The Merchant was absolutely furious and Jet, for the life of him -and he suspected his life might very well hang in the balance-, could not figure out why. Jet was racking his brain for some sort of solution to this dilemma, eyes averted in horror from the Merchant, as in its ire the creature seemed to have lost control of itself for the muscles in its face were writhing like skewered snakes and the bones were clicking and grinding against each other incessantly. The whole spectacle was terrifying, the noise pursuing and pressuring Jet into the corner of his cage, while the Wyldelings in the cages around him moaned and cried in the grip of sheer horror. Jet attempted to force his own revulsion and fear at the atrocity unfolding in front of him into the back of his mind, however before he could do so the Merchant flung himself at Jet’s cage in a sudden, mad rush. his palms slammed down onto the shelf and shook the entire length, producing the jingling of rattled metal and small screams of fear from the other prisoners in equal measure.
“Who are you, someone so powerful would come looking for you?” the madman snarled, covering Jet in a fine spray of spittle.
“Who do I know?” Jet asked back, confused. “Do you mean the guardswoman? I swear, I have no idea who she is!”
The rage on the Merchant's face flared in intensity at his reply and Jet despaired. He truly did not know the woman, though he suspected she was the guard who had almost saved him at the city gate. To his amazement, a few hours after his kidnappers had sold him to this abomination she had come into the building, walking straight up to the Merchant without so much as flinching. Jet couldn't believe she did not sense the creature for what he was, however her face remained impassive, making no noticeable reaction. Jet couldn’t help but wonder if all humans were dense, as neither Gregor or Thom had behaved like they could sense the wrongness of it. Regardless of how dull this particular human was, Jet still held out hope she would save him. His disappointment was dwarfed only by his confusion as her eyes slid over his cage without seeing, and his cries fell on deaf ears. He had come to forgive her, for he now suspected the entire establishment was riddled with wards and glamours.
“No you wretched fool, I don't care one whit about the warden.” he laughed, if the noise he made could be called a laugh after being so thoroughly swathed in rage. “I mean the one who came after! The one whose mere gaze nearly buckled the wards I’ve laid upon this pitiful hovel.”
Suddenly it clicked for Jet, what the monster was so concerned with. Shortly after the human guardswoman had left a palpable aura of tension had cloaked the building. Though it was hard to truly read the creature, the Merchant began to seem to Jet as though he were haunted, a rabbit harried by the fox. In the blink of an eye magical runes flared to life all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. The light they put off increased in intensity until it became blinding, and the aromatic scent of woodsmoke tickled Jet’s nostrils. The Merchant scowled then, his ruined visage of a face becoming even more unpleasant as pain crept into it. Without warning the pale luminescence of the sigils faded, and in the aftermath of the event pale flecks of frothing spittle could be seen at the corner of the Merchant’s mouth. Jet had assumed the event had little to do with him, but apparently the monster before him felt differently.
“Sir, I don’t know how I can convince you, but no one I know is even slightly versed in magic.” Jet pleaded, hoping the creature would sense the truth behind his words.
“And there are none among your people? No wise woman, who would seek out a missing son of the village?” The Merchant replied suspiciously.
“None that wise! My people would look for me, but not far. In all honesty they probably think I got carried off by a hawk.”
“By a hawk?” The Merchant asked incredulously, and Jet nodded sadly.
“One got my cousin Pyrite a few seasons back.” He explained morosely. “It’s more likely to happen than you might think.”
“Carried off by a hawk…” The Merchant murmured in the cadence of a man lost in thought. It disturbed Jet how alike this thing was to a real person, once the bones and muscles in his face began to click and pop together. “Perhaps it wasn't you, little one. but you best behave before I suspect you to be too much of a nuisance and cut my losses.”
The particular intonation the creature used left little for Jet’s imagination. Jet swallowed the knot forming in his throat and nodded, relieved in the knowledge he was proven innocent in the matter of the wards and whatever triggered them. With the matter apparently resolved, the Merchant pulled Jet’s cage off of the shelf and brought it over to his desk. He set Jet off to the side and knelt, rooting around in a shelf below the desk and out of Jet’s sight.
