The Seal of Oblivion (6 page)

“How about I just leave?” Chasity
Pearl asked letting her wings show and about to take off out the window.

Plainshield stopped the woman. “No,
we need your help.”

“What?”

“Well Chasity, under all that
sarcasm and bored demeanor we all know you’re good at negotiating,” said
Plainshield.

“She is?” Adria asked surprised.

“What are we looking at, a modern
place or something of the old fashion type where the family has been running
the place for years?” Chasity Pearl asked

“Weren’t you helping me at the
palace?” Plainshield wondered aloud.

“Doesn’t mean I
was paying attention.”

“The latter,
Chasity.”

“Oh, then no can do.”

“Why?” Plainshield asked.

“Because they’re family has
probably had it and been guarding it for
years,
and
the people in shops like that are hard bargainers. You’d almost have to fight
to get that thing,” Chasity Pearl explained.

“You won’t even try?” Nightshield
asked.

“No.”

“Chasity!”
Nightshield snapped and then turned to Laqiya. “You’re friends with birdie.
Tell her.”

Laqiya looked at Chasity Pearl and
then Nightshield. She shook her head.

“No one seems to have asked me how
I feel about all this, not that you all seem to care that I don’t want to be
the White Rose. I could care less about this staff,” Laqiya decided.

Chasity Pearl sat next to her on
the bed.

“I’m with flower girl.”

“Ugh,” Nightshield groaned and then
pointed to Laqiya saying, “You don’t have a choice.”

“Because no one
gave me one.”

“Come on Laqiya. We were going
downtown anyway,” Sakura said. “And I bet there are some nice restaurants we
can go to. Oh! There’s even this gourmet Asian restaurant. You love Asian food
right? And you’ve never seen downtown Roselyn. It’s amazing!
Classic
and chic, but modern.
You’re everything about that!”

“No.”

“But you did want to go downtown.
Think of it as a detour,” Adria pitched. “You’re getting exactly what you
want.”

Laqiya really hated her friends…

“
You coming
Chasity?” Laqiya asked. “We’ll both be forced into this together?”

Chasity Pearl rolled her eyes, but
didn’t protest.

After finally managing to get her
driver to figure out where they were going, they headed downtown, towards the
shop. Sakura had been right when she said classic, chic, and modern. Downtown Roselyn
was bustling with business, people, and cute odds and
ins
that were typical of a larger city, but without the crowded atmosphere of New
York or Chicago. This was Laqiya’s kind of city.

“Okay, so tell me us again why we
need to get the staff pieces?” Laqiya asked when they left the parking garage
to find the shop.

“Well, other than the fact that it
might help you with your powers, Lady Sahajah can use them to shatter the seal
of oblivion and release The Tyrant,” Nightshield explained.

“Who is this tyrant anyway?” Sakura
asked. “I mean, don’t you know his name.”

“No, all we know is that she,”
Nightshield nodded to Laqiya, “sealed him in oblivion.”

Laqiya tilted her head. “So this
guy has no name?”

“Not that we know of,” Plainshield
replied as she paved the way between the crowds.

People were packed into downtown
this time of day, which made it hard for the group to maneuver and stay
together to get to their destination. Finally, they arrived on the corner of a
street where there was a shabby looking brick building with a black door and a
sign on it. It read
Magical Items Galore
in
fancy letters.

“Are you sure this is it?” Sakura
asked frowning in distaste.

“Yeah,” Plainshield replied.

“That name is really cliché,” said
Laqiya while following close behind Chasity Pearl, who wanted to get this over
with as soon as possible so she could leave, into the shop. The rest of their
group followed.

A woman in her late twenties sat
behind the counter. She looked up from whatever book she was reading as they
filed in and moved a strand of her long fiery red hair out her face and behind
her ear, revealing many earrings and a nose ring. The movement also caused the
assortment of trinkets and bracelets down her arm to jingle. After glancing at
then briefly, she went back to her book.

Laqiya looked at Chasity Pearl with
an expectant expression. Chasity sighed

“Excuse me,” Chasity Pearl managed
in the most polite minimum sarcastic tone she could muster.

The woman didn’t even look up as
she flipped the page of her book.

“What do you want?”

