In the middle of the night, Orykson appeared in my bedroom, and I only woke up when he put his hand over my mouth.

I thrashed and panicked for several seconds, Briarthreads lashing out at him, but they just bounced off his suit. Once I realized who it was, I relaxed some, though a small part of me was still terrified that he was angry at me.

“You have seven minutes to get ready before we’re out the door. We’re focusing on your death magic right now.”

With that, he stepped out into the hall.

I took a few moments to let the panic slowly slide out of my system, then hopped up and ran off to change and get ready.

When I exited my room, a sleepy Dusk riding on my shoulder, Orykson was holding two cups of coffee, and he extended one to me. I gratefully sipped on it as we headed downstairs and spoke in a low tone.

“I admit, I hadn’t planned for you to learn either the messenger spell or the sensory spell. Vampiric Senses in particular is an interesting one. Vampiric blood magic involves a fair chunk of lunar mana, so I’d dismissed it as a path for you, but I do see her logic. That said, if you want to embark on necromancy and blood magic, it’s time you access the ghost market.”

“The what?” I asked as Orykson began walking out the door. Idly I wondered if I could somehow make a spatial lock on the house that would prevent people from just teleporting in like that.

Probably. But the power gap between me and Orykson was so huge that I doubted it would stop him.

“Watch and see,” he said.

We walked down the empty streets for a while before we arrived at one of the larger city parks. It was empty in its entirety, to an eerie degree. There weren’t even any homeless in the park.

It was so eerie that I wanted to leave. Dusk, on the other hand, let out an excited wind-rustle, encouraging me to go inside.

“Cast Vampiric Senses.”

I sketched out the spell, sent power into it, and my senses expanded outwards.

My senses of touch and taste remained mostly the same, though touch did grow slightly more sensitive to temperature. I assumed, given that it was a vampiric spell, that it would let me taste blood’s differences better, but I wasn’t exactly keen to try that aspect.

My hearing grew a bit sharper – in particular, the sound of heartbeats. I wasn’t sure exactly how that worked – it couldn’t be a flat increase to my hearing, or I’d hear everything better, not just heartbeats.

My vision was far more changed, though, as the world grew… Not exactly brighter, because the color actually faded into grays, but it did grow more distinct as the shadows of the night didn’t bother my eyes nearly as much.

More than even vision, though, was the sense of smell. Blood was more distinct than anything, but my entire sense of smell was heightened greatly.

I could smell people in the park, and hear their heartbeats. I could distinctly smell other vampires as well as the smell of blood. It set my stomach growling.

There were other smells too. There was the sweat and stench of humans there, and a lot of them. There was the human-animal scent of were-creatures, the strange scents without a scent that spirits had, and even a few who had a scent like mist in a graveyard, late at night, with the harvest moon just barely peeking out from behind the clouds.

I shook my head and dismissed the spell. I wasn’t a vampire, after all, and if there were vampires and whatever else in there, it was none of my business.

“I didn’t say to drop the spell,” Orykson said. “After all, we need entry.”

I frowned, but sketched the spell again and recast it.

“Search for the point where these smells are strongest. Dusk, you should be quiet during this. You’d let him cheat.”

Dusk nodded and patted my cheek affectionately.

I felt incredibly ridiculous, walking around the park and sniffing like a dog, but eventually I found a few spots where it was the strongest – especially the strange scents of misty graves.

“Here,” I said.

“Good. This is indeed one of the entry points. Do you know the difference between extraspatial pockets, demiplanes, and astral planes?”

“Yes,” I said.

“And shadow planes?” he asked.

“No. I’m guessing they’re planes grown with lunar magic?”

“Something of that sort,” Orykson agreed. “Even the best shadow planes are severely limited, at least in comparison to what spatial magic can do. For one, they can only ever form in a single spot, as the shadow of something existing. In this case, the ghost market is a reflection of the park.”

He waved his hand, and a portal tore into reality, looking out onto what appeared to be a shadowy mirror of the park, though it looked almost like someone had set up a carnival themed casino mixed with a market on the other side. There were stalls galore, some for food, some for wares, and some for games like poker.

“Well?” Orykson asked.

