Vol. 2 - Another Typical Day, Too (The Wizards of Eredwynn) Read online

  Another Typical Day, Too

  Daniel Harris Copyright © 2014 Daniel Harris

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN:1499702892

  ISBN-13:978-1500174194

  DEDICATION

  To My Family: For being exactly who they are.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks must go out to my research team for all their checking and cross-checking of information.

  I must also mention my family and the gentle criticisms that come with being the favorite son.

  To my wife that tells me I’m her favorite husband and my kids that say I’m just Dad.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Recap

  For those that don’t know me, I’m David. David Stephenson to some and to others, my name is Lord Stephenson. However, lately I’d lost my name altogether and was just called the Master Wizard. I was from the place, I assume, that most of you are. I’m sure you’re from that place that we call earth and know that it is the third planet from the sun. A place where we’ve seen that the planet is round and fossil fuels reign supreme.

  The world I now lived in was something straight out of fantasy. A place where being a gamer from my world helped immensely! I discovered through trial, and some painful error, that the spells I knew from my fantasy games actually worked here. I arrived here because of silliness and haven’t regretted it, even when things weren’t going well. I’ve learned to take the good with the bad but I sure enjoyed the good more! A few bad things have happened like, blowing my fingertip off when I was learning that magic worked. Moreover, good things have happened like, winning what I thought would be a cash prize and finding out it came with a princess and a castle! That’s right; I married a princess and made Lord of a castle called Valeview. What the king neglected to tell me was Valeview is right on the edge of Orc territory and attacks by them and other unfriendly critters happened quite often.

  I learned that magic could be taught to a select few. I had never found another male that could do magic but had discovered quite a few females. My wife and her sisters were taught, and had become instructors for me. So did a girl named Alice and twins named Elizabeth and Emma.

  The thing that I had the most trouble adjusting to was probably the most pleasant! In this culture, a husband is allowed all the women, called consorts that he wants. The only stipulations being, he had to be able to support them and his wife had to approve of them. Oh, and one other thing, the age that people got married and became sexually active here troubled me, at first. Married or sexually active at twelve was defiantly not what I was used to! My wife, Isabel, suggested that I take her fourteen-year-old sister as a consort and later her youngest on her thirteenth birthday. The night she discovered that she was pregnant; she decided to take on another consort for me. Her name was Alice. She was a very sweet, soft-spoken young lady of fifteen. She had the most incredible control of telekinesis that I could imagine!

  All of the girls that I had promoted to instructor status had developed outstanding control over one spell or another. Isabel had amazing control over chain lightning and was able to take out small crowds with a thought. Chloe, Isa’s sister and my first consort, was able to heal anything, and due to the purity of her healing, her wand had turned snow white. Alba, Isa’s youngest sister and my second consort, was able to teleport from place to place at the speed of thought. When she started, her talent was line of sight only, but grew to anywhere she could focus on within a thousand yards. The twins, Elizabeth and Emma, could amplify any spell they cast together. I didn’t know the magnification factor, but where an energy bolt cast by me would cause an Orc Captain to twitch, when cast by them would cause him to explode!

  The six other students and I had yet to display any exceptional talent. I monitored the students closely and promoted them as I saw fit. We had established five ranks with there being only one at level five. That would be me of course! The instructors were level four expert and the students, apprentice, adept, and novice.

  We had hired a woman of 35 to serve as the administrator. She is someone that could talk to the girls when they needed womanly advice. She was a very intelligent woman and was in charge of day-to-day finances and hiring staff. I was told that her title was either Mistress or Stewardess and, due to the culture thing, I had trouble with both of those. I just called her Margery.

  We had built our castle walls and keep from scratch, and used magic to assist in gathering rock and shaping it. The keep had hot and cold running water and a geothermal heating system. We had, of course, fireplaces. What was a castle without a fireplace or two! Our vault was carved out of the mountain and sealed with iron doors that had no external lock. Since we all used telekinesis, opening an internal lock was no problem. It is accessible through a tunnel inside the keep that led to the canyon wall. There were huge amounts of gold and platinum coins and gems worth tens of millions. We weren’t hurting at all, thanks to a deceased dragon from a bygone era.

