“I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen any crystal thefts. Ever. And his story checks out – Penelus was mighty angry when we roused him.”

Kelius drifted in his thoughts, but snippets of the lieutenant and patrolman’s conversation made it through. What did one do without a crystal? Kelius supposed that one trained to channel the elements through it would no longer have that power; Kelius had no such powers anyway. Was it simply the topical loss of “citizenship” that seemed to loom over him? Keli had known laborer life, even after acquiring citizenship. The Denais were a gracious family, but not a stupid one – he too had worked at maintaining the Denai standing and way of life. Did he fear that the loss of the crystal returned him there? That was preposterous.

“Kid, we’d better take you to the Denai residence for now.”

He trudged along. Could a new crystal be issued for him from Aiatse? He doubted it.

But what if… Penelus would lend him the use of a shop crystal for golems? What would that feel like?