The Catalyst
Chapter Thirteen
“Do you have any fabrics in deep green?” I gently set down some blue and white wrapped cloth onto several other objects I had collected in my time at the small though deceivingly bountiful shop in town.
Kaiden had been likewise rushing alongside me as I tried to think of the things I needed.
“There are several in that color…here hold on,” he went over to a corner in the far end of the store and rustled around a bit before coming back with what appeared to be another selection of fabric. “This is actually really rare, dad said not to bring it out unless the customer was right…I think you’re the sort that deserves it.”
I glanced at him with immense confusion before drifting to look at the bunch in his arms. It was a dark, warm green perhaps an emerald color.
“It’s called silk.”
My fingers lightly trailed against the material, “this is most definitely silk.” I moved to take the bundle from him, to which he allowed though with a mixture of emotion on his face.
“You know what this is?”
“Of course I do.” The stitching was incredibly well done; I found that an excited smile was growing on me. “This is excellent work.”
“How...how can you possibly know this fabric so well?” Kaiden’s face was still, if not far more perplexed then when I first took hold of the item.
“Oh, uh, sorry…I uh used to make clothing as a side job when I was younger, my grandmother taught me. I was often given the pieces that included things like lace, silk, jewels, or other delicates or intricate fineries. It’s been a long while since I have seen such well made silk.”
“No. No.” He shook his head forcefully a few times, looking just as confused. “That can’t be possible, silk hasn’t been created for years…decades…maybe even centuries.” He blinked profusely and gesticulated in equal amounts. “U-unless you’re uuuh – the-then you can’t be more than what, 17 or 18, maybe 19 years old…” He seemed to be breathing faster, running his callused fingers through his sandy hair in some form of anxiety.
“Yes, I’m 18.” I tucked the fabric beneath my arm to better my position in speaking with him. “Unless I’m what? What are you talking about?”
“Uhhh, I…I shou—no never mind, um is-is there anything else you’d like?”
I opened my mouth to counter, but he quickly began speaking again before I was able. “We have many varieties of threading and ribbon, if you’d like?”
“I...uhh...” gently I sighed with a small grin, “sure, that would be helpful.”
Kaiden laid out a few large, flat boxes filled with myriad assortments of thread in different sizes, types, colors, and amounts. There were many needles protruded from everything and ribbons of just as many varieties as threading looked to be littered even more chaotically than any other object in the containers.
Quickly I meandered through and pulled out several colors of string and ribbon, as well as a couple needles in different lengths and gauges.
Before I finished searching around I noted two brilliant azure ribbons lying somewhat quaintly upon a large puff of cloth bursting with needles. Immediately the Immortal’s soft onyx eyes came to mind, “these would look great in contrast…” my mumbling didn’t seem to bother Kaiden, although I gave him an apologetic look.
As I stroked the soft ribbons, my eyes dropped with a lengthy sigh.
“What?” Kaiden tried to look into my face though it was down and covered partially now by the hood I wore.
I peeked an eye up to his curious brown ones, and laughed casually. “Nothing really, I just need to find a few more things than I anticipated now.”
“Why’s that?”
Wrapping the blue strips around my fingers, “because it’s just how I am.”
He looked confounded but didn’t ask me anything else.
“Um, what other sort of goods do you have which are similar to this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like uh,” I bit my lip in thought “something, kind of manly and uh...hmmm, I-I have no idea.” A light giggle escaped me.
“Well, I can rustle up a bunch of things and you can see what catches your eye.”
Before I even answered, he began collecting bits and bobs from all over, seemingly as if he were avoiding longer than necessary conversation.
Kaiden was quite fast, running around from one place to another, picking up objects and tossing them into a box near where I stood. He had amassed quite a collection when I gripped his shoulder at his latest toss, stopping him.
He jerked slightly, “oh, thanks.” A heavy sigh of relief and exhaustion slipped from beneath his words.
“Of course. I was worried you were on some sort of autopilot.” I gave him a friendly smile though he just furrowed his brow at my comment.
“So, let’s see what you found!” The moment felt slightly awkward to me, though he didn’t seem fazed, at least not any longer.
I began to rustle about through the box, several of the pieces seemed no better then something I would find in a measly dollar store, however others showed some promise and were nice even if still knick-knacky.
Just as I was about to ask for something else to look at, my hand pulling away, the smooth texture of leather brushed my fingertips. Digging back into the objects I removed what appeared to be a sort of leather wrist cuff. I ran my hands over each edge, a few bits of fray were evident, but all in all it was in fairly nice condition.
“This seems like him…” I rubbed the metal on the single buckle it had.
