Life on the speedway was exhilarating. With every bound of the horse-like mana beasts, my world view expanded, and there were a lot of bounds. We passed feeding and recharge stations. Sprinted over bridges and through tunnels. Overtook some carriages and were overtaken by others in return, all of it a blur as I looked out the window. Letting our driver focus on the road, I had turned all my questions to Liza. Unfortunately, in this topic at least, she was nearly as clueless as I was.
“As to why we’re moving so fast, it’s a combination of the Zema being bred specifically for this task, and the road being enchanted. The entire Speedway isn’t enchanted, only the parts that fall on a leyline where enough mana can be gathered regularly. There are a few parts that work in cycles, sometimes the enchantment’s on, others it's not.”
Opening over my notebook, I began to read. The entire book was in Galog, the language of the people of Vernia. I had been learning it from Tabatha, Yoojin, and Taeho over the months, and while I was nowhere near as fluent as I was in Eunoian, I was passable. Unlike Eunoian and Aspen, the second being my native tongue, Galog was written in pictographs. I originally wanted to learn it because I figured it would be less writing when taking notes, but that was only partly true.
The Vernian language may have needed less space, but it was much more exact in its form. A slight differentiation in pencil stroke could mean an entirely new word, and some symbols meant multiple words. By the time I realized I did not actually care to learn the language I didn’t have the heart to tell Tabatha. She seemed to love teaching it and talking about her homeland. The two guards had joined in as supplementary teachers since they spoke a different dialect from Tabatha and could give me a wider range of examples to draw from.
As practice, I’d gotten into the habit of translating any notebooks I was re-reading into the pictographic language. With the help of a Galog to Aspen dictionary, I’d become rather proficient at reading and writing the language, though speaking it was an entirely different situation. The last time we’d done a dialogue, Tabatha, one of the most serious people I knew, burst into laughter at my accent.
Closing my book at the thought, I put a mark in so I could continue reading on the laws of mana balancing later. Going over the same information again had become somewhat tedious, and I really wanted to go over the notes I’d taken on Darvis’s Disk the day prior.
“The disk, in its base form, is an exercise that can be done with any type of mana. Wind and earth are the easiest, the first due to its malleability, and the latter because of the materials used at the beginner stage. Later the techniques used with earth mana will be less useful since the disk is not limited to…”
***
Our first stop was about three hours into the trip. I let my latest try at forming the disk fail, like all the attempts prior, and put my books back inside my bag. I’d known that since the professor had taught me it would be fine, but it was still odd practicing magic in front of Liza. As to why we were stopping. I had been told the horses needed a couple of hours rest before their second run of the day. Some older Zema could do the full six hours a day without rest, but we mainly had the younger beasts with us, and six hours at almost sixty miles per hour was too much for them to handle.
Leading us off the Speedway and onto an overpass, Yoojin took a turn onto a well-maintained cobblestone road. Passing a welcome sign, I saw that rather than a town we were at a Speedstop, a designated area off the Speedway made for people who wanted a rest. Looking around as we trot toward a fancy stable, I was marveled at the amount of pure commerce that surrounded me. Stores, caravan wagons, restaurants, and inns all littered the pathways. While physically smaller than any of the villages we’d passed, the Speedway was clearly made to handle much more people. It was basically a miniature town made purely for spending money, and that was exactly what I wanted to do. I had never been shopping after all.
Putting my feet back on the ground for the first time in four hours came with plenty of stretching. Liza was worse than me doing multiple full body stretches, but only in the carriage where she couldn’t be seen, before immediately checking to see who would be doing what. Leonard Brinx and Yoojin, drivers both, had opted to take a nap in their respective carriages. Kevin, the final driver and a royal magician, would watch the carriages and wake the other two if anything went wrong. Rick Brinx, Taeho, and Nicki, the final guard, would join Liza and me as we explored the rest stop attractions. It was odd seeing Taeho out of his royal gear. The mismatch of browns my escorts currently wore was of worse quality than their normal attire mainly due to being made of a type of leather, but I was told the enchantments were equally good. Still, they looked underwhelming in comparison, which I supposed, was the point. The new guard, Nicki, was the only outlier as she poorly matched her dark brown armor with silver gauntlets.
