Necessity carried Flip back through the builders quarter to the masons shop. The building was a small and neatly put together brick hut with a large muddy yard with scattered pallets holding up large stacks of bricks of varying size and color. The evening chill made the stony piles seem to emanate a feeling of uncommon cold. Along the back of the fenced in yard there was a simple wooden covered structure with a raised stone floor, the strong canvas sacks sitting in the covered space immediately caught the wizard’s attention.

“You need cement, master wizard?” A short balding man with small round spectacles called from an almost invisible alcove among the stacks of bricks.

Flip froze in place, having missed the halfling at first, but answered in his best attempt to remain casual.

“And brick. Part of my basement has collapsed and I would like to repair it.”

“A collapsed basement? That sounds dangerous. Do you need help doing repairs? No offense to you, I’ve no clue the extent of your magic, but you don’t seem the type to do much physical work.”

“Many thanks, but I do not like to have others in my tower.” Flip closed his eyes in frustration mid-remembrance. “But I don’t know how to mix concrete or the how long to wait after placing bricks…”

“Oh, I get you. That’s a rough predicament. My son and I would be happy to do the work for you, for a price. But I’m sure my son wouldn’t mind writing down some instruction for you.”

“I would appreciate that. How much for the materials?” Flip shifted awkwardly on his feet. He had no indicator as to how much things like this would cost.

“I’ll tell you what, for ten clasps I’ll get you set with enough material for about twenty feet of wall. And for another clasp, I’ll get my boy to cart it over to your tower for you.”

“I can move the materials. Once I get my transport settled, if you could do the loading, I would appreciate that. And instructions please.”

The old halfling man slowly pulled himself out of his chair and made his way over to the door of the small brick building. With a quick rap on the door, a somewhat smaller, tired looking halfling was summoned to the tiny stoop.

“Whaddya want, dad?” The younger ginger-haired halfling man seemed disgruntled for the first half-second before his eyes landed on Flip.

“Hulver, we have a customer.” The older halfling nodded to Flip before hissing out aloud whisper. “It’s that wizard.”

“Whutter ya lookin to buy, master wizard?” The younger halfling crossed his arms and gave Flip a distrustful squint. “We’ve plenty of brick and stone, concrete, and I can spare a few construction timbers too.”

“We’ve already discussed that, he’s getting materials to repair a basement wall. Twenty feet for ten clasp. No delivery.”

“Dad, we talked about this, that’s not enough. Twelve clasp for a full building setup. Two for delivery. Five more for building services.”

“Hulver.” The older halfling growled in that sort of parental way that a mother scolds a rambunctious child. “We agreed to ten. No point in arguing now.”

Hulver buried his face in his hands for a moment before letting out a long breath and skulking away in the direction of the wooden shed.

“I apologize. He’s a good help, but he gets a little carried away sometimes.”

“I take no offense. He seems quite intent to play his role in the grand web of this town. It’s admirable.”

“What’s that about a web? You mean the chains?”

“No. The chains are smaller. I heard it described by my tutor that the world is a mess of webs, like spiderwebs. And we, the spiders, leap at the twitching strands that pull us to our needs. Maze-like though the whole web may be, we maintain the whole structure in parts.”

“Really, master wizard. That’s a new perspective I’ve not heard before. Is this some sort of magical understanding of society? Seems a little off from the linkers jargon.”

“I guess you could say it is an analogy for divining magic. One spider does not know the design of the whole web. One must be bigger than a spider to see the whole ordeal. If you desire to make sense of the pluckings of other strings and the movement of other spiders, you must observe the whole web, or take a view of the whole web and work down. If one tries to look up, they will see only darkness. But if one looks down upon the web, one sees all.”

“Is that so…” The older halfling seemed curious, but uncomfortable.

Flip let his eyes wander nervously. He had not intended to talk about anything today, and he never made small talk. All he could do was repeat notes from arcane texts. He hardly even used divination magic, but it seemed to be the only content in his head at the moment apart from his need for building supplies. He wasn’t even sure how he had steered the topic of conversation in that direction, but he had and he was painfully aware of how unusual it sounded to this simple mason.

“Oh, I didn’t have Hulver write any instructions out. I’ll take his work and sort out what you’ll need. You should prepare whatever transportation you have in mind… and payment…”

Flip hastily fished around among his various pouches and retrieved his coin purse. Somewhat shyly he plucked ten golden coins from the scrambled mess and handed them over to the mason. He had planned for far less, but the tower wouldn’t be safe to stay in until the wall was built.

