Chapter 5

The scent of incense wafted through the tent as Kaede and Gakuto wandered in. A lush, intricately designed rug was rolled out over the hardened ground and a small straw mat was in front of it, indicating that they should remove their shoes. The pair obliged, Kaede slipping out of her sandals and Gakuto removing his boots.

Stepping onto the carpet, Kaede’s eyes gazed across the varied and vastly overstocked tables and various trinkets hanging from the canopy. The whole tent was crowded with a myriad of magical instruments, implements and assorted curiosities that probably took a lifetime to accrue. Stepping over the clutter to venture further in, she placed her hand on a table and her fingertips touched an obscured piece of cloth that glowed faintly before suddenly launching the entire table’s contents away from Kaede.

She had jumped in surprise at the sudden magic and a deep, raspy chuckle emanated from further in the tent’s depths.

“First time seeing a magic circle activate, young miss?” The voice, an older male’s, was equally raspy but filled with an air of mystery and a hint of slyness. The sort of voice you’d expect from a dealer of magical wares.

“No, no.” Kaede waved her hand in front of her, to the unseen voice. “It was just startling to see it launch everything at once.” She then bowed as if realizing the damage she could’ve caused. “Sorry for the trouble!”

The deeper laugh came from the obscured voice. “Not to worry, young miss.” A loud snap of fingers could be heard and a lantern with a top that reminded Kaede of the roof of a pagoda, which had been launched by the circle, floated from the floor and bounced up and down as it glided over Gakuto’s head, his gaze following it to the opposite corner. “Magical tools are meant to take a lot of damage, either from wear or overuse.” The lantern stopped midair, hovering over a table against the eastern wall of the tent.

Kaede started to snake her way through the overstocked tables towards the lantern, and it bounded up and down once before hovering across the center. She started to follow after it, like they were playing a game as Gakuto sized up the abundant, clustered nature of the items in the tent.

“I see you are a discerning young lad.” The voice from the depths reached Gakuto’s ears as he placed his hand on one of the cache of magical tools. No spontaneous activation happening under his touch, he moved along to the next pile, his eyes gliding over the assortment of items of questionable shape and purpose.

“Discerning isn’t the word I’d use…” Gakuto muttered and the voice chuckled, having somehow heard that despite the presumed distance from the front of the tent and wherever the mysterious merchant sat.

“Being cautious is also worthwhile, lad.” There was a playfulness to the voice, but something about it was still bristling Gakuto’s skin. Perhaps master Jiro’s vigilance had finally become instinct at long last…

Kaede emerged from behind a stack of tomes in the middle, holding up a palm-sized orb that was glowing with an ethereal blue light. “Gakkun, look at this! It’s cold to the touch!” She placed it in his hand as she stepped over a stack of wooden boxes with ominous seals on them.

“Ah, yes. That’s a glass ball that has been tempered with frost magic. It feels really good on a warm summer day, doesn’t it?” Gakuto was mindlessly rolling it in his hand as Kaede nodded vehemently in the direction of the merchant’s unseen voice.

Before Gakuto could pass it back to Kaede, she had disappeared behind another overstuffed table and the faint shuffling of various trinkets could be heard as she started rummaging through something. He placed the orb on a table and stepped over the ominous wooden boxes, stepping to the opposite side from the young oiran.

His eyes wandered through more of the chaos as he heard various sounds come from whatever box she was digging through before stopping at the least cluttered display in the whole tent, a surprisingly familiar book sitting open.

“You may be wondering about why a normal book is displayed like that, young lad, but there is much magic in written words, to those who can look deeper.” The raspy voice startled Gakuto, sounding like it was coming from directly behind him. He was curious as to how they hadn’t yet seen the owner of that voice but he knew where they were. “I can see that you’re puzzled, lad, but for every extraordinary magical spell, tome or trinket, there are equally mundane tools. Such as a looking glass that can see through walls, or in this case, clutter.”

Gakuto sighed, his hand going back to the book and glancing at the contents. It was from an old folktale about why the moon only showed one face, related vaguely to tales of the moon’s elusive princess (that Kaede adored). The wording was a little more archaic, and the accompanying drawing was more intricate than the scrolls they had read as children, but it was essentially the same story.

In the background, Kaede’s voice was heard again, this time closer to the back of the tent. She had apparently found another cache of items to dig through and her fervor seemed much higher.

