by Shawn Kass
Shaking her head, Anna said, “It might be the magic in this place. Some animals react to it, others don’t. Leave it to me to look for him, you just stay here.” Then heading around the corner, she called out, “You can keep talking if you want.”
“Okay,” answered Sam, as he took a minute to survey the main room.
Along the counter, he spotted several jars of powders and such, each one of them had a label, but he couldn’t make heads or tails out of the language in which they were written. Shrugging, he moved onto a display of various robes, wands, and staffs, along with a chart on the wall describing each of their attributes as well as their prices. Seeing the figures were in the five digits for most things, he stepped away from the area altogether.
Raising his voice a bit to ensure he was heard, Sam asked, “So if you don’t call her a witch, what do people call her?”
Drifting past the front window, Sam turned and headed deeper into the store until he came to a bookshelf. The books all looked to be rather old with thick worn leather bindings and titles which he could barely discern from wear.
There was a muffled crash, as if several boxes had fallen, and then an answer came from somewhere in the back and possibly below him. “I’m fine. No worries. And in answer to your question, most people call her a mage or Mrs. Emirp.”
Selecting a small black book at random, Sam flipped it open to a random page and started to attempt to read it. The words themselves looked weird, as if they were in a different language, or perhaps they were just printed somewhat blurry so that the reader had to stare at them to make sense of the writing. Either way, after giving it a minute of hard scrutiny and concentration, he found that he could just make out their meaning.
It was just as he finally began to understand the writing that someone reached over and snatched the book from his hands, snapping it shut as they did so. Somewhat dazed from staring at the odd writing and startled by this sudden intrusion, Sam didn’t understand the person who was now yelling at him.
After quickly shaking his head to clear it, he caught the end of her tirade, “…how dare you enter my shop and steal from me! Do you know who I am? Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”
Holding up his hand, Sam refuted her claim and said, “I’m not stealing. I was invited in here by Anna.”
Pursing her lips, the woman scowled at him, and then without looking away, bellowed, “Anna, get up here. You have some explaining to do.”
Taking the brief second he had to assess the situation now that his faculties had fully returned to him, Sam saw that the woman before him was a thin willow of a woman who wore a dark violet robe and a matching tall pointy hat. In her hand was a six foot staff with an amethyst set into the tip of it. Worst of all, the jewel was glowing, and Sam figured that if things didn’t go well, he was more than likely going to be fried by whatever spell the mage had already started conjuring.
As the sound of hurried footsteps drew closer, Anna’s voice rang out, “Coming, Mother.”
“Mother?” exclaimed Sam.
“Silence, you,” said the tall mage in in a venomous tone which nearly scared the piss out of him right then and there.
Entering the room with her cheeks flushed from exertion and her hands cupped loosely together, Anna took in the scene and asked, “Mother, what are you doing?”
“I just caught this man stealing, so either you need to give me a good explanation as to who he is including why he has the right to take things from my shop, or I’m going magically bind him and turn him over to the Anozira authorities.”
Looking at Sam with a hurt expression on her face, Anna asked, “Stealing? Sam, why would you…”
Cutting her off, Sam said, “I wasn’t stealing anything. You told me to wait up here, so I waited. All I was doing was just looking around.”
Stepping forward to invade Sam’s personal space, the mage woman shook the small black book in his face and asked, “Then what were you doing with this when I came in here?”
“I was just looking at it,” exclaimed Sam. “It’s not like I put it in my pocket and tried to walk out with it or anything.”
As if her point had been made, Mrs. Emirp said, “Exactly!”
Frustrated and confused, Sam asked, “Exactly what? I mean, I understand this isn’t a library, but since when was it a crime to look inside a book?”
Understanding finally dawning on the situation, Anna calmly breathed out and said, “Sam, please tell me you didn’t read this book.”
“Not the whole thing. I mean, you were only gone for a minute. I just opened it to a random page and had a glance. A page, by the way, where the writing looked blurry and poorly printed. You should talk to the publisher about getting it reprinted if you plan to sell it.”
Shaking her head, Anna said, “Sam, I wasn’t gone for just a minute. I was downstairs for close to a half hour. I’m sorry, Sam. I should have come up to check on you when you stopped talking.”
Now turning at least a portion of her anger towards her daughter, the mother said, “Yes, you should have. How could you let a stranger just roam around my shop alone? Aside from the stealing, you know there are dangerous things in here.”
Irritated by the continued accusation, Sam said, “I didn’t steal anything. Heck, I’m still standing here in the shop. You can check my pockets.”
Not knowing who to answer first, Anna took a second before she looked to Sam and asked, “Sam, do you know what kind of book that is?”
Shaking his head, Sam said, “No, it was just one of the smaller ones on the shelf, so I figured I’d look at it.” Then registering what she had said a moment earlier, Sam asked, “What do you mean you were gone for a half hour? There’s no way.”
Nodding to the book her mother was now holding open to a blank page, Anna explained, “Sam, that book you were looking at is a Grimoire. They’re a special kind of spell book, and there aren’t very many of them in the world. By reading it, you absorbed some of its magic.”
“What? I’m not a mage.”
