Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) Daniel Schinhofen (books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📖

for the rest of today... And I still feel like the lucky one. My heart accepted me, and then my best friend joined me in protecting and loving my heart.”

“The one thing we’ll never agree on,” Gregory chuckled, “is which of us is the luckiest.”

Both women laughed with him as they drew closer to the second stop.

~*~*~

“How can I help you?” the polite female voice asked as the bell chimed. “Oh, Warlin. How can we assist?”

“My name is Pettit now,” Yukiko gently corrected her. “All of us need to make sure our additives are as helpful as possible.” She pulled her medallion out. “As you can see, we continue to grow.

“And rapidly,” Rhea, the receptionist of Alvis Alchemy, said with surprise. “I’ll make sure the next batch of supplies reflects your current rank.”

“I’m one step behind them,” Jenn said, showing Rhea her medallion. “If it’s possible, could I have mine just a touch stronger so that I might match them in time?”

“A little stronger should be fine,” Rhea replied. “I’ll speak with Aldor just to make sure.”

“Thank you,” Yukiko smiled. “I was also hoping you had a dozen or so bane cores I could purchase.”

“Bane cores?” Rhea asked, puzzled.

“One of our enchantments requires cores to recharge them. This was the first place I thought of to get them,” Yukiko lied gracefully.

“Ah. Let me check our stock and see what we can spare,” Rhea said.

“More cores?” Gregory murmured when Rhea left.

“A stockpile of them would be useful, and we all have storage items now,” Yukiko whispered back.

“That’s a good point. It’s also why the ring cost so much.”

Before Yukiko could reply to Gregory’s statement, Rhea was back. “We have nine that we can spare at this time. Is that sufficient?”

“That will do wonderfully,” Yukiko smiled. Placing a small pouch, which clinked metallically, on the counter, she asked, “How much?”

~*~*~

“Seven spare cores each, plus the ones we still had left from before...” Jenn shook her head. “We’ll be good for the next tournament, hopefully.”

“I believe we will,” Yukiko replied. “Just one more shop before we stop for dinner.”

“Do you think they’ll like it?” Gregory asked.

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” Yukiko said. “I want to grab a basic book for Farin, as well. If we start off well with him, maybe he’ll be more pleasant than Chucky was.”

“That’s not a high bar to clear,” Jenn snorted.

“True,” Yukiko admitted. “He was polite the one day we saw him. We’ll get to see more tomorrow.”

Gregory opened the door to the shop and followed his wives inside. No bell sounded, which struck Gregory as odd until he realized that a bell might cause a scrivener to make an error.

“I’ll be right with you,” the large man hunched over at an inclined desk called to them.

“We’ll wait, sir,” Gregory replied.

“You may look, but do not touch,” the man said as he continued to work.

The three of them spread out, and Jenn was the one who found the books they were looking for a few minutes later. She flagged the other two down, and all of them waited by the shelf that held the books they wanted.

“There we go,” the scrivener sighed as he cleaned his pen nib. “Sorry about that, but that piece of text is a nightmare.” Once his pen was clean, he set it down and stood up, stretching. “How may I help you?” he asked, turning around to face them. “Oh, magi. I am sorry to make you wait.”

“It’s fine, sir,” Yukiko smiled. “We wish to purchase these books here,” she pointed to the ones they’d found. “We’d also like two extra copies of these two.”

The scrivener moved over to look at the ones she wanted. “Ah yes, that makes sense. Apprentice magi are learning Empire’s Gambit. I’m surprised your clan let you out of training to come buy them.”

“Our clan is a little more flexible than others,” Gregory said.

“I meant no disrespect, magi. I can easily sell these to you, but I am missing a third of ‘The Fanatic’s Way.’ If you’d like, I can make the third one you wish, but it’ll take me a few weeks, as I’m in the middle of a book for the Han clan.”

“That’ll be fine,” Yukiko replied. “You can have it sent to Aether’s Guard inside the academy when you’ve finished it.”

“Very well,” the scrivener smiled. “Let me get the extra copies from the back.”

~*~*~

“Do you think they’ll ask?” Gregory asked as they were almost to the door of Stabled Hunger.

“I’m nearly positive,” Yukiko replied.

“Ramon will be circumspect with his questions, but if Gufta is in…” Jenn trailed off and shook her head.

“That’s about what I thought,” Gregory agreed as he opened the door.

It was late afternoon, but still hours before the sun would set, so the taproom was mostly empty. Besides Ramon, who was standing behind the bar, there were only three others present. Mumisa, Murium’s mother, was at a table, reading as she always seemed to be. An older man with deep scars on one cheek gave them a brief glance, then ignored them. The last was thankfully not Gufta, but a small woman with a large nose.

“Oh! Welcome, welcome!” Ramon greeted them happily. “I didn’t expect to see you three.” His smile vanished instantly and his face grew troubled. “Wait, is Nessa okay?”

“She’s fine, Ramon,” Yukiko said to pacify the worried father. “We saw her yesterday.”

Ramon’s face started to clear before it went back to worried. “But not today? Don’t you study with her and the others every morning?”

“Easy,” Gregory said. “Normally, yes, but it was our week off, so we didn’t see them this morning. We weren’t inside the academy walls.”

Ramon exhaled a deep breath. “Oh, thank Aether.” He gave them a sheepish smile.