As I was flying back to my tower the next day, I couldn’t help but chuckle. The Bakers’ Guild, for all their normal posturing, was simply not prepared to be nominated to the duty of verifying mages’ spells to combat the coming threat to humanity. The faces of the mages when they realized who would do the recordkeeping and the faces of those recordkeepers was a treasured memory to me now.

Unlike the flight to Sena City, I wasn’t held back by the need to stop en route, nor did I spend any time rescuing lost children. I saw one bandit camp in the woods, but it might have been hunters as I didn’t look very closely. Instead, I put off enjoying the view and the wind in favor of speed to get home faster. While the bed at the Scholar’s Delight wasn’t bad, it wasn’t my own.

The summer sun was just setting as I arrived, and I landed on the top of my tower. It was the perfect time to view the sunset, and I sent a surprised guard, Tond, downstairs to fetch me some food and wine. I hoped Chelsea had cooked something that could be eaten by hand so I wouldn’t need to tear my eyes from the view of the sunset over the water.

It was only moments later that my new prospective seneschal returned with Tond, carrying a glass of very plain strawberry wine and a steaming platter of fish stew. I eyed them both with hesitation, eating and drinking sparingly as I watched the sunset.

“Lord Fargus, would you like me to report the ongoings of your estate since your departure?” Fentworth Aide asked as he stood behind me and to my right for whatever reason he chose to do so. I took the smallest sip of my wine and considered.

While I would normally be opposed to interruption while I observed my reflective lake, the quality of the fare had already disappointed me. At the moment, I just wanted to watch and then take myself to sleep in my own bed. Yet, surely, he would have waited to the morning unless he felt it was important enough. I waved for him to go on, while sparingly sipping at the wine.

The man began summarizing, “My lord, your assistants report that tracking your experiments continues as normal. Alderman Kine has reported that the village requires additional stone. We have spent thirteen silver and eight copper with the latest merchant. You have six guests that arrived claiming it was at your invitation, however, your tower’s protections would not let them enter, so we have housed them in the village until your return.”

“Guests?” I inquired.

“Yes, my lord. Mages, I believe,” Fentworth answered.

I withheld my sigh. Housing guests in a villager’s home until I returned? That was just shameful. Yet, if they were well-known, then I doubted they would have tolerated such treatment. Likely unemployed mages looking for work and thinking they could find it here. I tore my eyes from the beautiful view of the sunset to glance at him, “Any notable names?”

“Yes, sir. One [Necromancer] Pyl and a [Witch] named Loralie both claimed your personal acquaintance.”

I couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath. I knew that Pyl would arrive at some point in the future, and I had extended an invitation to Loralie, yet I hadn’t truly expected them to arrive this soon. Logically, it was a reasonable amount of time, and Pyl’s arrival would not change much of my normal routine.

Loralie’s arrival was the one that gave me pause. When I had met with her, she had frightened me. No, I wasn’t frightened of her. I was frightened of getting my hopes up. Not just a possible companion that could live to be my own age, but a possible romance that I wouldn’t have to watch wither away. Seeing something that had only been a dream of mine made real made me fearful.

What if it wasn’t meant to be? What if she hated me? What if we fell in love, or married even? Would she move in? The idea of sharing my entire tower with the woman was daunting. Or worse, sharing my laboratory! No, I couldn’t let that ever come to pass. Even in the best-case possibility, one where she was perfect in every way I could imagine, that perfection would include leaving me to my research uninterrupted.

I stroked my beard in thought. It was too early to get my hopes up. I would meet with them on the morrow and see about providing hospitality to them. Still, it was a difficult decision to go to bed now. Should they learn I had arrived and not offered better accommodations for the night, that might offend Loralie. Yet, I also didn’t want to meet with her—with them—unprepared.

I turned over the decision several more times before waving Seneshal Aide away with a command to prepare a meeting with them tomorrow at midmorning. That would give me enough time to prepare.

The next morning was busy for me. After breakfast, I went through our pantry to select what I wanted Chelsea to cook for a mid-morning snack, and brought out the bottles of wine I had purchased in Sena City to add to the stock. The shelves holding wine bottles were nearly stuffed with the new bottles, and the strawberry wine was moved to the cellar.

Afterward, I took a bath and selected the best body oils from my collection, trimmed my hair and beard, and picked out one of my best robes. It was a black robe with orange silk embroidery around the collar and sleeves. While the orange matched my eyes, none but Loralie would know that the black matched my true hair color.

The guards and assistants had also gone through quick castings of cleaning spells, and I gave the boys Rolf and Fin a task to see to the children in the village and let my guests know I was now available. I took a seat in my chair and waited impatiently for them to arrive. It wasn’t long until Seneschal Aide opened the door, leading the guests into the first floor.

“Lord Fargus, now presenting [Necromancer] Pyl, [Witch] Loralie, Fintak the [Illusionist], [Mage] Bimly, [Witch] Ninkat, and Rhela the Red.”

I stood from my seat to nod at them, and then gestured to the stools in front of me, “Welcome, please have a seat.”

Loralie was in fine form today, her illusion spell exactly as I remember. Still, after meeting with her, I had spent a few moments piecing together a bit of spellcraft that would allow me to see through her illusion easily. She hadn’t changed much at all, her golden hair only grown a knuckle or so in length. I watched as they all gathered about their chairs, each one bowing to me before taking a seat.

“Good morning, Wizard Fargus,” Loralie spoke first, “I contacted the other local spellcasters that you had told me you wanted to meet.” She said it with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. That smile was something.

