It was late, so Velvet went back to the hotel, to have dinner and sleep. After moving on the morning, and fighting previously, she was so tired she ended up falling asleep upon touching the bed.
…
Once again, she found herself in the dark. Looking at the chained man, Velvet started talking to the void.
“What even did you do to end like this?”
“Those sigils are very useful, but since they were made to hold you still, I can’t help but wonder.”
“Did you have a fight with Them? It’s strange that They didn’t kill you.”
She didn’t know that much about Them, Andras Apolyon being the exception, and even then she barely knew the basic information.
There was no reason to cry over that, though, since the Mergifari probably had books about Them.
Velvet squinted, trying to get a better look at him. “You never change, it's as if you're frozen in time… Except for the fact that I can see your chest moving.”
She really wanted to say Andras name, but she had to wait until being ready for another drop.
“Do you have any idea of how tempting that is? It’s like putting a kid in a room with a puppy for eight hours and telling him to not touch it, or he will get punished.”
“Like, he knows he is getting punished, but it's oh so tempting!”
“And that puppy looks so cute!”
She sighed.
“I’m really gonna get mad with desire if I keep looking at you.”
“I need the virtue that opposes greed… Oh right, it’s charity. Doesn’t work here. Temperance, I need you.”
“Patience also works.”
“I need to have Tempetience. Yes.”
The dream went on like that.
…
“Hyde I’m dying.” Velvet woke up feeling not rested at all.
“Figures. You were rolling over the whole room, muttering stuff.”
Is that why she was on the floor? Her sides also hurt. “You could’ve tied me up with webs, cmon, my hair is all tangled now.” Getting up, she stretched for a few seconds, before going to the bathroom.
Today, she wanted to buy, or at least look at the prices, of a salamander. The materials used yesterday did fill her with inspiration, and she knew that at least one thing from it worked great with her paper figurines.
She had seen some ‘pet’ shops with Gertine and Nereus yesterday, but she wasn’t interested back then, not entering any.
There was also something she wanted to try.
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“Udulluay.” She called, waiting.
The flutter of wings soon sounded in the room, and a black staff grew on the floor, where the owl perched.
So he isn’t limited to the market.
“You called for me.”
“Yes, I want to know what shop you recommend to buy a pet. A salamander, to be precise.” Velvet wasn’t sure if asking that would bother the owl. Maybe he was just a supervisor, not a tour guide.
“Pets are a very high responsibility!” He screamed at her, flapping his wings. “You do not only ‘buy’ a pet, you need to also buy a book about how to take care of them, food, a place they can stay in and things to keep them entertained!”
“Udulluay is a pet, and he is high maintenance!” He finished, putting his wings down.
“That’s why I want you to tell me what shop sells all of that. I do not want anything to do with shady pet shop business.” That seemed to do the trick, since Udulluay made some noises, fully twisting his head.
“Horarcie’s. You passed it yesterday.”
“Huh, do you watch what every single mage here does?”
“Udulluay watches over everyone.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
“There’s a lot of Udulluay.”
“I have another question. What is Maneely?”
“A textiles shop.”
“No, I mean, someone told me to go there tomorrow. It’s something happening there?”
The owl turned his face upside down, looking at her. “There’s a private mage gathering for members of Devil’s Taste. Once every two weeks.”
“What happens there?”
“It’s a private gathering.” So she wasn’t allowed to know more, got it. That was all she wanted to know.
“Uh… Thanks for the help, I’m going out now…”
Velvet was expecting the owl to leave on his own, but he instead kept staring at her.
“Morpheus sells things from the Dream Paradigm.” Udulluay said, making Velvet freeze. She turned to fully face the owl, her heart skipping beats.
“Udulluay saw you having trouble sleeping.”
She relaxed after hearing that. It seemed that he had seen her rolling around during the night, not that he knew about the chained man.
Holding back a breath of relief, she nodded. “I’ll take a look.”
The owl hummed. “If you have any more questions after this, please search for Udulluay.”
“I am Udulluay. Every owl in the Mergifari is also Udulluay.” He took flight, disappearing into the wall.
Velvet stared at the wall spot for a bit, then talked to her hat-dwelling companion.
“Hyde, how do you feel about me going to a gathering of demon eating mages?”
“I’m curious as to what they do. Also, you keep forgetting something.”
“I don’t forget anything, but I’ll bite. What do you mean?”
“Given the chance, I would also eat a fellow demon.”
Velvet chuckled nervously at that. “I guess… If they sell for that much, that only means they are worth that much.”
“And the Doyles only gave me some scraps… They better be grateful.” She understood that they probably didn’t have the money, so she wasn’t that bothered. “Still, I barely noticed some difference upon eating that snake, and the fact that I have more magic is because my Esca opened after that.”
“Ask that at the gathering, I’m no human nor have I ever eaten another demon, so I’m in the unknown. Maybe you just didn’t realize.”
“It’s tomorrow, don’t rush me…Huh, if that gathering is at a textiles shop, do you think they have a new member's discount there? I would like to buy some fire resistant clothes.”
“And a hat.” Hyde said.
“A fire resistant hat.” She agreed.
Like that, she went towards Horarcie’s pet shop. Unlike ‘human’ pet shops, who had cages for the animals, mage pet shops were filled with tiny black balls the size of a coin.
Velvet remembered that Nereus had complained about his familiars being put inside containers, so she guessed it was something similar.
The cloaked figures touched some balls for a few seconds, before either grabbing one and buying it, or going for the next.
Velvet touched one. It was hard, made with something similar to glass. Feeling some images in her mind, she focused on those.
It was an underwater scene, a dark, rocky cave, with strange seaweed growing in some places. Velvet saw something slithering inside the smaller holes, but didn’t manage to fully see it. What she noticed was a bit of smoke coming from where the thing was hidden.
Raising her hand from the ball, she read the text under it.
Volcanic moray. Male, 4 years. 20 auris.
There was also a longer text, detailing what kind of materials one could obtain from it, and also what kind of food it consumed.
“I don’t know why Nereus complained, these containers look fantastic. Hyde, does your pocket dimension look similar?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Don’t be difficult, why so secretive?”
“Seeing a pocket dimension from the inside lets you see the magical formation that holds it together. That means you could just undo it from outside, collapsing it.”
“Look, touch that ball again.” Velvet did so, seeing once again the underwater cave. “Now look at the borders, it has a fake border, the cave looks bigger than it is.”
Velvet followed the order, seeing some symbols tangled with one another. “Yes, you’re right.”
“Now, if you wanted, you could disable them from outside, collapsing the pocket dimension, and having water, an angry eel and rocks on the floor.”
“And having to pay for damages.”
“That too. Continuing. With time, a mage specialized in formations could collapse it just from the outside, without seeing the inside. But, the act of knowing how it looks would save them a lot of time and work.”
“So, if you were to see my pocket dimension, if, IF you were kidnapped, mind controlled or something, whoever did it could just enter my pocket dimension in a blink. And you already know how edible demons are to mages.”
“I understand.” Velvet left the conversation at that, searching for a ball that said salamander.