Kirel, hearing the commotion, turned around. “Jolen!” he shouted while reaching out to the falling elf. The others quickly gathered around, trying to find out what had just happened to their elvish friend.

Lelwyn cast a light spell, revealing a dark pit hundreds of feet deep. Kirel held out his hands and cast a barrier around the pit to try to prevent anybody else from falling in.

Rikel raised her eyebrow in confusion. “Didn’t we just walk up stairs where this pit is?” she asked the others.

Bewr shook her head. “Due to the magic in this tower, the normal rules of space don’t apply,” she explained.

Kirel turned to Rikel. “Why do you think none of us bothered trying to draw a map?” he asked her venomously.

Lelwyn put his hand on Kirel’s shoulder. “Come now, my friend. Rikel has done naught to deserve such harsh words,” he reprimanded.

Kirel angrily shrugged Lelwyn’s hand off his shoulder. “You’re right!” he shouted. “You’re the one I should actually be angry with! If you hadn’t let her and Jolen come into the tower with us, he might still be alive!” he accused with tears in his eyes. “Haven’t we lost enough for this trip?”

Bewr got between the two arguing mages. “Both of you stop this!” she ordered.

Kirel ignored Bewr and continued. “I can’t even believe how you’ve been acting right now!” he shouted. “How can you be so careless with people’s lives? Especially after I...”

Bewr stopped Kirel by putter her hand over his mouth. “Careful, Kirel,” she warned. “You don’t want to say anything you can’t take back later.”

Lelwyn glared at the two of them. “No, Bewr. Let him speak his piece,” he ordered. “I wish to hear what he intended to complain about this time; he always finds the most creative ways of complaining about what all of us are experiencing.”

Bewr turned to him. “Lelwyn! That was uncalled for!” she protested.

Kirel rolled his eyes. “Bewr, stay out of this!” he ordered. “Gods forbid that you let the two of us have a simple argument without butting in as you always do!” he continued. “Did it ever occur to you that you can’t fix everything?”

Rikel stepped between the arguing mages. “What kind of discipline is this?” she asked them rhetorically. “How could the three of you children stop bickering long enough to even learn how to use magic in the first place?” she demanded.

Kirel scoffed at her. “What was that? You think a mere knight knows anything about how the Mage’s Academy works? Give me a break!” he taunted.

Rikel drew her sword and aimed it at Kirel. “Oh, I’ll give you a break!” she threatened angrily.

Bewr stepped back “Stop this!” she shouted. When the others all turned to her, she looked around the staircase where they’d been arguing. After a moment’s reflection, she picked up a torch off the wall and broke it in two with her hands, stopping the argument.

The group all stumbled slightly as Bewr fell into a sitting position. Rikel walked up to her. “What just happened?” she asked the mage in concern.

Bewr threw the two pieces of the torch into the pit where Jolen fell and sighed. “The torch had a spell on it that made us more irritable than we would normally be,” she explained. “Breaking the torch should have broken the spell. Though, we should probably hurry up and get far away from here, anyway, just to be on the safe side,” she added between taking deep breaths.

The others nodded before continuing up the stairs. Kirel walked up to Lelwyn. Before Kirel could say anything, Lelwyn held up his hand. “I know your mind well enough to predict that which you wish to say to me. We all said words that perhaps we shouldn’t have. The irritability spell that Bewr mentioned was responsible. I will accept no apology from any of you as none are needed,” he smiled to the group.

Rikel cleared her throat to get the others attention. “We should get going,” she told them.

The now sullen group continued up the tower. As they approached the next floor, they could hear voices from behind one of the doors.

“I hate trying to get through this place!” one voice complained. “It’s like it’s different every time we’re here, almost as though the tower has a mind of its own.”

“Not even the boss has the kind of power for that,” the other voice countered. “Now shut up and get back to searching; if we don’t stop whoever broke into the tower, we’ll be turned into ghouls or worse! You remember what happened to Hosil, right?”

The group stopped and looked at each other. They all recognized those voices as the same poachers who killed Telina. With a silent nod, the four prepared themselves for combat. Rikel held up her hand and reached for the door. She silently counted down on her fingers.