“Now that’s a fair price if ever this little spider did see one.” The mason gave Flip a friendly wink and strode off to trade positions with his son, who seemed content to heft about bags of concrete mixture and stacks of brick.

Flip turned his attention to the open space just beyond the gate into the muddy yard and rubbed his index finger across his forehead in an attempt to stimulate his memory. It wasn’t often he found himself having to use the odd magics that some arcanists used to transport large quantities of materials. An enchanted space like the portal flat beyond his trapdoor was usually sufficient to carry what he needed, and he rarely needed more than what he could carry on his person.

Hulver strode over, disgruntled but ready to write with parchment and pen.

“What did you need to know?”

“How do I build a wall?”

Hulver sighed and began writing. Every couple of seconds, the halfling would look up at Flip with an exasperated expression. While Hulver scribbled instructions, his father slowly hauled two sacks of cement to the entry of the muddy yard.

“You can leave the materials stacked anywhere, I should be able to have them moved without much trouble.” Flip gave a halfhearted smile as the halfling set down the sacks and gave a shrug before moving out to another portion of the yard and out of sight.

Fliip placed a tentative hand over his spellbook, still tucked away within his robe, but decided better of it and attempted to recite the incantation from memory.

Packhorse by name—

Or mare, the same—

Fed on meat,

Not seed nor grain

Or any grassy plain.

From rosy heat

To muddy lane;

Heft for me

My burden—my pain.

The incantation was quiet, barely muttered. Hulver seemed to slow his writing as Flip went about his magic, keeping a sideways glance at the various gestures and hands slipped into and out of pockets.

There was a pause as the spell was complete and nothing seemed to happen.

“You sure you did that ri…”

Countless insects, each about the size of a coin, burrowed out of the ground and began to heft the sacks of concrete and form a procession through the mud, onto the road, and towards Flip’s tower. As the mason returned from an obscured corner of the yard with a metal frame carrying roughly fifteen or sixteen bricks. At the sight of the masses of insects, the frame was dropped and the bricks plopped into the mud with a surprisingly wet sucking noise. After a few seconds, however, a new column of insects formed around the dropped bricks and began to carry them of with the rest.

“Don’t be alarmed,” Flip muttered, “This is my transportation. It may actually be fastest if you were to show me approximately how much material I’ve paid for and they can cart it off.”

“Right… right this way.” The mason choked down a breath and motioned for Flip to follow him to the other end of the yard.

As Flip made his way behind the mason, a third column of insects followed as well in a neat little line. As the mason indicated a partially depleted stack of red brick, Flip motioned for the insects to descend upon the stack. No sooner was the signal given than the insects began to swarm up across the bricks and form chains of insect bodies from the upper reaches to the ground for other groups to carry individual bricks away. The mason also silently pointed towards a small pile of wooden beams, each roughly eight feet long. No sooner were the beams indicated than a team of insects began to split off of the column and swarm the stack and begin to carry off one of them.

“Sir,” the mason whispered in a terrified whisper, “Never do this again. I will transport things for free for you if it means I never need to see this many bugs again.”

“They’re ants. Harmless…” Flip finally grasped the panic display across the faces of both halflings. “But I will pay for transport next time. Forgive me for not bringing the funds for the service.”

“Here’s your instructions.” Hulver slowly made his way across the yard, tentatively stepping over the various columns of ants making their way around and out of the yard. “These bugs aren’t… they aren’t going to linger in town are they?”

“No.” Flip answered quickly, though he wasn’t completely sure whether the ants were conjured and would be dismissed from the plane when the spell was complete.

“Good. I hate ants.” Hulver grunted, shoved a parchment into Flip’s unprepared hands and stomped uncomfortable back to the brick structure.

“I also hate ants. They aren’t kind to weathered brick.” The mason grumbled. He seemed just as put off by the sight of all the ants leaving with their bricks as he did when they arrived. “Chains, hold your tower together, that you may never need to buy brick again.”

Flip grimaced at the bittersweet blessing. Rather than attempt to apologize further he gave a quick bow and left. The columns of ants were getting ahead of him and he was beginning to grow nervous about their exact destination. He had left the tower locked behind him, after all.