What would Veish like? Rum pondered. And would she ask for something which I want to make? Hmmm. It’s usually best to ask the opinion of whomever is going to use what you’re making, before you make it. However, if I were to ask her today, the kind of imagery she’d conjure, would most likely be one that suited her old lifestyle, as the servant of a dungeon lord. Rum didn’t quite feel like trying to explain to her why a super-charged version of the Witches’ Lightning spell, of which he’d had the opportunity to experience, was an inappropriate request. Perhaps I should just surprise her for now. If she dislikes what I make for her, I can always make a second wand, more suited to her taste. Rum’s eyes followed the motions of the wood as he rotated it absentmindedly in his hands. He mulled the dilemma for over a minute, before his determination kicked in and he made a decision, there-and-then, to come up with something that the witch could appreciate, even if it wasn’t her first choice.

“But what?” Rum asked the air, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“You’ll be a wand of person magic, that is for sure” Rum told his wood. “So I could add a few spells to you. Veish could cast my spells without having to learn them first.” Rum lifted the wood up to his eyes, as if taking a closer look would help. “But that wouldn’t be enough, would it?” He put the wood down again. “Or maybe. But it’s not personal enough. Not her enough.” He let himself fall backwards onto the soft bed. What would make this wand yours, Veish? How could I offer this as YOUR wand? Rum rolled over on his stomach, and found himself having to gently pull his beard to the side as it immediately spread all over his face in a mess. You like to sleep. But that’s mostly because you’ve got nothing else going for you, isn’t it? No projects dear to you for which to work on. Right now you’re life is at a standstill. The only future you have, is the one of tomorrow: another day of eating, shitting, then sleeping. And of course, teaching White Rose, but you only do that for the money, don’t you? Or is there any other reason?

Rum frowned and rolled onto his back again. Nah, I can’t jump to conclusions. I made you get along with White Rose. That’s still just me. My interference. The wizard, in bored contemplation, used his fingers to tilt the wood up and down in front of his eyes. “It seems” he smacks the wood lightly on his forehead, “I’ll have to put a pin in it. These thoughts aren’t going anywhere.” He sat up, then moved the wood to the front of his face. “First, I’ll make you a wand of Rum, then I’ll add something, and make you a wand of Veish, too.”

And the wizard went to work. He started reading through the book of wandcraft, flipping through many irrelevant or superfluous pages, but reading long and hard the pages on the basic concepts. Seems that the aesthetics don’t matter much. He viewed his wood. The magic just have to be enclosed inside, like a typical enchantment, but then I have to make it accessible for the magic of the wielder as well. The wielders’ magic has to flow through it.

The wizard labored long and hard, the afternoon departing in a time so fast it felt like a flash. He looked at the wood in his hand. He’d barely used the knife, which he’d found among Amez’ stash, merely trimming the edges, making it a bit slimmer. The wood needed hardening, under a fire, and it needed a smoother surface. He’d also injected all the necessary enchantments into it. In fact, he’d used his own Minor Mana Sponge to allow the wand to passively feed on and store enough mana to charge up all the spells he wanted to add, which ended up including a series of his minor ones. For something grander, though, he also added a new spell of his: a modified “Positive Mind”. This variant was weaker in its individual effect, but in exchange it had become an area effect spell, and he dubbed it “Positive Aura”. Veish will be able to channel this passively, walking among people like the greatest spreader of positivity. Rum smiled, although he knew that wasn’t really Veish’s thing. However, having a power like that, he figured there would be little reason to think she couldn’t grow into that role. Who doesn’t want to be able to make a room lighten up with just a whisper to their stick?

Veish and White Rose arrived through the backdoor late in the afternoon, much to Rum’s expectations. “Hi” the witch said, opening the door and stepping in first. White Rose walked next to her, and, having entered, immediately shuffled over to zes favourite corner, whereupon the skeleton stationed zeself in quiet anticipation for the next day.

“Hey” Rum responded.

Veish raised an eyebrow at the wood in his hands. “What are you doing?” she stepped over to the large bed and sat down in it, some distance between them. Curious she was, it seemed, but not enough to get proper close.

Rum lifted the wood for her to see. “My promise.” He explained. “When it’s finished, it’s yours.”

Veish was a trained magic user, and so didn’t need explained that it was a wand laying in Rum’s hands. However, it did raise her interest the fact that he appeared to be talking about her wand. “What will it look like?”

“I thought you could make the decision there. Aesthetics aren’t really important to the magic. I’m mostly just giving it the right kind of magic. Enchantments, and so on.” He glanced over at her, and she met his eyes, though she betrayed no emotion except pure captured interest.

“What is its powers?” Veish gradually changed her expression into one of hunger, as if the wand was a piece of fried potatoe, and she was just remembering that she hadn’t eaten today.

“Haven’t fully decided yet.” He stopped holding the wand in his hands, and put it down in front her, on the bed between them. “I’ve given it several spells, spells you already know of, or at least have seen. Spells I thought you could appreciate. However, I want to give it one more spell... though I can’t think of one.”

She gently picked the wood up with her right hand, looking it over, feeling its powers connect with her own magic, and simultaneously feeling the effects of the Minor Mana Sponge nibble at her reservoir. “What options are there?”

Rum lay down on the bed, looking up into the ceiling. “If you could have ONE power, Veish. Just one power – to help you in life, to make your life better. But a power that would not, at the same time, be able to harm others. What would it be?”

Veish stared at Rum, her eyes wide with thought, her appetite for magic growing with every second, becoming something of a yearning. She looked away, stood up, then paced back and forth a little, as if unconsciously imitating Rum’s ponderous habit. “Anything? ANYTHING!?” She cast him a glance of reassurance.