Moving deeper into the Speedstop, I had a bit of a culture shock observing the world around me. The people were the first thing I noticed. Similarly, to Vander, everywhere I looked people of all races milled about, though being outside the carriage made the experience, fear, and excitement, a bit more real. The abundant use of mana was even harder to come to terms with. Outside of Understudy magic was rather common, most of the tools and appliances involved a type of magitech, but there wasn’t much active casting. The Speedstop was a near opposite. I saw spells of wind and force being used to transport objects, fire magic used by food cart vendors to cook their products, and multiple people landed around us grumbling about the massive “No Flying Zone” sign, that floated above. While my mental image of the world was being rewritten, everyone else just seemed to be enjoying another day.
With Liza at the front, my escorts formed a boundary around me as we continued deeper into the little town. After first stopping at a restroom, a poorly named place in my opinion, our group located a map that detailed all the amenities the Speedstop had to offer.
As I’d spotted earlier, the Speedstop had restaurants specializing in different cuisines from all across the continent, more inns than I reasoned people that could fit in them, and various types of shops. It didn’t stop there though, the map showed a full complement of games, rides, and attractions for people of all ages. Saddened that I didn’t have nearly enough time to explore even a quarter of the little city, I spoke up, picking our first destination.
While I wanted to go shopping and explore the town, I didn’t actually have any money. My parents had given Liza money for both of us, though I knew she’d be reserved in letting me use any of it. Rather than spend time riding the line between begging and annoying, I figured a gift would solve my problems. Liza had shown interest in the necklaces Tabatha and I wore, and if anyone deserved a present from me, it was Liza. She eyed me dubiously for a moment before figuring out the direction we needed to go and leading our group in that direction. Squeezing between all the people, while keeping our little group together, came with slight difficulty, so the five-minute walk took double the time and annoyed everyone we passed.
Crossing the footpath into a less populated area, I was unsure we were in the correct location until I spotted the gaudiest storefront yet, just around the corner. The building was impossible to miss, its bright green painted walls in large contrast to the dark browns, blacks, and blues of the other nearby structures. Toward the front were large windows that held more golden text than glass, making it difficult to see the gems and jewels behind them.
Nicki whistled as she took it in, speaking a moment later, “You’d think they’re competing with the Dahili Desert sun for what can be the most obnoxiously bright.”
Taeho chuckled while I nodded, never having been but understanding the sentiment.
The group formation had loosened as we entered a less crowded area, and Rick moved to open the door, only to be stopped halfway by an arm and a deep voice.
“No weapons on display when within the establishment.” The man was tall, imposing, and seemed to have no qualms displaying a great sword that looked too big to be of any use in such a confined space.
The guards had all stored their trademark spears in storage devices, though two did have an assortment of weapons on their person. For Taeho it was a pair of twin daggers and Rick had two stick like weapons hanging off his waist. While Nicki didn’t have any visible weapons, she did fiddle with her gauntlets.
For a moment, as he stood there barring our path, I thought we wouldn’t be going in, but Liza spoke quickly.
“Mr. Rain, store your weapons. Mr.Brinx will remain outside.” The two moved to listen, and we walked into the jewelers’ shop, sans one guard.
Before I could even look at any of the jewelry on display, a man, his voice nasally, approached and began to speak.
“Welcome! Welcome, sorry about that. While I can spot a lady and gentleman when I see one, not all who look as distinguished as you act in turn, so we must move preemptively to dissuade any unpleasantries.”
Not even sure all the words he used made sense; I looked toward the mousy guide. He was on the shorter side, only a couple inches taller than Liza. The doublet trouser combination he sported spoke of great wear, and the amount of fragrance basically dripping off him was cloying. While I did my best to not make any choking noises, and Nicki coughed in the background, Liza took charge.
