23 Zida 719
Cutting through the Untold once again. Abra had gotten accustomed to traversing Emea to get back to Viden. He’d traveled back and forth from that brand so many times that it was almost natural now. He ‘knew the way’ so to speak. Although emea was an ever changing place, there were some parts of his path that never changed. The only drawback he got from crossing like this was that he usually felt a certain amount of exhaustion afterwards.
“It’s gotten even colder,” he noticed when he finally arrived and started walking the streets. He was dressed for the cold but this was something else. He had to tuck every exposed piece of skin into his clothing save for his eyes which were even obscured from his hat that was pulled down. “I need to stop making a habit of visiting Viden in the fucking winter.”
He was carrying the bag of leathers that he had brought to Melrath recently. He had been unfortunately unsuccessful in setting up a trade deal with the leathers so he was going to go about it a different way. He knew that it would probably require the use of Empathy, which was precisely why he needed to come to a place where he felt like he could get away with it. To his knowledge, Viden didn’t have a military force capable of seeing ether use so long as he kept it low key he felt like he was safe. They hadn’t made any fuss about him… yet.
He didn’t bother visiting Tanner, he just wanted to find some travelling merchants. They were easy to find even in the winter although there was some rumor about some major weather event was going to happen soon. That was enough to scare some away to find more adequate shelter. There were still a handful left for Abra to talk to. He didn’t care to be out much longer either lest he get caught in some sort of hail storm.
Abra eyed the travelling traders that had only their vehicles for shelter. He walked slowly towards them because that was his maximum speed at the moment. The trip through Emea had tired him and carrying the bag through the snow was pushing his endurance to its limits. “I just have to find one of them that will buy these stupid things,” he told himself for encouragement. He still had a ways to go so he put his mind at peace. He welcomed the calming feelings that his mark granted him. He knew for certain now that he could feel the calming effects of Isolated Calm so long as he was focusing on business.
When he got within range of the nearest trader he pushed his ether out to her. With the wind and snow howling around him, he doubted anyone cared to even notice that he existed in the crowd that was out only to get supplies before the incoming storm. He pushed into the trader’s tangle and violated it with his magical powers. He was looking for several specific emotions. Those related to intrigue, happiness, and satisfaction. He found these threads in the tangle and put a trigger for each of them to fire off in quick succession. The trigger was of course the leathers in his bag. If things went according to plan then she would be all over the leathers and willing to pay a premium for them.
He finished working his magic long before he managed to push his way to the merchant. “You look like you’ve made a small fortune,” Abra commented, taking a look at the merchant’s full purse, “how would you like to spend some of that money on an investment? I have in my bag a variety of leathers and they have been very popular around Viden. The problem is that we’ve got too much of them. We think with how big of a hit they’ve been that you’d be able to take them somewhere and sell them before the season ends. They’re sure to be a hit. Have a look.”
The bag was placed on the ground and, as expected, the merchant’s tangle was filled with positive emotions when she examined the leathers. This was all fine and well, except something had gone horribly wrong. Abra was getting all the wrong feelings while he looked at the woman. The divine magic coursing through his body told him that this woman meant to deceive him somehow, to steal from him. A quick look into her tangle showed that she was infatuated with the leathers, overly so. The simple fact of the matter was that Abra had overdone it with the Empathy. He had made her want the leathers so much that she was willing to commit a crime to get them.
“Hold on there,” Abra said in a right hurry, “bring that bag back.” He severed the greedy emotions that had developed and tried to coax her back to a neutral state, “do you really think you can walk away with my leathers and not expect to get caught? We’re nearly in a blizzard so you’d never even make it out of the city.” He grabbed the bag and put the leathers back inside. “Now regarding a price, if you want to purchase them make an offer and we’ll work from there.”
“Now what is going on over here?” asked someone who had snuck up on them. It was another merchant who had made his way over when he saw Abra carrying that bag. “Leathers?” he asked, snatching the bag away, “these are alright, were you about to buy them?” he asked the woman merchant.
“I was, now leave us. It’s rude to interrupt a trade and you know that. Or do I have to remind you of that time I took all your customers last Cylus while you napped in the slave brothel?” The woman snatched the bag back and reached for her full purse.
“No need to fight,” Abra said. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself, not that he looked much different than anyone else with how much clothing was necessary to survive in this cold. “we’ll bid for each leather and that’ll be that. You’ll win some, and you’ll win some.” He pointed to each of them.
They wiped snow off a table and placed them down one by one. The bidding went quickly, almost too quickly for Abra was in a rush to get out of there. Both the cold and the nervousness were getting to him. Before long every leather had been sold.
“Before you go, know that the leathers came from Tanner. He’s unironically a tanner who produced these leathers. If you want more, you should talk to him next time you’re in Viden.” They parted ways and Abra now had a heavy sack of coins at his disposal. “Time to give Tanner a visit.”
