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The Magic Box, Thursday

Rinoa was in a wonderful mood today. There wasn't any bit of sparkly gem stuck to her stomach: she just woke up feeling happy about the world and everything in it. Some days, that just happened. Wasn't that the best?

She was now cleaning off the shelves in the Magic Box, and humming to herself while she worked. This store was awesome. Totally a great decision, buying it.

(Store open! OCD-free! Will answer pings when I am home from work! FLEEING!)

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Anders hadn't noticed the Magic Box sign before: Now that he had, he intended to waste no time going in. Even if it was useless -- which wouldn't have surprised him -- it might be good for a laugh.

"Hello there," he said to the singing girl. "What kind of magic goods do you have here?"

"What kind of magic goods are you looking for?" Rinoa answered brightly. "If you're looking for, like, card tricks and fake magic? Those are all up front. Charms and amulets are over to the side, while spell ingredients are all through here."

And just in case he was another person from the boring normal worlds without it, she hastened to add, "And yes, magic is real, and if you didn't know that already, yell at your big sibling for not warning you."

"I can do magic," Anders assured her. "So that was one fewer thing for my sibling to have to worry about telling me about. And I'm looking for -- anything, really, but books on magical theory would be a start."

He had some dim idea about keeping up with the other apprentices as best he could. Not that he had immediate -- or any -- plans to go back to Ferelden, but if he landed there suddenly he didn't want to be unprepared for his Harrowing.

He added, "Can you do card tricks? I can never get the hang of them."

[OOC: Sorry, sleep called early last night.]

"Oh, I don't do them properly," Rinoa laughed, dismissing the question with an airy wave of her hand. "I cheat. Easier to make the two of diamonds into the Ace of spades than to figure out where the Ace wandered off to."

Which meant real magicians doing fake magic were actually working harder at the trick than Rinoa was. It seemed a little backwards.

"We have lots of books on magical theory," she added. "All kinds of musty old tomes. Some of them aren't for sale until I can clear that they're okay -- even the theory books sometimes have spells tucked away, and I don't want anyone pronouncing a word wrong and accidentally summoning zombies."

That might be bad.

"What kind of magic do you do?" she asked. "Offensive, defensive, elemental spells? And what kind of theory are you interested in? Like, why or how it works, metaphysics, or more of a, ways to improve your own casting, sort of deal?"

"I was specializing in spirit healing back at home," Anders said, all but giddy with relief that he seemed to be taking to someone who understood how things worked. "I know defensive and a bit of offensive too, enough to take care of myself, but healing's the only thing where I'm much better than any mage off the street."

Did he sound like he was bragging? He was.

"But I'm mostly looking for metaphysics, and anything about different types of demons. Not that I'd turn down a book on casting technique if you have something you'd like to recommend."

"Healing's incredibly useful," Rinoa said brightly. "Attack spells are good, but weapons can do damage, too. You need a healer to be sure everyone makes it back in one piece."

She started back towards the bookshelves, waving for Anders to follow her. And talking a streak as she did, obviously.

"I don't know how much we have about demons," she said, mulling it over. "Sometimes one world's demons are another world's deities, or spirit guides, or what-have-you. They seem oddly location-specific, so you might have to search under a few names to find the right beings. But general theory, there's a whole section this way."

Metaphysics was fascinating. And it helped her general research into what, exactly, she was.

"Some of the books here are spellbooks," she explained, "but they have ... words and rituals and ingredients. My magic doesn't work like that, so I can't say how useful any of them are, but if your magic does, you're welcome to them."

"We only use them for potions," Anders said, wrinkling his nose as he considered how to explain it. "Which is nice to know and such, but it's so much easier to buy them ready-made. I might take a spellbook anyhow, just to have a look."

He trotted after Rinoa, occasionally pausing to run a finger over a text with an especially intriguing title or spine.

"How does your magic work?" he asked, out of curiosity. "I'm Anders, by the way. New student. May be in here a bit."

Rinoa had slowed, then stopped, noticing him being drawn to the texts. She was never one to deny a bookworm his pleasures; sometimes she came to this section just to breath in the pages. If he wanted to stop and graze on some of these titles, he could take his time.

"Rinoa," she said. "I'm a Sorceress. When a Sorceress dies, she passes on her powers to the nearest potential, usually a young girl who has no idea she is a potential, and that girl becomes the new Sorceress. So I have unfathomable amounts of power just ... lurking under my skin, waiting to be expressed. The real trick is controlling it."

It was a little more honest than she might be with other customers, but she felt a bond with other magic-users. They could understand her struggles, even if hers were very different from theirs. Maybe it was just that she hated being the only Sorceress and liked the idea of having peers.

"Take a spellbook, then," she said, nodding to the section of them. "You should have no problem with those spells. I think possibly the ingredients and incantations are just a way to focus magical energy, for users who may not know how to do such things inherently."

Or for worlds whose magic functioned in an entirely different way. She didn't mean to disparage spellbook-users.

"You ought to be careful," she added with a smile. "I usually end up hiring my regulars. I do have a couple of shifts available. Employees get a store discount."

"What does it feel like when you first inherit the powers?" Anders asked, curious. "We're born with ours, though the signs sometimes take a while to show."

Especially if you'd been in denial, as Anders' parents were.

He picked up a book that seemed particularly interesting, smiling over at Rinoa as he did. "And you shouldn't say that unless you want me to ask for a job. I need a little money, and it doesn't seem to be particularly easy to come by here."

[OOC: I AM SO SORRY. It was a crazy weekend.]

"I'm the wrong one to ask about that," Rinoa said, giving a carefree shrug. "I spent the first few months I was a Sorceress in a coma. One minute, I'm knocked out during a fight, and the next, I'm a Sorceress trapped on a space station. So there was a lot to adjust to, all at once."

That was even leaving out the bit where she'd been possessed. It had been a busy couple of months, apparently.

"I wouldn't have mentioned it if I wasn't already considering it," she added with a laugh. "Any objection you have, I can demolish. I can teach you to work a cash register, and you get to read all these awesome books while you're on-duty."

(holy shit, my turn to apologize. This week has been absolutely insane.)

"A coma?" This was getting to be the kind of story where, if someone told it to you in a bar, you'd back away, Anders thought -- though Rinoa was so cheerful he was sure she was telling the truth.

"And if you don't have any objections, I certainly don't," he said. "What would I say? 'Oh, no, please don't give me money?' I could work any day but Friday. I've never had a job,but I learn fast and I don't steal."

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The Magic Box, Thursday

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