Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (10 page)

“
Um, hello…who and what are you?”

She got up and bowed to me
. “I’m sorry; I forgot to tell you I was coming. Well, my name is…probably unpronounceable by a human, and we little people have this rule about giving out our real names to outsiders due to that whole Rumplestiltskin fiasco, but you can call me Nia and I’m a pixie.”

“
Ok, well…very nice to meet you, Nia. Is there something you need? I am really busy right now.”

She looked at me funny with her head tilted to the side
. “You didn’t read the King’s letter,” she said accusingly, but then a look of horror spread across her face and she dropped straight back down onto the anvil in a pitiful ball, drawing her knees up to her chest. “Of course you didn’t! I forgot to send it to you! Bad Nia!” And she started to cry.

I have no natural defenses against female tear
s, even if they come from a six-inch little slip of a girl. I reset the sword into the embers, set my work hammer aside, and wiped off my hands on a rag. Crouching down, I looked at her at eye level.

“
Wow, calm down, Nia - we’ll get this figured out. You can call me Alex. Now what did the letter say?”

She stopped and looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“At least, I found the right human. Mr. Alex, I was so very lost in this big place, and then I heard you humming, and you were so happy that you stood out like a beacon in all these people. Once I smelled the forge, I knew you were the one!”

“
The letter, Nia,” I reminded gently.

She
stood up, wiped away her tears, and pulled out a very small piece of paper less than an inch wide. “It says ‘Dear Mr. Alex, a pixie will arrive in your home by my orders. It has come to my attention that you will someday be important to the magical kingdom and will have a large impact on it as your life continues. As an offering of good will, and to barter for further cooperation with our people, the pixie bearing this letter will now belong to you.’” Nia stopped and did a double take. “Wait, what? The king made me your servant? That can’t be right.”

“
What else does it say, maybe there’s a reason?”

She continued reading
, still flustered, “This pixie has been chosen to be your servant and bodyguard for the remainder of her natural life. If you are killed and your guard is not, then she will no longer be welcome here at home. But I do respectfully ask that you take good care of your pixie. Our people are few and growing fewer every year, and all are valued by me. With respect, signed the Pixie King.” Nia slumped down and fell flat on her back dejectedly. “Well that sucks, now I can’t ever go home. Then again, that may be a good thing.”

“
Why would not going home be a good thing?”

She sat back up and hung her head
. “I was never much liked at home. You see, I have way more stupid magic than a normal pixie, but I can’t control it, and that made some problems for me.”

“
What sort of problems?”

“
Well, when I try to light a candle, I start the hut on fire; or if I attempt to sprout a seed, I get a full-size tree, that sort of thing.”

“
I don’t see what’s wrong with that, you just need some practice.”

“
But I’ve tried practice, I’m just too stupid to do it!” And she started hitting herself in the head. “Stupid Nia!”

“
Hey, stop that.” I used two of my fingers and held her small arms from moving.

“
You don’t think I should be shunned or punished?”

“
No, I don’t.”

“
But I’m so stupid!”

“
I don’t think so. I think you’re just being hard on yourself. Besides, you’re at a school for magic. If you’re going to learn, then this is the place to do it. I’ll help you.”

She smiled and wiggled free of my fingers
. Once free, she flew up, her silvery dragonfly wings buzzing vigorously, and the pixie girl happily darted in close and quickly hugged my face.

“
You’re a nice master; maybe this won’t be so bad after all. So what are you doing with that thing anyway?” She let go of my face and sat on my shoulder and pointed at the dull gray blade still on the embers.

“
First, call me Alex. I grew up a blacksmith’s son, and I am certainly no one’s master. And to answer your question, I am making a gift for the girl I’m taking to the dance coming up.”

She looked at it for
a bit and her eyes got bigger. “Um, I may not be a good judge of things size-wise, but I don’t think that’s going to make a nice shiny bracelet or shiny anything for that matter.”

I laughed and she
flashed me a grumpy look. “Don’t laugh at me! I may be a pixie, but I am still a girl, you know. We know fashion, and that’s not it!”

“
No, sorry, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just the girl that I’m taking to the party doesn’t favor jewelry.”

I thought she was going to
die; her wings went straight up and started to vibrate. “DOESN’T LIKE JEWELRY! What kind of girl doesn’t like jewelry? What’s wrong with you? Oh, you’re not courting a dwarf girl, are you?” she asked, waggling a tiny finger at me.

“
No, Maya isn’t a dwarf, she just isn’t the kind of girl to wear a lot of flashy adornments - she really doesn’t need them to look great.”

“
So what kind of girl is she then?”

“
She likes swords.”

“
Swords? What’s a girl to do with a sword?” Then she perked up and buzzed around some more. “I’ve got it, she is a warrior princess! And instead of a silly bracelet, you’re making a magic sword to protect her so that your true love always comes home from the battlefield!”

I was
embarrassed, but you know she had a point; I always want Maya to come home. “You are exactly right, Nia! See? You are a very smart pixie after all.”

She grinned and obviously felt better
. “Well, if that’s what you’re going to do, we need to get started and you will need some help.”

“
You can help make a magic sword?”

I r
emembered from my reading that pixie magic was considered a “wild” form of the arcane disciplines and its effectiveness entirely dependent on the force of will of the caster. Nia was examining the blade from every angle seriously; finally, she looked up and back to me. “With the two of us, we shall make a blade the world has never seen!”

