Her friend was beginning to hiss threateningly but Flower had been intentionally avoiding exactly that topic and felt panic rising within her. Her parents might not have bought many proper children’s stories, but they did have a shelf full of myths and fables, many of which illustrated for children. Those that spoke of trading away souls were always obscure and inexplicable, but they had a central theme, that it was a slippery slope with an obscure end. Maybe you trade a part today than someone asks for two parts tomorrow. Maybe you trade your fears, the next day you’re running bravely into a campfire where you burn to death and bring the rest of your soul to rejoin the part. She didn’t know if it would be that bad, but that was the point, she didn’t know, and blindly making deals you don’t understand with a demon of all things is triple danger! ”No, no, I meant, I, my things are all still at home, and I, my family just died, and I’m lost and I, I didn’t bring anything.”
“So you want to make an exchange of property rights for goods that would require later collection?” The old woman asked
“You can do that?” Flower asked, surprised.
“Yes, though we’ll have to write up a deed and do an appraisal. If your family died you’ve likely inherited their wealth as well.” The woman noted her confused look and instead bulled out a tube from her bag and began ruffling through the papers inside it. Pulling out one she began speaking to it in the same vocal trifecta. “On my authority as a merchant of souls I request a deed be written and appraised for the full sum of items lawfully owned under the name of the client. May these items be branded for collection.” Meeting Flower’s eyes she continued. “The cost of appraisal and deed reissuance will be shouldered by the client, and should they fail to exceed the net cost, the remainder will be paid by the client, do you enter this pact willingly of your own volition?”
Flower gawked at the strange moving symbols that covered the leathery paper. Hesitantly she nodded, and as if watching her the scroll flashed dimly with blue than yellow light. Flower held her breath with worry, temporarily forgetting that she didn’t need to breathe here.
“Congratulations, it seems your inheritance is of quite some value, even accounting for the losses in selling this to someone more specialized in collections it seems you have more than enough for the key, how would you like the rest, in gold, or is there something else you want?”
Flower gulped, thinking back to how people always told her that her parents squandered what little they had on useless garbage. She wondered if the demon was getting scammed, but returning to her previous thoughts she looked back at her friend’s sparse clothing ”Um, some cloths, and some in money please.”
Pulling out yet another leathery scroll the woman spoke to it “The trade proposed is appraisal of goods the client lawfully owns in her home world in exchange for a deed and appraisal to be used as means of contract, a key of lost towers, cloths, and money. I Merrydeath accept these terms.” She waited a moment before prodding “Do you accept these terms?”
Flower watched the coiling words on the scroll before saying “I, um, Flower, accept these terms?”
“You got your name wrong.” The lady replied, her eyes squinting.
“No, um, I mean, I accidentally gave it to an old man, but he said I could use part.”
The woman’s brow scrunched up, clearly frustrated by the minutia. “That should work, was he using translation magic like we’re using? Maybe you misunderstood him, what other words sound like flower in your language?”
“Um, ah” Flower paused; it hadn’t occurred to her that she might have been misunderstanding her name all this time. “Um, I guess flour?” The old woman shook her head. “Um, flour?” (verb) Her head was still shaking. “Maybe it’s flower?” (verb)
“Yes, that’s the one; the meaning you’re thinking when you speak tends to impact magic, especially contract magic; it’s particular like that.”
“I Flower agree to this contract?” The scroll flashed and vanished as if it had sunk into the darkness around them. With that the old woman passed her the key and after a bit more rummaging passed her a little silver turtle that looked suspiciously like a toy a child might clip onto their backpack. “Squeeze it thrice to access the cloths or funds, with that our business is concluded.”
Flower stared numbly down at her two hands, one held the string with a key trying to turn away from her, and the other a little plush silver turtle. Squeezing the turtle if felt strangely cool and soft, slimy too, but in a dry way. Hurriedly she tried to hand it to the green girl beside her, but she only shook her head and closed Flower’s own hand around it. She wanted to ask why, wanted to ask why the girl looked defeated even though they finally got a way out, but then she noticed they still couldn’t understand each other. Maybe they could buy a way, but when Flower looked around the older woman seemed to be gone, it was just the two of them in the darkness again.
Carefully Flower wrapped the string around her wrist and moved the turtle so that it and the key were both held by different fingers in the same hand. This freed her second hand to hold one of the green girl’s hands. She wasn’t sure how this darkness worked but people, and thankfully monsters too, seemed to have a way of disappearing when you looked away or let go, and she didn’t want to lose her one friend. Giving the girl a gentle hand squeeze and reassuring smile Flower saw a bit more warmth return to her face.
Turning to her other hand Flower released the key, which was still tied to her wrist, and watched it float up, tugging into an odd direction. She made sure to grip the turtle more tightly and turned to follow where the key was pointing. It was, in a word, disorienting. She felt like she was spinning in circles as she turned, and when she looked back to see her friend she noticed she couldn’t see her anymore, but that was weird. Squeezing gently she noticed there was still warmth in her palm. Looking back at it, the green palm was still there, but the arm was bent backwards in a direction that couldn’t be comfortable, but along the length of the forearm the arm seemed to vanish into dark mist as if the arm had been chopped off at an angle. Yelping Flower released the hand, but a reassuring squeeze came back from it. Do severed arms squeeze back? No, I mean, maybe? This whole place seemed strangely macabre, in any case she made sure to quickly close her hand before her friend’s again, and with a gentle pull she managed to pull her friend the rest of the way through the dark mist. The green girl stumbled awkwardly backwards and almost fell, but regained her balance in the end.
