Though Sulaiman was unsteady as he pushed himself to his feet, he insisted on walking under his own power.

"Keep an eye on the surroundings," Sulaiman said, pushing away Illnyea's hands when she tried to shoulder some of his weight. "There may still be some of those blights around and you need to stay alert."

"Then I'll help you," Kavil said, wrapping an arm around Sulaiman before the other man could protest. Sulaiman narrowed his eyes at Kavil, but Kavil jutted his chin out stubbornly. "I'm no use in a fight, and, as your healer, I think it's plain stupid to risk collapsing when help is readily available."

Sulaiman looked away first, lips pursed unhappily, and it was clear that Kavil had won the battle of wills.

They pushed forth slowly with Priscilla and Illnyea on high alert, pausing at every rustle in the forest ahead of them. Despite Sulaiman's worries, they didn't encounter any more blights on their way back to Caershire. Priscilla suspected that if there were more blights in the forest, that they would have attacked them to get at the magical gem in Illnyea's pack by now.

The villagers awaited their return anxiously, standing on the other side of the wall of fire. When Priscilla raised her hand in greeting, Caershire burst into cheers.

"We saw the smoke," a villager said, "but we were worried that maybe the blights got you."

"Sulaiman made sure that every last one of them were burnt to a crisp," Kavil said with a grin, staring up at Sulaiman, "draining nearly every last drop of magic from his body.

The villagers began to lavish Sulaiman with their thanks, tension draining from their body as they began to discard their torches. Sulaiman looked uncomfortable as people looked at him with stars in their eyes, but he was trapped by Kavil's grip.

Priscilla smiled as she saw the red spread across Sulaiman's cheeks as he mumbled, "You – you don't need to say that, truly, it wasn't that hard, just required a bit of concentration."

Caershire showed their gratitude with a glorious amount of cheese wheels, insisting Priscilla and her friends sample them all so they could ensure to give them only their favorites. Kavil bartered with them, saying that he'd only try their cheese if they allowed him to give them a brief medical examination to make sure that their lungs hadn't been permanently affected by the smoke. His bargain charmed the socks off the older ladies in the village, and Priscilla chuckled as the woman pinched his cheeks and told him to stay out of the rain, so he didn't melt because he was so sweet.

Priscilla's favorite ended up being a sharp cheddar given to her by a solemn-looking ten-year-old. When she told him, he cracked a smile and then shoved three wheels of cheese quickly into her arms before running back to his parents. She deposited them in their carriage with dreams of indulging in the future.

Illnyea had put on a smile when she talked to the thankful villagers, but Priscilla saw the way Illnyea's fingers tapped against her arm with antsy energy, the way that Illnyea's gaze kept drifting to her coat and then to Arnold, who was enjoying the array of cheeses.

Priscilla begged for a moment of privacy with her friends to decompress, and extricated herself from the conversation she was in.

"Hey old man," Priscilla said, snagging Arnold's sleeve, "we've got a couple questions for you."

Arnold pulled his arm out of Priscilla's grasp, raising a pointed eyebrow. "And what are they?"

"The type that only an enchanter might be able to answer," Priscilla said. Arnold looked intrigued and collected his goggles and bag before he and Mr. Ordan followed Priscilla as she met up with her friends in Isran's house, as the man graciously offered the use of it.

Illnyea placed her coat in the center of the table as everyone settled into chairs. Perry sat up in Mr. Ordan's arms, the platypus's gaze fixed on where the gem was like he could sense the malice that dripped off it. Priscilla felt like the magic that pulsed from the gem had almost grown stronger since Illnyea fished it out of the ashes, but Priscilla wasn't sure if that was just her imagination or if now that the gem was no longer empowering the blight, it had started to regenerate its own magic.

"We found this within a cluster of blights that was far bigger than anything recorded," Priscilla said as Illnyea carefully pulled the coat back to expose the purple gem.

"The elemental in Crystal Falls also had one that looked similar to this," Illnyea said quietly, her gold eyes locked on the gem like she hoped her gaze might make it shatter. "It had fused with the elemental's core."

Arnold hummed with interest, leaning in to examine the gem with an expression that said he was ready to dive into this puzzle. He pulled on a thick pair of gloves before he plucked the gem from the coat and held it up to the light. Priscilla tilted her head, squinting at it as she tried to figure out what her subconscious was telling her was wrong with it beyond the foul magic.

