John stood outside his new building. It was a little out of the way and didn't look the best just yet — one-story, plain stone construction. There were a couple of holes in the front that were advertised as 'windows,' but John was happy with his purchase.

It wasn't that he couldn't afford something nicer, something more central in the busy districts in town. That just wasn't what he wanted. He enjoyed having the more decrepit building a little out of the way and all the clientele that would hopefully come with that.

The area was rather poor, not quite squalid but none of the other buildings nearby looked much nicer. It was a fairly bland district, lacking the vibrancy that came with bigger cities. No colourful signs hanging out of shops, no fancy magic pestering you to come look at this shop or that. Just a cobblestone road and other more different cobblestone buildings.

He hoped to change that a little bit with his shop and add some life to the area. Not so much that the people living here couldn't afford it anymore but enough that he enjoyed walking down the street.

He waved his hand over the front door, magic flowing out and covering the wood. The magic settled into the door and it started to glow a dull orange, John's favourite colour. He drew in the air with a finger and more magic settled into the door, a wisp of black spelled out 'John's Books.' John nodded, satisfied with his work and opened the door.

Inside was an empty building, about 25 feet deep and 15 feet wide. The door was near the right of the shorter wall. He walked around, pulling dark wooden bookshelves with gold engravings from thin air and placing them in rows throughout his building. He made a gesture with his hands and books appeared, floating towards the bookshelves and filling them all up. A small wooden desk and his favourite chair he placed near the entrance to the building, before sitting down and staring at the door.

Hours had passed with nobody entering, and John was getting bored. His claws tapping on the floor as he fiddled with a pencil. He had expected it to be slow, had wanted it to be slow even. But he didn't want to wait for hours on end every day and never see anybody at all. He was about to get up when the door creaked open.

A human girl walked in, her hair white as snow. She looked at him with some emotion John couldn't quite place—he never did quite understand humans very well anyway. "Local Geography," the girl said, her voice shivering as she spoke. "Do you have any books on local geography?" she clarified.

John thought for a moment, wondering about what scale 'local' would mean to this girl. Did she want a map of the town? A map of nearby towns? Maybe she wanted a book describing the history of the planet. He finally realized that if he just moved all the books it could be to the same shelf, he could just let her decide for herself.

John waved his hand and the books on the shelves lifted off, reorganizing themselves so that any books that may be considered local geography would be on the shelf closest to them. He directed the human girl to the shelf, her body shuddering as he pushed the directions into her. Not used to telepathy, he supposed.

Most people around here weren't he found, but the act of speaking just felt barbaric to him. It was how the people here worked though, and he would accept it, even if he didn't understand it. Regardless, he didn't possess the necessary physicality to speak and learning magic to produce sound in a specific language just so he could communicate less effectively didn't seem like the best use of his time.

A part of John reminded him he had just spent hours staring at a door, which also wasn't a great use of his time but he pushed the thought aside. This was important.

The girl returned with a book, placing it on the desk in front of John. "Um... How much is this book?" she asked, her hands rummaging through her pockets.

He looked at the book, one filled with maps of mountains and cities within about 200km. John took a moment to build up the idea of payment—one interesting story for the book, no lies permitted. He pushed the idea through to her mind, watching as her body shuddered once more at the sudden influx of information.

"Oh... Um... What do you consider interesting?" the girl asked him, seeming to almost shrink into herself somehow.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Another idea was built in John's mind, one of intrigue and mystery. Another of drama and excitement. Yet another of the most boring day he's ever had. He spent a couple of moments building up an image of what he considered interesting and then pushed it once more through to the girl across from him.

He almost felt sorry as her body convulsed, unable to control itself with the surge of memories flooding into its mind. Perhaps he would invest some time into learning to speak if only to not disturb his customers to such an extent.