Jet took the opportunity, while the creature was distracted, to search for some method of escape. He didn’t hold out much hope, however he couldn’t help but feel like he had to try. Unfortunately the Merchant kept his countertop rather bare, and Jet was unable to find anything of note before the creature emerged from beneath the counter. Jet attempted to seem innocent, but the monster flashed him a knowing grin as he set the item he retrieved in the center of the desk. Jet tried to investigate the object, standing on the tips of his toes to catch every detail. It was a flat, wooden board with the only ornamentation being a seven pointed star carved into its face. At each point of the star was a glass sphere set halfway into the wood. His stomach sank as the cage was lifted into the air, one smooth motion carrying him across the counter and set it down in the middle of the board. The cage’s diameter fit snugly into the heptagon in the star’s center, as though it were designed to. In retrospect, it likely was. The Merchant laughed at Jet’s curiosity and concern
“This won’t kill you, little one. Though, if you’re willing to tell me what you are, we can skip this step entirely.” He said it quite amicably, which only made Jet more reluctant to offer any information. Jet shook his head, his refusal firm despite his fear. .
"That's fine. It’s been a while since I’ve got to use this anyways. Even though you’re not willing to share with me, I’m more than happy to explain what I’m about to do to you.” All amiability had left the monster’s tone, and his intonation turned flat, bland, and lifeless.
“This crystal right here, and the others like it, represent the elements. And these grooves connecting them all are channels for energy, bringing it into the crystals.” He gestured as he spoke, pointing out the parts of the board as he explained them. Despite the situation, Jet’s naturally curious mind was eating up all this information.
“Now, each of these crystals is enchanted to only let in a certain type of energy. We have earth, wind, fire, water, wood, metal, and aether.” The Merchant continued, seeming to take as much pleasure in teaching as Jet did in learning. “I know what you’re thinking, classically there are only five elements. Thankfully our island friends in the western sea brought the idea of metal and wood as elements about one hundred years past.”
Jet nodded, completely invested in the creature’s explanation. This new elementary theory was rather intriguing, and the implications for his own alchemy would be nearly limitless. Wood, in particular, made sense to him, as previously the green men of the woods and the dryads had been considered closest to the Earth element. Metal though, why wouldn’t it be a subset of earth? With these questions running through his mind, Jet hardly noticed as the merchant began to carefully fill the grooves in the board with a silver, metallic liquid.
“So the theory behind this device is relatively simple. It channels your aura and its energy, running it into the glass spheres. I’ll record the brightness and color of the crystals, and use information to find out just what you are. Understand?”
Jet started, believing he had heard something concerning. A creature’s aura was a part of them, a reflection of their life force. He turned to ask for clarity when the Merchant spoke, the words of a language unknown to Jet. Their sound crackled and popped percussively, the syllables seeming to Jet’s mind to be formed of the void and absence between the noises made. Then, a cold pain was tearing through him, ripping its way through his stomach and up into his heart. Jet gasped and collapsed immediately, slumping to the floor of his cage as his extremities went numb with chill. Head pounding, Jet curled into a ball to try and preserve even the smallest kernel of warmth. He used what shaky breath he could muster to blow into his cupped hands, though he didn’t feel a difference.
“I forgot to mention, drawing the energy out of you would be an exceptionally unpleasant experience.” The glee in the Merchant’s voice made it clear just how likely it was he had ‘forgotten.’
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Jet craned his head about, desperately looking for an end to his suffering. He saw, from his prone position at the edge of the cage, the silver liquid in the lines of the heptagram shining with a pure white light. The few crystals immediately in view were clear and without color, and so Jet had to squirm and struggle to turn and look at the crystals behind him. There he could see one crystal filled with dusty gray-browns and dark shadows, which shone bright enough to create splotches of color, visible on the back of his eyelids when he blinked. Next to it, far dimmer, was a crystal filled with metallic colors. Copper, silver, gold, each glittering dimly as though at the end of a darkened tunnel or in the bottom of an unlit drawer. The Merchant took note of these crystals, then moved to each clear crystal in turn. Apparently he wanted to be sure none of the crystals were simply too dimly lit to be seen. He paused for a particularly long time on the last, focusing on it with squinted eyes. Still, Jet couldn’t help but feel he lingered longer than necessary, basking in the gnome’s pain.