I gave her my best fake smile in return. She no doubt knew I couldn't care less about these little talentless magicians. That she called them with her to meet with me, to lay bare my tiny lie was just… petty. Still, I could dance that dance, “Thank you for that. I trust you all know why I called on you?” I glanced around briefly at the others, but my eyes fell back onto Loralie quickly, “Did you see what was over the mountains?”

At my words, her pleasant smile dropped. So quick was the change it almost shocked me. The others in the room were likewise solemn in their manner in response to my question. No one spoke for a few moments until the sounds of an argument from the kitchen downstairs reached us.

“I will assume that you did, that all of you have seen it, otherwise the gravitas would be lost on you,” I said when no one spoke.

“Master Fargus,” Pyl began. “We had to combine our magics, but we did get a glimpse of what you warned us about. We are just at a loss as to, what we can—”

“I said I ain’t helpin’ ya woman! Don’t ask me no more! Why don’t you ask our boss if it’s that important!” Tond yelled loudly as he stomped up the stairs. He paused at the top, seeing me meeting with several spellcasters. I could see the realization that he’d interrupted in the widening of his eyes and he quickly and quietly made his way out the door.

“Tond, you get back here!” Chelsea shouted as she followed behind him she reached the top of the stairs and saw him slip out the door, but just stood there with her hands on her hips.

My eyes turned back to Pyl, who had also turned to watch, but now he began speaking again. “Erm, yes, we discussed the matter of this plague of beasts, but even with our skills and expertise combined we stand no match for even one, let alone—”

“Master Fargus, I have a question for you,” Chelsea stomped over, completely ignoring our ongoing meeting. Without waiting for me to respond, she started speaking, “You see Rolf is a good boy. A very good boy. And while he was down there at that village, some little hussy decided that she wanted him to be her good boy. Now he’s a talking about how she’s with child. Will ya do something?”

I looked up at her, despite the growing smirks on the spellcaster’s faces, and raised an eyebrow, “What would you have me do, Miss Chelsea?”

“Just make it go away. I’m worried about Rolf’s future. He’s too young to have a child,” She answered, leveling me with a look that told me she was serious.

“You are asking me to kill your unborn grandchild?” I asked tonelessly.

“Well, um, now that you put it like that. I ain’t about killing no babies no. But you got great magic! Can’t you just make her not have the baby for a while?”

I was confused by this question, as I don’t think I’d ever heard such a request before, “What do you mean, Miss Chelsea?”

“Oh, something like five or six years would be good, I think. Not too long, but enough time for Rolf to grow up some. I think that would be good. Eight would be too many.”

It was at that answer, the others sitting before me couldn’t withhold their laughter. Oh, they didn’t bellow obnoxiously. Truly, it looked as if they were trying to contain it, but it started with a snort, became a snicker in someone else, and a chuckle in a third. Fairly swiftly, all of them at my table showed faces full of mirth.

I don’t know how Chelsea hadn’t seen them before. Maybe she was just so focused on her problem that she hadn’t taken stock of her surroundings, but seeing them laughing at her made her face go red in embarrassment. She muttered, “I’ll-I’ll be right back with your strawberry muffins, sir.”

I wasn’t certain I had ever seen my cook move as fast as she did down the stairwell, and could only sigh and shake my head. I wasn’t certain what folktale she had heard to even imagine I claimed such magics that could delay childbirth.

After the laughter had passed, I began the discussion on what I knew of the Pestilence and what I knew could harm them. Ideas were bandied about, and we were deep in conversation when Miss Chelsea returned with several plates of hot muffins and glasses of wine.

My seneschal stood behind her with arms folded looking none too happy. I imagine he had borne witness to the entire foolish questioning and had discussed the matter thoroughly with the woman. The conversation lasted well into and after lunch and only when the sun was setting did the spellcasters agree on different plans for things they could help with.

Fintak the Illusionist, a short man with short hair and a round body, though he wore an illusion of a man with a warrior’s body, agreed to learn my illusionary rabbit spells and begin enchanting gemstones with it.

Rhela the Red was a woman that was young and opinionated. She practiced illegal charm magic that had gotten her barred from polite society, but not at the skill level that would make her able to cast either of the spells I had constructed. I’d gotten her to see the value of my assistants’ animal-bonding spell, and she agreed to work with them to further their research. Honestly, that was something just to keep her busy as I worried she might accidentally sabotage our efforts otherwise.

Bimly was a normal-looking man with brown hair and eyes, and had the scarred hands of a craftsman. He was some type of unique class magic user that focused on carving totems. He wasn’t proficient in any other magic type, and the totems he carved seemed of limited value to me, but I promised him an unlimited supply of timber to see if he could find anything at all in his class that might help.

Pyl the [Necromancer], and the [Witches] Ninkat and Loralie had discussed the possibilities of using summoned spirits of the dead to combat the Pestilence. While I wasn’t certain it would work, I thought it held the best merits of any of the other options, as the Pestilence didn’t seem to have much in the way of the magical attacks needed to harm a spirit.

With an agreement on their contributions in place, I bid them farewell. I’d promised to have my assistants construct another tower nearby they could work from and sleep at but made no promises on the location or type.

I made my way to the top of my tower to watch the sunset and consider the day’s events. Loralie had said nothing specifically to me the entire day beyond the topic of the Pestilence. Not a hint of the flirting woman I had met in the forest, no smile or wink. While a part of me hoped that she would have, another felt a massive relief that she hadn’t.

The new wine, a tart blueberry wine, went well with the summer’s thick heat this evening. While I watched the sunset, my mind drifted elsewhere. My hopes and fears fought battles around and amongst my plans and dreams for the future.