Chapter 16: Power

Aidan found everything he needed except for one element. He wanted to avoid speaking to anyone, but he had no choice but to ask the proprietor for the missing ingredient.

“Do you have a moonstone for sale?” he asked. The shopkeeper was a young female elf with light-blonde hair and bright green eyes. Thanks to his language spell, her response sounded like Welsh.

“I have many,” she said, presenting a small tray with an assortment of glowing stones. They pulsed with magical power as if the stones possessed a beating heart. The one he chose was pale blue streaked with dark-blue striations.

He turned to Bryn and said, “I need you to cause a distraction so I can leave with the ingredients.”

“You’re going to steal them?” she said.

“How else can I have them?”

“We have gold, Aidan,” Bryn said.

“How do you have gold?”

“From our father,” she said. “Our parents may be unhappy that we are magicians, but they haven’t cut us out of the family. Beca, put the basket on the counter.”

“Is this everything you need?” the elf asked.

“Do you have a small cauldron?” Aidan replied. She nodded and took one down from a shelf behind her that was the size of a large teapot.

“How much for everything?” Bryn asked.

“You are paying with Alliance gold?” the elf said. Bryn nodded. “Thirty-two crowns.”

Bryn opened her purse and counted out the coins. “Magic isn’t the only power in the world, Aidan,” she said.