We walked across the university greens and turned north toward Guilds Row. We had already passed by this street along with its many important and affluent non-magical guilds of the city. It was roughly halfway between the University and Watch Keep.

  I knew that Dr. Hollandfield kept early hours, but I had no idea about Guild Master Toleraine. The guild offices were closed, but a persistent ringing of the bell cord did bring an annoyed and sleepy-eyed apprentice to the door. He did not know me, of course, and he did not know the Duke’s Steward. But the Watch Sergeant got his attention.

  After some annoyed complaints by the apprentice to me and Jon, Philip stepped forward and said in a no-nonsense voice, “Is Guild Master Toleraine in attendance?”

  “I don’t know, sir. He is often here early, shall I check?”

  “Do so, and tell him it is on the Duke’s business.”

  “Of course.” He replied and started to close the door.

  Philip’s hand caught it before it had moved more than an inch. “You will want to invite us in to wait in the lobby unless I am mistaken.” He said.

  The apprentice started to argue, saw the other Watch patrolmen, and opened the door. “Please wait in the lobby. I will be back momentarily.” He said nervously.

  He didn’t bother to wait and close the door behind us; he just scurried across the lobby and ran up a flight of stairs. We could hear his feet pounding along the upper hallway and knocking at a door roughly positioned above where we were standing.

  There was an answer and then an argument. All I could catch from the exchange was “Watch and Duke” from the apprentice and “Fine” from a deeper voice.

  I had met Guild Master Toleraine, of course. He knew Sundance well, and they would visit one another from time to time, both on guild business and socially. My master did not get many social visitors, and so the guild master stood out to me.

  He had wrapped an expensive robe about himself and was still tying it as he grumbled and stomped down the stairs. Whatever displeasure at being bothered so early in the morning before guild hours that he had planned to share with the Watch died on his tongue when he recognized Jon.

  “Lord Steward, I had no idea it was you. I was told some Watch was at the door and figured it was a burglary or-” and then he recognized me.

  “Oh, lad.” He said. “I am so sorry for your loss. Sundance was a good and loyal friend.” He actually moved over and gave me a hug, much to the amusement of Biff and the Watch.

  He turned to Jonathan. “Is this about Sundance’s death? A marshall had been around yesterday and asked all sorts of odd questions.”

  “No, guildmaster. This is the Duke’s business, and it is quite urgent. May we sit and discuss it somewhere more privately?”

  “Of course, of course. Although nobody else is here but my apprentice, myself, and some guards who,” he mentioned looking around, “do not appear to be at their posts.”

  He looked upset and called for his apprentice, who was standing at the base of the stairs. “Randall, find those loafers and tell them they had better be at the front and back doors at attention in 2 minutes or they will be dismissed. I may dismiss them anyway.”

  He began walking up the stairs. “We can meet in my private office.”

  Jonathan turned to the sergeant. “Mind the door until the guards arrive. We will meet with the guildmaster upstairs.”

  “Yes, Steward,” Philip replied.

  I noticed that he did not joke with him as he had with me. Of course, it could also have been the absence of the guards that disturbed him. Such an offense in the Watch had very significant consequences.

  We did not speak until we were in his office and seated at a large, triangular table. Jonathan commented about its uniqueness.

  “Yes, this is the Table of Disputes. It is quite old and is handed down from guildmaster to guildmaster. Two opposed and aggrieved parties will make their case before the guildmaster, who stands in judgment as arbitrator. It is an old tradition, but it has served us well.”

  He looked back and forth between Jon and me as we took a seat, and then at Biff, who remained standing at the doorway. The guildmaster offered, “There is a chair behind the desk if you would care to sit.”

  Biff looked surprised to be addressed. As a bodyguard, he was used to being treated as invisible. “Thank you, guildmaster, but I will remain here at the door. In fact,” he said, “With the Commander’s permission, I will remain outside the door to ensure this is private.”

  I nodded, and he departed the room.

  The guildmaster turned to me and asked, “Commander?”

