"Look at those beauties!"

We all gathered in Nati's room. It became crowded fast, even if it wasn't small. She sat on her bed with her little sister. Gitaut and Lambert awkwardly stood in the door, and the Fire Witch camped on the floor with me. We stared at our magical crystals.

"They are something!" Ember nodded, comparing them one by one. The original, that Nati got from the fox girl sparkled in a clear, bright, almost cyan color and looked transparent. The ones the shaman copied were larger and deep purple. You couldn't see through them either.

"They look very different," I noted a bit suspicious, grabbing one of the purple stones. I raised it in front of my eyes, aiming it at Gitaut. "You sure your spirit friends copied them perfectly, shaman?"

"Feel free to try them out, Omerta." He shrugged, looking a bit offended. He stole glances at the girls on the bed, desperate to impress them. But his words came out awkwardly. "They won't be the same as the original, but, um... They will function just as well. I had the spirits overwrite the original stones, so whatever purpose they possessed, um... It might affect the result."

"They controlled the lizards." The Fire Witch claimed without even looking up. "They tried to take over my mind, but couldn't quite manage... I drained the mana from them a few times."

"That sounds dangerous." Nati sat up on her bed all of a sudden. "If the Elder made them, then... What if she infiltrates your minds?"

"Impossible." Gitaut shook his head firmly. "Only traces of the original magic remained, I reused the stone and the mana inside them, but completely overwritten the content. It should be perfectly safe."

"I don't know, the Elder knows a few nasty tricks..." Lambert joined the discussion. He acted a bit strange lately, which seemed understandable. We found him almost immediately with the Goddess' help, but I couldn't imagine how she treated him. He refused to explain, and I didn't pry much.

The Elder mopped the floor with me twice already, the court wizard was lucky to survive unharmed. He wielded expert healing magic so I couldn't see the marks of torture on him, but I felt certain, he went through something terrible in those days.

The shaman confirmed that Lambert drained an insane amount of mana in the last week. He failed to hide his exhaustion too, and seemed shaky in both body and mind. We ensured nobody followed us back here, although the Elder probably guessed where we took him.

Thanks to the wyverns surviving the big battle, we actively searched for human spies to prevent surprise attacks on Nateaser. Not even this brought my brother back of course, but we made sure to cover our backs.

"Well, some mental threads connected them with the unknown... But I made sure to sever them all. They are safe to use, I can vouch for the spirit's work!" The shaman confirmed once more. There was no other way to make sure than to test it myself.

I touched the purple stone to my forehead, and images and thoughts flooded my brain. The tone was different, they looked a bit more vibrant and violent, but they inherently mirrored the same pictures I saw from Nati's pure blue crystal. The others curiously looked at me.

"Yeah, I guess it works!" I nodded, releasing the stone a few moments later. Of course, I couldn't wait to use it in action. "I want to build another iron golem to test it... Using the original made my process much more efficient, even though none of the spells contained within seemed to be related to golems specifically."

"You should make a staff out of it," Lambert suggested. I heard this idea the second time, but every eye turned towards him. The court wizard spoke softly and seemed embarrassed all of a sudden. "That way you can keep the connection without extra movements... And... It helps focus its powers too. No idea what kind of crystals they are, but they remind me of the cores I saw mages use in their staffs."

"You can't have one, human boy." Ember suddenly hissed, grabbing the other purple stone. She even fluffed up her tail, ready to attack. Yeah. Now that I thought about it, we had three crystals for five people. And even if we conquered that dungeon, we only hoped for one more.

"I wasn't trying to... Um... Whatever." He seemed offended and backed towards the door. The Fire Witch wagged her tail for a while.

"How does one make a staff? Never seen sorcerers or warlocks use one before." I noted, looking at the wizard boy. I heard stories about famous mages using them in ancient epic battles, but they must have been pretty rare nowadays. "I don't know, how they even look."

"It's different for every user," Gitaut explained, drawing shapes into the air. "One of the professors had one in the Magic Academy that was seven feet long. It twisted and turned, and felt like it was alive. It had a yellow crystal as its core, and he pointed it at things to cast magic, faster than anyone else could."