“Like who?” Kaiden had already begun moving the things back to their places.
“Hmm?” My attention shifted, “oh, just a friend.” I placed the cuff beside the two ribbons I had chosen earlier. “Now, just one more thing. Do you have any sort of…horse blankets?”
“Uhh…” he prepared to answer but closed his mouth, as though in disagreement with what he was about to say. “I have no idea.”
“Oh, well okay um..”
“No no, let me check around for a minute.”
“Alright.”
He yet again vanished among the shop’s collections, while I stayed by my large pile with my eyes keenly gazing upon the two gifts I had picked out. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of giving them.
Suddenly Kaiden appeared, stepping towards the door in the back. “I’ll be right back.”
I quirked a brow as the door shut, his face had looked almost nervous. “…hmm, I wonder why?”
There was a quiet muffled voice from the other side, then a second; a conversation, perhaps? Another loud thud sounded, similar to when I first came upon the place and had made my way to the entrance I currently watched with uncertainty.
I had, yet again, contemplated going over and checking for myself but just as I began the movements to follow through with the idea the door pulled open hastily and shut just as fast with Kadien back on my side. In his arms was a large blanket, just like I had asked.
My face beamed happily, despite the future recipient of his current armload.
“You found one then?”
“Uh…” he giggled nervously, “not exactly.”
“Oh, then what did you find?”
“Well, we have had this back in the store room for a long time now. Father has always been…I don’t know, I would say he’s afraid of the thing but he denies it.”
“Afraid?” I eyed the piece curiously, “why would he be afraid of a blanket?”
“You see, according to the owner who first traded the blanket, it has an enchantment. The person never said whether they placed the magic on it or not, but dad always thought she had.”
“What sort of enchantment?” I looked it over, lightly touching parts of the plain looking material. “May I?”
“Oh, yes sure, of course, sorry.” He nearly shoved it into my hands; I was a little suspicious that he was also acting somewhat afraid of the unimpressive mantle himself.
“So, what does it do?”
“It changes according to the temperature of the wearer. If hot, then it cools the person and if cold then it warms the person. Supposedly, anyways.” He chuckled a little awkwardly, still seeming to be trying to hide his own uneasiness about the thing.
“That seems simple enough, what’s the big deal about it then? Why does it bother you?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged nonchalantly, however his eyes were in belief. “The woman who supposedly worked on it was a…well, no one really knew her that well, she was sort of mysterious and odd. There were all these rumors that she was the current slave to the Immortal nearest our town. That he had taken a witch in and was plotting something.”
“Slaves? Witches?” I moved my gaze to my ever-so-slightly fidgeting hands, my eyes not really seeing anything, then quietly mumbled “Just where on earth did I land?”
“Huh?”
“Oh …uh sorry, nevermind.” I shook my head slightly. “Um, I think I’ll take this though.”
“Really?” For a moment his wood brown eyes widened in shock, but he quickly reined it in, “Okay then.”
I set the folded blanket down with the rest of the things I had gotten for purchasing, “So ummm, slaves you mentioned? Why-why would the Immortal...er, well, an Immortal have slaves??”
“You really don’t live around here, do you? Are you from an entirely different continent or something?”
“Uhh…hmm, kinda.” I giggled softly and looked away with a bit of an awkward glance.
“Anywhere I would know?” He asked somewhat offhandedly while packing all my objects into boxes.
“Oh, no no I’m sure you haven’t.”
“So let me see, I think all this is about...” Kaiden glanced to the ceiling for a moment, lightly tapping his fingers, “around two hundred and ninety gold.”
“Wow, umm okay, just a sec.”
Somewhat clumsily, I reached into the cloak and pulled from a small sewn-in pocket the pouch the Immortal had given me as we parted ways. I really REALLY hoped that he had given me enough money, or gold I guess, in order to pay for things. It would be horribly rude and embarrassing to have to leave this nice man without buying anything because the Immortal has a cheap side.
I furrowed my brow at the thought while loosening the bag strings.
The pieces inside glimmered with a dim shine, I moved towards better lighting to see what sort of number I was dealing with when a bright glare caused me to look away briefly. Once my eyes had adjusted I peeked into the bag again to examine the contents.
I gasped harshly.
I held what appeared to be numerous gold coins, all of which had a crude “5 0 0” carved into them; a bag full of gold coins, all worth 500 gold each. Jostling the bag over and over, I found that there were around twenty coins, every one the same as the last, all shiny and new looking, all with the same number.
“That’s-that’s…twenty times five hundred….so..so…that’s ten..thousand..gold…HOLY SHIT!” Just barely catching the bag before it smacked into the wood flooring, I could feel the red blush on my face.
