Tristan

"Oh, totally, sir, I'm sure we have exactly what you need," the clerk was saying, though his overall lack of any action toward actually helping them was visibly bothering Sophie. The clerk looked to be about Tristan's age, or maybe a little older thanks to his fairly bushy and clearly-unkempt beard. What blew Tristan away was how young the boy felt, as how he spoke and acted both contributed to an all-too-apparent lack of drive, which an [Identify] showed clearly.

[Tim, Human, level 7 (tier 1) clerk]

Admittedly, Tristan had progressed at a pace that few others could hope to match, but here was someone who seemed to be at the other extreme on that curve. Not to say there was anything wrong with Tim just taking his time, but the seeming lack of drive felt foreign to Tristan. It was also on display in his lack of helpfulness.

"So... could you at least tell us where it might be?" Sophie asked, already tapping her foot.

Tim the clerk looked at her as if she'd asked him a very difficult question. Then he slowly turned his head and looked blankly toward the rear of the store. "Back in there, for sure. Maybe on the right side?" He waved his hand generally in that direction. "Though, I have to admit, I don't really know where everything is yet. I only started here three or four months ago."

Three or four months? Tristan thought incredulously. I knew Dad's entire inventory, and where everything was in the shop, after just two weeks working with him. But clearly Tristan could not hold this clerk to his own high standards, so he merely sighed and said, "Thanks for your help."

"Oh, for sure, man."

Sophie, on the other hand, seemed much less forgiving as she stepped forward and asked, "Is there anyone else here who might be more helpful?"

Again the poor boy's eyes seemed to widen with surprise. Then, slowly, he turned to look back into the shop again. "I think, uh, yeah. Over there you can just see the top of her head, the blue ponytail? Yeah, Kaylee is back there... on the second aisle to the left."

"Perfect," Sophie said with a syrupy sweet smile. She immediately began walking toward the blue ponytail.

Tristan didn't waste any time and followed right along behind her. As soon as they rounded the corner, he saw the girl Tim had been talking about. She was much shorter than he'd expected, probably a gnome based solely on her stature, and was actually forced to stand on a stool to be able to reach the back of the shelf where she was storing some scrolls.

A quick [Identify] proved Tristan's theory--as well as giving him something to be impressed with.

[Kaylee, Gnome, level 14 (tier 2) author] {{Published}}

He supposed it wasn't totally odd to find an author Class working in a bookstore, but her title was impressive enough to make him doubletake. Like Tim at the counter, this gnomish girl also seemed to be about their age... but she already had the {Published} title!

I wonder what the story is there, literally, he thought, chuckling to himself. He decided to send Sophie a quick message in the party chat, to be a bit more discreet.

Tristan: It's pretty rare to get the {Published} title at our age, right?

As soon as he sent it, he remembered back to the young-seeming girl he'd practically saved in Jill's all that time ago, and her father had said she was thirty!

Sophie: It kind of depends, but it can be a sign of talent, for sure. Oh, and now I see why you asked.

Sophie didn't seem overly impressed though, or perhaps she was still a bit upset by the total lack of help they'd received from the previous employee. She launched straight into her 'patron voice' as she approached the gnome and asked, "Excuse me, but I'm an astralist, and my friend here is hoping to learn to speak with my astrals. The boy behind the counter wasn't very helpful, other than to point us in your direction. Do you think you could help us locate something that teaches astral languages?"

The blue-haired gnome turned toward them and a happy, customer-service smile lit up her face. "Oh, sure, I can totally help you with that. No problem! And sorry about Tim. He's kind of useless."

"He's certainly doing a great job of holding down the counter," Sophie added.

"I suggested he head to the church of The Apathy, but I don't think he made it," the gnome piled on.

Sophie laughed at that.

The blue-haired gnome shifted her attention to Tristan as she got down from her stool--which popped away, into her magical storage no doubt--and began walking across the store. "You're interested in speaking with astrals?" she asked.

Tristan couldn't help but notice that the area they were heading toward was not even remotely near where Tim had pointed them.

