Five podiums and stands for five spells written out on sheaves of gold foil, set up to administer those spells in a very specific way. Triggered by blood and magic which would customize the magic to everyone learning them, and leave them unable to freely pass the spells on to others.

A thousand dollars per spell, five spells to buy. Potential market: millions of Light mages, especially Novice and Adept-level ones.

Someone was going to want to take a good chunk or all of my business, it was practically a given. They’d do it under the auspices of granting protection or something, of course, while taking the lion’s share and more of the money.

But of course, they had absolutely no experience in dealing with a Wizard and Artificer, so we’d just have to see where that shook out.

I was definitely going to need some protection, just not the kind the Archmages and the Sages wanted to impose upon me.

And all it would take would be a phone call.

--------

“This is Sama Rantha,” said the coolly suspicious voice on the other end of the phone. “I understand I’m talking to Lady Fae?”

“You are, Captain! Hello and welcome! I wonder if I could get a discount for passage on the Intrepid? I’ve a quest to complete on Coralost and I’m a bit short of cash...”

“I don’t give any discounts for trips to Coralost,” she interrupted automatically, and I’m afraid the grin on my face widened immediately. “The price is set if, if, if, what the fuck?!”

I listened to the big inhalation on the other end as I went on, “It takes twenty goldweight just to take advantage of that Fire Node, goddammit! How much free coin do you think a Ten has to sling around?!”

“BRIGGS!” she screamed in my ear. “PICK UP ON THE OTHER LINE, NOW!”

“Goddamn, woman, you haven’t gotten any quieter. I understand you’ve probably got your fill of sea serpents and kraken, but seriously?”

“You are really going to piss me off if you keep up the gaming stuff,” she snarled quietly.

There was a click and buzz and a magnificently deep voice butted in, “I’m here. What’s up?” Briggs asked. Like Sama, his voice was different than I remembered through hazy doubled memories, but still recognizable.

“Warlord Briggs of Redshore, a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Please, please, do NOT sing in greeting to the mighty and perspicacious Lady Fae, hero of Spider-stomping and Ant-popping from the northern Texas territory.

“And yes, you are hearing correctly. I am speaking in Human.”

They both sucked in breaths again, and were silent for a moment.

“You obviously know who we are,” Sama said, recovering first. “You’re obviously a Power of Ten gamer, we got it. Now, who are you?”

“I’m a shard of a soul cut off the guy who Sauron kept suing for Title infringement.”

“Sauron.” There was a beat to Briggs’ voice. “Tolkien never wrote that here. The Lord of the... The Ringlord? Aelryinth?!” he slowly remembered.

“Hey, that’s the one! Hello, the two of you. You’ll be delighted to know your Primes back on Terra are both Sworn under him and they are good friends. I have tons of memories of them interacting with him, so I’m pretty familiar with your basic history, styles of thought, and game existences.

“On the other hand, I got here a week ago, getting dumped out in the middle of a Beast Wave. I’m sure you’ve been here longer, and I could sure use some help about now.”

“Damn,” Sama muttered. “You’re all over the internet already. Inventing new Novice spells? After only a week?”

“I hear you’ve been slyly training up Alchemists and Artificers, and introducing technology,” I replied. “NOT Rune Chemists and Runesmiths. Dish! Are all the Humans here Homo Sapiens Magi?”

I could hear some scraping and leather and sighs from both of them. “Yes, every single one of them,” Briggs murmured. “Not another Null, Void, or Source that we’ve been able to find.”

“I’m not at all sure that’s a bad thing, given how magical this world is. Still, you found a use for colorless Casters, that’s awesome. I’ll have you know Wizardry works here, too, as does Bloodline Sorcery.”

“No shit?” Sama muttered. “Colorless?”

“Awakened mages can use non-Elemental Magic, or Magic of their Elements. Non-Awakened can use it all... and make Typeless Stars, too.”

“Interesting,” Sama murmured. “That... would give a LOT of options to the non-Awakened, beyond what we’ve been quietly building.”

“So, it’s not out of line to say you might be the only Null and Source on the planet, right?” I inquired carefully.

“It’s entirely possible,” Briggs agreed. “We’ve... had an interesting time of things because of it.”

“I imagine. However, you also have a very unique reputation because of it. Anti-magical stuff just is not very common here... and happens to be precisely what I am looking for.”

“You’re in trouble already? What for? The new spells?” Sama asked quickly.

“You two are more than smart enough to realize the monetary value of new Novice-class spells, let alone Wizardry. There are five additional spells per basic Element, and at least four for the Secondary ones. At just a thousand a spell, which is dirt cheap...”

“You’re making millions starting from Day One,” Briggs finished knowingly. “And the powerful are going to want a piece of it.”

“So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say these bastards are severely not ready for either of you.”