Kaiden was looking extremely baffled, a bag of what looked like rice starting to spill from his hold.
“I-I-I-I am so so sorry, I’m…I was just…just, a little startled. I mean I-I don’t really curse, at least I try not to…sometimes it just..I mean… involuntary really.”
“No no, really, it’s alright I don’t mind.” He sat down the bag.
“Well um, I uhh…I think I’ll need change.” I was really getting nervous after my outbreak. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I would have to pay for everything while not knowing a single fact about how this world functioned. My only hope was that Kaiden wouldn’t become suspicious or just kick me out for continued oddity.
With some hesitance, I placed one of the polished gold coins onto the table between the two of us. His eyes seemed taken aback though he picked up the money and said nothing out of the ordinary; for which I was truly thankful.
“Been a while since someone’s paid with a five hundred gold piece,” he chuckled suddenly. “It’s also been a long while since anyone has gotten so much at one time.”
I could tell he was trying to ease my discomfort, but I just felt so off…especially knowing I had ten thousand in gold just sitting calmly in my hand. Most especially, because I was beginning to worry how I was possibly going to get all these crates back to Orion…and then back to the tower…merely thinking about it made me want to hide in a corner.
“Um, I apologize if it’s inconvenient. And uh, do you think it would be alright if I could leave these here until I am able to contact my companion.”
“Sure, that’s fine, as long as you make certain to pick them up today. I can’t have crates of goods laying around for no reason.”
“Oh, of course!” I leaned forward on the surface separating us. “I just simply I can’t carry all these myself, I’m sure my friend will be able to get transport.”
“It’s okay, calm down.” He giggled with his hands out in a placating manner.
“I’m sorry…I guess I’m a bit more flustered than I had thought. I’ve had a few very interesting couple of weeks lately, I suppose it has me a little on edge.” Lightly I began chewing on my lower lip, my fingers slowly wrapping and unwrapping an escaped strand of my hair.
“No problem, just come by whenever your friend is able.” He smiled kindly, though before he turned I thought I saw a small twitch at his mouth.
It unnerved me to think he was uncomfortable in my presence, I couldn’t think why he would be in the first place…other than because I’m certainly not a member of this region; a stranger.
As he placed the coins down onto the counter surface, I opened my mouth to speak. “Um...” I slightly reached my hand out, a gesture towards him, but then quickly retracted. “Nevermind.”
He thankfully hadn’t noticed my attempt at friendly contact and nodded to me in cordial goodbye before walking back through the door in the far wall.
I released a long, drawn out sigh, my limbs shaking slightly from the anxiety that still pumped through my veins. There was still only half a chance that I could even get the Immortal to listen about helping me, let alone having him actually do anything about all this. The crates bore into my brain with the sad way they rested on the ground beside me, however there was really little I could do now. Silently I prayed that this Kaiden would keep his agreement and hold the items for my return. It would be hell, but if need be I would gladly attempt to drag each one back if it meant new clothes, food, and hygiene products. The taste of the odd toothpaste-like substance in my grandmother’s bathroom was a pastime to be lovingly forgotten.
“At least I can give these,” I ran my fingers gently along the deep blue ribbons I had chosen earlier. They were soft and oddly well made for such a minor accessory. “Perhaps it will prompt the Immortal to agree with moving the boxes.”
With one last glance at my purchases, I turned and headed through the cluttered rows of knick-knacks, then weapons, then material flowing like water from its shelves. After barely missing a large stand with dangling chimes, I managed to slip out the door and into the quiet alley. Colorful lights and cheerful noises were coming from the more open part of the city; “it appears that the festival the Immortal spoke of has finally been started. Wonder how long it’s been going on?”
Despite my dislike of crowded areas, I found myself a little compelled to want to investigate, but I really didn’t have the time to. “Shame.”
I shrugged briefly then headed towards the very festival I couldn’t take part in, as it was the only way for me to return to where I originally left the Immortal. With any luck I would be as inconspicuous as the old gentleman had suggested.
Pausing at a darkened building’s edge, I let my head ever so slightly come out to peer at the people who were now congregating at full volume in the large spacious area of the city’s center. As I moved to head along the equally dim wall of shops and houses, a light tug at my cloak distracted my attention.
Looking down, I caught the curious grin of a small girl with large brown eyes staring up at me. “Have you seen my mommy?”
My mouth hung open and I couldn’t help but blink several times. I had two options, make a timely meeting with the Immortal to see the mage or help the lost young girl find her mother.
“Uhh….”
