Chương 21

The three of them appeared inside a rune-inscribed circle on a floor that looked like it was made out of glass. It wasn't, of course, but Lemon could see the city below from where she sat inside the circle. Bon also looked down, let out a strangled yelp, and rushed away from the not-glass portion of the floor. Midnight sauntered past him and said,"Come on. We've got a few people you need to meet, then if none of them work out, we'll have to go farther afield.

I'm assuming you'd prefer a master who lives somewhat close to the city so that you can easily go home to see your family."

"I guess so," Bon said.

"Then we'd best see those ones first." Lemon and Bon followed the cat out of the room with the not-glass floor and into the conference's main hall. A bunch of staff members were nearby, some working security on the floor and some stationed behind informational kiosks. Midnight approached the second kind, leaped up onto the desk, and said,"Pardon me. I'm looking for a few wizards and I was wondering if you could tell me if they had booked spots in any particular demonstrations or lectures right now."

"Um, I don't think we can tell you if they're in the audience for an event, but I can definitely let you know if they're hosting anything. Who are you looking for?" Lemon tried to pay attention. She really did. She knew this was important for Bon. But it was also boring. Most of the stuff Midnight did was boring, now that she thought about it.

Why would anyone spend time talking about schedules and organization when there was a guy just over there who was literally juggling fire into a giant blazing circle while another guy was shooting bursts of water trying to quench the flames in the air? Bon must have agreed, because he was staring open-mouthed at the conference floor, where there were more examples of magic going on than Lemon could even count.

Wizards conjured up fantastical devices, things made of brass and steel, glass and stone, that had purposes Lemon couldn't begin to guess at. Other wizards displayed their mastery over the elements, or competed in tasks. One entire corner was taken up by a husband-and-wife pair of wizards who were crafting a golem to a live audience. Something blew up nearby, sending a great cloud of purple fumes rolling across the air.

Immediately, multiple wizards in staff shirts began bellowing incantations to contain the smoke and direct it away from the crowds. A member of staff security approached the wizard who'd caused the explosion and was now on his back, a curl of smoke rising from his beard and his stockinged feet nowhere near his shoes. Midnight paused briefly to regard the explosion, shook her head, and went back to speaking to the lady at the information kiosk.

Lemon couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness on the cat's behalf at her lack of an adventurous spirit. There were so many interesting and exciting things happening right in front of her, and Midnight didn't even want to look at them, let alone participate.

"Want to go look around?" Lemon asked Bon.

"Yeah!" He stopped and looked over at Midnight and added, "But I think I'm supposed to stay here."

"She'll find us when she's done," Lemon said. Midnight always seemed to have a good idea of where Lemon was, especially if she was doing something that Midnight wouldn't approve of, which was just about anything that was fun. The two of them wandered off in a long, wide circuit around the main hall.

Bon had a preference for the flashy and noisy spells being demonstrated, which Lemon liked well enough, but she was Hogarth's Chief Research Assistant, after all, so she focused more on the displays that centered on that most noble of arts. Oh, and she also found several food stalls, which were a welcome diversion. About ten minutes later, Midnight appeared out of the crowd and slunk over to Bon.

"There you are. Don't wander off, please. We need to hurry if we're going to meet your first potential master before his presentation starts in half an hour."

"Sorry," Bon said.

"Where do we go?"

"If you'll follow me, I'll take you directly to him." The three of them started walking, only for Midnight to stop after a few steps and turn to face Lemon.

"Your assistance is not needed here, Lemon. Why don't you go enjoy the conference while I clean up your messes. As always."

"Hey… I clean up after myself. Sometimes."

"I would love to be around to see that happen one of these days. For now, I'll take care of our young wizard-in-training here while you go make yourself a nuisance to somebody who is not me." Midnight could be kind of mean when she was on the job, but it was true that they didn't strictly need Lemon to accompany them, and there was that one meat kabob stand she'd spotted in the food court when Hogarth had been leading her around earlier that she still wanted to check out.

Lemon glanced over at Bon and asked,"Will you be alright with Midnight?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I think I'll be fine," he told her.

"I'll catch up with you later. Go and enjoy."

"Okay! Good luck, Bon. I'm sure you'll find a wizard to apprentice with right away." She watched Midnight lead Bon off into the crowds, then peered around curiously. There were so many activities to participate in, so many displays to see, that she didn't really know where to start. Before, she'd just kind of been walking with Bon and mostly letting him lead unless she saw something really interesting, but now she could just go and do anything she wanted. Well, she did know where to start, if she was being honest.

She just needed to find that meat kabob stand again. It was…. Somewhere over that way, she thought. Probably. She'd find it sooner or later. * The wizards who set up the conference had all sorts of spells that made everything easier. No one asked Lemon to pay for anything. She just had to present her pass, which was connected to Hogarth's, and the magic kept track of everything. Lemon enjoyed meat on a stick, then enjoyed chewing on the stick itself.

