Chris smiled with relief at his good fortune and said, “Yes, I will. But first, we need to sort out the money from the bags you’ve already sold.”
Franks waved a hand asking, “Can we do that later? So, I can have some bags this morning to sell you see.”
Chris slowly shook his head, “No, we’re going settle up now and then I’ll start working.”
A brief look annoyance on crossed Frank’s face, “You're not a trusting person, are you?”
Chris just nodded his head in agreement and took out his list of the bags that he had worked on. For the next ten minutes Chris and Frank argued over the amount of money that was due. When they both agreed on an amount, Frank got the correct money from a pouch, around his waist and handed it over to Chris.
This was the most money he had in possession for a long time and he was very keen not to lose it. Chris quickly hid the money in his small leather band secreted on his person.
Chris turned to Ben, who had hovered nearby while he dealt with Frank, “How about you help me today and the foods on me this evening?”
Ben said with a smile, “As long as there’s a beer involved, I’m up for that.”
As the two were starting to head towards the back-store room, Frank coughed and said with a slightly embarrassed look, “My wife has asked if you could use these cleaning scripts, before you go back into the store room.”
Frank handed them two small inscription fragments of paper that the two homeless men quickly accepted. As they activated the inscription, it felt like water was creeping over all their body cleaning away the accumulated weeks of dirt and smell. Chris felt good to be clean again and it reminded him of better time, full of hot showers and other such luxuries.
The work that day went better than expected with Ben helping. Though he had been unemployed for a while, he hadn’t lost his touch yet. As Frank brought more bags for Chris to apply inscriptions to, Ben would look over them and improve their stitching and start with a general fix up any mistakes in the production of the bags. Frank had provided some cheap inscription tools for Chris to work with now and this made his job a lot easier and faster. As they both got into a happy rhythm of productivity, they managed to get a large amount done. Frank even provided some lunch from a food stall in the market for both of them.
As the market was closing down at the end of the day, they finished their work. Before Chris left, he went to Frank to settle the money, for all the bags he had sold.
“See you two early tomorrow!” Franks called.
Both Chris and Ben waved goodbye as they walked toward a café. The place they chose to eat in was a very basic. As the two were clean, they did not have to convince the owners to allow them inside, but they did have to pay upfront for their food as their clothing was still dishevelled. Ben got ha beer with his meal and that was all that seemed to matter to him.
As they were eating the meal, Chris thought and then turned to Ben, “I feel really guilty about getting all the money from today's work. I can’t help feeling that you got the raw end of the deal. All you’ve got out of it, is a meal and a beer.”
Ben smiled back and said, “The meal and the beer are okay for me. Seriously. The problem with the giving me money is I know that I’ll just spend it on something to drink until it’s all gone. This is probably for the best, at least with only one beer I’ll be able to work tomorrow, if you need me.”
Chris nodded his head slowly and replied, “Well… I do need your help tomorrow and if we’re able keep working, I’ll make sure you’re fed all the time. If we find some where to stay, we’ll both have a roof over our heads.”
Ben smiled before putting on a straight face, “That’s fine with me. But remember if I get hold of the money or something to drink, I might disappear for a while. That’s pretty much how it went last time.”
Chris just nodded, accepting the circumstances.
For the next several weeks, life turned into a pleasant routine for the two homeless, working long days in the bag store and fixing and inscribing the bags for Frank. Every night Chris would always make sure to get the day’s money off Frank. Sometimes there would be a heated discussion about the amount that was due. It was always in Franks nature to try and pay them less, but as Chris was stubborn, he always got what he thought was due. A couple of times during the weeks, Ben disappeared for a few days and came back looking a bit worst for the experience. Everybody knew what had happened, but it did not seem to bother them. Chris just kept providing for Ben when he was around.
By now Chris had enough money for them to stop sleeping rough, but he had plans for his money. He was hoping to be able to use it as a seed for something greater.
One night just after they had finished for the night, he asked Frank, “I’m looking to find our own place for a shop. I was thinking about one of the small lockups on the edge of the entertainment district. If you can help find me a place, I’ll keep inscribing bags for you, on the same deal for at least the next year.”
Frank nodded, “I knew you wouldn't be working here for forever. I’ve been half expecting for you to disappear, like Ben does but you seem to be more reliable than most. It would be good if you have your own place anyway. I’ll find a lockup for you, but it might be expensive.”
Chris answered by saying, “That's how the world works, it's all about the money one brings to the table.”
For the next week, Frank worked on finding them a small lockup as the two worked all day in the shop. By the end of the week he had managed to find one that would be available in a few weeks, for them to buy. Frank did the negotiation on price, with the older lady that needed some money for her retirement. She had been running the small lockup as a knickknack store for about twenty years. The cost would drain most of Chris’s saved up funds, which was a bit of a worry for Chris. He arranged with Frank, to stock his merchandise, under the same deal, until they could build up their own stock.
