It had been a week since the citywide party and, as expected, things were back to normal. Construction had been going smoothly all around the town, as was expected after Aurus discussed the shipping of new equipment with a room full of hungover Master Builders. The only thing that was still in Aurus’ mind from last week and that was the Honor Badges given to the adventurer group, New Frontier. He initially didn’t believe Dorus, when he barged in the tavern claiming his badge was stolen. Unfortunately, after a day of recovery from the drunkenness and the hangover, his whole party came in saying their badges were gone. If it was just one badge, Aurus could have brushed it off as a result of the partying, but all three at once seemed awfully suspicious. It didn’t make things better when, even after a whole day of searching and retracing their steps, the adventurers could not find their awards

Aurus knew that rumors of a thief group were becoming more and more common with each passing day. He wasn’t one to believe in rumors but some events in the past few weeks had made him wary that they were true, and now this only confirmed his suspicion that there was indeed a criminal group inside the city. Dealing with bandits on the outside of the walls was one thing, but inside of the city was another thing entirely. One had to consider the risks involved in not only making sure no civilians got hurt, but also to minimize the damage done to surrounding buildings, in case a fight broke out. The last thing Aurus needed was to spend more money on materials for the Builder’s Guild. He sat in his office, blankly staring at a sales report from the shop, thinking about these things before focusing his attention back on the piece of paper.

Sales were quite high this week. A lot of people bought potions and small magic trinkets. I’ll have to get a shipment of new ones soon.

Potions and trinkets were typically bought from the Wizard’s College where they were produced, and since he knew the headmaster it wasn’t too expensive. Aurus eyed over the amount of things sold over the last three days.

Seems like A LOT of people bought potions and trinkets. These numbers are really high.

He wondered how much of that money was rewards from quests. The guild liked to make sure that they never overcharged adventurers since the rewards from quests were one of their only sources of income.

If sales continue like this we might be able to increase funding to the city, in addition to increasing some of the rewards.

He placed the sales report on his desk and picked up a recently turned submitted file for a quest. Apparently, someone’s house in the city was haunted and they wanted adventurers to get rid of the ghosts. Aurus ignored these kinds of quest submissions since there was no evidence of ghosts existing. Hauntings could be explained using logic and magic. Ghosts were never a problem for anyone who didn’t have delusions, so when Aurus saw that this was the same request someone had submitted three times previously he decided to read it. Partly for his own sake of mind in making sure that this was nothing serious, and partly because he didn’t want to be bothered by it ever again.

The report read:

“My house has been haunted for months now. I’ve submitted this a few times and received no answer and now my house is trying to kill me! Ever since the party in town the spirits in my home have even tried to set fire to me and my neighbors. I can’t sleep anymore because of the shaking, much less live there. Please do something!”

The file also contained the day it was submitted and the location of the house, a small village to the south of the city, among other things like the file number and a space where he would write the day it was approved or denied. Aurus thought it over. Fire was unusual for “ghost” reports; generally, it was just visual illusions and a few objects moving on their own. He decided to approve it and make a low priority quest. Specifying the requirement to have a magic user present in case it was something of magical origin. Writing his signature on it, he placed the file on the corner of the desk where he kept approved paperwork that was ready to be processed.

The rest of the work on his desk consisted of item categorization and management. Over the 300 years that the Adventurer’s Guild had existed, it had accumulated an incredible amount of magic items. The less dangerous ones were usually kept at the Guild itself and either sold in the Shop Shop or rented at the Rent Shop. Both shops were in the same physical place, but Aurus liked to make the distinction between each of them since the process of handling items was different. At the Shop Shop, items were bought and sold with little regard to the final destination of the item, so the things sold there were usually not strong enough to cause too much trouble, if it was sold to someone with bad intentions. The Rent Shop had more powerful items that required a monthly payment to be used. Similarly both shops had limitations on what kind of items were sold to people, non-adventurers could buy general potions and non-magical items from the Shop Shop, but magical items and the Rent Shop was reserved for adventurers only. Even the more powerful items up for rent were limited to gold level only. This kept people who were inexperienced with magic from getting their hands on something that might cause chaos.

The more dangerous magical items, those too dangerous to be wielded by even high-level adventurers, were sent to the Guild Warehouse. A large, heavily defended, highly secured, building located in the capital of the kingdom. But luckily for Aurus, it seemed none of the items he had to process that day were dangerous enough to warrant it being sent to the capital. He looked over the file for the seventh magical staff someone had sold to them that week.

Whoever is creating these staffs really needs to think of a better way to apply magic. I’m going to have to send these to the College if we keep getting them.