Chasity Pearl, Nightshield, and
Plainshield gave her an undisguised dark look.

“Well this is a shop for magical
items, right?” Nightshield asked.

“Nightshield’s going to blow our
chance of getting the staff piece before we even see it,” Isis whispered to
Laqiya.

“And she’s always fussing at
Chasity. Today it might be the other way around,” Laqiya added in agreement.

“Shut up,” Chasity Pearl muttered
to Nightshield and then turned back to the woman with an expression a little
less polite than it had been at first.

“Anyway, we just wanted to see your
magical or enchanted weapons, you know, like wands, swords, pendants, crystals,
staffs…” she trailed off with the last item and the woman eyed them
suspiciously.

The woman closed the book and took
a set of keys from the counter. Then she went to a big wooden armoire and
opened it up. Swords, pendants, and crystals hung in the case, said to be
enchanted making them powerful weapons.

Chasity Pearl looked at them for a
minute pretending to be interested (although Laqiya was sure her eyes kept
wandering to a bow and arrow set). She stood up straight and crossed her arms.

“Any staffs?” she asked

The woman gave her an annoyed
looked. “If I did I would have taken it out already.”

“What’s in that chest on that
table?” Nightshield asked nodding her head to a table with a dark wooden chest
around two feet long and one foot in width and height.

Laqiya sighed. She didn’t think she
had a versatile personality, but she did believe that she knew when to back
off. This would surely end in disaster if Nightshield didn’t keep her mouth
shut.

“It’s just a bunch of pendants,”
the woman said closing the armoire and locking it up.

“Can we see?” Chasity Pearl asked
giving Nightshield a warning glance.

The woman opened up the chest.
Inside were nine pendants, a symbol for each force of nature. If Laqiya had to
guess, from right to left there were Mind, Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Light,
Darkness, Life, and Death.

“Happy?” the woman asked

“What’s that?”

The shopkeeper groaned at Laqiya’s
question and asked, “What?”

“The false top.”
Laqiya didn’t know how she had seen it. It was barely visible, and though she
had sharp eyes, they weren’t that sharp. Something in that box was calling her,
like she had a deep connection to whatever was in the chest.

“It’s none of your business unless
you plan on buying this chest.”

“What made you think we weren’t
planning on it?” Nightshield shot.

Laqiya crossed her arms. This would
not end well. The tense atmosphere told her that much.

“How much?”
Chasity Pearl asked before Nightshield’s temper got the best of her.

“Fifteen thousand
dollars.”

The less privileged of the group
winced, even Sakura. If it wouldn’t raise her mother’s suspicion, Laqiya could
have asked for that kind of money.

“Make it five thousand,” Sakura
suggested.

“That’s my price.”

Laqiya looked at the chest closer
and frowned. Nightshield’s insults and bluntness combined with the woman’s bad
attitude hadn’t put this situation in their favor.

“Why so high?” Laqiya asked still
looking at the chest.

“Because that’s how much it’s
worth.”

“That may be true,” Laqiya
admitted. “But that’s not how much it costs. You jacked up the price.”

“Says who?”

Laqiya pointed to the chest.
“Says the price sticker on the back.”

“Where,” Nightshield asked trying
to go around and look at the back only for the shopkeeper to pull it away.

“It says three thousand,” Laqiya
said.

“It’s my shop, I can raise the
price,” the woman snapped

“Should have done that before we
walked in,” Nightshield said in a flat tone.

“So are you paying or what?”

“For the price on the tag,” said
Nightshield.

“Shut up you,” Chasity Pearl
snapped. “Five thousand,”

“Fifteen thousand take it or let it
alone.”

“Listen you witch, the price says
three thousand, and we won’t pay any more than that,” Nightshield snapped and
Chasity Pearl let her head fall back.

Insulting the woman didn’t lighten
her mood. If her steely gray eyes were any indication, her mood got worse.

“Get out!” she demanded.

“Wait a minute, we want that chest,”
Plainshield pleaded.

“Not like a bunch of spoiled brats
like you could afford it. Now get out!” the woman snapped.

