The Umbrafera

Chapter 1

It was a fairly average day just like any other. Cold windy and wet. I lived in a small settlement in Scotland's far north caller Lerwick. It's known as the capital of the Shetland islands despite being so small. It wasn't an unpleasant place though. The people were nice the houses were cheap and relatively nice also. It was just the climate that was miserable. Although that could probably be said about most of the cheaper parts of the UK it applied even more here. It was the 13th of June 2010 It wasn't a hot day at all. In fact, it was even cooler than usual. I had never left Shetland so warm temperatures were almost unheard of today and days like today where in the middle of June it would be 10 degrees at midday was perfectly normal. Well, at least it wasn't going to rain.

I was walking through town to grab myself something to eat when I saw a strange-looking shop I had never noticed before. It looked relatively shady as it was run down and cheap looking compared to all the other buildings around it. I had gone down that street most days for the last few years of my life yet I had never noticed it before. I opened the door of the shop. Inside the building's walls were covered in black felt for some reason. I walked further in curious as to the shop's nature, Inside was a desk with a black door. The door, however, was a slightly different shade of black to the felt which was the only reason I could see it. However, it still blended in relatively well.

I went up to the desk and rung the small brass service bell to see if anyone would come. I didn't even know what the shop sold or anything there was no name on the shop nothing but a red sign that said 80% off which implied that it was after all a shop. Eventually, a short elderly man walked out of the black door. Despite looking like a heavy wooden door. The door retracted into the wall and slid out automatically. The door looked like it was ancient yet it was actually some kind of automatic door that made puffing sci-fi door noises. The man then relatively kindly asked, "How can I help you?" He was smiling and spoke in a strong Glaswegian accent.

"Um, I don't actually know what you sell here" I meekly replied.

"I see well we sell something very special. I suppose you could call them superpowers. However, along with paying us to but these powers, they all have a price with severity depending on the strength of the power. For example, the ability to speak every language would cost you the ability to fly in a plane. And an ability of immortality will cost you your composure, common sense, and sanity." It scared me how extreme the cost of the immortality was. It would basically make you no different from a mindless beast. I doubted anything he said anyway it seemed completely implausible. "How am I supposed to believe this?" I ask assertively and clearly intriguingly. "Ok watch this" he replied clearly. He then started conjuring up flames in his hands. It was incredible. completely unlike anything I had seen before. He then stopped clearly trying not to burn anything. Even though his skin had been touching flames they were unscathed. Dome soot seemed to have collected on them and he was sweating from the heat but he didn't have any burns, not even a mark. "And what did you sacrifice?" I asked. "I sacrificed 2 things for this power" He replied calmly. "Firstly my height and then I lost... Well, I didn't really lose anything. It's just something I have to do now. I need to arrange 100 small stones into a 10x10 grid every day when I wake up. If I don't do it I lose my power but I stay short. I won't be able to reclaim my power either if I forget to do it. Even if I miss it just once."
"I see" I was worried and confused but they started to slot together. The price didn't seem too extreme but it definitely wasn't minor. Likely a middling power.

I wanted to be powerful but didn't want too high of a cost. I wasn't even sure if it was worth getting a power at all. What if there was a way people with powers could be tracked or something. If I got a weak power it could be dangerous. If I did nothing I'd feel like I missed out on a great opportunity. I was stuck on what to do.