wrfmlogsarchive | star market: day 4

Will was watching the Star Market carefully.

He was already getting used to seeing the auras of others and now could at least identify some without any help from his know-it-all eye. It felt strange, like walking through an unseen world which no one could witness except you.

For the most part, he hadn't noticed anyone with a bad aura. But there was a nagging feeling that someone...or something very, very evil was lurking around in the market.

He shook his head and headed towards a certain little booth, where bright words made of auras proclaimed: "FOR ONES DEALING WITH AURAS, COME HERE TO BUY WHATEVER YOU NEED FOR THEM. TRAINING ALSO GIVEN." It was a smart ploy. To others, it looked nothing more than just a small normal booth, but to people like him, it was seen for what it truly was.

He entered, and a woman with a kindly face looked up at him from her intricate knitting. She seemed to be sewing not with thread, but rather strands of auras. It was a bizarrely beautiful creation.

"Oh, so you're one of them." She nodded towards his right eye and smiled. "What would you need?"

He pondered by what she meant by "one of them", but put it aside to the fact that he was a Refugee. "I want training. I need to know how to manipulate auras."

She put down her knitting and brought out another wooden chair from under a nearby table. "Sit." He did so, and watched as she brought out a couple of things from a drawer. There was a black knife that looked like it had never been sharpened and a medallion that had a mysteriously twisting orb in the middle.

"Now, of course, if you didn't have that eye, I would have told you that it would have taken years to learn how to manipulate other people's auras. But with that, it's easy. You need to pinpoint the weak spots of an aura. See this medallion?" She held it up. "It contains a spirit, and a weak one at that. I presumably think you can see where it's lacking."

Yes, there was a sort of hole where the aura didn't seem to be strong, now that he looked at it more carefully.

"So, what do I do about it?"

"You focus on it. Think about destroying that weak spot. Don't let your attention waver, or it won't work. Go on." Will turned his gaze back to the medallion, staring at the spot which was it's weakness. He mentally forced against the aura, trying to collapse it. There was a burning sensation behind his eyes, but his focus didn't waver.

And before his eyes, there was a sharp light, and the medallion cracked. The orb in the middle fell on the table, dead and gray. Immediately exhaustion came over him, and he fell back in his chair, his mind almost feeling like it was on fire.

The woman smiled. "Good! Good for your first time! You need more practice if you want to be better at that, though." She picked up the orb and threw it in a small wooden basket along with the medallion.

He gestured a wearied finger at the knife. "What about that? What does that do?"

She picked it up and handed it to him. He took it in his right hand and examined it. It was a small knife, the blade made of a sort of black stone. "It's a special kind of knife. You see, it can only cut auras. Look." Taking the knife back, she made a sudden movement towards his arm. A staggering pain lanced through it, and, as he looked down, he could see a deep gash in his aura. But there was no actual cut or blood on his arm, but it still hurt as if she had cut him physically.

"What...what did you do that for??" She only shook her head in reply.

"You can heal it, you know. Just take your fingers and pinch the wound together. Like this." With her fingers and thumb, she reached over and brought the ends of the wound together. As she released, Will could see it had completely closed, and there was no more pain.

"The subtle knife..." He murmured, remembering Pullman's book.

"Subtle it is. Now, all you have to remember is that find your enemy's weak points and focus on them to at least cripple their defenses. I don't really need to explain what you can do about the knife. So, now, your payment." She reached over to her drawer, bringing out a small box. Opening it, she removed a pair of tweezers.

Before he could react, she swiftly reached out and plucked out one of his eyelashes, placing it within the box with the tweezers. It had been so quick that there hadn't even been any pain.

"Now, you are done. Take the knife and keep it safe. And be on your guard. There are evil things lurking in this market. Make sure your friends are on their guard."

"Thank...thank you." He took the knife,wrapped it in his handkerchief and put it away in his belt. "Thank you."

She merely just smiled and started to knit again, and Will left the booth feeling a bit more satisfied that he was more prepared for what dangers laid ahead.

Aria had Pancake with her today. She checked every few seconds to make sure the little klepto was still following her.

She almost didn't see will come out of the booth. "Hey, haven't seen you since the Land of Dragons," she said walking over to him.

Will put a hands quickly over his right eye. This wasn't good. He didn't have time to put the bandages over his eye again, so he nodded that he had seen Aria and quickly turned away from her to a nearby booth, pretending to look at the items sold there.

"Aria, was it? Yeah, thanks again for rescuing me that day. And Pancake's doing good, right?" He had seen the little Dream Hare back on the Gummi Ship after Aria's little rescue mission.

"Yeah. Pancake's right there," she said pointing at the dream hare, who was sniffing at something at a nearby booth.

His eye hadn't been hard to notice but she wasn't going to say anything about it right now. She grabbed Pancake before it could try taking something.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked curiously.

He turned his head a little, seeing the little Dream Hare. "Oh, you took him here? Better keep an eye on him. He'll run off if you're not too careful."

"Um, yeah, you could say interesting. A few doodads, mostly. All magical of course. If they weren't magical I'd feel like I'd been ripped off." He smiled a bit bashfully, turning towards her. "How about you?"

"I'm pretty sure Pancake is female and yeah I'm keeping an eye on her. She was just getting so hyper being cooped up while I was gone."

