The owner of the voice, a wise and powerful Mage, looked almost exactly like a young boy. Rather than the standard robes, he was wearing a dark suit, and he was sitting in a far too large chair.

The entire room was made out of wood, from the floor to the furniture. It didn’t appear any safer than the last Wizard’s Tower, but at least it wasn’t crammed full of knickknacks, loose scrolls, and potentially explosive potions. Instead, everything was neatly placed on bookshelves, and what looked like wooden versions of Temple’s treasure chests.

“I see the fallen Apprentice has returned,” the little boy sneered. “What brings you crawling back to my tower?

Now, Qube had no problem with kids. She’d been friends with several children while growing up. But it just didn’t seem very reasonable for a child to be in charge of an entire Wizard’s Tower.

“Hi, I need the thing to do the thing for his spell,” the Chosen One said eloquently, gesturing at Definitely Bad Guy. He seemed even more put off than Qube about the whole child situation.

“This is the so-called ‘Chosen One’ I’ve heard about, is it?” the child sneered even harder than before.

Definitely Bad Guy gave the child a look so haughty and cold that it could freeze someone.

“Wizard of Elements, your assistance has been requested by the Head Mage in completing the Grand Working to overcome the Evil Emperor.”

“Is this a disguise?” Qube asked, looking at what had to be, at the eldest, a twelve year old boy. “Is he using some kind of illusion magic?”

Definitely Bad Guy broke off from his staring contest with the boy to look at Qube.

“No, this is him. Augustine is a child prodigy.”

“I’m glad you acknowledge my superiority,” Augustine said, smirking and shaking his head. “It’s good to see you’ve been humbled by my genius abilities.”

Qube didn’t think that Augustine was that intelligent. For one, he thought it was a good idea to sneer at the Chosen One, who was destined to save everyone, Wizards included, and secondly he didn’t seem at all curious as to why Definitely Bad Guy was addressing thin air.

Unless… could he see her? She stepped forward and waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing.

The alleged prodigy pivoted to face the Chosen One. “So, what brings you before the great and powerful Wizard of Elements?” he asked.

The Chosen One sighed. “Old guy asked for a spell of some kind?” he glanced at Definitely Bad Guy and Qube, as if asking for backup. “I’m gonna be honest; I don’t actually remember. Hold on, I can check.”

As the Chosen One stared off into the distance and started drooling, Qube helpfully reached over and gently held his mouth shut.

Augustine frowned at the Hero. He shot an almost accusatory look at Definitely Bad Guy, as if the Mage Advisor was responsible for any of the Chosen One’s eccentricities.

“So, how long ago were you at the Wizards’ Academy?” Qube asked Definitely Bad Guy conversationally as they waited for the Hero to finish. “Was Augustine the Wizard of Elements back then?”

“I was taken six years ago,” Definitely Bad Guy replied shortly. “He was too young for them to be interested, despite his prestigious talent even then.”

“Urk—!” the Hero suddenly refocused and tried to speak, only to accidentally smack Qube’s hand with his jaw.

“I’m sorry!” Qube exclaimed, yanking her hand away. “I thought that would help.”

Augustine looked, if anything, even more snooty than before at the sight of the Chosen One coughing.

“Yeah it just says to go and ask all the various Mages for their parts of the puzzle. So, you, kid, what’s your solution to whatever this puzzle is?” the Chosen One asked. The Wizard of Elements drew himself upright, which didn’t do much since he was a) still a child, and b) sitting on a chair.

“I am the Wizard of Elements,” he intoned in a regal manner.

“Yeah I know, he said,” the Chosen One interrupted. The Wizard ignored him.

“I have mastered all the elements present in our world —”

“What about the element of surprise?” the Chosen One asked.

The Wizard’s eye twitched.

“Guess not, or else you wouldn’t have been surprised by that,” the Chosen One said to himself, satisfied.

“— from the burning rage within fire, to the movement inherent in air,” the child continued determinedly, weaving flames between his fingers as he mentioned fire, and floating a book from the table beside him as he spoke of air. “Something no other Wizard has been able to do. My superiority cannot be questioned.”

Definitely Bad Guy’s hands ignited briefly before subsiding.

“The elements are just one school of magic,” the Mage Advisor said stiffly.

“Ha!” The Wizard dismissed all other schools of magic with a wave of his hand. “They cannot compete with the raw power of the elements. Even you, this so-called Mage Advisor, could only master the element of fire. And curses are no more than maladaptive healing, a branch of magic so weak that it can be replicated by mere potions.”

Definitely Bad Guy had now gone as red as his hair and eyes, his tattoos throbbing with suppressed emotions. His mortification at being spoken to in such a manner was obvious from the strict rigidness he held himself in (and the rapidly rising temperature of the room).

Qube was going to [Heal] this brat so hard! She was going to [Heal] him into seeing her, just so she could yell at him!

“That’s not true,” the Chosen One said. Qube swung around, ready to tell the Hero either that she didn’t need him to defend her, or to thank and encourage him to do so — she wasn’t sure which — when he surprised everyone in the room by continuing. “Definitely Bad Guy mastered all the elements ages ago.”

The Chosen One wasn’t looking at her at all. Instead he was looking at Definitely Bad Guy, who was frowning as he regarded the larger man.

“He can do fire the best, of course, here, do your corrupted burning thing to show the master of all elements,” the Chosen One ordered the Mage.

