Chapter 63: Chapter 9: Shop talk

> “Climbing through the window was a boy who appeared to be the same age as the girl, bearing similar features. On his wrist was a glowing bracelet. She kept out of sight and watched as he quickly surveyed the foyer before grabbing an impressive looking but not particularly valuable vase, where she had placed the flowers.”

Even with everything I had been through, the alchemy I had witnessed, and the secrets about the world I had learned, there was something about walking down a hidden passageway to find an honest-to-goodness magic shop lurking in the shadows of an old building that made me giddy like a schoolgirl.

But before I could even get situated, Emma and Nikki had already begun haggling over the price of the goods we required.

“We’re always happy to extend a line of credit to the Guild, Ms…?”

“Patel. Emma Patel, Second Seat of the Pavonia Table.”

“Patel, Patel, that name sounds familiar. Oh! You’re the daughter of Akash Patel? I remember he came in here a few years ago when I had just started working here after school. How is he?”

“He’s dead. But thanks for asking. Anyway, you were saying something about a line of credit? I didn’t think the going rate for alkahest was that high.”

“What’s alkahest?” I asked, and Emma rolled her eyes at my ignorance.

“Alkahest is the universal solvent,” said Nikki. “Dissolves anything it touches, except bark spider silk. Which is used to line the vial. And unfortunately, yes, there’s been a dwindling of the quota that VAC releases to the market and we can only buy so much.”

“At the risk of my friend’s eyes falling out the back of her head,” I said, “what exactly is VAC?”

“Van Asch Corporation,” said Nikki.

I swallowed hard at the name. Van Asch Corporation could only mean one thing: that Rita van Asch’s legacy had lived on well past her death. And if this company wasn’t part of the Guild proper, it meant one more player out there in the shadows, along with whomever Frankie had been working for.

“They have a monopoly on some of the most valuable prima materia. Obviously, we have a lot of purchasing power, but there’s only so hard we can push.”

“If you’re done with the history lesson,” Emma said, “just tell me how much.”

“800 silver if you want the whole vial,” said Nikki. “Or 100 silver for a milliliter, but you need to bring your own vial.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” said Emma. “It was 50 silver a vial last year in New York!”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” said Nikki. “As I said, the supply on the market has constricted and we can’t-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you need to make a living. But the Guild will have my head if I go running up a line of credit like that without getting sign-off first. Let me get someone on the phone.”

Emma stormed out of the shop and I heard her footsteps echo down the dark hallway until she was no longer visible.

“You have a branch in New York?” I asked.

Nikki nodded.

“Yep. Here, this lists all our locations, hours, and proprietors.”

She handed me a small laminated card with a picture of a woman standing in front of a row of tents in what looked like Union Square. I flipped it over to find the words “Welcome to the Night Market” written in flourishing script at the top, followed by a long list covering every major city in the country and some minor ones as well. But it was the one in the middle that caught my eye.

“I’ve been to this one,” I said, pointing at the New York entry, which listed a certain stall in Hunt’s Point Market in the Bronx and a certain proprietor with half-moon spectacles and a very pronounced slouch.

“You’ve met Phineas? He’s a legend. My grandmother had a tryst with him when she was my age. Or so she claims. What’s he like?”

“He got the better of me. Ended up trading everything I had, and what I received wasn’t enough.”

I recalled the healing serum briefly curing Frankie, her cryptic words about the pearl in the triangle, and then the horror I felt as she turned back to stone. That had cost me Beatrice’s entire supply of the mind-reading apples, and all it had bought us was the location of the fake gold token. And that token had literally exploded in our faces, leading to Beatrice’s current exile. So needless to say, my past experience with the Night Market had not been a good one.

“Oh. Well, he and my grandma are alike in that respect. They think we’re still back in the days of haggling in the Campo de Fiori. Me, I take a more collaborative approach. Why make an enemy out of a customer over a single deal when there’s a lifetime of transactions to be had?”

“Sure, I guess. While we’re standing here waiting for Ms. Patel to finish whatever she’s doing, do you have any glamours in your inventory that I could take a look at?”

“Ooh, wish that we did. You don’t find those just lying around in the Night Market, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?” I asked. “I thought they were relatively common.”

This was not an unreasonable proposition, what with how Ty had straight up given me one and how Doug had coincidentally also had one. But now I knew that there was more to the glamour that your typical mixture of prima materia.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“No, no, no. They most certainly are not. I wouldn’t quite categorize them as Relic-class objects, but it’s a close call. Don’t think there’s been a new one created in at least a hundred years.”

“What?”

“Yeah, well, ever since the Treaty of Verdun outlawed alchemic experimentation on humans, it’s not exactly like people are shouting from the rooftops that they’ve transmuted one.”

“Oh, right,” I said, pretending I knew what the Treaty of Verdun was.

Thankfully, Emma saved me from asking any further embarrassing questions when she returned to the shop with a flourish.

“Let’s go,” she said to me.

“But what about the alkahest?” I said. “Did the Guild-”

“We can talk about it over dinner. Thank you, Nikki. We’ll be back.”

“I’ll show you both ou-”

“No need, no need. We know the way.”

And then she grabbed me by the arm, and the magic shop faded from view as quickly as it had appeared.

----------------------------------------

“Of all the great restaurants in this city, this is where we have to go?” I said, as a waitress arrived with three plates of oversized sushi stuffed with tuna and peanuts.

“First of all, don’t insult the tuna peanut roll. It’s amazing. Especially with the sauces on the side. Second, the booths in here are very comfortable. And third, we’re guaranteed not to be seen by prying eyes.”

I turned around to scan the crowded restaurant and, sure enough, the table and booth arrangement was such that every diner was focused on their own meal.

