A Fae's Emporium 2 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

A Fae’s Emporium

Chapter 2

-VB-

It began with an interest.

Not that kind of interest! 

It was a financial interest on a loan that my parents took. 

Or, to be more specific, dad lost his job when his workplace burned down, mortgage was still due, mom got sick with cancer a few months later, and then little sister nearly died from a fall and needed multiple surgeries. 

So my parents took loans. At least, it was one loan. Next, three loans. Then, seven loans. Dad and mom needed to work double shifts, six days a week to cover the interest… as an engineer for dad and a tutor on top of her tenure as math professor for mom. 

Then… mom’s cancer got worse, and she physically couldn’t work more than three days a week. 

So I stepped up to the plate. I didn’t drop out of college but the difference between what I did and dropping out would have been two classes each worth three units. I may as well have dropped out. I also took double shifts like dad, and that barely managed to cover the deficiencies that came from mom not being able to work as much as she used to. 

Yes, we were stable. 

Yes, we were getting through every day.

But what was life when I was burning seventy hours a week at work where I had shitty Karens as customers, a shitty boss trying to find any excuse to dock my pay, and coming home to a nearly dead family who were also exhausted? 

Dad, still working after coming back home because engineers don’t stop working. 

Mom, anemic and weak from chemo and exhausted from work. 

My little sister, in constant pain from the surgeries. 

Me, muscles burning and mentally out of it from stress and work.

That’s when I found it. 

I took an interest in a little shop. It appeared out of nowhere one day and sold knick knacks. Not a lot of people went there, of course. It was a knick knack shop that had set up in the middle of a semi-affluent community. 

I didn’t have money for myself, though, but I walked in anyway. 

“H-Hello!” 

I blinked and snapped out of my nostalgia. Ah, what a simple time that was… Except those weren’t my memories, now were they? 

I smiled as I set the gem of a sleeping soul who thought his soul was worth all of his family’s financial troubles. I needed it for the ritual today. 

Silly boy. 

I looked around and spotted my customer. 

Oh! 

“You’re back, Little Red!” I said as I called out to Ruby Rose. Was I being unoriginal? Yeah, but it didn’t matter. 

I was a fae unbound, which meant I could do anything I wanted, including being a little shit.

-VB-

“You want information?” the shopkeeper asked, his black cat ears flickered atop his head. 

“Y-Yes! On the gun that … I bought.”

She knew she didn’t strictly buy the gun. She broke it and he fixed it, and took something in exchange for it. 

But the gun…! 

The Gun…! 

It was beyond anything she’d ever seen. It used technologies that she didn’t even know about. There were things inside of it that she couldn’t replicate at her school forge. And the damage it caused? 

It was her first time ever watching a forest get shredded by what could only be light. It just burned and wrecked everything in its path! 

But … but she couldn’t use it willy-nilly. She only had a few bullets for it, and she couldn’t make more of it, either! 

It was frustrating as all heck! 

Gah! 

“Hmm, information on the meltagun, huh?” he hummed. “That’s gonna be real expensive.”

“M-More than the light thing you took from me?”

“Hmm? Oh, you already paid with that. You don’t have any more of it.”

Her shoulders drooped. She hoped that maybe she did. 

“And even if you did, that wouldn’t be enough to pay for the information.”

He smiled. 

She shivered. 

She … she wasn’t dumb. 

The gun - the “Vulkan” meltagun - was something out of her world. It wasn’t … it wasn’t from Atlas. It couldn’t be from Vacuo or Mistral. It definitely wasn’t Valean. 

The shopkeeper looked like a faunus, but she wasn’t sure if he really was a faunus. She didn’t know any faunus who could draw out some kind of light from inside of her. And that couldn’t be his semblance either because he made the store disappear until she really wanted that information! 

Information on how to make the gun and its ammunition. 

Last time she cracked open one of her few ammunitions for the meltagun, she nearly burned down the school forge. 

It was scary stuff. 

But that’s why she wanted it! 

And he made the store disappear, taunting her until she was desperate! 

“”W-What would be worth it?” she asked cautiously. 

He looked her over and then sighed, turning away and leaving only an elbow on top of the counter while looking away from her. “You’ll never do it.” 

“You haven’t even asked me!” 

“You didn’t offer me souls before, Little Red. If you won’t offer something so impersonal, then how would you offer something much more personal?”

“... Personal?” she hesitated to repeat the word. 

He glanced at her before looking at her fully. 

“Give me the last memento of your mother.”

She froze. 

“W-What?”

