Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

“Open an inn?”

He nodded. The woman took out another form and started on that. Her eyes widened as, getting somewhat harried, she hurried to fill out the information.

“On the wizard’s land?”

“I’m the new resident wizard, aren’t I? The locals there said I could lay claim to the land if I want since the wizard left no will.” Theissen waited to see if anyone would object.

“You’ll have to go to the land office to confirm that,” a constable replied. But then he added as a musing smile curled up the corner of his mouth, “However, as a registered wizard, you would have rights to it, if you can clean the land up.”

“Oh, I already started that yesterday.” Theissen waved the idea away.

“But what about the demons that lived there?” one of the constables asked. He moved in closer.

The mood in the room was lightening. Theissen could feel it. Amazement had replaced the reek of fear. Most of them were merely startled that he was who he was and doing what he was doing. It sort of gave him the freedom to keep doing it. “Those? I took care of the demons two days ago. They’re all gone.”

A general murmur echoed in the room. The demons were gone. Many listening in exhaled with relief.

“But you said you intend to register two locations,” the registrar said, looking up with confusion. 

“Yes.” Theissen nodded, quite enjoying the circus atmosphere as he glanced at the watching crowd. No one was doing any work, still watching him and the registrar. It was almost fun. “I intend to inhabit the Ki Tai tower as my main home.”

The room exploded into gasps. Theissen actually jumped a few inches from his seat. Grabbing his chest, he just shook his head, then clutched his forehead. “Goodness, people. Calm down. You—”

“That place is cursed! Not even the old wizard could end it. The magicians don’t even dare,” the constable holding his things burst out, almost shouting it.

It took a bit, breathing more calmly, but Theissen smirked back at him. “That’s because the magicians won’t try magisterial magic. I took care of the curse. The place is curse free, and my friends are cleaning it up right now.”

More murmurs echoed in the room, but this time Theissen decided not to let them overwhelm him. His secret was out after all. That meant time was short. He had to register for the land next.

“Are we done here?” Theissen asked the registrar, rising from his chair again.

The registrar had halted in her writing. She looked up and then hastily wrote more on each of the forms. Then she shoved the papers forward. “Sign here and then print out your name clearly here.”

He took up the pen and carefully signed each of them, making sure all the information he needed was on the forms. “Hmm. How much does this cost, by the way?”

Suddenly, she had a panicked look in her eyes. She glanced to the constables as she hunched down. “How much do you want it to cost?”

Dismay filled him. Perhaps fear would always be there.

Theissen looked her in the eye. “Give me the usual price, please. I don’t want to be accused of cheating the system. This must all be perfectly legal, right?”

She only stared at him more.

So he tried to make it clearer. “The usual price for registering one carpenter, two merchant operations, one wizard and an inn?”

On automatic, she said, “Five registrations totals to a hundred in silver. Twenty per registered trade.”

Nodding to her, Theissen set his coin pouch on the counter. He dug through it, pulling out an equivalent to one hundred in silver using ten gold coins, several silver coins, and some coppers. Passing it over to her, he asked with a reassuring smile, “Is this right?”

She nodded back and accepted the payment. She stamped them to authenticate the forms. She then signed all five release forms for Theissen, stamped them, passed them over, and called up, “Next!”

And that was it. Theissen rose from his seat and turned to the constable who had his things. He extended his hands for them, softly asking to have them back.

The constable stuffed all of the taken belongings back into Theissen’s arms as if he had suddenly been a naughty boy ready to throw away the evidence of what he had just done. A flavor of fear had definitely returned to the air. Heaving a small sigh, Theissen carefully stuffed his things into his empty pockets, wrapped his travel cloak around his shoulders, and buckled his carpentry belt back on.

As he walked to the exit door, a constable stopped him. “Wait, before you go, I have to ask. Why are you wearing that strange shirt? Don’t you have a coat?”

Smirking at his shirt front, Theissen replied, “I had a coat, but the molemen took it ages ago along with my vest. As for my shirt, the birdmen got their hands on that and lent me one of theirs. To be quite frank, I’m freezing.”

And he walked out.

Registering for the carpentry guild was rather easy. As it turned out, five houses existed but several independent carpenters also lived within the city. The man who registered him merely gave Theissen a warning look when he said he didn’t want to join a house. Of course that look changed when Theissen had given him his name for the paperwork. From then on the man just stared at him with an expression akin to a frightened animal, as if the coming of a Carpenterson from Lumen Village ushered in doomsday. Theissen left that room with his sixth certificate in hand, and he started back down the stairs to find the land office.

The land office was situated at the end of an extremely long hall. When he reached the end, one man was shutting the door to lock it. “Sorry, we’re closing for lunch.”

Theissen groaned. Surreptitiously, he caused the tile in the floor to rise just enough to make the door jam against the ground. “Come on. You can do one more, can’t you?”