“You don’t have to be with a Grimoire. If the book allows you to read it, then you learn the magic in it.”
“What do you mean if the book allows you to read it? Is it sentient? And let me get this straight, you’re telling me I know magic now?” asked Sam in disbelief.
“You know a spell or two,” corrected the shop owner. “Minor ones at that. Magic is not something to which any random person should have access. That’s why these Grimoires are so dangerous and expensive. By reading this, you have absorbed the spell, and it is now gone from the book. That is why I said you stole from me.”
Holding up his hands, Sam took a step back and said, “I’m sorry. I had no idea. We don’t have those types of books where I come from. I really didn’t mean any harm.”
Sticking up for him, Anna said, “Mother, he’s telling the truth. He just got to town this morning.”
Rounding on her daughter, the mage said, “Which is all the more reason why you shouldn’t have left him up here alone, Anna.”
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault, Mother. I was just stopping in to drop off your package, and then I got caught up downstairs trying to find his lizard.”
Shaking her head, the mage looked down at the book in her hands before she slowly closed it and sighed. “Well, I guess it could have been worse. He could have tried to read the one you picked up today. That one has seventh level high mage spells.” Looking back down at the small book in her hands, she added, “I should still be able to sell this even without those zero level spells.”
“Again, I’m really sorry, ma’am. I had no idea.”
With the anger now exhausted, the mage said, “Forget it. I’m just glad you didn’t open it up to the back of the book first. Those spells are much more dangerous.”
Curious, he asked, “Not that I would want anything too dangerous, but since you said I apparently can do some sort of spell now, I’m kind of wondering what it is. I mean, I don’t want to accidentl
y hurt anyone.”
Smirking, the mage said, “Sam, is it? Honestly, I don’t believe you meant any harm or that you knew what you were doing, but I’ll tell you, the spells you did get were quite low. The first one creates a small spark. It’s commonly used by lazy mages to light candles when they enter a room. The other one is what’s called a catalyst spell, and it’s not dangerous at all. We mages refer to it as a passive spell which allows an active spell to grow over time. In your case, this means that in time you might be able to create two sparks.”
“So you’re saying I can light candles now?”
Shrugging, the mage said, “Maybe. Just because you know something, doesn’t mean you can do it. Some mages can spend years studying a spell before they can actually pull it off. It’s kind of like being able to do the math behind something like throwing a ball accurately, but then when you try, you often find it doesn’t always work.”
“I think I understand,” said Sam. “And again, I’m sorry.” Then thinking of a solution which might benefit them all and give him a chance to build up some experience doing a side quest, Sam said, “If I had some money, I would pay you for the damages, but since I just got here, I have yet to earn any. Perhaps I might be able to do something for you in the future to make up for it, like run some errands or whatever to help you out.”
Nodding, the mage said, “That is very honorable of you. I can see why my daughter trusted you.” Then after thinking about it for a moment, she added, “If you come back to me in another day or two, I might have something for you to do.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” said Sam. Then looking at Anna, he asked, “Do you think you can show me to the inn now?”
Holding out her cupped hands to him, Anna said, “Sure, just take your little friend here, and I’ll meet you outside.”
Stepping forward, Sam held out his own hands and tried to gently accept the small lizard from her. As he did, however, the lizard broke free of Anna’s grasp and leapt for Sam’s shoulder. Landing just short of its goal, it quickly scaled up the front of Sam’s shirt before it slunk down and tried to hide beneath his collar.
Craning his neck to try to look at the lizard, Sam said, “Wow, it looks like he’s scared. I hope he didn’t get into anything.”
“No, he seemed to be just hiding,” answered Anna, and then looking at the mage, she asked, “Mom, is everything okay?”
It took a second for Mrs. Emirp to respond, and Anna almost repeated her question before her mother finally pulled her eyes away from Sam’s collar, and said, “Yes, um… everything is fine.” Her eyes flicked back at Sam, or at least at his shirt, as she continued, “It’s just been a long day, is all.”
Curious, but still aware of the fact that he had inadvertently stolen from the woman, Sam decided he would be better off waiting to talk to her another time. As he backed up and headed for the door, Mrs. Emirp glanced back his way again, and then turned and whispered something to her
daughter as he left.
Once outside, the lizard, Tezukayoshi, crawled out from beneath his collar and took his spot perched on Sam’s shoulder. Looking down at the little guy, Sam asked, “You okay, pal?” to which the lizard looked over at him and bobbed its head.
Getting a crazy idea but accepting that it might be possible since this was actually a game world, Sam asked, “Hey, can you understand me?”
Rather than reply, the lizard simply flicked out its tongue twice and then looked forward as if waiting for Sam to get moving.
Shaking his head, Sam wondered about the lizard’s purpose in all of this and if it would be capable of doing
anything other than get itself into trouble, but he figured that as with most JRPGs, things like that would just have to reveal themselves over time.
Thinking about the time, Sam realized that the sun still hung high in the sky, and if he wasn’t mistaken, it hadn’t moved an inch since he arrived at least a couple of hours ago. Sam had just enough time to wonder exactly how long the days here in Anozira were before Anna finally stepped out to meet him.
“Everything okay?” asked Sam.
“Yeah, she’s just acting weird. Seriously though, don’t worry about the Grimoire. It was my fault for not telling you about it, and it must have deemed you worthy if it let you read it.”
“That’s just weird that a book can choose who is allowed to read its pages. Do Grimoires typically not allowed people to read the spells?”
“Yes actually, that’s how we get quite a few of them. People inherit them when their family members pass, and then when they can’t read them, they bring them around to see if anyone will buy them.”
Following Anna back to the street, Sam asked, “I’m just curious, but is it possible for someone to bypass the book’s sentience and read it even if they’re not worthy?”
“I don’t think so. Grimoires are protected by powerful spells. If someone tried to do that, they would most likely be banished from this world.”
“Banished?” Sam asked.
“It means they would disappear. I don’t know if they cease to exist or if they show up somewhere else, but it’s one of those things no one wants to happen.”
Sam briefly wondered as they approached the inn’s entrance if this might somehow be a means for him to get home, but with a risk that it may just mean his death, he figured he’d wait until he had tried out all other options including conquering the Tower.
From the street, the inn appeared to be a three story tall brown stucco building with a black iron railing at the top where people might be able to go up and enjoy a view of the surrounding buildings. Windows on the first floor allowed patrons to see into the lobby area, and from Sam’s perspective, it appeared that there might actually be a restaurant inside.
Still hungry, Sam thought about asking Anna if she would be willing to treat for a meal, but he knew that she had given him quite a bit of her time already today, not to mention he didn’t know how much trouble she might actually be in with her mother on his behalf. Thinking of this, Sam remembered that he didn’t actually have any game money to stay at the inn for the night and wondered how he was going to get a room. The only thing he could think of was to ask Anna if he could borrow some money with the promise that he would pay her back as soon as he could.
Apparently reading his thoughts, Anna said, “Okay, make sure the lizard is out of sight, and I’ll talk to the innkeeper. He’s an old friend of my mother’s so I should be able to get you a room for the night, but I don’t know how much more he’ll be willing to go without some sort of …”
Cutting Anna off, a woman in a green dress and white apron ran up to her and said, “Oh Anna, I’m so glad I found you. Have you seen Peter anywhere?”
Shaking her head, Anna answered, “No, Ms. Kirkland, I’m sorry. I’ve been showing Sam here around the town. Why, is something wrong?”
“Well he said he was going off to play, but that was hours ago, and he hasn’t come home.”
“Did he say anything about where he would be?” asked Anna.
“No,” replied Ms. Kirkland. “I just figured he would be around here somewhere, but no one seems to have seen him anywhere.”
Seeing an opportunity here in the crisis and knowing that this was a pretty typical scenario games used to get players into their first quest, Sam stepped forward and asked, “I’m sorry to intrude, Ms. Kirkland, but your boy’s name is Peter, right?”
“Yes, have you seen him?”
“No, no, I’m sorry, I haven’t. I was just wondering, if he isn’t in town, is there anywhere you think he might have gone to play? Is he the type who likes to go out and throw stones into a pond or perhaps he imagines himself to be an explorer?”
Covering her mouth, then Ms. Kirkland said, “Oh dear, no.”
“What is it? Did you think of something?” asked Anna.
“Well, last night we were talking about his father and how he was lost when that old mine collapsed. You don’t think he…he went in there, do you?” as
ked Ms. Kirkland, with her voice wavering halfway through the question.
Not wanting to say so, but knowing that was exactly where the game would have him find the kid, Sam said, “I certainly hope not, but it would be remiss of us not to check it out. How about I go out there and take a look around just to make sure?”
“But you don’t know where it is,” commented Anna.
“It’s okay. Just point me in the right direction. I’ll find it.”
“No, I’ll go with you,” responded Anna. “And we’ll stop off at the general store for a few supplies before we go.”
Chapter 6
Stopping off at Anozira’s general store, Anna briefly introduced Sam to the large man behind the counter named Kimmo and then quickly picked out a few supplies. As she disappeared into the back, Tezukayoshi looked left and right as if assessing the place and then with a bored look on his face, he curled up on Sam’s shoulder and prepared to take another nap. Sam, on the other hand, saw plenty of things that he would like to have, but since he didn’t have any money, he didn’t think he had much of a right in dictating what all they should get. Not having money, however, didn’t stop him from admiring the sharpness of the machetes in the farming supply area and imagining how useful they might be if he and Anna came into a reason for needing a little self-defense.
When she returned to the front of the store, Anna had a large rope hanging loosely across her chest, an old style oil lantern along with a container of oil in her left hand, and two small packages which said dried foods on them in her right hand, along with an empty sack. Without pausing to check out, Anna told Kimmo, “I’ll settle up when I get back,” to which he simply waved his hand in reply, not bothering to get up from his chair as she continued to head for the door.
Sam took this to mean that not only did Anna have an exceptionally trusting relationship with the store clerk, but that it might be fair to assume that he, too, could begin to run a line of credit with the store until he was able to start earning some money. Inquiring about that, however, was going to have to wait as he saw that it didn’t look like she was going to wait around for him.