My makeshift lightning rod worked shockingly well. Uh, pun not intended. Lightning hit the rod and safely dispersed it four times before the thunderstorm passed us by. I had been worried the combined wind and lightning strikes would knock the beam down, but I had managed to reinforce it enough to stand up to the weather without any issues.

  Luna had been absolutely fascinated by my contraption, and I was a little worried about her eyes toward the end of the storm. She had sat near the cracked door despite my insistence to stay back from it and watched every bolt of lightning hit the lightning rod. I was a little annoyed that Piper and Maxwell didn't even try to help me stop her. They told me that she was impossible to dissuade when she gets like that. After the storm was over, Luna was quite distracted and didn't talk with us much. Even as we rested cuddled up in our corner of the wagon, she remained awake, deep in thought. I was a little worried about her, so I kept quietly watching her until she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

  The next morning, the rain had died down to a light sprinkle, and what was left of the thunderstorm had traveled down the plains far away from us. Most of the merchants were gathered around my makeshift lightning rod when I finally got up and went to see what was happening. Standing near the center of the circle was a very happy metal merchant who beamed at me when I got close and pointed to something interesting. At the base of the lightning rod were a handful of yellow-green beads crackling with electricity. The mana within them glowed brightly to my mana sight.

  "What are those?" I asked.

  "Lightning shards!" the metal merchant exclaimed.

  "Uh," I turned to Luna for help, but her eyes were wide as saucers staring at the small pile of snapping beads.

  Luna hadn't caught my confusion, but Milana from the other group was quick to explain in her place. "They're rare stones that carry mana that can focus lightning magic. They are made of crystalized mana. They're usually only found at the sites of lightning strikes..." she said before staring up at the copper rod.

  ("I've never seen so many in one place!") Luna exclaimed to me before reaching out and plucking one of the stones from the small pile under the lightning rod. I watched the electricity snap at her hand, but she didn't even wince as she pulled it away. She held the bead in one hand, and I could see her mana flare into it before creating several strings of current that trailed off of her hand and arced into the ground around her like one of those novelty plasma balls.

  "I want to buy that lightning rod from you! Tell me how it works, and I'll give you half of everything I got on me!" The metal merchant cried out.

  "What about the lightning shards!? I'll buy those from you right here!" Another merchant yelled.

  Suddenly, the area got very noisy as all of the merchants started trying to surround me. I held up my hands and backed away. "Hold on, hold on. I can't even hear you when you all talk over each other."

  "None of the lightning shards are for sale," Maxwell quickly interjected. "We're going to sell them in Ironcastle." There was a lot of grumbling in response to that, but he got surprisingly little pushback. Most of the merchants gave a longing look at the pile of stones before going back to their wagons to start packing up.

  The only merchant who hadn't walked away yet was the metal merchant. "I can fashion you a nice box to keep those in without worrying about their power running loose. I've had to work with copper before to deal with these things, so I know what I'm doing. I'll bring you one for free if you will sit down with me later about your lightning rod."

  I looked to Maxwell for help, and he nodded to me. "If you're willing to sit down with her, a box like that would be helpful."

  I sighed. "Alright. Bring me a box to collect them in, and I'll promise to sit down and... talk with you about it."

  "Negotiate," Maxwell said nudging me.

  "Right. I'll negotiate what kind of trade we can do. In the meantime..." I looked at the lightning rod that sat in the middle of our camp. It held up well to all of the lightning strikes it took. I was a bit worried I had done something wrong, but it seemed to have worked out well.

  "If you would like me to transport that for now, I'll happily do so. Korr'tak may be less than enthusiastic about you traveling with that on top of his cart," The merchant added.

  "And you would be?" I asked.

  "Sure," she shrugged. "I intend to buy that back from you, at an appropriate price, of course, so putting it with my things now would benefit us both if you intend to sell it."

  "That would give you a bit more leverage at the negotiation," Aria commented dryly.

  The merchant quirked a smile. "Maybe a bit, but you shouldn't worry. I'm prepared to pay a lot for the information on this 'lightning rod' that you've built."

  Maxwell crossed his arms. "You're being pretty forthcoming about your motives for a merchant."

  She nodded. "It's times like these that honesty can take you further than deception. I'll make sure you benefit from this so I can benefit from this too. It's the best kind of trade."

  "A win-win," I said.

  The woman lit up. "Exactly! A win-win. The best kind of trade there is."

  I sighed. "Alright, tell me your name at least. If we're going to talk more about this, I'd at least like to know who I'm dealing with."

  "Of course! My name is Kitaka, a merchant originally from Ironcastle. I've been traveling back and forth between Fallow and Ironcastle transporting metals that the other city has less of." The beastkin had long golden-furred cat ears sticking out from her dark brown hair. She was older than us by a bit. She looked like she was probably in her thirties, but in a world of magic and no skincare products, my sense of age was a little skewed. I could tell she wasn't 'empowered' like other hunters from the amount of mana in her body either, so she was just a normal merchant.

  "Helena," I said, holding out my hand for her to shake.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  She smiled and took it immediately. "Another working woman. From your chosen profession, I wouldn't expect you to have any trouble dealing with me, yet it's still always nice to be proven correct."

  I raised an eyebrow. "People have trouble with female merchants?"

