The Jade Mage: The Becoming: Volume 1 by William D. Latoria Page A

components than with the coin. The book is vague about quantity, so I figured, the more, the better. I’m sorry, but you’re out of pinecones and sulfur.” Tartum said, a little embarrassed at what he felt was boasting. Getting over it, he continued; “I also took your advice about infusing the enchantment spell with more magic than with the coin. It wasn’t easy, but I channeled as much magic into the spell as I could, trying to infuse it into everything.”
    Looking down, Tartum frowned as he remembered the next part of his story, “I almost failed actually, I thought my staff was going to shatter! As you can see, however, in the end I made it work, rather spectacularly, I might add!” Tartum smiled, at his final comment. He was in a fine mood and felt like some mild boasting was in order.
    Isidor was speechless. If Tartum was telling the truth, he had accomplished something amazing! Did he really combine more components into his enchantment, than before? Did he really enchant a material, that was connected to an already enchanted material? There was no way! How did the magic know to enchant the gold and not the jade? Magic didn’t differentiate materials. It was the item as a whole, that was enchanted, not the individual parts. How was it that the two enchantments weren’t clashing, and cancelling each other out? How was it the attempt didn’t end in an explosion? Magic didn’t work this way. You couldn’t force another enchament on an already enchanted item, no matter how many materials it was made from. The polarity of the multiple spells would repell each other, causing both spells to fail. In fact, that was the fundamental way DISENCHANTING worked! Tartum’s attempt to enchant his staff should have destroyed it! Hell, it should have killed Tartum! STUPID! He had warned him strongly, against any attempt to further enchant the staff! Yet, somehow, he had managed to do the impossible. Or was he lying? He had to be! There was something else! But, what if he was telling the truth? What did that mean?
    “Bring me your staff, Tartum” Isidor said just above a whisper.
    Tartum couldn’t make out what his master had said, so absorbed had he come in stroking his own ego. He leaned closer.
    “What was that?” he asked.
    “ BRING ME YOUR DAMN STAFF! ” Isidor yelled at him.
    The sudden change in his tone startled Tartum, and he ran to obey. Fetching his staff, Tartum ran back to his master and handed it to him. Isidor took it carefully and studied it for a moment. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he opened himself to the source. Isidor guided the flow of magic, now flowing through him, into Tartum’s staff. The jade of the staff felt warm in Isidor’s hands. The sensation told him the jade had magic in it, the intensity of the heat let him know it was a medium-level enchantment. The greater the heat, the greater the magic being held in the material. Then Isidor began touching the gold strands and allowing the trickle of magic to flow into them.
    The first strand he tested, yielded nothing, neither did the second or the third. When he tested the fourth strand, something he’d never experienced before, happened. The magic in the gold reacted to the magic being passsed into it. It was as if the gold strand craved more, and it forcefully pulled at the magic flowing out of Isidor.
    With a cry of fear, Isidor cut himself off from the source and threw down Tartum’s staff. Tartum caught it on the first bounce and glared at his master.
    “Do not throw my staff!” He yelled, before he could control his temper. He held his staff close to him now, like a mother would shield a baby.
    Isidor said nothing. He had no idea what kind of enchantment Tartum had placed on his staff, but it seemed unnatural. It scared Isidor; it terrified him. The material, itself, had tried to suck the magic from him, and the feeling was awful. In all his years, with all the evil and good things he had seen in his adventures, he had never