“We just wanted to take a look around and will request assistance if necessary.”
Thankfully, he took his dismissal as such, going off to stand at one side as our group walked further into the medium-sized shop. Much of the floor space was open, with the jewelry on display more towards the wall. While I didn’t recognize many of the more exotic metals and gems, I did spot a few spatial storage items, and the price made my hands unconsciously go to my wrists. Perhaps I had more wealth on me than I’d first thought. Before I could truly consider how horrible of an idea it’d be to try to take the bracers off, Nicki spoke behind me, her voice low.
“Gods above, could that man use any more perfume. Makes you wonder what he’s hiding under there.”
Looking to my white-haired guard, I responded with a question.
“Are you ok? It must have been worse for you than the rest of us.” She shrugged, though her nose was scrunched in distaste. Nicki was a demi-human, and her nose was likely more sensitive than the rest of ours.
Rubbing her nose with a metal covered hand, she waved my concern away.
“A big city like Vander has much worse smells, that-” She motioned to the worker with her head, “that is just a normal Tuesday for me.”
Reaching the counter at the other end of the store, I finally spotted what I’d wanted. Under a display case lay multiple thin metal chains next to a sign that read, “Custom Charms Available.” Looking at the person behind the counter, a matronly woman with much less of a scent, I asked her if she had the letter L as a charm. Looking at Liza, I tried to gauge her reaction to my question, but all I saw was a smile so slight I could have imagined it. Instead of guessing, I decided to just ask the person the necklace was for.
“Unless you don’t like it. I know mom and dad gave you money for me, and I wanted to give you a gift as a thanks for all you do for me.” I stopped there for a moment and waited. Then, with the use of a tactic I’d learned from my mother, as I saw she was going to speak I added, “Unless you wanted an E.”
She looked pensive for a moment before shaking her head.
“An L will be fine.”
I smiled and the lady at the counter began showing different charms to us. As she went through them, I was surprised by the sheer amount of variety that could be found in the centimeter sized charm. Some were pure metal, though most held a gem or jewel of some sort. The attendant had initially recommended something with modified hematite to match the gray of her eyes, but Liza wasn’t convinced, so we quickly moved on. After ruling out anything with spatial storage or that was over the price of ten gold, Liza found her necklace.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
While she made an effort to look neutral, I smiled thinking about her lack of hesitation in going through every chain and charm until she found the one she liked the most. Even raising the price cap a few times as she did so.
“Will that be all,” the woman asked, as Liza finalized her choices. She’d ended up picking a pure rose gold chain with a palladium charm, something that didn’t exist in the store.
After a nod, she continued. “Then your necklace will be done in about an hour, and the total comes to ten gold, seven silver, or if you’re paying in petals, or one-thousand seventy petals.”
Making a wallet appear from the storage ring I knew she wore, Liza pulled out a set of paper notes and handed it to me, who in turn gave it to the lady.
“We will pay the rest upon pickup.”
Then we were off, the man from earlier gave a wide grin as we walked pass, but luckily, we were spared from any more interruptions.
Rick joined us as we left the store, and Nicki caught him up on what happened as I tried to figure out the best way to make Liza spend more money. The shopping had been nice enough, but there wasn’t anything I really wanted or needed, and definitely nothing I’d actually be allowed to own. Something I was reminded of as we passed a magical goods store, and into the more festive section of the Speedstop. It was like a town fair straight out of one of the books Liza used to read me, full of games and rides of all sorts. Everything from horseback riding to magical contraptions that shot people hundreds of feet into the air only for them to land safely less than a minute later. I suddenly felt the confines of the time limit as I again wanted to try everything.