I stepped through the portal, and…

Not much happened. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, I’d been expecting. I’d gone through Orykson’s portals before, and nothing strange had happened, but never accessing another realm. I’d expected it to be different for some reason.

Dusk let out a delighted cheer when we entered, and I glanced at her. She seemed to be drawing… something… in from the air around her, though I wasn’t sure what.

I looked around as Orykson entered the market.

The ghost market was almost completely dark, but different people had set up lighting around their stalls, leading to a dusky glow that was just enough for me to see without Vampiric Senses, and was more than enough with it.

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“Come with me,” Orykson said, and he began to stride through the market.

As I walked by, various people tried to hawk their wares at us. Most of them were weaker alchemical potions or enchanted items, but there were some that I was pretty sure were straight up shams. One person shouted loudly that they could brew us an invisibility potion, and Orykson rolled his eyes.

“Wait a moment, aren’t those illegal without a special license?” I asked to Orykson in a hushed whisper.

“Of course they are,” he replied. “But like any illegal good, they’re going to be bought and sold anyways. Rather than spending a fortune trying to stamp out the entire trade – and failing – the Avatar of Sin and I agreed that it’s easier to keep the crime organized within criminal syndicates, and allow easy access to rehabilitation programs. It stops things from going too far out of control.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Does the Lightwatch know about this place?”

“Naturally,” he said. “They’ve busted many of those who have violated too many of the rules, and turn a blind eye to those who are committing the pettier crimes.”

“Like unlicensed potions?” I asked.

“Indeed. Or tax evasion. There is a surprising amount of goods you can find in places like these that aren’t especially dangerous, simply highly taxed.”

As if to prove his point, we passed by a stand selling Elohian whisky, Vinopean wine, and Redsummer rum.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To get you a ward token,” he said. “I’m not going to escort you to the ghost market every time you need to buy something.”

I went back to looking over the market, noting down a few places that I wanted to at least look at, mainly enchanters.

“Okay, but what about all the games?” I asked. “It’s almost like a carnival.”

“Oh, that’s not always around,” he said. “But it’s more common than you’d expect. Most of them are used for gambling.”

“Huh.”

“We’re here,” Orykson said. We’d stopped in front of a large tent that looked slightly more permanent than the other ones, and Orykson pushed inside.

There were several tables of people drinking, with servers moving all around, but Orykson ignored all of them and led us into the back room.

Inside, there was an old woman behind a desk. She looked ancient, with warts on her face, beady eyes, and almost claw-like hands. Her entire body seemed draped in shadows, and when she smiled at us, her teeth were far, far too sharp.

The scent of a misty moonlit graveyard was strong around her, and to my mana senses, she felt strange. I couldn’t get a solid grasp on her power; it was hidden by a smokey veil.

Next to her was someone who smelled like a vampire. Their clothes were ragged and ripped, rumpled, and they were far too skinny for them. Their eyes were strange too, faded out, even to my Vampiric Senses. They looked about my age, but they had clearly had a hard life. Their fingers twitched slightly as they looked at me, then stilled when they looked at Orykson.

With their dark skin, red eyes, and white hair, they could have been quite attractive if they put on a few pounds and didn’t look so desperate and hungry.

Dawn hopped off my shoulder and curled into my pocket to hide, not liking these people.

“Ahh, Orykson,” the old woman croaked, then looked at me. “Who’s this?”

“This is Malachi. One of my potential competitors,” Orykson said. “He’s begun learning necromancy and vampiric blood magic, so I thought to introduce him.”

She glanced at me.

“Isn’t he a bit weak for your tastes, Orykson?”

“A bit,” Orykson admitted. “But circumstances are what they will be. Do give Avatar my regards when you see him next.”

“Of course.”

Then Orykson was gone, and I cursed my luck. The old woman riffled around in her desk before removing some paperwork for me to fill out.

It was incredibly simple compared to most paperwork I’d needed to fill out for the actual government, but it required me to put a single drop of blood onto the contract in order to let me through the wards and veils.

“Welcome to the ghost market,” the old woman said, a haunting grin on her face.