She also got to fly around in a big room that was showing off the latest developments in something called aeronomics. Compared to her levitation charm, the spell the wizard demonstrating it cast on her was much more responsive. Not only could she go up and down, but she could move forward or back, left or right. She could shoot forward and roll around in the air. There was even a miniature obstacle course made up of a bunch of colored rings floating overhead that she could attempt to fly through.

One room had a giant tank of water, which the operator claimed was expanded to be over a hundred feet deep. He said the cabal he worked with had developed new spells for withstanding pressure and seeing while deep underwater, and was inviting wizards to try them out. Unfortunately, he would not let Lemon in the pool, so she didn't get to try that. That spell was only good for wizards, not their familiars or pets.

Lemon found a transformation booth, where four different wizards were taking turns granting the attendees' requests to be turned into various animals. She considered being asked to be changed into a cat like Midnight, but in the end decided against it and got turned into something called a lemur instead. Then she was let loose inside a big gymnasium to play for half an hour until the spell wore off. The last place Lemon explored was a building that had all the lecture halls.

It was much quieter than the rest of the conference, mostly due to sound warding that had been placed around the whole building. Each hall had a sign on it listing the lecturing wizard, the topic, and the time. Most of them didn't interest Lemon, either because they were boring or because she had no idea what they were, but she did find one that talked about proper lab procedures when performing alchemical experiments.

She supposed she ought to do something approaching work, since she was there already, but when she went in, it was the most boring stuff. Everything the wizard said, she already knew, or was made irrelevant by Hogarth's many, many security wards placed about their lab. After twenty minutes of lectures and demonstrations, Lemon couldn't stand it anymore and fled back to the fun part of the conference. *"Lemon. Would you please meet Midnight and our new friend at the information kiosk?"

Hogarth's voice said in her head.

"Okay! I'll be right there!" she sent back. She had no idea where Hogarth was, but the magic would take her words back to him. Lemon bounded back out of the giant hole she'd been digging using a spell that was a lot like the one on her digger charm, shook the loose dirt off of herself, and headed back towards the main hall. She stopped once to pick up a few more meat kabobs, and thoughtfully stored one in her bag for Bon. Reluctantly, she also saved one for Midnight.

Midnight and Bon were waiting for her at the kiosk, with Bon wearing a new robe in a color that was commonly known as 'apprentice brown.' She could still see his old street clothes underneath it, and he since he hadn't gotten a pair of shoes to go with the new robe, his bare toes poked out from the under the hem. He saw Lemon approach and raised one arm to wave at her.

"Hi Bon! Did you get a master? You must have, since you're wearing a robe."

"I did. She lives right here in the city, so I can see my parents every night if I want to."

"Only once you've finished your initial training," Midnight corrected him.

"It is too dangerous to let you roam around half-trained. New wizards do not have the control to handle the magic they've been exposed to."

"Right, that. Yeah, I have to learn how to channel the 'arcane mysteries of the universe' or whatever first, but then I can come and go as I please."

"Highly unlikely. New apprentices are also kept quite busy."

"Well, yeah, but I'm sure I'll have days off."

"I thought Wizard Latressa was quite clear that you wouldn't." Bon wilted and said, "I guess I wasn't paying attention. I was kind of tired after all the testing." Master Hogarth had never taken on an apprentice. He always said he was too busy with his various experiments and keeping Lemon out of trouble, even though Midnight always told him she spent far more time on that than he did. Lemon personally had no idea what they meant by that. It wasn't like she got into any trouble to begin with.

Maybe that one time with the skunk. The point was that she'd never seen a brand new apprentice, so she had no idea what testing Bon was talking about.

"What kind of tests did you have to do?" Lemon asked.

"They made me learn a new spell that made light just to prove that I could do it, then cast it over and over. And then I had to put my hands on a big rock and make it glow with just my magic. And then Master Latressa showed me how to use my climbing spell on my hands and my feet and made me climb up to the ceiling." Bon ticked each thing off on his fingers as he said it, and by the time he was done, Lemon was feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything.

"Wow, that's a lot. But you must have done really good since you're an apprentice now."

"He did just fine," Midnight said, stopping their conversation.

"Come on, Hogarth wants to talk to all of us, and most of the events are shutting down for the night anyway."

"Okay. Oh! I got you a meat kabob, Bon. I thought you might be hungry." Lemon popped the wooden skewer out of her bag and held it in the air with Wizard's Hand. Bon took it happily and slid a chunk of meat off it.

"Thanks! This is really good."

"I got you one too, Midnight. Unless you don't want it?" Lemon tried not to sound too hopeful. Midnight just sighed and started walking.