Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

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Rales laughed, "No way!"

"Yeah way!" said Suhara, "I can totally see 'em!"

The two sat by a large stone door that was sealed with enchantments. Rales had been inspecting it with his pattern reading scope, and then explaining what he was able to see. Suhara turned on her Winter Sight and claimed that she could see the patterns without using the scope.

"Okay then, how about this?" Rales pointed towards a part of the door he didn't inspect yet. "What kind of pattern do you see?"

Suhara squinted her eyes. "Uh, it's all wavy like a bunch of tiny mountains, plus it kinda bulges out from the door."

"Oh gods, you can see it! You've got to lend me whatever spell it is you're using!"

"No spells, just an ability I got."

"What, you a priest or something?"

Suhara nodded.

"Impressive," said Rales, "I should have figured. You've been quite amazing, it's no surprise a spirit has taken a liking to you."

The girl blushed and averted her eyes. She knew that the compliment was undeserved, but it was still nice to hear.

Suhara wasn't able to read any of the patterns, so Rales still had to rely on his scope to decipher the enchantments. He didn't have to explain the appearance of the patterns, at least.

Rales made an effort to keep the examination interesting for Suhara. He tried telling a few jokes about the patterns that he was scanning. The jokes were usually about what the patterns looked like. "This hunchback man kicking a banana is an enchantment to ward off water damage," he said.

After two hours of enchantment reading, Rales had figured out how to unlock the door. A quick sequence of firm taps was all it took.

"Pretty nice, huh?" he said.

"Aw, I still don't quite get it." she said.

"You just need some experience." Rales turned towards Suhara without taking the scope away from his face. He suddenly gasped and almost dropped his device.

Suhara's eyes widened. "What? What is it?"

"Sorry, I notice you've got some enchantments on... your head and arms... feet... everywhere actually," he said, "I can even sort of see it through your clothes."

Suhara looked down at the purple lines running down her body. "Ah, these. It's part of my whole priest thing."

"It's... very interesting," he said. "They appear to be very similar to some of the royal enchantments I study, but far more complicated. Hm, maybe I should... never mind. Anyway, let's take a look in the sealed room, shall we?"

Suhara smiled eagerly and followed Rales into the unlit room.

The sealed room had an abundant collection of stone tablets. The room also had a few books, but they had rotted away. No one who once occupied the castle seemed to know any preservation enchantments, or the enchantments may have worn off.

Rales began to lift all the stone tablets into the air with some suspension spells. “Let’s get these outside.”

The leader of the Ginrook researchers, Celner Whitelark, exclaimed in disbelief when the stone tablets were presented, "I can't believe you already got that door open!"

"I specialize in royal artifact enchantments," said Rales, "mystic locks aren't usually as complicated, so it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately, I've neglected mortal language in my pursuit of magical language, so I would appreciate it if your group could assist us in translating these tablets."

"Of course, of course!" said Celner. "There is quite a lot though, we should ask the Javex group as well. Joula, notify them, will you?"

"Ya, no probs, sir." A short girl who wore bulky goggles ran off at Celner's command.

Suhara went back to exploring the castle while everyone else worked on the tablets. She could see enchantments everywhere with Winter Sight. A lot of it was the same green fortification patterns, which were plastered all over the walls. She tried asking Theema if she recognized the place, but the goddess denied having any recognition.

Suhara found a secret trapdoor when she stumbled into the kitchen. The trapdoor was hidden by an illusion spell, so it could only be seen her magical sight. She took out her demon root to try and disable the enchantments, but Theema commanded her to stop.

“That entrance is protected by runes that counter the use of curses.” said the goddess. "It is dangerous to interact with it."

“Really? Is there any way I can get past them?” said Suhara.

“Not that I know of.” said Theema.

Suhara huffed with disappointment. She turned and left the room to go get Rales.

"This is beyond me, far beyond." said Rales as he inspected the enchantments on the trapdoor. "Someone went through a lot of trouble to keep this closed."

All the patterns scribbled over the trapdoor were miniscule. It could be mistaken for one solid coat of color if a person didn't look too close.

"Could it be a secret treasury?" said Suhara.

"It's possible," said Rales. "Certainly guarded like one."

“Can’t we dig around it?” she said.

“No, we don’t have the means to pierce through the fortification magics in the walls.”

“Maybe my curse magic can break the wall enchantments?”

“Curse? Hm. If you have a decent magic breaker, that may be possible...”

=+=+=

Suhara worked with the Javex research group for the rest of the day. She cleared away the fortification enchantments, then they dug through the walls before the enchantment could recover.

It took a lot of power to clear away the ancient castle’s defenses. A master level amount of Suhara’s raw magic had to be used just to remove a thin layer of enchantment. The resulting hole was barely wide enough for a person to slip through.

Rales spent most of the day unlocking magical doors that were too difficult for the other research groups. He returned in the evening to check on the tunneling progress.

After all the hours that were spent, the hole was only knee deep.

Suhara lay on her back. She was suffering from magical fatigue after all the curse magic she used. “This worked so much better in my head.”

“I’m sure you’re almost through.” Rales laughed. “The divide shouldn’t be much thicker, you’ll probably break through tomorrow.”

Rales helped Suhara up, and then led her outside.

“I think you’ll like what we’ve found.” said Rales.

Tables were set up outside the castle. It looked like they were magically made, just like how Rales made the shacks. Each table had an assortment of antiques placed on top. Swords were the most common type of item, and there were styles that appeared to be from around the globe. An entire city's armor was practically on display.