  "In some places, it depends on the culture. Ironcastle isn't too bad, and Fallow is even better. Dungeon towns like Fallow tend to worry about it the least since many working women are hunters," the woman said with a grin. "They tend to make good customers."

  "Women that aren't otherwise happy with their path in life are more likely to be the ones that go off and try to fight monsters. A fairly common story among hunters," Aria said.

  "Quite," Kitaka agreed with a nod. "Now let me go work on putting a box together for those lightning shards. If we spend too long dallying Korr'tak is going to be upset with us. He's more anxious than I'd ever seen him before."

  As she walked away, I turned and saw Luna and Milana closely examining the lightning shards. Luna's usually paying attention when I'm talking to others, but this time she had been much more interested in the little magic crystals that had formed around the lightning rod.

  She turned and smiled at me when she noticed me looking at her. ("Helena! You have to tell me what you know about lightning! After watching it last night, I think I might be able to adapt my magic to it.")

  I chose to have this conversation with her privately. Luckily, we could just talk through the rings rather than having to step aside because someone needed to watch over these lightning shards, so none of them disappeared.

  ("I don't mind telling you what I know about lightning and electricity, but I would have thought that mages would have been able to use lightning magic already,") I replied.

  Luna shook her head wildly. ("No! Lightning mages do exist, so I know that it's possible, but they're very rare. Most of them use these lightning shards as foci, but you knew things about the lightning that no one else does! This lightning rod you put together worked too well for it to have been a coincidence!")

  I smirked. ("So you admit that I knew what I was talking about then. Not just superstition?")

  Her smile faltered a little, and her ears went back. She chuckled. ("You have to admit... without any knowledge of lightning myself, your claims about copper rods would sound a bit outlandish... Just as knocking on wooden objects wouldn't ordinarily seem connected to anything...")

  I laughed. ("Those two things are completely different. But sure, point taken. We don't have as much time to work together as we did earlier in the trip, but I can tell you what I know about electricity when I can.")

  ("What exactly is electricity? You've said that a few times now in place of lightning. Are they different?") she asked.

  I rubbed my chin. ("Well, yes and no. Lightning is the way electricity manifests in nature, but electricity has more to do with the energy itself. I guess you can think of electricity as harnessed lightning... or something like that.")

  Luna bit her lip. ("I know you've learned things as a scholar from your previous world, but I suppose it was hard for me to truly see that until now.")

  I tilted my head in thought. ("I know I don't seem like the most scholarly type exactly, but I did pretty well in school. Community college isn't exactly something to brag about, but I did learn a lot.")

  She nodded. ("Like I told you before, you're likely much more educated than a lot of others. This was just the first time I truly got to see that.") She giggled. ("Strong and smart. How did I get so lucky running into you?")

  I took her hand and pulled her into a hug. ("You saved me down in that dungeon just as much as I saved you. We both got lucky.")

  ("Of course,") she agreed.

  Kitaka cleared her throat. "I finished putting together a box for the lightning shards... If now isn't a bad time."

  I let go of Luna and turned back to Kitaka. "Thank you. I'll pack these up and talk with you the next time we break for camp."

  "Sure, I'll hold you to that! And don't talk to anyone else about that contraption. Do you need any help taking it apart and packing it on my wagon?" she asked.

  "Maxwell and I can probably handle it, thanks though."

  "Of course. Okay, tonight at camp then! I'm looking forward to it!" The catkin bounced off with a spring in her step, and I called Maxwell over to help me take the homemade lightning rod apart. While we were doing that, Luna carefully placed the lightning shards inside the copper-lined wooden box we had been given.

  While we were working, I noticed that Milana was hovering nearby. I looked her up and down as her snow leopard tail flicked back and forth in anxiety. "Do you need something?" I asked.

  She cleared her throat. "I was wondering if there would be anything I could do to trade for one of those lightning shards..." Before I could reply, she cut me off, "Oh! But please, I don't intend to be a bother, so feel free to turn me down. It's just... one of those would be very helpful to me, and I think that I might be able to help you or your fiancé with training... or something. Just think about it, please?"

  I glanced at Luna before looking back. "Are you able to teach Luna silent casting?"

  Milana suddenly brightened. "Silent casting? Yes! I could teach her that! I've never trained someone in silent casting before, but I'm pretty comfortable with it! Perhaps... silent casting and a little training with water and ice magic would be a fair trade?"

  It was truthfully a bit odd to see the normally cool and collected woman suddenly act more emotively, but I wasn't sure how much these lightning beads were worth. From her offer, it sounded like a lot. "I'll talk to my friends about it and get back to you."

  "Great! Just uh, the sooner the better. I don't mind spending some time training you after we reach Ironcastle, but there might be some added issues with that..." she said.

  I waved her off. "That's fine. I'll give you an answer tonight. Let me finish packing this up though. We need to get ready to go before Korr'tak gets mad at us."

  I looked over at Luna, who hadn't overheard the conversation. She had finished collecting the lightning shards and was now helping Maxwell undo some of the wires connecting the grounding rod to the cable. I hoped for Luna's sake this is a good trade. Giving her the ability to silent cast would likely be useful.

  Hello! I'm late for something while scheduling this so no author's note this time! Sorry! Thanks for reading!

  Here's a link to the community Discord:

  If you would like to support my writing on , you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite and/or a rating so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! If you really enjoy the story a review would help me a lot! I would greatly appreciate it!