The Troubles of Happiness

Meditation required no particular posture.

Standing, sitting, or lying down—anything worked, as long as he could keep it up.

Annan had started out sitting, but after three straight days of jolting travel, the bed beneath him felt like a rocking ship's deck. When he lay down, exhaustion made it far too easy to fall asleep.

Annan stopped staring at the cobweb in the corner of the ceiling. His first attempt at meditation had failed.

Cobwebs, money, and the Secret Society tangled together in a dream he could scarcely describe.

A spider wearing an apron descended from the ceiling and landed on Annan's chest.

"Little Annan, now that you're living here on your own, you need to break your bad habits," the spider said gently, struggling to tug the blanket over his exposed feet.

The spider crawled across the blanket's mountain-like folds to the edge of the bed. It drew a strand of silk from its abdomen, stuck it to the edge, and lowered itself between his two shoes. Before long, the scattered shoes began inching together.

"This spider is old now. I don't have the strength to take care of you anymore..."

Panting, the spider poked its head out from beside the shoes. Then it took three copper coins from its apron and carefully laid them beside the shoes. "I stole these from a drunk. Don't be upset that it's so little. And don't worry about me—I don't eat much..."

Watching it all from outside his body, Annan saw the "him" asleep on the bed slowly wake up.

His other self spotted the spider beside the shoes and jumped. Muttering about where the bug had come from, he grabbed a shoe and swung it at the spider, whose face still held a tender, relieved smile—

"No!"

Annan jolted awake at dawn.

A moment later, the door rattled under a pounding fist. Tasia had heard his shout and was outside.

"I'm fine."

Annan sat up, put on the shoes scattered beneath the bed, and opened the door.

Tasia ducked into the room, followed by Soluman Copperbeard.

Soluman Copperbeard closed the door and said she would take Annan somewhere in a little while.

"Where?"

The dwarf woman pointed at his pocket. Annan took out the slip of paper with the address on it.

"But Mr. Fast said to go there if I ran into trouble."

"He didn't say you couldn't go if you hadn't." Seeing Annan still hesitate, she added, "That fellow's a sorcerer."

"All right. I'll get dressed."

Soluman Copperbeard and Tasia, who had finished searching the room, stepped outside. Annan pulled on his coat. As his head emerged from the collar, he saw a short-legged spider crouched in the dusty cobweb on the ceiling.

Annan's dark eyes narrowed.

A few minutes later, Annan went downstairs. Some of the guests were eating breakfast.

Soluman Copperbeard waved to him from a table. Tasia sat beside her.

"How did our sorcerer's meditation go?"

"I couldn't sense anything..."

It had left Annan in a poor mood. Without magical materials to help, getting into a meditative state was difficult. Besides, the book said only ancient wizards used such an outdated method of meditation.

"I can lend you another sum," Soluman Copperbeard offered generously when she learned Annan needed Magic Materials.

Annan accepted Soluman Copperbeard's kindness. He should be able to pay her back soon.

After breakfast, Andrew Luna had a hand bring the carriage around and serve as their driver to the address on the slip.

"Luna may be a deserter... but he'd never betray us," Soluman Copperbeard explained. She told the driver, "First, take us to the street that sells Magic Materials."

Annan climbed into the carriage and found Tasia leaning against the wall, dozing.

"Didn't you sleep well?"

"The inn was noisy."

Soluman Copperbeard's room was on Annan's left, and Tasia's on his right. They had shielded Annan from the sounds of battle elsewhere in the inn.

That reminded Annan of the heavily made-up woman he had passed on his way out. Leaning over the railing, she had greeted him and claimed to be one-tenth Elf. Annan had known at once that she was making it up—keep dividing by two, and you would never get ten.

The carriage rolled along the brick-paved road. Tasia dozed, Soluman Copperbeard counted money, and Annan watched the streets go by.

As they entered a long street lined with strangely shaped buildings, Annan saw merchants in gray robes that marked them as wizard apprentices hawking strange new wares. There were magical glows and wondrous runes, carriages bearing family crests, and a mercenary band on a street corner loudly calling for mages.

Annan felt like Harry Potter stumbling into Diagon Alley.

His parents were dead too, though he had inherited no fortune.

The driver stopped outside a Magic Materials shop. Annan tried to look worldly, but the way his eyes darted over the wares gave him away.

The clerk did not take Annan for some lucky commoner just because he wore a linen coat. He politely asked what Annan needed.

"Magic Eagle feathers, Glowgrass, teeth shed naturally by gnolls, dew gathered at dawn..."

Annan listed the cheapest materials required for the Meditation Ritual. Advanced and high-level Meditation Rituals called for Magic Materials like unicorn mane and the tears of an underage Elf. Even their names sounded expensive and rare.

The clerk wrote down the materials Annan named and calculated the price. "Sixteen gold and sixty silver coins."

"Sixteen silver and sixty copper coins?"

"Sixteen gold and sixty silver coins," the clerk said helplessly. "For a basic Meditation Ritual, right? That's enough for one month."

Now Annan had a much clearer idea of what "the cost of being a spellcaster" meant.

"Are they fresh?" Tasia asked.

The clerk ignored her. Only after Annan repeated the question did he answer, "They're all within their optimal period of use."

"I'll pay, boy."

So said the beautiful, generous Soluman Copperbeard in her pleasant voice, taking out a heavy purse.

With the Magic Materials in hand, they continued toward the address on the slip.

Tasia grew much quieter because she had been ignored. Breeze City seemed relatively accepting; no one pointed or stared at Tasia's appearance. But that was only on the surface.

Human prejudice against other races ran deep.

At the address on the slip stood a simple wooden house with a sloping roof.

Soluman Copperbeard leaped excitedly from the carriage, pounded on the door, and shouted at the astonished, heavily bearded man who appeared:

"Bastard! You're not hiding from me anymore!"

Annan blinked, realizing that she might have been used as an excuse.

Fortunately, the Dwarf woman had not forgotten him. She had the Sorcerer give Annan a Warlock's Handbook recording his insights.

Annan accepted the notes, discreetly climbed into the carriage, and returned to the Morning Breeze Inn.

Meditation required a quiet atmosphere. So Annan did not waste his expensive Magic Materials, and continued with the ancient, traditional method of meditation.

He slept soundly.

Early the next morning, Annan brought along a glass jar containing the short-legged spider. He climbed into the carriage with Soluman Copperbeard and the returning Tasia, and they set off for Winchester Manor.

On the way, Annan also prepared gifts for Aunt Susan and her family.

The manor gates opened, and a carriage slowly emerged. Once the two carriages met, they headed out of the city together.

Annan looked back at Breeze City, wondering whether he would have a new identity by the time he returned.