The Adept – Day 15

  Reader didn’t sleep much on the night of the fourteenth day. He was excited at the prospect of meeting not one, but two other humans. He dozed in the same high-backed chair, compelling Grim to play lookout, especially after spotting the dark figure in the lane.

  When he woke in the early hours of the morning, he went to work on enchanting two more old lanterns. The work was starting to go faster. He’d found that the first attempts at learning a weave were arduous, but they got easier and faster and honestly better with enough repetitions. In general he felt his understanding of weaving was increasing. A little grey circle around his spell weaving sigil was slowly filling in with green. By the time he had finished the second lantern, it was maybe a quarter full. Almost. Nearly almost a quarter full.

  Reader said, “Where do you think we’d find miners? That dive bar, what’s it called, Spinners? That seemed rough and ready.”

  Grim said, “That’s a fucking adventurer hangout. Mining might be a manly profession, but there’s not many would fucking go in there without some kind of fighting shit on their wrist. Nah, miners make money, they can afford to go to one of the nice fucking places.”

  Reader said, “Like Dave’s?”

  “Yeah, yeah. That kinda shit. Does this mean we gotta fucking mope around trying to get more fucking shekels. That shit is boooring. We already got money. I got smokes for a week.”

  “Yeah… but I don’t have food for a week. We need more money. Besides, I want a bed to sleep in. I’m sick of this goddamned chair. And remember, the name of the game is making ten million gold.”

  Grim chortled, “That’s a million lamps. More actually, cause you gotta buy the shitty ones fucking first.”

  Reader said, “It’s starting out money. I can use it for materials. When I learn some more weaves I can make more valuable stuff. I’m still figuring this out.”

  “Fucking tell me about it. You keep on fucking figuring it out while my brain melts out my fucking ears from the booooordom.”

  Reader said, “Come on. I want to get these sold as early as possible. Then we can go out to that farm.”

  Grim rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. Fucking forgot about that. We get to go to the most interesting fucking place in the whole fucking world. Woop-dee-fucking-doo. Gonna watch so many fucking plants grow! Can’t fucking wait.”

  Reader ignored him and moved down the corridor. He slipped the lanterns into the pocket of his robes, and they clinked off something. Frowning, he pulled out the broken paperweight he’d taken from the sky island and had been unable to see. “Oh yeah. Forgot about this… I guess I should probably chuck it? Takes up a lot of room for something nobody wants to buy…”

  Grim said, “Ask me again and I’ll try to pretend to give a fuck.”

  Then a voice, croaking and garbled. Cornelius, the librarian: “My word… what have you there?”

  Reader turned, holding the paperweight. “Just this piece of junk. It might be worth something, but the crystal is busted.”

  The crow’s eyes went a little wide. “Oh, my, that looks… that looks rare…”

  Reader said, “You want it? I was going to throw it away.”

  “Throw it away? Oh my, no. You can’t throw it away. I’ll… I’ll take it. I can compensate you for it.”

  “I can’t charge you for this, I was literally going to put it in the bin. If you want it, you can just have it,” Reader said, shamelessly trying to ingratiate himself with the librarian.

  Reader shot an annoyed glance upward.

  Cornelius said, “Oh… I couldn’t just take it…”

  Reader pressed it into his feathered hands. “Seriously, have it. What do you want it for anyway?”

  Cornelius paid him no attention, staring at the paperweight in his hands, glancing to Novella who stood by his feet. He asked her, “Do you think she’ll like it?”

  Novella said, “It’s just her taste. I’m sure she will.”

  Reader smiled. “Oh… got a lady friend? A lady friend who likes broken old shiny things?”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Cornelius straightened up, puffing his chest. “What? Oh, no, nothing of the sort. I do have a friend. And she is a lady. But it’s nothing as tawdry as you are insinuating…”

  Novella, by his feet, looked at him skeptically. She said, “We’re friends with the curator of the museum. She’s also a Ravii. We like her.”

  Reader said, “A… Ravii? Like… raven? Is that what you are?”

  Cornelius seemed crestfallen. “How… I cannot fathom how you have progressed to a stone band with such ignorance. Yes, I am a Ravii. We hail from the Aviary realm. What did you… how can you not know these things? Have you corrected the rules in that vile little gheist of yours? I know he’s smoking in here, and when I catch him…”

  Cornelius looked back down at the paperweight in his hands and cut off abruptly. His voice softened slightly. “Well… I extend my thanks for this… have a pleasant day, I hope.”

