Aria and Kendra returned to the blacksmith’s shop a few days later as the smith had requested. He was working on another projects, so they waited patiently for their turn. When he was finished the smith looked up from his work and got up from his workbench.

“Welcome back. It is nice to see that you are here early.”

“Well, I have been eager to see the fruits of your labor,” said Kendra, “How did the assignment go?”

“The opposite affinities was a tricky endeavor, and I almost broke the mana crystals I was working with, but I made it work,” said the smith. He brought out a stave from under the counter and presented it to Kendra.

It was styled similar to the old stave except the top was different. Twisting around in a figure 8 was the metal with a red crystal on one side and an ice blue one on the other. Along the sides were engravings and at the bottom of the stave it tapered off into a spiked point suitable for attacking at short range.

“It looks nice,” said Kendra, “And feels good in the hands.” She said as she spun it around. “May I try a spell or two?” she asked.

“Go ahead with any of the simpler spells you have. You can direct the fire ones towards the forge. It will be able to withstand the heat you give it.”

“Here it goes.”

Kendra focused on her fire magic. It came to her the easiest and responded to her commands quickly. A fireball grew from the crystal and out into the air above the stave. The engravings on it glowed as she channeled her magic through the tool. She let the fireball go and it hit the coals of the forge causing smoke and sparks to flow from the forge. Kendra felt the power to be similar to the old stave but different in a few of its functions.

Satisfied with the fire aspects she moved onto the ice magic. She felt the strain on her body as she tried to cast an ice spell right after the fireball. The spell she chose was [Chill]. It was one of the simplest spells an ice mage could perform and lowered the temperature in an area by a set amount but could be adjusted based on how much extra mana was put into the effect of the spell. This time the other side of the stave glowed and with some extra effort, the chilling aura of the spell was released around her.

“Thank you for this tool. I will make sure it is put to good use.”

“The pleasure was all mine. That old stave will be a great addition to so off in my collection of unique items when I have visitors over.”

Kendra and Aria didn’t stay much longer, and they started walking back towards Aria’s Master’s shop.

“I think it is time we report back to the gnome capital,” said Aria quickly rushing her words out.

“What why? I still need to practice my magic. Even my fire magic isn’t at its old peak.”

“We haven’t followed up with Zoe and the others in almost three weeks now. By the time we arrive, it will have been a month since I left the boat. I know you need to improve your abilities, but you can do it there just as well as here with the books you now have.”

“But I need guidance from your master. Self-guided reading can only take me so far. Besides aren’t you practicing and learning from her as well? I know you have not just been helping around the shop when customers visit. You need the time to practice your mind and illusion magic as well.”

“I’m not going to make any progress here though. There is only so much I can do when training against a single person’s mind. I need other people to practice against and I need the stresses of a fight to push me further. You can’t tell me that you don’t also worry about what the other people are doing now.”

“I do worry about them. But I am worried about my own abilities first and foremost. The gnome capital hasn’t been taken and they have their main force along with a golem to help them. They can do without us for a while longer. We shouldn’t be needed until the undead forces are pushed back into the old human territory.”

“It would still be best if we go sooner rather than later. Even if it is just to wait at the gnome capital until we are needed.”

“How about a compromise? We could send word to the gnome capital of our situation and update them on what has occurred, and we can wait for their response while training some more while staying here. If they need us now or at a set time we can schedule travel accommodations for them. If we leave now then we will likely waste over a week of travel time that we could have used to improve ourselves.”

“Very well. I expect you to write the message and I will look it over. If they don’t send a response back through the communication crystals within a week then we will ride there anyway.”