"Oh ho! This is interesting, Fred." Martin called out.

　　"Really?"

　　"Yes, this temple was once occupied by monks, a religious order. I`d say this place was abandoned about a thousand years ago."

　　"Is that long? I mean, it`s pretty messed up." Fred mused.

　　"Yes, it`s been deliberately destroyed," Martin replied. "Some sort of attack, I presume. Or perhaps torn down by the humans as they retreated from something. The Dark Order of N`rgoan Acolytes was very active during that period, so it was probably them. But there`s no real trace of them left here, so I can`t be certain."

　　But that`s not the interesting part!" Martin continued. "Underneath these stones lies a teleportation ring."

　　"What, like teleportation? Like, zap, and you`re somewhere else?"

　　"Yes, my Dear Simple Spirit. Like `zap`." Fred could see and almost hear Martin rolling his reptilian eyes.

　　"Well, can we use it?" said Fred. He wasn`t in a mood to fight with Martin right now, so he ignored the dig.

　　"Perhaps. Well, not really us. But with help, the humans could."

　　"What do we do?"

　　"We start by removing all the stones that block the ring. I`m strong, but you`re the Earth Spirit. So it`s your job."

　　"All right." Fred couldn`t even get mad at that; he was the master of stone in his domain, and he really didn`t want to think of Martin as his minion or slave.

　　Fred looked closely. It helped that Martin was crouched in the trees, looking intently at some stone. Fred looked deep into the stone, and realized that, when he`d dug subsurface tunnels through this area, he hadn`t been able to `see` very deeply at all. "If something was really buried, I bet I missed it." He thought to himself.

　　Looking down into the earth, where Martin was looking, he saw more stone. He then saw what Martin was talking about. About 10 spans beneath the ground, he saw a layer of stone flooring, with intricate markings and precise alignments. It was all covered up with a jumble of stone blocks, earth, and long-decomposed lumber. And on each side of the ring stood a stone pylon, also with detailed markings. One was broken and knocked over.

　　"When you dig, dig carefully. There could be any number of artifacts and clues to who knocked down this structure," Martin admonished. He hadn`t moved, and looked excited to watch Fred work. For a second, Fred thought about leaving this for later, to spite Martin. But that wouldn`t be helpful, and he didn`t want to be so petty. So he got to work.

　　He pushed the ground downward, in a big circle, the size of the ring below. As he pushed, the ground disintegrated; it wasn`t pushed aside. He tried hard to make sure that only dirt and rock got disintegrated. As the circle descended, he moved more and more carefully. He didn`t want to accidentally erase anything important.

　　When he reached the top of the intact stone pylon, he stopped pushing down on the whole circle, and started erasing smaller bits of the detritus, starting around the pylon. Soon both pylons were exposed, and Fred began exposing the stone ring itself. Curiously, he didn`t seem to have any problem with what he`d worried about. His magic, directed by his intent, seemed to naturally spare the ring stones and the pylons, while efficiently clearing everything else.

　　It took just a minute more, and Fred was done. Martin looked down into a wide hole, and, at the bottom, was the stone teleport ring that he`d spotted, cleaned and exposed almost like new. The one pylon was still toppled and broken. And there were a dozen human skeletons uncovered, along with various helmets, daggers, and arrowheads, all rusted.

　　"Lovely! A very nice teleport ring. Very expensive, I`m sure," Martin exclaimed. "Not the biggest I`ve seen, but still a nice size. What was it doing in a temple in the middle of nowhere? Fred, are you sure there`s been no city near here?"

　　"Not that I`ve ever seen. But I didn`t really see much outside of my domain. You can see for thousands of spans, but I can`t." Fred said.

　　"Hmmm. No underground Dwarven City?"

　　"Again, nope."

　　The skeletons began sparkling; so did the other things Fred found. Fred wondered if the rusty stuff would be cleaned up when they got turned into Treasure Sprites, or would they stay all rusty and corroded. Come to think of it, Fred couldn`t recall anything being turned into a Treasure Sprite that wasn`t shiny and nice, before this. Even the stuff in the Old King`s Tomb was very well preserved. "I guess I`ll find out soon enough," Fred thought.

