Most people assume the jewel of my collection is in one of the fancy display cases behind the counter of my shop. Some people think my true treasure is hidden under lock and key deep within my Archives. They're both wrong. The pinnacle of my collection is the Friends I've Made Along the Way. It's a magic item made from the interconnected petrified bodies of my former adventuring companions, on display in the window there and on sale this week! It protects against bad smells, stupid questions, and the inane urge to ever go adventuring again.
-Basen Koh, unprompted
Reid looked expectantly at Basen.
"You can't tell?"
"No, this looks like random junk."
Some of the items glowed, and some didn't. Reid felt the telltale pull that marked them all as magical and three or fewer stars, but he wanted to get a feel for how Basen viewed the items he was selling. Reid might want to cut and run a little early if the man wasn't serious and wanted to charge outrageous prices because he couldn't let go of things.
Basen winced. "They're magic items, my boy. Collected during my adventuring years."
"But what is each one? We need to know what they are if we hope to get people to buy them. You don't have any signage for your customers and apparently aren't familiar with them yourself."
"I suppose there's something to that. I can identify them, so we could write up some signs."
"I think that would be a great start."
Reid had told the man he could identify items when they last met, but he didn't think Basen remembered him, so he would save that fact for more leverage later if he needed it.
"Hmm. Alright. I just need some paper and something to write with," Basen said, tugging on his beard but not moving to grab any of the mentioned items.
A quick look around told Reid that Basen kept no supplies in his stall.
"You don't keep those here?"
"Why would I?"
"Writing receipts, notes...literally anything."
Basen snapped his fingers. "Good idea. I'll be right back."
Without another word, the old man jumped up and ran off with surprising speed.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
Reid looked around. They were in the corner of the market. It wasn't exactly the most popular section, but a steady stream of people walked by. Many were simply passing through, spending time in the festive market atmosphere, but several glanced at the signs above each stall. Occasionally, there was a spark of interest in someone's eyes, and they'd make their way to one of the vendors. Every person who looked at Basen's sign immediately looked away without a glance at the goods on the table.
Reid looked at the items. They didn't stand out. They were magic, and in his opinion, that should be enough to get people interested, at the very least. After a minute of waiting, the man was nowhere to be found, so Reid swept the items into his bag for safekeeping. He needed to look around for more ideas.
When he returned to the stall, he had a head full of ideas and a bag full of supplies.
"There's the thief!"
He paused. Basen stood behind his stall, pointing an accusatory finger at Reid. Reid half expected to see one of the well equipped city guards beside Basen, ready to arrest him for stealing Basen's goods. There was no guard.
"Hey Basen, sorry, I wanted to get some things. I have an idea. I took your stock with me so no one would take them."
He set down a can of paint and brushes, some scraps of colorful cloth, and emptied his bag of Basen's goods.
"Ahh. Good idea. I, too, have found some supplies. Well, one supply."
Basen produced a stone similar to the one Reid had seen him polishing, but it was cracked and rough on the outside.
"What is it?"
"A magic item, of course! What I have for you is a one star stone of scribery. An absolute must for a collector such as myself or a merchant like you. Here."
Reid accepted the stone. The power inside was incredibly strange. There was another faint echo of something he'd once touched, but it was lost to him in a moment. He didn't want to identify without permission.
"What does it do?"
"I can sense that you have a one star item equipped, yes? And two more stars of potential available? Bind it, and find out for yourself!"
"How did you know—"
"About your power? Yes, yes. It's very mysterious but not very important. Bind the stone!"
"Hold on," Reid said. "That's incredibly important!"
Basen looked like he was about to shove the stone down Reid's throat, but he paused and squinted at him.
"It is?"
"If you can sense people's magic and potential, you can direct them to items they might be able to use and benefit from right away!"
"Huh. I never thought about that..."
Reid wasn't sure what Basen had been doing for his entire life, but it didn't seem like the need to think critically about anything had been very high on the priority list.
"We can figure out a plan for that, but I can bind this stone? Won't you want it back?"
"I'm sorry, I don't understand the question."
Reid held up the stone. "If I bind this, I can't give it back to you to use, right?"
"What? No, don't be ridiculous. Bindings are, by and large, reversible connections. It's not the easiest thing in the world to unbind something, but it doesn't hurt. It just leaves your potential unavailable for a day or two."
"Oh, I didn't realize. My magic item says it's 'Unbreakably Bound' to me, so I assumed that's what they all did."
Basen raised a brow at his claim. "I'd like to see that item someday, but no, they don't all do that. You have nothing to worry about binding this item. In fact, it's generally recommended to fill up your potential, even if you have to bind a common or useless magic item. Only by using magic while your potential is full can it be stretched. That's how you get more stars."
