Chapter 41: 42: It’s taken care of

Jubilee pushes her off of themselves, before dropping her wet bag unceremoniously at her feet and walking into the store, closing the door behind themselves. They sigh heavily and their shoulders droop as they cross the threshold. Her party-member looks around at the mostly empty shelves. “Did you run the store by yourself?”

Fresh nods, leaning in enthusiastically, glad that her friend is safe. “I did!”

Jubilee walks past her, waving her off with a tone quite the opposite. “Good job.”

“Are you okay? What happened?” asks Fresh, picking up her bag and looking inside. Her grimoire and dagger are both there, together with her coins from the day before.

“Like I said. The adventurer’s guild told the church. The merchant’s guild… well, they probably already knew.” Jubilee sluggishly walks up the staircase. “Let me get some fresh clothes. I’ll help you with the rest of the work in a few minutes.”

“What about the vampire? What about Donata?” asks Fresh, following them to the foot of the stairs. Jubilee looks back down to her, saying only one thing before vanishing towards their room.

“It’s taken care of.”

Fresh stands there in silence, unsatisfied with the answer and instead looks around the store, opting to set to work to get her mind off of things. There is still so much left to do anyways. Throwing her bag behind the counter, Fresh stops as she sees the wet, red smear on her hands.

Blood.

Running out to the door, she holds her hands out into the rain, washing the stain off of her skin as best as she can.

Once Jubilee returns, Fresh doesn’t have the courage to ask anymore what exactly was ‘taken care of’ and how. She just wants the night to be over. She’s happy that her friend is back. She’s happy that she survived the work-day all on her own. Jubilee says they’re safe now and she believes that. The two of them work in silence for the next several hours, cleaning up the store and restocking the shelves.

“Should we hire someone?” asks Fresh, breaking the silence as she works on the last batch of soul-potions for the night. Her witch-crafting level has gotten fairly decent and she regularly makes normal-quality potions now and only rarely the occasional low-quality variants. Jubilee had said she’s at a stagnation point now though and that it will take a lot of time and effort to get better than average.

Jubilee looks at her. “We’ve only been open for two days. Anyways, I’d rather not talk about it now.” Fresh tilts her head, shrugging and returns to her work. Jubilee is probably exhausted too, she figures.

An hour later, everything is finished. The shelves are restocked, the floors swept, the blood washed away. With a drooping head, Fresh sits there, her face hovering above her empty pot as her eyes fall shut to the hypnotizing sound of the drizzling rain that hisses on outside, as a deeply relaxing white-noise. The dark feeling from the night before, when the storm had arrived in full force isn’t present now. Whether that is simply due to her exhausted perceptions or to the vanishing of some unseen threat in her subconscious mind, she isn’t sure.

Jubilee shakes her awake. “We’re done. Come on, let’s go to bed. Tomorrow’s another day.”

Fresh nods, getting up and rubbing her eyes. “Jubileee~”

“What?” asks Jubilee with a tired groan.

“Can I sleep in your room tonight?”

Jubilee stares down at her, already half-way up the stairs. “No.”

Fresh whines, running after them as they retreat down the upstairs hallway. “But what if something knocks on my door again?!”

Jubilee shrugs, sighing with a deep exhaustion as they step into their room. “Then don’t open it.”

The door slams shut with some force for emphasis, leaving Fresh standing out alone in the hallway. A piece of broken glass from the night before crunches under her boot, as she turns her head to look at the door to her own room. Her lip quivers as the memory of the misshapen, long-necked creature returns to her. Even out here, outside of her room she can hear it. The sounds from the other side, from the spot she’s standing beneath now. The tapping of the rain against her window. The tapping of a thousand little fingers, droplets, like the legs of a swarm of spiders trying to get in. Trying to get her.

The door next to her opens again and she jumps in shock at the noise, flinching and flailing with her arms as a tired Jubilee stares up at her. “Fine. But we’re putting up a mattress as a separator and you’re sleeping on the floor.” They step inside. “And only this once. Next time you get scared of the dark, you can sleep in the dungeon.”

Grateful and with the usual tears in her eyes, Fresh grabs her bag and runs inside of Jubilee’s room, slamming the door shut behind herself before she has to hear the things in the darkness any longer.

The night passes without any disruptions, both of them sleeping deeply as soon as Fresh sets up a ‘wall’ using the smelly mattress and some left-over planks to keep it upright. She sleeps rolled up on a bundle of blankets on the floor, her back pressed to the mattress and Jubilee on the bare box-spring on the other side.

Soon enough, morning comes and the two of them get ready for a new day, once again having another meal from their dried provisions. Fresh makes a note to go to town when she finds time, to buy them a whole stockpile of ‘easy’ foods. Perhaps things that were more exciting. She had gotten a couple of cooking recipes with her witch-crafting class, but the girl feels like Jubilee would get mad at her if she tried to feed them any of that. Besides, most of it was made with mushrooms, which they needed for their potions.

