An elderly individual comes up to Gikka, while Wraithvine is giving lessons to his apprentice wizard, and the elder holds out a necklace shaped like a dragon in flight that glows with immense power. What is this charm? It holds the power to grant one wish. Any wish the wearer wants to make. But it only works once, then all the magic in it will be gone. -- Anon Guest
A wish is a terrible burden. Anyone who has one knows this. Anyone who lacks one desires it. That's just one problem with wishes. The other problem is that they never grant the intent. Just the actual words.
Many people don't know this.
Gikka was now slightly glad that she listened to Wraithvine's stories. Most of them were about wishes gone wrong and the epic efforts taken to undo the mess. Therefore, Gikka's first question to the old crone was, "Why me?"
The old lady smiled. "There's a chance it will be used well here." She vanished without a trace, so Gikka couldn't give it back.
Gikka immediately dropped the amulet and backed off at least ten feet, watching it intensely. It did not, thank the gods, seem inclined to move or place itself anywhere on its own.
There was only one thing to do. Construct an elaborate maze of traps to be sure that nobody was going to touch the thing.
Wraithvine returned to the resulting spectacle with Strodius in tow, and used three simple spells to dismantle everything Gikka had built.
"Hey," Gikka complained. "It's for guarding!"
Wraithvine found the amulet at the epicentre. "Guarding this? Is this a Wishing Stone?"
"One wish. One use. And then it goes," said Gikka. "On one hand, only one wish. On the other hand... only one wish."
Wraithvine reflexively held Strodius away from it. "Do not."
"But I could wish away Uphair and make it so he never existed."
"That sort of thing is worse than the problem you wish to solve. Wishes need to be carefully considered, and never spent unwisely."
"But... why?"
"Sit," said Gikka. "You got a lot of listening to do."
[Photo by Kosma Kurłowicz on Unsplash]
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