Hermera

The 18th of Thargelion

The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals

The morning sun cast rays through the window to reveal a very groggy Arche, arm and leg hanging off the side of the bed to brush against the floor. There was a dull ache in his mind and an uncomfortable, fabric taste in his mouth that begged for water. He also had a vague sense of discomfort, a phantom pain in his arm and leg. He sat up, rubbing at the sore spots, and found Tess sitting at the table dressed in a simple tunic with a towel wrapped about her hair.

“Sleep well?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

Arche ran a hand through his bed-hair and frowned.

“Not really. Bad dream. Myriatos was being attacked again, but not by beastmar. Strange, little creatures. A lot of people died.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “Well, I’m sure it was just a dream.”

“Sure didn’t feel like one.” He grimaced and stood, stretching the stiffness out of his neck. “I wish we had some way of getting in touch with Lyssa. Can’t shake the feeling something terrible happened.”

“There’s not much you can do about it from here,” Tess pointed out. “The sooner we finish what we came here for, the sooner we can get back.”

“Right.” He paused for a long moment. “Anyway, are we going to talk about last night?”

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Well, I remember a kiss. After that, it’s a bit blurry.”

“Is that so?” Tess’s expression grew guarded. Even dangerous.

“Please tell me I didn’t make a fool of myself. Again.”

There was a long, pregnant pause before Tess’s demeanor cracked. She let out a loud, hearty laugh.

“Don’t worry. Your honor is intact. Besides, you’re cute when you sleep.”

Arche grunted and rubbed his head. Tess raised an eyebrow.

“Not much for banter this morning?”

“Mouth feels weird. Still thinking about the dream.”

“Hmm, a shame. We can’t exactly send a message to Lyssa. No courier would be able to get there.”

“Yeah.”

Arche threw on a shirt and rubbed the stiffness in his leg. Tess stood as well and removed the towel from her head, letting wet hair fall down around her shoulders as she walked toward him. Arche froze, completely distracted, as she slid a finger from his shoulder up his neck and tapped him on the cheek.

“As for the kiss,” she said, her breath hot against his face. “I hope that memory isn’t too blurry for you.”

Arche blinked but couldn’t bring himself to answer. Her lips were right there. He could feel her breath on his skin, sending shivers up his spine. Tess winked, then pulled away.

“You’re a cruel woman.”

“Life’s more fun that way. Besides, we have work to do. We could have had some fun, but you had to go and get drunk last night.”

“I’m not drunk now.”

“No, but you need a bath, now, and something to mask your breath. And even if your schedule is open, I have business to attend to. Now, go on. I need to continue getting ready.”

She gently pushed him toward the door with one hand. He wanted to say something witty before he left, but his mind was too foggy, so he savored the sight of her smiling at him and walked back to Basil’s room with a grin on his face and a nagging worry in the back of his mind.

Basil, as it turned out, was already awake, having gone to bed early the previous night. Helwan, on the other hand, was snoring loud enough to be heard down the hall. As Arche slipped into the room, Basil raised his eyebrows and gave him a conspiratorial look.

“What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what?’” Basil countered, a grin spreading across his face.

“Shut up.”

“I’ve barely said anything.”

“Then do me a favor and get me a glass of water.”

“Don’t you have any?”

Arche thumped his forehead with his palm and opened his inventory.

“I do, don’t I? Wow, this morning is rough.”

“I take it you had a good time, last night?”

“Good enough. Better than the last time, certainly.”

“I don’t see a broken finger, so I’m inclined to agree. You also had a grin on your face when you walked in, so it can’t have been that bad.”

Arche took a drink from his waterskin and smacked his lips. All he could taste was strawberries and mint, and he savored it, completely forgetting to respond. Basil took it in stride, adjusting the fitting of his vambrace.

“At least we don’t have to relocate. I’m just surprised you’re back this early. I would have figured you and Tess would have a lie in.”

Arche paused. “What?”

Basil rolled his eyes. “I mean, you were pillowing, weren’t you? It’s been pretty obvious something’s between you.” Basil’s eyes grew wide. “Unless it wasn’t Tess. Was it Cora? Titan’s Blood, Arche, do you have a death wish?”

“Whoa, stop. Nobody pillowed anybody. Who even calls it that? No. We are not talking about this.”

Basil put his hands up but still had a twinkle in his eye.

