9. Punitive Measures

“A lot of the work involved in enchanting is figuring out the shapes the magic wants to take. You use your own magic to bind it, so you’ll be using the shapes your magic prefers assuming you aren’t trying anything particularly insane. Being able to recognize the shapes is mostly a case of practice, I’m sure just by using magic you’ve felt the shapes your magic takes at least somewhat instinctively, but it takes a decent bit of practice to convey them properly.” It wouldn’t be that bad if I did get an apprentice, there’s a bit of fun explaining the intricacies of enchanting to someone. That being said, Willard’s definitely a bit lost already. It’s not really a worry, I’d really rather explain the whole thing once before looping back to questions. “Once you have the shapes down then you just need to carve the shapes into the material before feeling how your magic handles the shapes you’ve made, adjusting the shapes, then repeating until you’ve got it right. Once that’s done, push your magic into the initial shape inside the area you’ve carved, apply the material, then overlay your shaped magic onto the material. Oh, and if you do something wrong it can explode.”

That definitely gets his attention. “It’s … not going to explode now is it?”

I probably don’t know him well enough to scare him … oh well. “No, even if I were vastly less competent than I am now, and messed it up that much, material’s a big consideration too. Steel-leaf for instance, won’t explode, it’ll just warp the dagger a bit, or leave weak-spots in the blade. My magic’s even less dangerous, at worst it’ll just look like it exploded, it won’t actually do anything.”

That calms him down a bit. “That makes sense … so you just carve symbols into metal? It sounds … more than a bit dull. No offense intended of course.”

I shrug. “I get told that a lot. The joy’s in the creation, and it’s admittedly a lot more fun making something for yourself since you can tweak the design as you go, and really get a feel for the different ways to get the materials at hand to work for you. I’d offer to let you try one, but I don’t have the right materials at hand, generally you want to use something soft as your first base, and a magical material that works like my magic, where even an explosion wouldn’t hurt.”

He thinks for a second. “I didn’t even know you could enchant something that soft, doesn’t the shape … collapse.”

I nod. “Smart. It does, but it’s fine for practice either way. It’s also slower to collapse if you're using a harmless magic like illusions or resilience since the magic’s not actively harming the medium. That being said, you’ve seen me make liquids before, there are modifications to the process to use slightly more … fluid mediums.” I smile a bit at the pun.

“Wait … how can you make liquid life? I thought the church banned any materials that could be used to enchant with light magic. Doesn’t that have light magic?”

Hmm, maybe he would make a good enchanter, he at least asks the right questions. “You’re not wrong, it’s really a matter of quantity. The materials for liquid life have such a tiny amount of life magic that you normally wouldn’t be able to do anything with it, but if you mix in plants used to enhance magic in the consumer it boosts the power of the life magic since whoever’s drinking it is technically the one casting the magic at the second of consumption. If you ever wondered why liquid life is so expensive it’s all the workarounds that go into making it to avoid using too much light magic. Of course if you have light magic yourself all that’s redundant, just infuse it with your own magic.”

He seems to realize something and stares at the bottles I gave him. “Aren’t the plants that even briefly boost magic incredibly poisonous to eat?”

I tap the side of my nose. “Exactly, and that’s why you only put them into a potion that’s already going to heal you, otherwise they’d be incredibly dangerous. Personally I find it a rather neat trick, although everyone else finds it creepy.”

He just shakes his head as I start carving into the knife. “Maybe this isn’t the job for me … it’s still quite interesting to watch though, a bit hypnotic in its own way.”

I shrug. “It’s not for everyone, I wouldn’t have even started it if I had a choice, but it’s a lot more enjoyable than I expected, and now I’d rather do it than normal adventuring. Not that I’ll exactly have a choice soon.”

He nods, about to say something before I’m interrupted by a loud knock at the front door and the voice of the guild master shouting through it. “Jezebel, are you in there? We need to talk about something.” He sounds angry.

Willard looks a bit nervous too, not that I can blame him. “Should I hide somewhere? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

Probably … I really don’t want to explain that part of things at the moment. “Just hide in that corner over there and don’t make a sound. I’ll just put up an illusion.”

He runs over to the corner, and I create an illusory work table over him before turning back towards the front door. “One second I’ll be right there.”

When I open the front door the Guild Master isn’t alone, the barbarian looking guy is also there. Before I can ask what the issue is, the Guild Master cuts in. “I believe I specifically instructed you to cease sales immediately didn’t I?”

I … see. “You did say that you were ending my employment as a guild artisan. I …”

He cuts me off. “So imagine my irritation to learn you have not just made a sale, but substantially overcharged a fellow guild member.”

What? I certainly didn’t overcharge him, he overcharged himself. “I …”

He cuts me off again. “No excuses, I know the new law hasn’t come into effect yet, but this is still a grave violation of guild policy. Consider this your first and only warning, now please return this gentleman’s thirty gold, and while you’re at it kindly submit the illicitly made liquid life.”

It was twenty gold, not thirty, but beyond all that. “I …”

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He cuts me off again. “First and only warning. If anything like this happens again you’ll be thrown out of the guild in disgrace. Do we have an understanding?”

I really want to argue, but I really shouldn’t. Instead my customer service mask comes to me almost unbidden. “Yes sir, sorry sir.”

He at least calms down. “That’s better, the sooner we put this unpleasantness behind us the better.”

“Of course sir.” I turn and go into the back room, I collect together thirty gold, and the last liquid life. I can only justify a few seconds, but I weave a simple illusion around myself, one that silences every sound I make. Then I scream as loudly and angrily as I can. I take a few deep breaths, dismiss the illusion, and bring everything back to the storefront.