“Pardon me, but the air crystal requires a bit more attention than the rest.” He said, a note of mirth returning to his voice. “Now, let me turn this thing off so you don’t expire while I’m checking your results.”
A humming noise Jet hadn’t yet perceived ceased, and the cold tearing at him as it stole his energy withdrew reluctantly, lingering deep in his bones. Jet was finally able to unclench his jaw and breathe, heat slowly filling his chest and beginning to radiate outwards, chasing away the lingering chill. The Merchant was looking through a book, tutting and speaking to himself.
“Definitely too small to be a dwarf or a svartalf. Too stocky to be a pixie. Coblynau?” The monster leaned closer to Jet, giving him a brusque once over with his eyes. “No, I don’t believe you’re ugly enough to be a coblynau. I think, given your size and elements, you’d have to be a gnome. Am I right?”
The Merchant’s eager face looming over him, all Jet could do was nod. Terror cloaked him, fearful any further resistance would see his energy drained by the cursed board. Triumph flashed across the Merchant’s face, striding away to a nearby bookshelf. The cursed creature pulled another book free, this one appearing to be a journal. Grabbing an inkpot and quill, it began to write.
Jet was struck by the idea that, even as exhausted as he was, this was likely the best opportunity he would have to escape. His foe was distracted and likely considered him incapable of fleeing, and would be slow to react. Jet was small, if he could get somewhere to hide he might have a chance. With a lurch Jet shot up and threw himself at the wall of his enclosure. The cage, taller than it needed to be to hold the gnome, lent itself to his efforts as its top-heavy frame began to teeter, then fall. With a clang the cage fell on its side, slamming Jet’s face into the bars even as he attempted to brace for it. He felt blood begin to trickle from his nose, however he wasted no time staunching it. Jet could hear the Merchant begin to stand from where he stooped over his journal, attention drawn by the noise. Thinking quickly he pushed against the now horizontal bars of his cage, its curved nature lending it to entering a roll even as the wide base made the motion a diagonal affair.
Despite the awkward cant of the cage, Jet managed to roll it off of the desk, sending it careening into the floor below. Jet braced himself before he hit the floor, though it did little to help. The unfortunate gnome was bounced off of what felt like each individual bar on the cage as it twisted and bent around him. By some miracle, he was spat out of the cage in the midst of the tumble, landing in a sprawl on the wooden floorboards of the shop floor. The thud of footsteps against the floorboards reverberated against him, forcing Jet to wipe the blood and dust from his eyes as he scrambled to his feet, lurching towards the distant doorway.
He cast a hurried glance over his shoulder to see if the Merchant was pursuing, only to see the monster standing idly by his desk, seemingly amused by the situation. Deciding not to look this particular gift horse in its mouth even as worry begins to gnaw at him, Jet faced forward and summoned reserves of strength he didn’t know he had and pushed himself towards the door. A quarter of the way, then half, and then it was only a quarter to go. Between rapid breaths and desperate blinking to get the bloody sweat out of his eyes, Jet almost didn't see the shadows by the door darken and twist, coalescing into a dense ball of darkness. He steeled his resolve, for there was no other option but to bull through whatever foul magics the Merchant used to bar his way.
From deep within the shadows two orbs flared into crimson life, all the furies of hell seemingly contained within. A rumbling, resonating growl began low and rapidly escalated into a cacophonous bark. Except, wasn’t quite a fair way to describe the sound issued forth. It had all the ferocity of a lightning strike, and all the emotional impact of a slammed door punctuating a heated argument. Jet’s heart stuttered as the sound seemed to impact him physically. Faltering, Jet fell into a slide on his knees, hoping to slide underneath the baleful orbs he knew now were its eyes. Instead they dipped sharply, and out of the murk a charcoal black snout emerged and dipped down into his path. The impact knocked out what little breath he still had out of his chest and sent him flying backwards with a dismissive flick. As he soared backward Jet caught sight of the creature in the shadows, a thick skulled mastiff with overly large fangs, dyed in the light of the new moon and given embers for eyes.