"Light doesn't refract normally through this," Arnold said, his tone thoughtful as he turned the gem slowly. "I would guess that's probably due to the density of magic – see here?"

He tilted it so that Illnyea could get a better look. She squinted, her nose wrinkling as she tried to see what Arnold was pointing out.

"This shimmer just under the crystal's surface is an indication that someone has meticulously layered magic over and over within this gem," Arnold continued, "creating paper thin layers so they could ensure they packed in the maximum amount of power within this."

"What type of gem do you think it is?" Illnyea asked.

"What type do you think it is?" Arnold said, reversing the question with a raised eyebrow. Illnyea looked irritated but looked at it again.

"My guess is amethyst or sugilite," Illnyea said, "but I'm not an expert in gems."

"Those aren't bad guesses, brat, but this is purple tourmaline," Arnold said. "It's rare to get your hands on a chunk this big, but it's popular with enchanters as it has the nickname 'the stone of manifestation' because it enhances any enchantment you place upon it."

"Can you tell what the enchantment is supposed to do?" Priscilla asked, lacing her fingers together.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Arnold put on his goggles, twisting a knob on the side that made the lenses shimmer as he examined the gem. He was quiet as he turned it in his hand once more, and his mouth pulled into a severe frown the longer he stared. Slowly, he kept turning the gem in his hand, not saying a single word.

When a full two minutes went by without anyone breaking the silence, Mr. Ordan cleared his throat.

"Arnold," he said, "is something wrong?"

Arnold put the gem down very slowly, with much more care than he had picked it up. He pushed up his goggles with the back of his hand, exposing flinty green eyes.

"You said this was within a cluster of blights," Arnold said with an edge to his normally flippant voice, "and another within an elemental?"

Unsure what had spooked Arnold, Priscilla nodded alongside her friends.

Arnold let out a long, slow breath like he was doing his best to remain calm though his fists were clenched so tight the leather creaked.

"The enchantment on this is one I've never seen before," Arnold said, his words clipped, "nor do I recognize the maker's mark, but what I do know is that the basis of the enchantment is one of manipulation. Any creature who comes into contact with it will feel a compulsion to use the power stored within it, and the second layer of the enchantment is one based in violence – the more they draw upon the power, the stronger the urge to kill humans grow. There's a few more layers to this fucking thing, but I'll have to spend more time with this travesty to figure it out, and until then, none of you are to touch it."

The silence was resounding as everyone processed the information. Priscilla had guessed that anything the cult touched was obviously bad fucking news, but she had thought it was just a power source – not a vessel for goddamned mind control. It made sense, however, considering that in TDE, Asha had been the way that the cult leader took control of the original Priscilla.

"I have the shards from the first one I shattered in my bag," Illnyea said, her face pale. "Do you—"

"Bring them to me," Arnold said, his voice sharp enough to cut steel, "and tomorrow we're going to have a long talk about keeping dangerous secrets from your master, Illnyea."

Illnyea flinched and fled through the door.

Priscilla thought Arnold's words were unfair and that Illnyea didn't need a lecture, and leaned forward to say so, but Sulaiman's hand on her arm stopped her. Sulaiman shook his head minutely, like he knew what she was about to say, and Priscilla unhappily sat back to wait for Illnyea to return.

"This is what we collected," Illnyea said as she handed over the bag.

Arnold carefully poured the bag out, careful to keep the shards away from the intact gem and then pulled his goggles down. He picked up each shard in turn, and the silence was tense as he examined it.

"I believe," Arnold began as he put the last shard down and pushed the goggles back up, "that when you broke the gem, the enchantment was dissolved. However –" Arnold glanced sharply at Illnyea and then the others in turn, "– the power that was imbued within it is still there, so these need to be handled with care until they can be purified because the magic within this is nasty as shit."

Illnyea nodded solemnly, biting her lip before saying, "If they can be purified, does that mean they can be used to power artifacts?"

Arnold stared at Illnyea for a long moment with his eyebrow an unhappy, bushy line across his face before some of the harshness bled out of him.

