As the small paindne child stares up at me with wide, excited eyes, I can’t help but feel a little out of place. Just as I’m about to say something, a single word from the other group catches my attention: trade. Without turning from Clamber, I focus on my awareness and feel at their group just a little harder. Instead of Worth coins, simple disks of magic-less gemstone are switching hands.
I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen anyone use anything but Worth since I got here. That’s definitely worth checking into.
“We can pay with something other than Worth here?”
Clamber nods without hesitation. “As long as the materials have equal Worth values as the things they’re being traded for, we don’t need to use Worth.” She says with practiced ease. “I thought you’d already know that. Don’t you have a class?”
“Yes, I do, but I thought… ah, nevermind, you’re just shortcutting some steps.” I chuckle to myself and shake my head. “Don’t know why that felt a little weird to me. Could it be because the things they’re trading in don’t have any Worth to them at all?”
“They… don’t have Worth?” Clamber frowns and looks over at the group. “That’s not possible. The system wouldn’t let things work if Worth wasn’t being exchanged. I’ll go see what’s going on.”
I blink in surprise as Clamber confidently walks right up to the group, plants herself between them and the clerk, and puts her hands on her hips. “Scooch, how come those coins aren’t Worth any worth?”
The clerk adjusts their tie with a cough. “Young lady, we have customers.”
“Yes, customers that apparently aren’t paying.” Clamber shoots the clerk–Scooch–a llooks that’s both angry and inquisitive. “Does daddy know about this? Because if he does, he didn’t bother telling me.”
“I-I’m sure the proprietor wouldn’t intentionally leave you out of any business decisions, young lady. If you would be willing to wait just a moment, I can give these good people the service they… aaand they’re leaving. Wonderful.” Scooch sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “They were paying with interim Worth, young lady. Worthless coins as a promise for Worth delivered at a later date.”
Clamber wrinkles her nose at the mere thought. “That’s extremely stupid. What guarantee do we have that they’ll actually come back to pay later? You know the system rewards people for stealing if they don’t get caught–and they had masks on! We don’t even know if they have a Class that makes stealing easier!”
Scooch straightens his back and looks at me. “Young lady, please. We have another–”
“Oh, no, just pretend I’m not here.” I say with a smile in my voice, cutting off the clerk’s escape route from the conversation. “I’m just as interested in ‘interim Worth’ as Clamber is.”
“But… I… aren’t you in a hurry?” He asks desperately, looking between me and Clamber. When he gets no answer, he sighs and straightens his back. “Our products are protected. If payment is not given on time, we extract it in other ways–either in favors or in flesh. Does that explanation satisfy you, young lady?”
Clamber nods. “See? Was that so hard to say?
“Hrm. You are quite the little thorn in my side.” Scooch says, but there’s a trace of a prideful smile under his annoyed facade. Then he turns to me. “I am assuming you will be paying in full, considering you spurred our little hellraiser into disrupting my gri–sale?”
Was… was he about to say ‘grift’? No way. That’s hilarious. Well, I guess when your clientele is ninety percent masked people, you have to be a little shady yourself. Hopefully they don’t start charging me for asking questions.
“Anything I buy will be paid for with Worth, you can count on that.” I assure him with a half-truth. “So, I’m specifically here for the things we’re standing right above. What can you tell me about them?”
“Ah, our newest collection.” Scooch leans down and removes the plastic-like jewelry from the display case. He sets it down on the flat glass top, then steps back to let me get a closer look. “Young lady, do you want to do the honours?”
Clamber nearly squeals in excitement. She pulls on a pair of gloves, gently removes one of the rings from the stand, and holds it up as high as she can so I can get a good look. Considering all I can do is feel the magic coming off of it, I can’t really ooh and aah at whatever the colours are. But the shape is pretty standard–an oval stone, set in a thin band that twists into a pattern like tree branches around the set stone.
“Is the band around it supposed to be magic too?” I ask as I lean in a little closer to pretend to get a better look. “Because only the stone inside seems magical.”
“The material the band is made of is magically inert, so it doesn’t mess with the stone.” Clamber explains as she prods at the band. “We need to be really careful making these, since we could accidentally infuse some magic we don’t want in the crafting process. That’s why–”
Scooch clears his throat to get Clamber’s attention. “The customer does not need to hear the entire making of the ring, young lady.”
Clamber doesn’t deflate like Clutter would, but I can see her shoulders sag just a little. And the small sway in her tail stops completely. My heart falls at the sight of the wind being taken out of her sails, and before she can completely gather herself, I hold up a hand at Scooch.
“No, no, I’m interested. Very interested.” I smile, but neither of them can see it. “I have a friend that’s in the crafting business, and I was wondering how her tools didn’t contaminate the end product. Maybe you use the same methods?”
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One single, happy tail swish against the floor is all I need to know I did good. “Maybe! We use tools with a magically absorbent material between the magic source and the actual jewelry–that way the tool absorbs all the radiant magic instead of transmitting it. Of course that means we have to make really weird tools, ooh–here, let me show you one!”
She gently sets the ring back in its place and pulls out what looks like an engraving rod. The very end of it barely glistens with magic, and it looks like it’s welded onto the rest of the rod, which… feels like looking straight into a shadowy corner. Instead of having no magic, it feels like it’d devour any magic that touched it.
