“A healer, I mean?” Vi said tentatively, hoping her difference in word choice wouldn’t be what ultimately led to her discovery.
“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” The man shook his head, as though she was already burdensome, then looked to his friend. “Who’s closest to here?”
“Sarphos has a shop. But he’s rarely in it.”
“Yeah, he wouldn’t be.”
“I think after that it’s Rem?”
“Rem?”
“Five streets down and over, on seventeenth, the shop with the purple-colored awning.”
“Oh, her.”
“So…” Vi jumped into the conversation. “Purple colored awning on seventeenth,” she repeated. “But Sarphos is closer?”
“If you want to try him.” The man gave a shrug that showed how likely her success was. “He is in the opposite direction though… Only one street down.” He pointed to another intersection diagonally across from where Vi stood. “He’s in between here and fourteenth. But he’s rarely there.”
“Excellent, thank you.” Vi gave a small nod and started in the direction the man had pointed. The two men resumed their conversation as if nothing had happened. As if her heart wasn’t racing.
She adjusted her makeshift bandanna again and allowed her eyes to wander.
Men and women of all shapes and sizes, skin tones and hair colors walked around her, ignorant to the stranger in their midst. The only unifying factor among them was the glowing markings dotted above their eyes in place of eyebrows. But that wasn’t the most fantastical element of the kingdom.
There was a menagerie surrounding her. Jaguars lounged on balconies, wolves trotted down alleyways, birds of all manner of plumage soared overhead, and towering beasts of scales and feathers that Vi had no name for raced each other down the main streets. Magic pulsed around her, strange and foreign. In a flash those same animals would be replaced by human-looking folk, quickly conducting their business before another pulse of magic brought them back into their animal forms.
Her head was still splitting. Her body still felt ravaged by the toll it took to get here. And Vi knew she should be alarmed with every step—she had more worries than fingers to count them.
But for a brief moment, her chest was tense with delight. Laughter hid behind her smirking lips as she beheld the splendor of the world in perpetual twilight. Every glowing stone and flower, person and dialect, was new.
Turning the corner, Vi scanned the various narrow storefronts. It reminded her somewhat of the market in the Crossroads, with everyone fighting over space. But there were no street sellers here—only quaint doors with signs dangling before them.
Vi looped the street twice before she finally noticed a narrow door crammed between two others. On it was a picture of a garnet skullcap and a mortar and pestle,Sarphos’s Suppliesengraved next to the image. Taking a breath, Vi pushed on the door, pleasantly surprised when it opened effortlessly.
A small bell overhead jingled happily at her entrance. Vi stepped into the crammed space. There were shelves of jars stacked three deep, floor to ceiling, on either side of her. Despite being shut tight, the jars emitted the earthy aromas Vi had associated with clerical salves her entire life. Herbs of all varieties dried from the ceiling, packed between linen bags containing unknown but sweet-smelling items.
At the very back of the store was an empty desk, and behind that a door.
And nothing and no one else.
Vi slowly walked, debating if she should just take something and run while the store was unattended. But she didn’t know the first thing about what salve or potion Taavin would need. And worse, she realized she didn’t exactly know how she’d get back short of running into that seemingly infinite blackness and hoping she ended up on the other side alive.
A risk that didn’t seem wise to take more than once.
“Hello?” Vi called, resting her hands on the counter. Glowing stones hung like pendants on either side, giving the whole room a ghostly light. “Is anyone here?”
“Yes, coming!” a male voice called. Vi heard stomping overhead, then stairs creaking, before a man emerged from the dark doorway behind the counter. “Sorry about that. You caught me right before I was going to step out. How may I be of service?”
He had steel-colored eyes and the dots above them were the same sort of pale blue. His expression was soft, youthful. Kind and yet… painfully sad. Perhaps it was the dim light playing tricks on her, but there was something haunted about this ruddy-haired man.
“Are you Sarphos?”
“I am.”
“Excellent, I… I need help.” Vi folded her hands on the counter. Were she back in the Solaris Empire, she could always resort to commanding him if she had to. But here, she had no sway, no golden coin bearing the Solaris seal lingering in her back pocket to reassure her even in tough situations that there was always a way out. “Please.”
“What seems to be the matter?” His expression grew serious, the dots above his eyes scrunching together.