Chapter 4 Off the Streets
The day to buy and take over the lockup had finally come. Frank and Chris went to the entertainment district to do the deal. Chris had brought some cheap clean clothes from the market and had been able to wash using a magical inscription. He still had a long hair and a beard but after combing them both that morning, he was looking smarter than he had in a while. As it was very early in the morning, the entertainment district was still and quiet as they walked through it. Only a few of the store owners, from what Chris could see, were doing maintenance work on their stores. All the coloured lights on the bars and clubs were off, making them look desolate. The magical emporium or medical centres, where you could get inscriptions of all types on your body, were all closed. Chris had never had anything done himself but knew that almost anything was possible. People could get their physical strength modified; cosmetic enhancements; and all type of magical abilities as part of their bodies.
As they approached the lockup, Chris walked down a winding alley with steel roller doors closed on both sides. Frank and Chris approached an older woman and younger women in front of a small steel roller door.
Frank greeted the two and introduced them to Chris by saying, “this is Mrs. Brown and her daughter. Now that we are all here, shall we commence with the exchange?”
Mrs. Brown nodded and walked to the roller door and opened it. This revealed one small room about five-meter-wide by ten meters deep. It was completely clean, but there were no amenities. On all of the walls were magical script indication this belonged to Mrs. Brown.
Mrs. Brown said in a firm voice, “Right. We have agreed on the price, so if you will give me the money, I will start to remove my mark and you can put your claim for ownership up.”
Chris replied in a polite voice, “I would prefer to give you half of the money now and the rest when I have put my scripts up.”
The older women's daughter seemed a bit put out by this, but Mrs. Brown just smiled and said, “That is perfectly acceptable and frankly, it's good for you to be so careful when dealing with anyo
ne.”
Chris gave her half the money for the lockup and them the older woman started to remover her mark. For each mark she pulled some of her essences out of her hand and used it to erase the magical marks on the wall. After she had finished with each mark, Chris added his mark to the structure. Soon both of them had finished the process of exchanging the property. Now the lockup was marked as legally Chris’s. He passed over the rest of the money and the old woman left with her daughter. As she left, she had a slight look of sadness in her eyes.
Frank soon left saying, “I’ll send over Ben when he is finished working, at my place today.”
Chris gave Frank some money and commented, “Make sure he has a set of clean clothes before he comes here, or else he will get in trouble with the guys running the district. Also, please don’t let him have the money as you know what he might do with it.”
Frank just nodded and left Chris to his own work with his new properties. As soon as Chris had inscribed a magical light device on one of the walls, to give him some light to work by, he pulled and closed the steel roller door down. With his new money, he had been able to purchase a set of magical inscription tools to work with. This set was nowhere near the quality he had previously worked with, but it was a massive step up from what he had been working with recently. With this set he could do almost any of the work that he needed to do, for the basic level of magical inscription.
Chris first intended to start marking the walls, the first inscription was the space enhancement inscriptions. When he had finished the last wall, suddenly he found the space around him blurring. When the blurring cleared the small lockup was now ten times bigger. It was now fifty-meter-wide by one hundred meters deep. Smiling appreciatively to himself Chris took some chalk and marked out some rooms in the now large area. For the shop he kept the original dimensions of the lockup, while for the rest of the area he split up into: workshops; a few bedrooms; a living areas and storage rooms. When Chris had marked out all of the assigned areas, he was ready to try another magical inscription he had been developing. This inscription would hopefully produce barriers in the fabric of space itself, not allowing anything to pass through them unless the math-a-magical programming allowed it.
Writing the lockup shop inscriptions took all day for Chris to achieve. He followed the chalk lines with his inscriptions as they crisscrossed the open area. Some sections in the barriers had special properties that would allow both Chris and Ben to cross like a doorway, while others allow the movement of air. On the entrance to the lockup he put in a transparent barrier which he could control who entered or exited. Finally, at the end of the day Chris was able to activate all the barriers. Except for the entrance barrier, all the other barriers were white and opaque, preventing light from passing through and giving the whole lockup a sterile look. Chris had even produced barriers for the floors and celling. For the next half hour, he inscribed more light inscriptions, one in each of the rooms. Chris stopped after another hour, happy that he was able to produce a more natural light that offset the starkness of the all-white rooms.
Chris heard knocking on the roller steel door. He went forward and opened up the front door. As it rolled up into the bracket, he saw a street was full of people walking up and down. All the store owners were selling their wares. On one side of Chris’s small lockup, was an eatery that was serving hot and spicy noodles. It seemed to be very popular with a people queuing in a line waiting to be served. On the other side was a clothing store, selling mostly novelty magical clothing. Some of the effect of the magic on the clothing was supposed to be funny, Chris thought. Chris saw some, t-shirts that would flash up writing like ‘you're beautiful’ or ‘can I get your far-seeing contact details’. Some of the clothing was just downright rude with their suggestive nature.
In front of Chris was Ben beaming, who said, “Great! We finally have our own place. This is a good day for us… so we should have a beer at the end of the day to celebrate. But first let's have a look at the lockup.”
