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. Besides, it, too, required
the body.
A half-day's research had led the derro to choose one of
the most simple spells there were. No bulky, disgusting, or
hard-to-find components, no long incantations to memo-
rize, no pyrotechnics to awe observers. Wishes seldom
failed to be incarnated - something always happened -
though casters often did not get what they thought they'd
asked for. That was because the exact meaning of their
words was always carried out, and they had not paused to
consider the precision of their language.
A wish also carried a heavy price: it instantly aged the
caster five years, whether he chose to summon a bowl of
gruel or a copper-haired frawl back from non-existence. But
that was a small price to pay for someone with a dwarf's
long life expectancy.
The savant turned to his shelves and sorted through the
piles of scrolls until he found the one he wanted: a fragile
roll of parchment edged with faded red ink. It was the great-
est treasure he had discovered among his mentor's belong-
ings after he had poisoned the old wizard many years
before
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