That was good to know. Reid thought he might look into joining an Academy in the city. He could stand to learn more about things people in the city took for granted.
"Now," Basen continued, "bind it!"
Reid hadn't actively bound an item before since the coin that was now his mark did the heavy lifting. He found he didn't have anything to worry about. Once he thought he wanted to bind the item, the connection waited for him to give a final approval.
----------------------------------------
You have bound [Scribe's Orrery Stone (Cracked)]
Current Potential: 3 Stars
2/3 Stars in use.
Current Magical Level: Lesser Mage
Specialization: None
Awakening: None
Mastery: None
Bound Items:
* Merchant's Mark
* Scribe's Orrery Stone (Cracked)
Scribe's Orrery Stone (Cracked)
* 1 Star Path Component Artifact (Downgraded - Cracked)
* Bound
* Binding grants the ability to expend fortitude to create or duplicate permanent, mundane scribe supplies like paper and writing implements.
* This item is damaged, and all other effects are unavailable.
----------------------------------------
The flood of information was unexpected. He had bound the item, not identified it, but identified it was. And it had a lot of details he'd never seen before.
"Cracked?" was his first thought and question.
"Yes, a shame. Path components are rare and incredibly tricky to repair. I dare not try to have it fixed since there's a chance it could degrade further and become broken. That would make it essentially useless. But it does have some remains of what it was! Get conjuring, my boy! We have some place cards to make!"
Reid found using his new ability intuitive, like the heat vision he'd tried a few days before. What he hadn't really been aware of was what the drain on fortitude meant for him.
He conjured a sheet of card stock first. It left him out of breath and shaky.
"Nicely done! Hard to believe it's your first time."
Next, Reid conjured a pen to write with. That made him drowsy. It was a full body tiredness accompanied by sleepiness. Still, it wasn't anything he hadn't put himself through a hundred times before.
"Excellent. It's important to pace yourself and get used to your limits when expending fortitude. It comes back slowly."
Reid nodded but wasn't completely wiped, so he tried to conjure the last item. A pair of scissors appeared next to the card stock, and then Reid's vision went black.
He blinked up at Basen, who was looking down on him with a grin.
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"I did that my first time, too. Come on, up you go."
Reid wasn't sure how he'd ended up on the floor or how long had passed. He did find that Basen had cut all the card stock into squares for their display.
"Here, drink this tea. You owe me a silver for it, though."
Reid didn't care much about the coin since he'd basically cheated it from Basen anyway. He sipped the tea, which was delicious and a little sweet.
After a few minutes, the tea seemed to pull him out of his stupor.
"There you are. You were only out for two minutes, but the effects of fortitude overuse are hard to ignore."
"Yeah. I shouldn't have done that."
Basen laughed. "It's fine. If you'd like, I can top you off."
Reid nodded his thanks and slid his mug forward.
"Not your tea. You!"
Basen reached out and flicked Reid in the forehead. The casual motion hadn't been fast, but Reid's reflexes were completely shot, so he'd been helpless to avoid it.
It was like a waterfall of energy blasted into his mind. It cleared his thoughts immediately, and then the power spread throughout his body. Everything came into perfect focus. He felt like he could run a hundred miles or climb a mountain. He jumped to his feet. His heart pounded, and the energy felt like it would explode out of him.
"Whoops. That might be too much."
Basen poked him in the stomach. It was like he put a hole in a bucket, and the energy drained out of him. Another poke and it stopped. Reid felt better. He wasn't totally full of energy and maybe felt just a little worn out, but he wasn't in danger of falling over or too tired to work.
"Whew. Thanks. That was something else."
"No problem. Don't use your fortitude again for at least a couple days. You will regret it."
Reid nodded.
"Great. Now, I'll tell you about my wares."
Basen walked through each item while Reid took notes on the cards.
The rings were pair bonded items, meaning that they were two items that could be bonded to two different people and share a single effect. Together, the rings were a two star item that allowed the wearer to know the exact location of the other ring and its bearer.
"Interestingly, each ring is only one star, but they need to be bound as a set, so the combined rating is two stars, from an identification point of view."
Reid took notes as they went through. "Those should sell themselves!"
"Best to avoid sentient items, Reid. They're trouble."
The next three things were the same item and seemed useful.
"One star endurance tokens. Bind one of these, and walking, running, plowing a field, plowing your neighbor's field, and anything else that requires endurance and stamina will seem just a little bit easier," Basen said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Quite handy."
The fifth item had Reid scratching his head in confusion.
"Three star talisman of nightmares. The ability contained within gives people nightmares."
"That's awful."