  “It is all part of why we are here.” I began as Jonathan handed him the note from the Duke that requested his personal and professional support in all matters pertaining to our visit. I repeated the Duke’s warning to keep this private, which the guildmaster agreed to readily, and then explained the situation as we understood it with the goblin horde.

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  The color drained from his face as we spoke, and his hand shook as he drank from a teacup which he had retrieved from his desk as we had chosen seats at the table.

  “This is horrible. Truly frightening.” He said as he composed himself. “But why come here? What could I possibly do to help?”

  Jon said, “The Duke has appointed Lord Istari as commander who oversees a new division tasked with coming up with resources to help protect the city and our soldiers.”

  “I understand the need but not my role,” he said.

  “Guildmaster, did my former master ever share anything with you about my talents?” I asked.

  “He spoke of you often and praised your work both as an enchanter and jeweler. And your work is excellent, of master quality at a very early age. But nothing more than that.”

  I nodded. “Sundance was very protective of my ability. I am a prodigy of lapidary among other things. I can call upon gems to reveal and secure magical powers at will.”

  He blinked at me, and then his eyebrows raised. “You wish to secure gemstones to include in magical devices to attack and defend.”

  “Exactly,” I replied.

  “Would you demonstrate this for me? It is not that I doubt you, but many others will question such a power, citing rumors and legends. Witnessing it myself will save us time and I must confess, I am more than a little curious.”

  “I am happy to do so. The Mage Council was not as polite as your request earlier this morning.” I replied.

  He got up and went to his desk, which he opened with a key from his pocket. He then withdrew a key from a drawer and walked over to a wall safe. He inserted that key as well as a third key from a chain around his neck, and then did some fancy turning of the keys with his back blocking our view. He left the safe open and came back with a tray of gemstones of many different types and sizes.

  “Pick any three that you like.” He said.

  I examined the tray and noticed that all the gemstones across one row were flawed. I told him this, and he nodded. “Exceptional perception, you did not even touch them. Yes, that row is used as part of our Master trials, which, if you can do what you claim, will be a formality for us to certify.”

  He just offered to make me an official master jeweler and gemcutter.

  It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. He waved his hand. “Don’t be surprised. Sundance has already petitioned the guild to act on this, and I inspected your work under the guise of a social visit two weeks ago. We were merely working out the timing of the ceremony and final trials. Neither of which is necessary under current circumstances, if you can do what you claim.”

  I chose a 7pt emerald, a 28pt ruby, and a 14pt sapphire from the tray and placed them each on a large black silk cloth at the center of the table. “You will know most of their hidden properties, master. What would you like me to draw out of each?”

  He pointed to the emerald and said, “Give me an elemental,” he pointed to the ruby, “blood armor,” and then at the sapphire, “Walking on water.”

  I completed all three requests smoothly and handed them back to him. It took me perhaps a minute and a half, total.

  Before he accepted the gems from me, he said. “Actually, I think I would prefer a water elemental. Is that a problem?”

  “No, I will change that if you wish,” I said as I changed the sapphire power from a Walking on Water spell to a Summon Elemental.

  He accepted the gemstones and inspected them himself. He then looked at me. “Did you see what I did?”

  I shook my head, no.

  Jon said, “He wanted to test whether your ability to choose a power was a one-time occurrence or if you could truly change them at will.”

  The guild master bowed his head to the Duke’s Steward. “Forgive my little trick, but such an ability is unheard of outside of enchantment magic, and I watched you very closely to see if that was what you were doing.”

  “In fairness, it was a good test.” I acknowledged. “But you should have had me place it into a socketed device and then remove it, or change it while already socketed.”

  He gasped. “You can do all of that?”

  “Yes. To me, it is all the same.” I replied.

  “Then, if we jewelers and gem cutters, retailers and crafters, lapidarists and hobbyists brought you gemstones, you can use them to protect us?”

  “I can and I will. I am also authorized to pay fair prices for the gems. But,” I said, “they will need to be already prepared in the magical cuts.”

  He smiled, “So there is a limit to your ability?”

  I said, “Well, yes and no. I can call up abilities in uncut gems, but they cannot be placed into sockets and are therefore harder for others to use.”

