I picked up a list of updated productions and was just about to go through it when Bella said, There is an old jeweler on the main floor asking to speak with you.

  Thanks, Bella. I’ll be right down. Oh, please ask Starla to track me down as soon as she is free.

  I stood, still reading the figures in Red’s precise handwriting as I walked out of my chambers. Our progress was well ahead of goals and far more than was promised in Council chambers. My ambitious goal had been scorned, and now it is accomplished in a single day, and our efficiency and increased staffing are pushing it even higher.

  When I arrived at the front of the shoppe, I realized that the old jeweler was not someone I had met before. But he was quite old. He was seated in our alcove lounge and was nibbling on some bread.

  I walked up to him. “I am Gwydion Istari, welcome to my shoppe, master.”

  He looked up and then struggled to stand, having sunk into the soft and comfortable cushion of the oversized chair he had been occupying.

  After a great deal of back and forth, he managed to get up, and looking back, he said, “That comfy chair was quite the torture device.”

  “Sorry about that, you need to especially watch out for the comfy pillows,” I said with a smile. “What can I do for you?”

  He touched the side of his nose and said, I am Grandmaster Schuel Umbrennan, retired. And it is more what I can do for you, young Patron, than the other way around.”

  “Oh, a mystery!” I said.

  “Not really, just a little professional drama.” He explained. “I have been comfortably retired for over twenty years, and the word got around that you needed help.”

  “That is true,” I said, wondering if the thick eyeglasses were any indication of his ability to do fine, detailed work any longer.

  “I hear you are crafting lots of purified metal, Single Use Spell rings.”

  “That is also true, master. How do you think you can help?”

  “I assume you are using the traditional grooved stone mold technique in your productions.”

  I nodded my head. “Yes, we are producing a solid twelve to fourteen rings at a time. We also have been using inset molds on occasion as well.”

  “Not bad, and I assume your batches are going full steam around the clock.”

  “Pretty much, yes. We have multiple forges running and are producing decent quantities throughout the day.” I explained.

  “How would you like to increase your production by 50% per batch and decrease your time by 25% per batch?”

  “I’d say you have my attention.”

  His laughter at my words sounded more like a cackle than genuine laughter, but it turned into a hacking cough. After he had quieted, I gave him a glass of water pulled from the pitcher on the table near the bread he had been nibbling on.

  He accepted the water gratefully. “My health is not what it once was. But I figured that before they shipped me off to pirate island, I would share a secret technique I discovered many years ago.”

  Shall we move to my private forge, and you can explain what you have in mind that will improve our production so significantly?”

  “I’d be pleased, young patron. Lead the way.”

  It took a little while to get him all the way down the winding stairs, and he was winded and had to stop twice to catch his breath. But we did manage to get down to the forge where he explained his technique in more detail.

  Partway through his explanation, I saw the value of his ideas and called over my apprentice and all available students, and we moved from talk to action. We began to follow his directions both around the forge and on the nearby granite-topped benches.

  “In essence, my technique was a lost Elvin Wax Molding technique.” He explained. “I rediscovered it in an Elvin library on a trade mission around seventy years ago. The books they have in those libraries are quite astounding.” He stated in awe, recalling his time there seventy years ago.

  He had brought enough wax for a couple of runs, and I gave him free rein at my forge and the help of the team. He may have struggled with the stairs, but he was in his element at the workbench and the forge. He created a kind of tree using wax and creative molds. There was an artistry and sculpting quality to his work.

  The process took a bit more work than we were used to on the front end, but from there it was amazingly easy. The wax offered some nice variety that we could also use to label the rings visually through a distinctive rune or symbol, instead of needing to put them on to identify their powers.

  True to his word, he produced twenty-one rings in the time it would take us to create fourteen. The preparation time was longer, but that had more to do with his taking time to teach and explain the method than it did with the method itself. By the time he was done with his second batch, all of the forgers, casters, and jewelers were around my forge watching and asking him questions.

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  His method produced more scrap metal than the traditional method, but since it was already purified, we just let it cool down and added it back into the forges with the other metal that was purified into bricks.

  “What do you think, young Patron?” He asked me when the third batch was completed. I led the first batch, participated in the second batch, and was hands-off and watched the third batch with him.

  “I think, Grandmaster Umbrennan, that we will change our techniques effective immediately.”

  “Good lad!” He said.

  “And that you may have saved some lives.”

  He smiled but did not have anything to say about that.

  “What do we owe you for your time?” I asked.

  He waved me off. “Maybe let me hang around with your journeymen and apprentices a bit. I can lend a hand and some advice now and again.”

  “Done!” I agreed enthusiastically. “If you need a break, would like something to eat or drink, or when you are ready to leave, just ask an apprentice to give you a hand.” I offered.

  I left him with the apprentices. He was a natural teacher, and from his excitement, he appreciated the attention of the students as much as they appreciated his wisdom and skill.

  As I was making my rounds in the lower level, Bella walked up and handed me a note that had accompanied the Watch’s return with more chests. In addition to a receipt which I would give to Daniel and his bookkeepers, Jon had replied with a neatly scribed, “That’s better! Use them!”

  “I’ll see that the new chests get placed in the vault,” Bella stated.

  I asked Bella to send some Irregulars out for as much casting wax as they could locate. Grandmaster Umbrennan referred to it as investment wax, but I had never heard of that before.

  “Start next door since the finest wax in the city can be found at The Giant Beeze Honeycomb,” I suggested.