"It's a three star. The very nature of a third star is to push the boundaries of the mundane realm. Abilities tend to go in one of two directions at that point: destructive or surreal. But it's limited, as three stars usually are. The person has to be asleep. The wielder can't influence the nightmares, and they have to physically touch the person."
Reid's fears of being plagued by nightmares for the next month retreated slightly. "I'm not sure anyone's going to want to buy that."
Basen shrugged. "I believe that's your job today, young man."
"I guess it's what I signed up for. The last two?"
One was a butter knife, and the other a garden spade.
"Oh, these are winners. Classic one star items from an age before the factory crap they make these days. The butter knife is one of my favorites, and I'm honestly not sure I should sell it. Anyway, the magic allows it to pass through butter as though it were hot. Crucially, it does not melt the butter, and the knife doesn't truly heat up. Works on other things where a slight application of heat would help as well."
"Sounds like a good one. And the last?"
"Another classic that works similarly. No longer will stubborn roots or wayward stones trouble your garden. This spade will pass through the ground with ease, increasing gardening efficiency to a degree that I am not comfortable sharing with the general public!"
"You know, Basen. You could be good at this. You have a way with words."
"Of course I do. When you've spent as long as I have coming up with the perfect quip, you tend to hang onto some interesting things to say."
"Alright. I think I can sell most of this. What's everything worth?"
Basen looked at Reid with unabashed disgust. "Worth? How many coins can we trade these precious things for? Is that what you want to know?"
Reid was learning to let the crazy pass over him. "It is."
"Allow me to tell you a story, my new associate. My parents are often the subject of many of my more self-deprecating jokes—I find them funny—but my father, knowing little of the world and less about magic, taught me one of the most fundamental truths of life, collecting, and magic. Listen well. The true value of a thing isn't what people say it's worth or even what an item can do. The value of something is in the stories we tell about it and the impressions it leaves on the world."
Reid liked the idea of appreciating things historically and holistically, but the short lecture didn't help solve the immediate problem.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think people are going to buy this butter knife because it was once used by the Emperor of Urish. They'll buy it because it lets them spread hard butter easily. I need to know what that's worth to people."
"How did you know where I got this knife?"
Reid blinked. He was doing that a lot today.
Basen laughed. "Alright. Jokes aside, for now, I know we need to sell things. I think we can mostly discount historical importance for anything under five stars. Very well. Let's price these things!"
After they figured out what they'd ask for, with the expectation that people would try to negotiate, they moved on to Reid's ideas for the stall.
"People read the signs to decide if they should consider the stall. 'Stuff for Sale' isn't cutting it. Barely a few people have even glanced at the table."
Reid popped open the small can of paint. "I bought some paint and colorful accents for the stall. We want to draw the eye. We want people curious."
Basen nodded along, holding up a finger. "One question. You bought these things? I thought we were trying to make money."
"First rule of being a merchant. You have to spend money to make money."
"Is it really?"
"I guess it is now. I'm making them up as I go, though."
"Aha! Now, that's a methodology I can get behind. Don't plan today what you can pull off by the seat of your pants tomorrow."
Reid shook his head and pointed out what needed to be done, and they got to work. Basen hung up scraps of colorful cloth and some paper flowers and set out the small cards with item descriptions. Reid worked on the sign. He painted over the old, plain wooden sign with its hard-to-read red letters, making it bright white. He mixed in the additives he'd bought, dyeing the rest of the paint a bright red.
He scrubbed off the bottom front of the stand, which he wasn't allowed to paint, but he got it looking clean and inviting. When that was done, the paint on the sign above was just barely dry enough to add to it. He wrote carefully, not worrying as much about style as legibility. He wanted people to know what they had. The rest should take care of itself.
Basen stood back and looked at their handiwork, nodding his approval. Reid joined him and took it in: the white sign, the bright red words proclaiming "Magic Items For Sale!" and the bright cloth and paper decorations.
"That is the ugliest merchant's stall I've ever seen," Basen said with a grin.
"It's...hard to look at," Reid conceded.
Reid consoled himself with the knowledge that he was both new at this and that the stall would certainly attract more attention.
They didn't have to wait long before being proven correct. A man walked up, looking interested but hesitant.
"Welcome! You won't find a better selection of magic items in the market!" Reid said, trying to put the man at ease.
Basen leaned in and whispered. "Oh, this is definitely not the best selection in the market."
Reid cleared his throat. "While our selection is a little small, the quality can't be beat!"
Basen leaned in again. "We're definitely on the low end of quality here."
"Simple items for incredible value!"
Basen sucked in through his teeth, and Reid kicked him under the counter.
"Hey!"
The man in front of the stall took all this in with a look of amusement. "You guys are funny. What do you have?"
