129 Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine – A Deadly Visitor (1/2)
Hazé spun her short Staff around her hand. Being four years old was still a major pain, but not as bad as it used to be. The fact she knew some Cantrips was now common knowledge, but to be expected since her Mama knew magic and had been progressing nicely.
Getting a Staff of high enough quality had been difficult, and she'd actually had to get in contact with an elven Woodshaper to craft one good enough for what she needed. Even QL 35 wouldn't suffice for Casting stuff with Reserve bonuses stacking on her Star Mage bonuses, which also meant she needed special woods for such a thing.
She proved she needed it by providing a Delimited Fiery Ray scroll at Sixteen as part of the cost. It proved sufficient, as a year later she had received this staff in return.
There was no magic in it initially, but then, she had not asked for any. She had asked for a QL 40 Focus Staff, with Warcaster insets, that could be enhanced and enchanted by herself. Thus, this Staff had arrived, with the requisite inlays she had requested. It was made of weirwood, precious enough by itself that it would only be considered for a Caster as powerful as one who had made the request.
While she hadn't been granted the Ranks of Skill she needed to carve it on her own, Spellcrafting it was totally her thing with Fabricate and Wood Shape. She altered the symbols on it, eliminating some, changing and moving others, and altering things enough that no amount of scrying would be able to use it as a target lock for divination.
Wealth she had, and scrap Craft to pour into it. She began to burn gold and mana crystals, and finally power up a Staff of her own.
Of course, it didn't look like a staff. It looked more like a walking stick appropriate for a girl her age. Morphing was one of the first abilities she built into it, as she wasn't going to be lugging around a six-foot hunk of dense heartwood from a weirwood at her age.
She did pour some love into it. An ounce of noquar anointed the head with its resonance to force effects. Crushed black diamonds graced the runes that sank into the dense length of it, and of course she used Ironwood and Harden on it to make it more resistant to wear and tear and things like dragons chewing on it.
She didn't want to enchant it as a Weapon until she paid off her Karmic Debt and unlocked Soul Magic, but decided she needed it functional before then.
The Focus Core of it was a black star sapphire, which she Energized. With a thought, it radiated an aura that absolutely shut down all chronomancy in the area, which would doubtless come in very useful against things that thought futzing with space and time was the way to fight.
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The woman was old, tall, and a little stooped, coming in with a couple of younger women as helpers, waiting on her deferentially. Hazé wouldn't have bothered to stay around after they came in, save for the sparkling on the door that closed behind them.
That particular combination of hues was a reaction from the Energized waterstones on the door to ambient magic. Specifically, it indicated something with active shape-changing magic had just passed through the door.
Shapechangers could come in many varieties. Her paranoia went through the roof instantly, and she stepped up next to Mama, looking on with a child's interest as the old woman came to bargain for some skin cream.
She looked them over, and instantly noticed the amulets of tchazy they were wearing by the way they were scattering her ability to read magic. A less astute Caster would simply assume there was nothing there, but the natural reaction of the waterstones couldn't be faked, so she noticed how distorted the magic was.
The hairs on the back of her neck told her that she shouldn't be seen Casting anything, the hooded lids of the old women were far sharper then they looked.
She said nothing to Mama, since any reaction would be read by this woman, whoever she was, and possibly result in an immediate fatal reaction.
The soft feather-touch of a mind-reading spell whispered past her mind, and she filled her thoughts with 'that frill needs to be mended', 'oh, I think that's the latest style out of Nourje, where is she from?', 'hee hee, her shoes look like Patch's feet!', and similar spur of the moment, free-flowing childish nonsense, insuring the spell didn't stay focused on her for very long.
”I've heard very good things of this cream,” the old woman said, her thin lips forming a hard smile. ”I imagine you have had to beat the alchemists off with a club!”
Mama smiled back with her normal cheerfulness. ”Well, not recently, after they pulled some shenanigans and got burned for it, miss. Are you familiar with them?”
She waved long, spindly fingers with arching nails. ”There are simply too many things that cannot be satisfied without them,” she sniffed. ”And, of course, they charge you your first-born for them.”
”I see we share a similar opinion of them,” Mama agreed. ”Is there anything else you would like to look at?”
”I see you have a selection of fragrant soaps up there. Might I smell them? I've been searching for some variety in my bath.”
”Of course!”
The two women who were inspecting the different sachets on display had drifted into two positions, one close to Haze, the other close to the door behind the counter. Mama's turn would take her across the path to the door, while the other could lunge at her.
Mama turned, and that waving hand distorted, turning midnight black and doubling in size, the nails looking like rusty cleavers, swiping for Mama's back.
Hazé unloaded everything.
There was no build-up, no alarm. She blew her daily Suddens as she briskly /ordered Mama to drop and roll, and shoot the Shapechanger on the left whose arms were beginning to lengthen.