Donator — Ze/Zir
Posted 4 years ago ( 2021/03/6 20:13:21 )
Humming as he worked, Zy was able to get through most of the books before he felt the wards laced through the front curtain ping along his ear. There were only 10 or so left that needed to be inspected, logged, and checked over for magic or magical residue before he shelved them, and he could tell at a glance that they were much of the same. Had his family raided another magic shop or something? This was a weirdly large amount of books, especially considering that he’d only had to throw out a handful and de-curse even less. Ugh, he needed to have a talk with his dame when they got back. Hopefully no one would come looking for their books any time soon.
Still, the money he’d make from the books on their own was staggering. He hadn’t even had time to sort through the various clothes and trinkets, and that would probably have to wait until later. Stepping through the back curtain and up to the counter, he smiled gently at the customer as he came up, vaguely recognizing him from previous visits. He looked frazzled, like he’d rushed here as soon as possible, and while that was flattering in of itself, Zy hoped he could help ease that energy a bit before it set him on edge too.
He tilted his head, mentally running over what he knew of familiars and their summoning as he listened. “Well, from what I know off hand, there shouldn’t be any damage control. If the spell fails, no familiar will appear. If it works, a familiar should be drawn to you and appear within a week. Give me a moment…” trailing off, he turned around and went back into the back room, absently twisting the chain in his right ear. It was the one connected to the wards, and it was currently still a bit tingly. That happened, sometimes, when a stronger magic user touched them.
They took a little bit of magic from each customer, not in a malicious way, but to make sure it could recognize their signature if they came in again. Sometimes it just took more than it needed; that was the problem with having it take 2% of their magical excess, 2% was different for every magical. His family, for the most part, didn’t have magical excess, so 2% barely felt like anything. Pure humans, those without magic of any sort, didn’t have magical excess, because their energy never needed to leave their body. The Enchantress who visited when she grew bored of her higher end shops carefully curated selection put off more than even this customer, though, he though with another absent tug to the chain, not by much.
With a soft noise of triumph, he finally found were he’d set the book registry after he’d added the most recent one in. Why it was already half buried under the books he didn’t know and didn’t have time to find out. He’d left his customer out front, alone, long enough.
“Sorry for the wait, I seem to have misplaced this.” Holding up the unassuming black book with a small laugh, Zy set it on the counter and tapped the front 3 times. “Now, Book, highlight anything on familiars, please.” With a small shudder, the book seemed to take a moment to think before softly falling open and flipping to the first relevant page. There were a couple lines glowing softly, and he could see that there were more entries further back, presumably where he’d just logged the new arrivals. He also saw, when he looked, that only 2 books on the shelf to the right of the door were glowing as well. Which meant that all the other books on familiars were in the back still.
“Ah. On summoning familiars, specifically.” He smiled a bit sheepishly at the customer as he closed the book and tapped three times again. This time, it took a bit longer, but it flipped straight to the last page and highlighted only 3 books. A second look around showed the glow was gone from the bookcase. Great. “Would you care to follow me to the back? You will have a much better idea of which book is helpful than I do, unfortunately.”
@Whimsy: