᚛ᚈᚑ ᚒ ᚐᚈ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚓᚅᚇ ᚑᚃ ᚐᚂᚂ᚜
“To the poor soul that finds this recording, you’re about to hear a story of a man that made choices he had no right making and sacrifices that he’ll never live up to. Let me tell you about how he saw the Beginning of this Era and how he was one of the few to decide the End.”
My name is Erik, and I was only eleven at the time the beacon appeared, just some kid living in the California deserts. We called it the beacon at the time and we were pretty close. The first two years we were plagued by monsters straight from our myths that ravaged our countries and homes. Year three brought the magics from the same myths. Thankfully creatures only appeared in environments similar to their origin myth, living where I was at the time we saw mainly Native American folk creatures but there was always a chance that desert and mountain dwellers from other regions could appear.
It's been ten years now and a lot has changed, hunting has taken up a completely new meaning. Nowadays it's not uncommon to see groups take jobs to exterminate the worst of them. The issue is that while conventional firearms worked for some of the smaller creatures, only magic and inscribed weaponry held a chance against the big ones. Given enough time anyone could learn to use magic and just as the name suggests, it’s the exception to any and every rule.
Well I think I’ve stalled enough, let me tell you about the beginning of it all.
᚛ᚈᚑ ᚒ ᚐᚈ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚓᚅᚇ ᚑᚃ ᚐᚂᚂ᚜
“Vee, for the last time no.”
“Why not though? You drink it all the time and you’re fine, so let me have at least a sip!”
“Absolutely not, the last time you had some coffee you were literally bouncing off the walls.” Sighing, I continued on trying to reason with the energetic little creature sitting in a child's booster seat right next to me, “How about you order a berry parfait? I know you love those and we haven’t even seen a place that's served one since before we moved here.”
“Really Erik? They have them here?” The small creature paused for a second, seemingly deep in thought. “Hmmm. Fine. But only if you make blueberry pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Alright it's a deal, Vexper, now can you tone it down a bit because you’re drawing a lot of attention.”
Freezing wide eyed, Vexper slowly looked around the quaint cafe only to realize the scarce few patrons were looking right at her in amusement. Letting loose a squeak she proceeds to try and shrink even further down into the booster and nearly under the table leaving the tips of her four incandescent purple wings sticking out slightly. This little being in a deep forest green dress sitting right next to me is my Pixie companion, we’ve been traveling together for a bit over 6 years now. Chuckling I wonder to myself how such an energetic Fae could hate attention so much.
‘I would say it makes no sense but we haven’t exactly come across another Pixie so I guess I can't say for sure.’
Waving the waitress down I start to pull up Vee so we can order.
“Ready to order you two?” The older woman asks.
“Ah yes, may I get the house blend and some of these pastries?” I order while pointing at some sweets on the menu that caught my eye moments before.
“What about you Missy?” The waitress says while staring at the Pixie with a slight grin.
Only slightly mumbling, Vexper stammers out, “Can I have a berry parfait? Please?”
“You’ve got it, as long as you don't go bouncing around like a rubber ball!” The waitress says and starts laughing while walking the order back to the kitchen, causing Vexper to groan and slide back down nearly under the table.
Grinning at the interaction I go back to the original conversation between us.
“So what was the request for this next job? Are we enchanting again?”
“Thankfully yes and before you ask, no we don’t need to get the materials ourselves. They mentioned that they were going to hire a hunter for that.” Vexper said seemingly relieved about the topic change.
“Well that's a bonus, we hardly ever get any extra cash when we have to go out ourselves. What are we enchanting?”
“A harvest charm. The client wants to grow more tomatoes.”
“We are charging normal rates right?” I asked mildly surprised and worried, Faery enchantments weren’t cheap after all.
“Double actually since it's a rush job. I know you don’t like to work weekends so I decided to try and at least make it worthwhile for you” There was a hint of concern in Vee’s voice. She never did like me working so much.
“Thanks Vee. Why don’t we use the extra to go out for dinner soon? There should be someplace here that you would like, especially since you’ve been missing that diner from back home.”
“That would be nice.” As Vexper was agreeing the food got brought out followed by a man.
“Ah excuse me, mind if I join you?” He asked cautiously.
The man asking the question seemed to be in his early twenties, he was moderately tall with chestnut tan skin and deep brown hair, all in all he was fairly athletic looking. While casually dressed I had a feeling he did some hunting, the only thing I wasn’t sure of was why he made an effort to come over to our table. As far as I know Vexper and I didn’t need to meet with the hunter the client hired to procure the materials, and there's the fact that while it is uncommon to see Fae out and about with a human it isn’t something worthy enough to investigate. They are curious creatures after all.