I could almost hear the hard, cold smiles on their faces. “We just might have killed quite a few mages in our time,” Sama purred. “They have a dreadful habit of severely underestimating those without magic, and an even more dreadful habit of assuming that means they can do whatever they want around us.”

“And they can’t Assay for shit, so they have no idea what they are dealing with,” I agreed in satisfaction. “Please tell me you have your Forsaken Auras at 50 and can take out Sages.”

They both chuckled deeply. “Her expectations of us aren’t low, Sama,” Briggs pointed out.

“I’ve both harvested the head of a Sage and put a nihilor bullet through the skull of one at two thousand yards,” Sama stated unapologetically. “Briggs hasn’t been so lucky, but he’s had a couple half-Sages and some Archmages come plummeting out of the sky near him, and not make it back to their feet.”

“Fucktards that they were,” Briggs said solemnly, his voice very low and dangerous. “Thought they could steal my kills.”

I didn’t bat an eye. The KIA crew had tons of stories of similar things happening. The whole world was like a Might makes Right Wild West without any overarching morality. The only ‘law’ was who held the greatest amount of power, and not betraying Humanity in the face of resisting all the magical Beasts we shared the world with. ‘Laws’ only existed in cities, and even they were bent far too often by personal power and relative worth between individuals.

There was no ‘higher law’ to adhere to. Heaven definitely was not here, and all ‘goodness’ was infused with neutral rhetoric and blame/doubt/skepticism.

The people at the top of the stack tended to be anything but saints. That said, they were also Humanity’s greatest weapons against aggressive Beasts, so the two of them popping off people at the top of the stack said wonders about Sama’s and Briggs’ willingness to take those people out.

“I’ve the idea that your histories on this world have been pretty wet and wild,” I noted. “On that note, I’d like to sort of propose a business venture between us. I bring a metric ton of potential revenue to the table, changing the world at the foundational level, and some big overarching goals.”

“That sounds incredibly interesting,” Briggs replied calmly. “Think you could drive on up to see us, sit down with us?”

“Where are you based at?” I asked, having not a clue.

“Didn’t do your internet research?” Sama asked, her arched eyebrow almost visible. “We’re up north of Detroit. Lots of technical skills up here, what with the auto industry and all, just what we need.”

“I’ve been really, really busy. Got me a bunch of recruits and everything already. Oh, and I intend to go live with the Novice Light spells for sale tomorrow.”

They both exhaled in surprise. “That should get you rich really, really fast,” Sama conceded. “I take it you’ve taken precautions against cheating. What are you going to do if they don’t pay you?”

“The Podiums only work if I get paid. The instant they touch my money is the instant the things shut off.”

“What are you doing with the money?” Sama asked, intrigued.

“I’m set up to buy cut diamonds in bulk and platinum, currently.”

I could hear both of them smile. “That’s a very, very good use of money,” Briggs admitted. Especially since Forsaken needed to Invest, not Infuse. “It seems you will be bringing a bit of capital in our direction.”

“Do you need cash?” I asked reasonably.

“Not if we don’t need to buy goldweight,” Sama replied smoothly.

“Then I think I have us covered.”

“How long does it take to learn one of the spells?” Briggs asked.

“Under a minute. We’re set up to do one thousand people a day per Podium.”

“At one thousand dollars per.”

“Oh, no. One thousand is the first come, first served minimum. The first two hundred and forty of the day are whoever bids highest goes first.”

Both of them burst out laughing despite themselves. “You’re going to have conceited arseholes bidding up the ticket just to show off they’ve got more money!” Sama cackled with glee.

“And they won’t have to stand in line,” I agreed. “You can get in as early as you’d like to pay, but only a quarter of the people per day.”

“Nice!” Briggs murmured. “Cater to the egos, acknowledge the Novices. I like it.”

“And she’s still going to make tons of money. I also like it,” Sama admitted. “What about the other Elements? Are you going to do the same thing?”

“I figure I could spread the love out to other cities. Also, five thousand visitors a day is a lot of traffic.”

“Damn, that’s right! We could make a killing on real estate and hospitality! Say, fellow gamer, you wouldn’t happen to be planning to put one of those places in Michigan, would you?” Sama wheedled.

“I was kinda thinking it might not be a bad place to put the Earth spells, right?” I lobbed back at her.

“FUZZZZZEEEEE, we are gonna make so much munnnneeeeyyyy!!” Sama sang out with a deep-throated laugh.

“Good, we need all we can get to get the production lines up properly,” Briggs stated warmly. “Also, how good are you at Energizing things, Fae? It’s our number one priority.”

“I can cast Widened V’s at CL30-plus?” I told him calmly, and heard them both sigh.

“We have been blessed by Mithar!” Briggs proclaimed piously. “Now... there’s gonna be a fuckton of paperwork to do, Sama.”

“Yeah, but we have people for that!” she shot right back, and they both chuckled happily.