Hope everyone's doing alright with quarantine.

And now time for more of our Secret Seller.

Chapter 14 – Strange Merchandise (Blue Sea Moon)

Anna smiled as she slipped a handful of coins into a small bag, having just made another successful sale. She always loved making a profit, and this had been an especially big one. Ever since she had set up shop in Garreg Mach she had seen quite a bit of business, part of which was owed to her connection with the academy's rising Professor. Byleth's success was translating to Anna's own success, it seemed.

That said, Byleth had been seeing her more than a few times this month, asking for information. It seemed someone was looking to break into the monastery while everyone else was worried about an imaginary assassination attempt on the archbishop. As much as Anna wanted to help, she knew little more than anyone else did on the subject, but she had agreed to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

Perhaps she'd need to ask someone from Abyss…

The bell attached to her door jingled again as a new customer came into the shop. Anna looked up to see a familiar brown-haired singer entering the store.

"Oh, hey, Dorothea!" said Anna. "What can I do for you?"

"Hey there, Anna," Dorothea answered. "I was hoping I could get your advice, or rather a recommendation."

"A recommendation? On what, may I ask?"

"Well, I heard recently that Professor Byleth's birthday is coming up soon, on the 26th. Strange, really – that's the same day as the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth."

"And you wanted to ask me what to get her, right?"

"Exactly! I might be learning from her, but I don't have the faintest idea what to get her. Or at least, anything I could afford."

"Oh. Something affordable, is it? Not enough allowance from your house in the academy?"

"No, none. I don't really have any money for this sort of thing. I don't come from a rich family, and when I left the opera company to attend here, I only got in by doing… favors."

"I see…" Sensing that Dorothea was uncomfortable talking about it, Anna said, "Well, let's see if we can't find something for By, alright? Follow me."

Anna then strode over to the back of her shop and opened the door to her storage room. Dorothea followed, and was met by the sight of an absolute mess. Various curios and trinkets were scattered across numerous shelves, with quite a lot of clutter on the floor.

"Watch your step, please," said Anna. "I really need to get around to cleaning this up."

"No kidding," said Dorothea.

For the next minute, Anna continued to browse through the shelves. Each one teemed with items that many would consider junk, something which didn't give Dorothea much encouragement. She hoped she wouldn't be forced to buy something that was already broken.

Then, as Anna chucked a broken whetstone aside, Dorothea asked, "Hey, Anna, can I ask you something? How long have you known Professor Byleth?"

"By? Oh, I've known her ever since she was a kid. Probably ten years by now. The thing is, we'd only see each other occasionally, usually when I had business with Jeralt."

"I see. Well, how much do you know about her?"

"There's not much to say, honestly. She's kind of an oddball if you think about it. Never gets mad, doesn't laugh at jokes, never cries, etcetera. Come to think of it, I don't think I've even seen her smile more than a couple of times by now."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's kinda like a mannequin sometimes. Haven't met anyone else quite like her. Not to mention her awful fashion sense." Anna snickered at this, prompting Dorothea to giggle as well. "I mean, I picked those stockings out for her when she was younger and they worked at the time, but the way she wears them now, you'd think she came out of a brothel."

Dorothea laughed at this. "I'll do my best not to tell her you said that."

Anna then looked over at some more of her merchandise and said, "Hmm, no, that'd be no good. Maybe… nah, she'd never use it."

"You've got an awful lot of stuff here," said Dorothea. "I don't even know where you'd get half of this."

"Well, you can't actually find a lot of these things in Fódlan. You'd have to go outside the borders for some of it."

"So, you've been outside of Fódlan?"

"Plenty of times. You should see the kinds of stuff they sell in Valentia."

"I've never heard of Valentia."

"It's way to the west, across the Great Sea. Nice place, though it gets really cold in the northern parts."

"You must be well-travelled. I don't suppose you'd be willing to share some of your stories."

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast. I'm not called the Secret Seller for nothing. If I were to tell you any more about my past, you'd have to tell me a lot of yours."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not saying I'll never tell you that sort of stuff, but trust is a two-way street, you know. Maybe once we've done some more business, I'd be more inclined to share my history."

"You mean once I've bought more of your stuff."

"Precisely!"

Dorothea couldn't help but sigh at this. She knew Anna would turn this into some kind of money grab.

Then, Anna's eyes lit up as she saw something among her piles of curiosities.

"Aha! This'll do great!"

Reaching over, Anna caused a few other cheap trinkets to fall to the floor as she grabbed something. Pulling it out, Anna turned to Dorothea and presented what looked like a large circular locket. Dorothea could hear a very faint ticking sound coming from it.

"What's that?" the singer asked.

"It's a pocket watch. Handy little thing I got in Ylisse. It helps you tell the time of day."

Anna then opened the locket, revealing a trio of clock hands moving to a set of gears within the watch. Dorothea had never seen such a device before; it wasn't exactly something one would find in Fódlan.

"The little hand tells you the hour, while the big one is for minutes. The thin one is in seconds," Anna explained. "Needs to be adjusted, though; it's not running on Fódlan time."

"Um, what?" Dorothea asked in confusion.

"Just gimme a second…"

With that, Anna placed both hands around the locket and her hands began to glow, channeling her magic into the watch. Dorothea watched as the device's hands began to turn, shifting to a new orientation as its gears whirred and clicked. As Anna finished, the watch showed a new time.

"There we go," said Anna. "Huh, it's later than I thought. Almost closing time." Then, handing the watch to Dorothea, she said, "I'm sure By will find a use for this. It runs on Mana, so she won't need to worry about it running out of energy."

"Thank you so much, Anna!" said Dorothea as she took the watch.

Then, as Dorothea spun on her heel and began to head for the entrance to Anna's shop, she stopped abruptly when Anna made a loud "Ahem!"

Realizing her mistake, Dorothea turned around as Anna put her hands on her hips and said, "You ARE paying for that, right? It's not for free!"

"R-Right…" Dorothea answered sheepishly.

Dorothea reached for her waist and pulled out her coin purse, giving several gold pieces to Anna for the purchase.

Happily taking the gold, Anna said, "Thanks a bunch!" Then, as she rubbed the coins together in her palm, Anna said, "Oh, by the way, By was having me ask around about anything suspicious in the market."

"Really? She asked for your help with the search?"

"I'm happy to offer my services to a friend. Unfortunately, I wish I had something new to tell her. I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. Well, at least for this place."

"I see. We've only got a few more days until the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth and we're still not completely sure where to look."

"Well, hypothetically speaking, if I were the one trying to break into some place in the monastery on the day of the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth, there'd have to be a reason for it to be on that day. From what I know, there's one place in the monastery that only opens up on that day."

Dorothea knew what Anna was referring to: The Holy Mausoleum. It was supposedly the tomb of Saint Seiros herself, but her casket had been sealed by a powerful enchantment. Even on the day of the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth, few would make any sort of pilgrimage to enter it. And due to the threat on Rhea's life, it was unlikely to be under heavy watch during the rite.

"Of course, that's all just speculation," Anna added. "Could be another red herring, if you know what I mean. Anyhow, feel free to tell her what I told you about it, though I'm sure she's already thought of it by now."

"Thanks, Anna. And thanks for helping me with her gift!"

"No problem! Come back soon!"

With that, Dorothea made her way out of Anna's shop, leaving the redhead to continue counting her day's profits.

It's not so outlandish to have a mechanical/magical pocket watch in Fodlan, is it?