Chapter 3
Seece Street stretched out in front of us. It was lined with shops on both sides of the street which had a walkway in the center as well as in front of the shops. We were in West Kiiren, an upscale shopping area where I had milled about earlier in the afternoon. I spent a while watching the street for any suspicious people—and I spotted one. There were several, actually, lurking in the shadows, ducking into alleyways between streets. Even though it was after sunset and very cold there were still a lot of civilians on the street, entering and leaving shops and carriages alike. One particularly shady character was keeping tabs on us as he pretended to read a newspaper outside a small coffee shop. It wasn't a bad situation, but it would be difficult to fight off attackers and keep Kir safe if we strayed too far away from the safety of the crowds. With that in mind, and considering I really needed to get Kir something to wear before frostbite set in, I headed for one of the shops. A bell above the door rang and the shopkeep, an older gentleman, greeted us as we entered.
"Welcome to Seece Street Fashion! How can I help you?"
After making sure nobody was going to follow us in, I turned to him and flashed a smile.
"Good evening, sir! We were at the bath house down the road, and someone stole his clothes! Preposterous, right?" I asked. Kir's eyes went wide, but when the shopkeeper looked over at him he nodded, vigorously. The old man looked positively horrified when he saw how cold Kir looked.
"In this weather? Who would do such a thing?" he asked, and he sounded outraged on our behalf. Perfect.
"Right! And unfortunately, he had most of our money in his pockets," I started, reaching into a pouch and producing a few copper coins - ones that the auctioneer had deemed not worth enough to even bother counting earlier. The shopkeeper nodded gravely. He looked at the handful of coins, looked at me, and then looked over at Kir, who finally looked like he wasn't a few seconds away from frostbite thanks to the toasty interior of the shop. They must have had a really nice heater.
"I'd like to help," the old man started, frowning, "but..."
"You can send the bill to my address," I replied, approaching the counter he was standing behind. "We'll have the money sent over with the morning post, I promise. We just want to get home and get out of the cold." That seemed to put him at ease, at least a little. He continued to frown.
"You don't have anything to leave as collateral?" he asked, looking at my outfit intently. I shook my head. The sword, armlet and cloak were the only things I could comfortably leave behind, and those were absolutely necessary to our survival for the trip home.
"I know this seems weird, but do you perhaps have your sales records for last spring? I made a rather big purchase here," I suggested. His eyes brightened.
"Oh! What did you buy?" he asked, ducking down and rummaging around the counter. I put a finger to my mouth, thinking. I did remember buying something here, but what had it been? I noticed Kir moving over to sit in a chair nearby, carefully arranging the cloak so that it was more like a blanket wrapped around him.
"It was halfway through Lycanid," I started, wracking my brain trying to think. "If I recall, it was a set of white leather gloves, boots and a belt like the one I'm wearing...and a lightweight coat. I can't remember the color, though."
"Yes, yes, I think I remember you now," the shopkeeper said, nodding sagely. He had a large book open on the counter, and was scanning across a page. "A sale on the fifteenth of Lycanid. What is your name, miss?" he asked.
"Faustus," I replied. "Milina Faustus. My address is—" The shopkeeper cut me off with a wave of his hand, smiling.
"Ah yes, that is correct. It was a yellow jacket made of cotton, by the way," he replied. I nodded. I think somewhere in the depths of my closet I still had that jacket. "I'll total everything up and send the bill to your apartment with the morning mail. Pick out anything you want." Grinning, I turned to Kir.
"Well, you heard him. Go pick out something warm!"
It didn't take Kir long at all to collect a long-sleeved moss green shirt and a dark brown pair of cotton pants. He added a pair of sturdy-looking brown leather boots and some wool socks. When he started off toward the changing rooms I held out an arm to stop him.
"You can't keep my cloak," I told him, with a stern look. "You should pick out a coat or something."
"I don't want to be a burden, so—" I shook my head, folding my arms.
"Go pick out a coat or cloak or something," I insisted. "I'll add it to your tab. And you might as well get some gloves and a scarf, too."
He stared at me in shock for a second, before timidly asking, "Tab?"
"We'll discuss it later," I said, bodily turning him around and shoving him toward a rack of long winter coats. "Just get a coat already!"