Getting Liza’s necklace had only taken about twenty minutes of the two hours scheduled to remain at the stop, but those two hours were halved as our group had been tasked with bringing food back for everyone. I sighed as we passed a booth where kids my age were throwing a small sack at a pyramid of cups. The forty minutes remaining didn’t even include the time it would take to get the food. Seeing my disappointment, or just wanting to repay my gift, Liza surprised me by asking if I wanted something from one of the carts as we exited the section.
When I’d offered to “buy” the necklace for her, it was partly for the feeling of making a purchase, but now I’d really be able to buy something for myself.
“You can buy more than one thing, but no more than five silver.” Liza reached into a pocket and pulled out a few silver coins. I knew the money had come from her ring but didn’t question the misdirection. “I’m going to get the food with Mr. Brinx; Mr. Rain and Ms. Dein will go with you.” She broke eye contact with me and looked at the guards, “Do your best to be back at the carriages in thirty minutes.”
Then, in a show of what I would call blatant mistrust, she moved her closed fist from me and instead dropped the coins in Taeho’s hand. Liza and Rick turned away almost immediately, and I just stood there for a moment before realizing I was wasting time. Liza had specifically said cart, but as long as I didn’t try to buy a magic item, anywhere should be fine. My first stop was another map, rather than waste time looking I could go straight to where I wanted. Finding what I hoped, a bookstore near the carriages, I led my guards into the sea of merchant carts lining the walkway.
Even though this part of town was separated into sections, it was much more dynamic than the stores, meaning to find anything specific you had to look. I gave myself fifteen minutes to search through everything before we needed to leave for the bookstore. About ten minutes in, I was stopped by an elderly lady standing behind a set of odd carved contraptions.
“Ah hello, young one. Would you happen to like puzzles?” Her Galog accent faded but present.
“Hello Elder,” I greeted in her native language. A wide smile grew on her face, and she chuckled slightly. I frowned. Seeing my reaction, she laughed harder.
“Take no offense child, I find it endearing that one so young as yourself, with no visual relation to my people, have found an interest in my country and culture. I thank you for that.”
She had switched to Galog and though she spoke too fast for me to catch every word, I understood enough to fill in the blanks, though I did look at Taeho confused once or twice.
“Ah! You must be his teacher, while you may have left your clan, it seems your clan has not left you.”
“Yes, grandmother,” Taeho replied, accompanying it with a deep bow.
With a smile and nod, the elderly Vernian turned back to me.
“Well child, would you happen to be interested in my puzzles, or did you just want to have a chat.”
“What type of puzzles?” I asked, after taking a moment to formulate the sentence.
She picked one up off the shelf behind her, a cube like object with many carved protrusions surrounding its base structure, and began to move its pieces. Within a minute, the woman had reshaped it into a proper cube, though none of the pieces had been removed.
“There are many similar to these, including ones in different shapes, and some even hold a special surprise if you solve them a certain way.”
Handing me one, she winked.
“How much?”
“Well, normally we charge a silver for two but, I like you kid, I’ll give you five for two silver or if you really like them eight for three.”
I, having never used or seen anyone use money prior to today, would not have claimed to be a master negotiator. I was however someone who always tried to make use of any resources I had. Looking at my two guards, I got a shrug from Nicki and a nod from Taeho. Sure that the vendor had seen my interaction, I decided to see if I could squeeze a little more out of the deal.
“I want to, but I don’t have much money and planned on looking for a Galog book to practice reading higher level material.”
Shaking my head, I continued.
“Maybe after I visit the bookstore.”
Making a show of fiddling with the unsolved spherical puzzle for a moment longer, I moved to leave, but the vendor call out to me in Aspen.
“Pwah boy, you go talk to my jinpo there,” she pointed to a cart across from hers, “and I’ll make sure you get a good deal on your books.”
“Granddaughter,” Taeho said, answering my unasked question.
I smiled and agreed. I was told I could pick them out myself, though the lady had a set of five she recommended me automatically. Figuring she knew more than I did, and hoping she was being genuine, I let her pick out all the puzzles. Taeho handed her the money, before putting the puzzles in his necklace. After giving the elderly Vernian a quick bow, we headed over to her granddaughter's cart.
