8 Greed

One of the most potent benefits of the mental arts is the sovereignty of your dreams. As I watch this old memory play out, I note what ingredients my mother used and how they were prepared.

"Elvish Galingale ?" The soft musical voice of my mother rang out.

As she removes a cauldron from the fire and places it on the table of her workshop.

"Elvish Galingale is good at raising blood flow and is a key ingredient to any elixir that affects the body's flesh."

I watched her tying back her blond hair as she nods approvingly, "Where can it be found, and what does it look like?" She challenges, pointing at a sliver knife on the other side of the room. This was an old game we played for as long as I can remember. I would help with her potions, fetching this and that as she questioned me on the properties of different components.

A younger me ran over and picked up the blade and returns, "The spring in the forest but only at night, and they are white flowers with large lush leaves that give off a sugary scent; the roots of the plant are best for brewing."

My memory walks over and hands her the blade as she nods absentmindedly to my answer. She gets like this when she works focused as she is on the draft.

The next few minutes are silent as Alyssa cuts open a Jinab pod on the marble table and extract the hearts with soft but practiced hands. She then points to one of the racks on the wall and says, "Pseudodragon blood. " I watch a youthful me race over and start looking, panther fur, a powered owl feather, there it is, right next to the petrified eye of newt.

Handing over the bronze-colored blood as my mother finishes powdering the tiny white hearts and adding them to the potion, slowly mixing everything with a sizeable gold label. Usually, I would be a bit bored, but this memory was of my 11th birthday, and my mother promised me something that belonged to my late father, a staff I still used to this day.

This made the memory a bit more clear. I waited intensely, doing my best to recall each answer and every question my mother asks.

" What do you think I'm making, Hagrid? "

This was always the last question; a jolt shakes the world around me.

"Something to keep your magic... In?"

She laughed, her fangs reflecting in the light," No, Hagrid, not my magic but my."

I wake up with another jolt as the car spins out; there was a moment of panic before the crash.

As I sit up from the back seat, a quick assessment draws a clear picture. At some point, Logan had taken it on himself to teach Ms. Rogue to drive. That was clearly a mistake. By the time I kicked out the door and got out, Logan was healed. After I quickly checked on Ms. Rogue, Logan healed her injuries by holding her hand.

My back was killing me. So much for the car, but our destination was not too far away. Reaching in the back, I opened the trunk, removing a shovel, sunscreen, two hats, and a few water canteens, and then started the slow 25-mile hike of Tikaboo peak.

After catching up with me, Ms. Rogue, who was trying her best to pretend nothing had happened, asked," So Logan thinks there are going to be aliens." Placing her hands on her head in a poor imitation of antenna, she continued.

"That crazy, this place is just like a magical city or something, right?"

Raising an eyebrow, I answered with all the sarcasm in the world," I am a giant, your a half-demon, and Logans an immortal, but aliens that crazy?" Logan's smug face was almost as funny as the child's shocked one. I passed her the sunscreen; Logan took one of the canteens and a hat. Making sure to keep an eye out for limestone or soapstone, we marched.

-2 hours later-

My back was killing me. After the second hour of nagging, I responded to Ms. Rogues' question if only to better distract her from the trek.

"Have you ever heard the stories of El Dorado?"

She took a sip from a canteen before relinquishing it back to Logan, then answered," Like in the city of gold?" As I used the shovel to chop down some of the demonic plants called cactus, I corrected her," No, El Dorado is the name given to the goblin king, ruler of the Labyrinth." Using a bit of geomancy, I cleared a path up.

"There are goblins in Nevada?" Inquired Logan.

"Nevada has the largest gold mines in North America, and if there is gold, there are goblins." A certainty in any reality.

The girl was having a hard time in the sun.

"How else can you explain a man with 50 rooms in their home in one state and 50 men with no home in another?"

Working our way up the sun beating on our backs, I continued.

"Seems almost an inhuman level of greed, and that's because it is."

Logan signals for a break.

"Area 51 is just the entrance to the Labyrinth in North America, much like the bank of Gringotts in the U.K."

Logan scrambled over a rock formation as he asked," I thought you said we were going to some magical government place?"

I took a moment to drink water and magically prepare the route forward.

"The magical congress of the United States of America, or Macusa, is the main area you can see from the outside, but the goblin territory is directly below."

With sweat and sunscreen running down her face, Ms. Rogue questioned, "So why are we going to the top of some random mountain?"

Logan handed her his hat and continued up, establishing a quick pace.

"Well, it's not like I can just walk up to the front gate, wanted criminal, remember."