　　To Martin he said, "Okay, done. If I fix that pylon, can we teleport things?"If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

　　"No, not right away. The magic is completely gone, and will require intense human effort to rebuild it."

　　"What? Why not? I mean, I`m super magical, and you know everything. Can`t WE do it?"

　　"Such a magical device does not require one spell, but dozens. And constant maintenance. Which I didn`t sign up for." Martin sniffed. "Also, while I do have an outstanding breadth of knowledge about spells, I don`t know all of the ones this teleport ring would require. Sorry. Not my field of study."

　　"So, we let the humans find it, and hope they make it work?"

　　"Honestly, Fred. I don`t care what you do with it. My curiosity is satisfied. I just found the thing. You`re very welcome." With that, Martin spread his wings dramatically. Or tried to, but the close forest stymied him. In frustration, he grumbled, and pushed over some trees, but finally decided to exit the forest by walking away.

　　Kumbanaka called out to Fred. "Jaya! I have your sword, Fred. I`ll bring it to you in the morning. And I`ll need your help at that time, too."

　　Fred shrugged to himself. "Sure, Kumbanaka. Good job, thank you." Fred waited, but Kumbanaka had nothing more to say. So Fred looked around, doing a big check of his various zones. Mr. Box and the man-frog seemed happy and quiet. All the rest of the creatures (except Kumbanaka and Martin) were fast asleep. Most of the humans were also asleep, now, and those who weren`t were staying undercover, still nervous about the dragon.

　　Fred noticed that two of the latrines now had Brown Slimes inside them. "Wow, I guess they multiply pretty fast," Fred mused.

　　Fred looked into the temple, and saw everyone asleep. There weren`t too many injured people, but there were a few. Twelve, Fred counted, all sleeping peacefully on the cots in the main room. Near the water basins, Fred saw Priestess Sharfroen, sitting on the floor, with her back to the wall. She looked asleep, but then Fred heard her softly humming. Fred used his magic sight, and saw that she was continuing to cast a spell of healing and peace, and while it was subtle, it was also reacting to the tree`s magic, harmonizing perfectly, and enhanced as a result.

　　In the moment, Fred was overwhelmed with her beauty. Not the beauty of a super model, but the vision of peace and goodness that she had become. She seemed like a goddess herself, to Fred. If he had breath, he would have held it. The moment seemed timeless and perfect, and& beautiful. On other quiet nights, he`d go sit with Shelley, and zone out. But tonight, he was captured, mesmerized, listening to her quiet humming, as though it were the voice of the world.

　　"Fred! Are you there? Fred!!" Kumbanaka shouted at him.

　　"Hey! What?? I`m up!" Fred startled.

　　"Once again, you`ve taken minutes to respond. Are you okay?"

　　"Yes, yes, just zoned out. What`s up?"

　　"Zoned& Nevermind. The sun is almost up. You must hurry and help me. I`m here, in the darkness, east of the Glass Citadel," Kumbanaka explained.

　　Fred found him quickly, and saw a human walking away from Kumbanaka, while Kumbanaka was staring at the ground.

　　"I`ve& commissioned the art, now you can turn it into fabulous treasure," Kumbanaka said.

　　He was standing over two wet clay tablets. Each was filled with intricate writing and artwork. "What going on here, Kumbanaka?" Fred asked.

　　"There`s little time; explanations will wait. See these tablets? Please turn them into hard stone now." Fred did so.

　　"Now, take the left one, my left," here Kumbanaka pointed at the tablet, "and shrink it to the size of a human`s hand." Fred did this too. He looked at the ornate design; it had a square blank space in the middle.

　　"Now turn it to pure gold please," Kumbanaka asked. Fred did that too.

　　"And now the other one. It will fit inside the square in the middle of the gold tablet, you see? Please shrink it down so it will fit."

