Irene, daughter of Julia, called Ira by her family to distinguish her from her great aunt was so proud of her son she almost burst. Phil was the son of Theodore, the love of Ira’s life. He died young on a hunting trip in the green. Phil returned from the Wizard's Tower with violet magic. Ira’s older brother James was so angry. He demanded Phil touch the square crystal to prove his color.

  Phil touched the crystal with pride and proceeded to demonstrate how he could cast lightning, force dart and shield. When he pulled his short sword and imbued it with ice, James stalked away. Gone were the wild swings of childhood. Although still far from the skilled movements of a warrior, Phil handled the weapon with intent.

  The most surprising thing was how he started explaining the events and motivations behind the Wizard's War at dinner.

  “Ian Black is the red wizard the war is named for,” Phil declared. “He was tier five and would have destroyed the blue army.”

  “That is not what happened,” James corrected the boy. “The army of Londontown won at Redfalls.”

  “I know,” Phil dared say back to James. “That’s because Ian was killed the night before the battle by one of his allies. Me-Ti-Fa,” Phil sang the unfamiliar selkie name perfectly, “thinks the Elder did it, but Daisy doesn’t believe the Engineer could. I can’t decide.” Phil explained. “Ian planned to use a powerful spell against Chicago to clear the way for him to take it over. It would have killed a lot of people. After that he would have defeated the blue army and moved on to Londontown. If Irene didn’t do it for Chicago, maybe she did it for us.”

  “What does Irene have to do with the Wizard's War?” James demanded.

  “She was there at Redfalls,” Phil explained. He tilted his head with a sudden thought. “You know maybe she is the wizard the war is named for. At tier six she is the more powerful wizard.” At that pronouncement several people around the family table began to choke.

  “How do you know Irene is tier six?” Ira asked her son, enjoying her brother’s discomfort.

  “That’s why the selkie call her the Elder,” Phil explained. “It is a sign of respect.”

  “Is this Engineer your friend Daisy mentioned also Irene?” Ira asked.

  “Yeah,” Phil responded. “Irene is the chief engineer on the Speedwell. She builds things for the villages, like their warehouse system.” Phil started talking about an entire new world, where people lived without magic. “That’s what Earth was like,” he said in conclusion.

  The excitement of the day wore on the young boy. Ira took her son up and tucked him into bed, beside his younger siblings. Ira decided to stay in her room, safe from the manipulations of family. She moved Phil’s things from where he left them scattered around the room to his storage spot. As she picked up a bundle of books they shifted uneasily in her hands. Startled, Ira carefully set them on the floor. They continued to strain against the leather strap holding them together.

  Reaching out as far as she could from her body, she carefully released the strap. The stack of books swelled to twice their height as soon as the pressure was released. At least they now lay still.

  The top book was called the User Manual. It was twice the thickness of any other book in the stack. Ira set it aside to reveal a substack of four thin books, tied together with a length of purple thread. Tucked into the thread was a folded piece of vellum with her name on it, Irene daughter of Julia. Ira untied the string and unfolded the vellum.

  Ira:

  I was abrupt with you the last time we met. I may have been too harsh. Phil is a smart, industrious student. I would be pleased to see him at the academy next year. It is possible to buy scrap materials from the vendor and process them into items that can be sold back. Your profits will increase if you buy scrap from scavengers and sell the items to crafters or in the market. The profits are slim and it is hard work, even with magic. It is possible to make five to ten iron a day in this manner, which translates to five to ten silver in a month. The recruiters for the Wizard's Tower will be in Londontown in eight months for the next term.

  Irene Whitman, Chief Engineer of the Speedwell.

  The four books were about crafting. The first one gave instructions on how to turn fiber into thread. Ira read it carefully. Even with its warnings on failure rates during the learning process, Ira thought she could do this, but she would need to get the beginning spinning tool.

  The other three books were how to turn scrap wood into planks, how to turn iron scrap into ingots and how to turn animal skins into leather. They all took a beginning crafter tool of their own. She’d seen the tools for sale at the furniture shop for less than what the vendor wanted. Ira thought she might be able to sell three of the books for the money needed to get started. She didn’t want to part with any of them, but if she studied them first maybe she could remember how to do those things too. She tied the string holding the four crafting books together and set them aside.

  She looked through the remaining books. There was a book on Earth history and one called: Events since the Landing. Sandwiched between them was a book titled: Wizardry, Book Four, Tier One Enhancement Spells. Paging through it, Ira saw it was written in the same format as the crafting books. At the back of it were three spells. The first was a tier one spell to increase hearing. The second was a tier one spell to sense heat. The last was the tier one heal.