Nightshield and Chasity Pearl
looked poised to argue, but Laqiya stood between them, grabbed an arm and
pulled them out the shop. As soon as they were outside Chasity Pearl rounded on
Nightshield. Laqiya stood between them. She was the only one that could keep
the two from jumping each other.

“Can’t you control your temper for
five minutes?” Chasity Pearl yelled.

“Sorry, no can do,” said
Nightshield, “at least not when someone is that rude and impolite to me.”

“Really Nightshield, you’re talking
about rude and impolite?” Isis asked in disbelief.

“She was,” Nightshield said dryly
as she started back for the parking garage

“Ever think she was just like you?”
Plainshield asked.

Nightshield ignored them and kept
walking.

“It might have just been her
personality. You seem rude and impolite to everyone who first meets you,
especially with that glare of yours and your sharp features,” Isis put in.

“I would say she
is
rude and impolite, not seem,” said
Adria.

“Well, you blew it Nightshield,”
said Chasity Pearl.

“And I’m betting you’re through
with it now, right?” Sakura asked the half bird woman.

“Yeah, especially if kitty is going
to ruin it when I agreed to help and didn’t want to,” Chasity snapped.

“Well it’s not my fault the witch
was being just that,” Nightshield growled rounding on Chasity Pearl.

“We’re in public for God’s sake.
Can you fight in the car?” Isis asked when she saw someone point at the two.
Neither woman paid her any attention.

Laqiya sighed from where she was
ahead of the group. Then she turned around and snapped, “You’re both being
ridiculous! This is both your faults. Now we might not get that stupid staff
piece at all.”

“There is no might,” Chasity Pearl
said. “We aren’t.”

“You all dragged me to this place
when I could be sitting in a movie theater right now. You best believe that I’m
not leaving without that staff piece even if I have to fight that redhead for
it!” Laqiya snapped.

With that said, Laqiya turned on
heel, muttering about egotistical, feminist guardians, and went back into the
shop.

“Where are you going?” Sakura asked
about to follow her, but the door to the shop closed in her face and clicked,
signaling that it had locked.

“Hey!” she said hitting the door.

Laqiya ignored the banging as she
looked around, and seeing the redheaded woman nowhere in the front, she went to
the back room. She found the woman rummaging through some junk muttering under
her breath about the ‘tall rude woman’ from before.

“Excuse me,” Laqiya said trying to
be nice even though she wasn’t in a nice mood.

The woman appeared to ignore her,
but Laqiya caught her glance her eyes up away from her task before looking back
down.

Laqiya sighed, “Look. I don’t want
to be here all day, but I do have all day. I’m in no rush, and I won’t leave. I
was forced all the way down here to get something, and I don’t plan for this
dumb trip to be for nothing when I could have gone to the movies today.”

The woman raised her head to look
at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Says who?” she asked.

“I don’t want to be here about as
much as you don’t want me here, but I don’t have a choice alright? Three men,
who called themselves Anaxars and have been stalking me since I was seven,
kidnapped one of my best friends and I barely was able to fight them off. I’d
like to ignore it, but I can’t. Nightshield and Isis won’t let me.” Laqiya
shook her head. The woman really didn’t need to know all of that. “I know
there’s a staff piece in that chest and I’ll bet your family has been guarding
it for the last seven thousand years waiting to give it back to its rightful
owner. I don’t want to be its owner, but I figure if I can get that,
Nightshield will back off for a while.”

“Funny.”

“What?”

“You want something that will bring
you the attack, but you don’t want the fight,” the woman pointed out brushing
past Laqiya and back into the front of the shop.

“Tell me about it,” Laqiya muttered
following her.

“Hm.”

“So what do I have to do for it,”
Laqiya said standing directly behind the woman.

“Do for what?”

“The staff
piece.”

“Be the White Rose for one.”

Laqiya winced. “I don’t want to be
the White Rose. I’m hoping I can pass this along to someone else.”

The woman huffed and grabbed
Laqiya’s jacket by the lapel. “Look at you, coming in here all demanding. As
if. You’re just some prissy bourgeois-y rich girl cry baby. Doesn’t even want
to be the hero, but ironically wants the hero relic. What are you going to do,
pretend in your house for a while and then when the real fight comes, cower?
That staff piece isn’t a toy to be played with or a nice antique for over the
fireplace.”