Tobin’s face grinned back at me from the mirror. “So you want me to make a broom for your sister, eh? Sure thing, I can do that. And as for payment… Well a bottle of excellent wine or mead, nothing overly expensive. Oh, and maybe tell me how your sister wound up here along with you. I haven’t figured that one out yet, and I know a certain few who are equally curious about that.”

  Tobin glanced behind me, and I followed his gaze to where Ivy, Winter, and Midnight were chatting together. “That’s a fair trade. How long will it take?” Tobin thought for a few moments. “Oh, it shouldn’t take more than a few days, since, if I’m being honest, I was already making one for her, as I figured you would contact me about it eventually, anyway.” His bearded face broke into a wide grin. “While you wait, use your old broom for practice, that is, unless the tail is coming apart.” I thought about it for a moment. “The old one has seen better days, but it’s usable for low-altitude flights.”

  I could see Tobin nod slowly as he pulled out the partially finished broom. The handle was polished to a nice sheen and lacquered. It also possessed the same sidesaddle seat as my own, though this broom’s seat used blue felt for the padding, whereas mine used red, a nice distinction.

  “Oh, and before I forget, I also commissioned a pouch for her from Sunflower, since I doubt she has one. It’s not as roomy as your own, since Ivy went completely overboard on it, and it’s worth a small fortune. However, it should be enough for the broom, her money, and her shopping, provided she doesn’t go crazy when buying.” I could see Meleri perk up.

  “From her reaction, I’d say she approves.” She raised a hand in a thumbs-up. “You bet I do!” Tobin gave a good-natured chuckle. “Well then, I’ll see you kids later. Need to finish her up, will come over once it and the pouch are finished. See you then.” The mirror returned to its usual reflective self as the connection cut.

  Meleri looked just about ready to ask to begin immediately, but there was no way in hell I was letting her fly in the dark. “Tomorrow, sis, flying in the dark when you’ve never used a broom before is a bad idea. Before you say anything, just riding passenger while I controlled the damn thing does not count.” She deflated a bit before she nodded. “As much as I would like to argue, I can see the wisdom in not just taking off on an old broom after sundown. Tomorrow then.” The rest of the evening passed in cozy conversation, and before long, we headed to bed.

  The next morning I woke up to see Meleri already putting the finishing touches on breakfast. “You’re up early. Don’t tell me you didn’t sleep.” She turned around, looking as cheery and energetic as ever. “Oh, I slept, slept like a log so I could be up bright and early.” She didn’t seem to be sleep-deprived, so I’d take her word for it.

  “Alright then, what’s for breakfast?” “It’s nothing major. Some homemade loaf, a bit of honey and jam, simple lightweight stuff. I even cooked up some meatballs for our resident carnivores.” She picked up a plate of meatballs and offered to let me try one. They weren’t bad at all, quite different from my own, but tasty. “They’ll love these. Great work, sis.” She grinned, clearly happy for the praise.

  Breakfast was a smashing success. The loaf was excellent, and the meatballs were a smash hit. And it didn’t take more than a second after that before Meleri began casting glances towards the door, or more likely the landing pad beyond. “Not so fast, sis, you haven’t burned off any mana today. Do that first. The broom isn’t going anywhere.”

  Meleri grumbled but left for the outside to let off her built-up reserves. Meanwhile, I went into the nearby closet and fished out my old broom. It was still in working order, but more than a few of the brooms’ tailpieces were showing signs of wear and tear. “Hmm, even if just used for cleaning, this thing will not last more than a month.”

  I learned the hard way early on that the broom’s tail was integral for flight to be possible. The exact reason I was still trying to figure out to this day. What I knew was that the moment the tail began to come apart the broom’s handling and flight capabilities would begin to suffer, and once the last stick or straw fell off, the enchantments would just stop working.

  Not only that, but adding more sticks would not undo the deterioration or prevent it from setting in. So, brooms were as far as I could tell, functioning on borrowed time. Still, I didn’t mind. Tobin’s brooms were so well crafted I only needed to swap once per decade now, and they just kept getting better. Maybe one of these days he’d figure out why the tail deterioration affected the enchantment too and thus solve the issue entirely.

  I brought it out to the porch and watched as Meleri finished releasing her built-up mana reserves. “Feeling better now?” She looked up from where she was sitting. “I do actually. I didn’t even notice how tense I was before.” Not that surprising. “I figured as much. Anyway, this old number here is my old broom. Unfortunately, wear and tear has taken its toll. I wouldn’t recommend going too high on it, or it’s going to complain, and by complain I mean become unwieldy.”

  I pointed to the tail of the broom. “Do you see how some of its straws are loose? That means that it’s on its last legs. Keep her low to the ground and the speed to a minimum. Because if you push it more straw will fall out of the tail and you will be kissing dirt.” I handed it to her.

  By now, the rest of the gang was watching from their various resting spots around the porch. “Alright, so you use brooms sidesaddle. I shouldn’t need to tell you why that is.” Meleri nodded as she did as I instructed and channeled a bit of magic into the handle, and the enchantments kicked in, making it hover at waist height. Not bad at all, Bahruun barely taught her how to release her magic, and she got it on her first try. I wasn’t sure whether that was because Meleri was talented or it was a sign of Tobin's craftsmanship.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Well, it didn’t matter. “Great work. Now with the enchantment in place, you keep your dominant hand on the handle and sit down on the seat sidesaddle. Yeah, just like that. Now, to take off you just need to direct it up with a thought, imagine it gently lifting off.” Meleri shot up like a bullet until the broom reached about the height of the roof where the broom abruptly stopped and began to shake for a moment before it sank back down to the porch, losing several pieces of the tail on the way down.