  Shocked, Ira read the spell in detail. There was a long warning that went with it, giving instructions on how the spell could be used safely. It even gave instructions on how heal addiction could be cured. What shocked Ira the most was that it said a blue healer could safely heal a green magic user.

  All her life Ira was afraid. Afraid of her mother, afraid of her brother. Her one attempt to escape the family was when she fell in love with Ted. The young hunter who was Phil’s father. Ted was the son of a crafter in the square. His magic was green. He died of injuries inflicted by a boar during a hunt. His party got him back to the square alive, but he bled to death internally.

  Suddenly Ira was angry. Ira was young at the time and didn’t know heal herself. She begged her mother and oldest sister to try. They both declared there was no reason. Everyone knew a blue could only heal another blue. As a green he wasn’t worth their time. She heard the rumors about Irene sometimes healing people. She held a kernel of resentment against the old woman ever since.

  Irene wasn’t in the square that horrible day. Reading this Ira realized her great aunt would not have been able to heal Ted anyway. Ira’s mother could have, her sister could have. Had her mother known? Was that why they refused to even try?

  The vivid vision of Ted growing pale and weak was replaced by the memory of other hunters carried into the square, too wounded to walk themselves. Most of the wounded that made it back to the square would live, but some grew weak and died. All these years Ira could have saved those lives, shortened the suffering of the rest. Shame filled her. She listened to her mother and never tried. She wanted to march down to the square and scream this truth, for her children's sake she couldn’t. There was a reason she feared her family. Family members who went against the head of the family tended to disappear. No one believed they all moved away. She set the spellbook aside and tightened the strap around the rest of Phil’s books. She set them with the rest of his stuff and slipped the book into the folds of her silks.

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  She checked that each of her children were still asleep and slipped out of the room. They would be safe in the inn room for an hour or so. It was still early. The after dinner drinking was just getting started in the common room. Ira hurried across the space and out into the courtyard. She checked the shops. Most of them were still open. The students’ return delayed people from making their daily purchases. She considered the situation, before heading over to the archery shop.

  Everyone stared at Ira when she stepped inside the shop. She let her eyes run over all the shoppers, confirming for herself that no one wore leathers. Everyone in the shop wore hunter’s greens. Ira walked over to the counter. Everyone scattered in front of her.

  A woman younger than Ira stood behind it. She was holding a bundle of arrows she was in the act of handing to a customer when Ira entered the shop. The woman calmly set the arrows down behind the counter.

  “Ira,” she stated. “What brings you into my shop?”

  “I sent Phil to the Wizard's Tower. He brought this back,” she pulled the spell book from the folds of her silks and set it on the counter.

  “They sell books in the furniture shop,” Kara responded. “I sell archery supplies here. Do you need arrows or a bow?” Kara was Phil’s aunt. She was Ted’s younger sister. Ira wasn’t certain she ever told Phil that. She would have to rectify that in the morning.

  Ira flipped the book open to the appropriate page.

  “This,” she said, tapping her finger against the page in question, “is how you cast heal.” Kara’s eyes widened in surprise. She looked cautiously down at the book. Ira pushed it forward, urging the woman to read it. “It says if a healer has the same color magic as the patient, the spell results in heal addiction. If the colors don’t match the heal is painful but there is no addiction.”

  “How can the colors not match?” Kara asked, curious despite herself. “A blue wizard can only heal a blue warrior.”

  “No,” Ira said, the anger she felt at her mother and sister leaching into her voice. “A blue wizard can heal a violet, blue or green,” Ira declared. “It says it right there. A violet wizard can heal red, violet, or blue. It's how Irene can heal people and not leave them addicted. It’s how she escaped the clutches of the mad queen. The queen’s heal hurt her but it didn’t addict her. This is why she despises us. We use the spell in all the wrong ways.” Ira sobbed. She realized somewhere along the way her anger transformed into grief. Tears streamed down her face.

  “Ted didn’t have to die,” Ira whispered into the silent shop. Kara looked up from the book.

  “Oh Ira,” Kara said. She came out from behind the counter to enfold the blue wizard into her arms. “We can’t change the past.”

  “It makes me so angry,” Ira admitted. Kara held Ira until she collected herself. Ira cleaned the tears from her face with the sleeve of her silks. Kara remained in front of the counter, one hand on Ira’s shoulder.

  “The question is,” Kara said to Ira, “what are you going to do now?”

