The Minting

I went to her home then and found in his room the things from my shop. a small crucible which had some cooled metal left in it, several small pieces of metal, one of which was gold. Also, there were a pair of leather gloves I used in smelting metal for jewelry, and several small vials containing various ingredients for enchantments. Last there was a clay mold for a coin. This is what disturbed me most.

The mold had been engraved exquisitely. Work I was not aware Abez was capable of. In fact, I suspected he used magic to aid in the work. The engravings were of a head on one side: a beautiful woman and around her head the words "beauty and fortune" in the old writing. On the other side: a cobra with the words "despair and ill fate" in the same script. Also in the room was a manuscript written in that same old language describing the forces of good and bad fortune.

I recognized the face as fashioned after Aria, so I went next to her home. Her mother came to the door when I arrived and bid me come talk to her daughter.

I found her sitting quietly in her room, saddened by something. She told me she had met a young man, Nafir, at the party two nights before. The next night, Nafir came to her parent's home to have dinner with the family and afterwards she and Nafir took a walk through the town. When they came to the square in the middle of town at the well, another man was there. He walked right up to Nafir and held out a coin to him. He said he was the man for Aria, but he was willing to settle this without a fight if Nafir would flip the coin. Nafir took the coin and flipped it into the air.

The other man spoke a strange word, Aria said, just before the coin hit the ground. When it did hit the ground, it made a most unusual noise. Not like a coin at all. Then suddenly, Nafir was behind her, touching her shoulder. He seemed confused and asked what had happened. The other man stood quietly where he was before just watching Nafir. Again Nafir asked what had happened and then he asked her who the other man was. When she said she did not know, the other man became very angry. Yelling at her that she knew who he was. He was Abez, he said, and they had been in love for a long time. She asked me then if I knew what this was about. I told her I wasn't sure, but I would try to find out.

I heard some years later that Abez had been seen in Agribah where he had opened a shop similar to mine and had an apprentice named Jafar. What became of that coin, I do not know. I hope it fell into that well at the center of town, but I do not believe that is so. No, I think that coin that can change so much in an instant is not lost forever. I also believe that it doesn't work the way it was intended. I had tried to teach Abez that there is no room in casting for anger. It has a way of altering the enchanter as well as the enchantment.

This is, as best as I can tell, what happened to my apprentice Abez and a coin of fate he created.