Chapter Four
“Like I keep saying sir, unless you’ve got a writ from the department chair, I can’t do anything about the prices. They aren’t set by me, or anyone else that works here.” I give a sigh.
I have spent over an hour dealing with this prick, and I don’t see it ending any time soon.
“As I keep telling you, we don’t need that. We are the only group of students officially endorsed by the city guard; that makes our station above yours. You have to cave to our demands, you have no choice.” The man said with a tone of finality.
It was people like this that made my blood boil.
“You lot are only ‘officially endorsed’ because if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be allowed to form a group in the first place. All duelists must be registered with the guard, otherwise, it would just be assault.” I countered. “And another thing! You know as well as I do that the alchemist’s association is also endorsed by the city guard, and they endorse this apothecary. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have to do jack shit for you. Now pay the full price, or get out.”
“Look piss-ant, I’ve about had it with your tone. So how about this; I’ll just go and get some friends to rough you up a bit. Maybe that would make you a bit more generous.”
At that moment, someone else entered the shop, a tall cat-folk woman. She looked like she was on a mission; looking through the shelves for something she needed.
“I’ll be with you in a moment miss.” I yell.
“Oh, it’s the stray.” The man said.
“And on that note, get the fuck out, or I’ll have you thrown out.” I tell him.
“With what, those scrawny little arms?” He asks.
“No, with the city guard. See this here?” I pointed to an enchanted plate on the wall. “If I so much as think you’re about to touch me, I can use this thing to call the guard to this location. It makes a noise like a banshee and records everything in the room, even your tirade from today. So I suggest you leave.”
He looks at me like I just spit on his face, and then leaves the shop in a huff.
I look over at the woman to see her giving me a knowing smirk.
“Now, what can I do for you miss?”
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“I need some eyes.” I say.
It wasn’t hard to find the campus alchemy shop. What is hard is finding what you need from within it.
There are hundreds of things lining the shelves, and that wasn’t counting the stuff they have in the back.
The woman at the counter was giving me a strange look.
“Was that a joke? I don’t understand.” She asked.
“No unfortunately. I need eyeballs; any eyeballs will do. Heck, the more you have the better, I have no idea how many times I will need to try this before I get it right, and the damn instruction manual isn’t being very helpful.”
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She gave me an incredulous look but decided to help me anyway.
“Sure thing, may I ask what you’re doing? I’ve never heard of an alchemical recipe that required something as complex as whole eyeballs, without specifying what kind.”
I hesitate for a moment as she starts moving through the shelves. I could tell her what I’m doing, but that professor told me not to tell anyone about the book. Technically I wouldn’t be telling her about it directly, but I don’t know enough about magic to say for sure if the spell it’s trying to get me to cast is strange enough to warrant investigation.
“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” she interrupted me from my musings, “I understand if it’s something secret.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
As she’s going through some boxes labeled “rare-use ingredients”, I notice the box is also labeled with the seal of my dad’s company.
“Your shop is supplied by the Ovalias?” I ask.
“Yea, they made an offer to the academy to sell us some rare items at discount price. Although if you ask me, it’s probably part of some backroom deal.”
“Really? Interesting.”
“Also, it’s not my shop, I just work here. I’m the student employee from this floor.”
“Really? This is my first semester here, but I’ve already got a job in the library. It’s over in the dorms on floor five.” I tell her.
“Cool. I probably won’t spend much time in there, but maybe we’ll see each-other again later. But for now, I think I’ve got what you’re looking for.” She held out a jar of what looked like black marbles.
“Those are eyes?” I ask.
“Yes. Well sort of. They’re the individual cells of a large compound eye. According to the label, they belonged to a dire-wasp. Nasty things, them.”
“Well, thanks for finding these for me, how much for your trouble?”
“For you? I’ll give a discount; 7₵ and we’ll call it even, if you come back often; I need the company.”
“What about that whole can’t give discounts thing?”
“You heard that? You weren’t in the shop then” she asks.
I just point to my ears and give her an incredulous look.
“Oh! Ha! I’ve always heard about the cat-folk’s excellent hearing, I just thought they were exaggerations.”
“Some of them are, but I think the whole floor heard some of those shouts. You weren’t exactly being quiet.” I tell her after giving her the coins. “I certainly hope this won’t be my last visit. You’ve been entirely helpful.” I tell her.
“That’s not foreboding at all.” she says. “Don’t hurt yourself with whatever experiments you’re doing.”
“Nah!” I say, “It’ll be fine!”
…
“Probably.”
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“It’ll be fine, right?” I ask myself.
I’m sitting on my bed staring at the book, and my newly acquired “jar of eyes”.
“Yea. It’ll be fine.”
I open the book to the “simple anti-detection spell” and look for any new text.
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> So you’ve got some eyes, and want to try your hand at the new spell!
>
> The spell is extremely simple to cast if you know how to channel intent! Problem: You don’t know how to channel intent. That’s fine! It’s not that hard, just follow these simple steps:
>
> 1. Think really hard about what you want to do.
> 2. Do it.
>
> That’s it!
>
> …
>
> Okay, that isn’t it, but you’ll be fine. Some people are just naturals at this kind of thing, and you’re one of them.
>
> So, the spell. Take one of your eyes (That is not to say, your own eyes, but the eyes you bought.) and imagine this scene:
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I sat up, preparing myself for this. I’ve always been told about the feeling of casting a spell. I think I know what’s expected of me, but I’m feeling a bit anxious. The book wasn’t helping much with those feelings, but it held the knowledge I need. If putting up with a sarcastic author was all it took to get that knowledge, so be it. I hold the eye in the palm of my hand, and continue reading.
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> You’re alone, sitting by the hearth in your family villa. You can hear people talking about you in the hall outside. They are looking for you, but they won’t find you. You can feel their eyes. Eyes looking for you, prepared to take you away. But their eyes betray them. They tell you their secrets, whether their owners want them to or not. You see a bull-faced man enter the room, but he does not see you. You’ve hidden yourself from his sight. He scans the room, searching for you, but his eyes miss you. Not because they wouldn’t see you if they could, but you can see the edges of their understanding, and can dodge them. You leave the room, knowing what you need to do, and how to do it.
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…
“That’s… vague.” I say.
It’s also oddly familiar…
“Okay, let’s see if this works.”
I close my eyes and start to imagine a hearth.