As he looked past Chris into the small shop area Ben said, “It's really small isn’t it, but I guess it will do for a start.”
Chris indicated for Ben to come inside. As he walked in, Chris closed the front roller behind him, “Follow me and you’ll see it’s not quite as small as you think.”
Going to the back of the shop, Chris passed through the back doorway leading into the rest of the space he had created. It took a few seconds for Ben to appear but as he did, a look of surprise was painted on his face. Before he could talk Chris said, “Let me show you around the ‘building’.”
Chris then showed him around the living area and the workshops. They were all empty and lacking any sort of furnishing, but Ben was still impressed. He was excited to have his own living space.
At the end of the short tour Ben sat on the floor, stunned. Finally, he reached into his satchel and said, “I bought over some bags from Frank’s place we can start selling tonight. I can do the selling while you inscribe them.”
Chris nodded, “We need to start making some more money as we are almost out. The lockup cost has mostly depleted our short funds.”
With that, Chris and Ben went into the shop area and opened up the front roller to start doing business. Out of a small bag Ben started to unload a large pile of bags and set them up on the floor. Chris started to inscribe his magical systems on the bags, with his new set of magical tools. This made it so much easier than before as he now had the right tools for the job. He still longed after his old high-quality ones though.
When he had produced his first set of bags Ben started to try and sell them. Chris noticed that now he was clean and well-dressed, Ben had more confidence, when talking to people. He would stand in front of the store demonstrating the bags effect to passers-by. Often, he would get a small crowd of curious on lookers always amazed by the presentation, as Ben was a great showman. Even with an almost empty lockup with no signs or tables people stopped by to stare in. There would always be several sales of bags afterward. The night wore on in this manner, with Chris working on the bag's inscriptions, while Ben did a great job at selling them. Chris noticed that as soon as Ben got some money, he would immediately give it to Chris, almost as if it was too tempting to hold onto. Chris had developed an inscription at the back of the shop that made a space act like a safe. A further inscription had cleverly modified the access parameters to create a time release. It would only let Chris access the money he put in early in the morning. This gave Chris a sense of extra security if somebody tried to rob them in the small store.
The next few weeks settled, into a regular routine for Chris, of days making and inscripting bags for sale. Chris and Ben were still working on Franks bags as part of the deal but now they had their own workshop to complete the work inside. Slowly over the few weeks they started to get more items, to make the area more comfortable, for where they were living and working. All the items they managed to purchase, were from second hand stores and were slightly damaged in one way or another. They now had facilities for food preparation and cleaning themselves and a safe place to sleep which a great improvement over their previous homeless status. Chris, when he got time was also working on new developments in the ether pillar of magic.
Chapter 5 Gangs
It was the third week that Chris and Ben had been in business for themselves. Chris was working in one of the magically inscripted workshops he had set up, when from the outside he heard a loud commotion and the voice of Ben shouting at some people. Quickly, Chris rushed outside to see what was happening. Just in front of the shop was Ben, on the ground, with a group of men standing around him. Ben was curled up into a ball, trying to protect the important parts of his body from being hit. As Chris ran out of the shop, the surrounding people had stopped attacking Ben, but it looked like one of them had put him on the floor with a punch.
Chris sprang to confront the group of men. Most of them had the same style of leather jackets with magical inscriptions flashing on them.
Chris recognized a few of the symbols as protection and strengthening magic. The group paused to look at Chris but allowed him through to pick up his friend.
One of the men in the centre of the group grinned down at the two of them, “You lot are new to the area and we just thought we would introduce ourselves. We offer a protection service, for a fee of course, to prevent this type of thing happening. Somebody will be by in a few days for the first collection. It’s best if you are ready with the money to pay us.” The man nodded towards Ben. “Now look after your friend, he looks like he has some stomach troubles. It would be a pity if this kept happening.”
With that the group of men swaggered down the street. A woman walked out of the food shop that was neighbouring their lockout. Chris recognized her as Hilda, who had introduced herself to him and Ben a week ago.
Hilda shook her head. “I guess they’re one of the new criminal gangs trying to increase their territory. You should know you’ll have to pay protection money to somebody, but those lot seem to be particularly violent. Most of the gangs normally give you at least a warning before the physical stuff starts.”
Chris helped Ben up on to a chair and checked out his friend. While winded he didn’t appear to be bleeding at all. Hopefully he’d recover without any trouble. Turning to Hilda, Chris questioned. “Do you have protection from a different gang then?”
Hilda nodded and said, “The main one in the entertainment district, called the Panthers. I can’t say that I like paying them the money, but at least it not a massive amount. It’s just one of the costs of doing business in this district. You just have to be real about it.”
Chris nodded slowly and voiced agreement. He had been expecting something like this to happen soon, but not with the immediate violence against Ben. He managed to find enough information about the location about the gang’s popular hangout from Hilda and, after seeing that Ben had recovered, went in search of the Panthers.
Into the Ether Page 4