  My Father-in-law, the King of Eredwynn, was very happy when I took his daughters off his hands. When he found they could do magic they became his ‘beloved’ daughter. Now, when I saw him, he always sent his love. The girls didn’t think that his affection is very genuine, but he had given me enormous political power. It could have just been fear too, I suppose.

  Chapter Two

  I woke early, as usual, wrapped a towel around myself, and went downstairs to take a shower. You don’t know how wonderful a shower is until there is no such thing and it takes a half dozen people to prepare a bath for you! We didn’t have showers upstairs yet because Alice and I hadn’t run the plumbing. A keep is a huge thing and it takes quite a lot of pipe to do even minor plumbing projects. The smith in Valeview, who knew how to make the pipe I wanted, was having problems with supply. He always had shipments coming up from mines in the east, but for the last couple months there hadn’t been deliveries. I was planning to look into it, when I didn’t have more pressing things to do.

  I relaxed and woke up in the stream of warm water. The water coming from our geothermal hole in the ground was hot enough that it had to be cut with cold to be comfortable. The kitchen staff loved it, and wouldn’t leave this keep for anything. I planned my day with the complete understanding that my plans rarely worked out. I was going to ask my wife if she would like to go to Tesil today. I thought that there were things that she wanted to get for the baby and I knew there were things I wanted. I wanted mid-wives! I didn’t know what I was doing and neither did any of the girls in the keep. Chloe, of course, would be there and we were hoping that she could dull the pain of childbirth but there were no guarantees. I hoped someone brought smelling salts, for me.

  I finished up, dried off and dressed. I arrived back in my room in time to see my lovely wife rocking, tugging and pulling herself to her feet. I said, ‘good morning lovely lady! Do we have any plans for the day or can we do mine?’ I avoided saying anything about front heavy, round, chubby or roly-poly. You see, a pregnant woman is a force that must be handled with kids gloves. A pregnant wizard can be quite deadly! I was told that she had no plans, so I asked if she wanted to go to Tesil with me. I had to take some gemstones by the jeweler and we could look for baby stuff. We needed a crib and cradle and all that fun stuff. She agreed that would be fun and while she dressed in the maternity wizard uniform that I loved so much, I grabbed gems from the vault.

  I left word with Margery that we were going to be going to Tesil. If someone needed me, the girls would have no trouble finding me in that town. That is one of the joys and drawbacks of being a famous wizard; someone always knows where you are. Back in ou
r room Isabel was ready to go, we recalled to a field just outside of town and walked in from there. It’s never a good idea to recall into a city. People are very easily startled creatures and you never know what to expect from them. We went to the jewelers first and traded our gems for three thousand platinum. That would be thirty thousand gold coins, for the non-gamers. I took a handful of platinum, put it in my pocket for expenses, and used a transport spell to send the rest to the keeps vault. Just for the record, a handful of platinum coins would be the equivalent of the income of four or five families, for a year. Being a wizard does have its little benefits.

