FernStone
Kalas
Shienvien
Noctis
Fetzen
The Grey Dust
Mixtape Ghost N
A single page of notes, front and back, was filled by the time the two hour class had ended. It was a rushed, personal shorthand that was very difficult to decipher without also knowing what the subject matter was. The letters were neat, each repeated symbol indistinguishble from the next time it was used. Certain sections seemed to be printed with a typeset as opposed to written freehand. Sarah folded the paper carefully and slipped into her bag. She stood up gracefully, slipping out of her seat and walking out of the class without meeting anyone's eyes.
Though she would never know it, her movements could easily be marked as not quite human. She was lithe, graceful, and she flowed through crowds seamlessly; not stopping, or having to look up. All muscle memory and instincts, she could do it all with her eyes closed.
A crinkle of paper brought Sarah back to reality, her mind reorganizing what she had learned. Posted to a bulletin board in the hallway was an advertisement for Victorious Secret an alchemy shop, and, Sarah assumed, a boutique of sorts. She glanced at the address, committing it to memory, before beginning to move again. Reasserted amongst the crowd, Sarah exited the building, the crowd thinning as she headed further and further from the campus.
Keeping to main streets, Sarah wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed before she arrived. 'Autopilot,' so to speak, had been engaged, making the time disappear. She pushed on the door carefully, letting herself in. "I can spend some time here, and get something to eat before that night class." Sarah justified to herself, as she looked around. Her feet took her quietly to the next set of shelves, which she looked up and down. With the nature of this being a business, she didn't check the air around her for anything strange. She found herself easily absorbed in the small lettering identifying each potion. Of course she didn't dare touch any of them, thinking it might be rude. Her hands were neatly folded behind her back, her eyes wide and inquisitive.
Most of Nabriales' morning had been taken up by frantic calls to and from suppliers, contractors, and various members of the committees that oversaw the creation and moderation of public and private limited companies. He and Sophia had discussed their options with 'Accountant - 8' and were due to sign the remainder of the papers to formalise the creation of a private limited company to pursue any of their relevant business interests. Nabriales had, truthfully, had plans to expand his operations with Victorious Secret for quite a while - this was simply his first step in ensuring that his expansion was legitimate. He'd had his fair share of work in the less... by the book elements of society, but with his newfound involvement in the Resistance those channels were no longer suitable. He'd have to move enormous sums of money for his and Sophia's plans to work, and his existing arrangements were unsuitable for the task. He'd asked several of his associates to begin the creation of a network of shell corporations - and they had acquiesced quite quickly. All that remained for him now was to sign the final set of papers marking them as the owners of an official company before his team would begin the movement of funds and the expansion of his brand.
As a result, he was looking notably more haggard than usual - several empty cups of coffee sitting discarded on his workbench as a fragrant blend of materials emitted a slight purple smoke in his favourite cauldron. A simple draught to be inhaled in order to sharpen the mind and lessen fatigue - one of his best sellers among the soccer moms - and also a favourite among students. He skimmed over several sheets of documentation, signing as appropriate, and after his third check over he had determined that they were all up to speed. With a wave of his hand they were neatly bundled and would appear on Sophia's bedside table for her to read over and sign - and he'd included a draught of his concentration blend just in case. The final page of the bundle was nothing to do with the aforementioned acquisition of a company - but was instead an invoice to the same orphanage that Sophia had recently invested in giving them £1,000,000 in trust funds split between the current 100-ish orphans currently sheltered there. At the bottom of the page was a sticky note that simply said: 'Your move, sis.'
With the news of Ashariel vei Inaris' death, several of his suppliers had panicked far more than was necessary. Much of the rest of his day would involve assuring them that Ominar's economy would not be affected in the slightest - or it would involve him asking one of his friends to do so for him. After being awake for several hours, he'd quickly seen the wisdom in letting the professionals handle those concerns, and let himself slump down onto his counter in relief. He made a mental note to book an appointment for a massage later (and invite Sophia, of course) before he heard the familiar tinkle of the doorbell ring. He gave his eyes a quick rub, scrunching them shut as he did so, before beaming at the customer who came through his door. He let her browse for a few moments, before getting up and teleporting next to her with a faint 'poof' sound.
