Mark of the Fool

As Alex had learned over many, many long days and nights of careful research, there were a host of methods an alchemist could use to craft a staff.

In the most ancient days of magic, wizards’ staffs were forged by way of blood sacrifice to a powerful demon, devil, or other spirit, one who would bind only the strongest souls into a chosen tree branch to fuel the staff’s powers. These magical items were cruel and monstrously powerful, channelling vicious magics that echoed the suffering of the souls trapped inside.

Some of these staffs even survived to modern times: terrible artefacts of a barbaric age.

But, as alchemy advanced and the world grew richer in mana, less…bloody methods were used in staff crafting; later wizards took to binding elemental spirits within the cores of ancient woods, granting terrible elemental powers. Though they were—to some extent—less cruelly made, these staffs were still wrathful things, wrought of dreadful magic and often temperamental at best.

Fortunately for Alex, modern staff-making techniques were less—if at all—cruel, less dangerous, and more versatile than the terrible ways of ancient times, which gave the young wizard more, even better, and far more acceptable options to choose from.

‘Of course, I would have to go and choose one of the more difficult methods,’ he thought, painting the aeld tree branch with mana-infused oil. Its green-golden glow flickered, like it was laughing from being tickled. ‘Oh well, easy methods tend to make for unimpressive results. Still, a lot of this is going to be tedious, meaning lots of waiting around…but, I think I know how we can pass the time.’

He turned to Claygon standing nearby, eyes fixed on the aeld tree branch. His surface gleamed brilliantly after his father’s meticulous polishing, and Alex admired it, picking up a flask of dark liquid and bringing it to a pressurised mana processor.

“So, Claygon.” He popped the cap on the flask, dripping liquified dungeon core essence into the processor. “I know how much you like learning things, and this is going to take awhile, so, since there’s not going to be anything for you to do except listen to my army eradicate vermin, how about if I teach you some of what I’ll be doing?”

The golem pulled his gaze away from the aeld tree branch. ‘What you will…be doing?’

“Yep, in my staff-making,” Alex said. “By the time I’m finished, you’ll know more about alchemy than most first years! And…maybe if I ever need help with this sort of stuff again, you’ll be able to assist me, if you want. What do you think?”

Claygon looked between Alex and the aeld branch. ‘Yes…father. I would love…to learn.’

“Good! So, let’s begin lesson one of staff-crafting!” Alex eyed the dark liquid dripping into the container, adjusting the freshly polished mana vacuum. “There’s a lot of different ways to go about doing this: if there’s anything wizards and alchemists love, it’s variety and—between you and me—being a little redundant at times. That’s why there’s absolutely a bloody wagon load of different methods for making a staff, but I think it’s simplest if I tell you about the two most common ones…and then the strange one I’ll be using.”

‘Strange…one?’ Claygon cocked his head, watching as the dungeon core substance slowly dripped into the processor.

“Oh yes, we’ve got—” Alex paused. “Wait, I was getting a bit ahead of myself there. We’ll get to the strange one later. Let’s go over the easiest one first: Magic Circuitry Infusion. Fun fact for you, that’s likely the way your fire-gems were made.

Claygon slowly raised his upper hands, opening his fingers and examining the fire-gems shining in his palms. ‘Really?’

“Oh yeah,” Alex remembered the very first time he’d felt the gems’ magic circuitry back in the Cave of the Traveller. “You just take a magical medium and inscribe a magic circuit into it…well, it’s a bit more complex than that, but that’s the basics of it. In the end, you have an item that replicates a spell. It’s fairly easy to do—if you know your way around alchemy—and can be pretty cheap as far as magic item creation goes…just as long as you make the item rely on the ambient mana in the air.” Alex finished measuring out the dungeon core essence into the mana processor. “But your fire-gems are a little bit different than that. They’ve got their own internal power sources, so you can activate them just about anywhere, mana in the air or not.”