He continued along the cluttered side wall, stepping over cloth, books, rugs and a whole other allotment of familiar looking items before finding another fairly well done display, this one with your more typical magic tools. There was a small, simple wooden box that caught Gakuto’s eye, mixed in among the various jeweled rings, bracelets and other jewelry. He reached down and undid the clasp keeping the box sealed and lifted the top half up revealing an ornate dagger.

The blade was curved with an intricate hilt covered in a trio of gemstones, three different shades of amber in an emerald cut. The handle was wrapped in fresh leather and had a good grip when Gakuto picked it up. The pommel had four more emerald cut stones, all in amber orange. It had a good weight to it as he twirled it a few times before placing it back in the box. The sheath, also resting in the box, was on the simple side but the clasp had a matching orange amber gemstone.

“That dagger is from an old tomb.” The voice came from his left side this time, sounding even closer than when he was mulling over the book. “The gemstones have their own magic arrays, with the three in the hilt meant to keep the blade balanced and forever sharp. The ones in the pommel, allegedly, allows the user to coat the blade in flames, though there was no such activation phrase on the old tablet found alongside the dagger.”

Gakuto closed the box and turned towards the voice. “Whose tomb was it stolen from?”

“Not stolen, retrieved!”

Sounds like grave robbing to me… Gakuto thought and he could almost feel the smirk from the merchant.

“It’s nuance at that point, young lad.” Gakuto had narrowed his eyes, his suspicion of this merchant growing further.

“Gakkun, Gakkun!” The tension was broken as Kaede approached from the displays to his left, holding up a similar box to the one he had. “Look at this!” It was an ordinary looking flute with multiple holes across it. There was no discernible pattern or array or even gemstones to show that it was magical.

“A flute?”

“A dizi!” Kaede exclaimed, setting her box next to the dagger and bringing it up to her mouth, blowing across it and making a weak hissing sound. Gakuto turned, covering his mouth to keep from laughing as her cheeks turned red with embarrassment, all puffed up as she tried to make a stronger sound.

“You know your instruments, miss.” The merchant’s voice reached them both and Kaede pulled the instrument down, feeling a bit of shame from failing to make a sound.

“I’ve been taught to play a lot of different ones, but I’m never any good at making them sound correct… This is my first time trying with a dizi though!”

“Everyone struggles as they’re learning, that is a part of life. Perhaps, you have just been trying with the wrong instruments? A master only becomes one once they have the proper tools, after all.” Kaede’s hands clenched tightly around the bamboo, taking the words to heart.

“Mister! I think I’ll buy this!” Her smile was luminous as she carefully put the dizi back in its box and closed the lid.

“Excellent, young maiden! Just turn down the last aisle and find the sole empty table to pay!” Kaede stepped over a fallen implement and turned back to Gakuto.

“You should buy that, Gakkun!” She pointed at the box and he stared after her as she bounded down the far aisle. He glanced over at the box and sighed, tucking it under his arm and following after her.

Kaede was placing two gold pieces on the table and a hand appeared from behind the nearby cluttered displays, a long cloak matching the color of the tent concealing all but his hand. She made a happy bow and held the box close to her chest as Gakuto reached the table and placed his wooden box on it.

“Also, young lad, just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” The raspy voice came from beneath the hood, so neatly camouflaged against the wall of the tent that Gakuto couldn’t be sure that the merchant’s cloak wasn’t actually an extension of the tent itself. “Remember, there is magic in more places than you think, and just like people, ordinary objects can hide secrets only found by those willing to search for them.”

Kaede was nodding at these cryptic words, as if they meant something while Gakuto placed two of the three gold coins he had received from Kaede on the table, a scowl plastered across his face. The raspy chuckle escaped from the merchant’s hood as he made the coins disappear into his cloak before extracting a small silk pouch and placing it upon the dagger’s box.

“A little something extra, to help you expand your views.”

As Gakuto went to grab and open the pouch, the merchant’s hand lunged out and grasped his wrist so quickly he had no time to react. Gakuto noticed a small animal roughly embroidered into the sleeve of the cloak, something looking vaguely canine or maybe lepus.

“Do not open it here or when you exit this tent. The time is not yet right for your sight to improve. You’ll know when.”

Gakuto slapped the merchant’s hand away and stormed out of the tent, leaving behind a flustered Kaede. She quickly bowed to the merchant once more, as he waved his hand showing he wasn’t offended and she dashed off after her friend. The merchant let out another chuckle, to himself, as the two disappeared beyond the entrance.

“There certainly seems to be an interesting wind blowing in…”