Chapter 34 - A Wand for Felix

Characters – 

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Christopher Mau: The black cat. 3rd year Dragon student. Possibly has nine lives. Unusually lucky and dexterous.

Beatrix Brynwyll: 3rd year dragon student. A little uptight.

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 But beyond the sea, the mighty took notice.
In Logres, nobles spat blood and wine in outrage.
A thrall-born warlock sat on a ducal throne?
A witch-king, crowned in the ashes of a noble line?
Unthinkable.

The Dark Faction snarled, calling for fire and vengeance.
The Grey sold arms and knowledge to both sides, their coffers swelling.
The Light, smug and high, watched and laughed,
Glad to see their rivals slaughter each other for pride.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 41

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“I have dumb questions.” Felix said.

“No such thing as a dumb question!” Chris replied.

“Yes there are.” Beatrix snapped back. “But it’s unlikely that you’ll be asking one of them.”

“Okay, so… I’m getting a wand. But everyone else is using a staff. What’s the story with that?” He asked.

“Wands are the generalist tool.” Beatrix answered. “They work well with all spells, but aren’t particularly great at anything.”

“Most spells are designed for a wand.” Chris added in. “It takes time and energy to adapt a wanded spell to a different focus.”

“Dragon house using all staves?” Felix prompted.

“They can hold larger cores, channel more power, and are excellent for offensive spells.” Beatrix said. “We’re the military house. You might notice most of the Unicorns are using a rod of Asclepius as a focus.”

“Yeah, like shooting a chain of stunners at me.” Chris snarked. 

“No, that’s actually an excellent point. I don’t need to make a motion to cast a stunner.” Beatrix said.

“When do I use one?” Felix asked. “Like, is there a point in me getting a wand?”

“Third year’s when you learn.” Chris answered. “I’m not very good at mine yet.”

Beatrix and Felix snorted, and the girl threw her arm around Chris’s shoulders. He didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh, the endless jokes from that.” She said dreamily. “The teasing potential.”

Felix couldn’t help it.

“That’s why you were having issues last night!” He said.

“Performance issues with your staff? Christopher.” Beatrix sounded delighted.

“I’m never going to live this down.” Chris moaned.

“Eh, it’s practically tradition that the third years get hazed endlessly about this.” She said. “I think the girls get it even worse than the guys, if you can believe it.”

Chris shuddered.

“I regret all the teasing I did last year.”

“But what about the second years?” Felix asked. “They’re using a staff.”

“They’re using a stick.” Beatrix corrected. “You’ll also use one. Mostly to drill and get the feel of it. End of second year we’ll get your wand or another working core into a staff, and you’ll learn how to use that.”

“And if it’s bad for me long-term?” Felix asked.

“Then you acquire another secondary conduit and learn both.” Chris said. “Quite a few people will use a wand and whatever they specialize in, because it’s just easier. It’s not like a wand’s a lifetime commitment. Better cores, better materials, better craftsmanship. It’s ideal to find the perfect tool, but like. If you’re harvesting monsters, you’ll want a butcher’s knife as a focus. If you change jobs and start working for BAT, you might want to trade that in for a quill. Keep the same core, just get the shape moved around, for the type of magic you’re casting.”

“That sounds like a lot.” Felix said.

“It is. But you only have to worry about a wand.” Beatrix said. “It’s why first years aren’t permitted a secondary focus. Too much waste, no training. Here we are!”

Beatrix stopped in front of a shop named Wilder’s Wondrous Wicks and Wands. It didn’t have a glass display window for wands, but a number of candles were burning in different colors with lovely scents, the flickering flames spelling out the name of the shop.

Seriously, what was up with wizards and fire?

“It’s a candle shop?” Felix asked, somewhat confused.

“And a wand shop.” Chris said, then shrugged. “Why not, right? Already selling one thing, might as well sell two.”

That went wildly against everything Felix knew about shops and stores, but perhaps Corwin and Logres in general wasn’t quite as ruthlessly capitalistic as the United States. An easy bar to clear, for sure.

They pushed their way into the store, and Felix looked around with wide eyes.

The first thing that caught his attention was ‘the counter’. A low counter was absolutely packed with wands. They were in two neat rows, but each one was touching each other, as dense as possible. Felix had imagined they would be made out of wood, but no. They were as varied and colored as possible, going through every hue of the rainbow and quite a few colors otherwise. Wood predominated, but every wooden wand had a slightly different color. The second most dominant material was wax. Candle wax, beeswax, maybe wands and wicks weren’t as far apart as Felix first thought.

Behind the counter were all sorts of objects. Glasses and rings, quills and knives, swords and shields, staves and gloves even a shoe! Quite a lot of them were under glass or enchantments. A witch was behind the counter, energized by them coming in.

“Welcome! Camelot, yeah? Second group today!” She said. “Welcome! I’m Wilder. What do you need today?”

“Felix is getting his first wand. I want to look for compatible cores.” Beatrix said. “Brynwyll family.”

“Ah yes.” Wilder nodded, and gestured to the wands. “Want to take a feel and see if anything works?”

Chris wandered off to the display pieces, and whistled. 

“Thigh of a dinosaur? Wow.”

“Watch closely, Felix. This is how you check for a wand.” Beatrix said. She then ran her finger along the wands, walking up and down the counter housing them all.

Many of them twitched, and a few of them shook. Only one wand seemed to erupt, a tiny jet of flame flaring from the tip. Beatrix paused at that one, picked it up, and kept going. A few more had varying degrees of reactions, but nothing more than a few sparks. She presented the wand to Wilder.

“46 aureli.” The witch said. Beatrix folded her arms.

