Val took a deep breath, steeling herself for the next stage. Briny-smelling air filled her lungs. The air here in town differed completely from the air up on her farm. She held still for a moment. She heard the gentle motion of ocean waves.
“There’s a beach here, isn’t there?” Val asked Olive. “Where is it? Is it nearby?”
“Yes. Go north for beach access. South is the estuary.” The mud rams took up all of Olive’s attention again, so Val said goodbye and left.
Olive’s instructions proved correct. Val walked past condos facing the ocean, past which a path heading west led to the beach.
A breeze hit her face and ruffled her shirt as she exited the path, the packed gravel changing to soft sand under her shoes. The ocean, with such breadth, conveyed such a feeling of reality. Every sense awakened: not only the breeze on her skin, but the sand on her fingers, the churning ocean sounds, the taste and smell of the sea. Val hadn't known what to expect, but the beach and ocean possessed the same complexity as any beach she’d ever been to.
More than any Earthly beach, this one displayed magic in the form of a brilliant red aurora borealis, past a picturesque wooden pier and black jetty, hovering over the turquoise ocean. She said a little awkward hello to the ocean, kicking at the sand.
Was anyone at the beach?
Yes. In front of Val sat two women on a violet plaid blanket. Off to the side, an elderly couple sat in chairs enjoying the scene. Val thought about introducing herself, but she needed to focus. She waved, they waved back.
As far as Val could tell, the Aries magic hanging in the air wasn’t actually doing anything. The people seemed to be only watching it, which was understandable. But only watching the beauty of Aries magic contrasted against the utilitarian way Olive used it and talked about it. Val took another deep breath and enjoyed the sparkling and shimmering, as if it were reaching out to her.
Time to focus. Val ran back to the town square, over another bridge at the northwest corner of town.
Indeed, the cobalt-colored door was unlocked. Warm lights flickered on as Val stepped inside. The store looked like an old-time general store with wholesome basic goods in natural wrapping lining the shelves.
“Storage.” Val looked past the aisles for typical storage, then remembered the seals on her farmhouse, and kept an eye open for those as well. The most promising signs of storage were two doors at the back. On the other side of one door came the sounds of kids laughing, chittering, and thumping around. Charon’s students. She even heard his deeper voice calling for order. His teaching area must be connected to the store. The other door was silent, so she opened that one.
This was the store’s backroom, but unlike any store Val was familiar with, this backroom was as big at the store with different work areas. Glowing names with seals next to each covered one wall: Waldman, Xing, Prior, Mercer, Gupta, Fortier, Desrosiers, Ura, Harrow, Lumi, Chakravarti, and Baptiste. That wasn’t what Val needed at that moment. She turned to a different wall, one with a glowing zodiac wheel covering the wall from floor to ceiling. Each zodiac sign glowed, different constellations with pictures overlaid to show what the constellations represented. Which one would be the Aries drawer? The signs glowed as Val passed her hand over them.
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She swiped at seal with a picture of a funny-looking goat, which sort of looked like the rams at Olive’s mud bank. Several objects spilled out of the seal, including seed packets. Val dove for the seeds, pushing everything else aside. She picked up a handful of the seed packets and flipped through them. The seed packet labels read: iron daikon, frostbite turnip, snow quartz celeriac, and garnet rutabaga. One of the objects was a snowflake-shaped crystal with a label that said, “for Capricorn.”
“This is definitely not Aries.” Val pushed everything back into the Capricorn seal.
After a bit more trial and error, which took longer than it ought to since Val enjoyed combing through all the odd objects and interesting seeds, Val found the Aries drawer, which featured a symbol of a ram’s head. She hadn’t recognized it right away since the horns looked more like abstract, beautiful swirls of color. Piles of seed packets nestled in the Aries drawer. Nothing had a price. She scooped up an armful and took them to the till on a counter. After playing around with different seals and different screens that popped up, she figured things out. Just as she was about to start scanning, Olive arrived, her once-muddy gray dress now pristine. The pouch at her waist hung heavy with loot.
“It’s been over two hours and you’re still here! How much of a mess did you make? Did you break the till?” Olive waddled to look in the back room. “I am not impressed with this mess. Here.” Olive pushed Val away from the till.
“I just figured out the prices for everything. This is what I want.” Val separated some seed packets from the rest, which, she had to admit, formed a disorganized pile.
Fifteen ignisbulb seeds for ten abundos each.
One bloodstone radish at twenty abundos.
One peridot pea at fifty abundos.
One asparagustine at ninety-eight abundos.
One charo-cabbage at ninety-five abundo.
As Olive rang up the purchase, “Goodness. All that work for only 413 abundos.”
Val felt a little sour at that comment. She was spending basically all her money, saving only just a little for an emergency. She put each coin down with a snap.
As they wrapped up, a temple chime rang through the store. Charon appeared at the other back door.
“It’s time for your break, Olive.”
“Thank you, dear,” Olive said with a special smile. “Goodbye Val.” Val did not get a special smile.
“Bye.” Val turned to Charon as Olive waddled away.
“I’m still watching.” Charon stuck his hands in his pockets like he was done with her.
Val left the general store. The sun hung much lower on the horizon than Val had expected. Her mission was accomplished. She had learned more about the presence of magic. She had explored the town. Yet there was a twist of dissatisfaction in her chest. She just wanted to get back to the farm.
The prior afternoon, Val had found two signs leading to two different directions to the farm. The sign at the northeast corner led her to the farm. Now what about the sign at the southeast corner? Isabelle and Nate had gone that way. Maybe Val would run into them. Maybe the heaviness in her chest was loneliness. Val headed out of town at the southeast corner between the orchard and a barnyard.
With all her musings distracting her, Val wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. Just like earlier in the day, she found herself wandering around, but now on the other side of town, and, frankly, lost, with no one in sight. Different plants glowed ember red along the paths that led through meadows and woods. While she’d had a vague notion of foraging earlier in the day—after all, she had a foraging skill to level—she now was so lost that she just wanted to get home.
After what seemed like the hundredth turn down a path and everything still unfamiliar, with no idea where the town or farm was, Val was ready to break down crying. She had lowered her intelligence for her character stats and now wondered if that meant she literally couldn’t hold information in her head about where she was.
The sun was setting, dusk came, then twilight, which was the signal for little path lights to come on, and for the first time Val saw signs under each light. The sign pointed the way to town and, more importantly, to her farm!
As she headed off north, the path followed a river flowing southward on her right. This was the Usallis River that Poppy had mentioned earlier in the day, the one that flowed to south of town. That morning, Val had crossed over a stream near her farm to head to town. If she had been a bit smarter, she could have deduced that this was the same river and followed it home hours ago.
Would tomorrow be any better?
Val's Day Two Stats:
