I am in a merchant’s shop, no doubt about it. And I can tell that it is a shop in Tayri. It is déjà vu, as I swear I’ve been in this shop before. There is the dusty wooden counter standing at the rear of the room. Behind it are shelves covered with all sorts of odds and ends. They are covered in well-organized rows of elixirs, potions, bundles of medicinal herbs, wrapped bowls of different powders, and odd talismans. If I look to the left I should see…yes! That miniature statue of the Goddess, the wood carved to perfection.
Yes, I know this place. It is the apothecary in Tayri, just down the street from Annette’s tailor shop. I’ve come here before to buy medicine and healing herbs. I’m not too familiar with the shop owner, but I know a few things about him. He stopped worshipping Fennarie after hearing what happened to my people, and he isn’t even one of us. He covered that statue with a white sheet. I know he’s very knowledgeable about plants and herbal ingredients, so he’s good at what he does.
It is nighttime, so I imagine the shop is closed. There are no customers to be seen browsing wares. The small square room is dimly lit by candles mounted on the wall. Shadows dance, forming misshapen shades on the wooden walls. I see the shop owner standing at the counter, his face darkened by the black shadows. A quill is in his hand, writing at a fast pace in his large business ledger. On the surface next to him is a pile of gold pennies, some sort of bottled potion, and a pile of goldenrod and lavender plants.
There are quite a few gold pennies there. Business must be going well for him. I suppose business has always gone well for him, considering a lot of people need his healing concoctions. This has to be before I moved to Tayri, as he looks much younger than in present times, and I don’t remember his shop producing that much coin.
He stops writing in his ledger and turns around to open his strongbox. In the pennies go, making quite the clatter. As he snaps the lid shut, I hear the lock on the front door shift and the door open. The apothecary doesn’t even bother looking to see who is entering, but I take a good look at him.
He wears a full black outfit of light armor, from his noiseless boots to his formfitting tunic and trousers. His form is muscular, yet slender, as if he does a lot of sneaking around. Twin daggers are strapped to his sides, along with a longbow and quiver of arrows strapped to his back. His hood is down, so I can see his face. His hair is light brown and tied back in a short ponytail. Loose strands hang down, threatening to fall into his pale green eyes. He walks in with an air of confidence.
There’s no mistaking it. The way he’s dressed, the weapons he carries…he’s a thief. Tayri is full of them, preying on innocent merchants. And he certainly knows what he’s doing, judging by the way he carries himself.
“Come to hassle me some more, James?” the shop owner says as he closes the lock on the strongbox.
The thief, James, smiles and replies, “Now, now. Surely you’ve been expecting me? You know what I’m here for.”
With a sigh, the shop owner returns to the counter while keeping an eye on James. He grasps the bottle sitting next to the ledger in his palm and holds it out to him.
James reaches into his black rucksack and pulls out a hefty sum of gold pennies.So that’s where the shop owner got all that coin. He presses them down on the counter and slides them over to the shop owner, and then holds his palm open for him to place the strange serum.
“Are you sure you want this James? I know I went through hell trying to make this for you, but I warn you: the consequences for using this in this city are severe.”
“I am sure. Now take your coin and hand me my poison,” James replies, his voice smooth and charming. Great, not just a thief, but a murderous smooth-talker. Making poisons is against the law for merchants in Tayri, just because there are so many people like James who have targets they want dead. He must have persuaded this man well to get him to disobey the law.
“Very well. Know that you will be held responsible for holding the poison should you be caught. I will not be arrested for making it,” the shop owner says as he slides the concoction into the thief’s open hand.
A chuckle escapes his lips while he gently slips the poison into his pocket. “Then you have nothing to fear, my friend. I never get caught.”
“It is that over-confidence that will get you killed, my boy.”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said no one can catch me. And you better remember that, because if you rat me out, you won’t live to see the next sunrise.” The shop owner stares at him, nervous. The sinister look in James’s eyes is genuine. He means it. He won’t hesitate to kill the merchant. That’s probably how he got him to cooperate in the first place: by threatening him.
This sounds an awful lot like the rumors I’ve heard floating around Tayri. They spoke of the first thief to actually kill those who got in his way. He started an underground gang of thieves and assassins that preyed on the wealthy, only to make themselves richer. Greed drives humans to do terrible things. They say he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of merchants, nobles, and unlucky members of the middle class. He was known as the “Bloody Thief of Tayri”. Could James be this famous thief, I wonder? He certainly means to kill someone with that poison. And he has that malevolent nature about him, the air of someone who is up to no good.
“I understand, James. I won’t tell a soul,” the shop owner says, nervously tugging on his tie.
“Ha! Good, you have some sense in you! Now, I need you to do me one more favor. Give me some of those goldenrod flowers. A bunch of my crew have a nasty cold and I want it gone.”
The shop owner grabs the bundle of goldenrod sitting on the counter and shoves them at James. “Take it. No charge.”
"You are too generous. Well, I best be off. I’m a busy man!” James finishes. His hands wrap around the flowers and shove them into his rucksack. Without another word, he stalks out the door, locking it behind him. The shop owner leans on the counter, breathing a huge sigh of relief, perhaps happy to be alive.
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A/N: James is probably going to be the last new character, at least as far as I have planned. So, yeah.
Upon doing some research, I learned that a goldenrod flower is often used as medicine. It is made into tea and used to cure sore throats, fevers, and coughs. So James is asking for it to help heal some of his gang. I also thought of herbs and such with this, so he had a poison made for some sinister purpose >:D
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Every Little Memory
ParanormalImagine being given the gift of sight; the ability to peer into the world beyond, where the souls of the dead walk. Lingering in the very place you live, roaming amongst the streets of your hometown...Shades of a time long past and only you can see...