"You are correct, brat," Arnold said, a grudging sort of pride in his voice. "You need to learn more about theory first, but with the amount of magic you can sling around, I think you can do it – but!" Arnold pointed at Illnyea. "Only if I am supervising you because there are a hundred ways it can go wrong up to and including causing an explosion that kills us all."

Illnyea seemed almost pleased to be scolded as she nodded again, though Priscilla thought she still had a bit of an aura of a kicked puppy.

Arnold exchanged a loaded glance with Mr. Ordan, communicating something before Arnold said, "Any other dangerous magical artifacts you guys are hiding?"

Priscilla kept perfectly still, the weight of Asha heavy on her hand and her heart in her throat. She had never explained more about Asha's existence, and she had got Asha under rather suspicious circumstances.

But none of her friends so much as glanced at her, just shaking their heads.

"No?" Arnold said. "Then I'm going to spend the foreseeable future untangling these enchantments in an attempt to reverse engineer the enchanter's process so I can figure what twisted fuck created it."

Arnold swept the shards into the bag and then carefully scooted the gem into his work bag before he left the room, glaring at the gem all the while.

"Did any of you injure yourself while fighting blights?" Mr. Ordan asked.

"Nothing that sleep won't treat," Kavil said.

"Then, I suggest we rest for the day," Mr. Ordan said and placed Perry onto the table. "I assume we'll be on the road again tomorrow, so take this time to relax and recover."

With a nod, Mr. Ordan followed after Arnold, leaving them alone.

"Well," Kavil said into the silence, "does anyone want to play Drake's Hoard? We'll have to move Perry, but this table will work."

Perry sent Kavil a sassy look and then turned up his bill in affront at the mere suggestion of moving him.

Illnyea laughed as she pulled Perry off the table and into her lap. "That sounds like a good idea to me."

The last of the tension in Priscilla's shoulders dissolved at her sister's laughter and she smiled. Though she still didn't like the game, it was slowly growing on her in the way mold does bread.

"I'm going to fucking destroy you," Priscilla declared as she glanced at Sulaiman.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'd like to see you try."

It was easy to lose herself within the rhythm of playing Drake's Hoard, easy to talk shit and play dirty and ruin Sulaiman's chances of winning. Sulaiman's face was stuck in a permanent scowl while Illnyea and Kavil laughed at Priscilla's cries of triumph as she repeatedly stole victory from his grasp.

They played two rounds (with Illnyea and Kavil winning respectively) before they discussed their plans for the immediate future.

"The city of Roydorn is on the way to the capital, about a week and a half of traveling from here if we go on a direct route on the rougher trails," Priscilla said, recalling her mental map, "more like two weeks if we stick to the main roads. But we should stop there for two reasons: the first is that we have to turn in the bounties we've completed with the adventurer's guild, and the second is that we are obligated to be tourists because Roydorn is known as the city of art."

"I want to go to the opera," Illnyea said with a wide smile as she gathered up the cards. "I've heard they infuse magic into their performances and it's absolutely breathtaking."

Kavil glanced at Sulaiman with a thoughtful expression before looking at Illnyea. "I think that could be fun. What do you think, Sulaiman?"

Sulaiman tapped a finger against his bicep, tilting his head as he thought. He didn't seem particularly enthused about the idea, but he didn't seem repulsed by it either, teetering on the edge.

"It sounds like the perfect excuse to dress all of you up," Priscilla said, smiling when Sulaiman sent her a startled glance, "and go out to a fancy dinner."

Sulaiman frowned. "Must we waste money on such things?"

"Don't worry about the gold," Priscilla said. "We've spent nothing since leaving Meadowyar, so it's all been accumulating in my account, waiting for us to spend it. Plus, I know that Roydorn is on the edge of a large freshwater lake that is sure to have crab, so we can feast like kings."

"I suppose that wouldn't be terrible," Sulaiman said slowly.

"Maybe we can get a private table," Kavil said, eyes sparkling, "with a view of the water!"

That suggestion seemed to ease Sulaiman's reservation and soon they were talking about what else they would like to do in Roydorn. Mr. Ordan returned and they roped him into the conversation as well, as the former butler had actually been to the city and could help focus their plans.

Priscilla fell asleep that night with half-formed visions of what outfits she wanted to put her friends in, and excitement built within her as she looked forward to visiting Roydorn.

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