Cursed with immortality, Mars goes on a journey with his lifelong more-than-friends partner Astral, a painfully average future-seeing mage, to find the root of magic, in an effort to ease the side effects of Astral's visions - and to finish their th...
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I needed to restock my backpack. Astral had given it to me when we were younger. It was basically a very light chester drawer, really, with lots of little compartments, hidden rooms and pockets. It was where I kept all my remedies. After weeks on the road, I needed to replenish it and it was quite lucky we were in a city as it could be tricky to find some of the ingredients in the wild or in a small village.
Zeke was coming with me so she could learn a bit of herbology, while Keefe stayed with Astral for entertainment. Astral had protested loudly because he was still bedridden and would be bored. Luckily Keefe knew a lot of card games, so they were now playing in our room.
"What are we looking for?" Zeke asked, looking at the different store fronts.
"An herb's shop. There should be one around here somewhere. I asked at the guesthouse."
"And what do you need?"
"A whole bunch of stuff. This is my favourite type of shopping." I felt giddy. I loved scouring the usually dark shops for everything they had.
"Did you have one of these in the college town?"
"Yes," I said and nodded. "The shopkeeper knew me by name. He was always immensely helpful." I stopped by a store window and looked in. "Ah, here we are."
We stepped inside, a bell above the door announcing our arrival. A small woman stood behind the counter, barely able to see above it. She had matted locks bundled on top of her head in a big bun. She smiled widely and waved at us, her dark skin wrinkling. She reminded me of the hostess at the guesthouse. I guess, this town was run by nice old women.
"Hello," she croaked.
"Hi," I more or less squeaked. "I'm... Looking for all of this." I handed her my shopping list and she quickly scanned it before nodding.
"I have all of this." She smiled again and then went behind a curtain that was behind the counter. She probably kept most of her merchandise in a backroom. I wasn't exactly asking for something simple like... Roses or whatever.
Zeke looked at the drawers covered walls. Every inch was filled with big shelves with endless amounts of drawers. All had been carefully marked with what each drawer contained and if I were ever to leave life as a researcher, I'd have a shop identical to this one.
The woman came back with a package wrapped in cloth and put it on the counter. "Can you help?" she asked and smiled at me again.
"Of course," I hurried to say. She pointed to some of the top drawers, and I climbed a wooden ladder to get to them. I carefully brought out some fire-root. It'd explode if I dropped it, but it made a really good remedy for sore muscles. Heated you up from the inside.
I climbed back down and carefully handed her the root. She put it in a small box and went to the package, stuffing it inside. I cringed a bit over her hard-handedness, but I didn't say anything. She looked like she knew what she was doing.