The guild unfortunately had a “we buy everything” policy, something Aurus’ predecessor had thought of. Sometimes when enough of a certain item was bought by the guild, instead of selling them in the shop, it would be sold to the Wizard’s College, so the mages there could transfer the magic to other, more useful, objects. These objects would then be sold, or kept, by the college at their digression. Just as he finished that file and started looking at the one for the eighth magical staff they had bought, he heard a knock on the door.

“Hey can I come in?” Nia asked just as she walked in.

“You already did. So why not?” Aurus replied sarcastically.

“Sorry.” Nia apologized with a meek smile. “It’s just that there is someone here who needs to see you.”

“Tell whoever it is that I’m busy.”

“I did, and he insisted that he really needed you.”

“Then insist that I am very busy, and will see him when I stop for lunch.”

“I did that too, but he...” She was interrupted as a gruff looking man pushed his way past her and into the office.

“Are you the guild master?!” The man said in a loud voice. “Because I made a request yesterday and I don’t see it on the board downstairs!”

“All requests take at least 48 hours before they are fully processed and become fully fledged quests. This should have been told to you when you submitted your quest application.” Aurus answered calmly.

“Ok, but this isn’t the first time I’ve done this! There hasn’t been a single time where my request was accepted! How am I supposed to sleep in my house if you don’t send any adventurers to get rid of the ghosts?”

“Well I’m sure that…” Aurus paused as he processed that last sentence. “You’re the one who’s having the ‘ghost’ problem in his house?”

“Yes! This is the third time I’ve tried to get any of you to do anything! And now my house is throwing fireballs everywhere, even my neighbors are scared to go near it.”

“Fireballs? The file only said something about fire. Nothing was mentioned about fireballs.” Aurus questioned, slipping into deep thought.

“Well the walls are throwing fireballs everywhere. And floor doesn’t stop shaking, and the…”

“Have you gotten any items in the time this started happening?” Aurus interrupted the man.

“What? What does that have to do…”

“Have you acquired any items in the time your house started being haunted?” Aurus interrupted him again, with an even more serious expression than usual.

“Um… Yeah, a few things why?”

“Anything unusual? A gift from someone, maybe?”

“Now that you mention it yeah! A broomstick from a friend of mine who goes on quests sometimes. Wait… is the stick haunting my house?” The man’s face grew white in horror.

“No, it’s a lot worse than that.” Aurus sighed. “Go back to your village and make sure no one comes near your house, don’t go in it yourself, and wait for me. I will be going there in a few hours once I’m done here to try and fix your ‘little’ problem.”

The man nodded as he left the office and headed downstairs, his face still in horror at the thought of a haunted stick. Aurus began writing on a piece of paper. Nia, who had been standing near the door the entire time, walked in.

“What was that about a haunted stick?” She asked hesitantly.

“It’s not a haunted stick; it’s a faulty magic item.” Aurus corrected her as he kept writing.

“How can a magic item fire off spells on its own? Or make the walls of the house do it?”

“It can do that if the magic inside the item is leaking.”

“Magic can leak?!” She said in complete surprise.

“Yes.” Aurus replied still writing. “If an item isn’t made correctly, the magic placed into it begins leaking into the area around it. First into the air, then into any solid object around the area.”

“So then everything around the leaking item becomes magical and begins casting spells if an activator touches it.” Nia said as she connected the dots.

“Exactly.” Aurus said handing her the piece of paper he had been writing on. “This is a list of things I need to transfer all of that magic from the man’s house into something less dangerous.”

“Got it! When are you leaving again?”

“During lunch. That way I’ll be back before noon and won’t miss any work.”

“Ok. I’ll go get the things right away then.”

“Thank you.” Aurus said just as she was leaving.

He picked up the transcripts of items that were bought and sold that week, and once again started looking through them. He placed the file he had just finished inspecting, before he was interrupted, into one of the various piles and picked up the next one.

Another magical staff. That makes nine. Maybe they would be more useful if we were to sell them as broomsticks.

Aurus pondered the idea until he realized that if that were the case, he would have to deal with a lot more “haunted” houses and “haunted” sticks. He placed the paper on the same pile as the other ones and picked up another unread document. Another staff. He lifted the stack and pulled the last file from underneath. A file for the purchase of a staff. He placed his hands on his head with a sigh.

I really need to find a way to get rid of our ‘we buy everything’ policy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Aurus had taken one of the horses from the city stables once he had the materials and left. The ride to the village was quick, about 30 minutes on horseback. The people living there were potato farmers whose ancestors had settled about 100 years ago, just before Anderess was founded. Calling it a village was a bit of a stretch since less than 100 people lived there, but it was still very well kept since it was so close to the city. Aurus had arrived to see some of the people gathered near the foot a hill, and on the top of the small hill sat an isolated house. He assumed that was the problem area since most of the villagers seemed to be gathered around it, probably waiting for him. The old man who barged into his office was the first to notice he had arrived and ran from the crowd towards him.

