Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 525 of 619

Chalam's naming charm caught the traitor, but it broke Chalam for two days. When the wizard's head cleared, Ajax called him and Aldric to the yard. The staff had been cracking for months. Every hard working weakened it further. Ajax knew the truth now: he could not keep bleeding his wizard dry with a tool that might shatter mid-spell. "The staff is the weak point," Ajax said. "Each time you use it, you gamble. I want a staff that never cracks and holds more power than this one." Chalam turned the grove wood in his hands. A hairline split ran the length of it. "The dryad's wood is stronger than the last," he said. "But wood splits. All wood splits. I read one binding too deep and this one will go the same way the old one did." Aldric had been listening from the bench, a scroll open across his knees. He set it down. "The Verath bone," he said. Ajax turned. "Say it plain." "I studied the old creatures," Aldric said. "Their bone is harder than steel. Vello proved it when he cut knives from it. It does not split like wood or shear like iron." He tapped the scroll. "A haft of Verath bone would carry a working without breaking. The bone remembers no god's binding. It stays neutral. Clean." Chalam frowned at the cracked wood in his grip. "Bone alone holds no power. The grove wood channels. That is why I use it." "Then bind them," Aldric said. "Bone core for strength. Grove wood sleeved over it for the channel. Two things doing one job." Ajax looked between them. "Will it hold?" Chalam was quiet a long moment. "The bone will not crack," he said. "That much I can swear. The grove sleeve might loosen. But if it does, I fix the sleeve. The core stays whole. I never lose the staff." Ajax sent for Vello and the last long Verath bone from the vault. Vello worked the bone down to a slim rod over two days, sanding it smooth. Aldric fetched grove wood from the dryad's last gift and split it into staves. Chalam fitted the wood around the bone core and bound it with lodestone-dust glue that his charm would set hard. On the third morning Chalam held the new staff in the yard. He drew one drop from his first vial and set a small binding on a stone, then a larger one, then pushed harder than he ever dared before. The grove wood flexed. The bone core did not move. When he stopped, the staff was whole, no crack, no split. "It holds," Chalam said. His voice was steady, no drag in it. "Stronger than the old one. And it will not break." Ajax took the staff and turned it in the light. His wizard could now read across the sea without losing himself for days. The traitor he had named could be reached. The eyes of the house would stay open.