The girl looked at him, tears flowing down her cheeks. He recognized the emotion at last, it was fear. The girl was afraid of him, had been since she entered for some reason. He thought for a moment to send an image of peace and calm, to let her know that he wasn't a danger to her but didn't follow through on it. She was clearly put off by the telepathy and it might just scare her more.

Instead, John drew the word 'Peace' in the air between them with his magic. Wisps flowed through the word similar to his front door. The girl stared at it, her eyes wide before she started giggling. The giggles turned to laughs, as she fell to the floor clutching her midsection crying and laughing all the same.

She stood up and looked at John, "How do I know the story I tell you won't be spread to others?" She asked a spark of light in her deep red eyes that wasn't there before.

John wrote out the question 'Telepathy?' in the space between them.

"Are you asking if you can respond telepathically?" she asked, a hint of fear showing through her question.

John nodded his head in response, a gesture he quite liked after he got used to it. A simple, concise response without requiring barbaric speech. She shivered for a moment and then also nodded her head.

John thought for a moment about how to make the response simple yet believable. He didn't want to overwhelm her again but he did want her to feel confident enough to share her story. He settled on his emotion, a pure interest in the stories of strangers. He didn't know if it would convince her that he wouldn't share her story, but it was the best he could do. The emotion was condensed, stripped of everything unnecessary before being pushed through to the girl. She shuddered once more but seemed to be getting more used to the experience, as she stood steadfast in the face of a foreign emotion flooding her mind.

"Well, whatever. I guess it doesn't matter that much anyway. I'm not from this world." the girl responded.

John responded with his magical writing once more, 'Neither am I, which planet are you from?'

The girl seemed surprised, excited almost. "I'm from Earth, where are you from?" she asked.

John just shook his head, the name of his planet too long to spell out in this language. 'Too long to spell, Earth? How far?' John wrote.

"Oh. I'm not sure, I just kind of appeared here a little while ago and now I'm here. And a half-vampire or something apparently." She said, shrugging her shoulders.

John was surprised, he thought she seemed strange for a human but to think she was a vampire, or whatever a half-vampire was. It was times like these that he wished he took the [Identify] skill, but he was still happy with his choice. Why take a skill to gauge the power of your enemy when you could instead take a skill to close that gap?

The girl, or vampire, seemed to have noticed his surprise and continued with her story. "I was just in my bedroom trying to fix my stupid smart light when I got sucked through some weird portal thing and ended up in the forest nearby. I cried for a bit, and then a vampire attacked me and infected me. Something in the system broke though so I got a bunch of vampire skills and abilities," she showed her hands, extending the claws on the ends of her fingers. "But I didn't get all the downsides of being a vampire. So I guess I'm lucky. The white hair has kinda grown on me too, I like it. Anyway, that's my story. Is that interesting enough?"

John smiled at her and nodded. 'Thank you. Enjoy the book.' He wrote into the air.

The girl nodded and picked up her book, walking out the door.

John sat at his desk for a few minutes before he got up and started dancing. Excited about his first customer, and the interesting story she brought with her. To think somebody got all the benefits of being a vampire without the downsides. And what was a smart light even, he wondered. Some kind of torch that followed her around, perhaps? As he calmed down he noticed the same girl standing at the door holding in a laugh.

"I forgot to say thanks for the book so I wanted to come back," she said, her words interrupted with little giggles.

The girl smiled at him, "Thank you very much for the book. I don't know if I could've afforded it normally anyway and it felt good to talk about what's happened to me. Thanks." She turned around and left, the sounds of her laughter still audible for a few seconds after the door had closed.

John felt pleased. His first customer seemed nice and was appreciative of what he had to offer. It was quite pleasant, John thought. He thought next time he would try to stay more calm afterwards, or at least lock the door. It was unlike him to not notice his surroundings like that. He thought for a moment before he got up and walked outside, closing the door behind him. He added some more text to the front of his building.

'Books available for the low low price of an interesting story. No lies permitted.'

He nodded, proud of himself for the slight embellishment, then returned to his desk to wait for the next customer.