The Infinite Consortium, Wednesday Afternoon

"No!" Liliana scolded, shaking her finger at what appeared to be an entirely normal armchair. "Bad chair! Bad chair!" The floor around the chair was littered with debris: nuts and bolts and shreds of paper and shards of brass. "That secretary was worth more than three of you! You're a very bad chair!"

The chair's cushions sagged a little, though Liliana wasn't sure if it were truly contrite or just pretending. It didn't matter, her brass secretary remained destroyed either way. "You get up into that display window and you stay there all day where people can see you and your sign." The cushions sagged further, but Liliana was adamant. "Maybe a day of being perceived will make you mind. Up!"

She went to fetch a dustpan and handbroom to sweep up the remains of the artifact creature that had been in today's shipment, and when she turned back around, the armchair was in the display window, her hand-lettered sign perched on the cushions.

I like to eat expensive artifacts and leave a mess behind.

"Hmph!" Liliana huffed, going behind the counter to dispose of the remains of the secretary and pick up her book again. She really needed to find some kind of enrichment for that chair. And until then, some kind of bad kitty spray bottle.

Creeeeeeak.

"If I put down my book and there's not a chair in the window, perfectly still and holding its sign, I'm going to get out the varnish stripper and go to town," Liliana said without looking up.

The creaking stopped.

"Wise decision."

The Infinite Consortium was open!

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Harley had caught the chair with its little sign in the window, sure, but that wasn't what actually got her to poke her head in the door.

"Hiya! Just wondering, how's the consortium infinite? Like, what makes it an infinite consortium?"

"My assumption is that it refers to the ego of the dragon that started the Consortium in the first place," Liliana said with a faint smile.

The joke worked for Tezzeret, too, but her antipathy for the arrogant Bolas had nothing on her hatred for his former lackey.

"Hello and welcome to Dragonic Ego Emporium," she added.

"Now that's a name," Harley said, finally getting past the threshold into the store with more than just her head and shoulders. She gave a low whistle, looking around. "What is this place, anyway? What do you consort?"

"It's a store that sells magical artifacts," Liliana said. "A branch of the much wider Infinite Consortium, which was a mercantile organization that spanned multiple planes and swore it could procure any item a client could ask for." Her lips curved in a satisfied smile. "For the most part, it's defunct now, although there are a few cells remaining."

Not the one in Ravnica, though. Suck on that, Tezzeret, you fuck.

"What that means in practice is that every so often I get a delivery of magical items, I put them on shelves, and rarely, I sell them."

Harley's eyes popped all the way open.

"Magical items?" she repeated. "Like actual magic? Like what?"

"Like actual magic," Liliana confirmed, smile growing broader. "I'm personally a necromancer, but I sell all sorts of items that do all sorts of things. Many of them weapons - your typical magical swords, shields, knives, that kind of thing - but we have any number of other items as well. Magic carpets, belts of strength, mana generators, the works. Are you looking for something in particular?"

Harley's whole wide-eyed look at the magic of it all probably said enough about that, didn't it?

"Oh, I wouldn't even know what I was lookin' for in a place like this," she said. "I don't think we have these in Gotham." And then her eyebrows climbed up again, above a broad grin. "But it would be fun."

Liliana grinned. "Why don't I show you something then," she suggested, coming out from behind the counter in a swirl of purple silks. "Hmm...you look like the adventurous type."

Going out on a limb there.

She poked around a bit and then pulled out a pair of brown leather boots. "How do you feel about flying?" she asked.

"Like I'm on probably every no fly list there is?"

That hadn't been what that question was about, had it? But it was what came to mind! At least before Harley was leaning in for a very curious look at the boots.

"Wait, like with those? Those are flying shoes?"

Liliana knew what airplanes were in a kind of general, theoretical sense, but a no-fly list was definitely outside her comprehension.

"Indeed," she said, skipping over to the part she understood. "Zephyr boots. They help you fly and offer inspiration at the same time. Would you like to try them?"

Harley squealed, clasping her hands together.

"Would I? Yes!"

A soft chuckle and Liliana was handing them over. "All magic in my corner of the Multiverse runs on mana," she said, running a purple-glowing finger over the boots. "It takes one to awaken the magic in them--" and, indeed, they began glowing a soft gold "--and another two to adjust them to your feet. Put them on, yes."

If she put them on, Harley would find them far too big, but when Liliana paid two more mana (this time without the showy purple flair, just a languid wave of her hand), they shrank down to fit perfectly and Harley rose up into the air.

Harley had practically already been kicking her existing boots off, and also missed most of Liliana's explanation out of excitement, oops.

But she let out a joyful if startled laugh when the magical boots adjusted, and then a much, much louder noise as they actually lifted her up.

"What the shit, this is amazing!"

The Infinite Consortium, Wednesday Afternoon

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