Asher grumbled to himself as he walked down the palace halls, already resigned to his fate. The only way his team was going to get the artifacts critical for them to actually survive a fight against the greater demons was if he asked Richard for help, but he knew trying to get something out of the wizard for nothing in return would be all but impossible. Richard had been trying to steal him away for the last week, constantly popping up when he was least expected and needling Asher for a few hours of his time. Asher probably would have just given in and helped the man with whatever he wanted by now, except…

  Richard was a real piece of work.

  The wizard for the Noala Kingdom was stuck up, arrogant, and cared little for what others thought. It was perfectly clear that nobody else's opinion mattered to him in the slightest, and that he’d do pretty much what he wanted, when he wanted. Because of that, the few interactions Asher had had with the man hadn’t exactly been pleasant ones. In fact, he had a strong suspicion the only reason Richard hadn’t attempted to straight up kidnap him and force him to let the wizard study his elements was due to Donvath. The High Prince appeared to be the only one Richard would actually listen to, and as per usual, Donvath was busy running the entire kingdom.

  The irony of a man with a Time element never having any actual free time never failed to make Asher chuckle.

  But without Donvath to rely on, it was up to Asher to strike some sort of deal with Richard. He needed those artifacts enchanted, and hopefully, Richard would just ask him to stand there and show off one or two of his skills repeatedly for him in exchange. Asher didn’t know how exactly a wizard went about copying skills, but he figured it couldn’t be much more involved than that.

  Eventually, his slow walk brought him to its destination, and Asher found himself standing before a grand door with ornate, golden gilding and a series of complex runes running up one side and down the other. According to his Identify, the door wasn’t actually enchanted, which meant that Richard was just showing off. With a sigh, Asher reached out and knocked.

  “Unless you’re Donvath, go away!” Richard’s voice shouted back from the other side, sounding like he was out of breath.

  “It’s me, Richard,” Asher said, already regretting this before he’d even set foot in the room. “I need your help with something.”

  A few seconds of silence passed, before the fancy door was flung open, revealing a grinning Richard wearing some sort of fluffy bathrobe. Other than the bathrobe, the elderly man looked nearly identical to the last time Asher had seen him. His long, tangled gray hair dangled down to his hip, and even while the man was smiling, the lines on his face from his near-permanent frown were as prominent as ever.

  “Asher! My, what a pleasant surprise! After you insulted me to my face time and time again by refusing to help me and therefore the Noala Kingdom by adding to my already impressive reservoir of skills, I thought I’d never get you here!”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t make time to help,” Asher said through gritted teeth. “Having just added another member to our team, all our focus this last week has been training to work together.”

  “No need for excuses, they won’t do you any good anyway,” Richard said, chuckling to himself as he turned and walked further into his room. Asher followed him in, jumping only slightly when the fancy door slammed shut behind him all on its own. “Tea, perhaps?”

  “Uh, thanks,” Asher said, staring at the floating kettle and cups as they shot out from another room and drifted over to them before he’d even answered. As though held by an invisible butler, the kettle tipped over and poured flawlessly into the two cups, shooting away the moment they were filled. Snatching his out of the air, Asher sipped from it as he looked around. He’d never been in Richard’s actual room before, and he’d wondered what sort of magical marvels and strange sights it would contain.

  The answer was he had no idea.

  Try as he might, Asher wasn’t able to actually make out anything along the walls of the room. The center was largely empty, save for a luxurious couch in the shape of a ring and a small table in the direct center, but he could tell that there were plenty of things pressed up against the walls of the room. Yet despite his best efforts, it was as if those things remained blurry and misshapen. As though they were hiding in the corner of his unfocused eye, rather than being stared directly at.

  “Ah, you like my protective measures?” Richard asked, snickering as he watched Asher squint and try to look around. “Any wizard worth their salt takes steps to keep their work and study from being discovered. The preferred route is keeping one’s workshop hidden and far away, but seeing as I’m based out of the royal palace, I had to get creative. It’s a skill from the Eye element. It bends and distorts the vision of anyone attempting to sneak a peek at my research.”

  “Isn’t the royal palace already secure enough?” Asher asked, rubbing his watering eyes as he gave up on looking around the room.

  “Hardly. There are a handful of trainee wizards who would kill to get their hands on what I know,” Richard grumbled, draining his tea cup in an instant and throwing it back behind his head. Rather than hit the ground and shatter, the cup instead shot away in the same direction as the kettle. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you’re here and what you want? Then I’ll tell you just how much it’s going to cost you.”

  “I know you talk to Donvath rather frequently. You do realize what my team and I are doing is going to better not only the Noala Kingdom, but the entire continent as a whole if we’re successful, right?”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “You think I give a damn about any of that?” Richard asked, snorting as he flopped himself down onto his strange couch. “Let me tell you something. Do you understand just how much effort goes into becoming a wizard?”

  “I’d imagine a lot,” Asher admitted, deciding buttering Richard up couldn’t possibly hurt at this point as he sat across from him. “Years of study… Countless sleepless nights… It couldn’t have been easy.”