  We walked through the town nodding at the calls of ‘Good morning Master Wizard’ and ‘almost time yet, Lady Wizard?’ We found a shop that had some lovely, but expensive, baby items. A crib and matching cradle embossed with gold caught Isa’s eye and I knew by the look that we were buying it. I gave her the money we had, keeping only two platinum pieces for my project and left her to haggle. I approached the first guard I saw and after the customary “May I help you, Master Wizard” asked where I could locate midwives. He gave me directions and off I went. I knocked on the door of the indicated business and it was answered by a friendly woman in her twenties. I asked if… and she interrupted and asked if the Lady Wizard was in labor yet. I said ‘not yet, but I don’t want to wait until the last minute. If I could hire a couple midwives to stay at the keep until it was time, I would be thrilled.’ She told me to wait; that she and her older sister already had bags packed and would be happy to assist my wife. She told me that they would charge two gold pieces a week each, and I would pay for transportation both ways. I gave her the two platinum pieces that I was carrying and said that if it went over five weeks I’d be insane, but would pay. She asked if we had a carriage and I assured her we would do better than that when we located my wife. They were a bit unhappy to hear that my wife was walking around in town this close to her due date, but they didn’t know my Isa! She did pretty much what she wanted to do. I backtracked to the baby goods store and found Isa, done with her shopping and coming our way. I introduced the midwives, as the midwives. I assumed that they had names and they could share them later. I wanted to get Isa home. We walked out of town and down the road five hundred yards, so the ‘crack’ of the recall spell wouldn’t disturb anyone. I took Isa’s hand and put my other on one of the women, Isabel got the other and I cast the spell. We showed up in front of the keep with two slightly hysterical women. We were so used to using recall for transportation that it didn’t even cross our minds to warn them to what was about to happen! We apologized and then turned them over to Margery for rooms and food instructions.

  Upstairs the crib and cradle waited in exactly the place Isa wanted them and had sent them from Tesil. I asked if I had any change from all the platinum I’d handed her and she giggled telling, me not a single copper coin. As she turned toward the crib she shook her pocket, I could tell it was full of money. She must be one of the most ornery women in the kingdom, next to her baby sister. I told her that I was going to go fly down the river for a while on patrol and would be back by dusk. She said that would be fine with her because she had some baby clothes that she wanted to look through from the tailor and baby proofing she wanted to do. I requested that she not over do it and walked out the balcony door.

  I cast my shield spell, which encapsulated me in an invisible bubble, followed by Fly. My feet lifted from the balcony and I turned myself east up the river. I climbed to five hundred feet and turned on the speed. I tapered off at what I guessed to be two hundred mph. I wished constantly for an air speed indicator. It would be nice to know for the sake of knowing. My record speed was over eight hundred mph indicated by the sonic wake I had left behind me. That was due to an angry dispute with my spouse and was the day we discovered she was pregnant.

  I flew for over an hour, watching the ground and looking for anything that wasn’t supposed to be in my kingdom. Finally, the sun warned me it was time to head back. I slowed to turn around and looked down. I saw eight Orcs walking along as if they belonged there. I may be the Master Wizard but, after being knocked out of the sky once, I don’t fight alone. I marked the place in my head to check out when the girls were with me and zipped back home. I landed by our training field where all the girls except Isabel were working on spells or instructing. I smiled, as I always did when I saw them all in their wizard uniforms. Made from light brown, tight fitting, clingy pants and a long sleeve shirt made from the same stretchy, clingy material. All that set off with a cape that had gold thread work on the boarders. I wore exactly the same clothes but they always looked better in them than I do. I told Chloe that I had hired two midwives and that made her feel better. She didn’t doubt her healing ability at all, but this was to be her first childbirth attendance. She was very nervous. I told them that I’d see them later, cast fly and went to my balcony.

  I opened the door and Isabel met me. She asked if I’d made it to the mines to check on the smiths shipments or if I had that planned for another day. I told her that I hadn’t made it quite that far but I had seen a good-sized group of Orcs a couple hundred miles east. That would put them only a hundred miles from the mining town. I hoped that the town hadn’t been attacked! The girls and I could take out eight Orcs without a problem but for men in a melee fight it would take fifty men and there would be casualties.

  Her water broke. No warning, no pain, no I think that my water broke, just sudden wetness. I stepped to the balcony door, fired three energy bolts with the whistle and bang the spell made, over the canyon to the west, and headed to the stairs. I called down to Margery that Isabel’s water had broken and she ran up to the second floor where she had parked the midwives. I went back into our room and helped Isa onto the small bed that we had set up for this purpose. That was when the balcony door became clogged with all the girls trying to get in at once. Chloe made it first and went to her sister. The midwives showed up and I was unceremoniously removed from my own room.