When the last finger went down she opened the door and the group stormed in. Kirel started by throwing up a lightning barrier spell to ward of any projectiles. Rikel quickly reached the first poacher and beheaded him.

The other poacher started drawing his weapon but was distracted by a light spell in his eyes, courtesy of Lelwyn’s magic. Before the poacher could recover, Rikel stabbed him through the stomach.

Kirel took down his spell and sighed. “The timing of this was terrible,” he lamented.

Rikel turned to him in confusion. “How so?” she asked.

Lelwyn placed a hand on Kirel’s shoulder. “I concur with Kirel: Jolen deserved to be here for this battle, short it may have been, as well,” he explained. “At least we avenged her on his behalf.”

Kirel shrugged Lelwyn’s hand off of his shoulder while Bewr choked back a sob. “It’s not the same and you know it!” she accused.

Rikel tuned out the mages and started rummaging through the poachers’ possessions.

Kirel, seeing what Rikel was doing, raised an eyebrow. “I never took you for the type to loot the fallen,” he observed.

Rikel shook her head. “I’m looking for any kind of clues about who they worked for or what their orders were,” she countered.

Lelwyn nodded. “A capital idea,” he agreed. “We shall aid you.” With that, Lelwyn started looking through the poachers’ remains himself. Kirel and Bewr made faces at the thought of touching the corpses then shrugged and started helping in the rummaging.

As the group finished searching the remains of their foes for clues and finding nothing, Kirel huffed. “Well, that was a productive use of our time!” he shouted sarcastically.

Bewr jabbed Kirel with her finger. “Hey, it was a good idea!” she protested. “The poachers could have had something on them that could have shed a clue on all of this!”

Kirel scoffed. “Oh, I’m sure they had a nice letter of employment on them!” he countered. “Did you honestly expect them to have something on the lines of ‘I need you to kill a bunch of animals and bring me the corpses to fuel my highly illegal necromancy. Signed the reincarnation of Xosha’ on them?”

Bewr ground her teeth. “Obviously it wouldn’t be anything as incriminating as that,” she admitted. “But any hint as to what the necromancer is up could be invaluable. After all, you’re the one who likes to make the ‘there is no knowledge that is not power’ quote.”

Lelwyn stepped between the two arguing mages. “Both of you cease this foolishness!” he ordered. “We may have found naught in the poachers’ remains,” he admitted while turning to face Kirel. “But now you are the one wasting time by insisting on continuing this bickering.”

Kirel sighed. “Fine, then let’s get going,” he suggested while starting to continue on to the new floor.

The others quickly followed after him. Rikel easily got ahead of Kirel and started checking the next door for any obvious traps. When she didn’t find any, she opened the door and found a room containing nothing of interest.

Rikel walked to the next door and opened. it. She took one look inside and used her arms to block the door. “Everybody stay out!” she shouted.

Lelwyn walked up behind her. “What is inside?” he asked her.

Rikel look at him over her shoulder. “The entire inside of the room is a deep pit,” she reported.

Lelwyn nodded. “Then we shall avoid this room and move on,” he ordered. As they started walking to the next door, Lelwyn stumbled. Kirel ran over to him and held him up. “You okay, Lelwyn?” Kirel asked.

Lelwyn nodded. “I am merely fatigued by our recent encounter with the poachers, old friend” the healer assured.

Rikel stopped and pointed into the room they just left. “This room looks like a reasonably defensible place to rest for a few hours,” she reported. “I think we should make camp here before setting out.”

The three mages all nodded and started stetting up an impromptu camp while Bewr cast the advanced versions of the sentry spells to keep them safe during their rest.

Once the camp was set up, Lelwyn conjured some food and passed it out to the group. As the group ate, Kirel turned to Lelwyn. “You need to eat more than that to recover your strength,” he observed. “A healer of your education should know that,” he teased.

Lelwyn rolled his eyes. “Though you are my senior in age,” he started, “that does not give you right to treat me as a child.” He then smiled. “Besides, you are hardly one to talk.”

Kirel smiled back. “I didn’t cast anywhere near as many spells as you did,” he pointed out. “I’m not the one on the verge of magical exhaustion.”