She thought of her first day at the market and giggled. "I got some good stuff. A couple new weapons, a bag of holding, a magic cloak, some accessories and a couple books," she said smiling. "Some of the things merchants ask for in payment is a little weird though."

"It's a her? Oops." He rubbed his head and grinned. "Sorry about that."

"That's cool. Looks like you got a lot." He frowned at what Aria said next. "What did they ask you to pay with?"

"It's okay."

"I wasn't asked for anything too weird but, I kind of wonder what the merchants do with spell samples," she said. "I've heard some ask for memories. I did have someone offer me something for Pancake though. Pancake was not amused."

She paused, looking around. "It's not hard to get in trouble here."

"Maybe some use the spell samples for their own magic. Memories I'm not so sure about." He said, thinking of how he exchanged his own eye for something magical, which seemed much more than just a few spells or memories."

"Someone tried to take Pancake? That's unbelievable. I'm glad you said no. I hope Pancake showed them."

He nodded grimly. "True, it's not hard to get in trouble. But the fact is, it's hard if you don't know where to hide from danger."

"It's hard to say really."

Pancake made an annoyed sound. "Heh. It wasn't worth as much as Pancake. Even if she tends to get into things."

She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. "I think I'll go browse some more." She glanced over at him. "You might want to get something that's easier to take off and put back on again for that eye if you insist on hiding it," she said quietly.

"True. Nothing's worth as much as a living thing."

He sighed and turned to her, fully revealing the strange magical eye which seemed so bizaare, even in the Star Market. "You're probably wondering what it is, right? It seems everyone can notice it, bandages or no bandages. Rak was right. I wouldn't be able to fit in. Not now, not ever."

She paused. "You don't have to tell me what it is. It's your buisiness. I saw it right before I said anything to you. I wouldn't have seen it if it had been covered. I would have wondered why your eye was covered. If I hadn't met you before I would have assumed you lost your eye somehow in the past and not said anything about it. Most people can't sense magical items," she said frowning slightly.

"Most of us don't fit in on Earth anymore... I don't usually talk this much but, I think you need to hear some of this. I guess we've all been changed by all of this." She pauses and looks down at the ground, playing with some of Pancake's fluff. "I'm sorry. It's partly my fault for taking you off Earth."

"Oh." There was an awkward silence. "But it's okay if you can't sense magical items...I mean, it's not like everyone has it."

"Really? Like how? I mean, the magic stuff and the stories are easy to hide, but you can't really go around with an eye like this and expect people not to talk about it." He raised an eyebrow at Aria's last statement. "How is it your fault? Crystal was the one who took off with me to Radiant Garden, and besides, this has been one of the best experiences I've ever had. I wouldn't have known any of you. I wouldn't have known a world like this even existed if it weren't for all of you. It's not your fault at all."

"I suppose I could sense magical items if I took the time to learn and had someone to teach me." Breaking the awkward silence.

"If you wore an eye patch anyone who couldn't sense that type of thing would just assume you've lost an eye." She explained. "I did pilot the gummi ship that took you off Earth at least. And I knew you didn't plan to leave. But, I guess if I didn't Crystal would have found someone else to do it. I did think it would be a good experience for you. Or I wouldn't have done it. You just seemed kind of down about not fitting in." She finished.

"Um, I could teach you...I mean, I'm also not that experienced yet, but I could try."

"Yeah, but with the pirate things going around with that Calum guy, I'm just afraid that people will take it in bad taste." He laughed. "Besides, you make it sound like losing an eye is really nothing to be worried about."

"Well, I thank you then. If you didn't do it I would've still been the angry skeptic that would've kept asking for Crystal to come back to her job. I've expected we've both been fired by now, because we haven't remained in touch with the office, but so what? I prefer this to any kind of desk job."

"Maybe after you practice some. Weird thought, I think Pancake can a little at least. It would explain her ability to find rare synthesis materials on some of her excursions. And she is looking at you kind of funny."

"Yeah I guess looking like a pirate would be bad right now." She said with an embarrassed smile. "Losing an eye is something to worry about but, it's not as strange as having it replaced with something like that. Most people would at most ask how you lost your eye instead of asking what the hell is with your eye. Know what I mean?"

"Definitely more fun than a desk job. A lot more dangerous though. I still wouldn't want to go back to the way things were before."

"Possibly. She's a magical creature, so maybe you should take lessons from her for now. See what she notices and maybe you'll get better at it. If not, there are plenty of things around here that can help you find magical stuff, cheaper than this." He pointed to his eye.

"Heh, I guess. It'll sure confuse the hell out of my doctors if I ever went home. But at least around here, people recognize it for what it is. It's showing the ones who don't, that's the problem."

He nodded. "The Heartless, right? At least they're gone. From what I've heard it was a monumental disaster. But you guys saved the day and restored peace to all the lands. God, I sound like the narrator at the end of an RPG," He added, laughing.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"One thing about the Heartless. No mess from killing them. Fighting monsters gets really gross." She sighed tiredly. "I think I'll be off now. Take care of yourself." With that she turned to leave.

"That's true."

He nodded and smiled. "See you around, Aria. Be careful. There are dangerous things about." He tapped near his eye knowingly, then turned and blended into the crowd, disappearing from view.

star market: day 4

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