Rill and Tavi have been in a relationship for fifteen years, ten of which as a happily married couple. Rill is an extremely accomplished swordsman and Tavi a Master Wizard, so their duties for the crown and the Wizard’s Tower take up much of their day. Eking out time to be together is therefore always a challenge, one they embrace wholeheartedly. Except, despite all their careful attempts, their plans somehow always get derailed.
When they're sent out on a retrieval mission to obtain a mysterious artifact and then invited to a fancy dinner later that evening, they are forced to rearrange their plans yet again. They soon learn the artifact is not what it seems, and neither is the dinner, and dealing with the ensuing problems must come first. Finding time might just be impossible, no matter how hard Rill and Tavi try.
“You think this is real?” Rill asked, holding out the coronet for Tavi to see.
Tavi hummed for a moment and then reached out to tap one of the red stones, which immediately flashed. “It's real, and I'm thinking you found the crown equivalent of the Lost Grimoire. I'd say someone probably found it in one of the ruins in the mountains and sold it to her, and then it vanished in this mire. It's at least six hundred years old.”
“You think Russel would like it? His birthday's coming up,” Rill asked. “I'll have the jeweler clean it up first, of course.”
“A six-hundred-year-old coronet? Your brother would love it. Let's go back to the counter to wait. The safe has to be open by now.”
They managed to return to the counter without knocking anything over. Ms. Laura wasn't back yet, so Rill placed the coronet on the counter while they waited. She finally reemerged a few minutes later, carrying what appeared to be an old, torn and dirty shirt wrapped around something.
“A moron thought he knew better and ignored all the signs,” she said as soon as she saw they were waiting. “Went hiking last week and spent two miserable days drowning in one of the big storms that like to come through this time of year. We really have totally unpredictable weather.” She placed the shirt on the counter next to the coronet and started unwrapping it. “They say it's because of magical residue in the mountains, that these storms can hit in the middle of a sunny day, and then it'll rain and thunder for days. Somehow that hiker survived and once the weather started to clear made the smart decision to head on back to town. Except, there's a big river about a half-day's walk into the mountains and he was on the other side when the storm hit.”
As she spoke, she slowly unwrapped the shirt, as if drawing out the suspense by incrementally removing each layer of cloth would make whatever was inside that much more amazing.
“The bridge washed out in the flooding and the water was moving too quickly to ford, so he couldn’t get back across. Instead of waiting safe on the far bank like an intelligent person, our moron decided to try to find a different way across. He ended up heading deeper into the mountains, well away from any of the marked paths or any hope of rescue. Two days later another storm hit, except this time he found a cave to shelter in. Luckily for him, the bear that had used the cave to hibernate in all winter had already vacated. Since he was stuck there for yet another two days, he decided to explore. He said he found this rolled into a crevasse at the very back of the cave, and when he saw what it was, he immediately packed up. He somehow retraced his steps back to the river. By that point the rescue crew had been out after him and built a temporary bridge. They found him and brought him back across, and he came straight from the mountain to my shop.
“And when I saw what he was holding, I immediately called the number for the Wizard’s Tower.” She removed the last fold of the dirty shirt with a flourish, waving her hands in display. “You see!” She smiled. “It’s something wonderful to behold, isn’t it!”
“It’s an opal wizard’s wand,” Tavi said, his voice breathy with awe.
The long rod glimmered in the dim light of the shop, a sheen of multiple colors running through it as if a rainbow had taken form on her counter. Most wizards these days used wood for their wands because it was durable, yet easily replaceable. Tavi’s was apple wood, and Rill couldn’t keep count of the number of times Tavi had accidentally stuck it in his back pocket and sat on it. Wizards couldn’t be sentimental about their wands. Except in the rare case of a wand made out of precious stone. Those wands were treated with kid gloves and only brought out for special occasions. A wand like the one sitting in the remains of a ragged shirt was one such rarity.
“Does it still work?” Rill asked.
“Only one way to find out,” Tavi responded.