“Well. Let’s be practical. But yeah, anything.”

She paced back and forth, faster, faster, her eyes going wild with magic fever. She grabbed her own hair, so caught up in a tormentingly major and open decision. Then, she stopped. “I–I don’t know. Your question is too difficult. What power do I want? I want to fly! But I can already do that, if you just gave me back my broom.” She pointed at the broom in question, which had been placed, rather inconspicuously, in the corner next to the workshop door. “I want the power of freedom, to no longer be a prisoner.” She gestured at Rum. “And I want to learn magic. I want to become my own, full, witch. My own books, my own magic items” she fell down on her butt onto the bed, “my own home.” She sighed.

Rum, having been quiet over the rant, nodded lightly when she appeared to be finished, and he sat back up, taking a couple of seconds to nod some more. “I understand.” That was all he said. He grabbed the unfinished wand from her hand, and then looked it over. “I’ll be back before late.” Rum stepped towards the backdoor. “Go buy yourself some food meanwhile. I’ll compensate you when I get back.” And then the wizard: left.

Hours went by, and Veish got herself some food. She ate it inside the closet. Feeling sorry for herself, feeling like she’d just made herself vulnerable, somehow. Caught in her own thoughts, she was mildly surprised then, when the closet door opened, and in speed-walked Rum, an excited look on his face. Stepping over to her bed, he handed her the stick. “It’s done.” He announced. “It’s yours now. I suggest you decide on some aesthetic that’ll suit you, and get familiar with its powers.”

She took the wand in her hands, wide-eyed. “What are its powers?”

Rum, his excitement calming down some, sat down next to her on the bed. “Become Clean, Renew Clothes, Softify and Magic Blanket. The 2 first, as you know, you target a person with. Softify you target the ground or similar you wish to make better for sitting or laying down on. Magic Blanket you typically cast into your own hand, so you can grab it easily when it appears. I’ve also given you a new, special spell. It’s called Positive Aura. It’ll make everyone around you just a little bit more positive-minded. In all cases, you just have to tell the wand the magic you wish to cast, and it’ll know what to do, once you’ve chosen a target. The spells” he tapped the wand, “are stored inside it. It draws on your mana, slowly, while near you. It charges magic, that way, the stored spells will be independent of your own mana pool, when you decide to cast them.” He nodded with a fond smile at his own creation, admiring his achievement.

“That’s–” Veish looked at the wand.

“–not all.” Rum interrupted. “There’s one, last spell, which I just created, for just this very wand.”

Veish’s eyes got all wide with excitement, and it looked to Rum, as if only for this moment, the witch stopped breathing.

“Conjure Magic Library” he let out.

“Conj–Magic Library?” She raised an eyebrow. Not disappointed, just a little confused.

“You want to be an independent witch. I get it. Well, in magic, independence equals the freedom to research and look up any magic you want. Now, I found a bunch of books at the university libraries. Not the public one in the park, but the more exclusive ones, inside, and I managed to make a magical copy of them. Now, you just have to say Conjure Magic Library, and 14 books of magic, of all sorts, from closer to beginner to highly advanced, will present themselves to you. You just pick one, and it’ll be available for you for some hours to read, before it needs to be re-conjured.” Rum stroked his beard, thinking briefly. “About 10 hours, or thereabouts, I would guess. Enough for a day of reading at least, I think. You’ll have to test to find out.”

Veish just looked shocked, at the wand in front of her, and at Rum. As if to make some distance, she crawled away from him, stopping to lean and rest on a stack of pillows at the other end of the bed. She lay there, on the pillow stack, admiring – no, captivated by – the magic wood. “You know” she spoke after a long moment. “I thought about running away today.”

Rum’s happy face lost a bit of its energy, but then rested into another, more understanding, more patient, smile.

“I was gonna run when me and White Rose were done.” She paused for a moment, saying nothing. Rum said nothing either. Instead, he just waited, letting her take her time. “I think, I wasn’t going to go back here. I was going to walk away from the park, alone. White Rose could get back home by zeself, and I could walk down the main road, past the walls, to my home.” The witch, in her hands, played carefully with her new wand.

“What made you change your mind?” Rum’s voice was low, though his mouth still smiled with understanding.

“Your bed is better” she smiled, and Rum didn’t know if Veish was joking or being serious. Or both?

“What about your fear of vanishing?” Rum pressed.

Veish’s smile faltered. “I was always in danger of dying in Jorteg’s Dungeon. By the sword of an adventurer, or by some rival of Jorteg.” She continued playing with the wand, now lightly tapping her cheek with it, as if bored. “I’m not sure that my last life was any safer. And here: I haven’t vanished – yet.” She looked towards the closet door, a light sadness to her face, but also, if Rum wasn’t fooling himself, some relief. “Not sure it makes sense.” She sniffed. “But it’s how I feel.” She looked towards Rum, and then looked down at the wand, now in her hand. “I suppose...” she guided Rum’s eyes to the wand, “thanks. For the gift.”

Rum nodded. And, for a few seconds, they both sat there, saying nothing to each other.

Then, without a word, Rum got up. He shuffled away from the bed, then turned and walked off towards the closet entrance. Arriving at the stuffed closet, however, just a step away from leaving the great dark space behind, the wizard turned, smiling broadly. “By the way.” He said, loudly back at her. “The name of the wand; the name I picked, as its maker: it’s called The Joy Stick.”

The wizard chuckled once at his own naming. “Have fun with it!” And then, chuckling once more, the wizard turned back to the stuffed closet, and left.