Boots of Booty | ONC 2023

Part 13

29. Epilogue 1. Arcane Boutique

Raising both of her short arms high, Saffia offered Brugg a half-pound chunk of deer jerky. The store guard, a half-orc, bent down to retrieve it from the gnome. "Thank you, mistress."

"You're welcome, Brugg." The gnomish proprietress skipped through the shelves of reagents, racks of clothing items, and bins of ammunition. She slipped behind the sales counter. Clutching her own hefty hunk of farmer's cheese, she climbed her high stool. Perched like a songbird, she nibbled like a mouse and surveyed her magic shop. Her domain.

Mostly, it was in order, but two empty hangars marred its perfection. Sometime last night, thieves had made off with a pair of robes. The thieves had ignored the bounty of expensive items in favor of unenchanted cloth. With a perplexed shrug Saffia set her mind to the enjoyment of cheese.

The door opened with a spill of afternoon light.

"Welcome to Saffia's arcane boutique," rumbled Brugg. Incoming customers had been known to about-face and scurry away at the intimidating bass rumble. Saffia knew that Brugg enjoyed such reactions. This time he scored only a flicker of a glance from his marks.

The shorter of the two women in the doorway said, "Thanks. Is the owner around?"

"Up here," Saffia said. She narrowed her eyes at the pair of women. Abused leather armor clad them, but it didn't fit. The taller of the two had even sliced vents in her pants, evidently to allow her thick legs entrance. Rat's nests of tangled hair clouded about their skulls. Dirt, blood, or both discolored every square inch of exposed skin. A whitish material extruded into view around the seams of the leathers. It resembled spider web, but with thick ropy cords instead of thin strands.

The taller woman carried two parcels of folded white cloth in her arms. Saffia's petite eyebrows climbed up her forehead.

The tall one shuffled sheepishly closer. "Milady. Séa of Torugg, at your service. I have wronged you and I wish to make amends."

The shorter, darker one seemed more furtive than penitent. Without making it obvious, she kept an eye on the exit and on Brugg.

Saffia raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. "You took my wizard robes?"

"As Torugg is my witness, it is so." The woman, by her words a paladin, bowed her head.

Brugg wrinkled his heavy brow and knelt to lay his half-eaten meat hunk on the floor beside him. Saffia narrowed her eyes another notch. "And now you're bringing them back?"

"Just so, milady. With apologies and an acknowledgement of debt. Our need was great, but our actions were wrong. We place ourselves at your disposal."

"Go back to your lunch, Brugg." Saffia climbed down her stool to the boost-step behind her counter that allowed her to regard taller customers eye to eye. "All right ladies, give me the robes."

Séa laid the folded cloth on the counter and babbled, "So, they're mostly fine. There might be a little bit of stew splattered on them. Oh, and there were these snakes, and snake acid flew everywhere, so there's a little bit of, um, damage. It's not much."

"Snakes?" Saffia said.

"Flying snakes."

"Flying snakes?" The gnome's fingers flew to her own temples to rub little circles.

"Well, demon snakes. With wings. Hence, the acid. I mean, regular snakes don't have acidic blood, right? Well, at least I would guess they don't. I've never been sprayed with regular snake blood, so I don't actually—"

The paladin's companion dropped her face into her hands and shook it from side to side.

"Shush, shush," Saffia said. "That will be enough. Thank you for returning them. If you have a few silver coins, that should cover a ... rental fee, I guess you'd call it."