And with that
, we set to work. I hammered and folded as Nia helped to set the mithrul in place so it was folded into the blade correctly. Again, I dropped into the focused rhythm that ate up the hours. It was starting to get dark when we were finally done with the blade and it was perfect! But the hilt and guard would have to wait ‘til tomorrow. After cleaning up, an exhausted pixie and I went home to get dinner ready.

“
So this is where you live? Its huge, I’m never going to find my way out. I’ll be lost for months,” Nia yawned.

“
It’s really not that big, it only has nine rooms. Just be glad we don’t live in one of the towers.”

“
Towers? What towers, and who is this ‘we’? Do you already live with the warrior princess?”

I pointed to the six towers of
Xarparion. “Those towers. The big one in the middle is called Central and the others are named by what type of magic they teach in them.”

“
Those are buildings? I thought they were mountains. Ok, I’m glad you live in the huge house and not the mountains.”

“
And as for who I live with, this is my Primus’ house and I’m her apprentice. Since we’re the only enchanters at Xarparion, we don’t get our own tower.”

“
Well, that’s not fair; you should have your own tower just like all the other colors.”

“
Yeah, but they don’t see us as real wizards, so we don’t get a lot of respect. In fact, the only ones who will even talk to us are the Earth Tower folks.”

She slumped and looked sad
. “Mr. Alex, it’s like I was at home.”

“
Don’t worry, I like it like this. If this place was any bigger, I wouldn’t be able to keep it clean. Now enough moping! We have to get dinner ready, Rosa is on her way and I can feel that she’s hungry.”

She brightened up quick
ly at the thought of food. Now that I think about it, food seems to make all the women in my life happy. Nia was rather useful in the kitchen and stronger than she looked; she could carry and fly with everything but the flour.

“
You’re a good help in the kitchen, do you do a lot of cooking?” She flew over with the last egg that I needed for dinner and cracked it open into the mixing bowl.

“
No, I never did the cooking at home. Pixies don’t really cook.”

“
So what do you do for food?”

“
We just eat things raw mostly. But I like cooked foods better so sometimes I would sneak into a human house and steal a little. The problem is that when a pixie takes food, they are supposed to do a service to pay for it. Like shine the shoes or something like that. One time I tried to rid a farmer’s cottage of ants and accidently turned their pigs into aardvarks. Ever try to make bacon from an aardvark? Pretty soon I was unwelcome everywhere and I went hungry a lot.

“
Well, you don’t have to do that anymore, you will be eating with us now.”

She sat down next to the now
empty mixing bowl and pulled her legs to her chest. “I think I will like that.” She looked up and smiled at me. Then suddenly her head turned to the door. “Someone is coming!”

“
Calm down, it’s just our Primus.”

The door flew open as
Rosa charged in with a big grin on her face. She ran over to the frightened Nia who was now cowering in the mixing bowl.

“
Hello, Nia, and welcome to our home!”

Nia was holding the mixing
spoon and shakily pointing it at Rosa like a lance, ready to defend herself from the evil monster. “Mr. Alex? Who is the giant elf lady?”

“
My name is Primus Rosa, I’m Alex’s teacher. And I must say that you look rather tasty covered in breading!”

“
Breading?” She looked down at herself and realized that when she jumped into the bowl, she got herself covered in the extra batter that was stuck to the sides of the bowl. She was almost completely covered, and then a large glop fell from the spoon and landed on her head.

“
No! Mr. Alex, don’t let her eat me! I don’t want to be a pixie puff pastry!”

Both
Rosa and I were having a hard time trying to breathe from laughter. I still laugh to myself when I picture her in the bowl, covered in batter.

“
I’m not going to eat you, Nia, I promise,” Rosa crooned.

“
Well, ok, then.” She put the spoon down and tried wiping some of the batter off her face. She must have gotten some in her mouth because soon she was eating the rest that was left in the bowl. When she was done with her ‘pre-clean’ she looked back up at us with a smile, rather proud of herself. I readied some warm water in a basin, knowing someone was now going to need a bath.

“
Well, now that you made a complete mess of yourself, we need to get you cleaned up.”

She tried to use her
wings but found that she couldn’t due to the large amount of batter still stuck to them. “I can’t fly!” Before she could do anything about it, I gently picked her up and dropped her with a plop into the warm water I had ready in the dish basin. “Hey, don’t put me in here. I am not a dirty dish you know!”

“
Yes, but you were just in one, so this seemed appropriate.”

Rosa put a hand on my
shoulder. “I’ll take care of this, she may be six inches tall, but she is still a woman.” She turned back to Nia, still in the bowl, with an evil grin on her face. “We will have lots of fun; I’ll get you cleaned up, we’ll make dresses, and do each other’s hair, paint our nails, and make a pie…”

“
Yeah, hair and nails and…wait, what pie? Mr. Alex, please don’t leave me with her!”

“
Have fun you two! Just don’t take so long that dinner gets burnt.” I walked out before Nia could protest anymore. I sat down in the reading room with one of the enchanting books and tried to relax a bit. Normally, that would work, but I could still hear shrieks and yells coming from both Rosa and Nia. After fifteen minutes, I had to set down my book because dinner needed to be turned. I knocked on the door to the kitchen.

“
Rosa, is it safe to come in for a second? I need to turn over dinner.”

“
One second, sweetie.” I heard a loud slam from the other side of the door. “Ok, now it’s safe to come in.”

I opened the door and found that Rosa was sitting on
an overturned pot. I could hear faint tapping coming from the inside along with what I would assume was yelling.