Everything sitting in neat piles and not taking any of the papers. Vivienne walked towards the double doors and pulled them open. Norbert quickly slipped out behind her before they could close on their own, not wanting to deal with the handles. The butler was standing there on the side, bowing to Vivienne as she passed, Obsius tweeting a greeting to the head butler as Norbert just gave a pained smile, his face covered by the balaclava, hoping he wasn’t too annoying to the man.
Walking out into the garden, the gate opened as Vivienne stepped into the street, the gate closing behind them. Stopping as he looked both ways, wondering which way the witch would take to head up above.
Norbert saw her go left as she started making her way towards the stairwell. People seeing them as they looked towards Vivienne, pointing before seeing Norbert in his outfit and trying to look away, that they hadn’t seen the man yet or else accidentally be associated with his activities.
Seeing her make her way as Norbert stopped outside the staircase, “Do we need to go up this one?” Norbert asked, not wanting to deal with the clothes store again, at least this time not having any coin on him to spend.
Vivienne was already halfway up the first spiral when she looked back to Norbert. “It’s the place to be, and you come here so frequently; I thought you loved the place.” Vivienne quickly ran up the stairs before Norbert could protest anymore.
Norbert leaned backwards, looking at the other passageways he could use instead before sighing. He started trudging up the staircase, hoping the lack of coin on him would at least stop the store clerks from being so persistent.
***
“Ah, dearest customer, you can bring coinage next time you pass through,” the clerk in front of him insisted. Norbert forced a smile on his face as the socks were given to him. He looked at the thick woollen socks, not knowing how he could put on any shoes his current size with them on.
Holding the pattern up, Norbert sees coins of varying colours, copper, silver, and gold, on a green background of varying sizes. Looking like someone had chucked coins on top of a field of grass.
Norbert turned to Vivienne, seeing that no clerk was “assisting” her in making a purchase. Norbert gave a pleading look as Vivienne just watched on, smiling at Norbert as he stood there, not knowing what else to do.
With a smile, Norbert took the socks and stuffed them into the sack he had on before shuffling out of the store. He did not even look away from the door, or else he would be swarmed by another person. Opening the door, the bell dinged on top as Norbert started to step through and head outside.
“Thank you for the sale, and remember to bring a coin next time, any coin you find suitable!” the clerk shouted out to Norbert as the door closed behind him. Breathing out with the door closed, they always wanted to make a sale, as Norbert walked down the street several steps, just breathing out as he shook his head.
The bell dangled once more as Vivienne walked out, smiling at Norbert as he noticed she had nothing extra on her. Following her, seeing they were headed straight down the road to the Colosseum, Robert asked the dire question “How did you avoid not getting hounded?” Norbert asked her.
“Once you buy something from that store, you can never leave without buying something else. And the more you buy, the worse they become,” Vivienne explained to Norbert.
Surprised by the answer, Norbert, seeing that he was well, truly snared in the trap, asked her, “And ordering lots of cloaks that are inverted colouring puts me in the worst place?”
Vivienne just smiled at him, not even needing to nod her head to understand.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Norbert furrows his eyebrow. “But if you knew that and I bought so much, why did we go that way?” Norbert asks her.
“It's funny seeing the strong contestant of the champion, who defeated the beast man Arzlan, cowered into buying clothing not needed by a random store that does it as a strong selling method—and effective, it seems.” Vivienne gave a slight smile as she continued.
Norbert looked about in her explanation, looking back and forth, wondering if it was safe to say “Should you really be talking about me like that?” Norbert asked her.
“Oh, it's perfectly safe. The moment we came out onto the street, we were concealed. As long as you don’t act out of place and stick to me, you're fine,” Vivienne explained to him.
Norbert instantly stepped forward, almost grabbing onto the witch as he looked around. People gave him a weird look for clutching onto Vivienne but nothing at all for what he was currently wearing.
Relaxing slightly, he was only standing shoulder to shoulder with the witch as Norbert looked about, confirming that nothing extra was happening with those around him, as they started to lose interest in Norbert and Vivienne and going about their day.
Vivienne walking towards the entrance, the Kreevss on duty there not bothering them at all. Going through the closest one, walking across much further until finally taking a left passageway, Vivienne leaning against the door, hand pressed against it until it opened up, Vivienne quickly walking through as Norbert followed behind, the darkness of the passageway that they entered causing Norbert to be slightly panicked.
He changed his vision to see, and the world became grey just as Vivienne held her hand out. A light appeared before it.
“Warning next time!” Norbert whispered out in pain, looking away as he blinked the tears out of his eyes. He saw stars leaning against the door they had just entered through until he could partially see.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you could see in the dark,” Vivienne said, waving a hand over her eyes before walking ahead. Norbert listened to the clipping of her shoes on the ground.
Norbert slowly changed his vision back to night vision to see again. Norbert saw they were in some maintenance walkway. On either side of him, Norbert spotted the runes etched into the stone used to make this place move.
Catching up to Vivienne, Norbert watched what she was looking at, wondering what had her so interested. Norbert looked at the runes in front of him, quickly changing his vision, wanting to see what was flowing through them. The entire place came alight, a myriad of colours coming together, reminding Norbert of an 80s disco rather than a maintenance hallway.
She was focusing on what Vivienne was doing in front of him. Norbert saw around her hand the snakes with a green hue flowing out, touching and investigating each of the runes, one after the other.
“What are you looking for?” Norbert asked the witch, unable to differentiate any of these by their appearance or what they could be for.
“Runes set up to stop illusions from working. The closer to the prize, the harder it is to keep up without alerting everyone in the building.” Vivienne explained to Norbert, not moving her body as she continued to scan the wall, looking for whatever she needed.
“I thought you were good enough that we could just walk on through,” Norbert asked her.
“I am good, but not my only specialty, which is good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to hold you down.” Vivienne whispered to Norbert, burrow furrowing, “And there … we … go” She finished off, a smile on her face as she looked about, Norbert not seeing anything that would be an alarm setting off, alerting every one of their presence.
Norbert looked as Vivienne headed further down, quickly catching up to her as she stopped at a ladder and went down below. Norbert turned off his magic vision to see further down there, the lights of the runes stopping him from seeing properly. As the world became grey, Norbert stuck his head down, feeling a blast of wind from underneath ruffle against his clothes and hit his eyes.
Squinting slightly, Norbert looked back to see Vivienne looking from over his shoulder. Turning to the witch, Norbert asked the question, “Down there?”
Vivienne nodded in response as she continued to look. Norbert moved back, seeing the hole in the floor. The stone rungs seemingly came out of the side of the tunnel itself and poured from the water before becoming solid.
Norbert sat down as he hopped onto the ladder, going down a rung before looking up at Vivienne. “Are you scared of the black hole?” Norbert asked her.
Vivienne shook her head. “No, but of whatever is down there. Not something that should be over here.” Vivienne told him.
Norbert looked back down the chute, focusing and trying to feel whatever she sensed. But all he came back with was nothing, just the slight wind, making his fingers slightly cold as he continued to hold onto the ladder.
“Well, you said we need to go down that way?” Norbert asked her as he climbed the ladder, hoping it would continue at this size. He was having a hard enough time holding the sack in one hand and the ladder, his back nearly being pushed against the back wall.