Taking a second to try and think of a reason for him wanting to talk, I decided I probably should just ask instead of being suspicious, “Uh yeah sure, What can I do for you Mr.-?”
“Oh! My name is Markus, and I just got a feeling that I should come over and introduce myself.”
“Right. Well I'm Erik and this here is Vexper. If you’ll pardon me for being a bit wary, you just came over here on a whim?”, I asked Markus, completely perplexed and a bit suspicious while shooting my partner a glance.
“Truthfully I heard about you two from an associate who was talking up a new Fae enchanter and his Pixie companion, and seeing two new faces here I figured it wouldn’t hurt to put that face to the rumors.”, Markus says unabashedly, seemingly not realizing how odd his reasoning was.
“I really don’t see how we could create such a stir, even in a small town like this.” Vexper spoke up for the first time, “I mean Phoenix is only a couple hours from here and there's a few big names even we have heard of.”
“The most interaction we’ve had here was doing a couple of jobs and asking the neighbors for some salt.”, I added on with a bit of dry humor.
Chuckling Markus pulls up a chair, “May I?”
“Go ahead”
“Well that’s the thing, we don’t have any solid enchanters here unless you want to head to the city.” Markus continues on shooting a glance at Vexper, “Let alone any that have the support of the fair folk.”
Vexper takes a big bite of her parfait while puffing up in pride.
‘Wow no humility at all.’ I think wryly before responding to Markus, “So are you trying to commission us?”
“Nope, just genuine curiosity and hoping to make you two feel welcome.”
“Right, well what about you? You never actually mentioned what your whole thing is.”
“Well my family runs the pharmacy right across the road, and I'm one of the handful of hunters that live here.”, The man sitting in front of us states proudly confirming my earlier thoughts.
“Oh really now? We’ll have to keep that in mind if we ever need some materials. It does pay to have a hunter you can trust.”
“That it does. Ah I’ve got to get back to the store. If you see me around, feel free to give me a shout.”
“Same for you Markus, thanks for the chat.”
Standing up with Markus we shake hands and he heads out of the cafe, leaving Vee and I as well as a slew of new questions and concerns. Sighing I start to think of the harvest charm we were requested to make.
‘I should have enough moon-water left over from the last request to get this job done, but I really should have Vee make more. Especially if we are getting anywhere close to as popular as Markus suggests.’
᚛ᚈᚑ ᚒ ᚐᚈ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚓᚅᚇ ᚑᚃ ᚐᚂᚂ᚜
While we were at the cafe I got a call from the hunter the client hired so we went and picked up the materials from her, a couple beast bones and a thick branch of an oak tree that was favored by some lesser elementals, now we’re sitting in my makeshift workshop back at home. We've only been in this town for about a week and a half so I have only the bare necessities for making enchantments and unfortunately buying and furnishing a home is costly, so a few jobs are needed before I can purchase the materials to make the rest of the equipment I need for more complex enchantments.
To start inscribing I need to make some ink so I take some of the creature bones I got from the hunter and put them into a homemade brick furnace to start burning them. While the bones are in the furnace I start to whittle down the branch of oak wood into a rough medallion shape and start to carve several runes into it. After some thought I decided to go with the runes Hagalaz, Inguz, Jera, Laguz, and Berkana resulting in a circular inscription on the face the medallion of ᚺ ᛜ ᛃ ᛚ ᛒ. By the time the carving is done the bones are ready to be pulverized and mixed with moon-water and a thickening agent to make some rudimentary ink. Having done this many times before, Vexper immediately grabs what's needed and starts mixing the ink so the carved runes can be painted. Once she's done I start the process of painting the carved runes while Vexper starts to imbue the charm with nature magic. It’s a short but tedious process and soon enough we are finished with the enchantment and are cleaning up so we can deliver the item.
᚛ᚈᚑ ᚒ ᚐᚈ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚓᚅᚇ ᚑᚃ ᚐᚂᚂ᚜
Vexper is the one that usually acts as the contact for clients, so there are times like this that I don't even know the name of the person I'm making an item for. This system does have its benefits, it can fill the slow moments of my day or while I'm working with the thought and speculation of who they are and what they may be like, a way for me to bring out my wonder and creativity to improve my craft. Soon enough we arrive at our destination, an older weathered looking building, in the middle of an old weathered part of town. A sign hanging next to the door listed its name, ‘Wandering Page’. Vexper without hesitation opens the door and steps inside with me following slightly behind, the interior is bathed in the warm glow of the evening sun highlighting the rows of neatly organized books and shelves. Off to one side there is an aged but well kept counter with piles of even more books, pamphlets, and what appears to be handcrafted journals. Hidden partially in some of the shadow is a doorway behind the desk leading into what can be assumed the back of the store. Walking over to the counter I spot a brass bell and give it a gentle ring hoping to call whoever we are supposed to deliver the charm to towards the front of the store.