  He raised his eyebrows again. “You can call up gem powers in any gemstone?”

  “As far as I know. Crystals as well.”

  “But crystals have no magical properties.” He declared as if it were an axiom.

  “Yes and no,” I repeated with a smile. “They have no special abilities to draw upon, but because they are a pure substance, I discovered that I can use them in Single Use Spells just like pure metal rings.”

  He thought about that for a moment. “I suspect that apprentices all over the city will have loads of practice crystals they created. Would those work as well?”

  “Yes. The advantage of those magical cut gems is that they can be socketed in a pure ring that can be reused even when the crystals are used up. We can also pay the apprentices for their crystals as well.” I said.

  “Using them as a Single Use Spell would be like a crossbow that just needs to keep getting loaded.” The guild master observed.

  “Yes, that would be a good metaphor.” I agreed.

  “What types of gemstones are you seeking?”

  “All,” I said, “but initially I will be looking for 7pt and 14pt elemental gems since they hold commonly known offensive and defensive properties.”

  He got up and walked over to the shelves behind his desk that ran on either side of his safe. He browsed for a moment and then retrieved a large volume. He brought it over and placed it down before me.

  “I will give this to you on loan. It was a gift from my master upon attaining grandmaster status as a gemcutter. You may use it on your promise to annotate inside it if there are errors or magical qualities about rare natural or gemstones that the author overlooks. You may create a true copy of it when you are finished with your editing for your own library.”

  “Thank you, I am not sure when I will have the time to work on it, however,” I said.

  “You may find it useful as a reference. There are tables of known and suspected magical properties of all known gemstones that you may find useful in your strategies.”

  I saw where he was going. “Yes, that could be very helpful. I had been looking at these as simple one-by-one efforts, but we need a plan that looks from a far wider perspective.”

  “And more powerful abilities than 7pt gems.” He added, but he bowed his head in acknowledgment of the implied compliment. “I will speak to the others. You said that it would be announced today?”

  Jon answered. “Yes, the public announcement will come at three o’clock. The Duke does not want to tell the city until we have our support in place to prevent panic and injury to citizens and property.”

  “That is wise. We occasionally have bulk buyers of such things. I can communicate this in such a way that confidence is kept, but we can start working now. Prices will be set at crafter levels and not wholesale or retail. This is fair, and your coins will have further to go. After all, this is all in defense of the city.”

  On inspiration, I said, “And if some of the more powerful gemstones are made available as a donation, I would be willing, on certain conditions, to provide my abilities in like fashion.”

  He smiled. “Yes, that would appeal to some of the stingier collectors who would be unwilling to part with their special children.”

  “Would it be possible to also get a list of guild members, buyers, and collectors?” Jon asked.

  “You put me in an awkward position.” The guildmaster stated. “We keep such things confidential.”

  Jon smiled, “As awkward as a goblin’s supper pot, you think?” He replied.

  “Ah. I see your point.” He paused. “I will send you the list, Commander. I will trust your judgment in these matters, but I would certainly feel the fool as I was carried to the beast’s pot, refusing to share that one extra gemstone or collector that could have made the difference.”

  “My point exactly.” Jon agreed.

  The guildmaster removed the row of flawed gems and then slid all the rest of his gems into a black silk bag. “Please keep track of these as credits to my account. I will have more to add, I’m sure. In addition, I shall ask that all apprentices capable of doing so create 7pt crystals and all masters redouble their efforts for other gemstones. There are not many who can create gemstones with magical cuts above 28pt in our city. But there are a few, some of them retired, but in the city. I will make my rounds this morning.”

  We stood, and I shook the guildmaster’s hand. “Thank you, grandmaster, for your help and leadership. Many lives may be saved because of our efforts.”

  “Including our own, one hopes.” The guildmaster said with a grin.

  He opened the door for us, and Biff stepped out of the way. We were escorted down to the front door by the guildmaster, where two personal bodyguards stood at rigid attention while the Watch guards looked on with scorn.

  The guildmaster pointed to the two guards, “We need to have a little discussion.”

  We left them to their chastisement and walked down the stairs from the narrow porch that ran the front width of the building.