and make calls. They didn't bond to the user like wands and storage rings did, but once he purchased it, the serial number would be registered in his name. If anyone stole it, he could just pay a quick visit to the Guard and have them ping the serial number.

He took less than a minute to decide, eliciting a quiet sigh of relief from Famden.

"Tinkering with the enchantments voids the warranty," warned Famden as he set a crystal bell next to the wand. Then he pulled another catalog out and handed it to Fate. "Here's the rings we have. All the fire starters are the same."

The only difference between these rings was the storage space and the designs. Fate quickly settled on a regular black band with four feet of storage space cubed. They all bonded with the user, allowing only the owner to access their contents. If the owner died, that bond would disappear and someone else could bond with it.

"What are the restrictions on this one?" he asked the shopkeep.

"They can't hold life, for one. But it can hold dead things, which is why it's so small. The higher-end rings that can hold organic material and still have a lot of space are hard to make. They're Tree Grade enchants, as opposed to the Sprout one you're asking for."

Fate nodded. That made sense to him. The crystal ball was of the Sapling Grade because of the complexities of the enchantments. Folding space was unsurprisingly much easier than linking millions of crystal balls to a single network. "And the fire starter?"

"Sprout."

While the Sprout Grade was equivalent to a Journeymen, only Adepts and higher could enchant objects, due to their Mage Sense gaining properties of their Facet. That meant that most Adepts could pump out hundreds of Sprout Grade enchantments in a day for cheap, as opposed to the two or three Sapling Grade ones they'd make in that same time. It was much more efficient to make enchantments a Grade below one's Stage.

"Knives are over there, and clothes are against that wall." Famden pointed to two different locations around the store and shooed Fate away.

Fate didn't take too long to pick out a knife, either. He decided on a simple knife with a round, black wooden hilt and a three-inch blade. It came with its own sheath too, which was nice. Then he moved on to the clothes.

'None of these actually look better than what I'm wearing now,' Fate pondered. He supposed it made sense; Sergeant Beadren was a noble. While the appearance of the clothes Fate wore wouldn't suggest it, they were leagues above the clothes he was looking at now in terms of quality.

He did grab some nice brown dress shoes since his boots weren't exactly 'formal attire.' After stepping around the junk and setting the knife and the shoes on the counter, he went to the fire starters, which were piled up in a bucket on the ground. The bucket rested between a barrel full of swords and a metal pole that had both jackets and axes hanging from it, the latter held up by straps on their handles.

He kneeled down and picked one out of the bucket. True to Famden's words, they were all identical, from color to shape. Each one was a small red rod the length and width of Fate's index finger, with one end having a small hole set in the center where the fire came out.

His total came out to seven hundred and twenty-five Lights. This was when Fate realized he had truly moved up in the world. Spending in one day what you used to need seven months to earn tended to do that.

After paying Famden, Fate was told that his wand would be ready in an hour. Fate thanked the man for his time and promised to come back, storing his Academy robes and the rest of his purchases in his new storage ring, which he placed on his right middle finger, to the left of the ring that held his money.

He stepped outside, breathing in the crisp afternoon air. His enjoyment was short-lived, and he soon heard a shout down the street.

"Sisters, I found him! Our news story is over here!"

Fate turned to the noise, finding the brother of the triplets running toward him with a creepy smile on his face and a scary glint in his eye, cutting his way through the crowd. Fate, ever the pragmatic, used his Skill to sink into the ground. The brother stopped above Fate's location with a frown on his face, unaware that Fate was moving away underneath his own feet.