I thanked her and left as quickly as possible. The market as a whole was already fairly creepy, but she especially gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I browsed the market for a while, keeping my mana in a constant state of preparedness, just in case someone tried something. I didn’t have much cash on me, since I hadn’t exactly planned for a shopping excursion – and my bank account was looking pretty empty anyways – but it was interesting to look.

I noted a few plants that I may want to buy for their useful properties, and a lot of people selling charms for the Carnival of Color. Somehow, it felt incongruous to find a celebration about the last month of summer here in the ghost market, but I supposed that if there was money to be made, people would try to sell.

Orykson’s suit bought me far too much attention from vendors who were convinced that I had to have money, and I cursed him for it.

That actually gave me an idea though – I quickly headed back home, then changed into more normal clothes, and put the suits in Dusk’s realm, then headed back to the ghost market.

I did leave my plainest black suit though. It was true that I could always use a good suit, just in case.

I tracked down an enchanter who seemed to be selling almost entirely legitimate goods, based on my limited understanding of enchantment and my mana senses.

To be fair, I did trust my mana senses. With my three ingrained spells boosting them, they were sharp.

“I have four suits with second gate defensive enchantments woven into tenebrous lacewing silk,” I said, smiling at the enchanter. “I’m looking to trade them all in.”

“Let’s see them,” she said.

I carefully pulled them from Dusk’s realm one by one, and the enchanter inspected them.

“It’s good quality work,” she eventually said. “The silk’s a good material, and it shouldn’t be too hard to retailor them for a kid or something. Plenty of rich folks like defenses in their kids suits.”

I felt a bit defensive at that. I wasn’t that short!

“I can give you three thousand for the lot of them,” she said, looking up.

“First of all,” I said, “That’s a terrible price. They’re worth at least four times as much, even secondhand, with all the work already put in for you. And you’re planning on selling it to rich people, in your own words.”

She rolled her eyes and shrugged, which I took as my cue to continue.

“Second of all, I want some protection spells. Something that can grow with me, preferably, at least up to a point.”

“You done?” she asked. I nodded and she continued. “You’re not going to find a true growth item here. Well, maybe at the ghost market, but it’d be in a much, much more expensive shop. Or gambled away. Not my shop. But let’s see what I can do.

We spent a while going through different items. Some were designed against more elemental attacks, while others were focused on physical force, and others were a blend.

Eventually, though, she asked a strange question.

“Why not get something to interact with that ring you’ve got?”

“Is that an option?” I asked. “I didn’t know you’d have draconic enchantments.”

“Oh sure,” she said. “What’s the ring do?”

“I’ve a general idea,” I said, “but I’d love an exact identification.”

“Fifty silvers off whatever deal we work out,” she said. I agreed. It was a bit pricey – the standard identification was about thirty, but it didn’t cover non-human magics.

“Let’s see… Cavern dragon make. Old, but now that it’s being used, a good portion of the magic’s come back. It infuses any mana constructs with extra density, allowing them to strike harder, block better, that sort of thing. It works on first and second gate spells, but once you break into spellbinder, it’ll be useless, since your mana will be too dense for it to help. Interesting… Yeah, I can work with this.”

She pulled a bracelet from her shop and handed it over to me.

“This is a channeled force armor enchantment, so it requires you to fuel it with mana directly.”

“Nah,” I said. “Too inefficient. I don’t have physical or abnegation mana, so I’d lose a ton of power.”

“Fair enough,” she said, then moved onto a ring that conjured earth armor, which I also rejected for its bulk.

Finally, though, we settled on a pair of two items. The first was defensive aura spell set in a pin that I could put on clothes that would weaken magic and mundane force coming at me.

It was a second gate spell, like my suit, but it apparently had a fairly simple upgrade that any decent enchanters could do that would let it output mana as if it was being overcharged, which meant that with a few tweaks, I’d be able to use it at third gate as well.

The second one was a tiny bracelet, so small that it could be a bead, for dusk. It was a channeled earthen armor spell, designed for small folk. Her mana composition had a good bit of Telluric in it, so her efficiency with them was decent. It was able to handle increased mana density up to third gate without any need for modifications, and she was happy with it.

That was good enough for me, but it was so late that I just flopped down into bed and passed out as soon as I got home.