Outside a clothing shop, a set of school uniforms performed a tuneless waltz. The bookstore’s sign was a giant book that flipped pages every few minutes. Eva wondered if the text was actually anything other than nonsense filler words. The potion shop, focus store, general equipment store, and a good handful of other stores all had similar eye-catching advertisements.
As Eva’s initial surprise at the sights wore off, she noticed there was not a single person milling about. The benches were all empty. The guy sitting behind the Gooble Gobble Gourmet Grub kiosk was obviously playing some sort of game on a tablet and hadn’t even looked up once.
Perhaps it was because of the early morning. Just after the shops opened maybe no one was there. Eva doubted it.
Undaunted by the worries that plagued Eva, Juliana dragged the black-haired girl straight to Foible Foci.
Wands were the prevalent foci on display. Wooden ones, metal ones, simple ones, jeweled ones, all laid out on shiny racks. Given that wands were what magic was instructed with at the academy, that was probably a good idea.
Still, Eva found herself wandering to the alternate foci. Rings, large red spheres, staves, crystal capped rods, daggers and other weapons, even books specifically designed for use as foci.
The rings were obviously the most enticing for the combat aspects Zoe Baxter had mentioned. With Juliana at her side, Eva began her search.
Eva purchased a simple wooden wand. It would suffice for classes and Eva had no intention of using it outside class. For rings, Eva chose a full fingered version. According to the shopkeep, it had far less capacity for raw magical power than something like her master’s dual ring and bracelet combination. Juliana didn’t expect it to be useful aside from the most mundane of spells.
Eva didn’t think that would be much of a problem with her natural abilities. Unnatural abilities? Either way, she could do magic on her own.
They soon left to the alchemy and potions shop where they both picked up a large number of brewing supplies. Eva picked up a lot of fresh ingredients that Juliana avoided. She had to leave most of her potion cupboard at home and she didn’t intend to be caught with only what she had in her satchel.
Juliana bought out half the bookstore when they arrived there. She wanted every book that she didn’t already have at her personal library at her home. Eva wondered how she planned to transport them all back when the girl pulled a small suitcase out of her pocket. It grew to a regular sized suitcase and she dumped the books in. They still went over the edge, but when the blond zipped up the zipper, not a spot looked like it had even the slightest bulge. She then dropped it back in her pocket with a small wink to Eva.
“I want one of those.”
“Family heirloom,” she said, once again showing her rare smile. At Eva’s frown, Juliana continued, “there are mass produced versions at shops, maybe one down in the general equipment store. They will be far inferior and still very expensive.”
Turning to leave the store as soon as she heard that, Eva ran straight into a person coming in. She stepped back with a hastily mumbled apology as two men brushed past her without a word.
Juliana came up next to her and whispered, “rude.”
It was Eva’s turn to grab the blond’s hand. She led the girl back towards the dorms.
“We’re not heading to the general store?” Juliana asked as they left the circular plaza.
Eva barely heard her as she walked, but she managed to register the question a minute later. “No. Think I’m a bit fatigued of shopping for now.”
“Those men bothered you?”
“Would you believe bad vibes? We’ll come back another day. I still want one of those suitcases,” Eva said with a big smile.
The smile disappeared as she turned forward again.
There was something off about those two men. And it wasn’t just that they were the only two customers Eva had seen aside from herself and Juliana.
It might not have been noticeable from a distance, there was something covering it up, but Eva’s nose had been right in the man’s chest. She took a brief inhale of two very familiar scents. One was the coppery tinge of blood.
The man wasn’t a blood mage though. If he was, he wasn’t a very good one. Every drop of blood spilled by a proper blood mage is consumed whether in spells or to heal yourself, as such the scent doesn’t stick around long or that strong.
The other scent was far more worrying. A scent she had only ever found on long decayed corpses.
The scent of rotting flesh.
The Seminar
The outdoor auditorium where most of the summer seminars were held had a nice atmosphere. Seats surrounded a small circular platform on a raised dais down in the center of the area. On the platform, a wall of cushions had been set up and a waist high pile of silver marbles lay at the other end.