"Yeah, I am. Sophie, her astrals, and I have been partying together for a while now, and I keep finding myself super curious about what they're saying. Besides, I figure it would help our teamwork if everyone could understand everyone else, you know, and not have to go through Sophie for translations?"

"That's... remarkably progressive of you," the gnome said with an approving smile. "It's not every day we get one of you big melee types in here at all, and for you to be so thoughtful toward non-standard party members, well, that's pretty cool of you."

"Oh, uh, thanks," Tristan said, caught completely off guard by her sudden praise. In an effort to redirect their conversation and get attention off of himself, he offered, "Hey, you seem pretty cool yourself, since I see you're already a {Published} author! I hear that's really hard to do."

The girl gave a strained laugh. "It wasn't exactly easy, that's for sure."

"What did you publish?" Sophie asked.

"A novel," she replied, clearly not trying to say too much.

"What kind of novel?" Tristan asked, hoping to open her up some.

Kaylee stopped in the middle of an aisle and said, "I, uhh, it'll just be easier to show you." She pointed in a new direction and immediately began walking that way, which meant working their way back through a couple of aisles, before stopping at a prominent display table filled with books. A huge sign above it read:

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

No Classes? No Status? No problem for these four in this quite-literally Electrifying Fantasy, A World Without Magic! Written by our very own Kaylee Small! Signed copies still available!

"And here we are," she said. "It's a fantasy story, so I understand if it's not exactly up your alley. I'm proud of it, but it's not that big of a deal. It's cool if you're not interested."

Despite the girl's words, Tristan couldn't help but see the prideful smile creeping in at the edges of her lips as she gazed lovingly down at the table filled with the book she had written.

"It kind of seems like a big deal," Tristan offered. "Or your manager wants to make it into one."

Kaylee smiled openly at that. "Yeah, my boss is sweet. He's had this display up ever since the book came out a few years back, even though we sell them so irregularly..."

"What's it about?" Tristan asked, picking up one of the books and examining the cover. It showed a group of four fairly average-looking men and women crowded around some sort of glowing box, all looking various degrees of shocked and worried.

Kaylee cleared her throat. "Well, it's meant to be a total fantasy--a world without magic--like the title says. But I mean it literally. No magic at all. No Awakenings. No Statuses. No Classes. Just people trying to get by in situations like ours, but kind of different. There are still corrupt leaders to be overthrown, and all kinds of evils to be handled, but it has to be done with raw, skill-less sweat and determination."

Tristan turned the novel over in his hands, glancing at the blurb on the back cover. "Yeah, alright. I don't do a lot of reading outside of dungeon guides, but this sounds interesting! I'll give it a try."

The girl brightened even more as she began leading them toward their original destination again. "Awesome! I hope you love it! Want me to sign it for you?" She looked toward the front counter with a bit of a confidential air. "It won't cost you anything extra, since it won't have one of the usual stickers, and Tim will never even think to check. So, I could personalize it for you--if you want. What's your name?"

"Tristan."

"Alright, Tristan. No last name? Ah, sorry, that's your business, so forgive my prying. And besides, here we are: the astral section." She pointed to one of the scroll racks in particular. "Those should be what you're looking for."

Tristan used [Identify] just in case he was missing something, but he wasn't.

[Communication Scroll: Speak Astral]

Another skill turned into nothing more than a scroll. He sighed. Then, rather than just take it, he turned back to the helpful gnomish author. "OK, so this might sound weird, but do you have a book on this instead?"

She blinked rapidly. "I... think so? We never really need them, so they're kept in the back, if we have any at all. But, like, why? You know that a book is going to take you a lot longer, right? With the scroll, you'd just read this little bit once, and you'll--"

"No, I get it," Tristan interrupted. "But you said you might have an actual book version? If so, can I get that instead?"

"Sure, Tristan. Whatever you say. I'll get it from the back. At least I'm pretty sure we've still got one. You stay here, alright?"

"Of course," he replied. "You've still got to sign my book."

The gnome laughed, shaking her head as she walked hurriedly away.