“Good plan. Chances are high that I want no part of it. The less I know, the less can be used against me.”

“Nothing happened, Basil.”

“A great cover. I’ll remember that one. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I went to bed early.’ Best lies have a hint of truth.”

“Ugh.”

Arche did his best to put on a disinterested face as he drained his waterskin. He rubbed absently at his leg and smacked his lips again. Basil gave him a shit-eating grin and went back to polishing his sword.

“Nope. I’m not doing this. Let Helwan know I’m going to Bits and Baubles to do some shopping and wait for him to get there. I’ll check in later.”

“Wait, what do you want me to do?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“I don’t know. Go see your family. Tell them I said hi. Do whatever you want, but bring Cora with you, just in case.”

“Just in case of what?”

“Exactly. And no more talk of pillowing!”

Arche shut the door to the room, Tridory in hand, and practically ran down the stairs and out of the inn. The sun had disappeared, covered by an overcast sky that bathed the city in a gray, washed-out tone. The streets hadn’t yet filled with their daily overabundance of people but there were still quite a few milling about. Arche checked his map, searching for and quickly finding Bits & Baubles Enterprises. It was surprisingly distant from the Lyceum, located on the south western side of the city.

It was, Arche noticed, solidly within Hekatonkheires territory. That alone nearly made him stop and go back to get Helwan – but then he would have to deal with Basil. Thieves or jokes about his love life?

Thieves. Definitely thieves.

He adjusted his grip on the Tridory and set off at a fast pace. They were just people. What were people to him after he had faced down monsters? If they came for him, he would make them regret it, and if they killed him, he would return the favor.

Ephyra was not the easiest of cities to navigate, not that Arche had much experience to begin with. Because the entire city wrapped around the coast, streets curved if you followed them long enough. The straightest path from the inn to Bits and Baubles would take him through the docks. It would also take him by the palace, however, and that was a place his instincts were telling him to avoid. He couldn’t put a name to the reason, but until someone else came up with a damn good one, he had no desire to go there.

Two hours and a road snack later, Arche found himself in front of a small, homely building with a freshly painted sign proudly displaying Bits & Baubles Enterprises. Now that he stood before it, he was hesitant to enter. What would he say without Helwan to make the introduction? Though he was sure her collection was impressive, despite the rather modest building, he didn’t have any money on him. Especially not since he was indebted to the Lyceum.

“Doesn’t look like much, does it?”

Arche turned to find a young woman, barely past twenty, next to him. Dark hair and a round face, her hands were clasped behind her back and she wore boots and trousers below a fitted shirt and jacket. Her attire seemed at once alien and familiar, as it was a far cry from anything anyone else was wearing.

“Do I know you?” Arche asked, trying to ask the question in a way that wouldn’t be rude.

The woman shook her head, hair falling over her face before swinging to the other side.

“I just like stuff. Weird stuff they’ve got in that shop. Want to see the inside?”

“I should probably wait for my friend.”

The young woman turned to look at him and cocked her head. With surprising speed, she grabbed Arche’s hand, shook it up and down once, and let it go just as quickly.

“There, now we’re friends and I’m going in. You can join a friend inside or wait for a friend outside. Equal choice.”

Without waiting for a response, she skipped across the street and pushed open the door. Arche hesitated, glanced down the road, then started after her. A small bell rattled as the door opened but that was the only simple thing about the store.

There was only one word to explain the inside of the building: magic.

It was a huge, multi-story circle with a maze of shelves. It stretched up and down, the ceiling easily ten floors above them. Everlit Lanterns hung in strategic locations, giving light with no risk of fire. Where Arche and the strange woman stood, they could see out over the banister at all the different floors. Two levels below them was the base of the shop and where the bulk of the shelf maze was located. From their vantage, they would be able to see anyone wandering around, but those inside would find it difficult to find their way out.

The woman leaned over the banister, taking it all in with the excitement and breathlessness of a child. She gestured Arche forward, barely tearing her eyes away from all the stuff. Arche felt the slackness of his jaw as he tried to conceptualize the sheer size and volume of magic that had to be in the building. He joined the woman by the banister and stuck his head out, trying see as much as possible.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” she asked. “I never get tired of it. There’s no building like it in all of Ephyra.”

“I doubt there’s anything like it in all of Tartarus. Is everything magic?”