  “I have my children to think of,” Ira admitted. “I can’t stand against the regent. But I’m not going to let anyone else die when I can help.” She reached out and picked the book up, closing its cover. “Did you say they sell books in the furniture store?”

  “Yes,” Kara said. “The store belongs to Irene. We all know it. She visits every month or so to restock it.” Ira wondered if her brother knew, then decided he did. That was why the furniture store was left alone. She tucked the book back into her silks.

  “Call me if there is a need,” Ira said to Kara. “Thank you for listening.”

  “I miss him too,” Kara said. “He was my big brother.”

  When Ira turned to leave the shop, all the customers pretended to be busy looking at something else, giving the grieving woman her privacy. Ira was used to being watched. It felt strange to not have their eyes on her.

  The furniture shop was still open. It was only after she stepped inside that she realized she didn’t know what she was doing here. A female clerk was minding the counter. The last time Ira visited her cousin Eric was the clerk.

  “Can I help you find something?” the clerk asked. Ira set the book on the service counter.

  “Do you sell this book here?” Ira asked. The clerk turned the book around and read the title.

  “No, not yet,” Lilly responded. “Our… supplier hasn’t thought of a way to keep Eric and I safe from repercussions. She is working on it.”

  “What books are you selling?” Ira asked.

  “We have books to help teach young people reading, math, history, the Forms of Magic and the User Manual,” the clerk responded.

  “The User Manual, what is that one about?” Ira asked. She saw that one in Phil’s stack.

  “It tells about the structure,” the clerk explained. “There is a wide variety of subjects. From what the icons on your interface do, to how to use the fast transport system.”

  “There is a heal spell in here,” Ira said, tapping Phil’s book. “It says a blue wizard can safely heal a green magic user.”

  “That’s in the User Manual too,” the clerk answered. “The manual doesn’t have details on the spell, but it tells about the colors of magic, how the magic trees relate to the colors and who can safely heal who. Some of that is also in the Forms of Magic.”

  “Have you sold many books?” Ira asked.

  “It started out slow, but sales are picking up now. Word is getting around. We just got new versions of the User Manual and Forms of Magic in. If you have an old copy we will accept it in exchange for the new one with just a small charge for the upgrade. Are you interested in buying one?”

  It wasn’t a secret. The mad queen’s daughter was already spreading the truth. Ira picked up Phil’s book and slipped it back into her silks.

  “Why don’t you sell the spell books?” Ira asked.

  “The furniture is all in inventory,” the clerk said. “It means the prices are set. The shop doesn’t allow anything in inventory to be stolen. The same with the books. We don’t sell the spell books because they add the spell encodings after purchase. We haven’t figured out how to do that with everything in inventory.”

  “I need to make money for my son’s tuition in the fall. Do you have any starting crafting tools? Like a spindle and spools?” Ira asked.

  “Right over here,” the clerk said, directing Ira over to a table. There was a little display on the top of the table composed of red cloth, green thread, shears, pins, spools and a spindle. It was very nicely done. “It is a silver for the spindle and five iron for each spool.” Ira considered the prices. That was less than what the vendor wanted. She needed to buy fiber scrap too.

  “Thank you,” Ira said. “Do you buy books?”

  “The shop doesn’t,” the clerk responded. “It is part of our protection. I can’t be forced to pay out the shop’s money if threatened, but the result is we can’t buy inventory either. If the book has the heal spell in it, I can probably find a buyer for you.”

  “No, not this book,” Ira said. “It belongs to my son. Irene sent me four books. They are beginning crafting books. I can sell three of them to get the money for the tools.”

  “You know how I said the furniture is in inventory?” the clerk commented. “Well the crafting tools aren’t.”

  “What are you saying?” Ira asked.

  “Eric has told me a lot about life in the royal family.” During the middle of the day they worked together to run the shop. Eric told stories to pass the time between customers. Most of his stories made her very thankful she wasn’t anyone special. One of the key things she remembered was how all the minor members were kept almost penniless. After months of visits from Grandmother and Todd, Lilly thought the tools weren’t in inventory so they could be stolen. “You can take the tools now and pay the shop back later,” Lilly offered. If Ira never paid for them, Lilly would just tell Grandmother the royal stole them. “They sell the spell books in Home Square for a silver per book, plus twelve iron for each spell ribbon it contains. If you decide to sell yours you shouldn’t accept less.”

  “I don’t know your name,” Ira commented.

  “It’s Lilly,” the clerk responded.

  “Thank you, Lilly,” Ira replied.