“Guild master! You’re here!” He said in surprise.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He questioned.

“Well, not a lot of people would be willing to handle such angry ghosts.”

“I told you it wasn’t… Nevermind. Why is everyone so close to the house? I thought I said to keep people away from it.”

“They wanted to see an exorcism in action! I’m also very curious about it too. How are you going to get rid of the haunted stick?”

“It’s not a haunted… You know what, I don’t have the time.” He whispered under his breath. “I am going to do a magic process to get rid of it, but to do that safely I really need everyone to back off.”

“Oh that’s sad. We were just about to start a potato roast. We even lit a bonfire and everything.” The old man said, dejectedly.

“You lit a what?” Aurus asked deadpan.

“A bon…”

The old man’s words were interrupted as screaming was heard from the small group of people. The small house started shooting fireballs in their direction and all of the villagers were running away into their own homes, some of which were being hit by the flaming spells. It actually surprised Aurus how the walls and the door of a house could shoot fireballs in more than a single direction and not catch fire at the same time. However, before trying to understand the nature of magic houses Aurus turned to the old man.

“Can you go grab a bucket of water, please?” He said calmly.

As the terrified homeowner ran to get water Aurus got off his horse and pulled a small metal shield from one of the packs he brought with him. He looked at the bonfire they had started near the hill before fastening the shield to his forearm.

“Are you really going to put out all those fireballs with a single bucket?” The old man returned with the bucket.

“No, I’m putting out the bonfire. Take the horse somewhere safe.” Aurus said as he grabbed the bucket and walked towards the flame-shooting house.

He knew that by starting a bonfire they had inadvertently started dispersing ash into the air. Unfortunately for them and for Aurus, wooden ash was the main activator for fireball spells and the wind was just right to send all of that ash into contact with the surface of the house. He kept his gaze on the house as he walked, staying alert to any fireballs coming in his direction. A few came close and one even whizzed past his head, crashing into the ground behind him. He was close to reaching the bonfire until one headed straight towards his face. He raised his shield to cover his head and kept walking. The fireball dispersed completely as it made contact with the shield, not even making the noise of impact it usually did. He lowered it as he reached the burning pile of logs and dumped the water on it, drowning out the flames. Despite that, the house kept firing off spells for a few more seconds before finally stopping.

Aurus turned around to see how much damage the volley had caused. The other houses were singed but none of them seemed to be at risk of catching on fire. The advantage of having dispersed magic over a large area was that the magic was usually weak in comparison to magic concentrated on a single item. He walked back to his horse, which the old man had taken to the edge of the village.

“I guess the stick really doesn’t like bonfires.” The old man said as Aurus approached him.

“Yeah, something like that.” Aurus said, deadpan, as he led his horse to the once flame-shooting house.

Nearing the house itself, he started removing several different things from the pack on the horse. A few round stones, several different shaped rocks, a few rope coils, some long pieces of string, a binding agent, and various pieces of chalk, all of them in different colors. Thankfully for Nia, Aurus already had a few of the items with him in the guild so it didn’t take long to buy what was missing. He put on the glasses he used to identify different kinds of magic and examined the house, being careful not to bring any activators with him as he entered it.

Fire magic. All of it. I would’ve thought there would be some earth magic mixed in since the owner mentioned the floor rumbling but it’s just fire magic. This makes things a lot easier.

Moving outside once again, he started placing the stones evenly around the house. He then got the rope and put in on the floor around the rocks, forming a circle around the whole thing. Grabbing one of the chalks, he wrote symbols on each of the stones surrounding the house. Aurus noticed the people had returned to where they were before, but now they were all staring at him intently. Attention wasn’t something he cared for, he had a job to do.

He walked inside the house with a few more materials. He started writing the symbols on each large piece of furniture, and a single large symbol on the walls, ceiling and the door. Moving all of the furniture out of the way, he drew a few concentric circles on the floor in the center of the house, connecting each circle with a few lines of chalk in different patterns. Had the magic imbedded in the house around him not been purely fire magic, but mixed kinds of magic, the patterns would have been a lot more complicated and the color of the chalk would have made a difference.

Grabbing the string and the binding material, he began connecting each thing he had written on to the center circles, making sure to glue the string on a precise location on each chalk symbol. The smaller items around the house didn’t need anything to connect them to the center since that’s what the larger circle around the house was for. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of large furniture so he didn’t have to use too much string.