  The owner of The Giant Beeze Honeycomb lost his family during the Deathlight but still managed to stop by to express his sorrow at Sundance’s death. Master Dander and Sundance had been close friends for decades.

  Grandmaster Umbrennan gave me two recipes using different kinds of waxes if the casting wax was too pricey or unavailable. I was pretty sure everything we could need would be next door if he decided to keep his store open. He had expressed a desire to take some personal time and rethink his options.

  I learned that Master Dander was still in his store and had everything we needed. The apprentices were later assigned the task of creating our own homemade wax under the watchful eyes of the grandmaster, using the high-quality wax produced by the giant bee hives. They initially called it Patron Wax, but settled on Yellow Wax after my robes, because the wax itself was usually white, but the master said we could really use any color since polishing the rings would remove any coloring that might be in the wax itself.

  Yellow Wax. The name stuck.

  I added another step to the process and had the wax blessed before use to remove even the remotest possibility of impurities and stray enchantments. And yet another innovation to forging came about.

  The AL whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns an ability point for completing the Wax Rings quest. Ability points may be claimed immediately. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  Given my ordeal this morning, I decided I needed more stamina. I thought my answer to the AI. Please place the ability point into Endurance.

  It was amazing how rewards worked. I could pull out all the stops and achieve something with no advancement in abilities or spells, and also do something quite simple and benign, and find that a significant quest had been completed. It kept things interesting.

  My meeting with Daniel went quickly. We had decent balances, but with daily payments and some large magical projects where we financed mages to do their part, we were getting lower. “We will need another deposit from the Duke in the next day or two at the most.” He said.

  I handed him the receipts for the 50,000 gold pieces and the second batch with 50,000 copper, 50,000 silver, and 1,000 platinum.

  “That’ll do it.” He said.

  “How are we on copper?” I asked.

  “Solid, especially with these additional 50,000 coins. Those coins are easy to come by and inexpensive.” He answered.

  “Lay in another large supply of them. If they start to run short, we will want to have them handy. And also check in and see if the bank needs any purified bars for the mage guilds. We have them in supply and we might as well get something for them in trade or surplus in coins.”

  “I’ll check with them. You are authorized for all four of the metal bricks as long as you stamp them with your mark.” He reminded me.

  “I need to make rounds on that today as well, thanks for the reminder. We want to make sure we keep the scrap bricks, which the bank can use to make coins, separated from our purified bricks for use and trade.” I said.

  “Yes, Patron. We have them all in their proper locations. Do you want me to trade the scrap bricks out for new coins as well?”

  “Yes, we might as well. What we call scrap is still coming from their coins, and so they should not give us any hassle about them. We just won’t use them for magical purposes.” I explained.

  Daniel looked at me patiently.

  “But then, you know all of this already, Daniel,” I said with a smile.

  “Yes, Patron. I do.” But he smiled back, too.

  “Any issues with making payments to workers?” I asked.

  “Some were refusing your payment despite the explanation you gave me to share with them.”

  “Now they are?” I asked.

  “Most are accepting payment. Your argument about their families and food shortages coming up made an impact. The rest are looking to donate it to the cause.

  Keep track of those who are donating. We’ll think of something for it later, I’m sure.

  I patted him on the back and moved on to the coin stores to verify and stamp the bricks. This still had to be done by me personally, according to the law. So I spent the next fifteen minutes affixing my mark with a hammer and the standard-sized sigil stamp. I had Daria help me weigh each before stamping. I needed to verify purity and weight.

  As I was finishing up, Starla walked up and, seeing me stamp them with a rune-like sigil, asked, “Rune gold bricks? Somehow, I would have thought rocks would have been cheaper.”

  “Ha ha. These are purified metals for the bank and mage guilds.”

  “Yes, do you think I could get one of your purified silver bricks to use for my staff?” She asked.

  “The bricks are earmarked for sale and trade; however, we will have silver shavings and purified scrap that you can pick up and put in a bag. Those would melt down for you much more easily, and it will save you some labor.”

  “Oh, good idea. So it's okay if I grab some of the scrap?” She clarified.

  “Sure. Let the forges know you are looking for small purified silver scrap for a rune project, and the next time they do a batch, they will gather it for you.”

  “Thanks, patron!” She said, joining in with the way others referred to me. “You didn’t know I needed it, though, so that couldn’t be why you called me over.”

  “True. Sage Davon, the city Loremaster, also has some knowledge of runes. More than either of us, probably. He asked to meet with you sometime today if you are interested.”

  “Sure.” She said. “When?”

  “He said he would be available all day. Ask one of the guards to escort you there. And be careful, he may talk you into helping him with one of his experiments or quests.”

  “Oh?” She said. “Dangerous, are they?”

  “Very. And profitable. But definitely dangerous.” I added.

  The next hour saw me visiting Sandor and the alchemy teams, making sure they got the necessary new ingredients; Adric and the archer/fletchers; Julianna and her design and tailor team, who were thrilled to hear that she might get her hands on all that Merino wool; and I was making my way over to the Conjure Snap! team when Bella called me.

  Gwydion, Grandmaster Rothilion Venstina from the elves, is here to meet with you. I believe they are departing for Elvendell soon.

  I’ll be right up. Which room are you putting them in?

  It is just him and in room one. I will have delicacies for you both momentarily. She answered.

  The Elven ambassador had hinted at a possible visit before departing for home. I was very sad to see him and the others leave. Their skills, magic, and knowledge would have been very valuable in our coming days. I hoped this visit would help in some way.