Crownsmith Chronicles

Lucia punched the empty air, holding the wizard's coin, and the bushes and saplings bent under the gust of wind it produced. Benj knew her exhilaration because he felt the same way. It caused the surrounding air to burst in the direction you punch. The harder the punch, the more resistance you felt, and the more power the wind would have.

For some reason, it wore you out the more you used it. Benj hoped that it wasn't somehow powered by life force. He would hate to discover there was some side effect of aging prematurely. It was a risk he was willing to take.

"Okay, let me see it. I want to try something."

Lucia relinquished the coin and sat down on a rock. "I think I've heard of one of these before. The Crownsmiths supposedly had a relic like this once, but I never saw it for myself."

Benj listened as he stepped a safe distance away. He then tried an elbow attack to see if that would also work. He felt some resistance, and there was some wind, but only a puff. He then kicked out with his leg as hard as he could, and the wind responded. It cracked as he kicked a gust upward, shaking the canopy overhead. Green leaves fell on them like an autumn flurry.

Lucia stood up, "I didn't know you could do that, let me try!"

The two practiced with the coin until they were exhausted. Lucia sat while Benj lay sprawled out on the ground next to her. The coin was fun, but it was the middle of the day, and both of them were completely spent.

There was no way Benj was going back to the bakery. Taft could manage it anyway. He realized he might not like his apprentice anymore. He wondered if he had acted similarly when he was an apprentice and if that was why Sephus was always gone.

The sound of a horse-drawn cart entering the village broke the tranquility of the moment.

Benj leaned his head off the ground, pulling up bits of gravel that stuck to his face, and asked, "Who do you think that is?"

"Merchant?" Lucia guessed. "My father did say he told the last one to bring seeds. I should go check."

Benj lifted his hand to get help off the ground. "I'll come."

They both slombered out of hiding in the woods and stepped through bent and broken foliage as they made for the village center. A merchant had come, and they found Sephus and Lucia's father among the villagers looking through wares.

"What have you two been up to?" Lucia's father asked as they approached.

They gave mismatched and reluctant responses, which elicited a lifted eyebrow from the man. He must have seen their exhausted and disheveled looks because he began appraising them with a keen eye and asking more specific questions.

Sephus slapped him on the back and laughed. "It's not what you think, John. I've asked Lucia to help us at the bakery, and I've been working her to the bone. Here," he said, offering her a handful of coins. "I gave you a bonus because of all your hard work. You're welcome back any time."

John looked pleasantly surprised. "Why didn't you just say so in the first place? I'm proud of you for taking the initiative to find your place here. I don't want you to feel otherwise. Do you want to help me see if they brought our seeds?"

When they walked off, Sephus brushed Benj's back off. "You had some leaves stuck to your back. Next time you go rolling around in the forest, make sure you have a better alibi. You're lucky I saw you and knew exactly what you were up to."

"It's not what you think," Benj tried explaining, but Sephus ignored him with an infuriating smile.

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"It never is, boy," he shook his head with pride and mock disappointment.

Benj gave up trying to explain himself and asked Sephus where he had been all day. Sephus gave a few roundabout answers, but when Benj pressed, he eventually came clean.

"I'm staying out of the way while you and Taft work out your differences. Listening to you two bicker back and forth is enough to make me want to come back there and strangle both of you myself. It's like dough," Sephus explained. "It needs a contained space to ferment. If you add other things to the mix… Well, I suppose that's not bad either. I made a cheesy bread once, and it came out just fine. The point is I'm letting you two ferment for a while. When the dough is ready, I'll come back, but right now it needs some time."

Benj was at a loss for words. He wasn't the one who needed time; Taft was. Taft was always trying start a fight lately. Benj realized that he had been provoking him too. Maybe he was part of the problem.

He nodded. "I guess I could start trying to be nicer…"

"Nicer to Taft?" Sephus let out a single staccato laugh. "That's not what I meant at all! No, you have to get more mean. You're not going to show him who's boss unless you physically lay hands on him. You should do it soon. If you wait too long before taking a swing he might get bigger than you, and then it'll be him showing you who's boss. I'm just staying away so I can claim ignorance."

"You want me to hit him?" Benj made a punching motion for clarity.

"I'm not saying anything like that," Sephus winked and tapped the side of his nose. "If you did, I would be forced to take his side and pretend to punish you."

Benj felt someone grab his arm. It was Lucia. She had practically run over to him to get his attention. "The merchant just came from Royal City. He says there's a one-thousand Royal reward to find some sergeant who went missing. Do you know what this means? I'm pretty sure I can find anybody. Do you know what we could do with a thousand Royals?"

Sephus frowned. "That seems like a little too much to offer for a missing person. How do you know it's real?"

"Something to do with a key," Lucia recalled her conversation with the merchant. "He says it might be the key to the treasury or something. I don't care. For a thousand Royals, it could be the key to the privy for all I care. Do you want to come with me?"

"When?"

"I say we pack as fast as we can and leave now."

Benj grew thoughtful. "Aren't you too exhausted to travel today?"

Sephus raised an eyebrow.

Benj restated, "I mean, shouldn't you wait to leave until the morning? I don't know how much travel time you can make with what daylight is left."

"I don't want to wait for someone else to find him," Lucia said, looking impatient. "For a chance of getting that much gold, I'll travel all night if I have to."

"Can you give us a moment?" Sephus asked, pulling Benj aside for a private conversation. "What do you mean 'you' should wait until morning and not 'we' should wait?"

"If she wants to go, she can go. I don't know if I want to go back there right now. I would need some time to think about it first, and she's ready to leave."

Sephus shook his head in true disappointment. "That's not very supportive of you. My wife married me because she knew I would go to the end of the world for her. And I did. When she was sick, I traveled day and night to get her medicine. Actually, that's how we found you. She found an orphan standing in the rain and saw something in you that I couldn't see yet. There are a hundred orphans out there, and you can't help all of them. We adopted you because she wanted to, and I supported her."

"You're saying I should drop everything, get a bag ready, and go back to Royal?" Benj asked skeptically.

"I'm saying you need to do whatever it takes to be supportive. You've already been rolling around in the woods; now you have to take responsibility for yourself."

"I wasn't rolling around in the woods…" Benj cut off his sentence as the implication struck him. "That's not what we were doing out there!"

"Go pack your bags, and take responsibility for yourself. The bakery will always be here. You can tell Lucia to keep the coins I gave her. When she gives up looking for the missing person, at least she knows you'll support her."

"I-"Benj cut off, at a loss for words. He did believe Lucia could find anyone she wanted, especially with her ability. And a thousand gold coins was an unimaginable amount of wealth. He started thinking that going with her wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"I'll go," he finally said.

Sephus nodded his head sagely, "If you find yourselves expecting, try to find a midwife in the city. Our doula here has bizarre practices. It's disgusting, really. Just write me and I'll personally come out there to support you both. Because that's what being supportive is all about."

"Expecting?" Benj gave a perplexed look. "Like a baby? You got it all wrong. We found a relic that allows you to fire gusts of wind by punching the air in front of you. It drains your energy the more you use it."

"Don't tell John that. You need to work harder on your alibis."

"But-"

"Stop wasting time! Lucia's already waiting for you. Go tell her you're coming with and go pack your bags! I don't want to hear another word from you that isn't "Goodbye" and "Thanks for all the advice.""