  Reader said, “Yeah. You too. Hope she likes it.”

  And then they were outside. Reader had eaten the night before, having earned from the sale of the first lantern, but he had failed to eat in the previous 24 hours. Thus, his first stop was at a bakery, parting with half a gold for a small fresh loaf. This he chewed as he made his way to the town gates. Inquiries had led him to understand that the mines were not in the town itself but that several miners lived in Medley and commuted. He decided to wait at the gates and look out for miners’ helmets.

  For Reader the time passed slowly, waiting without assurance of success. For Grim it was total and complete torture.

  Reader moved to lean against a wall, pulling one of the gold coins from his pocket. He snapped it in half, as he had seen others do. It broke perfectly halfway. He then touched the two halves together and they instantly became a whole. He repeated the process several times, progressing to quarters and back again.

  “What the holy fuck are you fucking doing with that fucking coin?”

  “That’s a lot of fucks, Grim.”

  “Trying to set a fucking record. What’re ya doing?”

  “It’s just weird. Is it enchanted? Does somebody enchant all the coins?”

  Grim squinted, frowning. “Whaddya mean does somebody enchant the fucking coins? Coins just fucking do that!”

  Reader said, “Maybe where they mint them?”

  Grim shook his head/body and said, “Mint em? Why the fuck would you mint a coin? For your breath?”

  “No! Where they make them!”

  “Uhhh-kay. Make coins? You outta your fucking head? There’s no fucking making coins. You earn and fucking sell em! Shit, if you could make coins, that would be fucking something.”

  This prompted too many questions in Reader. Were coins just there? Was it a finite amount in the whole world? How did economies function? If this was the case, where did they come from in the first place?

  He was about to voice the first of these queries when he felt a shadow pass over him. He looked up to find a tall dark-robed figure standing over him. In the early morning light he couldn’t begin to penetrate the shadows of the recesses of the hood. He could tell that the being was substantial in stature and mass. His heart skipped a few beats, he couldn’t tell if this was the same thing that had been watching him from the shadows down the lane the day before. It certainly could have been. But he wasn’t alone here. Only yards away stood the gate guards. There were people walking all about.

  “Um… Hi. Would you… like to buy a magic lantern?”

  The voice that came from the shadows of the cowl was rasping, like a knife scraping over leather. “You… are human?”

  Reader’s interest ignited. “Um… yeah. Do you know humans? I can’t help but notice you said human and not hoo-man, so that’s gotta be a good start, right?”

  The voice, dry and flat: “Gooooood…”

  Reader said, “So you do know more humans?”

  The voice went on. “You come with me now…”

  Reader couldn’t say why, but he felt alarmed. He slid back along the wall against which he had been leaning. “Um… where were you hoping to go…”

  The figure stepped closer. “Now, I said! We go!”

  The robed arms shot forward, metal gauntleted hands grasping his shoulders.

  “Hey, hang on a second, I don’t—”

  With a puff, black smoke exploding into existence, both of their physical forms dwindling away in a blink, they were gone. All that remained, a bare second later, was dispersing smoke, weaving itself into fading ribbons on the breeze.

  Grim blinked. “Holy fucking moly… what the fuck?”

  He looked around, startled. “Uh… boss? Master? The fuck you gone?”

  One of the gate guards trotted over, an officious-looking ogre with a spear. “Hey! What happened here?”

  Grim looked around. “Don’t know if I fucking know. I think my boss just got fucking kidnapped?”

  The guard frowned. “Shit. Right in front of me? Oh… I’m gonna get it for this. Was your master a citizen?”

  “Fuck no, we just drifted in a few days ago.”

  The ogre relaxed, exhaling deeply. “Oh, well thank the gods for that. I thought I was in trouble for a second.”

  Grim snarled, “Hey, dickwad! He still just got fucking kidnapped right in fucking front of your big dumb green excuse for a snot-strewn face!”

  The guard narrowed his eyes at the tone… and the language… probably the sentiment. Still, he just replied, “They’re probably after teleporting outside the walls. If he’s not a citizen then we’re not compelled to do anything. Sorry pal.”

  “Oh! No! You said citizen? I thought you said… uh… fuck… mitizen? My master is definitely a fucking citizen!”

  The ogre just cast him a sidelong glance before sidling back to his post.

  Grim scratched the top of his head. Or body. They were really one and the same, him being an animated book. He scratched the top part of himself.

  He stared at the guards, and the open gate, then back to the spot where Reader had disappeared.

  “The fuck am I going to fucking do now? Fuck.”