The Magicians' Realm Chapter 25: Ring Up, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 25, everybody! In which Nicholas Cage makes a guest appearance…and so does a stone staircase I climbed in Harper's Ferry—to put the thing in perspective, about halfway up said stone steps, I was mentally reciting Kaiba's stair rant from Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged. We also get to see the name of the local river, based on a misreading of a local restaurant sign (but that's the fun part :D), and a reference to things that may or may not be extinct….

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Ooh, my sympathies (shorts Christmas Day, but torrential rain starting that night and going on and off for the next week). Um, that's Celsius, right? *refreshes memory on conversion* That's still pretty warm for December (not that I'm complaining :D). He was! I suppose he figured no one in their right mind would vote for him, although I suppose we could say that since he was running against a lifetime politician, it was a bit of a toss-up for the voters. :) Haha, yes, they end up getting along quite swimmingly. :D Uh…sometime next year. ;)

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes, exactly like that. You misunderstand—if Mom could, she'd live on the surface of the sun (she's had a great time with this warm weather, though). And no, I haven't—as far as I knew, they were a singularly Harry Potter thing (I suppose the closest thing we'd have would be collegians). Then again, I'm also a career home-school kid, so my experience with school is severely limited to television, literature, and two years at a campus college. But do you study angles? *bricked* That might actually be a common thing with schools the world over—that campus college I keep bringing up had names that might have relations to people (MacKenzie, Dixon), but then we got a campus cafeteria named "Four Winds." '-' On the positive side, I got a good deal with my dorm—"Griffeth-dorm" as my family and I would say to anyone who stood still long enough. :D It's getting better now that I don't have Christmas presents to prepare—but now we have to de-decorate. ;-;

References:

Original characters + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

The owner of the particular antiques store Yami and Kels were in, Balthazar Blake, looked up from his reading as they approached. "Ah, Kels," he noised, putting a letter in his book for a bookmark. "Find something that speaks to you?"

"I'm not sure if it talks, but it makes me happy," Kels said, placing the stone owl on the counter.

"That's all that counts," Balthazar said, giving it an once-over before ringing it up.

"She didn't give me a straight answer either," Yami said.

"And your point?" Kels asked.

"I'm upfront with you."

"And your point?"

"You're fighting a losing battle, Yami," Balthazar advised. "We mere mortal men cannot hope to ever fathom the feminine mind."

Mere mortal men was an interesting description, considering Balthazar was one of those Magicians whose magic was strong enough to keep him the age he was indefinitely. He was one of the few that remembered life with the Boogie-Mage around—but getting him to talk about it was difficult. Getting him to talk about why he wouldn't talk about it was difficult. Yami suspected he was in the same mold as Larry Finkelstein—absolute paranoia that the Administration was out to get him.

Of course, considering his own experience….

"Did you know," Balthazar said, handing the owl back to Kels as she put a few coins on the table. "That owl is made from sea-stone that washed up on one of the Chaos Coasts—a Gypsian picked it up after escorting their family member to the sea. They carved an owl into it, and it's been traded up and down the Thesdell ever since. It's well-travelled."

The Thesdell was the name of the nearby river, although very few people ever called it that—it was just "the river" to locals. Yami was more interested in the notion that the rock came from one of the Chaos Coasts—the only people who ever travelled there were the Gypsians disposing of their dead in the Endless Seas. Chaos Creatures may have been purported to be extinct, but no one was willing to bet their life on it—and everyone knew Chaos Creatures loved the coasts.

"So, Yami," Balthazar noised, keeping his voice conversationally neutral. "I heard the news."

"I hear half of Delvaire heard the news," Yami said, feeling a tad irritated.

"So now he's looking for spellbooks," Kels said, hooking her thumb at him.

"I'm sorry, did I say that was supposed to be repeated?" Yami asked tetchily.

"Oops?" Kels noised.

"Don't worry about it," Balthazar assured. "So let me guess: you're in here looking for spellbooks."

"Well," Yami hedged.

"I'll tell you right now there isn't a consignment shop in Delvaire that can keep them in stock. I can put you on a list, but since you're a Magician, you'd get lower priority."

"Wow," Kels noised. "For once in your life, you're the low man on the totem pole."

