Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I look back down to my ring book. It’s called Make Her Day Magical with a Magical Ring.
“OK.” I say this out loud. “What the fuck is going on here? I come looking for a book on how to make a magical wedding ring and one just… presents itself to me?”
I don’t know who I expect to answer me. There is literally no one here. So no one does, of course. But I can feel some kind of presence.
Maybe it’s the books?
“Pressia.” I don’t recall ever hearing about a market nymph called Pressia. Of course, who knows when she was alive, and I’ve been in here for thousands of years, so that’s not unusual. I glance back up at the top shelf, and now that I know what to look for on the spines, I see many, many books by the market nymph Pressia.
She must’ve been someone important.
I open the book on rings. It’s not a thick book. It’s barely more than a pamphlet. But it’s bound in engraved and illuminated leather. A very nice book for one specific task.
Still, it is what I need.
And the last time I came looking for a book—The Magic and Mischief of Bags—I found the one I needed too.
Hmm. It’s the hallways, I think. Even though the apothecary isn’t a hallway and nothing about this room has ever been variable. It must be the hallways directing me to the answer I’m searching for.
Then I get another idea. What if Pressia used to live here?
I pause, wondering if I just invented a conspiracy theory… or perhaps I might be onto something. If she was some kind of prisoner, or master, or slave caretaker of this place before I got here, then maybe she had a lot of time on her hands and she spent some of it writing books?
I’ve had dumber ideas in my lifetime.
But the way I remember things, the great alchemist Ostanes made this place to keep her secrets safe, and the gods panicked. The entire curse was created through a flurry of magical moves and countermoves by Saturn and Juno. But in a way that made everything more complicated, not less.
“Wait a minute.” I pause. This was the story. I know that for sure. I’ve told this story to many a caretaker over the centuries. But it feels… rehearsed. Like I’ve literally said these same words, in that same order, dozens of times.
My mind goes blank for a moment. And then I just feel dumb. “Who cares?”
I take my book on how to make her magical day magical and leave the apothecary.
There is still time in this day to make progress on this ring and I don’t want to waste it.
Again, when I pass through the maze of tombs, the monsters stare at me.
I don’t acknowledge them. I don’t even glance at them. I’m not sure I like the new voice and I one hundred percent don’t understand the new voice. So I will do my best to control my anger—and my speech—until I understand it better.
Still, the tension as I make my way towards the smithy is palpable. Even more so when I step inside and close the door, because then all the tension melts away.
I sigh, put my apron on, start my fire, and sit down to read this book while I wait for the coals to get hot.
There’s a whole bunch of blah, blah, blah about the history of weddings and rings—I stop here to growl. Because it mentions that the meaning of the wedding ring goes back to the god, Saturn. And I hate that guy. But I’m not going to let ancient history spoil my love for Pie and my quest to make her the perfect wedding ring. So I let it go.
There are several more pages—with quite nice illustrations—that describe how to write a vow, more blah, blah, blah. And then a small section on the power of a voice and a little marketing push for a book two in this series by the same author called Kissing Magic on Your Wedding Day.
Nice. I think Pie and I have the whole kissing thing down and don’t need tips, but maybe I will check that one out later.
Finally, I get to the magic recipe. And of course, it’s in verse.
To make your love a bit of magic
Forge a ring of pure metallic
Make it soft and malleable
And soon her heart will overflow.
Hmm. Pure gold is very soft and malleable. But it’s too soft to use for jewelry. It would not retain a shape on her finger. I would have to add something to it.
I choose silver. Pure silver is also soft and will lose its shape, but the spell calls for malleability. And if I had to choose, silver is more in line with what I envision to be metallic.