Of Heroes and Happenings

The Perfect One, Chapter 13

Gareth smiled as he watched his mother working to teach Voni a single spell. The tender, maternal smile on his mother's face suddenly reminded Gareth of Silver for an instant, made him long for a spouse and children of his own. It was foolish though, so Gareth stuffed the longing aside. Clearly, the fates, or gods, or whatever was in charge, didn't think he needed anyone but these few members of his shop, aside from his family out on the Moonshadow Crescent. Though he'd known Voni for just over a fortnight, Gareth loved her as if she were his family.

When the lesson finished, Gareth brought out a certain, wooden box from where it was stored under the counter. Built by Gareth's uncle during his cleric's training, the box was designed to illustrate the relationship between various planes of existence. It contained material from each plane; the centermost, circular compartment was surrounded by a series of smaller compartments in two, concentric rings.

Windy noticed and diverted Voni's attention to it. Good idea, Son! I don't know why I didn't think of that.

I'd like to see if she recognizes, or at least knows, any of them, Gareth responded to his mother's Sending. Together, mother and son watched Voni's reaction to the display.

Voni's hand floated over the display and came to rest on one of the outer, uppermost circles toward the top of the display. "Mommy," she whispered.

Gareth shared a glance with his mother. The circle represented the Celestial plane Ysidra, where the members of the Shard resided with their mistress, Selûne, goddess of the moon, in order to aid her in her eternal battle against her evil sister, Shar of darkness.

Voni's hand floated further down and stopped again. A wide smile lit her face and she glanced back at Gareth and Windy. "You," she giggled.

"Us, what?" asked Windy.

"You are connected to this planar stone. It's from Air, like you." She moved on. "And here is Gwn'itt, in the Fire." Voni continued her tactile investigation. At the bottom of the box, she frowned, started again and frowned again when she'd finished. "No Askil."

Gareth had to grin at her disappointed tone. "Not even here?" he asked, pointing at the center, where the Prime Material Plane was represented.

She closed her eyes and tried again. A smile of excitement lit her face. "This one!" she finally decided, indicating at the Feywild. "It's only little, but it's here."

Windy grinned and nodded. "That makes sense, if his arcane ability comes from a Fey blessing."

Gareth nodded to show he'd heard, as Windy bent over the box with Voni in order to continue the lesson. He'd heard, but was entirely distracted by a different thought. What if Gwn'itt needed an arcane focus that originated with the arcane ability?

The obsidian and basalt contained within the box wasn't enough for a focus, but Gareth wasn't concerned. His uncle, Samir, had brought back more than those few shards from his trip to the Elemental Plane of Fire. The remainder sat in Gareth's room, or rather, hung there.

Gareth had been but an infant when Samir had completed his journeys, so Mistral, who was Gareth's grandmother and the shop's namesake, had used the extra materials to make a mobile for Gareth's cradle. Though the mobile no longer hung over Gareth's bed, he kept it still.

Several of each crystal shard made up the display. Gareth felt that one shard of obsidian would not be missed. Hung and polished as it was already, Gareth assumed that a jeweler would have no trouble setting it as a necklace. He purposed to look into the possibility after lunch. The best tradesman for such a task was located between the shop and home, so it would be a simple matter to eat at home while he fetched the shard.