The new cart was of a similar make and design as the other, though it held less colorful design, only bland polished wood. The granddaughter, a girl around Liza’s age, was much less impressed by my display of Galog and only spoke in Aspen.
“How did you know about the discount?” I asked, as she was finalizing the purchase.
“Grandmother likes to use magic, wind or sound I’m not sure, to send messages, it’s rather impressive, until you get called to do something from half a kilometer away.
I nodded, that sounded both impressive and annoying. Though I didn’t gain any more verbal practice from the encounter, I managed to get five new books for only a single silver. They were all used, but that was fine for my purposes. Looking up to the clock that floated above and around the Speedstop, I noticed we were a minute behind schedule.
We had been walking in the direction of the bookstore for the most part, and it was only a little over a minute away. That didn’t leave much time to look around, but I’d make it work.
This store was a complete opposite of the jewelery shop. Its entrance was unpainted brick and wood, an old sign the only thing marking its existence from the outside. The interior wasn’t much better, the place was dusty, with books not only overflowing from the shelves, but also spread across the small shop in stacks that towered near the ceiling. At the chime of the bell above the door, a gruff man’s voice called out, slightly muffled by the piles and piles of tomes.
“Ah, welcome ta Shale’s Secondhand Shelves. The counters to yer right, and I can help you’se find anything specific yer looking for, or you’se can just look around.”
Upon entering, Taeho had put his weapons away, but he still knocked a stack of books that neared the ceiling down. Right as I thought, a chain reaction would occur, the books stopped in midair and began to re-stack themselves.
“Huh” Taeho said, hand moving to his side, as the voice called out again, this time moving towards us.
“Oh, don’t ye worry about that, happens all the time. Now am Shale, how may I help ya?”
Turning a corner of books Shale came into view. He was on the shorter side, maybe a hundred and fifty centimeters, with dirt brown eyes and the tanned skin of someone who’d spent his life in the sun. While he didn’t appear overly weak, based on his voice I’d expected pounds of muscle, but he had none to show. His face held a thin well-kept beard, marked by a few gray spots, and a smile of pearl white teeth. With a wave of his hand the books finished putting themselves back in place and while that should have been the most amazing part, I couldn’t get over how deftly he moved around the books. Quickly, he’d managed to walk around, under, and through sets of books, not touching a single one.
Shaking off my surprise, I began to ask questions.
“How did you do that? Are all the books enchanted? How are you moving so fast? Is this your store? Do you have any books on magic for under a silver?”
“Woah, woah, slow down there, lad. Yer gunna talk ma ear off before I can listen to any of yer questions.”
He pointed to the books, then made a few fly off the top and into a ring orbiting a stack. Then, still using only magic, he took a single book and began to flip through it page by page, first slow, then quickly until the book came to an end. Just barely, I remembered to send mana to my eyes so I could see his ethereal arts at work. Finally, with the book still floating next to him, as if it was the least impressive thing in the world, he spoke.
“Force Magic. So no, the books themselves aren’t enchanted boy, though, if ye don’t mind ma going out of order, there’re plenty of books here that’ll teach enchantments, some of them for less than a silver and aye this is ma store, Shale himself in the flesh.” Leaning in closer as if sharing a conspiracy, he whisper-shouted, “Though the walking’s just practice.”
I blinked at him confused, for a moment as my brain caught up to realized he’d been answering my questions. It must have showed on my face because Shale’s own broke into a wide grin.
“So what can I do yer for?”
I had plenty more questions, but I also had a time limit.
“I was looking for books on magic theory, as many as I could get for under two silver.”
Liza wouldn’t allow me to get anything with actual spells in it, and everyone knew that, but theory was fine, probably.
“Hmm,” Shale intoned, one hand moving to stroke his beard. “Are ye looking for quality, or quantity?”
