Janice smiled. “He’s a fourth year who is specializing in artifice, but he’s been after me for a date for months, so he was more than happy to talk.” She glanced at Tiny for a moment, then added, “I didn’t promise him anything, though. He knows I’m not interested.”
Was that for my benefit or someone else’s? Will wondered. He pushed that aside and focused on the matter at hand. “This is all interesting, but no one knows how to use the relic and we don’t know whether it has any useful properties for this situation anyway.”
Janice deflated slightly. “I’ll keep looking into it, and anything else that might be useful. It’s the least I can do.”
“I do need a favor,” said Will, which was true, though in part he simply wanted to give her something to do that would be more useful.
“Sure.”
“I need some materials for potions, and I don’t know if I have time to go to the Alchemy building. I’ll make a list if you wouldn’t mind going for me. Usually I talk to Professor Karlovic directly.”
“I can do that. What do you need?” she replied confidently.
“Come upstairs and I’ll make a list for you. I have the references in my room.” He rose and started to move, followed by Janice, but he stopped before he reached the door. Glancing back, he saw Tiny staring at him with an intense expression. It took him a moment to realize what was wrong, and when he did it caused him to chuckle. “I’m married, Tiny. What do you think I’d do?”
The big man blushed, then looked away. “I didn’t say anything.”
Janice put her elbow into Will’s midribs. “He’s just looking out for me. Don’t embarrass him.”
Will stared at her quizzically. Surely, I’m imagining this. After a second, he waved at Tiny. “Come with us. You can be our chaperone.”
Chapter 19
Will went through his apothecary and found the recipe for the Dragon’s Heart potion. He gave it a quick study, making sure the procedure wouldn’t be too difficult, and then copied out the ingredients he would need to purchase. After that was done, he found the next item he was interested in, alchemical fire. The ingredients for that were simple, though one in particular was exceedingly dangerous. “White phosphorous,” he muttered to himself. He’d never used it before, or even seen it, though he was fairly sure the Alchemy Department had access to it. He hoped it wasn’t too expensive.
He added everything to his list, then handed it over. “I hope it doesn’t cost too much, but unless it’s astronomical I’ll find a way to pay for everything. Tell Karlovic they can put everything in the laboratory I’ve been renting.”
She took the paper, folded it up, and slipped it into an opening in the side of her kirtle. “Do I need to take some coin with me?”
“The professor trusts me,” said Will. “I can settle accounts with him later as long as it doesn’t run into hundreds of marks.”
“What will you do in the meantime?” asked Janice.
“Learn some new spells,” he answered. “I’d like to be better prepared tonight. If it hadn’t been for Tiny, I wouldn’t have lived to see the dawn today.”
She smiled—at Tiny, not him. “Anyone would feel safer with such a friend nearby,” she remarked. “It was a pleasure meeting you, John.”
Tiny dipped his head. “And you, Miss Edelman.”
“Janice,” she corrected as she made her way to the door. “Try to stay safe tonight.” There was a short pause, then she added, “Both of you.”
After the door closed, Will couldn’t help but laugh, whereupon Tiny gave him a mild punch to the shoulder. At least, he assumed it was supposed to have been a mild punch, as he collected himself from where he had fallen. The big man didn’t ordinarily engage in horseplay, for reasons that were now obvious to him.
“Sorry,” said Tiny.
Will rubbed his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have laughed.”
“I don’t know why I did that. I’m just a little punchy since last night.”
Sure, that’s what it is, thought Will sarcastically, but he held his tongue. “My nerves aren’t much better,” he sympathized.
“I’m going to clean my armor and gear. Since you’re going to be busy learning spells, do you want me to do yours too?” offered Tiny.
It was a generous offer, but Will had to decline. Selene’s spell had done the trick when he had cast it that morning. He hadn’t known it could handle armor, but apparently his brilliant wife had thought of just about everything when she had designed it. “I did mine this morning,” he explained.
“I won’t disturb you until you come down. See you this evening.” Although Will knew his friend wanted nothing more than to not have to go back out, the big warrior didn’t whine or wheedle about it. Some might have said it was because he was a professional soldier, and while there was some truth to that, Will knew that soldiers loved to bitch and complain as a form of stress relief. Tiny was just solid. Rock solid.
Damn, I’m getting sentimental again, thought Will. Shaking his head, he sat down and tried to concentrate. The first spell he was interested in learning was Ethelgren’s Illumination, which turned out to be approximately sixth-order, in terms of difficulty. Of course, there was no official rating listed with the spell—it was too old for that. Will judged it based on prior experience.
Given the difficulty, he guessed it would take him an hour or two to successfully construct the first time and possibly several days before he could recreate it without referring to his notes. He could try it out once and then keep it prepared for use that night. As long as he only needed it once, that would be fine. The time required to learn it, though, meant he’d have to forego learning anything else but one or two of the simpler fire spells.
He thumbed through the other book he had ‘borrowed’ from the school library, Fire Spells for Fun and Profit. The author turned out to have quite a sense of humor, though the man had apparently not thought much of using fire in battle.
Fire is arguably the least imaginative form of attack. Easily seen, easily countered, dangerous to self and enemy alike, it is the first choice of fools and novices. To master it, one should learn to use it as a tool first, rather than for battle, and for battle it should generally be one’s last option.
“Damn,” muttered Will. “He didn’t beat around the bush.” He flipped through the pages and then went to the index in the back to find the page numbers for actual spells. He didn’t have time to spend on philosophy lessons.
He found a variety of different spells, some quite simple and others vastly more complicated. One that caught his eye was a spell that launched a small number of flaming spheres at an enemy, but when he turned to its page, it was fourth-order at least. He wouldn’t have time. Eventually he settled on a third-order spell called ‘bonfire.’ It was essentially an enhanced fire starter that included parameters to allow the user to start as well as maintain larger fires. It wouldn’t be much use in combat, but against an unmoving target it would be handy. He figured he could use it to get rid of vampire remains.