58 A Nameless Trinket Store

The afternoon was cold and windy. The forest stood tall next to that small town, casting its shadow over the buildings on its periphery. The street was quiet; only a few bunches of people could be seen walking or driving out in the cloudy daylight. Occasionally the sounds of the forest were audible to the town residents near it.

Graham was heading towards the building where bullets were sold, which was already within his field of vision. He carefully crossed the street and arrived at an antique store without a name. From the outside, the store looked just like a normal antique store that sold vases and china and other peculiar objects. People would never think that they sold ammunition there.

He pushed the door open and was greeted by the smell of old stuff and wood. The store had a lot of big ceramic vases with ornaments on them and books whose pages had turned brown. It was not as cramped as Paim's antique store, but the collection was still commendable. There was a tall man wearing a turtleneck sweater sitting behind the counter. He has red hair and a freckled face. His expression seemed to show his fearlessness hidden behind his friendliness. The man looked at his customer and greeted him.

"Hello, good sir. How can I help?" he said with a thick accent.

Graham was sure that they didn't sell the ammunition out in the open because guns were heavily regulated in the republic, so he got closer to the man and revealed his pocket gun a little. For a layman, it should not be clear what the object was because it could be anything, but for someone in the know, they would recognize it right away.

"Do you have what I need?" he asked vaguely.

The shopkeeper looked a bit surprised and asked back, his blue eyes opened wide, "Who told you about us?"

Graham had expected the question, so he didn't show any surprise. He calmly looked at the man in the eyes and spoke, "I need you to sell me what I need without asking questions. I'm on an important mission and trust me, you don't want to be the reason for its failure." his tone was very serious and sounded very convincing.

The tall shopkeeper looked confused and after a second passed he nodded. "Follow me," he said.

Graham followed the man to go through the door to the back part of the store. It was a spacious room that looked like a fortune-teller's room. In fact, it was probably one because there was a hooded woman sitting behind a table with a crystal ball at the end of the room whose walls were full of strange writings and talismans. The room gave off a strange spiritual sensation. The tall man walked closer towards the woman whose face couldn't be seen clearly and whispered something to her.

Graham's first thought when he saw the woman was whether or not she was a Contractbound, but currently he had no way of checking because he couldn't just do divination in front of strangers.

"So you're here to buy bullets?" asked the woman suddenly. Her voice was soft and mature.

"Yes," Graham nodded while still standing on his spot. He had his guards up.

"No need to be so tense. May I know why you need those?" she spoke in a somewhat soothing voice. Only her moving lips and a part of her pointy nose were visible from where Graham was standing.

He thought that it would be better just to tell her the reason because trust was the basis of cooperation, but he wouldn't tell her everything.

"I'm going to go deep into the woods," he said monotonously.

"Then you will need more than regular bullets," she said mysteriously.

"Are they more expensive?" Graham asked the first question that came to his mind.

"Yes, they are. They are specially made by my sister here," the man interjected. He had accidentally revealed an important piece of information to Graham.

"Tell me more, and also the reason why I need the special bullets," he said. He already had guesses about the reason.

"Before I tell you, you need to answer my question first. When did you become a Contractbound?" the hooded woman asked a question seemed to have another meaning.

Graham wasn't surprised by the fact that she knew he was a Contractbound because he had so easily got past the man who was apparently her brother. He was just curious about what the meaning behind her question was. He had to be careful with his answer because it contained crucial information that might reveal his battle powers.

"Sometime between four months ago and yesterday," he answered vaguely.

The hooded woman seemed to be looking at Graham from under the hood, observing him carefully from the distance.

"You are a very cautious person," complimented the woman. Her lips curled into a smile. "At least now I know you are from the Police,"

After saying that, she took off her hood and revealed her mature beautiful face and wavy red hair. Her skin was pale with orangish freckles adorning it. Her eyes were violet, which he wasn't sure if they were natural or not. Violet eyes were extremely rare, but not impossible to naturally occur. Her nose was thin and pointy, complementing her thin, red lips.

"Welcome to my magical trinkets store. My name is Cadhla, and this is my older brother, Rafferty. Pleased to be your acquaintance," she said softly and gracefully.

"You can call me Raff," said the tall man casually.

"Hello there. So, tell me about the bullets," asked Graham straight to the point.

"Do you know about the monster or the evil spirits in the forest?" asked Cadhla.

"Yes, I do. What about them?"

"Normal bullets won't hurt them. Only bullets imbued with a special property through a ritual have a real chance of injuring them," she explained vaguely. She seemed not willing to reveal all her cards either.

"How much are you selling them for?" asked Graham.

He then opened his coat a little, and reached into one of the pockets with his left hand, revealing the small revolver gun hidden inside. He did so because he knew she needed to know what kind of bullets he needed.

She observed the weapon in Graham's hand and spoke, ".31 calibers. That would be 2 guilders per bullet... but if you buy bulk, I'll give you a special discount."

Her voice sounded graceful yet professional. She seemed to have done similar things many times.

"Dang. Why are they so expensive?" asked Graham in disbelief.

Graham still had over sixty guilders currently from his previous commissions, but if everything would cost him so much money, that amount would not last long at all.

"Because bullets are difficult to get in the first place, and my sister has to bestow them with power through a difficult ritual," interjected Raff.

"Val, he seemed to be very protective of his sister," muttered Graham quietly.

Cadhla only smiled gracefully from the other end of the room.

"Can I see the bullets first?" asked Graham.