"Feel free to touch, hon. It's only if you break them that concern needs to be had." He smiled, resting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a comforting rub. He let his eyes trace over her, vis glinting within them, as a small smirk rose on the corner of his lips. He'd pegged her for a student the second he'd seen her - they all had either that vaguely absent look as if on autopilot or the frenzied look of someone who needed a get out of jail free card when they entered the store, and by her conformity with the former he assumed she was at least a capable student. Perhaps she was here for the concentration blend he'd offered quite cheaply at ZUMA.
"Anything I can help you with, love? The shelves have an excellent stock, but I can craft anything you need if you only ask." He asked, letting go of her shoulder and taking a step or two back.
For someone so adverse to attention, it was surprising that Sarah didn't find Nabriales' presence overwhelming. His sudden appearance startled her a bit, but she found herself nodding along with his words. At the question of help she shook her head a bit too quickly, smiling sheepishly. "No, no, nothing in particular. It's more than a little beautiful, your shop, and I-I couldn't help myself but to look around. I'm not looking for anything in particular-Oh sorry I already said that." The more she talked the more flustered she got. Sarah broke eye contact, finding the potions suddenly more interesting.
Though not overbearing, it was still a lot. Sarah's face darkened a shade, as she investigated a potion marked to be a love potion. It was the first thing the could find to occupy her hands, the red liquid within sloshing inside not very viscous at all. Light filtered through it, casting dancing red shades onto her hand behind it.
In the back of her mind she wondered if he could tell she had a ward up and was practicing discretion, of if she was that much better than she thought. "I should seem to be a just barely magical human if anything, but I was also told to watch out for those who could see through the ward. Is he dangerous?" She had that thought a lot. It was best to predict dangers than to react to them. and she couldn't get a read on him. At the same time, Sarah would never imagine him actually hurting her. "I'm just a bit panicky, I guess," She thought, a breath she didn't know she was holding getting released as she relaxed.
As Nabri busied himself with his patron, he would receive a text from his sister.
Nabri, could you teleport me over there, to sign these? I really can't be bothered to walk.
As Sarah spoke, Nabriales nodded along with her words. After she'd finished speaking, her gave her a gleaming smile and a hearty, musical laugh. He was very proud of how Victorious Secret had turned out, and it gladdened him to have someone appreciate its beauty. There was an etherealness and a brightness about the store that he'd worked very hard to cultivate, and as he took a few seconds to look around her appreciated it alongside her. The store would always be special to him, and though he wanted to expand he knew he could never leave it behind. There was too much history, too many memories - in a way, the store was his home - not one of the edifices of opulent wealth he owned for the sake of owning them. Nothing made him happier than his work, and it truly did warm his heart to have someone new to the store see even a fraction of what he saw.
"Alright! I'll be behind the counter - feel free to browse for as long as you like! If there's anything that piques your interest," he began, nodding towards the love potion she'd found herself holding, "feel free to inquire! I'll give you a free sample for your excellent taste in shops." he finished, adding in a wink for flair, before poofing himself back over to the counter and resuming going over his paperwork. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and fished it out of the loose robe that he wore. He'd gone for a lilac today, though as he looked at himself he felt like the colour just didn't fit. He waved his hand again and with the trademark 'poof' he replaced his outfit with a scintillating rainbow dressing gown, tied at the waist with a thick, fluffy belt. It hung from him loosely, and he had to resist the urge to twirl just to see the colours refract through the light.
He took another breath of the mixture in his cauldron before checking his phone and noting Sophia's request. He made it happen in an instant, though he transported her to the back room with all of the paperwork so she would actually focus instead of talking to him about it. As much as he loved her, and as much as he loved to do nothing, the work was vital this time. Humming a contented tune under his breath, Nabriales switched his cauldron with one in the back with yet another obnoxious poofing sound, before picking up several ingredients from the workbench and going over them, adding samples here and there to the cauldron. He kept an eye on Sarah, discreetly, waiting for her curiosity to bubble over. It didn't take the inquisitive types long, normally.
Sarah felt drawn to mimicking him as he looked around the shop, taking it in as well. Before she had even looked at him, she could tell what his face would look like. Just at the edge of being present, not quite there. Memories and mementos certainly cluttered the shop, even if some of them were also the product provided. She could never imagine doing something similar in selling riunes, they were an extension of her own will. Separate, with a connection all the same.