“A wand like that’s worth 32, at most.” She said.

“It’s for the Brynwyll family. You’re not paying it, they are.” The witch countered.

“And it’s my responsibility to be a good steward of their funds.” Beatrix sniffed.

“I never thought I’d see the day the Brynwylls haggled.” 

“We don’t haggle, we push back against unreasonable price inflation due to our name. If Felix was trying to buy the wand, you wouldn’t charge him 46 aureli.”

“Of course not, he’s clearly a new tadpole and is going to get the subsidized price. You, miss, need to pay full value.”

The two bickered and, in spite of Beatrix’s protests to the contrary, haggled over the price of the wand. Felix took a look around at some of the more unusual items like Chris was doing.

A shovel was made out of a branch of the world tree with the core of a dryad, imbued with the hope of spring and the promise of a great harvest.

Felix had no idea how the heck ‘hope of spring’ and ‘the promise of a great harvest’ could fit into a tool, but he figured that might be one of the things he learned at Camelot.

The fingerbone of a dead god was fashioned into the shape of a wand, with an empty slot for a core to be inserted into.

A dagger was made out of a tooth of a leviathan, with the core of a leviathan. Felix nodded to himself - that seemed like good synergy.

A harp was made out of living coral and had the core of a siren.

Lightning-struck wood with the core of a thunderbird was imbued with ozone from the same lightning strike.

A crystal ball was made out of the mantle of the moon, with a dragon’s eye in the middle and an open spot for a core.

The tools and materials went on and on and on. If this was the ‘normal’ store, the ‘not too expensive’ one, what the fuck was in the fancy, expensive stores!? What material were they making the legendary equipment out of!?

Piece of a star, solidified screams of the damned. Still-flowing magma and the metal of heaven’s gate. The final breath of its maker and a living wand made out of fungi. A ‘wand’ that was more ‘baseball bat’ was made out of solid tungsten, and no mention was made of a core. Felix eyed it suspiciously - wasn’t that just a club to smack people around with?

A wand forged in multiple dimensions that made Felix’s eyes hurt to look at. Swirling sands and utter darkness, the downy feathers of a thousand newborn chicks and the sinew of a kraken. A wand was made out of amaranth, the immortal, unfading flower from Olympus. 

For sale. 450 aureli. 

Felix had no idea where to begin. 

“Sutter! Your turn.” Beatrix called with a satisfied smile. Felix rushed over to the table, wondering what he’d get.

“Run your finger along the wands,” The witch explained. “Make sure to touch each one. No sense pausing over every little reaction. We’ll sort out what’s a good fit after.”

Felix eyed the wands hungrily while the witch explained. He wanted one. He wanted to be able to cast magic. He wanted to bend reality to his will. He’d been told weeks ago that magic existed, sailed on a skeleton boat, slept in a magic castle, and now, magic was just a brush of his finger away.

He reached out to the first wand in the row, and jumped when the wand twitched.

“Don’t mind that.” The witch said. “A good portion of the wands will react to you in some way. A little twitch like that? It’s nothing, most of them will do that. They’re not a good fit. Go on now, we don’t have all day.”

Felix started walking down the row, brushing his finger against the wands. About a third of them twitched, and one shot off a single spark.

“Did you see that!?” He exclaimed, looking to Chris and Beatrix wildly.

“We did, keep going!” Beatrix encouraged.

Felix ran his finger up and down the rows, and only ended up with two reactions worth noting. A green wand shot off a few sparks, and a golden wand emitted a rainbow. Wilder took the golden wand up and eyed the tag.

“Leprechaun core with a clover cut in solid gold, imbued with the first rainbow of spring.” She announced. “25 aureli.”

Felix’s face fell.

“So expensive.” He whispered. Wilder snorted.

“Don’t start that on me now.” She said. “Solid gold? A core from a fae, lucky enough to never be caught? Do you know how hard it is to catch a rainbow, nevermind ensuring it’s the first one of the year?” She shook her head. “Honestly, this wand’s right at the edge of being put in the display case. 25 aureli, and I’m not even trying to pump every ounce of gold out of you like I did the Brynwyll.”

Beatrix squawked in protest.

“I knew you were inflating the price!” She accused the woman. Wilder grinned back nastily.

“Yet, you paid. Now. 25 aureli, you paying or not?”

“...not.” Felix reluctantly admitted, moving to the other wand. It was bright green.

“Four leaf clover as the material, with a horned rabbit core. Also a clover cut.” Wilder glanced at Felix. “Someone’s got a lucky core.

“Lucky bros!” Chris held up his hand. Felix reluctantly high-fived him.

“I don’t feel lucky.” He said.

“It’s not a great resonance.” Wilder said. “But it’ll function for you.”

“How much?” Felix asked. Wilder looked at him, clearly thinking, clearly reworking the price on the fly.

“9 aureli, 49 denarii.” She said. “And if you try to barter, it’ll go up.”

Felix instantly did the mental math. It would leave him with 4 aureli and 38 denari for everything else. Thank god Erik had given him the books, he’d be in an unbearable pinch otherwise. Now it would be merely painful.

With his heart breaking, Felix counted out nine of the thick, solid-looking gold coins. Wilder practically snatched them out of his hand, and handed him his wand made out of clover.

“Great doing business with you!” She said. “Come back when you can afford it! No refunds.”

Felix barely heard her. He was holding his wand, his eyes locked onto it, and it was different now. He felt energy and warmth swelling up inside him. He felt like he could run faster than a car, jump higher than a building. There were these sparks inside him, and for the first time, he knew the words Paracelsus had spoken to him were true.

He was a wizard.