Chloe Lolo's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

The scratches near her lock still bothered Chloe three days later. She needed better security, something that would warn her before thieves got that close. The guild sold standard ward crystals, but those were expensive and easy to recognize. She pulled out her notes on detection spells instead. A simple alert enchantment would do the job. She could anchor it to the doorframe with a small quartz chip, practically invisible. Anyone who touched the door without her permission would trigger a pulse she'd feel even from blocks away. She spent the afternoon practicing the pattern on scrap wood until the spell held steady. By evening, the enchantment was active. Let her competitors try again. This time, she'd know exactly when they arrived. Tomorrow's field trip with her students gave her the perfect excuse to test something new. She'd been thinking about color lately, how real gems shifted in different light. The forest held answers if she knew where to look. She packed her teaching satchel with sample stones and a few empty vials. Her students would collect plants for basic enhancement exercises, but Chloe had other plans. She'd heard about lichen that caught light like polished emeralds and moss that changed color depending on what it touched. If she could study how nature created those effects, she might crack the secret to making her forgeries look real under any conditions. The morning walk took them past the old grain silo at the edge of town. Rust streaked down its metal bands, and vines covered half the structure. Her students pointed at it and whispered about ghosts. Chloe ignored them and kept walking. The silo was just another forgotten building, proof that Tongassia had better days once. She led the group deeper into the trees until she spotted what she wanted. A patch of lichen clung to a fallen log, its surface gleaming emerald and sapphire in the filtered sunlight. She knelt down and touched it. The texture felt waxy, almost like crystal under her paw. A student asked what made it shine like that. Chloe grinned and scraped a sample into a vial. "Light plays tricks when surfaces are smooth enough," she said. "Remember that." On the way back, she found the moss growing near a cluster of rocks. It looked gray against stone, then shifted to dark brown when she moved it to a patch of bark. Perfect. She collected three samples while her students practiced their basic ward spells nearby. Tonight she'd test both specimens under her workbench lamps. If she could replicate that color shift in a coating, her forged gems would pass inspection even in changing light. The forest had just taught her something the guild's textbooks never mentioned. Nature was the best forger of all.