He made a gesture like he was rubbing a pair of coins between his fingers. “But that gets much more pricey, especially if you have to inscribe multiple magic circuits into one object. That’s when you’d need to build lots of different power sources into the item—or one big one connected to all the separate circuits—and that’s not cheap. If you’re going to do that, you may as well go straight to the second method, in my opinion.”

‘Which is?’ Claygon asked.

“Mana Core Creation: which is close to how you were made, Claygon.” Alex said, warming up a heat source beneath the processor. “Basically, you create a core—similar to a golem core—that acts like both the power source and control centre of a magic item. For a staff, you don’t make it as powerful as a golem core or as complex, but it still takes some pretty skilled alchemy-work to pull off. To me, the nice thing about staffs made with mana cores—”

He went about setting up the flower pot, opening bags of sanitised soil and specialised fertiliser as he talked. “—is that the lovely little design doesn’t needspellcraft in order for me to use it. Everything can be controlled with good old fashioned mana manipulation. Most wizards would find that more of a headache, but for me, it’s the perfect Traveller-sent blessing.”

‘Good…’ Claygon said, eyeing his father’s alchemy equipment. ‘Is that the method…you’re using to make your staff, father?’

“Oh, absolutely not!” Alex poured the soil into the pot, stirring it carefully, then added a bag of dried mushrooms from his personal garden; something to increase mana conductivity. “You see, in order to install a mana core into a staff, you need to cut the actual body of the staff open, put the core in, then seal it back up again. Which, uh, wouldn’t be very pleasant for our young, branchy friend over there.” He gave the aeld branch a friendly nod.

The branch released a wave of anxiety.

‘That would be…bad,’ Claygon said.

‘Just a bit. Now, if I knew a spell called Wood Shape, then I might be able to warp its wood, install the core then close it back up with no issues.” He shrugged. “But I don’t know that spell, so we’re using a method from magical botany for making a staff out of living wood. It’s called Staff Incrementum, and it needs one of these!’

He picked up the false roots, waving them in front of Claygon’s face. Their prongs protruded like spines on a sea urchin.

‘Those…spikes are going to stick the branch?’ Claygon asked. ‘They look like they would…hurt it.’

The branch’s emotions sent out a peal of agreement, drawing Alex’s curious eyes. It wasn’t the first time the aeld or its branch had reacted to his and Claygon’s mental conversations. He was learning that aelds had a powerful sense of empathy, picking up on the emotions, intentions and thoughts of those around them.

The tree had been the first among the Research Castle’s inhabitants to sense the Ravener-spawn coming from beneath the earth; he could only wonder what else it could sense…

“Well, just to be clear, the prongs don’t go into the branch.” He flipped the false roots over, showing both the branch and Claygon a slot in the device’s centre. “The bottom of the branch goes here, now that it’s been coated in mana-rich oil, which enhances conductivity. Here, I’ll show you.”

He took up the aeld branch and false roots, carefully measured the branch’s diameter and circumference, then adjusted the slot on the roots and slowly slid the magical device over the bottom of the branch.

Alex heard several clicks as an internal conductor touched the oily wood and internal clamps slammed shut, securing the staff. A high pitched whine emanated from thedevice as aeld tree power coursed through false roots.

The prongs vibrated, stretching and twitching like angry spider legs. A golden-green glow shone at the tip of each prong, and the aeld branch gave off waves of nervous curiosity, while showing no sign of pain.

“Good.” Alex nodded, pointing out the lights to Claygon. “See those lights at the end of the prongs? It means the roots are channelling the aeld’s power, which means that the connection between the false roots and the branchis good and strong, and that’s what we want.”

‘Good…but where do the prongs go, father?’ Claygon asked.

“Well, what do they look like now that they’re at the bottom of the branch?” He asked.

‘Like…tree roots. …do they go into the earth?’