In the hour before they open, Fresh tries out her antidotes again and, much to her delight, finally manages to make one with a zero percent chance of side-effects. Her eyes sparkling with joy as she sees it, she shows her creation to Jubilee with pride. Jubilee only makes a vague remark that it’s good and that’s it. The town is going to have a short supply of antidotes for a while, so they’ll have a monopoly in the inner-city. The girl doesn’t pursue the topic any deeper, afraid of what lies at the bottom of it. Jubilee suggests doubling their price though, given the situation. But Fresh scowls, pursing her lip.

“We can’t scam people for the antidotes! What if someone gets sick?” she protests.

Jubilee shrugs. “Then they’ll buy the antidotes?”

“But what if they can’t afford it?!” asks the girl, crossing her arms.

“If they’re really sick, they’ll find a way to get the money,” says Jubilee, waving her off.

However, Fresh sits there with crossed arms, glaring and grumbling at Jubilee long enough and eventually, they relent. “Fine! We’ll keep selling them as is. Even if we’re leaving money on the table. Cry-baby.”

The day begins and now, well-rested and with Jubilee back again, the work is smooth and easy. There are once again fewer customers today as well, now on the third day where the hype apparently really has worn down a lot. Everyone who needed their minor soul-potions had some already, the same goes for their daggers. Though occasionally an antidote is still taken by a particularly worried or pale looking person who thanked them for it. Each time after they leave, Fresh smugly looks down to Jubilee, who simply rolls their eyes.

“There’s not much going on today. We need to diversify. I’ll take care of things here if you want to go upstairs and see if you can’t think of anything else to make.”

Fresh tilts her head curiously, but then looks around the empty store, before nodding and heading upstairs to their pantry.

The pantry is a small room, shaped like an upside-down letter ‘L’. From the door it is maybe three long steps to the window and on both sides of the room and in the little nook are shelves and boxes and much to Fresh’s delight, a single barrel that looks just like she had always imagined a barrel looks. Thinking about it, she realizes that she never actually saw a barrel in her old life, outside of cartoons and television shows. Rain dribbles against the foggy glass of the window, but only gently as it falls in a drizzle outside. The shelves are messily filled with all manner of dried provisions, loot from the dungeon and crafting materials.

Fresh sits down on the floor. She rather likes it inside of here, in the pantry. It’s quiet. Cozy.

She looks around at the items lining the shelf. What should she make? She racks her brain, trying to think about her new recipes and which of them are feasible. Jubilee said to diversify so… they had potions. They had a weapon. Maybe something… she taps her chin, thinking -

“Something equipment’ish?” she ponders, thinking about the recipes that she has. Reaching over to the shelf on her right, she grabs a gray metal ingot. A simple bar of iron that she had bought from an adventurer the day before. As a craftsman, she could use this to make simple items like actual daggers or nails or metal fastenings. But those were all rather unexciting, Fresh wants their store to have interesting things. If people wanted pragmatic, simple items, they could go to the hardware store. Though… she thinks for a moment, wondering if such a thing even exists here.

Shrugging, she grabs the metal brick and strains with both her arms to set the small ingot down on the floor in front of herself. She then holds her hands above it, closing her eyes and focusing on her latest craftsman recipe.

(Fresh) uses: [Craftsman: Small Iron Chain] x 6

A heap of tiny necklace chains falls down onto the ground, clattering together and she looks at them, inspecting them. The metal is a little uneven here and there, but all in all they look like nice little chains you’d find in any old flea-market. Not exciting, but they’ll serve their purpose. Thinking of what to do next, she looks at their shelves. The light shines in and bounds off of the little basket, full of shimmering objects. Matte glass. All of the scraps and odd bits of lumpy glass she had opted to keep in this basket. Carefully reaching in, she grabs a piece and processes it.

(Fresh) uses: [Craftsman: Sand{Round}]

Smiling, she looks at the almost’ish perfectly round matte-glass marble in her hand and then places it onto a chain.

(Fresh) uses: [Witch-Crafting: Magical Talisman - Glass]

This small necklace consists of an enchanted glass-bauble, attached to an iron necklace. When worn, it raises some resistances.

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Light seems to shimmer with an odd intensity when striking the glass.

During the day:

+1 Poison resistance

+1 Dark resistance

+1 Water resistance

+1 Ice Resistance

During the night:

+1 Fire resistance

+1 Lightning resistance

+1 Physical protection

+1 Holy resistance

Fresh beams, staring at the thing in her hand. She looks at the necklace with some joy in her eyes. “It’s so pretty,” she whispers to herself excitedly, holding the thing out. It’s a little crude looking, being just a glass marble on the end of an iron chain, but its simplicity is somehow also its best feature. Humming she sets to work making the rest of them.

