As luck would have it, Professor Fawcett was in her small administrative office and greeted us warmly as soon as the secretary announced us.

  I presented our letter from Keelwell University geology department chair Dr. Keenan Ghirkle, which was countersigned by our university president, Gregory Hollandfield. She read it over, nodded, and said, “It must be important if Kirk gave up his collections and is now asking for ours.”

  She motioned for us all to sit down. We had moved to a nearby meeting room that was plenty spacious for the entire group.

  Looking around at us, she said, “This is as unusual a group as I can imagine meeting with, and as a long-time professor at the university, that’s saying a lot.” She smiled.

  I began by introducing myself and thanking her for meeting with us.

  She interrupted me. “Any relation to the Royal Librarian, Lord Randolph Istari?”

  I had gotten used to being known through my father’s reputation. “Yes, he is my father.”

  “Randy has a son your age?” She muttered. “How time flies. He was one of my students, you know.”

  I had not known about my father’s interest in geology until very recently, and I needed to talk with him about it and get his thoughts on our plans. I also needed to decide what I wanted to do with his present to me.

  “What do you plan to use the crystals and gems for, if I may ask?”

  “The specifics are confidential through The Tower and our Duke’s request, but we will use them in defense of the city, and so the finer quality stones and gemstones we can acquire, the better our chances.”

  “I hate to see them used up that way; we collected these over many years and thousands of volunteer hours.”

  “I understand,” I said.

  “What are you looking for specifically?”

  “In addition to raw crystal, gems, and gemstone material, we urgently need all your fine crystals and all crystals cut into 7pt faceted gem shapes, any crystal spheres the size of marbles or oblong-shaped sling stones, and any stone spheres of the same sizes or cut into magical gemstone shapes.”

  “When this is all over, I am deeply interested to learn how these were used.” She stated with a grimace.

  “We can sit over cheese and wine at your choice of restaurants, and I’ll tell you the whole story,” I promised.

  She nodded. “Still, I am reluctant to give it all up. So many years went into them.”

  “Given my father’s and my own love for your discipline,” I began, “What if we struck a bargain?”

  “What did you have in mind?” She asked.

  “We both know that if you were not as open to helping us as you are, we would just go to the university president or the Duke and receive an order to receive them, anyway.”

  She frowned, “You are not very good at bargaining.”

  I laughed, “Let me finish. My thought was, after the city survives the attack, what if we sponsored a summer field expedition to replace the artifacts taken?”

  She tilted her head. “That could not possibly be done in one summer.”

  “How many summers?” I asked, seeing that we were now discussing terms and not whether or not the pieces would be taken.

  “At least five, and it would be costly.” She added with a twinkle in her eyes.

  “With such an expedition, perhaps you could include other planned research as well as replacement of crystals and gems.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking.” She agreed. “Perhaps five years at two thousand gold per summer?”

  I thought about it. “Could you please take us to the exhibits?”

  She rose. “Of course, but most of it is in storage in the cellar. Only the finest pieces are on display here, and also a special collection at the city museum, which we also oversee.”

  We went to the geology department display, which held a selection of gems and crystals easily three times the size of that in Keelwell, and she assured me that the museum was equally as large and there were crates full of raw materials in storage.

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  The displays were impressive. One huge glass cabinet had a collection of 7pt crystals from over one hundred different varieties. “We are especially proud of this display.” She said, “Apprentices from two dozen jewelers made these for the display over the course of a year.”

  “Could you reach out to those city jewelers again and ask for a rush to collect any apprentice-made, master approved fine to flawless 7pt practice crystals? I would pay five gold each for them if I could get them in the next two days.”

  Her eyes widened. “We paid them three silver coins each for the work and thought we were being very generous.”

  “But I need them fast and don’t have a year to wait,” I responded.

  “Yes, I will reach out to them. I think that there are a couple of hundred apprentices who will stay up all night working on these for that kind of money.”

  “They must be approved by their master jewelers. The quality must be accurate and the crystal at least of fine quality.”

  “I understand,” she said. “I will be happy to pass that along.”

  I turned to her and said, “In that case, I agree to a five-year expedition at three thousand gold per year under two conditions.”

  “What are those conditions?” She asked suspiciously, wondering at the 50% increase above her asking price.

  “First, you get a host of undergraduates to help pack and carry all of these materials from your department here, the museum, and both storage areas for us.”

  “And the second?” She asked.

  “You coordinate your efforts with Professor Ghirkle in Keelwell. He will need to replenish his collections, and he was not as savvy a negotiator as you were.”

  She laughed and held out her hand. “Done!” She said, and we shook on it. She looked at me sideways, “You know, you really could have just taken them.”

  I pretended to be offended. “And tell my father, what? That I stole the work of decades of academic toil, and insulted his own college professor? I’d never hear the end of it.”

  “He raised you right.” She said with a wider smile. “Where do you want this taken?”

