Quartz perked up and said, “A gift?”

  “Absolutely. As a new friend and true gentleman, it is only fitting that you receive a gift like I gave to the others. It doesn’t hurt to be nice to enchanters,” I added.

  He walked over and tilted his head. “Always did think enchanters were the giving type. What ya got for me?” And his grin widened.

  I handed him a ring that I had been wearing. It was identical to the other rings I gave out at dinner.

  He inspected it. “Dwarven copper, eh? And there are five quartz gems. It was meant for me, " he said, putting it on.

  His eyes grew large and round as the powers revealed themselves to him.

  “Where did you get this?” He asked.

  “I made it,” I replied.

  “Not the Dwarven copper.” He said confidently.

  “Even so,” I replied in Ancient Dwarvish.

  His eyebrows rose so high on his forehead that I was afraid the scruffy hair on his head would never let them go. “You know the secrets of Dwarven forging?” He asked with both awe and disgust in his voice.

  “I do. I am also a patron of lapidary and can call forth a gem’s magic so that it is no longer random when placed in sockets. Oh, and I added the sockets as well.” I said with a smirk.

  He stared at me for a while. “We will need to talk later.” And then he just strolled toward the nearby beach, occasionally kicking through the low grass as if looking for something.

  After my exchange with Quartz, we lined up about ten feet apart and started walking through the marsh, looking for deadly snakes. The plan was to march in a line from the beach to the city walls. However, given how the previous episode underwater went, I was surprised to find us traveling back and forth repeatedly, unable to locate any of the serpents that should have been abundant or, at the very least, not entirely absent.

  Our group advanced east, starting a new line each time we reached the city walls or shoreline. We were at it for two hours before I realized that sunrise was approaching and we were running out of land between the bay and the city. I shouted, “When the day orbs light, look for the purple blossoms. That will be our priority.”

  I hadn’t finished by more than five or ten seconds when the hundreds of smaller night orbs faded, and the day orbs lit up. It was 6:00 am on Springtide. My trials start in a few hours.

  Like magical purple fireworks all across the marsh around us, the blossoms opened here and there. They were not near each other, but they were plentiful. We all sprang forward to the closest blossom.

  Biff was the first to reach one, and with a swift stroke of his silver dagger, he plucked a huge blossom with a long stem. “Got one!” He shouted.

  And as if on cue and before anyone could stop her, Wilma shouted, “Must be your lucky day, Biff!”

  That is when the giant marsh viper, an ambush predator, struck him in the back of the leg.

  Chaos reigned for the next sixty seconds. Half of the group was running and cutting a blossom before the minute window closed, unaware of Biff’s danger. The other half, those closest to Biff, like me, Simon, and Wilma, reacted to his scream of pain.

  I shot a blast at the viper from my staff and struck the snake on its slithering back. Simon leaped and landed beside Biff, using one of his dope monk skills. I could hear Wilma casting a spell, but I had no idea what it was.

  As Biff struggled to stand and turn so his back was no longer vulnerable to the viper, a second snake struck him from the other direction. These vipers were not only ambush predators, but they also hunted in pairs. That was a bizarre piece of information that had been overlooked. The way they timed the attack was perfect, and Biff was bitten for a second time by the new one that was behind him when he turned to face his first attacker.

  Biff turned around yet again and raised his banded club for a strike, but he wobbled in place. He had not fallen yet, but his complexion and loss of health indicated that the venom was acting quickly.

  “Steven!” I yelled. “Biff has been poisoned!”

  True, I knew the difference between poison and venom, but yelling “he had been venomed” would have just sounded silly.

  I shot another blast that maxed at five casting points into the one I had struck earlier, and between that hit and Simon’s strike at its neck, the viper went down like a wet noodle.

  As the other viper coiled to strike Biff again, a shadow fell over it, and a giant hawk swooped in with its claws extended.

  The serpent reacted instinctively and missed Biff but instead used its momentum to flee its natural enemy.

  It dawned on me that the hawk was one of Wilma’s solid illusions. It was not real, but it would feel like it, and the construct could attack and defend itself so long as she concentrated and controlled its actions.

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  The hawk harassed the viper, which responded by slithering as quickly as it could toward the shoreline. The viper either meant to get into the water or perhaps had an underground den nearby.

  But it stopped short, its head bobbing and smacking the ground with a thud. And then I saw him.

  Biff had hold of the very end of the giant viper's tail, keeping it from fleeing. I assumed he planned to hold it while Wilma’s hawk or my spells finished it. But I was surprised again.

  Biff began to pull and swing. Gathering momentum as he moved, he flipped ever larger lengths of the viper into the air. Pull, flip, turn. In a matter of seconds, he was spinning the giant serpent around and around in the air. And with a final colossal heave, he smacked it down hard on some jagged rocks near the shore. Again. And again. And again. He began yelling at some point, and we all just stared at him.

  Steven, ducking low to avoid the swinging snake, made his way over to Biff, and with the last hard splat against the ground, he said, “I think you got him, big guy. Have a seat.”

  Biff collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, pale and sweating like he had just walked out of the bay.

  Steven cast a Cure Poison spell, which set Biff straight, but the brawler was still out of breath and weak. Steven followed up with a Heal spell from one of the quartz gems in his ring. The gem turned to powder and blew away in the slight wind. I would need to get him another to fill his empty socket. In fact, I should give him a few extra quartz SUS healings to replace in the ring as needed.

  Slowly, everyone gathered around Biff. We stared at him and marveled at his strength and endurance.