“Do you mean [Infected Fire]?” the Mage asked incredulously. “That would be incredibly dangerous indo—”

“Go on,” the Chosen One insisted. Something seemed to click in the Mage’s brain, and his brow cleared.

“Very well,” he said formally, turning and facing Augustine, who was glancing between the two men. “A demonstration of my skills. [Infected Fire]!”

Jagged flames spurted out of his fingers and hit one of the bookshelves. It instantly caught alight, the books combusting from the heat and throwing out more flames that only spread further. Within seconds the entire bookshelf was burning, and the treasure chest next to it quickly succumbed to the infectious fire.

Which was possibly where the name of the spell came from.

“What are you doing?” Augustine shouted, jumping out of his chair. “[Cleansing Rain]!” he shouted, waving his hand as a downpouring of bright blue rain quenched the hungry flames. The bookcase and chest started sparkling afterwards, looking even cleaner than before.

“He’s demonstrating his mastery,” the Chosen One said cheerfully. “Now he’s gonna use a super secret air spell to bring those books over to you, just like you did earlier.”

The Hero looked at Qube, and jerked his head towards an intact bookshelf.

“He’s gonna use the invisible air spell to grab some books and bring them over here,” the Chosen One said, winking furiously at Qube.

“Oh!” Qube suddenly grasped what the Chosen One was trying to tell her. She was invisible and could grab some books! Hurrying over, she grabbed an armful of books and dashed back to Augustine, dumping the whole lot at his feet. The pint-sized Wizard jumped back, banging into his chair.

Definitely Bad Guy almost smiled.

“Enough!” Augustine shouted.

“What, you don’t want him to show you the others he’s mastered?” the Chosen One asked innocently.

“No!” Augustine yelled. “Stop, before you destroy my tower!”

“All right, but only because you chose not to see them,” the Chosen One said with a shrug.

Definitely Bad Guy looked at the Chosen One with something approaching respect.

“You are more intelligent than I gave you credit for,” he said quietly.

“That’s not a compliment,” the Chosen One replied casually.

“Neither is calling me your creepy weirdo,” the Mage responded, but without any heat.

“Fair,” the Chosen One said, giving a lopsided grin. “So, kiddo, what’s the thing we have to do for the spell?”

The Wizard gathered himself, trying to regain whatever shreds of dignity he had left.

“The spell is a Grand Working,” he said pompously. “It requires the cooperation of all the main Mages. However, those simple-minded fools were too blind to see the wisdom of my method, and so have relegated me to —”

The Chosen One’s eyes started to glaze over.

“Skip,” he said, interrupting what had now devolved into a rant about respect, and genius versus talent.

Augustine paused.

“Just gimme the thing,” the Chosen One said impatiently. “Sewer Bard’s not here to listen and I don’t like you, so just gimme.”

The Wizard looked puzzled.

“— spent many nights deep in research —” he started up again.

“Skip,” the Chosen One said.

“And they think they can ignore me, just because I’m a kid?”

“Skip!” the Chosen One ordered.

Augustine subsided, ending his speech. Somewhat sulkily, he handed over a small amulet, showing an eagle flying through the sky. The Hero looked at it.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he asked. The Wizard of Elements looked like he might burst a blood vessel.

“I was just explaining that you to, you ignorant—”

“Skip, just tell me,” the Chosen One said.

Augustine glared at the Hero. His eyes flickered, and then he drew himself up again, once more trying to regain his now severely damaged dignity.

“The spell is a Grand Working,” he repeated with the exact same amount of pompousness. “It requires the cooperation of all the main Mages.”

The Chosen One groaned and threw back his head.

“You mean I’ve got to listen to the whole speech?” he asked the ceiling, horrified.

The ceiling didn’t reply. Augustine, however, gave a very nasty smirk as he continued to give the exact same speech, complaints and all, to the unwilling but trapped Hero and friends.

“Each one of us has crystallised our years of work into an amulet,” Augustine continued. Qube, who had been trying to pay attention, nudged the Chosen One, who hadn’t even been pretending to listen.

“Yup!” the Chosen One said, suddenly focused. “Amulet, each one. Got it.”

“Which must be placed in a very specific way in order to work,” the Wizard continued, as if the Hero hadn’t spoken. “Now, the Mage of Life will try and tell you that his should go next to mine, but my amulet must be to the right of the Sorcerer of Summoning’s.”

“You’ve got sorcerers now?” the Chosen One exclaimed incredulously. “Why? What makes them different from Mages and Wizards?”

“Sorcerers deal with that which did not exist before, and will not exist after,” Augustine said haughtily. “An ill-formed notion of what constitutes proper magic is the other main difference.”

“Kinda seems all the same to me, but whatever,” the Chosen One muttered. “Also wait. Wait! You can summon things?”

“I have no need to summon others; I am strong enough to accomplish my own tasks,” the child said angrily. “But yes. Those who lack my skill can choose to study the art of summoning and dismissing things from other realms.”

Qube looked at the Chosen One, her eyes round. Was this how they were going to get to the Devs’ realm? Why had he sounded so surprised at summoning being a school of magic? After all, he had been summoned here not so long ago! And he summoned Scaley-waley all the time!

“Oh man, you definitely gotta learn how to summon things,” the Chosen One informed Definitely Bad Guy. “We could do so much cool stuff with summons!”

The pleased look on the Mage’s face vanished.