Wouldn’t have to be anywhere close to that value. Altering the weather in one area – making it hot and dry – would also affect other areas – making them more wet and rainy, as all of the clouds and moisture are moved away. Use another spell/scroll to enhance the rain in a region you want to flood, and it pulls more moisture from the places you want hot and dry. In effect, you could quite easily synergize over a very large region with fewer spells/scrolls than you would normally need trying to do all those effects at different times.

Normal economics would.also have the prices for such scrolls and artifacts fluctuating. So a walled city could easily stock up on such things when prices are low. Or hire people that can actually make them. So rather than 5,000 gold each, perhaps they are only paying 1,000 per scroll, or even less if one of their soldiers or whatever can make them.

And things like weather change scrolls probably aren’t going to be used all that often for a place like a walled city. They are, more or less, fairly self contained in a smallish area. And could quite easily keep at least one or two weather mages on hand in the city. So they just accumulate those scrolls year after year. And then when they need them – like now – well, they have 50 or 100 years worth of scrolls available to be used.

As much as the Tyrion is a powerful Lord, he’s only a single Lord. A walled city is going to have dozens of the equivalent. And while his lands might have a similar population to a walled city, they are spread out over a much, much larger area – and thus, the wealth would also be more spread out compared to a walled city.

The witches are likely somewhat okay living under laws, so long as those laws take into account their crafts – which most laws wouldn’t.

Take Mavika, for example. She’s probably fine with continuing her deal of having her crows take care of pests in the fields, in return for a portion of those fields to fees the crows as well. But if someone attacks her crows, and she retaliated – per the deal she made – the witches’ sanctuary would cover that. She wouldn’t be prosecuted for harming the person, because she was acting exactly according to the deal struck.

Essentially, most of the “normal” laws a city would have would just add a clause to allow for the witches to have an exception if the law is broken while performing their craft, so long as it is within the bounds of a fair deal.

Assuming a deal wasn’t made in fairness, or harm was caused outside the scope of such a deal, they could still be breaking the law, though. Probably also harm by proxy, so no cursing neighbors and such via a witch.

The thing is, you don’t have to see something like this as an all-or-nothing venture. You could put limits on certain things – such as hexing other citizens – and that shouldn’t completely deprive a witch of her craft. And if it does, then that witch, specifically, either isn’t welcome, or has to abide not practicing her craft.

This would likely be one of those things the fae wouldn’t help with at all. It’s not only mortals acting against other mortals, but there really isn’t much they could use for “tricks” to alter a wildfire.

Courage, like goodwill and a number of other emotions the witches have mentioned over the last dew chapters, is fleeting. Most people are not courageous very often, or for very long.

It can be a powerful emotion when it occurs, sure. But it can also disappear in an instant.

Alevica in the previous chapter thought spirits didn’t exist anymore, now she’s binding them?

Purple flame burned on her dark clothing, and then extinguished themselves. -> flames

But she paused as an arm barred her away. -> barred her way

A discrete inquiry -> discreet

The man with the odd hat walked forwards her -> towards

as soon as I get here -> there

“Of course, to the north, where the Veltras’ had first settled,”

“Veltras’ ” should probably be “Veltrases”. Could be “Veltras house”.

“Even the most light fingered person thought twice about it.”

I think “light fingered” is a compound adjective, so it should be “light-fingered”.

There is a dash on the line before “Day 69 – Ryoka”

“A hunter who dealt in retribution in fire.”

Add a comma after “retribution”.

“The fires would take longer to grow. But they were one of many.”

Plural fires cannot be “one”. They could be “one X”, such as “one disaster”.