I finally find what I am looking for.

"Why is that again?"

Taking a detour off the beaten path, I ran my fingers over a limestone deposit as I answered.

"The Americans want a magical artifact I have to keep hidden."

A bit of geomancy, and I have a delicate stone slab.

"If they want this thing, why not just hand it over."

Taking out my borrowed wand, I began craving a set of runes.

"I can't."

The Protean Charm connected a master object to any similar item that is linked to it.

Unfortunately, my communication device was somewhere in the American department of mysteries. I would need a workaround.

"You're ridiculous; this magical thingy has them hunting you." Claimed Ms. Rogue.

" What's the deal with handing it over?"

Trying to think of the best gods to steal from, I answered distractedly.

"No, I really can't."

Slowly standing, my poor back feels like it's being cut.

"If I even think about it, I have a heart attack; I would drop dead before I ever could."

I had taken a few more steps before I noticed that my associate had stopped. She stood there looking at me with doubt. I shrugged and answered, "Magic." Then I turned, walking up a path I was craving with geomancy.

"If you are trying to get your tools back, why are you going to some goblins." Asked, Logan rejoining us.

He was not even sweating.

Sometimes I hate him, stupid phoenix blood.

"The President of Macusa is up for re-election, and the fastest way to get my charges dropped is with a sizable donation. The goblins are the easiest way to get that done." Deciding on using Hedylogus and the Talking God, I continued.

"So what you pay some guy and proof your free?"

The girl really was a baby, poof? If only. "No, first, I have to pay the goblins, then the people who work for the guy, then the people who collect for the guy, then the people who forget for the guy, then her but pretty much."

My back was killing me.

"Where are you getting all this money from?"

I was going to regret this but, "Family business."

She asked a few more questions I deflected until, with a frown, she said, "This magical world sounds corrupt to the core." Magical world? With an amused smile, I almost felt bad about answering her.

"Girl Uzbekistan, the United States, Russia, and the Dominican Republic, pretty much any country with a large deposit of gold, is run and operated by the goblin nation."

I stretched my back as I continued.

"Don't even get me started on the banking clans JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, the Industrial and Commercial Bank Of China, and Japan Post Holdings, how the goblins found a way to sell imaginary money I will never understand."

Something in my back popped, and I felt so much better.

"What do you mean imaginary money?"

Hurrying my pace, I replied, "So you have assets, liabilities, and net worth as your basic measurements."

Helping Ms. Rogue over a large stone, her confusion was evident.

"You have what? in what?"

Logan answered for me.

"Thing that makes you money, things that cost you money, and the difference between the two."

That seems to do the trick as she hopped up to Logan.

"After world war 2, the goblins invented the fractional reserve banking system by creating a recession to destroy the gold standard."

Her understanding was profound.

"Huh?"

Deep breath, it is fine; she is young. "Goblins banks are giving out money on loan from themselves from the future, and it is only a matter of time before the whole thing collapses in on itself."

Logan pointed out a path that would be easier as we shifted,

"Your joking, right."

Ms. Rogue questioned.

"Goblins hate humans; they want nothing more than complete domination of the surface." If the goblins bought that domination, then that was perfectly fine.

"Is no one doing anything to stop them?"

We could not; the wizarding world had to hand over every scrape of gold in exchange for protection. The Labyrinth was not some tunnel but a cave system with segments more extensive than most countries. There were regions that no creature has ever explored. Creatures hidden in the dark were so pre-eminent they feed off the Earth's inner core and, at any cost, could not ever be allowed on the surface.

Goblins protect the surface world but at a steep price. Then there are just numbers; even if every man, woman, and child magical and mundane took up arms, we couldn't match the goblin army. The creatures from below also protected the surface world in their own way.

"Here's a quick lesson kid greed works for people who need it to work, human or otherwise."

Logan answered her.

"Let just says that goblin-controlled senators want nothing in their lifetime, the same for their children and their children's children." We fell into silence as we climbed up.

Until some time later, Ms. Rogue squealed.

"Old man, WHY! are we even going to the top of this STUPID MOUNTAIN?"

-6 hours later-

Logan gave Ms. Rogue a piggyback ride with great care as we finally made it to the peak.

Placing the limestone runic array down, I slowly feed my magic in, and a small blue-skinned creature similar to a house-elf appeared in a puff of foul-smelling black flames. It locked eyes with me, then disappeared just as fast as it came. An instant later, a flash of black flames covered the space, and a blue-skinned young man slammed into my ribs and embraced me with all his might.