It shook in my grasp. Magic.

“How do I use magic?” I demanded from the Shard.

You already know the incantation. It was implemented into your mind.

I think for a moment, and I do. I set the Shard down on the desk and hurried out of the door as quickly and quietly as I could. The stink of vodka hung in the air, as drained bottles sat on the coffee table in the middle of the room next to ashtrays by the dirty, dingy couch. Looking at the state of the house, a flash of embarrassment rushed through me. Trash sat piled on counters, where old vegetables and fruits rotted. Dishes sat unwashed on every surface, and cobwebs hung down from the ceiling. The tiled floor was scuffed and dirty. Now that I know that gods and spirits were watching over me…I’ll get to it later. For now, I had magic to do.

I pulled open the stained glass sliding door and stepped out into the late chilly morning. I step onto the wildly unkempt lawn; last night’s rain had turned to frost that still stuck to the blades of grass. Once away from the canopy that covered the cement patio, I raised my wand to the sky. The proper incantation comes to my mind.

“I allow the blood of the salamanders to flow through me.”

A strange rush of wind assailed me as if I had breathed in a dry, hot air. The hot air rushed through my body, and up my arm until it reached the wand. One of the runes — an upward triangle, glowed a slight orange, as two pieces of smoldering ash fell from the tip. I watched the glowing embers slowly drift down, and watched as the glow left them long before they reached the cold grass.

“That’s it?”

How about the others?

“Gnomes, servants of Gob the Magnanimous, I beseech thee to bombard my enemies.”

My bare feet buzzed as a rush of energy shot up my legs, circles through the wand, and rushed back out into the ground. Another of the runes; an upside-down stone that could fit in the palm of my hand, rose up from one of the many laid about on the ground and flew forward a foot or so as if a small child was lobbing it, before rolling to a stop on the cement. After it stopped moving, a great headache assailed me, and I hurried back inside to take a drink of the water that sat in my cup on my desk with an ibuprofen.

Scammed. I was scammed.