One in Twelve Thousandth Percent

Chapter 8:

March 30, 2516

My alarm buzzes at 06:00 as usual. I sit up, rested and ready for today. I quickly shut it off, pick it up and place it into the suitcase. "Computer, some light please?" "As you wish, Kaylin." And the curtains open to full, letting in all the light from the sun. I head over to the mirror and brush my hair.

I throw the last couple things in the suitcase and set my bag by the door.

As I stand in the doorway of my room, looking back at my room for possibly the last time either forever or for a long time. "Don't worry sweetie, I won't do anything to your room until you tell me I can." I hear mom behind me.

I follow her to the kitchen to find she's in the middle of making breakfast. I head for the front door. "Wait, where are you going?" Mom asks me. "I have to make a quick last-minute purchase. I'll be back." Mom shrugs. "Oh, ok. Well hurry back so I can get a hug before you leave me for who knows how long AND so you can eat breakfast." I smile. "I will, mom." And I head out.

I hurry over to the merchant section of the station; find the store I'm looking for and go inside. Once inside, I call up my account balance again.

"1,654 Mystics.

See Recent Deposits?"

I shut the program down and walk further into the store. "Ah, Kaylin, welcome." The merchant inside says. I've never met her, but I guess by now, most everyone knows who I am. I roll my eyes. "I'm looking for something specific. Something with a Sapphire in it." The merchant looks around. "Oh, really? Someone special already? Good for you, girl."

She leads me around the side of the store to a glass case filled with items slotted with Sapphires. "See anything that catches your eye?" I look around until I come across this necklace with a mix of Silver and Gold twisted around Sapphires in the center of each. I look at the price tag. 875 Mystics. Gosh, this is literally half of what I have. I keep looking and see something similar. This one, however, is only Silver. But the price is considerably cheaper at 460 Mystics. That one is nice too and the price isn't bad.

The merchant notices the two I keep looking back and forth at. "Ah, I see. A matter of cost. Well, hang on. Look at this one first." She goes over to a shelf on the back wall and brings over a black case. She sets it down and opens it up. My eyes shine. This necklace looks absolutely beautiful, but unlike the 800 one, this necklace has a Silver feather with a Sapphire at one end and Diamonds running the length of the stem. I look up at her. "Ok, what's the catch?"

She laughs. "Ok, let me explain. So last month, someone came in and bought this. But then they ended up in the middle of a very nasty breakup and brought it back. Well, when we inspected it, we noticed there was a scratch on the back of the pendant. Well, we can't resell it at full price, so I set it on the shelf behind me. I'll give you a deal. If you get the back of this pendant engraved, I'll take 10% off the resale price of this, or pretty much the price of the engraving."

I frown at her. "What's the resale price? And how much is engraving?" "Well, the original price was 1,215 Mystics." My eyes bug out. "The resale price is 700. Engraving is only 70. For a total of 770. If you take this deal, as I said, 10% off will bring it to roughly 700. So, I'm basically giving you the engraving for free."

"Sold. How long will the engraving take? I'm in a bit of a time crunch, I'm leaving the station sometime today." "OH, the intergalactic cruiser? Well, it only takes half an hour." I look at my arm. 07:15. That's gonna cut it close. I want to make sure I can meet her somewhere that's NOT here. "Ok, That's fine. Can you message me as opposed to calling me when it's done?" "Sure thing. It's a surprise, right?" I nod. "Well, if you pay another 5 Mystics, I can have it teleported directly to you, so you don't even have to come here to get it and risk spoiling the surprise."