Chapter 10 — Pacts and Bargains

“Something about you has changed,” Fren said in a rush. “I sensed it earlier, while you worked.” He’d turned into his humanoid form and stood a literal millimeter behind what had been the closed door, being a tree he could have been standing there for hours prior to its opening. His voice was urgent, but quiet enough no one should be able to hear him above in the shop.

Ahh shoot, I thought in a panic. I hadn’t bought any Coke yet. I glanced up the stairwell, prepared to run, but I saw the glint in Fren’s eye and knew he’d drag me back down the stairs if he had to.

I made the biggest sigh of my life, trying to play it cool as my heart rate began to race, something I knew Fren would pick up. “Nothing’s changed, I just have a meeting with Kate coming up that I’m excited for.” I said, trying to back my way up the stairs, carefully.

Fren sniffed the air, though I didn’t think he actually had a nose, it was more of a leaning towards me with deep concentration on his face, “That’s not it. Your entire pheromone production has changed. Your heart rate has also been elevated for hours—Ever since you went to practice fighting forms?”

“Yeah, well, I had a good day. You should have seen me,” I did a few air jabs to sell it.

“You are more bruised and injured than after previous bouts,” Fren said, eyes narrowing.

Freaking inquisitive plant, I thought. There was no way to get anything past him, Fren was like a hound on the scent, cheese on nachos, or Elmo and the alphabet.

“Fine, I met a girl.”

“A possible mate!” Fren’s face lit up with excitement, the green leaves of his body seeming to glisten as his joy rose. He was loud enough I checked the stairwell to ensure no one lost or forgotten shopper had still been in the shop after I closed up. It was of course clear. Despite that, I closed the door behind me. Nobody deserved to overhear what Fren was going to try and tell me.

I might have felt better about telling him if I didn’t turn from the door to find Fren dancing in a circle.

“No…not a possible mate,” I said, exasperated. Frens eyes widened, “Well, maybe—who knows. We like, literally just met. I know almost nothing about her. Plus, you can’t ask about her anyways.” I said, sticking a finger towards the insolent tree.

“You did not supply me with my desired nourishment. The pact has not yet been finalized; I may ask as I wish.”

“Gaah. Okay. I need to go. I’ll get you your drinks!” I tried to open the door, but Fren’s tree trunk-sized arm put a stop to that.

“Else we will have a long discussion tonight. I can regal you with tales of how to catch your mate. I have witnessed many copulations and can give—”

“Nope. Hard pass. I’m thankful for your knowledge on other subjects, to be clear, but we're not doing that—not ever. Now I have to go.” Getting Fren Coke suddenly became the number one thing I needed to do today.

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I turned to leave; afraid I might have to fight of my plant familiar. Instead, Fren changed the topic, “Be wary. I have sensed more Pixies about. They rarely hunt alone and are likely looking for their lost comrade.”

“The one you killed?”

“The same.”

“Good to know,” I said, but honestly, I wasn’t too concerned. Pixies were like the cannon fodder of the Fae from what I understood. They wouldn’t mess with a fully fledge wizard. I’d never faced one, but I had learned about them. They were supposedly not very intelligent and fragile creatures.

I sprinted back up the stairs to the shop level eager to get safely away from Fren. I hurriedly went over the business expenses and revenue for the past few days at the till. Kate was right. We were killing it. We had enough surplus I could probably buy doors for the Jeep which would be an amazing improvement for the winter months. I could also probably upgrade some of the magical defenses around the shop, make truly impressive long-standing defenses. I might even be able to afford some materials for alchemy. It all depended on how much it cost to set up a website, which I had no real idea about, but Kate would let me know.

Kate arrived a few minutes later and we got down to work. She’d already found a website hosting platform which had been insanely cheap by my estimation. Apparently, anyone could have a functioning website for a few bucks a month. She’d also set up a few accounts with online retailer platforms. She had plans on which products to sell first and how to advertise the store on social media. I was thoroughly impressed. She’d printed out a few images of the website she’d created and told me about the other details. Kate knew better than to bring her laptop into the shop. I wasn’t sure what the exact mechanism was for wizard’s destructive force on technology, but we made batteries drain more quickly, computer chips burn out, and some tech to simply not function correctly. Those weren’t much of an issue in the shop, but simple things like lightbulbs would also burn out more frequently due to surges of power snapping their fine filaments. Perhaps it was the same thing with other electronics, but I had no way of knowing.

“This is amazing,” I said. “Do we need to bring someone else on, to help with the workload?”

“No,” she said. “At least not at first. But…”

We planned for an hour. Kate would take care of the internet side of things, I would work on fulfillment, prepping, and shipping the orders when it all went ‘live’.

“Are you sure this won’t interrupt your schooling?” I asked when things were winding down.

“Honestly, the semester ends in about four weeks and it’s a light one. I think I might put school on hold and see how well this goes.”

“Really? Are you sure you want to jump fully into the glamorous life of a rock peddler?”

Kate genuinely laughed. “Its business, and I’ve loved working here. Its peaceful and helping people in a small way is fun. Plus, I’ve always loved rocks. I was taking business classes anyway and this is a better business model than many I could dream up. I’m excited to see what we can do.”

I thanked her and let her out the back. As I did, we heard a knock at the front door on the glass window. “I’ll go check it out. Have a good night, Kate. And again, thank you. You’re going to be a perfect business partner.” She’d been somewhat hesitant with some of the plans but everything from my perspective looked amazing and well thought out, and again, what did we have to lose?

She waved and hopped into her car. I shut and locked the back door once he car was started. But I didn’t linger, not wanting to inadvertently break her radio or something more significant by walking out with her.

I made my way to the front door feeling elated about how the business was doing, and the possibilities with our combined new venture. Trusting Fren to warn me if there was anything sinister outside, I approached the front door. Fren had assumed control of all the potted plants in the room by the walls and door and each also acted as his ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’. He would warn me or help if I needed it. I saw a thin figure through the opaque glass door, so I unlocked it, ready to tell them we were closed but stopped when I saw who it was.

Lana stood a few steps down from the door on the sidewalk.