  Meleri was flustered but fine. “Ok don’t use helicopter takeoffs as a reference, noted.” I shook my head. “Just imagine the broom floating upward in a slow controlled manner, emphasis on slow. This is a witch’s broom, so imagery is as important as intent here. If you want it to go fast but imagine it slow, it’s gonna get mixed signals, and weird stuff happens.” She tried again, and this time she floated up to about a foot-length off the landing pad and stayed there, steady as could be.

  “That’s much better. Great job. If you want to go forwards things are trickier, however.” Meleri looked down at me. “Trickier how?” I gave her a big smile. “It’s easier if you just experience it, take a nice and slow lap around the house.” Meleri shot me a suspicious look, but after a deep breath to steady herself, she leaned forward a bit, and the broom began to move forward. It was actually doing pretty well.

  “Hey this isn’t so baawaaaaaaaa- Ugh, you knew this would happen you jerk.” The room was tipped over, and only the enchantments on it kept Meleri, now sitting upside down, in her seat rather than going face first into the waters below. I looked up at her with a knowing smile. “Yeah, so straight lines, easy. Turning, however, that’s a tricky one. As you should have deduced by now.” Meleri grumbled from her upside-down position. “Mind giving me the lecture after helping me right myself?”

  I cast a quick flight spell and helped her right herself again. “Look on the bright side here; you’re benefitting from my experiences. When I practiced, I didn’t yet have the safety spells figured out, so it was fall, after fall, after fall. Granted, it was during winter, so all I got was a face-full of snow every time I fell, but still. A cold and highly uncomfortable experience, as Soot can attest from my complaints.” Soot ruffled his feathers, but remained quiet. Meleri looked thoughtful. “So how do you turn this thing?” I grinned. “Imagine it as a motorcycle, same concept, lean too much and you go upside down, lean too little and you won’t turn.”

  Meleri gave it another go, and as expected, wound up upside down again. “This is hard.” I nodded. “There is a reason I didn’t just let you loose on my broom. If you took off with my current broom like you did this one, you’d be above the clouds by now and still going. These old brooms having a limitation on them means they aren’t useful for proper use, but make for great training brooms.” I helped her back into the upright position once again. “Ugh, all this blood flowing to my head is making me dizzy.” She shook her head.

  It took her the better part of an hour before she could do a slow circuit around the house without tipping over. After that, however, she was gaining traction faster, and before long she was doing figure left and right turns without issues. “It’s a lot like biking, really. Difficult until you figure it out.” I pulled out my broom. “True that, watch this.” I took off and began doing spirals and loops. Something I didn’t do when anyone else was riding with me, because while I found it good fun, the others just got ill from all the spinning.

  As I flew up beside Meleri, I could see the question coming before she even asked. “If you try that with your current broom the tail will just fall off entirely, which means there go your flight capabilities. You can try doing stuff like that when your new broom arrives in a few days.” Meleri nodded. “That’s fair. Now let’s see if I can land this thing.”

  She floated to the landing pad and gently touched down, thanks to going at a snail’s pace. She rose from the broom and looked up at me. “Not bad, eh?” I glided down and landed next to her. “Not at all, was halfway expecting you to just drop from the air. Better that it’s slow than fast.” I stashed away my broom and stretched. “Not bad for your first time flying.”

  Meleri looked thoughtful, and only snapped out of it when Irenji pushed his snout against her hand, wanting scratches. She blinked a few times and looked down at him, before she smiled and began the requested scratches. “What’s on your mind?” She looked up at me. “I was just wondering how you righted yourself without help when you were doing those spirals. It wasn’t just momentum, was it?”

  Oh, that. “Practice, unlike you I didn’t have anyone to teach me the ropes, so I needed to figure that stuff out on my lonesome.” Just then I heard a voice from inside. “Must be the mirror, just a moment, sis.” I headed inside and saw Bahruun and Millid in the mirror. They were covered in dirt and scratches. Bahruun was holding Millid in one arm, and Millid looked unconscious. And by the looks of things, Bahruun was sporting a broken arm and if I weren’t entirely wrong, at least a few broken ribs.

  “Yikes, what happened to you two?” Bahruun’s face twitched from the pain. “The ruins collapsed. I saved most of our finds, but wound up taking a beating for my troubles. “I don’t suppose you would mind if we started early in exchange for some high-end healing potions?” Healing potions? “Doesn’t Winter Hall carry healing?” Bahruun grimaced.

  “They do, but not any that would work on Millid.” Ah. “Get yourself patched up first then head on over. I’ll have Soot ready to answer the sequence.” Soot, who heard me call his name gave me a quick nod, then flew off down the corridor and expertly opened the door to the teleportation room. I don’t know how I’d manage all of this without that bird. Soot was such a blessing.

  “Meanwhile, I’ll see about getting a potion going that will work for Millid.” Bahruun grimaced. “That sounds good. See you soon.” The last thing I saw before the connection broke was Ahron gently, but firmly, guiding Bahruun out of the room, likely for the local medical wing. I hurried over to the potion room and grabbed the bestiary. If there were some sort of limitation on what type of potions Sand Devils could use, it was likely in that book.