51 - The Forming Toroid Pt. 2 [Cherno]

Casus’ gaze instantaneously magnetized to her wrist, and he soon asked: “May I appraise it?”

“Feel free,” she placed her hand on the counter.

As it had done before, the Banisher’s third eye opened and shone with a blue light. He furrowed his brow as if trying to read something blurry, only for his eyes to go wide.

“Oh. Oh that is very good,” he said with a nod of approval, looking up to meet Garvesh’s waiting gaze, then looking back to Krahe. “An artifact useful for defense and offense both. And the boon… Phase of Earthen Jade? What a curious name. You are a fire mage, are you not? This will be terribly useful, then, to shore up your lack of easy access to Kinetic and Lacerative thaumaturgies.”

Krahe looked to Garvesh: “Excuse us for a moment.”

Before Casus could protest or question her, she pulled him outside.

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

“Appraise me. You will not see the truth, but a part of it. There is an element of my anti-appraisal boons which I cannot disable even if I wish.”

“I understand, but why…” he uttered, though he didn’t hesitate one moment in doing as he was told, his third eye opening once more. Its pupil constricted and iris shone so bright it cast a flashlight-esq projection into Krahe’s face.

“A Th-” he exclaimed, only to catch himself and shift into a hiss, leaning in. “A Third-order affinity? That is what you wished to show me?”

A nod.

He grimaced.

“Well that explains how you wiped out the Butchershop. The talent itself isn’t all that rare, but to be able to use it properly at as low a level as yours, it’s no wonder you had the knowledge to pick apart a few gangsters. What were you, a professional soldier?”

“Close enough. Out of a hundred, how many would you say possess a Third-order affinity?”

“A handful. Perhaps two, three in ten people have no affinity at all, three more have First-order affinities, and the rest are evenly split between Second and Third. First-order affinities are typically easier to use to start with, while those Third and Second-order affinities either don’t get far or become successful with few inbetweens.”

“A higher skill floor in exchange for better versatility.”

“So it is.”

“I still need to buy a Voidkey.”

“Ah, right.”

After that exchange, they returned into the shop as if nothing had happened.

“Sorry, we were just going over some things. Show me your Voidkeys again, if you would. I’m looking to buy something on the upper end of your offerings.”

“Came into money all of a sudden, have y- Oh right. You killed a dozen of Hashem’s people and probably raided them for what cash they had. What is your budget, if you do not mind me asking?”

“Fifty thousand,” Casus said.

“I don’t have that much,” she half-lied. She wasn’t actually sure how much she had, but she would’ve said what she had just said even if she did have fifty thousand.

“I’ll cover twenty thousand. You need a proper void key, no?”

“Thirty thousand. You could afford that ridiculous getup, could you not?”

“Ridiculous? My fashion sense is-” he started, his face twisting into an angry grimace for a moment. Then, he caught himself and, in an instant, smothered the outburst in the crib with a sigh. “Alright, very well. I will cover thirty thousand”

He turned to Garvesh, even leaning over the counter and poking the saurian in the chest, his face just inches from the lizard’s: “You better not try to use this as an opportunity to fleece us - I know your prices.”

“Your breath stinks.”

“My br-” Casus stammered. “You eat raw meat!”

“And even I think your breath stinks.”

“Well forgive me for not having snuck a thrice-damned breath freshener with me when I got snatched off the street.”

“Lucky for you, I just got breath freshening candies in, just a hundred for a whole roll of ‘em. Might seem pricey, but one of ‘em will keep your breath fresh all day,” the lizard grinned, gently pushing the banisher away as he reached with his tail onto a low shelf. A small wax-paper roll with a label wound around it, advertising it as a breath freshener.

Giving a dubious squint, Casus turned on a heel.

“You mind?”

“I would’ve pistol whipped you if you didn’t ask. Go ahead.”

The banisher breathed in Krahe’s face. A wall of rancid morning breath smashed into her face, and by her reaction alone, he turned back to the merchant and said: “I’ll take them.”

“Good choice.”

“You didn’t give me much of one.”

“I didn’t mean the mints,” the lizard grinned, briefly glancing Krahe’s way. “I’ll add the cost to your tab. You wanted to buy a voidkey, no?”

“To sell some, as well. Many corpses mean many voidkeys.”

“Well? Out with them, show me what you got. Can’t be much of anything since these are bottom-rung gangbangers we’re talkin’ about, maybe one or two decent pieces. I won’t take anything from a lieutenant, too much heat, but the grunts switch their keys out and get merked often enough that it’s not much of a problem.”

One by one Krahe took the keys out of storage, and after taking a look at each one in turn, Garvesh deliberated for a short while, visibly doing math in his head by the way he looked around and touched his thumb to each of his fingers in turn as if working an invisible abacus.

“So keep these two, these have too much residue, bring ‘em back in a couple weeks. This one… Don’t want this one. The rest, you could get twenty-five, thirty thousand for these if you went ‘round sellin’ ‘em piecemeal. I’ll give you fifteen thousand for the lot.”

“Twenty thousand,” Krahe haggled.

“Sixteen thousand,” Garvesh said back instantly.

“Seventeen five-hundred.”

“Deal. I’ll scrub these and flip ‘em before the week is out.”

Casus gave her a sideways look. She wouldn’t be footing more than a couple thousand of the bill for her new voidkey. It warmed her heart.