[zapdragon555]

[New Posting Week July 18 - July 25]

To Aesop’s credit, the play had been… enjoyable. Astrochelys had fallen asleep and Apisto had needed to put a simple silencing spell on them to block out the snoring, but the whole experience had been rather nice. It was some story about a handsome young fisherman and a great sky whale that he fell in love with, played by a large, beautiful woman with flowing white dress and wings that caught the light of the stage. Her singing had been immaculate—the younger actor could’ve used a bit more work, but he was promising. All in all, Apisto had been fully engaged, and he found it difficult to care that Aesop was likely watching him the whole time with a self-satisfied smile on his face.

[zapdragon555]

He’d roused Astrochelys enough for them to direct their magic through their beastchair, and they were off. With their clothes folded or piled, depending on whose, the three managed to squeeze into bed, and to his chagrin, Apisto had ended up in the center of them. But it had been a nice, small vacation after all, and for once, he decided to let the arms that encircled him lazily from both sides distract him from thoughts of all the work he needed to get done, when they all returned home.

[zapdragon555]

Apisto awoke with Astrochelys’ hair in his mouth. He sputtered and coughed into thick, long locks, some braided some not, his hands twitching where they lay encircling the botanist’s snoozing form. Aesop had snuggled up behind him in the night, and sure enough, the bastard’s feet, eternally chilled, were currently trailing goosebumps all down Apisto’s calves. He groaned and sat up, his own dark hair a mess. He wasn’t bothered enough to wake the other two—instead he carefully stepped over them and into the bathroom to get ready. As thanks for the dinner and play… and really, for the sake of things going right for once… Apisto would go to the pawn shop alone.

[zapdragon555]

After wrestling some directions out of a few locals, Apisto set his sights on the… oh, it was groan-inducing… Paul’s Prawny Pawn Shop sign a few blocks over. It was early morning, and the street was silent save for a few old fishermen reading newspapers and drinking coffees at barrel tables by tiny cafes. Truly, Apisto didn’t hate this town, even if it did smell like fish.

Distantly, Apisto heard a scuffling in an alleyway, and he turned to stare for a few seconds, hand near to the place where he kept his wand. All was silent, after a time, and he moved on with purpose, walking just a bit more briskly.

[zapdragon555]

The pawn shop was as tacky as its name, with seaside decor of the crustacean variety decorating the walls and surfaces of just about everything. He grimaced as he looked around, wondering just what was for sale and what wasn’t—or if everything was for sale, after all. Was this really the place that was keeping that device safe…?

“Oh, heya there! Just a minute, sir, just a minute,” an elderly voice floated in from a back room, and Apisto stood up a little bit straighter, trying to fix his sour face into something a bit more placid and, if not friendly, then amicable. An old man with eyebrows so bushy that Apisto could barely see his eyes walked out from the back room and to his spot at the counter, leaning on gnarled elbows with a smile. “What can I do y’for?”

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“I’m here to…” Apisto was distracted momentarily by what looked to be a… live lobster, just, sitting on top of the cash register. He could’ve sworn it wasn’t moving, before. It had a little ribbon tied around its tail. He shook his head to clear it and fixed the old man with a sober look. “I’m here to pick up an item that’s been reserved. I believe Archmage Aesop of Three Spears Academy called ahead? I’ve got the identification here…”

[zapdragon555]

“Ohhh, yes, yes,” the old man cooed, clasping his hands together and squeezing. “That item! You’re just in time, the hold on it runs out in about two hours!” Apisto groaned internally, glad he'd come on his own after all, and pulled out the glyph that Aesop had signed with his own penmanship, speaking a soft word to it and letting it alight into a sculpture made of light, which showed Aesop’s form in miniature on his palm.

“Thank you for being so patient with us, Paul. If you’re getting this message, something terrible may have happened to me! Or I may be asleep. Either way, please give the item over to whomever shows you this message. Thank you!”

[zapdragon555]

The little Aesop’s voice was unnatural and a bit pinched, as though the soundwaves were having trouble coming through. Faulty penmanship… Aesop never had been a perfectionist. Still, the old man seemed delighted, and Apisto had to smile a faint smile at his wonder. Nonmagic folk were easily impressed… sometimes he forgot how even the smallest things could cause such joy in even the oldest faces.

“Wonderful, simply marvelous,” the old man murmured to himself, as he began to shuffle back to the back room. “Just a moment, Archmage Apisto, I will retrieve it for you posthaste!”

[zapdragon555]

Apisto hadn’t been watching a clock, but he felt as though he’d been waiting for a long time, when suddenly there was a sharp… well, more like a very soft, rounded curse, something like fiddlesticks or the like, from the back room. Raising a brow, Apisto poked his head over the counter, leaning over and angling his long ears to try to listen. “Now, where on earth did…?”