“That’s my big, brainy golem for you! That’s completely right!” Alex laughed, lifting both branch and flailing false roots above the plant pot. His Wizard’s Hands swarmed over the soil, digging a deep hole in the centre of the dirt. “Now, watch this…”

He slowly lowered the branch into the soil, watching the false roots twitch then begin digging into the soil, covering themselves with rich earth. Once he’d lowered the roots halfway into the pot, another snapping sound saw the prongs suddenly extend, hooking onto the inside of the pot, securing the branch.

Gingerly, Alex let go, watching the aeld branch for signs of toppling.

“There we go!” He chuckled. “I got the self-securing kind, because, hey, I can afford it. Anyway, keep in mind that those roots are the key to our process, Claygon. What I’m going to do is basically create a crystalized mana core that can go into any staff, but then I’m going to liquify it and pour it into this mana conductive soil here.”

He tapped the side of the pot. “Then, I have to keep the soil at a high heat, and let the false roots and aeld tree branch drink up the liquified mana core. Afterwards, I’ll add a crystallisation agent and wait for the entire thing to naturally crystallise in the aeld branch. It should combine really nicely with its natural magic to form a staff of living wood.”

‘That sounds…complicated,’ Claygon said.

“It is!” Alex laughed. “And if I mess up the proportions, the mana core will stay liquid andall the ingredients I bought will be completely useless!”

‘Why do…you sound happy about that?’ Claygon wondered.

“Oh, what’s the fun in alchemy without a little tension?” The young wizard asked, vaguely aware that he sounded quite insane. “It’d be kinda boring if there wasn’t any risk at all, eh?”

Alex felt a flurry of confused emotions from his golem, followed by a nervous sounding phrase: ‘If…that’s what you want…father.’

“Ah, good, you’re already figuring out the wonders of being socially polite even if you don’t understand what someone’s talking about. You’ll go far, buddy. Point is, though, I wouldn’t be trying any of this if I didn’t think I could do it…and speaking of doing it…”

He glanced at the pressurised mana processor. “It’s about time we start the next step. Watch closely, this next part’s a bit delicate so I won’t be able to really narrate what I’m doing step by step.”

‘Tell me if you need me, father…’ Claygon said.

“Oh I will, but I should be fine.” Alex flipped open the schematics, studying his list of ingredients.

Over time, he’d created a precise list of steps for how to add and process each ingredient his staff would require, including the amount of time needed for controlling their reactions.

His attention went to the carefully laid out ingredients organised in rows across the kitchen island.

“Right, then, let’s get to it,” he said, looking over the list of magical powers he’d selected for his staff, hoping he’d chosen well.

His first choice was to include every single summoning spell that he knew—which at this point was quite a few—as well as every Call Through Elemental Plane spell he’d learned since first year. Each one would be beneficial to him in combat as he could activate them with a little bit of quick mana manipulation embedded in the staff.

For that to work, he’d bought essence from every plane he’d learned about in Magic Theory, Professor Mangal’s Summoning classes, and his own personal study: soil from the elemental plane of earth, a bottle of sealed flame from the elemental plane of fire, a measure of brimstone from the hells, holy ice from the heavens, and so on.

They weren’t cheap, but thanks to some astute negotiation with Toraka Shale, he could now afford them. Alex smiled at the memory.

For force spells, he’d bought force-magic infused tesseracts to add to his solution, and for his blood magic spells, he’d include some of his own blood, which would bind the staff’s power to him alone.

Along with those elements, he would also infuse ingredients that would grant the staff flight magic and body enhancement magic.

And that was where the easy part ended…

He looked at a sealed box rounding out his line of magical ingredients where he’d placed a key one: the last remaining mana ejection potions gifted him by Elder Blodeuwedd in the Crymlyn Swamp.

If he used those just right, he’d have a nasty weapon against any mana-rich enemies.

If he had his way, those demons lurking down in the hells were going to be on the receiving end of a very bad time for a change.