  I walked to the roof of the keep and looked around. I gazed out over the river valley that I had used to explain magic to the princesses. Looking up the northern canyon wall there was Valeview Castle, which I had received along with my lordship and the hand of the princess. The tournament that I had won, through some slight cheating with telekinesis, had only been slightly over a year ago. Now, it seemed as though it had been ages. A year ago, no one would have entered this valley because of its proximity to the woods. The woods were deadly and full of dangerous creatures. Now, since the wizards had returned to the kingdom of Eredwynn, this valley was a symbol of safety and security. Except for me right now it didn’t feel secure. My mind was in turmoil and I considered returning to my room to watch, assist, or just be there. The wizard girls would be able to remove me forcibly but I knew they wouldn’t out of respect. Causing that kind of drama right now wouldn’t be helpful, so I sighed and took to the air.

  I set down in front of the Valeview Keep and walked up the stairs. That is another thing that had changed. If I had flown over the wall and approached the keep a year ago the archers in the towers would have gone berserk! Now they just waved an acknowledgment and went about their business. I walked inside and turned to the left where Pariset’s office was located. I walked to the open door and knocked on the frame. Pariset raised his head from his constant writing. His face lit up when he saw me and he waved me in. The man loved me and I’m sure that me getting him the title of Lord and control of Valeview castle had a lot to do with that.

  I greeted him, “Good evening, My Lord!”

  He shook his head, “You can stop that now. I understand now what you meant by getting tired of all the formality. Sometime just hearing my name would be nice, Master Wizard.”

  I laughed, “Alright, we’ll go back to Pariset and David if you don’t mind. Right now I’m not feeling the Master Wizard thing.”

  He looked concerned, “Is something the matter my friend? Is there anything that I can help with?”


  I nodded, “you could signal the kitchen for two very large mugs of ale. It might not fix my problem but would possibly make it more tolerable.”

  The ale was quickly delivered and I took a large pull from the mug. Pariset said, “I’ve never seen you do that before, are you going to tell me what’s wrong now?”

  I nodded, “Isa is having the baby as we speak. I am just the normal worried father, I suppose.”

  He grinned, “Every expecting father I’ve ever met went through the same thing, so don’t feel to out of sorts. Is she attended by a midwife?”

  “Actually, you know me; she has two midwives hired from Tesil. There are also ALL of my wizard girls, especially Chloe, with her too.” I informed him.

  “Well, you know that with Chloe there, the chances of anything bad happening are minuscule. It sounds like she should have one of the most protected deliveries in history!” Pariset exclaimed.

  “Personally, I’d rather take on a half dozen Orcs than sit around not knowing what is going on.” I sighed.

  Pariset laughed, “I can honestly say that you’re the only man in the kingdom that would make that kind of statement! They are going to signal you when the baby is born, I assume.”

  I shrugged, “I would hope so. I bet they will send up sparks to let everyone in the area know.” ‘Sparks’ is just a simple signaling type spell that any level two or above could cast without a spell word. It is quite useful because all you had to do was think of the color sparks you wanted to send up and it would fly up to a thousand feet and spread out like fireworks.

  We sat and talked about nothing for quite some time. I knew Pariset was just trying to distract and he did a good job. The time passed quickly and then a bright white light, which could have only come from Chloe, shone through the doors and windows of Valeview Keep. Pariset congratulated me as I jumped to my feet. The sky was then filled with bright blue sparks lighting everything for a mile around. I grinned and knew that the kingdom, and more importantly, my wife and I had a son! I couldn’t say a word; I just waved to a grinning Pariset and ran for the door. I took to the air the minute I was outside and landed on the roof where all the girls had gathered to send up sparks. I was immediately attacked by the girls with hugs and kisses. All the hugging and kissing was nice but I wanted to see my son so I pulled away from them and said that I’d be back after I’d seen my boy. They grinned, knowing that I had the message of the blue sparks. As I trotted away, I heard Alba say, ‘I told you he’d understand the message!’