  “Let’s make these two trips. The first will be all the gemstones and any cut or spherical crystals. Please see that nothing is nabbed as souvenirs; these will be used in the magical defense of the city filled with students, children, and families.”

  She nodded seriously. “I’ll see to it. And where does it go?”

  I looked around. “We can leave from anywhere. Would it be easier to move it all here or to the museum?”

  She thought about it. “Let’s make it the main lobby of the museum. It is closed now, as are many public works, because of the invasion. We should be free to move around.”

  “How much time do you need?” I asked.

  “Are you in a hurry?” She asked.

  “A desperate hurry. “ I answered.

  “Then give me two hours. I will have the first round ready by then; the second will take at least a day.”

  “Agreed. Then let’s say noon today and noon tomorrow in the main lobby of the museum.”

  She rose. “That gives me about two and a half hours this morning. I have a lot to do in very little time. I’ll use that extra half hour you gave me.” She nodded to me and said, “See you there in a couple of hours, Lord Istari.” And she walked hurriedly out of the room to organize a small army of students and ask her secretary to draft notices to the city’s jewelers and jewelry guild.

  Biff said, “You know, Red could probably reach out to some of the students here like you did in Keelwell.”

  “I’d be surprised if he had not already thought about that.” I agreed.

  Looking around at the group. “All of you have your empty adventurer’s packs ready to fill up with rocks?”

  “Fancy rocks,” Adam said.

  “And no souvenirs for you either,” I said with a smile.

  “Where to now, Gwydian?” Sar asked.

  “Actually, it is a shopping trip.”

  She perked up. “I love shopping. Do you have a list?”

  I pulled out my parchment sheet and handed it to her.

  She looked up at me and handed me back the paper, saying. “You folks down south are odd.”

  “Can you help us with this list?”

  “Of course I can. But it's a lot of running around. How about I get an apprentice for each of you, you divide the list up, and then you tip the apprentices for their help?” She suggested.

  “There are four of us, so four apprentices, I presume,” I said to the group.

  Landal and Adam both nodded in agreement, but Bif said, “I don’t like the idea of you going unprotected.”

  “He won’t be unprotected, big guy. He’s with me!” Sar said with a stern look on her face.

  Biff smiled, despite himself. “You know what I mean, Gwyd.”

  “We need to move this along. We are in the capital, and nobody knows we are here or would bother us. They have their own invasion to worry about as well.”

  He was not convinced, but he slowly nodded his head. “Could you at least change to look like someone else? Those yellow robes stick out.”

  “And will keep him safer than looking like some noob tourist from the south.” Sar declared.

  “She has a point,” I admitted.

  He sighed. “Just keep an eye out. Those apprentices will be looking for you.”

  “I am not worried about a couple of enchanter apprentices,” I said.

  “Me either,” Sar stated firmly.

  “It’s not them but their crazy, mean master that I am worried about.” He replied.

  Sar looked up at me. “I got nothing to say on that one. I try to avoid crazy mean masters as a general rule.”

  “Me too.” I agreed. “We’ll stay alert.”

  Biff nodded but did not say anything else.

  I turned to Sar. “Go get your three partners in crime and be back here in ten minutes?” I suggested.

  She made a sound, “Pffff. You oldies take forever to get around. We’ll be back in five. Just enough time for you to divide up your lists.” And she was off in a dash.

  “I like her,” Landal said.

  We all nodded in agreement. “She’s an elementalist, for sure,” I said. “She’s got fire.”

  She was back in just over five minutes with her three chosen companions. All were girls.

  “What, no boys?” I asked.

  She looked up at me. “First off, your list was a little eccentric, which means you need brains. That’s girls. Second, you need to know which shops to choose and not just any shop that could fleece you. And so, when it comes to shopping-” She held up her hands.

  “Girls?” I offered.

  She rolled her eyes. “The correct answer, chauvinist, would have been ‘brains’ again. Stereotypes.”

  Landal laughed. “Yes, I like her a lot.”

  Sar looked at the Inquisitor and then back at me. “She gets it.” She remarked with a thumb pointed at Landal.

  We divided up into our groups and I handed out twenty platinum coins to each the inquisitor and guard since neither had the gold from my shoppe that I handed out earlier. “That will be more than enough for what you are looking for. Buy up as much as you can and store it in your backpacks.” I told them.

  My shopping list covered necessary items for the three minor potions we make, Dwarven Copper, and some red herrings to keep both secret in the unlikely event anyone talked. I was also looking for crystal marbles, if we could find any, fine, large blank tomes, and blank rune stones and rune rods.

  Sar knew the city well, despite its size and her youth. She said that because of her parents being merchants, and the various masters in her guild assigning her trips to eccentric dealers, she had been all over the city so many times she could give tours.

  Which, in fact, she was doing for me. I’m glad she was with us; we were making good time and progress, thanks in large part to her knowledge and moxy.