Jet hit the ground hard, skidding across the wooden boards. Despite this, he knew he would never have another chance, the monstrous Merchant sure to make his cage even more secure if he was caught again. Thinking quickly, he took the lingering momentum of the landing and used it to roll back to his feet. Jet geared himself up for a sprint, managing to take only a single step before the beast barked again. Now it was on this side of reality, the bark’s already powerful impact was even more tremendous. Every part of Jet suddenly threw itself into a stop, the noise freezing his body by assaulting his mind. Somehow Jet knew if the dog -though calling this thing a dog felt wrong, for it was to a dog as a revenant was to a man- if it were to bark again he would not survive it. The thing huffed, preparing to draw in the air for one final baying report, jowls fluttering as it made to end this life. Mercifully, a sharp whistle cut through the air, stifling the beast. With a disappointed chuff it strode away, its nearness a cold presence on his skin.
Sheer terror locked Jet in place as paws pattered past him and the heavier footsteps of the Merchant approached. He made no effort, could not make any effort, to evade as he felt the Merchant’s hand dip down to grab him. Only once he was well in the air and beyond the shadowy mastiff’s reach was he comfortable enough to open his eyes. By that point he was already before a nearby shelf, crowded with a variety of other creatures in cages. His replacement sat there, door yawning open to receive him as he was set gently inside. His legs folded numbly underneath Jet before he could catch himself, leaving him kneeling.
“That beautiful beast acts as my security, by the by.” The Merchant said lightly. “He’s known as a Black Dog. You may not be familiar with his breed, but I guarantee if he’d barked a third time there wouldn’t have been enough left of you to dissect.”
The Merchant confirmed the dread premonition Jet had felt under the gaze of the beast. He had been told stories of the thing as a child, the type of frightful tales told around a campfire to elicit screams from children. The malevolent thing he had just encountered, with its baying portent of death, was far too real for his liking.
There has to be some way around it! I just have to search for the opportunity. Jet thought, eyes panning around the room.
“Additionally, my little gnome, this is what it costs to employ such fine security.” As he spoke the Merchant strode to the shelf opposite of Jet, and pulled a cage off of it.
Inside was a sickly looking creature with waxy skin and short black hair which ended in a blue flame, which marked it as a Bluecap. They were cousins to gnomes, and if they weren’t living in communities together then their settlements were never far apart. The Merchant opened the cage and reached inside, grasping it with his thumb and forefinger as he lifted it by its ankle. Withdrawing it from the cage, the Merchant flicked his wrist and casually tossed the Bluecap through the air. Jet tracked her arc, for now she was in the light he could see her with greater detail, until it came to a vicious and abrupt end. Just as she began her descent the Black Dog leapt out of the shadows and snatched her out of the air with its great maw, silencing her tinny screams with a sickening crunch. Quite content, it chuffed happily and took its prize back to the door where it worried at the corpse for a time, producing a series of vile and obnoxious noises.
Jet simply stared at the point mid air where the poor bluecap’s flight, and life, ended in a tragic terminus. For some reason he couldn’t seem to muster any feelings, as though over the past few days he had simply ran out of them. His mind was a howling void as he struggled to put the past few moments into a proper perspective. The Merchant, monstrous and merciless, shook his cage, the sudden stimulus catching Jet’s attention and awakening him to at least one emotion. Guilt. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he regarded his captor, who smiled his false life smile.
“So now you see. Attempt to escape, and you either die or go back to your cage. Either way, someone else is going to die for your attempt. So be a good boy and sit in your cage until I need you, okay?”
The Merchant sauntered away, not waiting for an answer. He moved into the back rooms of the building, wherein a normal shop would store excess stock and do the administrative work traditionally left behind the scenes. Jet dimly heard his thudding footsteps moving below him, and before long there were distant screams. Jet shook, dreading reality and hoping for it all to be a dream, he couldn’t stomach being at the mercy of this creature. Tears continue to flow freely as Jet locked away any thought of freedom or escape. It couldn’t be worth it, not if another would suffer in his stead. With what little will he had left he summoned his innate gnomish magic and wrote a message into the floor of his cage. Something for others to remember him by once he was gone, and a warning to someone who would repeat his folly.