There was some work to do before they could pick up the keys. Cal had brought promissory notes from Goldhammer’s Bank to prove that he did in fact have 4500 crowns between his two accounts there. He and Jason had to write up and sign a formal agreement on the loan of the other 1500 crowns from Jason to Cal, which the auctioneer witnessed. When they had handed over this paperwork to the auctioneer, he handed Cal the keys to the shop.

First thing next morning, Cal and Jason would visit Goldhammer’s and withdraw the funds, taking the money in person to the auctioneer’s sales agent in Firecaster Row, but for now, the promissory notes were enough. The shop had a small apartment upstairs. Cal could move in there in due course. In fact, now he realized that with the extra financial burden, he might have to move out of his current rental apartment pretty quickly. He’d need the money.

That brought home the reality of what he’d committed to. Excitement and fear fought in him for a moment, but excitement won as he looked at the heavy keys in his hand.

There were four keys, three small light ones and a big heavy iron one.

Cal stood in the street outside the auctioneer’s hall, holding the heavy iron key. The iron glinted in the warm light of the nearby spirit-lamp.

“What’s that sparkling stuff through the metal?” Jason asked, peering at the ornate key.

“Probably coven essence mixed with ebony shade powder,” Cal said. “Common extras added to enchanter shop keys and locks. Helps with security, you know.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“Jason, thank you,” Cal suddenly added. “That was so nice of you.”

Jason beamed in the lamplight. His cheeks and nose were already turning red from the cold under his blue wooly hat, but his eyes sparkled.

“You’re good at enchanting,” he said. “No one knows better than me. You’ve a knack for it - look at how quickly you identified the ingredients in the enchanted key. I think you’ll do well, and I’m sure you’ll be able to pay me back quickly. You’d do the same for me, wouldn’t you?”

Cal thought about it for a moment then grinned and slapped his friend on the back. “Course I would,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go check out the new premises.”

* * *

The key turned stiffly in the lock and the door creaked as Cal pushed it open. A burst of cold, damp, musty-smelling air escaped from the stairwell beyond.

“Guess they must have aired it a bit before they let me see it the first time around,” Cal said.

As the pair climbed the stairs, Cal fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his small, mobile spirit light. This was a long thin tube, sealed at both ends with essence of mercury, filled with the distilled spirit of a Level 2 burning dervish. It was an expensive item, made from the same technology as the spirit lamps that lit the city at night, and it was one of Cal’s most prized possessions.

He held the light up, and it responded to the darkness of the stairwell by getting brighter.

The Northwood Enchantery was a tall, narrow, building laid out across two stories, part of a block with several other shops. The upper room was accessed from a small wooden street door to the right of the main shop entrance, and they’d decided to go up the stairs and check the smaller room out first.

“Well, we’ve got plenty of work to do here,” Jason said after a moment. “And we’ve not even looked at the main shop yet.”

This upstairs room had a low ceiling, a single big window looking out onto the street, and a smaller one looking out into the backcourt. Underfoot were bare, uneven floorboards, and on the walls yellowish plaster stained with damp peeked through from behind peeling wallpaper.

This room was packed with clutter. A quick exploration with the spirit light showed Cal that most of the stuff up here was non-magical junk; broken chairs, an old table with three legs, pieces of off-cut timber, and boxes filled with what seemed to be moldering sales records from before the building was an enchantery.

Spiderwebs gathered in corners, glowing purple and blue as Cal got closer to them. Magic spiders of some kind. That could be a problem. The upper room was meant to be a living space, and Cal hoped to use it as one, but it would need a lot of work before he could be comfortable there.

Downstairs, the picture was a bit better. In front, there was a well laid out space with a heavy wooden counter facing the main door. Big glass windows covered two-thirds of the height of the front wall. They were filthy, but when they were cleaned, they would be good for displaying wares.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Against each wall there were six built-in display cabinets, but only one had glass that wasn’t broken. On the floor in front of the counter there was a thick rug that once might have been red. Now it was an unpleasant, muddy brown and gleamed with damp as Cal leaned down to shine his spirit light on the surface.

The little shop front, where Cal would display his stock and serve customers, only occupied about a third of the downstairs floor area. Behind the counter, a narrow door led through to a back room, twice as big as the shop front space.

“This is where the real work happens,” Cal said as they stepped in here, looking around. “This is the workshop. This is the heart of the business.”

Jason and Cal stood together, looking around. On the floor, glowing with a serene golden light, was the enchanter’s seal, a round magical rune nearly nine feet across, partially obscured by the workbenches, tables, and chairs that were haphazardly arranged throughout the room.

“The enchanter’s seal is an old design,” Cal said. “There are much more modern ones available these days, but this one’ll work just fine for me to begin with. It’s still perfectly viable.”

“This rune is what makes this place what it is, right?” Jason said. “This is why this premises is able to be an enchanter’s shop?”