He ended up picking out a long, dark green coat with a hood. It had been lovingly embellished with silver designs along the edges and the cuffs, and the inside of the hood was lined in the distinctive green fur of a spring rabbit. It was a very nice coat. The price wasn't terribly high either, I was actually kind of jealous. There were some matching green gloves, also lined with the spring rabbit fur, that were displayed beside the coat. I watched as he picked those up, too. He took a little longer than I was comfortable with picking out a dark brown scarf to go with the ensemble, but he looked a bit more at ease while he was shopping, so I let it slide.
While he was in the dressing area I wandered around the shop. It was fairly big, especially for a shop on Seece Street where real estate was a premium. The size made sense, however, as the place was packed to the gills with racks of clothing, stands with assortments of accessories, shelves of shoes, and display cases with everything from fancy jewelry and pocket watches to glasses in them. I made my way over to the opposite side of the store, pretending to look at a display of cashmere scarves and hats near a window as I scanned the street outside for any potential threats. I didn't spot any, and the guy with the coffee and newspaper was nowhere to be seen. Despite this being the actual reason I had made my way over to the far side of the shop, I found myself browsing the hats and scarves anyway. I had my blue scarf, of course, but I couldn’t help thinking about some of my other outfits and wondering if I should pick up a scarf or hat or two to go with them.
He emerged from the dressing area a few minutes later looking much warmer and more comfortable. I noticed him squinting around the store until he spotted me and started over toward me. I met him in the middle of the store and he handed me back my cloak and scarf with a nod of thanks. I donned my cloak and settled it into place with practiced ease, also wrapping my own scarf around my neck. I was now uncomfortably warm, but I felt about a thousand times better with them back on.
The shopkeeper approached us a moment later, holding a piece of paper with a neatly ordered list of items and prices. The total wasn't abhorrent. Actually, I was pretty certain that the shopkeeper was giving us a discount because he felt sorry for Kir.
"If that is all, I'll need you both to sign at the bottom," the shopkeeper said, holding out the paper.
"One last thing," I replied, not moving to take the paper.
"Oh?" the shopkeeper prompted.
"Do you happen to employ a Glasscrafter?" I asked, gesturing over to a nearby glass display case, which contained a number of glasses. The shopkeeper looked pleased.
"Why, yes! My son is a Master," he informed me, pride evident in his voice. I nodded, pleased.
"The thief stole his glasses along with his clothes," I explained. "We were just going to have them replaced later, but if we could get them replaced tonight that would be lovely." The shopkeeper nodded and moved back toward the counter he had been behind before.
"I'll go and get him," he announced, before disappearing through a door behind the counter. Kir turned to me, honest to goodness shock written all over his face.
"How did you know I need glasses?" he asked.
"You were squinting when you looked around the store," I replied, and he nodded, looking impressed.
"Yes, I'm nearsighted. But are you sure we should be getting glasses crafted now, when we have the time limit?" he asked. I nodded.
"Any hired goons that are waiting on us are going to be expecting us right away. It's better to make them wait for a bit to throw them off guard."
"If you say so."
I shrugged.
"Besides, you need to be able to see the bad guys to throw magic at them," I replied, cooly, and he froze, his posture stiffening.
"Ah. Is that the reason why you bid on me?" he asked. I shook my head.
“No, but if you don't want the other bidders to get you, you’ll probably want to help me," I replied. Before I could continue, the shopkeeper emerged from the door with a taller and younger copy of himself trailing behind. The younger man, who I could only assume was the Glasscrafter, smiled and waved cheerfully as he made his way over to us. He nodded politely to me, and then turned a critical eye to Kir.
"Nearsighted, and with slightly worse vision in your left eye. Not an uncommon case. You should probably have oval-shaped frames. What color would you like?" the Glasscrafter asked, his words spoken quickly, but in a way that made every syllable perfectly understandable. I felt my eyebrows shoot up, and Kir stared at him for a second, eyes wide. Impressive. Seriously impressive.
"Yes, that's...how did you know all that?" Kir asked, and the Glasscrafter, who was a good bit taller than Kir, laughed a rich, amused laugh.
"Son, you don't become a Master at Glasscrafting for nothing. Now, I know iron is considered a lower-class metal but I think you'd look good with wrought iron frames." the Glasscrafter continued. He turned to me, and winked.
