Book One – Chapter 4

For some reason, the lighthouse had also become Yves’ prime storage location for junk artefacts, bunched together in an elongated chest that doubled as a resting spot for Midnight. Done with his potato mash, Yves opened the chest and inspected his trash collection, even though he knew exactly what was in there. In his early days as an artefact hunter, he had fallen for many scams or false hints. He had been young and inexperienced, driven by false pride and unhealthy enthusiasm that frequently led him astray. In his pursuit, he would come across peculiar items, many of which turned out to be either worthless or even dangerous.

Yves’ first significantly disappointing discovery was a small, shiny rock rumoured to bestow immortality. After carrying it around for weeks and, just to be sure, even eating it, he came to the stark realisation that the rock was indeed nothing more than a polished pebble. Though he was very absolutely certain that it was just a random, absolutely ordinary stone, it was still here. For decoration.

Another oddity he had stumbled upon was a whistle that supposedly summoned witches. However, the issue he had with this artefact was that no sane wizard would ever dare provoke such an encounter. Thus, he had yet to test it and to this day questioned its authenticity. By keeping it hidden, he was doing the world a favour.

Then, there was a glass orb that was said to reveal visions of the future. All it ever showed him was his own reflection. To this day, he was not sure if the thing was trash or if his trash ability as a seer hindered him from using it properly.

He once discovered a quill that should transcribe dictated text, regardless of the language used. Unfortunately, the writing it produced was entirely illegible. So while Yves wanted to believe that, when provided with ink or ink-like substances such as blood, the quill copied everything that was dictated in its imminent vicinity until the ink ran dry, he did in fact not actually know what it was writing. He knew that it listened. And then it did something.