Cadhla nodded at Raff, who went to get a box from the shelves. He approached Graham and opened the lid of the wooden box. Inside, there were bullets that didn't seem to be different from normal ones.

"Thank you. I'll need time to think first," he then said after seeing them.

He wanted to do divination to determine the effectiveness of the bullets before deciding to spend money on them, but he couldn't do it there, so he excused himself to go outside. Since he had now seen the bullets, he should be able to get useful information through divination.

Graham left the pair of brother and sister and went outside the antique store. He stood under a tree by the street and took out his lighter. In that quiet street, there was not a lot of people passing by, so he didn't have to hide in an alley as usual. After making sure that there was no one around him, he started the fire and concentrated on it.

'How effective are the special bullets against the enemy I will face in the forest?'

After repeating that question three times, he saw an image in the flame on his hand. It was someone shooting something very blurry, but Graham took it as the enemy from the forest. The bullet penetrated what might be the thing's head and it burst into flames, leaving a small crystal fragment behind. The image then disappeared.

"So they are indeed effective," he said while rubbing his chin.

He stared at the flame again and concentrated. He repeated his next question in his mind.

'How much are the special bullets in Sloten?'

The flame slowly formed an image that Graham had seen before. The surrounding area looked like the black market that he had divined once when he was looking for his sacrificial ingredients. The image then zoomed in to a store that displayed armaments and ammunition. There was a red dot inside a glass case, which he understood as the same bullet that he was asking about. The price tag on the bullet read two and a half guilders. The flame then consumed the image slowly.

"It's even more expensive in Sloten. Val, we should buy enough here, then,"

After deciding that, he stared back at the flame and focused on the calmy burning fire. He had one more question that he wanted to ask.

'What is Cadhla's Contractbound power?'

The flame burned brightly, and his surrounding area became dark. He waited expectantly for the image to show in his flame. Then, there was only one blurry word that appeared.

Whoosh!

The flame went out by itself while Graham was reading the blurry word with difficulty. However, he had managed to see what it was.

"She is a Transmuter? So she is either much stronger than me or she has a way to somewhat interfere with divination," he concluded.

Graham stuffed the black lighter back inside his pocket and went back to the store. Rafferty had been waiting for him, so when he saw his customer coming back, he opened the back door and let Graham enter. Cadhla was still sitting in her original spot.

"So, have you made up your mind?" she asked softly.

"Yes. Besides the bullets, do you have other protective items that might be useful?" he took the initiative to ask.

Graham looked around the room and observed the talismans on the wall carefully. They were many different kinds there; there was those that are made of paper with foreign characters on them, there were also those made out of sticks tied together to form a star, with a black feather at the end and those that were made of metal with mysterious engravings on them. All of them were bigger than the size of his palm.

"In fact, we do. I also provide these talismans to the locals who are going into the forest, so the effect is trustworthy," answered Cadhla like a commercial salesperson.

"What do they do?"

"They are not as effective as the bullets, in that they can't actually kill the evil spirits. But they offer you temporary protection to give you time to run away safely," she explained.

Graham went into thinking. Since the bullets were expensive, he should save them as much as he could, so if he didn't really need to, the talismans should be used instead.

"Are they reusable?" he asked.

"... you are very sharp. Each talisman is one-time use only," she chuckled and explained.

Graham felt a pain in his heart. Since they were single-use, it meant he had to buy several of the talismans, which meant more money to burn.

"How much are they?" he asked heavily.

"Since you're going to the forest, you will need this kind of talisman," she placed an object on the table in front of her.

It was a small trident, a little bigger than the size of his hand, made of brass with complicated patterns on it. In the middle of the trident, there was a carving of a face of something that looked like an evil spirit itself. Its eyes were big and bulging out of their sockets, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth, forming an eerie grin. There was a golden ribbon tied around the trident carefully, making sure the face was not blocked.

"They are cheap. Only five stuivers each," she smiled meaningfully.

"I can bet you won't find any other stores here that sell these useful talismans," Rafferty added.

"That's a quarter of a guilder. They are indeed cheaper than the bullet, but that's still a lot of money. Why is everything Contractbound related so expensive?" he muttered in ridicule.

Since he had divined the effectiveness of the bullet and the power of Cadhla, he didn't question the authenticity of those talismans. He could also faintly feel some power coming out of them, which convinced him even more. However, they were bigger than the bullets and took more room, so it would be impossible to carry so many at once, even with his numerous coat pocket and briefcase space.

"I'll take twenty bullets and the same number of talismans then. Make sure to give me a big discount," he finally decided.

His whole total should be forty-five guilders for the bullets and talismans, but he didn't know how much discount the Transmuter was willing to give him, and he didn't think his persuasion power would work on her, so he waited in anticipation.

"Hmm... since you're buying a lot, I'll give you the talismans free of charge, so you only have to pay for the bullets," she smiled.

"In that case, can I get more talismans?" asked Graham, taking his chance.

"Yes, but they won't be free," said Cadhla.

"Nevermind then. Forty guilders it is," he changed his mind, and then added, "Can I get them now?"

"I need to prepare them first because it is a lot that you are buying. I will need half a day. Is that alright? You can pay once your order is ready" she said matter-of-factly.

Graham couldn't do anything about it since he knew rituals needed preparation. However, he had to postpone going into the forest today since, by the time she finished his orders, it would have been nighttime, and he didn't want to risk entering the forest at night.

"Alright. You can take your time. I'll come back tomorrow morning," he said.