“I’ll be out in a second, feel free to look around while you wait.” A warm almost motherly voice calls out from the back.
I look over to Vee and she just shrugs while heading to some of what I think are cookbooks. Deciding to follow her example I start looking around for any books that may catch my eye. I don’t intend to buy anything but theres always a chance I’ll find something that I would want to spend the little bit of cash that isn’t tied up into my workshop funds. Scattered among the shelves there is a surprising amount of books that have been bound and transcribed all by hand. Even from a glance one could tell that true passion and care went into the creation of these, everything from the easy to read but flowing writing to the care put into binding the pages together within the hand crafted covers. Without a shadow of a doubt every single one of these was treated as if it was the last copy of the most important texts in the world. As I’m scanning the shelves one single book in the whole store truly catches my eye, its cover a pale gray almost bordering white with a willow tree burned into the leather cover of which every single detail down to the leaves were painstakingly etched. Flipping the book open I’m met with the sight of aged and yellowed parchment that feels ancient in my hands. Where the title once was has long since faded away leaving only a shadow of a name that I’m unable to fully decipher.
Before I have a chance to work out what the title of the book could be I hear a door open in the back of the store. Exiting the entryway behind the desk is a woman, shes of moderate height with vibrant strawberry blond hair lightly streaked with gray framing a face of pale porcelain skin and piercing gray eyes. Despite the late time of day she sees me and gives a warm look that morphs into a light surprise when she spots Vexper floating nearby scanning books with a steel childlike determination. Expertly the woman morphs her expression back to the warm look she had before. Feeling a bit awkward at the exchange I decide to introduce myself to try and keep this interaction as smooth as possible.
“Hello there I’m Erik Mallon an enchanter and I’m here on a job.”
“Well nice to meet you Mr. Mallon I’m Halsy Bennett, welcome to the Wandering Page is there a journal or book I can help you or your friend find?”
“Actually we’re here to deliver an item for a man named Abel.” Vexper says as she floats up to us. “My name is Vexper, I’m with Erik here.”
‘So it’s a man named Abel that ordered this. Wait, why does that sound familiar?’ Thinking on it for second I can’t place the name so I just push it aside for now. ‘If its important I’m sure it’ll come to me.’
“Abel would be my father actually.” Ms. Bennett said wearingly, “Would you two mind waiting a bit while I try to get a hold of him on the land-line?”
“Yeah we can do that.” I agree exasperated while looking over at Vee, “You didn’t think to let him know we were done?”
“Hey I thought he would be here, I mean this is where he said to go as soon as the charm was finished.”
“Well things could be worse, remember that time back in that one village over in Nevada?”
“OH the one where the client gave us the wrong address so we kept having to run back and forth trying to find the right one? Didn’t he have us inscribe a weird statue or something in his living room?”
“It was a huge painting of his toucan, I mean how did he even get a toucan in Nevada?”
“I know right? Definitely one of the weirder things we’ve done, although seeing the look on his wifes face was worth it when we finally found the place. I didn’t think humans could sweat that much.”
“I’m pretty sure we normally can’t.” I manage to get out while trying to not laugh. ‘I bet Mom would’ve loved to see that.’ Almost immediately my train of thought sobered me up.
“Erik?” Seeing something was wrong Vexper immediately started to worry. “You were thinking about Her again?”
“Yeah I was, don’t worry it’s fine I just thought she would’ve loved to see that.”
Before Vexper could reply the front door of the store opened and an older gentleman walked in, the older fellow was wearing a warm brown felt suit and weathered aviator shades that were a stark contrast to a long gray beard that has seen immaculate care. His skin was an a striking tan as if he work in a farmers fields all day with a bald head so shiny that it can only be assumed that it was waxed regularly. But the most surprising thing was the way he carried himself, as if nothing could possibly go wrong while he was around.
“There you are, why did you order something and have it sent here? It’s not like you live on the other side of town, all you ended up doing was wasting these peoples time!” In a complete flip of personality Ms. Bennett started chewing out her father who at the very least had the decency to look chastised.
“Ms. Bennett I swear it’s fine we had nothing else left to do today, if anything I’m glad to learn theres a bookstore here thats so wonderfully maintained” I manage to get in trying to save the man some face.
“Oh you can just call me Halsy dear.” Sighing she nods and gestures to her father to introduce himself.
“Pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Mallon and good to see you again Vexper, I’m Abel Bennett, how are you settling into your new home? I know it was a bit out of sorts when you bought it but I hope you’re managing well.”