Cal nodded. “This is a big part of what we’re paying for. The enchanter’s seal anchors the power of the enchanter and allows enchanting equipment to remain stable and functional over time.”

“Speaking of enchanting equipment, what’s this?”

Jason had walked over to one of the tables and ran his hand across the surface, sneezing as he upset a layer of fine dust. As the dust rose, runes flickered blue, red, and green from the surface of the table, awakened to life by Jason’s touch.

“That’s a basic enchanting table,” Cal said. “Looks like a few runes are broken, but it’s probably good enough to make a start with, and it’s got space for some more runes once I can afford them.”

He pointed at another, smaller table. This one had a long, rectangular groove down the middle. “Common blade enchanting table. Looks like it’s working well enough.”

Then he pointed at a tall, thin pole with lots of short sticks coming out of it at odd angles, like a hat stand that had gone a bit crazy. “This is a clothing enchanting stand.” He chuckled. “I’ve not seen one like this for years. This is such an old design.”

Cal tapped a couple of the sticks, but nothing happened. “This is totally busted. But I think I might be able to fix it up in time, if I can make runes that’ll work for it. The basic table is the most important piece of equipment.”

He walked back over to the basic table, running a critical eye over the runes, noting which ones were broken and which were working. After a moment, he nodded.

“This is the one thing I managed to get a really good look at during the viewing,” he explained to Jason. “It’s the core of the enchanting process. The other stuff is more specialist, but so long as the basic enchanter’s table works well enough, I can start making and selling Level 1 enchantments straight away, so long as I can get some materials.”

Jason nodded. He was standing by the small back window, looking out into the dark yard behind the building. This yard, too, was full of clutter. It had been snowing a lot recently, and the snow hummocked and bulged over unidentified brick-a-brack. In the middle of the courtyard, a single, neglected tree stood leafless and bare.

There was other junk in the workroom; some lumber, a rolled-up carpet that seemed in even worse condition than the one out front, a box full of broken crockery, a cracked mirror, and three small, wooden chests, bound with iron. Two of these were open and empty, but one was locked, and it was heavy. There was no sign of the key.

The only other thing of note was a cold and dark fireplace with a stone mantelpiece above, cluttered with old glass bottles, a few of which held candle stubs. The fireplace had a swinging iron hook that could be used to hang a kettle. An old black kettle lay on its side by the fireplace, and to Cal’s surprise, when he picked this up and examined it, he found that it was sound and in good condition. It would need to be cleaned, but that was all.

In the back corner a narrow doorway without a door led into a small lobby area cluttered with old bits of timber. On one side was a wooden door that would lead out into the backcourt, but that couldn’t be reached because so much junk was piled up against it.

On the other side of the lobby was another wooden door, this one leading to a narrow bathroom with a water pump, but no window. Cal glanced inside, craning his neck past the junk piled in the lobby. There were a couple of serviceable buckets by the water pump, plus a surprisingly clean toilet and a good washtub that could be lifted and carried out into the main room.

Cal walked over and stood next to Jason, who was looking out at the snowy yard, his hands behind his back. The window had two panes, top and bottom. It looked like it might have been supposed to swing open at one point in its life, but it had been painted shut. On either side there were wooden shutters, but these, too, had been painted over to the point where they couldn’t move.

The back court that the window looked out on was shared by a whole group of other shops. Several windows glowed with cozy light.

As Cal and Jason stood looking out, a door nearby opened, and a small, cheerful-looking, rotund man with a handlebar mustache stepped out, carrying a bucket. He walked to a big wooden crate in a corner of the yard and tipped the contents of his bucket into the crate, then turned, and headed back toward his door. As he did so, he glanced up at the window where Cal and Jason stood. He must have seen Cal’s light through the dirty glass, and a look of interest passed over his face before he headed back inside.

“What do you think?” Cal asked, at the same time as Jason said, “Cal, if it takes you longer to pay me back, that’s okay.”

They both laughed.

“It’s more run-down than you expected, isn’t it?” Cal asked his friend.

Jason nodded. “I didn’t realize there was quite so much work to do,” he admitted. He hesitated, then blurted out, “Are you sure this is a good idea, Cal? Perhaps Lord Mephisterion might want to buy the property after all, if things don’t work out…?”

“Don’t worry, Jason,” Cal said, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “This is fine. It’s pretty run-down, but that’s why we were able to get it for such a good price. You know you’d usually pay three times that at least for an enchanter’s shop with a working seal, even such an old-fashioned one as that. The shop’s in a good neighborhood, too. This is a prosperous area, with plenty of customers, and really near Festival Square and Merchant’s Station. I admit it doesn’t look like much now, but I’ll have this place up and running in no time.”

Jason looked at Cal’s enthusiastic expression and a smile spread slowly across his face. “You know what?” he said after a moment. “I think you’re right.”