“See this thing on the end? This is a stabilizer.” She points at the piece of magic metal with one finger. “And the rest of it is made of an alloy that absorbs magic, but not really quickly; so when I engrave something on a ring, the top three-quarters of the engraver gets stabilized, which effectively stabilizes the rest of it, but no magic can seep into the tip that’s doing the actual engraving! Neat, isn’t it?”
I nod honestly.
Pearl nods right along with me. “It’s like what my people used before we developed our more sophisticated manufacturing methods. How neat is it that a completely different species came to almost the exact same conclusion?”
Clamber beams with pride, unaware of the huge compliment she just got from Pearl. Then she seems to catch herself with a start, giggles, and stuffs her engraver back in the pouch she took it from.
“Sorry; I got sidetracked.” She says sheepishly as she picks up the ring once more. “I don’t remember what I already said, so I’m just going to start over. This is our newest line, made from a material the system has yet to identify that we’re calling ‘Squirmstone’. By subjecting the squirmstone to high heats and pressure, we turn the raw material into what you see here; a substance that swirls and squirms like a liquid, but that’s as hard as fired clay.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You turn the plastic stuff into that?”
“Oh, have you come across some of the raw materials?” Scooch cuts in with renewed interest. “If you have, we would be willing to buy it for a very fair price.”
“Yeah! Our supplier disappeared without a trace a few weeks ago, so we’re getting desperate.” Clamber adds ‘helpfully’, much to Scooch’s regret. “It’s really weird; he was a shady guy, always muttering about something, but then… poof! No more Squirmstone.”
It really isn’t a stone, and that name is not really… good. But if the supplier came up with it, then maybe he knows more about the stuff than we do. Hell, maybe he’s the clue my skill sent me here to find.
“Huh. What’s his name? Maybe I could help you find him.”
Scooch shakes his head. “I highly doubt it; he was a strange one, and if I am right, he was looking into something that had to do with Stonestep Solutions. That, or they were looking into something that had to do with him–I can’t quite remember which one it was.”
“That’s right.” Clamber agrees. “I think they were looking into him–they came around asking about him, about where he lived, and all that stuff. Did we tell them anything?”
“No, we did not–at least, neither I nor the proprietor did.” Scooch pushes up his glasses and smiles. “Stonestep Solutions cannot intimidate their equals, no matter how they try.”
…Did they forget I’m here? It kind of feels like they forgot I’m here. I look between the two as they talk about Stonestep Solutions, the plastic supplier, and… their dinner plans. Sounds like Scooch moonlights as Clamber’s butler when the store’s closed. Yet I come away from listening to the conversation feeling like I know just as much as I did before they started.
“Um, should I go?” I gesture at the door. “Is this some kind of tactic to get me to leave?”
Clamber’s eyes go wide. “No! Not at all! Didn’t you hear us talking about dinner?”
I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. “...Dinner?”
“Yes, dinner. If you would like to join us, we would be happy to have you. Though I suppose you may have a busy schedule, which I apologize for not taking into consideration.” Scooch says, then looks down at the jewelry. “Oh, my apologies; we were in the middle of selling you something. Are you in the market for a ring, necklace, or some other form of jewelry?”
“If you want anything besides what’s up here, I can make it for you.” Clamber eagerly offers. “Or… I would, if we had any more squirmstone left. Sorry. I forgot.”
This is… one of the weirdest sales I’ve ever been a part of. I’m not sure if it’s some kind of sales tactic to get me to let my guard down, so they can pounce, or even a ploy to get me trapped so Stonestep Solutions can hop in and claim my bounty. But their body languages, their facial expressions, just how friendly they’re being…
It’s so goddamn confusing. Are all Paindne just friendly in general?
“If–and this is a big if–I happen to have some… squirmstone… would you be willing to make me something?” I ask slowly.
Clamber’s eyes widen, and she nods vigorously. “Yes! A thousand times yes! I won’t even charge you for labor–just the cost of the band. When can you get it here? When can I start?”
“Whoah, hold on there. I never said I–”
The smash of shattering glass echoes out from behind the display. I flinch back, coins filling my hands, and step between Clamber and the source of the noise. But my awareness didn’t feel anything. Is this another attack from the masked people?
With adrenaline filling my veins, I actually take in what my awareness is seeing. A shattered display case’s bottom pane. Shards all over the ground, with a few droplets of blood scattered about. A few pieces of less expensive jewelry among the debris. And a very embarrassed Scooch, stepping back while cradling his tail, plucking shards of glass from it.
“...I may have gotten slightly too excited.” He says sheepishly. “Young lady, why don’t you take our friend here to the back room while I clean up and close for a short time?”
Clamber sighs, but starts leading me towards a closed door anyway. “He might talk like that, but he’s got the most hyperactive tail of anyone I’ve ever seen.”
She leans in close to the door with no visible handle, summons a blank Class Card, and taps it against a metal rectangle. It beeps once, as if to confirm her tap, and the click of shifting metal inside follows immediately after. Clamber pushes the door open, steps though, and holds it for me.
“Sorry about all that.” She apologizes as the door clicks shut. “We thought we were never going to get any more Squirmstone. After Well stopped showing up, it looked pretty bleak.”
My heart skips a beat as we walk down an unassumingly beige hallway. The way she said 'well' almost made it sound like a name. “Who is Well?”
Clamber nods as she taps her card against another rectangle of metal. “Well Maryden. He’s our old supplier.”