"How come?" Yami asked.

"Commoners asked first," Balthazar explained, shrugging.

"No, I mean, why are they in such high demand?"

"Oh. Because the Administrators make regular sweeps of the stores and confiscate them. Something about keeping dangerous stuff out of Commoner hands. Of course, that digs into my net profit, so I—along with anybody who's anybody—hide their stock of books when they get them and then contact my customers. Done right, nobody knows any better."

"And why would you do something like that?"

"Call me old-fashioned."

"Call me the Head Mage's son."

Balthazar's expression said that he just remembered. He pointed at them both. "That doesn't leave this building."

"I think people know he's the Head Mage's son," Kels said, grinning.

"I mean the other thing. I mean it—don't tell anyone."

"Balthazar," Yami sighed as the transaction finished. "I just got the shaft by the Administrators. There is no way in this dimension that I'll do them a favor."

Balthazar smiled and shrugged in a well, that's life manner. "That's the spirit. Have a good day, you two."

*\*/*

"And that, my dear Miss Gardenier, is how I came to be unfortunate enough to wear this tie. I like it though—it's grown on me."

Teana stared at him, prompting Yami to fidget.

"Let me get this straight," she said finally. "You never wanted the job?"

"I tell you the tie story and you focus on the election?"

"The man in charge never even wanted the job?"

Yami gestured helplessly. "Well, no—I wasn't ready for that sort of responsibility. I didn't even campaign."

"Then how did you get the job?"

"I have no idea," Yami admitted. "I think Atlas panicked, personally, and stuffed the ballots so he wouldn't have to pay up those marks."

"So you think you're in charge because a bootlegger didn't want to work."

"Well then, my dear Miss Gardenier," Yami said, leaning forward and raising his teacup. "From the layman's standpoint—why do you think someone like myself got the job?"

Judging by her expression and the length of her silence, she didn't have a very flattering answer.

"Do you really think that lowly of me?" he asked, feeling a tad hurt but trying for amused.

"I'm not sure if you want the answer to that."

He flopped his head down on the table—the length of his arms meant his hands ended up on the ground. Gah…but maybe she's see it as funny.

He looked up at the tapping on his head to see her looking at him with a bemused expression—okay, that was positive.

"I'm not going to tell you you're the neatest thing since sliced bread," she informed him. "As a matter of fact, I don't tell anyone that. But I will tell you that I'd believe you more if you didn't act like a goof and actually acted like you were in charge of something."

"But that would require so much work," Yami tried, in an attempt at levity.

No dice—she was getting up. "Well, you lazy lout, I do have work to do," she said, patting him on the head. "Thanks for the story. It's been a while since I heard good fiction."

"Wait, what?" Yami asked, looking after her as she left the café. "I was telling the truth!"

"Right, right," she sighed, walking past him.

"I am! I can prove it too—how about a meal at the Lackadaisy Revue?"

"You want to introduce me to your bootlegger friends?"

"They're a lot nicer than they sound."

"Sorry, pass."

"Aw, come on—don't you want to have new experiences?"

She stopped at the next crosswalk and looked back.

"You were my last new experience," she called. "I'm still waiting to see how that pans out."

And with that, she left.

Yami slouched against the table, confused.

This stuff was so much easier in fiction.

*/*\*

"So what are you going to do with that owl?"

"I don't know yet," Kels admitted. "Probably put him with the other knickknacks I've been accumulating."

"How do you know it's a he?" Yami asked.

"He looks like a he."

"Hmm," Yami noised, scuffing his shoe against the cobblestone walk.

"So what are you going to do?" Kels asked.

"I'm not sure," Yami admitted. "If the consignment shops are out, I guess the next stop would be the Administration Library."

"You do realize the stir you'll cause upon arrival?"

Yami sighed. "I'm not suited to stagnation."

"Good—you'd stink otherwise." They arrived at a set of stone steps snaking downwards. "Come on, let's go for a walk—it'll clear your head."

"I dunno…."

"Yes you do," Kels said, already trotting down the steps. "You always think on your feet."

Yami couldn't help but smirk.

"Yes," he said, feeling buoyed as he followed her. "Yes I do."