Before Lelwyn could respond, Bewr shoved more food in both Lelwyn’s and Kirel’s hands. “Both of you eat up,” she ordered. “We need to be keeping our strength up to fight the necromancer, not each other,” she added.

Rikel chuckled. “I’m with the enchanter,” she joked.

Bewr smiled back at Rikel. “I’m glad that somebody in our group has some brains,” she said. “Even if it is a knight,” she joked with a wink.

Rikel laughed loudly. “Well, if the three of you insist on acting like children,” she threatened. “Then you should each head to bed immediately!” she jokingly ordered.

Kirel and Lelwyn looked at each other. “Yes, mother!” they shouted in unison.

Rikel shook her head. “It’s the thought of having children who behaved like the two of you that kept me childless,” she explained with a smile.

Kirel raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked. “And here I assumed that it had more to do with your complete lack of maternal behavior,” he teased.

Rikel lifted her head and laughed vigorously. Kirel smirked at Bewr. “See?” he asked with a grin. “Not everybody is as thin-skinned as you are,” he teased her. “Some people know how to take a joke.”

Bewr held up a finger. “The alchemy lecture,” she answered enigmatically.

Before Kirel could react, Lelwyn held up his hands. “Jokes aside,” he started. “I think that Rikel was correct about our need for sleep,” he explained. “Let us to bed before we drop of exhaustion where we sit.”

The other mages nodded and went into their tents to sleep. When they awoke, Lelwyn started handing out conjured food to the group.

After eating, Bewr walked up to Rikel. “If you think this is a safe enough time,” she began, “we’ve finished the calculations a while ago for the Rune Matrix on that sword enchantment you wanted and doing it when I’m rested would be better than after a day of traveling and or fighting.”

Rikel nodded. “How long will it take from here?” she asked, weighing the pros and cons of waiting.

Bewr shrugged. “Twenty minutes max; five if I draw all the runes perfectly the first time,” she explained.

Rikel drew her sword and handed it to Bewr. “I’d rather you take longer and get it right the first time,” she explained. Bewr nodded in understanding. “Kirel!” The knight shouted. “Keep a barrier spell going in case we’re attacked!”

Lelwyn nodded in approval. “A wise precaution,” he acknowledged while Kirel cast the barrier spell.

Bewr blushed. “I’ll also need that drop of blood now,” she explained. Rikel laughed and dug through her bag for a used blood cloth, handing it over when found.

Ten minutes later, Bewr returned Rikel’s sword with a smile. “Just so you know,” the enchanter started. “We decided not to make it voice activated like the one you described for stealth reasons. Instead, you should simply be able to imagine the weapon changing shape and it should do so.”

Rikel took the weapon and tested it, making it change back and forth between its sword and spear modes repeatedly. “Nice work,” Rikel complimented. “And having it be silent is more useful tactically, anyway.”

Bewr shrugged. “It was actually pretty simple, if a little on the tedious side,” she explained. “Anyway, I’m famished!”

Lelwyn handed Bewr some conjured food. Bewr quickly ate. Rikel raised an eyebrow. “I take it that enchanting items is hunger inducing,” she observed dryly. “After all, you did the same thing after finishing Jolen’s dagger,” she pointed out before realizing that she casually mentioned Jolen’s name.

Lelwyn laughed to ignore the reference to Jolen. “That is quite the understatement, Rikel” he joked. “Especially when it involves enchantments that are expected to be made permanent,” he added. “They take significantly more energy than enchantments that are merely to last temporarily.”

Kirel nodded. “After I finished my enchanting competency project during my final year at the Academy, I ate for over two hours without stopping,” he admitted.

Bewr chuckled. “Yeah!” she agreed. “That ended up causing quite the food bill that month, didn’t it?” she reminisced between bites.

After they finished eating, Kirel took down his barrier spell. “We should probably get going,” he suggested.

Lelwyn stood up and walked over to Kirel. “I agree, my friend,” Lelwyn exclaimed. “Let us be off!”

Before the group could continue on their way, one of the walls near them disappeared and revealed a large number of monsters guarding a door. Bewr gulped. “That’s… that’s a lot of skeletons,” she observed.