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“What did you need to see us about?” asks Fifer.

“I need you two to go on a trip,” he tells them. He then fills them in on just what he wants them to do and answers their questions as best he can without revealing too much to them. Once he’s sure they understand, he leads them back to the house and into his room where he opens the money chest and takes out two small bags of coins. Handing one to each, he says, “I’ll be meeting you there in less than a week so don’t take too long.”

“We won’t,” Yern assures him.

They then proceed to the stable where they saddle their horses and are soon heading down the lane to the road. Pausing only a moment to speak with Jiron, they then turn and gallop down the road toward town.

Back at the workshop, James is inspecting the box further when Illan walks in. “Saw Yern and Fifer leaving,” he says.

“I asked them to do me a favor,” he explains. “They’ll be gone for a while.”

“Might I ask where and what for?” he asks.

James nods and then fills him in on what he plans on doing. When he’s done, Illan asks, “Think it will work?”

“I hope so,” he says. “If it doesn’t, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“When do we leave?” he asks James.

“Day after tomorrow,” he replies. “There’re still a couple more things I need to do before I’m ready.” He turns back to the box and resumes his inspection.

“Very well,” says Illan and then turns to leave the workshop.

“Oh, one more thing,” James says quickly before he leaves.

“Yes?” Illan asks as he glances back from the doorway.

“Could you find someplace else to do the morning drills?” he asks. “They keep waking me up.”

Giving him a smile, he says, “Sure, no problem. Didn’t realize they were bothering you.”

“Thanks,” says James. As Illan walks out of the workshop, he thinks how glad he is to have good reliable people with him.

He leaves the workshop and enters the forest where he collects the crystals he’s had out there absorbing magic. They all look fully charged, each having a deep crimson glow. Taking them back to the workshop, he begins the final stage in preparing the box for the Fire.

There are five crystals embedded within the box. He endows three of them with the concealing spells, one which will leech magic from its surroundings, and the last one will be an extra reservoir of magic. His original idea of only having one concealing crystal had been scraped. After his experiment with the stool, he figures to need three so as not to lose too much power should it become necessary.

The way he has it set up, only one of the concealing crystals will be completely active at any given time. The other two will standby and only join the first when they detect someone searching for it. The concealing crystals will in turn continually draw their power from the reservoir crystal whose only function is to provide a single source of power for them to draw from.

The reservoir crystal will get its power from the leeching crystal which will continuously draw sufficient quantities from its surroundings to keep itself at the maximum, thereby powering all the rest as well.

James takes the crystals that have spent the last several days absorbing power and transfers their power into the leeching crystal, one at a time. As he begins the transfer of power, the crystals on the box each begin to emit a soft red glow as they slowly fill with power.

He hears a knock at his door but ignores it.

“James,” Miko’s voice is heard from the other side. “Lunch time.”

“Can’t right now,” he says. “In the middle of something serious.”

“But…” Miko begins.

“NOT NOW!!!” he shouts as his concentration begins to waver from the interruption. Miko must’ve gotten the idea for the knocking ceases and he is no longer bothered. He returns his full concentration to the matter at hand as the first of the crystals whose power is being absorbed into the box completely loses its glow.

He then directs the flow to draw the power from the next crystal with a deep crimson glow just as he hears a barely audible…Crack! The first crystal which he completely drained now has a hairline