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Turning back to the matters at hand, he decided to go into town after lunch to take care of his business with Alexander. What is he going to do for funds? He’s not going to be able to put that off indefinitely, not from what Roland said.

He hears a wagon rolling toward the house from down the lane so he gets up and looks out the window. Ezra is returning with Miko and Fifer from town. James sighs when he sees the amount of food stacked in the back of the wagon. Expensive.

These people go through food like a horde of locust. Returning to his seat at his workbench, he decides to shelve that worry for awhile. His main concern now is the ‘Fire’ and getting it hidden away. In a day or two, the box he’s commissioned will be completed and he will need to have everything in readiness so he can move fast to hide it for good.

He’s already come up with the general idea of where to hide it. Now he just needs to figure out how to hide it from searches, especially those magical in nature. The first problem, how to supply the power for the spells needed to hide it, seems to have been solved. On the chest, he’s having five crystals embedded, one on each side. Four can be responsible for the gathering of magic, the fifth needs to be able to draw on the stored power of the four to empower the spells of hiding.

What he needs to figure out now, is a way for magic to hide the ‘Fire’. He finally decides to take something out into the forest and then try to locate it by magical means. All the while he’ll be focusing on how the magic is locating it and try to come up with a way to counter it.

He takes one of the stools from the workshop and etches an ‘X’ in the top of it. Then he leaves the workshop and carries the stool about ten yards into the forest. After setting it down, he returns to the workshop and then takes out his mirror as he begins trying to locate the stool…

“Lunch!” he hears Ezra calling. Canceling the spell, he puts his mirror down in frustration. He understands better now how the magic is locating it, he just hasn’t come up with a good way to actually counter it. This is harder than I thought.

As he gets up from the workbench, he realizes he’s quite tired from all the magic he’s been doing. His head aches a little and when he leaves his workshop, he has to shade his eyes to keep the sun from hurting him. Once in the kitchen, he washes up and then takes his place at the table.

“How’s it going?” asks Jiron.

“Frustrating,” he replies. “Just when I feel I understand, I realize that I don’t.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it,” Tersa says encouragingly. “This will just take time.”

“I know,” replies James. “Just not sure how much time we’ll have.”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Oh, nothing,” Turning to Illan, he asks, “How’s the training going?”

Shaking his head, he says, “I doubt if anyone will kill themselves with their sword, but they’ve just had no experience at this sort of thing. A couple are good marksmen with the bows, especially Errin, but they’re hopeless with swords. Given enough time, I’m sure we can shape them up.”

“It’s only been a few days,” Jiron says.

“True,” admits Illan.

“I’m going into town today,” he announces to everyone.

“I better come with you,” Jiron states.

“Me, too,” Miko pipes up.

“Alright,” he agrees. “We’ll leave right after lunch.”

James is quiet during most of the meal, his mind on the problem with the spells as well as the funds needed for this place. There’re lots of gadgets he could introduce into this world from his own that would turn a profit, like the steam engine or the printing press. But revolutionary ideas like those usually bring turmoil and strife among those trying to control them. This world already has enough to worry about. Maybe his trip into town will bring an idea or two.

When they finish eating, they go out to the barn and saddle their horses. On the way down the lane, James looks over to the construction site and sees they’ve managed to get the walls to the house up and have begun to finish the roof.

At the end of the lane, red haired Moyil stands