Peering in, it was clear they did not get much business anyway. Their room was in disarray with stacks of papers and books off of shelves like they had too much to care about. Or rather, they didn’t care at all about the old information and would have rather wanted to burn it. Besides, most of the people looked extremely bored.

The man endeavored to ignore Theissen, shoving hard against the door. But that only wedged it against the tile. “I…said…we’re….”

“Just one moment.” Theissen gently pushed the door open, using the floor to hold the door back. “It shouldn’t take long, right?”

Groaning loudly, the man turned and shouted to the registrar there. “This guy snuck in. Finish him and then help me with this door or we’ll never get to eat.”

As if called to, Theissen’s own stomach gurgled. He hurried to the desk and gave the registrar a nod. “I have two properties to register.”

“Writs of sale?” the registrar asked, reaching out.

Theissen blushed. “I don’t have those. Though I do have my certification of registration for wizardry.” He set that on the desk. “Which I assume entitles me to the unclaimed land the old wizard owned.”

Everyone in the room froze.

“Wizard?”

Nodding and straightening out his shoulders, Theissen smiled. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m the one who stuck your door. I’ll fix it as soon as you help me.”

The man who had been trying to force the door stared. Then he ran over to Theissen, grabbing all the other needed documents. He slapped them onto the table. “Ok. Fine. Hurry it up, Wizard. You want that land?”

Theissen nodded.

“You can have it if you clean it up and fix the highway to Serjiev,” the registrar said.

“Already done,” Theissen replied, grinning at them.

They scribbled out the details of the paperwork, writing down the property address.

“I am also here,” Theissen said in a practiced formal tone, “To lay claim to the Ki Tai tower.”

Both registrars stiffened again.

“You want what?”

Nodding once, Theissen said it again. “I am laying claim to the Ki Tai tower. I want it for my property.”

“But that place is—”

“Cursed, I know.” Theissen gestured to the papers, drawing one out of the stack with magic. He whipped it over to the desk with a small breeze.

Both men stared as it landed gently next to the other form.

“But I want it,” he said.

“But not even the old—”

“I know. I know,” Theissen cut him off with a smile. He then tapped the paper. “But I was able to eradicate the problem just yesterday.”

They stared in silence.

“Just yesterday?” One murmured.

Theissen nodded.

“You don’t mean that fire was you?” the other gawked at him.

Theissen sank his head into his shoulders, blushing sheepishly. “Yeah. A bit overly dramatic, but the city turned out to be infested so I had to take care of all of it in one blow. Sorry if it startled you all.”

“Startled?” The man jumped up. He pointed out to his window. “The tower looked like it exploded! The fire was everywhere!”

“Did you get burned?” Theissen asked, now truly concerned. He peered over the man too look for burns.

“No!” the man snapped, “But it gave us a scare. The city governors have been debating what to do about it. They figured the curse had gotten worse. But you are saying you ended the curse?”

“Well, it wasn’t a curse exactly.” Theissen glanced around the room at the others that worked there. Still immobilized from shock, they were staring at him. “It was spiders.”

“Hey! That’s what the old wizard said!” someone exclaimed.

“But he didn’t get rid of them,” another said. “Said he couldn’t.”

“And the magicians didn’t—”

“The magicians couldn’t,” Theissen interrupted and tapped the forms on the desk. “Now can we please get on with business? Can I claim the tower or not?”

The main registrar shrugged then pulled over the paper Theissen had floated onto the desk. “I don’t see why not. No one else would dare move in there.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

“Great.” Theissen took out his coin pouch. “Is the registration fee the same as for trade registration?”

The men just glanced at each other.

“Actually, it costs forty in gold,” the eldest one said with a regretful look.

Theissen blinked at him. “The cost of a demon feather?”

The man nodded.

Frowning at the contents of his money pouch, Theissen then glanced up at one of the men. “Uh, can I use a small piece of paper and a pen? I need to send a note.”

Someone found both, shoving them into his hands. Theissen started writing immediately, drying the ink with a touch and then folding it in half. He walked over to the window and opened it.

“Hey! What are you doing?” the man who had just dealt with him at the door asked, hoping Theissen wasn’t going to jam the window open also.

Theissen let the paper go. It floated on a quick breeze, whipping hastily towards the tower. “Just sending a letter home. Someone should be able to bring the money in a second.”

“You don’t have eighty in gold on you, do you?” the elderly man chuckled with a slight smile. “That’s not unexpected. We can put the papers on hold then finish them when you are ready.”

But a sensation of urgency washed over Theissen. It did not feel like a good idea to wait.

“No. I really ought to get it done today. If more find out that I cleansed the tower, they might try and take it from us. I have to get it now.”

“But it will take whomever you sent that letter to a while to come here from that tower,” the man who had wanted to close the door said. He clutched his arms closed to his body, shivering from the cold wind blowing in through the window.

“Three hours if they walked it,” Theissen murmured. “But he won’t be walking.”

They stared again.

“So, if you will please finish the details, I’d really appreciate it.” Theissen pulled the chair at the desk back