She was caught in the act of nodding confirmation after he teleported away. Was he teleporting? Was he turning invisible? Gently, Sarah lifted the vial, trying to study the liquid closer, when she noticed a marking engraved into it. Her fingers gently traced the design, magic leaking through her fingertips and exploring the design. A teleportation beacon? Something of that sort, definitely used for transposing. What (or who) remained a mystery. A soft scuffing sound played quietly out as she set the vial down. Gently she turned the vial, replaced how it had been picked up.
With hesitant steps, Sarah moved herself deeper into the building, leaning out to look into the backroom, trying to be subtle about it. It was hard to look for anything with the light casting such magnificent shades all across the floor and walls. She gracefully turned the lean into quite steps, the curiosity outweighing the danger of a social faux pas as she headed further into the building.
"Mostly reagents in the back, hon... Though I assume you're more drawn to the runic teleportation matrix drawn there?" Nabriales asked without looking up from the flower whose petals he was carefully removing and infusing with his vis. He shot a sidelong glance towards Sarah's location, his eyes glowing softly with the scintillating rainbow energy that surrounded him whenever he manipulated vis, before returning to the delicate task he had at hand. After a second or two he placed the petals into the cauldron next to him and used his fire magic to heat it up gently, rubbing his right horn to stoke the flame just a little more.
He could almost feel the pull of curiosity from Sarah now, though some of that was likely just the nature of the runic marks and her inherent inquisitiveness. He'd sensed a spark of curiosity not unlike his own when Sarah had looked over the rune at the bottom of the vial, and it had reminded him greatly of the same sensation that had fluttered around his breast when he'd first discovered alchemy. Perhaps not quite so intense, he thought, as Sarah was surely not born with that innate potential as he had been. Being imprinted with the knowledge of alchemy at birth had driven him to where he was, and though he knew only his fellow Precursors felt the same permutation of that tugging on one's psyche that he'd felt, he was sure there was something similar about the human that had entered his store.
Though not much of a believer in fate or its ilk, Nabriales knew quite intimately that there were forces beyond sight and feeling at work in the universe. He simply figured that Sarah had been caught up in their vicissitudes, drawn inexplicably to him for a reason not yet clear to him. That, or he'd inhaled too much of the concentration aid and was suffering a mild case of cosmic apotheosis. It happened from time to time, tolerant though he was, and he figured he'd just let her poke around until he had decided exactly what he was feeling.
"Feel free to go and examine it! I dare say you could learn something from it, hon. I can see the runes sparkling in your jacket like little iridescent gems... Solid work, though you've a way to go!" He laughed, sounding supportive rather than condescending. There was a warmth, a sense of being genuine, in how he spoke - and it would hopefully register that way to Sarah. He didn't press the issue, but the invitation lingered in the air like a gentle fragrance mixing along those in the store. As the cauldron bubbled away, the scent of lavender would gently waft throughout the currents of air in the store as the liquid within began to take on the slightest purple tinge, and just as it did Nabriales was already preparing another ingredient.
Nabriales' words elicited a stunned response from Sarah. He had a way of watching her throughout the shop, that was interesting. She nodded suddenly at the mention of the teleportation matrix, reaching out to sense the vis around her. She took a couple steps in the proper direction, but hesitated. At his further urging she began to take another step before he finished the sentence. At the mention of the runes on her jacket she awkwardly glanced at him, catching herself heavy on the leading foot. It was encouraging, sure, but she barely had time to process I know about your jacket before being hit by solid work. Sarah felt like she'd been given a one two punch, and she was anticipating the knockout blow.
With more careful footing, Sarah headed towards the back, trying to act nonplussed about the statement. "Thank you. Judging by what I've seen so far, that is something I should take to heart." She said, her voice a bit higher than the last time she had spoken, but not excessively so. Sarah approached the room where the vis she was sensing seemed strongest, though occasionally she turned her head as if to better 'hear' the vis. The door opened easily as she pulled, well oiled hinges making it silent. Sarah crouched down just inside the doorway, making sure to smooth her skirt out as she did so. It was muscle memory, but Sarah herself was surprised she had remembered to do it considering the work of art in front of her. A large network of runes covered a large portion of the room, intricate designs wound together expertly. She touched the closest runes, one of the outer ones, letting magic flow out of her and onto the design. Exploratory, hand and magic alike studied the design. So he had been teleporting throughout the shop using this, and something to do with the vials? There was plenty she could learn from this, very, very interesting.