“The most books possible, but it needs to be factual or at least a reasonable assumption based on prior discoveries and supported by work.”
At that, Shale laughed, the lines on his eyes creasing, “Well aren’t ye a treat. Yea, I have about eight you’ll definitely want, and those’ll come out to a silver and a half. Are you interested in spell aids and core advancement?”
I nodded.
“I’ve got maybe seven of those more abstract books ye’d like. To be honest, ye’d be helping me get some off my hands so I might be able to give ye them fur a copper each, though that’d mean ye’d have to leave two.”
After a few moments, two stacks of books floated in front of me, one pile with eight, the other with seven. Looking through the larger pile first, I hoped to find a book I could disregard so I could get all the other books. Unfortunately, I found the dwarf was correct, I did in fact, want all these books. Spending another few minutes looking through the second pile, I’d managed to pick out the two I found least interesting, though only marginally so. Sighing, I handed the two books back to the keeper.
“Tough choices there lad, eh? Well you’ll be the better for it, I’ll try to have a copy on hand if you get back to old Shale’s in the near future.”
As the man was motioning to move the books back onto one stack or another, Taeho spoke up behind me.
“We’ll take those as well sir.”
With a grinning nod, as if he had expected this, Shale put the last two books back on the pile. “That’ll be two silvers, two coppers, or twenty-two petals.”
I was surprised but grateful that Taeho had decided to get the two extra books. Two copper wasn’t much, as far as I knew, but I’d have to make sure Liza paid him back. Paying with six silvers, Taeho stored the books and his change before we bid the shopkeeper farewell. We hadn't gone deep into the store, only ten feet or so before Shale came to us, but I was still surprised we managed to make it to the exit without knocking over any more books.
Looking at the clock I saw we still had about four minutes if we wanted to meet our deadline. The carts weren’t far, barely a two-minute walk at our speed. Turning around, I looked at Taeho to ask about the extra money, but he spoke before I could.
“The madam paid for the books, not me. She actually gave me eight silver, and I suspected she wanted me to decide if whatever you were spending the extra on was reasonable. Even though the topic was magic, since they were only theory books, I figured it was fine, however I’m sure Lady Liza will be interested in your purchases later.”
I frowned at that, hoping Liza would let me keep all the books.
“Oh, well thank you anyway, for thinking the books were worth it.”
We arrived at the carts a minute before our deadline and were greeted by a table full of food. The rest of the group sat eating, the entire table surrounded by a white barrier Kevin had to open a space in for us to pass through. There was a large compliment of food, all the mortal kind, including many I’d never heard of, let alone tasted.
Nicki helped me pick out a combo platter of sorts that allowed me to try everything at once, before Liza motioned for me to come sit near her. While my plate likely had at least one food from every country on the continent, my blonde-haired babysitter ate a simple meal of fish, mashed potatoes, and some green vegetable.
“I see you had no trouble making your plate.”
I nodded smiling. Unlike her, I lacked the grace to talk while in between bites and decided to just enjoy the braised spicy pork that was currently melting in my mouth.
We ate and chatted for another half hour. Since Kevin’s barrier also blocked sound, we had no limits on what we could say. Once everyone had their fill, the various sets of desserts, along with everything else, was stored in a spatial stasis ring to keep it fresh. Then, as Liza went with Yoojin to pick up her necklace, our group made various trips to the restroom before the carriages were checked.
To my surprise, now none of the carriages sported the royal crest, the emblem having been hidden or removed at some point. Shrugging, as there was always something I didn’t understand occurring, I sat outside the carriage waiting for Liza to get back. Taeho had given me everything we’d bought, with the stipulation that I would show Liza all the books during our ride. Then, as if he didn’t trust me, made sure I knew he would check later to make sure I did so.
Playing with the same spherical puzzle the Elder had let me try out at her cart, I thought on how much I had experienced in such a short amount of time. With the return of our last two group members, we were off again, back on the Speedway for our second leg of the day’s journey.