Apisto’s heart dropped in his chest. Where on earth when talking about a very, very important item was never a good sign. He felt anxiety gnawing at his throat as the old man dallied for a bit longer, then finally walked back inside with a frown on his face. “Well, Archmage, you’ll have to forgive me. But it would seem that your item’s been swiped by someone else.”

[zapdragon555]

The red mage stared at the old man for a long moment, and without thinking, shot his hands out to grab the old man by his shirt collar and grip with blazing eyes and twitching, angry ears. “’Swiped?!’ It’s been swiped?!” he cried, jerking slightly in surprise as the lobster snapped a claw at him.

“P-p-please, calm down, Archmage! Y-yes, swiped—I know exactly where I left it, but it seems it’s been taken from that spot. I-I have no employees, it’s just myself and Clawdette there. She watches the shop when I’m not around, y-you see, and—”

[zapdragon555]

Apisto released the man and stepped back, clenching his fists before any fire could form on his fingertips. He hissed out a long, slow breath, almost feeling as though steam was floating from his head. “Do you,” he began slowly, as calmly and lowly as he could manage, “know at all… what could have happened? Or who could have stolen it?”

The old man deflated, shaking his head with a frown. “I’m sorry, Archmage. I don’t. All that was left there was… well… perhaps you’d like to come and look—ah!” the old man cut off as Apisto darted around the counter, already bustling past the old man now that he was allowed in. The lobster, apparently Clawdette, started to skitter off her place at the register, before the old man stopped her with a gentle pat. “No, no, he’s no intruder, hush now…”

[zapdragon555]

Apisto’s eyes darted every which way, searching for something that wasn’t there, which was indeed an impossible feat. The old man’s voice came from the counter, “I had it wrapped up in a drawer—that old antique desk with the papers on it, made of oak! Second drawer, I believe!” Apisto immediately went to the desk and began searching through drawers, all of them, not trusting the old man’s memory one bit. Sure enough, all of them were empty, except…

Except the second drawer. Which held only a rectangular card, with a lipstick stain on it, bright red as blood. Apisto lifted it out and stared at it, then flipped it over, his brow furrowing deeply at the photograph on the other side. “This looks like…” he whispered to himself, already rushing out of the back room, around the counter, and towards the door, leaving the old man and his lobster behind. "This... this photo looks like..."

[zapdragon555]

“Nu’san…?” Aesop mumbled sleepily, looking up from the photograph to an Apisto pacing back and forth. He still wasn’t dressed, and it was a rather humorous juxtaposition, him there wearing nothing but midnight blue boxers and Apisto dressed to the nines in his full mage robes. “This is Nu’san Temple… isn’t it?”

“Yes—yes!” Apisto barked, halfway between relief that he wasn’t crazy in thinking so, halfway still infuriated as to their situation. “It’s Nu’san. And that card, again—that card, right there, is the only thing that was left in place of that device of yours. The old man had no idea who took it. None.”

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Astrochelys stirred with a sleepy groan, sighing soft through their nose and turning over to blink dreamily up at Aesop. They reached out to wrap an arm around the blue mage’s hips, snuggling in closer, when suddenly they sniffed the air and furrowed their brow. “Mmgh—perfume?” they murmured, blinking and slowly sitting up, peering at the photo in Aesop’s hands. They leaned over to sniff it, then took it, flipping it over to peer at the lipstick stain. “So a woman stole it…?”

“Not necessarily,” Aesop mused, affectionately scratching his fingers into Astrochelys’ hair and enjoying the sleepy lean-into that he got from the botanist. “But there’s a good chance.”

[zapdragon555]

“How can you be so calm?!” Apisto wheezed, running his hands over his face. “The device—that thing you said was so important?! It’s gone. And we don’t know where, or by whom.”

Aesop slipped the photo back out of Astrochelys’ hands and waved it lightly in the air with an encouraging smile. “Well,” he began, summoning a little gust of wind to float it back over to Apisto, who snatched it out of the air with a grumble. “I believe this supposed lady thief’s calling card is giving us a rather generous clue as to her whereabouts.”

“Or she’s luring us into a trap,” Apisto countered with a frown. The other two, however, seemed to be growing a rather irritatingly familiar thirst for adventure in their eyes, and there was nothing Apisto could do about it, now. Suddenly that dinner and play seemed as distant as anything, and Apisto’s back was already complaining, thinking about the trek they would have to take up to Nu’san. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair, shrugging and shuffling off to the closet where they’d stored their belongings. “I’ll start packing.”

[Crystal Synthesis Complete]