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Introducing Veka the Goblin
Veka was originally Vaka,
a would-be goblin wizard who worked for Arnor, a
human wizard/blacksmith living in a small village in
the surface world. For more reasons than I can
count, this simply didn't work. But from day
one, Veka's obsession with magic was a key part of
her character.
Vaka sat cross-legged, a book
balanced on each knee. The spellbook on her left
cost enough to feed the entire village for three
months. The gold script on the maroon leather cover
proclaimed it to be Theorems and Laws of Magic: A
Real-World Analysis of Magical Restrictions and
Requirements, by Merist Stollack, Sorcerer and
Master of the Magical Arts.
The chapter titles were worse.
For chapter one, Precepts and Assumptions of
Magic, and the Four Founding Theorems, the
calligraphy swirled like a dwarf’s beard, and tiny
devils cavorted around and within the letters. What
blue and red devils had to do with magical theorems,
Vaka had no idea. Above the title, several
well-endowed female devils held aloft an old human
in billowing black robes. That would be the
sorcerous master Stollack, Vaka guessed.
The effect could have been
impressive, were it not for the crude clouds some
apprentice had scrawled beneath the wizard some time
in the past. Vaka was no expert on human humor, but
even she understood the addition. While the devils
still supported the mighty Stollack from both sides,
he now appeared to float by the power of his own
flatulence.
She wondered who had risked
Arnor’s temper by defacing his precious spellbook.
Or could it have been Arnor himself, at a time when
the old blacksmith-wizard was young and rebellious?
Vaka instantly dismissed that
thought. Arnor would sooner swallow white-hot iron
than damage one of his books.
Across the room, Arnor’s hammer
rang out a slow double-beat as he flattened the end
of a copper bar. Vaka had a brief vision of Arnor’s
left hand holding his artistic apprentice over the
anvil while his right hand brought the hammer back
to teach a lesson about respect. That was what she
liked about Arnor. He had a goblin’s
straightforward approach to discipline. If someone
got out of line, he hit them with a hammer.
© 2006 by Jim C. Hines
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