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Flower wasn’t sure what to make of it, but her friend seemed safe, and perhaps more importantly, whole. For another moment they both looked each other over before she noticed the key was gone. No, maybe this was the same thing? The string was still there and taught, but it vanished into mist. Carefully she pulled her wrist backwards and saw the key reappear only for it to bend in a weird direction again. Turning with it Flower began actively walking forwards while leading the green girl. Soon the key was staying in front of them without turning and the dark mist no longer seemed intent on claiming them.
It was weird, it felt like she’d been walking in this place for an eternity, but now, doing it with a friend, it all seemed different, the darkness less oppressive, the timelessness less lonesome. At first they traded words, but it didn’t take long before a comfortable silence set in between them.
Flower wondered about the golden glow on the key, was that magic? Real magic? Her parents had always loved and obsessed over magic, but hearing about it was completely different from seeing it. She wondered what powered it, would it run out? If it did they’d be lost again right? That’s why they followed it with single minded determination, but she had been here long enough to know that going faster just makes you tired and need to stop. That was worrying, perhaps even stressful, but the green lady with sharp teeth seemed to catch on to her worry because she squeezed her had to get her attention, than smiled. Flower smiled too; there was nothing they could do, only walk.
Suddenly something appeared in front of them. Perhaps it wasn’t really sudden, but it was a cloud of faint grey smoke that blended in with the darkness, so it wasn’t until they were almost on top of it that they really noticed it. Their grips tightened, preparing to run, but the key was pointing right at the smoke, so they cautiously approached it. The green girl poked it with her tail a few times with trepidation when they drew close enough, but the smoke didn’t move, aside from swirling faintly. From here they could see faint blue symbols glowing, obscured by the smoke. It seemed to be vaguely in the shape of an arch, just big enough for three full grown adults to pass through side by side. In the arch however was something solid. For a few minutes Flower groped at it before she found a keyhole which oddly enough was on the frame rather than the inner surface. Turning the key the resistance seemed to disappear allowing warm humid air to waft out of the archway. Turning the key back Flower pulled it free from the hole before the two of them passed through the archway.
On the other side was a stone platform, not a big or clean one, but dusty eroded stone that looked to have been broken. She heard a faint sound, as if something had plinked against the stone. As her gaze traveled up she saw trees, giant trees as far as the eye could see. Well, they might have been normal size, but certainly full grown, and covered with foliage, vines, and so many verdant leaves.
The next thing she noticed was a dull tug as the key, which was no longer glowing golden, hung limply on the string around her wrist. Turning back she watched her friend walk through. She looked so different in the sun than she did in the darkness. Well, maybe not, but Flower didn’t feel like she’d gotten as good of a look at her to date. Deep forest green scales so fine they seemed to flow, bright golden cat eyes, thick straight black hair that seemed to climb down along her spine as if it was wet. Maybe it was, come to think of it nothing really seemed to change in the darkness; would wet hair ever dry? She shivered at the thought of being uncomfortably damp in that timeless space.
Her friend had almost human hands, but they had long nails that seemed to meld seamlessly into her fingers, her nose was only a faint bulge making it look more like slits, and her long legs had a triple bend to them like animal paws, but with five toes each. She seemed so, so, alien? She was unmistakably pretty, but that had more to do with long limbs, balanced ratios between facial features, but it was to an unrealistic degree, almost off putting, and decidedly inhuman.
For a moment they just stood there staring at each other. Was it only a moment? The shadows seemed long around them, wasn’t it brighter? Flower’s stomach rumbled and she wondered how long it had been since she ate. Right, it was that piece of toast this morning. Did it still count as today? If nothing else time seemed to be normal again. Than it occurred to her, were they even safe here? Looking at the arch behind them she saw eroded stone, symbols glowing so faintly that they might go out at any moment. Stray deep cuts covered it, but they seemed less sharp, like the stone had eroded around a greater structure that had shouldered them. Dimly she noticed there was a keyhole on this side, no grey smoke either, just the darkness itself in the archway. Carefully Flower inserted and turned the key, only to find the darkness fade from the archway like a shadow before light. Through it she could see more forest, walking around the arch she found the same trees behind it that she saw through it.
The long twisted vines coated in lush green leaves were beginning to look darker, like shadows cast across the trunks of the trees that bore them, but there were no sounds, no buzz of insects, no songs or cries of birds, no ominous howls or growls echoing through the branches, just dark quiet. Somehow it was oddly comforting after having spent so long in the shadows. Slowly her eye was drawn to a nearby tree that stood out for no other reason than the crimson red leaves that too were slowly fading to simple dark shadows as light faded from the world.
Part of her wanted to explore, to keep walking like they had been doing, to wander through the darkness in silent companionship, but when she started walking to the edge of the stone that the arch sat on, her friend pulled her back. Flower looked curiously at her friend, but her friend just smiled at her. When she tried to wander again her friend pulled her back and sat down, pulling her into a hug. Time continued to flow by, the hunger got stronger, but something else got stronger too, fatigue.
It was weird, it felt like it had been a lifetime since she’d felt sleepy. She’d felt winded, a wakeful fatigue of having worked too hard, but not the sort of fatigue that makes you want to take a nap, and her friend’s arms were so so warm. Her head resting against the green girl’s breast she slowly felt the world fade.