The woman smiled.

“Most of it, I think. I don’t think many of the books are, but if they’re here, then they’ve got to be important.”

Arche craned his neck, trying to look at the floors above them.

“I don’t see any other customers here.”

The woman shrugged.

“Lucky us, then. We can browse in peace. Unless, of course, you’re waiting for your friend before you look at anything. In which case, I admire your restraint as much as I refuse to imitate it.”

Arche looked at the huge display of items around him, each one placarded with a name and description.

“I don’t think many would accuse me of restraint, but this place is huge. I don’t even know where to start.”

The woman gave him an appraising look, then tapped him on the arm and chest.

“You look like the brawling type. Want to go to the magical equipment section? Or perhaps you’re a secret artist, a lover’s heart hiding in there somewhere, begging to be shown where the magic quills and brushes are.”

Arche snorted and pushed his tongue into his cheek.

“Your first guess was better. I’m not particularly skilled in the arts.”

“Nonsense, you just haven’t found your passion yet. Not to worry. You’re young, you still have time.”

The woman gave him a roguish wink, then skipped off before Arche could point out that there was no way she was older than him. To prove that point, he Examined her.

?

Arche frowned. Either something in the city was messing with his ability to Examine people or a strange number of people were resistant to his skill. Or he needed to dedicate more time to leveling it. It was useful, but it still only gave him the most basic information.

“I didn’t catch your name.”

“But you tried to take it anyway.”

Arche blinked but the woman had already moved on. She picked up a blue orb wrapped in metal filigree. She smiled at Arche, then whispered a word into it and tossed it into the air. The orb stopped above their heads and began glowing and spinning. Above them, the night sky was projected, though it was still daytime outside.

“Cool, huh?” she asked.

“Very. Is that the layout of the stars right now, if we could see them?”

She shrugged.

“How should I know? We can’t see them.”

Arche frowned, mouth slightly open in bemusement, then shrugged.

“Fair enough.”

Before he could ask her anything else, she raced off to a different section, plucking things out of it. The floating orb gradually dimmed and descended back to the basket it had rested in. As Arche followed the woman through the strange array, he noticed some interesting names on the placards he passed.

Foldable Trireme.

Ever-Weeping Willow Cup.

Bardic Quill of Gaudy Verse.

Sadly, if he was to keep sight of the woman racing off in front of him, he had no chance to stop and read what any of them did. They went down a flight of stairs and Arche found the combat section. Armor and weaponry of every conceivable type lined displays all around them.

“Everyone’s always interested in these but nobody buys them much,” the woman said.

Arche looked at a set of armor that appeared to be made from the scales of a green dragon. It seemed a heavier, more expensive version of the blue-scale armor that Tess often wore when things got dicey.

“I doubt many could afford them. I notice there are no prices listed.”

The woman shrugged.

“Prices change. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to go through all the inventory and change prices just because the worth of a drachma went up or down on a given day.”

“Couldn’t that be done by magic, though?”

“Oh, so now you’re an expert in magic, are you?”

“Well, no. That’s why I’m asking.”

The woman snapped her fingers.

“And fairly asked it was! It probably could.”

Arche could feel a small pressure build behind his eyes as the eccentric woman’s mood pivoted faster than a dancer.

“Should we be trying to find an employee or something? Seems strange that customers would be allowed such free reign inside the store.”

The woman shrugged and thumbed the dull back of a dagger as she skipped along toward the stairs leading down to the maze of bookshelves.

“Why shouldn’t they be?”

“What if they steal something?”

“I wouldn’t. Would you?”

“Well, no. What if they want to buy something?”

“Who’s going to stop them?”

Arche didn’t know how to respond to that, so he gave up trying and followed the woman down to the books. There was no filing system Arche could recognize. Theory was next to history, study next to biography, and magic tomes were interlaced throughout. The shelves themselves stood head and shoulders above him. The woman rushed forward, almost running as she disappeared into the maze. After a moment’s deliberation, Arche followed. His hesitation cost him, however, as he lost sight of her around a bend and when he came to the turn himself, he was met with three distinct passages.

“Hello?” he called out. “Where’d you go?”

There was no reply.

Arche turned around, intending to leave the book maze the way he’d come, and found a shelf had appeared, blocking off his escape.

He was trapped.

“Fuck.”