"What's the deal with the book?" Sophie asked, clearly confused.

Tristan shrugged. "I just don't want to let some scroll shortcut the learning process. I like learning, you know? There were only so many opportunities for it back home. Besides, the few times I have used a scroll, it just didn't feel earned. Since this is for Poof, Sneakers, and Mister Biggs, I'd like to do this whole process properly. 'If it's worth doing...' and all that. I think they deserve my best effort."

Sophie sighed but had a clear smile on her face. "It's a good thing Poof wasn't around to hear you just now. It would go even more to her head for sure, and she does not need any more of that. But, for what it's worth, I appreciate the thought and effort you're going to put into this."

A few minutes later, Kaylee returned with a seriously thick, yellow-and-black tome called The Newbie's Guide to Astral Languages. As she handed it to Tristan, he was a bit surprised at just how heavy it was.

"Here you go," she said. "I had to go digging into one of the old, dusty boxes in the back, but I found it. Are you really sure you want it? It costs a full gold more than the scroll."

"I'm sure," Tristan answered, holding the new book tightly against his scarred chest. He held out the other book toward its own author. "Could I still get your signature on this one though?"

"Oh, you actually meant it! I kind of wasn't sure if you were serious about it before or just being polite." The gnome pulled a pen out of her pocket. Upon seeing Tristan's surprise, she supplied, "I always keep a pen on me, because I never know when I'm going to get the desire to just write, you know?"

"I kind of do," Tristan acknowledged, though with him it was always ideas he wanted to write down, or checklists he needed to add to for future crafts. And, in its own way, it kind of made sense that authors were just a different type of crafter, working with words the same way he did metal.

It took Kaylee a full minute to write whatever she did, but she closed the book before handing it back, and Tristan didn't want to seem too eager to check whatever she might have written to him. So he thanked her graciously, promising to read her book when he found time, and headed back to the front of the store to pay.

At the front counter, Tim was so zoned out, it took him a while to recognize that people were standing in front of him. Eventually he saw them, and then it must have dawned on him who they were as he asked, "Oh, did you find what you were looking for?"

"We did," Sophie said shortly.

"And more besides," Tristan added, setting both books down. "I'd like both, please." He even set down enough gold to cover what the price tags had said they'd cost.

Tim took his time in checking the prices for himself, then verbally adding the amounts together, before comparing that to what Tristan had already set before him. "Oh, you're good at math," he mumbled, scooping the coins off the counter. "Yeah, everything looks good. Have a great day."

"Thanks," Sophie and Tristan said in unison.

Outside, Tristan beelined it to a bench where he sat and immediately opened the book. Kaylee's message was written in a clear, legible, and flowing script:

Tristan, Thanks for supporting me, and I really hope you enjoy this story. There's actually a sequel coming soon! Remember, we don't need to rely on magic for everything; some things we can just do for ourselves.

Kaylee Small

Tristan found himself smiling contentedly, and he almost flipped to the first page when Sophie cleared her throat beside him.

"Hey, if you want to take a little break for reading, maybe we can go grab some lunch first, and then we can take a leisurely, midday rest."

"Yeah," Tristan said, slightly embarrassed, "that sounds good to me." He hadn't expected to feel so excited about a personalized book. He'd never really been interested in reading just for fun before. But something about this one made him want to break into it as quickly as possible.

Of course, he also had the The Newbie's Guide to Astral Languages to get started on...

"Tristan," Sophie said, pulling him from his thoughts again, "I asked if you had any thoughts on what kind of food we should get? Like, are you feeling exotic, or would some simple kebabs work for you? I saw a vendor a street back, and his cart smelled absolutely divine."

"Sure, I think I remember the guy you're talking about. The long mustache?"

"Yes!" Sophie responded with a clap. "So, we're agreed?"

Tristan nodded and followed along with her, trying not to be pulled too far back into his thoughts of the book. He read the back cover blurb again and again, even as Sophie continued to plan out the rest of their day. The book had clearly hooked him.

We've got two full days before my pants will be ready, he told himself. I'm sure I'll find some time to read before then.

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