Seeing

When she was younger, she saw the shop as a magical place. Not only because of the literal magical goods bought and sold there but because something new and exiting was always going on over the counter. Her memory swelled with countless days of lucent seasons spent ooowwing and aaahhing over the store's four shelves and the hours spent on her tippy toes peeking over the counter to marvel at the many intriguing adventurers from far and wide with their seemingly endless stories. The monster hunters' wild armor; the bounty hunters' deadly weapons; the prospectors' rare artifacts; being at the store meant being a part of the adventure. But over the years her eyes became tired of staying wide. The adventurers' stories began to mesh together with similarities as her sense of adventure waned. And despite still sitting under the glow of the floating spark beetle lanterns, the magic of her parents' shop slowly vanished. Now she sat under the shade of the storefront workshop, sweating in the humidity of the lucent heat despite being entirely idle, wondering what may have caused the store's light to dim in her imagery. The robbery and the break-in certainly shook things up. And the subsequent magical security orbs on the walls did change the feel of the cramped interior at first but their constant hum and occasional scans were just background noise now. The years of restocking the same 4 rickety shelves and listening to her parents bicker about what items should go behind the counter (the most dangerous or the most expensive items) numbed the wonder of the colorful potions and the variety of animal skins. Her family eventually decided to invest in a magic crested animal for surveillance and security purposes but Nuo the antlered owl was a better pet than security guard and was more often found visiting the nearby storefronts for free treats than at his post. The adventurers that used to make her day with uncommon wares and engaging conversation now regularly ruined her shift with their horrible attempts to swindle her and, on occasion, their equally detestable advances on her. The only other thing to change was eventually earning the trust of running the store alone during high sun. Maybe it wasn't the evolution of her perception of magical equipment or the more objective opinions she'd made about the nature of the adventuring profession, maybe it was the company of her family and a shared sense of adventure that was lost over the years. But being the eldest and bearing the most responsibility came with its perks. And with the money she's saved after all of these blisteringly monotonous afternoons, she could afford to dream of adventures of her own. And all of them took place away from this village.

A young castor shuffled into to the threshold of her reverie, ducking under the storefront's overhang and removing the hood of his light grey robes. His eyes darted to every magically imbued item in sight at almost inhuman speed, a knee-jerk reaction for a castor, before promptly settling on her.

"Looking for anything in particular today?" she asked defaulting to speaking Bast although he had the dark skin and dense curly hair indicative of the emescii.

"Umm just some sword sharpening today, thank you" he responded in perfect Bast.

He slung the satchel of swords off his back and placed a bag of zincrogen powder on the price scale before she could even tell him the price let alone the powder conversion. The powder was the exact perfect weight. He must have been there before but she didn't remember his face. Maybe his hood was up? She took another look at him as he walked over to the mechanical grindstone, pulling the lever to start up the spin cycle. His garments looked pretty worn; certainly a traveler. But it wasn't common for a novice castor to have a substance like Iodine as robe linings. She only furrowed her brow more as she watched him start to feed the sword into the top of the machine. He didn't use the stepping stones on the sides of the machine at all. He instead held the blade high and carefully drove it into the silt opening at the top of the mechanism. His movements were very reminiscent of a particular customer she remembered even after however many years. He was a half Fei-Ung prospector that claimed he formerly worked in Teotch as a debt collector back when it was the active capital. She remembered being skeptical at first because of his very basic, uninspiring robes; even children knew the best castors adorned themselves in colorful robes to match their many geots. He offered to give a demonstration of spells for her and her younger siblings, the first time she had ever actually seen someone wield 3 elegems at once, and told tales from his travels of the large southern country Yumia as he sharpened his sword and sold some potions. Father had commended him for his sharpening form. "The young'uns nowadays jam their blades into the rounded wheels of the machine. They make more work for themselves for worse results" the prospector claimed, nodding to himself. He was probably her favorite customer that season except for the huntsmen that let her hold his frost knife; keeping her cool for the remainder of what turned out to be one of the hottest days of that season. The old prospector's potions turned out to be lukewarm which left Father heated for days after but that wasn't the point. For the first time in a long time she couldn't help but wonder about this young travelling castor's personal adventures. The towns he's visited, the dungeons he's crawled, the beasts he's slain, the treasures he's earned. As he stood there pulling the sword out tenderly, muttering to himself and shaking his head slightly, she noticed the black lining of his robes shone a dark violet hue in the setting sun's light. Then she swore she saw a glint of light at his back...

"Selaa!"

She straightened in her seat and peered at her younger brother standing beside her wondering if the castor just looked over now because of her brother's shout or if he had noticed her blatant staring sometime before now.

"You didn't hear me?" Naos asked pensively under his sister's harsh glare.

Attempting to subvert the subject from her absentmindedness, Selaa spoke pointedly.

"I've completed all daily tasks and the sun is going down. Are they coming yet?"

"Have you vibrated the potions?"

"Yes."

"And wrung the loreesh hides?"

"Naos I've done everything."

"And swept under the displays?"

She gave him one of her looks.

"They're finishing up. She's coming, I think." he offered up as repentance.

She deflated with a sigh and turned her attention back to the mysterious castor. But now he stood motionless in front of the machine eating at the sword, wide-eyed with his hands up defensively and a bewildered facial expression. Selaa looked on in astonishment as he gravitated his elegem out, a steadily rising red heat radiating out of the small gemstone floating before him. Before Selaa or Naos could properly react, the castor began backing up. He turned his head back and forth, seeing something unseen. Only when he turned toward them she noticed his pupils were almost invisible, glowing a pure shining white. Then a massive wave of magic began emanating from him before its source, his geosphere, floated around its castor who now levitated, a beacon of immensely raw energy. Selaa instinctively stood, moving Naos behind her. Selaa's siliciod activated from the magical intensity in the air; the small porous stone nervously spun around her chest. He stopped for a moment. Then he slowly rotated in their direction. She looked directly into his eyes and their glow abruptly invaded her eyesight. Her hyper tense body refused to move, apparently stuck in time like everything around her. The sheer white light covered the entirety of her sight. But new images were being carved out of the whiteness. The shape of several people, several men came into view. As the light continued to recede and time started to move forward, it became clear that the men were armed with melee weapons, some enchanted, and one man in the back was holding a rifle pointed directly at her chest. On her right side stood a petite white girl with long silvery hair and fear in her eyes. As the rifleman stepped forward, readying to shoot, the brightness returned her to the front of the shop, looking into the dark brown eyes of the boy castor just as his feet returned to the floor.

"What the hell to you think you're doing!" Mother shouted from behind her, siliciod and elegem in rapid orbit around her extended arm.

The emscii boy stepped back, dialing back his magic too. His eyes still wide, darting again, he only whispered "no" before gravitating his sharpened swords to him, yanking the last one out of the sharpener, floating them all into his weapon satchel and darting off in an instant.

Naos hugged close to his mother as she looked to Selaa, grabbing her by the shoulders and inspecting her.

"What happened? What did he do to you? Selaa!?"

Her face remained blank as the image in her mind began sharpening and scattering all at once. Only now realizing who he was, all she could think to do is recite divine prayers. But after feeling all of that energy she wasn't sure if she was praying for his friends or their enemies.