(Fresh) uses: [Witch-Crafting: Magical Talisman - Glass] x 5

“Jubilee is going to love these!” says the girl, looking at her treasure-trove. Once again, Jubilee’s glass as a ‘free’ resource is putting them ahead of the game. All they have to do is get some iron, or maybe even some other kind of metal? She had paid twenty Obols for this one ingot, but got six talismans out of it. With these stats…

Fresh looks at the necklaces, setting one to the side for herself and one to the side for Jubilee, she would give it to them as a present later. Her hands grab a third one and she holds it up to her eyes, inspecting it closely when the idea comes to her.

The girl fidgets nervously, looking around the pantry, as if someone might be watching her. Should she…?

Her eyes return to the necklace.

“I shouldn’t…” mutters the girl. But doesn’t lower her arms. The rain continues to drizzle outside, tapping against the glass of the window. She takes a deep breath, having made up her mind. She shouldn’t. But -

(Fresh) uses: [Witch: Curse Item] on [Magical Talisman - Glass](Normal)

Fresh looks at the necklace in her hands. The glass bauble seems to shift and glow, as if a droplet of black-tinged water was trapped inside of the glass sphere. A chill runs up her fingers, through her arm and causes her body to shiver. The light shining into the glass shifts and suddenly, the swirling thing inside of it disappears. The necklace stops glowing with its dull, purple energy and now looks like any other.

Fresh yelps as the door to the pantry swings open.

“Hey! I need you downstairs, come on!” says Jubilee, running back down. Nervously, Fresh grabs the bunch of necklaces and looks around the pantry. Down by the leg of a shelf is a small hole in the floorboard and without thinking, she stuffs the cursed necklace down into it to hide it. She’d deal with it later.

For now, the girl runs downstairs to help run the shop for the rest of the day.

Razmatazz

Trivia - Warding vampires

So, now we know where the vampyric scum originates from and we know how to identify them. There are only two topics left. First of all, how to protect ourselves from the disgusting wretches and secondly how to kill them. Today we will be discussing the former topic.

As discussed in the last trivia, there is a class of objects known As apotropaics. Apotropaics is a form of magic that is used to chase away or to harm evil influences in the world. Whereas a ‚good luck charm‘ is intended to make the wearer lucky by blessing them, an apotropaic is the ‚offensive‘ version of that and protects the user by directly damaging or threatening a dark entity, rather than blessing the user, thereby not allowing it to reach the user in the first place.

Apotropaics can be anything, from the Nazar, an anti ‚evil-eye‘ painting, to magical amulets, talismans or even something as simple as a gesture. (Crossed fingers, knocking on wood, etc)

There are many such ‚evil-averting‘ symbols throughout ancient history. The Greeks for example used the Gorgon as a common symbol, or the evil eye. Catholic churches used grotesque imagery such as gargoyles to scare away demons and witches.

How does this round back to vampires you might be wondering? Well, vampires have their own weaknesses, if you will. Garlic is the most common example. Why do vampires hate garlic? Back in ancient Egypt, garlic was believed to have great healing powers, making it antithetical to the undead. From there-on over the ages, it spread to the northwest to the slavic regions, where the meaning turned to a protection against witches and the plague. Garlic coincidentally is a blood purifier as it’s an incredibly nutritious food with strong anti-microbial effects, it contains the chemical Allicin, that has been proven to kill mosquitoes. Furthermore, it can be used in pickling foods, the reasoning here would be then, if garlic could keep food from decaying, it can stop people from doing the same.

Another common one is consecrated ground, such as churches or temples, as these are holy spaces filled with an ‚energy‘ that would overpower the creature if it intruded into them. This is where the ‚vampires can‘t enter your home without permission’ thing comes into play. Home is where the heart is after all and so, assuming you have a strong feeling of home where you live, a vampire is unable to break into this sacred space without explicit permission. By welcoming the vampire in, you are tarnishing the hallowed ground and breaking the seal, thereby removing the consecration of your home.

Vampires are also unable to cross running water for the same reasons. Though note that this is rooted in modern fiction and has little historical precedence. The whole running water thing might just be another vampire scheme to have us drop our guard. If it were true though, the logic would be the same. In the west, water is seen as a cultural symbol for purity. Running water especially so, as it nourishes life and washes away dirt and grime and sickness. Add in to that, the fact that rivers are natural borders that have separated us from ‚the other side‘ for a long time and you get all sorts of spooky mythology. Imagine living in a small village a thousand years ago, standing on the edge of a large river and looking at the dark forest on the far side. The river would have a protective feeling for you.

The crucifix comes into play as well and is said to ward vampires, but I wouldn’t trust this one either. The crucifix warding off vampires is likely just religious dogma and while it certainly has a theatrical flair to it, there is no basis for this belief other than the church saying so. How heavily you trust that belief, I’ll leave up to you. But perhaps there is something to be said for this though, along the same lines as before. Perhaps if you believe, the crucifix can have the same apotropaic effect as a ‚feeling of sanctuary.‘

Of course, the best way to protect yourself from a Vampyrus-Immortuos is just to kill it, which will be our lesson for next time. =)

Thank you kindly for reading!

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