“For the technology that could devastate the world, perhaps give any one kingdom dominance over the others on Remnant…” he narrated before narrowing his eyes. “I want the last memento of your mother.”

“N-No!” 

“See?” he sighed as he turned away again. 

“That’s not a currency!” 

“And I don’t deal in human or faunus currencies, Little Red. You know that, though.”

She … kind of did. 

It was hard not to piece all of the clues together from what she saw before and what he demanded. 

He was some kind of a ghost! 

A ghost shopkeeper? 

… Maybe not. 

“That’s the only thing you can offer,” he replied. “Not even your soul would be enough for the information.”

“W-Why not? My s-soul is pretty good stuff…!” Right? 

“It’s just not enough compared to what the information cost,” he replied. “After all, the ten thousand strong expedition who went to find the information nearly didn’t come back. What are you compared to those ten thousand people who died for this?” He then chuckled. “Ah, you should’ve seen the face of that inquisitor! He seethed as he traded it away for a pittance!” 

... What’s an inquisitor?

Wait, ten thousand people? 

She shook her head as her hands clutched her cloak. “No. I’m… not giving you my mom’s memento.”

“No deal, then. You’ll have to figure it out yourself!” he said but then he paused. “Maybe you can send two bullets to Atlas or something. I’m sure they’ll be happy to learn all about a fascinating new technology…”

She frowned before turning around and leaving the store. 

She hesitated and then turned around. Maybe there was something else -?

She froze. 

“Gah! The store disappeared again!” she shrieked as she stared at the empty plot that the store used to be just now! Which was not the same place she saw it last time she entered it! 

Her shoulders dropped in resignation. 

Maybe she should send some bullets to Atlas? Did Dad know anyone from there? He was a Huntsman so he had to know someone, right? 

-VB-

“Ah… too bad,” I sighed as I closed the store and walked to the back. On the way, I picked up the soul gem I’ve been perusing along with a dozen others like it. 

Because I was about to do a summoning ritual today~. 

As I walked through the only door leading to the back and walked into one of the many backrooms through the same doorway, I looked and saw the seal still in the jar of dirt and there was also a ritual circle I’d drawn in the middle of this clean concrete chamber, which was large enough to house five American fire trucks comfortably. After throwing the soul gems into the middle of the circle, I pried the jar open and “dipped” my hand inside. 

Immediately, the seal latched onto the back of my hand.

I winced as my own magic tried to interface with the seal but found it slightly, uh, incompatible.

And when it does that, it overwhelmed the seal and changed it. 

The seal warped, almost magically screaming from the way mana in the air twisted and tore around it. 

And then it settled. 

I pulled my hand out of the very important glass jar of dirt which I set it down carefully in the corner of the room, and looked down at the back of my right hand.

Instead of the two pointed almost sword-like design of Emiya Shirou’s original seal, my seal looked like a circlet of thorny bush lined with roses. And instead of just four parts, there were … too many parts. Maybe around a dozen? 

That made sense. 

A human ritual and magic might not be able to achieve more than four commands because of the power requirement, but I wasn’t a human. Well, not human enough to matter, anyway. There was just too much power behind me and the shop for my seal to be limited to four commands.

I stepped up to the ritual circle. 

Then I smirked. Human rituals… what did they know? 

And with a smile… 

“Let magic and fate be the essence.

Let lust and love of contracts be the foundation.

Let black be the color I pay tribute to.

Let rise an alluring hand to seduce all that shall fall.

Let lie the Gate and the Key close.

Let the fools offer their crowns and hearts.

Let it be filled as needed. 

Let it be filled with the souls of my trade, and let rise a true resurrection!”

All of the sleeping souls woke up as the ritual gnawed on them. They screamed in pain as the ritual broke them down for raw power. And then … they were gone, never to see heaven or hell.

There was a flash bright enough to blind even a half-fae like myself… and heavy smoke thick with residual mana filled the air. 

And then I heard clicks. 

The striking sound of heels on concrete. 

From the center of the ritual circle bigger than a boxing ring, a woman walked out. 

“Hmm,” a sensual voice hummed out and I felt my grin growing wider. “And who might you be?” 

As the room and my shop slowly sipped the residual mana like one would a savory drink, I watched a buxom woman appear. Long purple hair. A scaly blind over her eyes. A red tattoo on her forehead. A one-piece dress that hug her body close and accentuated her curves. 

Damn, that was a nice toned ab. 

“Good morning, Medusa.”

She paused. 

“... So you know who I am,” she said. “Are you my master?”

“I am in more ways than one. Welcome to my shop, Servant Avenger.”