Aurus looked at the room once again through his glasses to make sure he didn’t miss anything. That was when he spotted the supposed haunted broomstick. Picking it up, the first thing he noticed was how little magic it contained, the second thing was how much it looked like a regular magic staff that someone just turned into a broom.

It doesn’t look too out of the ordinary. Whatever they did to concentrate all of that fire magic into this, clearly wasn’t enough.

Putting the broom back where it was, he proceeded to walk to the center of the house. He searched through his pocket and got out a few small rocks, each of them small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He picked a marble-sized one and put the rest away, drawing a small chalk symbol on it before placing it at the center of the concentric circles. Checking one last time for anything wrong, he maneuvered his way out of the house and walked toward the small crowd of people. There were about a dozen villagers there, all of them either too old or too young to work the fields.

“Is it over? Did you get rid of the haunted stick?” The owner of the house asked.

“No, I need one last thing.” Aurus said as he walked towards the remains of the bonfire and grabbed a bit of ash.

Walking back to the house, he sprinkled the ash on the center circle right above the small rock. Immediately there was a small rumble as a low humming noise began emitting from the house itself. Aurus backed off, doing his best not to touch any of the strings or move any object. Looking at the house form the outside he could see this would take at least an hour. The small group of people were restless now that the house was humming.

“I don’t recommend going near it or starting anymore bonfires for now. In about an hour it should be done.” Aurus told the homeowner.

“What did you do? You angered the stick ghost!” The old man yelled.

“This is part of the process, and I didn’t anger anything.” Aurus replied calmly.

“But how do you know that the stick isn’t angry at what you did?”

Aurus stared at the man trying to think of a response that would not get him kicked out of the village.

“Maybe it was a spirit that was stuck inside the stick.” One of the villagers replied.

“I think the real question is whether the ghost haunting the stick was the spirit of the stick or a spirit from someplace else.” An older woman suggested.

“You’re assuming that the stick has a ghost to begin with.” Another one replied.

“Of course sticks have ghosts, they came from trees right?”

“But why would it use fire then? See? It makes no sense. It’s obviously an outside spirit.” The old man said.

Aurus had already walked away as the villagers began arguing about the origin of a non-existent spirit. He had better things to do. Going back to his horse, he grabbed a handful of papers from the pack and began reading through them. Even out here, he was going through paperwork, but it was preferable to having to hear the nonsensical conversation the townsfolk were having. He was nearly done reading through one of the files before a fight broke out among the small crowd. He sighed before putting away the papers and heading towards them to break it up.

Once everything had settled down, he spent the next hour explaining to them that it wasn’t a spirit but rather a magical item. It actually took him fifteen minute to do that, but the villagers had so many questions that he spent the rest of the time trying to answer them. Most of the questions were about the nature of ghosts to which Aurus kept replying that ghosts didn’t exist.

“What about just general spirits though? Do they exist?”

“No they don’t.” Aurus responded.

“Can spirits use magic?”

“I just said they didn’t exist.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say if they could use magic.”

Aurus stopped again to think of a reply that wouldn’t get him kicked out.

“Can spirits be made?” A young kid asked.

Aurus froze. He was genuinely surprised at the question. Thinking about how much he could explain in the short time he had, he spoke.

“No. They can’t.” He replied, cutting his answer a bit short. “Any other questions?”

Thankfully, before they could ask any more, the house stopped humming, which meant that the process was complete. He ended the small learning session, in which no one learned a thing, and went back into the house. He examined the house to see if there was any leftover magic, but fortunately it was all concentrated now on the small rock he had placed in the center circle. Picking it up, he placed it in a padded metal box he had brought. After quickly cleaning up the chalk marks and gathering the rest of the materials, he said goodbye to the old man.

“Thank you so much guild master! Let me give you some sort of reward as thanks.”

“You don’t have to. If anything I should be paying you for this magic I gathered.” Aurus said patting the backpack where he had placed the box in.

“Naw. It’s yours. Besides, keeping that magic around might bring more ghosts to my house.” The old man replied.

“Yeah. Sure.” He said, deadpan.

He said his farewells to the townsfolk, who seemed to be very grateful, before heading back to Anderess. It was just past noon, which meant he still had about half a day of work ahead of him. Breathing deeply he looked at the blue sky as his horse broke into a steady trot. The kid’s question about whether spirits could be made, still in his head.

No, they can’t. At least no spirit that you have ever thought of. He finished the answer in his mind.

Pushing back the question, he focused once again on the work he had for the rest of the day. He still had a ton of paperwork, a thieves group to handle, and stupid adventurers who would make everything a lot harder than it needed to be. He really didn’t have the time to answer those kinds of questions.