  “Try decades of study. Weeks at a time without sleep,” Richard corrected. “It is no exaggeration to say there is nothing harder in this world than learning how to harness one’s tritessense without the internal framework provided by skills. It is why wizards are awarded the title of national asset; we are truly irreplaceable. After devoting the vast majority of my life studying to be where I am today, there is one thing, and one thing alone I care about. Me.”

  Of course that would be the case…

  “Alright, let’s not waste any more time in that case,” Asher said, deciding there was no getting out of this without giving up something in return. It was clear their quest to rid the world of The Council of Death meant practically nothing to Richard, who wanted little more than to live out the remainder of his life in luxury. “I need your help to make sure my team and I don’t all just die facing off against the greater demons. What would you like in exchange for enchanting these two rings to give the wearer the ability to see partially into the realm of ages?” he asked, pulling the rings Opal had given him out of his Personal Rift and placing them on the table between them.

  “To clarify, you desire my help to enchant something nobody else in this entire kingdom is capable of doing,” Richard grinned, snatching up the rings and peering more closely at them. “Even I’ll admit the craftsmanship for these vessels isn’t too shoddy, so I suppose it would be a simple enough measure to devote some of my treasured tritessence to enchanting the rings for you. I’ve performed such enchantments before, so it would be a trivial task for me.”

  “That’s fantastic, thank goodness the people of this kingdom have such a powerful and talented wizard to count on,” Asher said, doing his best to look impressed. “In that case, you can finish the artifacts, and I’ll be out of your hair before you know it.”

  “Hah!” Richard laughed, tossing the rings back onto the table without care, like they were ordinary rocks. “No, it’s not going to be that simple. I’ve been trying to get your assistance with replicating your skills for a whole week now. As a national asset of this kingdom, I do not appreciate being told ‘no,’ or kept waiting.”

  “You do realize I’m also a national asset, right?” Asher reminded him. “Technically, the two of us are the same in rank, or however this works.”

  “Hardly,” Richard snorted. “I assist the High Prince and his truthseekers whenever they come across a problem they cannot solve on their own. What have you done?”

  “I’ve only been on this world for a few months, and in that time, I’ve literally taken out two of the Fingers from the Assassin’s Guild plaguing this kingdom! And I’m currently trying to wipe out The Council of Death!” Asher all but shouted, barely able to believe Richard's audacity. “I killed a greater demon that was about to slaughter its way through the children in the royal guard academy!”

  “Bah, I’ll give you the Fingers… but that greater demon was only even here in the first place because of you,” Richard reminded him, snatching some of that wind from his sails. “Anyway, we are getting off track. I was in the middle of something before you showed up, and I wish to get back to it, so let’s make this quick. I’ll enchant your artifacts for you, but in exchange-”

  “You want to copy some of my skills, I know,” Asher drawled.

  “In exchange,” Richard all but snarled, clearly not a fan of being spoken over. Pausing to take a deep breath, he seemed to collect himself, before giving Asher a smile that was far too sweet. “…I desire your assistance with collecting something for me. I can work on learning your skills anytime, but this is a matter that is a tad more time sensitive. I’d go myself, but it is quite the trip, and my tritessence stores will be run nearly dry after casting this magic. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help out?”

  “Alright, I’ll fetch your magical laundry or whatever the hell it is you have in mind,” Asher said, pleased at the very least he didn’t need to keep trying to pretend he could actually stand Richard. “What am I looking for?”

  “Ideally an egg,” Richard said, his face scrunching up in thought. “Or a pod, perhaps? No, it’ll probably be an egg. Yes, bring me back an egg.”

  “…An egg?” Asher repeated, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how to tell you this, but you do realize you could walk on down to the kitchens and snag a few hundred eggs, right?”

  “Wow, are you sure you’re not a court wizard yourself? What intelligence! What savvy!” Richard scoffed, looking at him like he was an idiot before tossing something at him. Asher snatched it out of the air, blinking as he looked at the blank-faced stopwatch. It was little more than a circle with a button on the top, but his Identify helped him figure out its purpose.

  [Signal of Notification (Bound)] - Notifies the bound person when pressed.

  “You can use that to let me know when you need me to bring you back,” Richard explained, getting to his feet and moving behind the couch. Holding out his hands in front of him, Richard’s face scrunched up again as he began concentrating. “I’ll need about an hour to replenish my tritessence stores enough to create another portal to retrieve you, however, so don’t waste your time pressing it until after that.”

  “Portal?” Asher asked, blinking as he realized the air was somehow being energized, almost like there was crackling static electricity all around him. A glance down at the ground revealed previously hidden runes around the circular couch that were now glowing with vibrant violet light, and he jumped up to his feet. Richard hadn’t needed to use a portal when he’d teleported them all across the capital a few weeks back. “Wait, where the hell are you sending me?!”

  “I thought that would be obvious!” Richard laughed, the energy swirling around Asher as the wizard began to sweat and the violet lights grew so bright they were nearly blinding. Asher felt a massive force latch onto not only his physical form, but his very soul, ripping the two away from the material realm with a violent jerk. The last thing he heard before being hurled through space was Richard’s parting words as the man continued laughing.

  “You’re a realm wanderer, right? Time to wander!”

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