"Don't you agree, miss?" he asked. I just nodded. The glasscrafter took that as a sign and laughed his hearty laugh again, turning on his heels and moving over to the display case and plucking out a pair of black frames. He jounced back over to us and handed the frames to Kir, who tried them on at his behest. The shopkeeper appeared with a small mirror, and Kir seemed pleased with the frames.
"I can have them ready in fifteen minutes," he said, accepting the frames back from Kir. I glanced at the large clock behind the counter, where the old man had just returned and was writing something else on the invoice sheet he had been trying to hand me earlier. We still had plenty of time. I nodded.
"Thank you," Kir said, and the Glasscrafter disappeared through the door behind the counter again. I nodded over to the chair that Kir had been sitting in earlier.
We passed the fifteen minutes in silence, and thankfully it was uneventful. Thugs weren't likely to attack us in a public building like this, but the possibility did exist. They were probably lurking near my apartment, in any case. I had no trouble believing that Cario at the very least had been able to find out where I lived. Hopefully they wouldn't decide to attack the place. My neighbors might be surly old people that glowered at my hair and clothes, but at the end of the day they were still good people. And the landlord was a good guy, too. Plus, most of my stuff was in that apartment.
The Glasscrafter returned quickly enough and I signed the invoice for everything while Kir was trying them on. Evidently Kir approved, because he accepted the paper from the shopkeeper and signed as well. He signed the name "Kir Yuen", I noticed. Invoice signed, the shopkeeper sent us on our way with a wave, and we stepped back out into the cold. With my cloak back on the night was much more tolerable, though I did suspect that the temperature had dropped a little bit just in the relatively short amount of time we'd spent in the shop.
I knew it was going to take too long to simply walk back to my apartment, and even if I could have found a carriage available this late in the evening, they would have simply laughed at the handful of brass coins I could have offered them. Our only choice was to take a train home. Not the most optimal, but the station and the trains were sure to be full of people right now, so hopefully that would deter our would-be pursuers. With that in mind I took a few steps forward and, once I was sure Kir was following me, I settled into my usual brisk walking pace. He caught up to me quickly and matched my stride, walking just to my left. In the boots I noticed he was a bit taller than me, and he looked down at me after a few seconds of walking.
"Uh...thank you," he said. I quirked an eyebrow up at him.
"Well, I wasn't gonna let you keep going around in that cloak. It was indecent, and you would've gotten frostbite," I explained.
"Awfully accommodating of you," he replied, a questioning hint in his voice. I shrugged.
"I'm not normally the type that buys people. So I don't really act like that kind of person," I explained, keeping my voice low, in case of prying ears. He went silent for a second, staring at the ground in front of him. I turned my focus back to the road ahead, constantly checking for any potential dangers.
"About that...thank you," he finally said, a morose look on his face.
"You've gotta be kidding me. Did you just thank me for buying you?!" I demanded. He sighed, looking back down at the cobblestones.
"Better you than the other bidders. I'm not sure why you bought me, but you must have better intentions for me than they did," he replied, softly. I laughed, and he looked over at me, bewildered.
"For all you know, I could have horrible things planned for you," I said, a teasing note in my voice.
"But you don't, do you?" he asked. "You said so already." I shrugged again.
"True," was my response.
"Out of curiosity...what do you have planned for me?" he asked. I opened my mouth to answer, then shut it when I realized that I really had no idea. In the auction I was only thinking that I wanted to find out about that tattoo, and that I had to keep him away from the other bidders in order to do so. Past that, I hadn't really thought about it.
"I...have no idea," I admitted, grinning sheepishly. He gaped at me.
"You don't know? Then why?" he asked, incredulous.
"I'll tell you later," I answered. He seemed to ponder something for a second at that.
"Then does that mean you'll just set me free?" he asked. I scoffed.
"Eventually, sure. After you've paid me back for everything." He stopped walking and I went a few paces before I realized it, turning to look back at him to find him with a peculiar expression on his face, half relief and half utter despair. I didn't blame him. Ten million was a lot of bullion, after all.
"I...see," he replied. I gave him a dismissive smile.
"Relax. It's not like I expect you to pay it all back at once, or even quickly! Anyway, let's focus on getting ourselves out of danger for tonight, all right?" I replied. He seemed mollified at that, and hurried to catch up when I started off for the train station again.