"So you just need to find a piece of wood, and strap the stone on top of it?" Emi asked, yawning on her sister's bed. She didn't seem as interested in magic-related things as Nati. But she rarely left her side. I understood that even if we weren't that close with Hana. I couldn't spend nearly enough time with them, and now their frozen heart was on display in the main square. In any case, Emi was quickly corrected.

"A staff needs to be attuned to the wielder," Lambert explained, glancing warily at the cat girl wearing all red. "You need to take the seed of a tree and make it sprout with your blood, using magic. You grow it into the shape you want, using your mind."

"Wow, that sounds complicated." Nati looked disappointed. She had barely begun learning, and while Gitaut borrowed the crystals to copy them, she couldn't practice either. "Could you make one for me?"

"No can do." The court wizard shook his head. And he seemed serious since I knew how much he tried to approach the otherworlder. I knew he wouldn't refuse her requests without a good reason. "As I said, you need to get attuned to your staff. Once it is made, nobody else can use it."

"Wait, so the stones answer to anyone now, but if we embedded them into a staff, nobody else could use them anymore?" I asked, a bit confused. We thought about passing around the crystals until we found enough for everyone, but this plan fell apart if we made a staff for ourselves. Lambert shook his head though.

"No, the crystals are no integral part of the staff." He scratched his head, trying to come up with a proper analogy. "Um, imagine it like, uh... Like your magic is a bolt. If you throw that by hand, you miss out on the potential. With the crystal, you put a better, deadlier tip on it, but if you still throw it by hand, the improvements would be minuscule. But the stall acts like Nati's crossbow."

"I'm so confused..." The cat girl he mentioned complained.

"He says, the crystal matters much less than the staff itself." I tried to reiterate it. "But does that mean the staff works without the magic stones?"

"Um... You can't make one without a crystal." Lambert started again, struggling to find the right words. "And said crystal is usually embedded into the staff, but not permanently. Some properties will soak into the artifact you made, but to some degree, it might still work, although much weaker than with the gem."

"Oh? And what if we later swapped out the crystal for a different one, but still used the same staff?" The Fire Witch perked up, a bit less hostile now and much more curious. "Maybe the one in that dungeon worked even better than these, so I want to have that instead. Would I need to make another staff from scratch?"

"I see no reason, why it wouldn't work." Lambert scratched his head. I wondered how much of an expert he was to be fair. "The crystal is just a tool in the process, the caster is more important. I heard about mages starting with a tiny stone and upgrading it later, so it must be doable."

"Oooh, let's go make a staff then," Ember demanded, changing her tone. She jumped on her feet and her enthusiasm seemed to rub off on the other girls too. If anything, Gitaut acted a little jealous. Yeah, he ordered the spirits around but failed to cast spells.

"How long does this usually take? To make a staff, I mean." The shaman asked, way less enthusiastic than the rest of us. Lambert pondered, but Ember marched out the door with the otherworlder sisters in tow.

"I'm not sure." The court wizard confessed. "I'm familiar with the process because of the similarity to the magic I use to grow crops. I guess it depends on the caster's skill and the type of staff."

"But like a few minutes? An hour? A day? Weeks?!" The Fire Witch joined in with the interrogation, leading the way. The orc and the human boys could not help but follow her too. We left the embassy before she got the answer, and headed towards the northern gate.

"I'd say a few hours up to a day, but who knows, I never actually made one." Lambert tried his best to satisfy her curiosity. From his expressions, I assumed he had a thing for cat ears, and for some reason, I felt a little jealous. I forgave him for falling for Nati, she inherited the body of a literal Goddess after all, but even Ember? She was only sixteen.

Though I had no idea, just how old the court wizard was. All the species aged differently and why I even cared about him this much? We were rivals, nothing more. I celebrated when we found and brought him back, but why did I think about him? He noticed my glare and quickly turned away. I did too, what was wrong with me now?

I only glanced at the freshly finished inn and the apartment building, before cutting across the older part of the village. It seemed like the next construction project they started was a new, and larger workshop for the blacksmiths. When we passed them, Gomel and the orc smith argued.

"I have a few decades more experience in smithing than you, boy. We need one huge smelter, not these tiny bloomeries." I caught a few words, that made little sense to me. The always that over-the-top flatterer could argue too. But I needed to get my head straight.

Focus! We had our crystals and were about to make something amazing. Blacksmiths or rivals, I had no time for either.