Sarah leaned back, propelling herself up with her hands, and gracefully turned it into a stand. "That's an amazing piece of work you have there." She said, sounding sincere. "Learning stuff like that always seems just out of reach. . ." A wistful tone filling her voice. She reached vis out to her jacket, and triggered a couple of gates across it. Though it showed no outward sign, various precautionary defences had been activated. The jacket would keep the area around her exactly the same temperature, and more readily resist physical force if applied.
Nabriales largely busied himself with the potion he was brewing, continuing to mix reagents, adjust the temperature, and control the flow of vis within the brewing potion as he observed Sarah's observations. The matrix was a quality piece of work - he was glad someone else could adequately appreciate it. Runic magic wasn't necessarily a specialty of his, but his natural predilection towards magic had rendered it a fairly easy art for him to excel in. He'd only really bothered learning things pertinent to his own interests - which began and ended at teleportation, insofar as runes were concerned - but the skillset was largely transferrable to any form of runic magic provided the basics were learned.
"Don't be silly, hon. Your mind can't make the leaps and bounds it needs to just yet, but as time goes on you'll certainly get there! You've got several hundred years to master it." He winked, letting his lips curl upwards into a sly grin.
"Feel free to copy it and study it! Or you can come back here whenever we're open - just ask my assistants Damian or Vi if I'm not around! You can also find me at One Night in Hell behind the bar if you're looking for a more recreational time!" He smiled, waving it off as if it was no big deal to him. Truth be told, while the matrix would be considered an accolade within the more academic circles, it had very little meaning to Nabriales beyond the practical - and he was more than happy to let someone else learn from it. He looked up from his potion, a somewhat pensive expression across his face, before he teleported himself into the back room a couple of feet away from Sarah, browsing the nearby shelves for a specific ingredient. He picked up a dried root before teleporting himself back behind the counter, and shaving off a couple of thin strips of the root into the awaiting cauldron.
"Are you sure there's nothing I can make for you, hon? Maybe you'd like a tour of the lingerie section instead...?" He proffered, summoning a vial of a dark, inky liquid to his hand and adding a single drop to the cauldron. With that ingredient, and a surge of his vis, the potion settled into an almost silky violet liquid that smelled faintly of freshly mown grass and sweet summer days. Nabriales took a big whiff of the liquid and smiled contentedly, then opened his eyes as if in epiphany and grabbed a small black stone from a small saucer of them on a shelf above his workbench and popped it into the potion, adding a faint smell of licorice to the brew. With a satisfied nod, he summoned a tray of bottles and begun the process of bottling the potion.
"This here is a potion that will alter your appearance and vis signals to match a sample of vis that you drop into it. I'm sure an enterprising thing like you could find a way to harvest some excess vis, hmm? Try it out and tell me what you think - it's a recipe I've been trying to get just right for a week or two now and I think I've cracked it!" he smiled, sliding a bottle of the potion across the counter to Sarah.
As the two went about their conversation, light footsteps could be heard trotting down the stairs. Since being teleported, Sophia had been diligently working through the various contracts the siblings had to sign to found their company. On one of the various pages that she had gone through there had been a field for the name of the company. Nabri hadn't filled it out. Because of that, Sophia had decided the company would be called Victorious Inc.. "Nabri! I finished that paperwork you sent over-" As Sophia rounded the corner, stepping into the shop, her sentence cut off. "Oh! You have a customer. Oops." The little prodigy responded, scratching the back of her head with an embarrassed laugh.
Though it seemed a bit silly considering the now clear power difference between them, readying her rune defences was comforting. He comforted her with his words, and she started walking towards his left side to watch from there. At the mention of the time she had, she tripped slightly, barely catching herself. Looking up at him, his sly grin turning her beet red. She nodded dumbly, rising back up to full height. Her eyes travelled over him curiously, taking note of everything she liked and everything she didn't The former outweighed the latter. Again her hackles lowered, the gentle fair color of her skin returning. At the same time she read body language, noting how at ease he seemed. Teasing her as a newfound friend, or playing with his food? A fine line.