"Our featured item today is a set of bound rings that lets you sense the location of the two people bound to them. Wondering where your kid has run off to? Wonder no more. If that doesn't speak to you, please take a look at the rest of our wares!"
"Huh, sounds neat, but it's just me."
He scanned the items. "Hmm. Nothing for me today, I think. Thanks, though."
The man left, and Reid blew out his breath. "That could have gone better."
"You did a great job," Basen said. "People buy what they need. He didn't need anything."
"And you needed two mugs of tea?"
"Of course!"
"I don't think you did. I think people buy what they think they need. The hard part is getting them to think they need what you're selling."
Basen rubbed his beard. "Doesn't seem very honest to me."
As soon as he said it, Reid had a similar thought. There certainly were merchants who used fast talking and pushing tactics to get people to buy what they were selling. He didn't want to be one of those.
"We need to find people that could use what we're selling. Fill that need that they might not be aware of or didn't know they could do anything about."
Basen nodded. "I like that. It's what I always wanted my shop to be. A place for people to find connections with things that can help them achieve their dreams. So we need to find people?"
"No, I think the people are here. There are so many passing right in front of us. I think the trick is reading them."
Another person stopped by. A man carrying a small child. He looked interested in the rings, but he was afraid his child would lose one.
"Have you used many magical items, sir?" Basen asked, leaning forward.
"I've used a few at work. They usually give the magic axes to new guys or the older woodcutters, but I got it when I was injured for a few weeks."
"Ahh. A one star axe, then. You didn't bind it?"
"Uh, no. I don't know how to do that, and we weren't allowed besides."
"Sure, sure. There's often no point in binding a one star item. They usually have effects that work automatically, like this butter knife here. But the rings? They need to be bound. What you might not know is that binding an item does more than simply allow you to access its full potential. It also allows you to do this."
Basen took out his shiny black stone. He showed it to the man, his son, and Reid, and then he hurled it into the distance. A few seconds later, they heard someone yelp in the next row of stalls.
"Whoops. Anyway. Bound items are usually only useable by the one who has bound them. In addition, they can never be stolen or lost from the person they are bound to. See?"
Basen focused on his outstretched palm, and a few moments later, a white light flashed, revealing his black stone once more.
"A bound item can always be called back. A paired bound item, even bound to two separate people, can be called back to either individual. Your son doesn't even need to wear the ring for the effect to work. He just needs to bind it."
"Wow. That's something. But I can't afford to pay three gold for it. That's three months rent."
Reid winced. He'd picked an idea for selling the ring—a parent concerned about their child—but he hadn't thought about the cost for such a person. They often had to budget. Basen and he had worked out the prices. The lowest the shop owner said they should ever go on any item was one gold per star for one and two star items. If they went lower, people would buy things for the resale value alone—not what either of them wanted.
"What do you think you could pay?" Reid asked. Even if they couldn't make it work, the information might help him decide if he needed to change his tactics.
"Honestly, maybe a gold. It's worth that to me. My son doesn't get in too much trouble, so it's just some added reassurance."
Reid nodded. "Ah. I'm sorry, we just can't go that low. Our best price is two gold, ten silver on the rings."
The man nodded. "Ah, well. That's too bad. Thanks for the demonstration. At least I learned something."
When the man was out of earshot, Basen asked a question. "I thought our lowest price was two gold?"
"Second rule: always leave room for negotiation."
"I see. Yes, I can see the wisdom in it."
A dozen more people stopped by, but the only item sold was one of the endurance tokens for two gold. The man hadn't negotiated, and both parties were happy with the sale.
"Amazing," Basen said.
"What?" Reid said. He was feeling a little down. He'd assumed he'd be a little better at this.
"I've been coming out here each weekend for months. I've had more people stop by today than the rest of the time put together. That was the first item I've sold at the stand."
"Really?" that made Reid feel better about himself.
"You know, Reid, you might have a knack for this."
"We only sold one item! There's an hour left. I don't think I'm going to sell two more."
"Probably not, but it was an accomplishment, and you've shown me you're a hard worker and not afraid to think outside the box. I've been coasting, and I know it. I think it's time for a change. Forget the wager. I'm extending you an official offer to come work for me, managing my shop and the sales of my wares."
"What, really!?"
Reid could hardly believe his luck. He'd only been in the city for a week, and he already found a shop that wasn't just going to let him clean or stock shelves but actually make sales and steer the direction of the business. There was just a small seed of doubt in the back of his mind that he could reign in Basen enough to make his business work.
Basen held out his hand. "Really. I've seen enough. If you want the job, you've got it."
Reid smiled. "You won't regret this, Basen!"
"I make it a habit to never regret anything."