“Fine,” I said. “But why did you order three of these? They’re enormous.”

“One for you, one for me, and one for him,” said Emma, pointing behind me. I turned again to see the smiling face of J.P. Laurel making his way through the maze of tables toward us.

“What is he doing here?” I asked,

“I invited him.”

“Just now? When you went to call the Guild?”

“No,” said Emma. “Please. We all don’t have hordes of vervorium at our disposal. We had scheduled this back in New York.”

“What? Why?” I whispered, as J.P. drew closer, his silver cane in his right hand and that ridiculous cowboy hat still on his head.

“Because if it’s a choice between you and him, no offense, I would choose him. You have a lot of spunk, I’ll give you that, but you’re still so … J.P.!”

“Emma, dear,” said J.P. with a warm smile on his face that soon turned to a slight grimace when he met my eyes. “And Jade. You’re here.”

“When did you get to town?” Emma asked, ignoring J.P.’s displeasure at my presence.

“Took the shuttle up this morning,” he said, sliding into the empty spot in the booth. “There are a number of historical sites in and around the city that I’ve been meaning to visit. Was rather enlightening. There is so much we still don’t know about the early days of the Guild during the Revolution.”

J.P. picked up one of the sushi pieces, dipped it in the orange sauce, and then popped the whole thing in his mouth, before waving off Emma’s offer of chopsticks.

“No need, no need. Ever since I got back from Kyoto, I only use my fingers.”

“Suit yourself,” said Emma. “So, I still have a tiny bit of alkahest left from Budapest, but I don’t think it will be enough. And before I borrow the money from you to pay for a fresh vial, I wanted to be sure it was worth it. Have you given some more thought to my plan?”

“Yes, I have. And I think it’s lacking in both practicality and creativity. Y’all aren’t just going to be able to waltz into the library, pour some alkahest on the box, and waltz out with the vial of Dragon’s blood. Come on, Emmy. I know you have a better head than that!”

I snickered at the nickname, and they both glared at me.

“And what, pray tell, are you laughing at?” asked J.P. “I don’t think you realize how fortunate you are that Emma here even let you come on this here Raid. If it was me that Dalia had paired you with, I woulda slipped something in your drink at the start and by the time you woke up, I’d already be on my way back to New York with the vial.”

“J.P., enough. Jade here has actually come up with a very clever infiltration plan. It’s me that’s lagging. I’ve looked over Da’s notes a hundred times. Blunt force seemed liked the only thing he hadn’t considered.”

“Yes, well, you do that and the box will probably implode, taking you and half the block with it.”

“Fuck, that’s what I thought.”

“But don’t worry, don’t worry. Your Uncle Jippy has come to the rescue in your direst time of need.”

I looked at Emma, expecting her to snap at his blatant condescension, but all I saw was warm admiration on her face, as she picked up a piece of sushi with her chopsticks and started smearing it with both of the sauces. Whatever this relationship was between them, it was deeper than I had realized.

“Thank you, J.P. So, what’s the plan?”

“It’s simple, really. We create a replica of the box and then swap it with the real one, which you’ll put into your bag, and then one of my people will be waiting to extract it on the other end immediately.”

Emma paused for just a second, and the sushi fell from her chopsticks, but she quickly picked it up and ate it in one bite.

“How … well, the abrupt distance separation could, in theory, break the auragen link. But that still doesn’t solve the problem of actually opening the box.”

“Trust me, darling, that bitch won’t care if we haven’t opened the darned thing, long as we have it. We’ll figure out that part later if need be.”

“Then you think…”

“Yes, this was meant as a fool’s errand for all of us, you included, Ms. Peters.”

My head popped up at the mention of my fake last name and I hesitated slightly before deciding to risk further

“Your bag, it’s linked to a place?”

Emma and J.P. both shot looks at each other before J.P. nodded.

“Yes,” said Emma, sliding one of her ring-adorned hands toward me on the table. “My family’s ancestral domus. These rings, and others, help pull free whatever I need at the moment.”

“And it exists in a real place, like in some sort of storage unit?”

“Not something so obvious. But yes, and we guard the location of the physical entrance from all others.”

“Which you can wipe from my associate’s pretty little head just as soon as he gets back from wherever it is that is,” said J.P. “It’s somewhere in India, I imagine?”

I saw Emma start to shake her head, but she stopped herself before completing the thought.

“Don’t. And my family hasn’t lived there in seven generations.”

“My apologies,” said J.P. “I just wanted to know what sort of travel time we were dealing with.”

“I … I need some time. We don’t, we’ve never-”

“I understand, and remain at your disposal, Emmy dear. Now I hate to eat and run, but I need to be getting back to the missus. We’ll talk tomorrow once you’ve had the night to think it through.”

J.P. leaned over to give Emma a kiss on the cheek, which she received with a slight smile, before he tipped his hat to me and stalked off. I excused myself a minute later to use the restroom, but when I returned, Emma was staring off into space.

“Are you OK?” I asked with trepidation as I slid back into the booth. She didn’t acknowledge my presence, and I looked down to see that her hands were trembling.

“I’ll just go pay then. Do you want me to … you know what? I’ll see you back at the hotel.”

A different me would have stayed, would have tried to coax the source of her angst out of her, so I could offer some words of comfort. The current incarnation of myself, however, wanted to give her a slice of the lone mind-reading apple left from my visit to the orchard that was tucked in the recesses of my bag and force my way into her thoughts for my own edification. I felt my hand slipping quietly down to my side and brushing against the false bottom. Whether it was directed by my baser self or by Jade, I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. So I took the coward’s way out and left the sobbing girl to her troubles and her sushi.