　　Fred shrunk the right tablet down to the correct size, as far as he could tell. This tablet was also covered in intricate designs and script. It was quite artistic.

　　"Now turn this tablet into jade, please. A nice, green, creamy jade." Fred hadn`t ever made any jade, but that didn`t stop his magic from knowing exactly what Kumbanaka wanted.

　　"Finally, meld the two. Insert the jade panel into the center of the gold panel. Mount it; so that it doesn`t come apart." Kumbanaka said intensely.

　　Fred picked up the jade panel, and inserted it, as Kumbanaka asked. What they had wrought was a piece of big, gaudy jewelry, a square of gold with a smaller square of jade in the center. The whole piece was covered in incredibly intricate and small writing and designs. Of course, Fred knew it was only small because he`d shrunk something much bigger, but for someone who didn`t know the trick, the writing would probably seem incredible.

　　"Jaya! Brilliant! Exactly as I imagined. This bauble will change this world, Fred." Kumbanaka said reverently, as he picked it up from the ground.

　　"How do you mean?" Fred asked. "Oh, you got the sword!" A long, straight sword was hanging from Kumbanaka`s belt.

　　"Yes, let`s head back to my lair while I explain." He began loping back to the Front Zone entrance, and Fred followed along. "I`m sure you`re eager to know what`s written on the Token."

　　"Token? It`s a token? It`s pretty big." Fred was imagining a small round coin was a token.

　　"It will be a token of kings." Kumbanaka replied. "Kings and queens and satraps and khans and all people who imagine that their rule is preordained have one thing in common. They are all terribly insecure, and are constantly looking for something that can prove their right of rule. Something rare. Something ostentatious. Something like this token."

　　"What makes a king want it? It`s just gold. With writing."

　　"One; it`s pretty irreproducible by human hands. Two; it`s covered in old text that speaks of how great and noble and perfect rulers are, how they rule wisely and well, how pretty and smart they are. I actually stole most of the text from two different holy books that are fairly common on this continent. This will get buy-in from the priests who infest whatever throne room the ruler controls. Three; you make very nice gold and jade. Very pure."

　　"Yeah, but a king`s not gonna be the one to take it from you."

　　"Ah, that`s a big part of my plan. Yes, most of the thieves will sell it to a king, for a king`s ransom. If they can avoid paying with their lives. But a few will keep it, and use it to proclaim themselves a ruler. In the end, this token will end up in the hands of a ruler. One way or another."

　　"Kumbanaka, I don`t know. This sounds like it will cause all sorts of trouble. I`m supposed to be training the humans, not causing revolutions."

　　"No revolutions, Fred. Because you`ll be copying this. And we`ll offer it once per day. Every dawn, if it`s been taken from me, you can replace it with a new copy. Eventually dozens, perhaps hundreds of these tokens, all identical, will spread throughout the world, tantalizing royalty and collectors alike."

　　"Well, if there are gonna be so many out there, won`t it make them less valuable?"

　　"Of course. Until we introduce one with red jade. And then a variant with black jade. And so on. Artificial scarcity, Fred. Everyone will want one; very few can have one. I will be dying every single day." Kumbanaka laughed in manic glee. This worried Fred.

　　They arrived at Kumbanaka`s lair. Kumbanaka strode up to the ornate pedestal, and placed the token on top. Then he produced two big gems from a pocket, and placed them on either side of the token. "Okay, Fred. Copy the token, and keep it in a safe place. A pocket underground, perhaps." Fred did this in a moment.

　　Then Kumbanaka spoke a couple of words, and a small dome of magic sprang from the gems, to cover the token. He clapped his big paws, and then said, "Oh, and this is for you." He took the sword from his waist, and laid it on the floor.

　　Fred, excited, immediately turned it into a Treasure Sprite. Before it floated away, he copied it fifty times. "That oughta be enough. I think," Fred said. "So that was the sword we wanted, right?"

　　"Yes," Kumbanaka said. "Orichalcum with a fresh blessing of sharpness. As agreed."

　　"Awesome. We`re gonna cut up all the demons."