Full of surprises, as always, Nabriales offered a tour of the lingerie section. She paused, considering, and he disappeared again. She headed to the front counter, watching as he finished the potion. He summoned forth bottles, and began the process of filling them. The bottle that he slid across the table to her she picked up, and carefully examined. She heard footsteps just as a small woman rounded the corner. Sarah gave her a quick once over, looking confused as the woman interrupted herself partway through talking to the alchemist. The woman noted Sarah's presence, who had turned to the shopkeeper in confusion. They had definitely been the only ones here before, hadn't they?
"Have you been here the entire time?" Sarah asked, focusing her eyes on the new girl for a beat. She took a step back, moving so that she could see both of them at the same time.
"No, Nabri teleported me here, we had something important to work on. I've been upstairs for the last several minutes." As Sophia spoke, she took in Sarah's appearance. Her sapphire blue eyes glinted slightly with a hint of magic as Sophia's sight took in the various magics that surrounded the girl who was obviously not Human. She figured the girl had a reason for wanting to hide her nature, and internally shrugged.
When her brother didn't interject himself into the conversation, she glanced at him, only to find he was absorbed in his work. "Was there something you needed? Seems like my brother is distracted... Again." Sophia cracked a warm smile as she offered to help what should have been her brother's patron.
The shift in color of Sophia's eyes was very subtle, and if she hadn't been focusing to much on maintaining eye contact she wouldn't have noticed. Sarah followed Sophia's eyes as she glanced at Nabriales, processing the explanation a bit late. "That's-The runic teleportation matrix didn't have a range anywhere near that high. . . Did it?" She wondered internally, Being lost in thought meant she had to latch back onto Sophia's words part way through. -something you needed? Seems my brother is distracted... Again." The smile she offered was genuine, and Sarah tried to match it with one of her own.
"I was just browsing, actually," She said, moving closer to Sophia with a faux conspiratorial look on her face. With slow movements she raised her hand to block her mouth and whispered, "I think he's trying to poison me" Sarah said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "He has just about convinced me, too" A giggle bubbled over, the smile more genuine now. Normally she could she was bad at building a rapport with people, but she felt confident here. She should be scared out of her wits but she wasn't.
Following Sarah's words, and giggle with a laugh her of her own, Sophia covered her mouth in an attempt to silence her laughter. Admittedly, for the older woman it was strange for someone new to the shop not to comment on her 4ft 9in stature. Her head just barely rose over the counter, but the way she held herself spoke volumes.
She was a strong, and confident individual, just very... very small.
Though, if she was honest, she was grateful that the girl had yet to mention it. Recently it had become somewhat of a sore spot. When she'd gone to see Mairyell, the woman he was with had asked why he was speaking to a child, just after it had been explained to her that that woman who had previously been playing with two children was his girlfriend.
As her laugh subsided, Sophia's face visibly dropped following her train of thought. It'd been a month, but it still hurt. Like he'd forgotten her, and what they'd had.
Nabriales had been focusing intently with bottling the remainder of the potion, and once he'd filled the twenty four vials in the tray it poofed out of existence into some unseen corner of the shop, save the bottle he'd slid across to Sarah. He rubbed his hands together and dusted them off, then looked up with a smile and returned to the conversation at hand. He'd been thinking on the recipe while he'd been bottling the potions, and quickly turned to a little blackboard next to the various trays of reagents and made a slight alteration to the recipe, rubbing out a '2' and replacing it with a '1' in chalk. After he was finished, he returned once again to the conversation and blurted in immediately:
"Oh, hey Soph! Now that all the paperwork is finished and all of the signatures have been gathered I guess I should send it off to the companies house..." Nabriales started, before waving his hand and poofing it into nonexistence. The paperwork would be processed by the end of the day, and then they could begin the real work. He gave Sarah a knowing look as he did so - mostly to point out that his teleportation abilities were not limited to the matrix within the store, and that it was a largely self-moderated system he'd created so he didn't have to put the effort in himself.
"Oh, right, the potion!" He began, before turning on his heel towards Sarah. He plucked a sheet of paper from thin air with a simple pattern emblazoned on it, and offered it to her.
