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off and bid him good day as the men left her office.
    “ You know I was just kidding about that whole ‘take no prisoners, we might kill you’ thing, right?” Tomlin nudged Byrn in the ribs with his elbow.
    “ Tomlin!” shouted a stunned Alia who was out of view as they turned a corner a moment later.
    “ Let’s go this way,” Tomlin said, pointing down a seemingly random hallway. He turned to look for his master behind him, then added, “I think we should walk a little bit faster.”
     

Chapter 7
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The castle’s garden was cool with morning air as Byrn meditated to draw and focus the magic that flowed in his veins. He sat in the grass with his legs crossed and held a new staff in his hands. It was a plain weapon without a spear tip or decoration of any kind and it was, at the moment, decidedly not magical at all. The only thing of interest about this staff was that it was covered in light streams of the magician’s blood as his hands bled over it.
    Byrn fully concentrated on the weapon as he pushed his energy into the staff, infusing it with the magic needed to make it an acceptable device to channel his energy. His old staff and grimoire were destroyed in the fight at the school; when in his grief and pain he unknowingly began to release the that dwelled within him burning everything nearby including his magical weapons and much of his clothes. It was only through the quick thinking of Alia Necros that he was stopped when she placed him under a sleep spell and rescued him from the battlefield where he would have bled to death if left to his own devices.
    “ You are not accustomed to asking for help, are you?” Byrn opened his eyes to find Alia standing before him. Instead of her usual black necromancer robes, she was wearing a simple blue dress with a light brown shirt that was more typical of a laborer than a Lady. Alia seemed more relaxed than usual as she watched Byrn enchant the staff.
    “ My lady?” he asked unsure of her meaning.
    “ There are nearly forty magicians in The Collective with a half dozen masters of various disciplines. No one questions your ability as an elementalist, but I understand that you are not as skilled in enchanting as some of us.” Alia held out her hand for the staff and Byrn gave it freely. “Tomlin, I, or any one of a dozen others could make a far superior staff and grimoire if you were to simply ask.” She hefted the staff and seemed to sense the magic infused within. “Nevertheless, you appear to have some small amount of skill,” she teased.
    “ Small amount?” Byrn suppressed a smile and grabbed for his staff, but Alia pulled it away.
    “ Did you know that a skilled weapon enchanter can not only infuse an item with greater amounts of energy, but can give it special properties as well?”
    Byrn nodded. “Yes, based on their abilities with the other disciplines.” Melani, the senior enchantress at Avelice’s school, gave him a similar primer on the basics of enchantment when he first joined them, as did Sane before that.
    Alia continued unperturbed, “But a master enchanter can also channel another magician’s own affinities into an item. Like with your natural affinity for fire we could empower your staff to be more conductive of elemental spells in general or fire spells in particular. I saw the fire circle you created at my mother’s cabin. Imagine what you could do with a properly attuned staff.”
    “ That spell…” Byrn began, “It just came to me. I don’t know any other elemental masters… except Sane and he never taught me anything so advanced. I cannot guess what kind of magic lies beyond that spell.”
    “ There is only one way to find out,” Alia said as she wiggled the staff at Byrn like a dog being baited with a meaty bone.
    Byrn stood so that he was eye to eye with Alia, “What must I do?”
    Alia produced her own short staff that was hanging from her belt and for the first time Byrn noticed the rather