“The previous occupants were sword collectors, I’m guessing.” said Rales.

Suhara chucked. “Yeah, I can tell.”

Some of the most exotic looking swords were locked up in glass boxes in front of the stone shacks. Rales explained that he got first priority in picking most of the relics, which was why the most interesting pieces were in front of their sleeping quarters.

Rales laid Suhara on a cotton mattress in her shack, then he went to help the rest of the researchers.

The full force of magic fatigue blindsided Suhara. She fell asleep in seconds.

=+=+=

Ri Lucian was perched on top of a branch. She was right above all the researchers, while one of her four birds was keeping an eye on Suhara. Her three other birds were perched on her feathery shoulders.

A bulky sack was tied next to the harpy on the branch.

Ri had disguised herself behind an illusionary veil of leaves. She was reading a large book while the researchers below were busy working.

=+=+=

Suhara and the Javex researchers finally broke through the wall to the secret room.

Suhara, Rales, the Javex leader, Celner, and Joula all slipped down the hole.

The room beneath the kitchen was filled with silver coins. It wasn't as exciting as gold coins, but it was still worth a chest of gold. A large black longsword lay on top a pile of silver.

Suhara was tired out from magic fatigue again, but that didn't stop her from bouncing around with joy. The room had more money than she had ever seen in her life. "We're rich! We're rich! This is awesome!"

"I see you are new to this." Celner chuckled. "Keep in mind that our sponsors will receive most of the currency that we recover."

Upon hearing that news, Suhara immediately stopped hopping around. Her arms flopped down her sides. "Aw."

The agreement for the current research trip required that fifty percent of gold, silver, and gems be delivered to Ginrook. Forty percent would be split evenly between the Javex Mystics Academy and the Marlifa Lyceum. The ten percent that remained would be split between the three research groups.

The distribution still meant that Rales and Suhara would get a decent sized bag of silver in the end.

Since Suhara discovered the secret trap door, and was the primary reason everyone was able to get in, she had first pick on the artifacts inside.

There wasn't much choice. No artifacts were present except for the longsword.

The longsword was longer than Suhara was tall. Its entire blade was made from an opaque black glass, while the handle was gold.

Rales wrapped a strip of leather around the longsword handle. He noted that the previous handle covering might have worn away from time.

The leader of the Javex group, Kellin, recognized the sword. "That's a Dragon Tongue," she said, "a very rare find. It's a soul weapon that's supposed to be forged in the magma chambers of a volcano. The immortal magic of a dragon is sealed inside to provide power."

"Whoa, cool." Suhara gazed up at the shiny black blade with awe.

"I'm surprised you can lift it," said Kellin. "It's supposed to be made with concentrated magma, so it should be heavier than it looks. It already looks heavy in the first place."

"I'm stronger than I look," said Suhara. "It is super heavy, though."

Suhara switched on Winter Sight to observe the longsword's magic. She immediately twisted her head away as her eyes were assaulted with a blinding source of magic.

While blinking away the blindness, Suhara noticed a blue circle drawn on the opposite wall. She set the longsword down and pointed towards the circle. "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?" Kellin turned towards the featureless wall.

Rales figured that Suhara was using her magic sight, so he looked through his scope. Unfortunately, he didn't see anything either.

"I see it," said Joula, who had her bulky googles pulled over her eyes. "It's a blue circle."

Celner scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Blue circle? A dimension door?"

"Pocket dimension, perhaps?" Kellin suggested.

"Is the circle made with a line of tiny runes?" Rales asked Suhara and Joula.

The two girls walked up to the circle and observed it closely. They nodded once they saw the minuscule runes.

"I can decipher them." said Rales. "Could I borrow your goggles, Joula?"

"Ah... those goggles can only be used by her." said Celner. "She's a nymph, and they're just filled with water. It's to let her activate her priest powers."

"I see," said Rales. "Suhara's sight is also based on priest powers. This makes it difficult, then. Hm."

The three older researched pondered silently while Suhara and Joula stared blankly at them.

"So... where are you from?" Suhara asked Joula.

"I'm from Denmother, in the Teraile continent." said Joula.

"Cool! I'm from Welldrop, over to the West." said Suhara.

"Oh, I've been there! That city is as colorful as triggerfish!"

"Totally, but it gets a bit dizzying sometimes. They always change the colors every month, and for a whole week I get all lost because I don't know where anything is anymore."

"It's better than Denmother! We're basically living on a bunch of moving islands. The houses literally swim about! We have to have flags planted on the roofs so that we can find our coves!"

For a second, Rales snapped out of his thoughts and glanced over at Suhara. He remembered reading that Suhara was from Western Beradina, not Welldrop.

"I got it!" said Kellin, "How about the girls copy down the patterns on some parchment, then we directly decipher those pages."

"Ah! Great idea!" said Celner. "I'll go get some parchment."

Celner walked up to the rope that hung through the hole and pulled himself out.

Kellin went over to the longsword. The black blade weighed too much for her to lift. She assumed Suhara had strength spells to help with lifting heavy objects. Once she confirmed the weight of the longsword, she also climbed out of the room.

Suhara and Joula went back to chatting about their homelands. Rales decided that his confusion about Suhara's home wasn't important, and climbed out of the room after Kellin.

"The Kraken is real! I swear!" Joula said to Suhara. "There was this one time where it got real close to Denmother, so all our knights rode out to fight it. Then sirens began bursting out from the sea and helping our knights! It was so raving, ya know?!"