"This should suffice to extract the extraneous vis from spellcasting in the air, or from a person if applied to them directly! Just make sure you don't try to use it on someone that... Surpasses you." He laughed, before turning to Sophia again.
"You coming to the grand opening, hon? I can find something for you to wear!"
Lost in her own thoughts, Sophia only caught what was said to her by her brother. Dazed, she glanced up at him, "Huh? Oh... yeah, sure. I need to get out of the house anyway." The tone of her voice was distinctly more dull than it had been when she was speaking to Sarah.
The sudden change in attitude surprised Sarah, and she wanted to help, but it just stopped her in her tracks. Her mind went a million miles a minute in a circle. Nabriales joined back in, and Sarah was happy for the distraction, though it didn't much affect Sophia. The paper in the shopkeeper’s hand disappeared, and the look he gave her confirmed her suspicions. They were sharing that small thought together, the moment of "He/I shouldn’t be able to do that, so how does/do he/I?"
With a flourish the beautiful chemist summoned a rune, which Sarah took quickly with her free hand. It took naught but a second for her to understand its use. She smiled gratefully, nodding at the advice he provided. At the mention of the grand opening to Sophia, Sarah leaned a bit closer, her interest piqued. She had heard mention of this, before she had brought him home last night. He was the bartender at "One Night? Oh Well?" Or something like that. Glancing at the potion, she suddenly interjected "Oh! How much is the potion?" She asked, leaning forward a bit.
Nabriales was a little concerned at Sophia's sudden shift in attitude, her normally happy features having sunken into what he would describe as "dour". He had an inkling that he knew precisely why, even though he had not paid any attention to what she had said earlier, and figured it would be best for her to work things out on her own. If she came to him for help he'd offer her everything he could - but he'd learned a long time ago not to try to interfere in her emotional tiffs. He vaguely recalled the last time he'd tried to help unbidden and absentmindedly rubbed one of his horns with a free hand subconsciously.
When Sarah asked about the potion, Nabriales scoffed and waved it off.
"It's still technically experimental, hon. The only price you have to pay is a report of its effects and maybe let me study your vis afterwards for an hour or so! There's a library upstairs to busy yourself with while I take the measurements!" He smiled, before a look of sudden epiphany registered on his face - something she had no doubt by now realised was not an uncommon occurrence with Nabri - and grabbed a nearby pen before summoning a sheet of paper infused with vis. He began to draw a reasonably complex rune on it, taking brief pauses to think, before after a minute or so he had finished and he handed it to Sarah. The rune was very similar to the teleportation matrix he'd let her view, though with her experience in the field she'd be able to determine that it was only superficially linked, sharing the same fundamental teleportation pattern and tapping in to the same network.
"Draw that rune with vis if you're ever nearby and want to visit my little library! It's a damn sight better than the shambles they have over at the university, and you can stay as long as you like whenever you like. Just make sure not to take any books with you, yeah?" He added as an afterthought, as if it were not a particularly big deal. Then, with a shrug, he busied himself with deciding what to pick out for Sophia to wear.
Sarah started a bit at Nabriales' response. It was free, as long as she followed up on it. If it worked as intended, which Sarah didn't doubt, she got a free sample of something very sustainable. She smiled gratefully at the alchemist, seeming very intrigued by the prospect of a library. As he considered a new idea Sarah looked down at the rune he had handed her again. It was simple enough, and she decided to make it more convenient to use. She stared past Nabriales as she pushed her vis towards her hand. Light carved out the rune, slightly modified so as to be activated by different means.
As she finished Nabriales gave her another rune. this one more complex. It immediately reminded her of the teleportation matrix she had seen earlier. She looked up and nodded in response to his explanation, speeding up when he mentioned not taking the books with her when she left. Sarah moved a bit, but paused hesitantly, her eyes on Sophia. She still wanted to help undo that shift in attitude, but she didn't know how she could.
A breath escaped Sarah's lips, and she looked about. "Actually, I think I might head home. I need to meet up with a tutor of mine, and get ready for tonight" She said, smiling at the two of them, her hands tucked behind her back again. Speaking to Sophia particularly, she said "I can't wait to see what you wear," Pausing she turned to Nabriales, "Same goes for you." Speaking to both she finished with, "Both of you better impress me!" with a over-the-top motherly tone.