I hand everything to the Guild Master who looks at me with sympathy. I’m not sure I really believe it’s real though right now. “I hope you know I don’t like doing this, but rules have to be upheld. A single broken rule unpunished will always lead to another, then another. Before you know it you’re helping Dark Mages. It’s a path I’ve seen far too many fall down, and I have no interest in letting another member of our little family make the same mistakes again. I hope you’ve learned a valuable lesson.”

I nod, my eyes are slightly blurry in raw anger, and I don’t trust my voice to respond verbally. Luckily he seemed to be fine with just a nod. “Good. I sincerely hope we won’t have to have this sort of conversation again.” He turns on his heel and leaves as the barbarian looking guy leaves behind him. I don’t even know why he was here unless it was just to counter any arguments I had. I close the door behind them, silence myself again, and scream once more.

It takes me a few seconds to remember that I still had a visitor in the other room. I brush the hair out of my eyes, and walk back into the back room before dismissing the illusion. Willard’s still crouching there, looking even more out of place than usual. Once he sees the illusion dissipate he stands up, and brushes himself off. “I … should probably wait a bit before sneaking out. Though I understand if you have a different preference given everything …” He trails off.

I take a second to clear my head and try to let my range simmer down. I’ve always been bad at reigning in my anger, but it doesn’t have an outlet right now, I shouldn’t waste energy on it. “I’ll still finish what I promised you. I do have standards … and it’ll probably be the last job I can do, so …”

He gives me a pitying look that makes me briefly consider punching him in the face. “Can I ask you something somewhat personal?”

I really need to punch something. In lieu of that I walk past him and pick up my tools and one of my spare rocks. “Sure, go ahead.” I start cutting into the rock, I’ll make it so that it looks like a striking serpent while thrown.

He watches me cutting into the rock with vigor. “Actually, first … just to be sure, you’re not about to blow something up are you?” I seriously consider hucking the rock at his head, but just for a second. Carving this thing had better calm me down.

“I’m using my own magic, the worst it can do is startle you. I’m also not incompetent enough to mess it up that badly even right now.” I finish chipping a circle into the rock, and start adding the details. It's a trivially simple design, but it gets my hands moving.

“I see … well … Why do you work for this guild? I heard your … conversation through the door, and saw whatever that half a scream was and … I don’t get the impression you get along with them well. They’re also the ones making you go adventuring, I’m sure there’s other ways you could make money. You have magic and all.”

That hits a nerve. I spin towards him and with a hint of magic hurl a rock at his face. As a reaction he goes to catch it, but the illusion sails right through where he’d reached. “Yeah, I’ve got great magic there. If I really try I can even spook someone. I can’t protect people, I can’t fight monsters, maybe I’ll get really desperate and become an assassin, but with how many ways people can see through illusions I’d probably just fail the first time I try that too. I’m good at exactly one thing, and it’s something anyone with magic could do if they had nothing better to do. This guild is the only place where I’ve ever been able to make a living, and that’s already after they literally saved my life!” This rock isn’t really helping me calm down. Well either that or it’s only really helping a bit. Shouting however did help a bit … even if it was probably a bad idea.

Willard takes a few seconds just staring at me before he recovers. “I see … Well, I probably don’t, but … well look. If you were say … a light mage, but you were still allowed to create magical items would you still work here?”

I’m really not in the mood for hypotheticals but whatever. If I were a light mage. “Your point’s flawed, if I were a light mage the church would decide what I did with it. Any power that’s not absolute is going to be limiting in its own right. Ignoring that … I think so. I’d be able to make liquid life with barely a thought which would cut out the worst parts of my old job. I do enjoy making other things, liquid life is just such a tedium.” The rock’s coming along nicely, it’s a hair slapdash, but that would still put it well above functional.

He nods. “And if it was just your guild who said you couldn’t craft things would you work for another guild or do what you’re doing now?”

I have to give that one a bit of thought. “I … no idea. My instinct would be to keep working for my guild, but do jobs somewhere else and just bring the money back. That’s just theoretical though.”

He seems to think about that. “I still don’t see why you’re so attached to this specific guild, if that wasn’t the case it would be so much easier.”

What is he even talking about? What would be easier? “They literally saved my life when I was younger, what more reason for ‘attachment’ do you want?”

He shrugs at that and I consider throwing the rock for real this time. “Most parents I’ve seen have kept their kids alive, that doesn’t mean a living person can’t have awful parents. Still, I won’t push the issue …”

Ok … I’m pretty sure his metaphor’s still terrible … pretty sure. “This wasn’t some sort of recruiting pitch was it?”

That startles him. “No? I’m trying to be nice … poorly it would seem, but that was the intent. Though there is one last point I want to emphasize. What if the people who rescued you were Dark Mages?”

That … I’m really not in the mood for hypotheticals. “I have no idea, what if the actions of Light and Dark Mages were switched towards you? Would you be obsessed with fighting Light Mages?” As soon as I say that I feel a bit bad … that was probably a bit much.

… except he actually seems amused by it. “Fair point, yes I would. It’s not what I was trying to say but a reasonable point nonetheless, if your guild is going to act like that towards you it doesn’t matter whether or not they’re Dark Mages. How far are you willing to let things go?”

I finish the carving, and slap some magic into the rock. A quick toss into the air, and it shifts into a snake before shifting back once I’ve caught it. There’s a lot more I could do with it to make it more stable, but it’s nice to have done. “I’ll keep it in mind. For now though I’m going to get back to your knife. I don’t really mind if you want to stay and watch, or I can just sneak you out.”

He seems to think about it. “I’ll head out tonight … although we should talk about this again … at some point.”

I pick up his knife and flip it in my hand to look at where I was working on it last. “Fine, just not today.”

He gives me an attempt at a kind smile that at least doesn’t make me want to punch him again. We’ll call that progress. “Deal.”