  Finally, Biff was the first to speak. “Please…nobody…say that…I…am lucky…ever again.” We all burst into laughter, and Wilma walked over and hugged him, saying she was so sorry.

  I did not cut a single blossom, nor did Wilma or Simon. Biff had a huge one, which he quickly pointed out to those of us who did not get one in time. But I didn’t care. I was not going to lose my friend twice in the same night. My focus and attention had been on him and his safety. Not that I ended up doing all that much.

  But in addition to Biff’s, there were eight other blossoms. Quartz led the pack with three flowers. All his quirkiness and complaining were quickly forgotten, and the others were amazed at how he could have moved so fast to get three in just one minute.

  I shook the dwarf’s hand warmly and hugged my other six companions, thanking everyone for their help.

  The nine blossoms were carefully stored in a bag I had brought for this purpose, and then they were deposited into my backpack.

  The AL whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns a reward for completing the Flowering Lavender Sunburst quest. The reward is redeemable at Alexander’s Alchemicals in Keelwell. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  As I tied the bag off, I noticed that Quartz quietly started walking back toward the city.

  “Where are you going, Quartz?” I called out to him.

  “I have some business with a mage.” And with that, he waved and tramped away. It would have been a genuinely poetic departure if he hadn’t tripped in a marsh hole and fallen flat on his face after a few steps.

  He got up, wiped himself off, and walked off, looking closer at the ground for more unexpected holes. He still dripped from his saltwater bath, and thanks to his muddy fall, he added a large tuft of grass along his right side that had gotten caught in some of his Dwarven copper spikes and loops.

  Nobody laughed, but there were seven very wide grins as he walked away. Quartz would be welcome back into our group at any time.

  Even with his quirks.

  The viper heads were cut off, examined for components, and then dropped into their sack, which also found its way into my magical backpack. They would all be safe there, stored in a magical suspension that would preserve them. The contents would not move around or smash against each other—that was all part of the magic.

  The AL whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns a reward for completing the Giant Marsh Viper Venom quest. The reward is redeemable at Alexander’s Alchemicals in Keelwell. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  We all walked back into the city together. Each went their own way, preparing for whatever work or trials we needed to complete that morning. But Biff joined me as I stopped by the Harbor Master’s offices.

  My donation overjoyed the harbor master, who assured me workers had already begun preparing the beast for display. He had the bag of coins and the tooth Wilma had secured for me sitting on his countertop. He withdrew a 14pt magical emerald and a very old silver mace that had been placed in a locked chest.

  “I assumed the mace was magical, given its obvious age and mystical markings.” He said with a smile and a flourish as he handed it to me.

  I didn’t correct him that the markings had been etched and not engraved. It’s a common mistake that those of us in the trades just let slide. The marks were an older and uncommon form of human rune magic, but I could still make it out even if its magic was beyond my current skills and knowledge.

  “Thank you, Harbor Master. I will see that these all get put to good use.”

  He turned and spoke with a staff member sitting at a desk and watching our exchange. “Darcy, do I have any meetings this morning? I would like to introduce our hero of the day to some of the sailors and warehouse families.”

  I did not want to get pulled into a long morning because I had some serious work ahead of me and little time to complete it. So I interrupted, “Harbor Master, please forgive me, but I have time-sensitive guild business to attend to.”

  “Of course, of course. But know that you are truly welcome here any time. We can rain-check the tour, but I want you to be here for the grand opening of the shark exhibit!”

  I laughed. “I’d be honored, and I’m sure the others who participated would love to attend as well.”

  Biff didn’t look thrilled about the invitation until the Harbor Master said there would be a buffet along with the exhibit.

  My friend liked to eat. And he was very good at it.

  The Harbor Master pumped my hands and Biff’s several times more before escorting us to the exit. As we began to walk down the stairs out of the worn but cleanly whitewashed building at the edge of the harbor where all official transactions and records were kept for commerce into or out of the city’s harbor, I saw a dark-clothed man enter a rundown bait shop, not fifty feet from where we stood. His appearance might not have caught my attention, except that the man was a golden cognito like me. I couldn’t read his name in time, but the shop was small, so I wanted to follow him inside. He could not get very far.

  I shrugged my shoulders. Given my morning timeline, there was no time to follow up on yet another new hero. With a smile, I handed Biff the mace. “What do you think about that?” I asked.

  “It’s old but not rusty despite being in that shark’s gullet for who knows how long?” He answered.

  “Can you use it? I know you prefer cudgels.” I added.

  “I could.” He replied slowly. “But I think that Steven might find better use for it. Maces are his chosen weapon, and this seems magical to me.”

  “That’s a fair point. And he sure deserves it.” I added.

  Biff rubbed his side. “That’s for sure. Not the first time I owed my life to his quick thinking.”

  “Then let’s give it to him. Holding it myself doesn’t make me aware of special powers or abilities. Maybe he would have better luck. If not, I can take time later to identify its special features. And I can also improve its magic a bit, given a little time, and add sockets.” I added.

  Steven was unavailable when we stopped by the cathedral, so we left the mace for him to be delivered to his chambers. The acolyte we handed it to was thrilled to have something to do and sped off to hunt him down with a quickly jotted note from me. We then walked to the alchemist's shop. I wanted to get the quests handled before I showered and prepared for my trials in two hours. I did not notice my fishy smell when we were in the water, but we both got some stares even at that early hour as we dripped and sloshed our way to the Round. We were still leaving wet and muddy tracks every few steps behind us when we reached the Diagonal shops.