The mansion

"I've never explored it," Imperia replied. After a moment, the rain of flowers stopped. Imperia would have to clean that later. "Summoning nature is the only ability I'm aware of. That's why it's not for sale. Only display."
 
Robby's eyes snapped up to Imperia's face. "Wait, you mean you have other stuff that you sell? Like magic stuff? For regular people?"
 
"Yes," Imperia replied. "I like to spread magic to any place I visit. As I told you earlier, that is my purpose."
 
Robby finally scrambled to his feet and dusted himself off. "Well... that's fantastic... but have you thought about how horribly wrong that's going to go when you give ordinary people who've never seen magic before something magical? Or if anyone of authority actually believes that you're the real deal?"
 
"Of course," Imperia replied. "I have a list of rules the buyer must agree too before I go through with a sale. The most important two are no minors and I must know your intentions. I've had far too many people try to buy invisibility potions for..." She grimaced. "...Terrible things. Awful heathens they tend to be." Besides that, she hadn't had too many issues with selling magic to others.
 
"And I'm sure they all follow your agreements long after your house has poofed out of existence," Robby said dryly. "Well, your existence. So, what's the point of all this?" He waved his hand to encompass the whole mansion. "You seriously just fly around and sell magic stuff? Why?"
 
"Magic is a wonderful thing," Imperia answered. "Why should I keep it to myself? I come from a land where it exists everywhere and I love every bit of it. However, I eventually found out not everyone has it, or even knows what it is. So, I want to share my powers with these people. Personally, I don't care much for the money anyway."
 
"How suspiciously altruistic and idealist of you and totally not going to lead to the utter chaos and confusion of many, many lands," Robby said dryly.
 
"Oh, will you be positive for once?" Imperia asked rhetorically. "I stay in these lands for quite a bit to make sure nothing goes wrong." This boy was a bit pessimistic, it seemed. No matter. Imperia came here to share magic, and that's what she was going to do. She hadn't had too many issues so far, and it'd hopefully stay that way.
 
"Probably not. It's not in my nature," Robby replied without remorse. "My mom says I was born with a suspicious expression and it's never left. Anyway, why are you so certain other worlds need magic, anyway? I mean, it's really cool, but... why? Do you really get nothing out of it but this weird happiness for spreading magic?"
 
"Well, I suppose the money's a nice bonus if that means anything," Imperia replied after a moment of thought. She was never really questioned about this very much. When she was, she never knew how to respond.
 
Robby stared at her in a long moment of silence that he let stretch out until it was almost uncomfortable. "You are going to burn out so fast," he stated. Then he shouldered his bag and looked around. "So. What other ridiculous things do you have in this weird shop?"
 
Imperia crossed her arms again and frowned. "I've lasted this long, so I should be fine enough," she replied. She shrugged and continued on. "That book with the phoenix I showed you," Imperia said. "It's called a grimore. I have more of them if you'd like to see." There's also normal spell books called tomes, potions as I've mentioned earlier, and enchanted jewelry like the necklace."
 
Robby waited for a little bit. Then frowned. "And?" he coaxed. "Is that it? Is that your sales pitch? Come on, I am literally asking to see your wares right now after being pretty sure you were an evil deity of some kind, and all you say is you have stuff? If this is how you pitch to everyone coming through, it's no wonder you haven't sold anything yet. You want to try again?" He plastered an obviously fake smile on his face. "So, strange witchy person, what ridiculous magical items do you have?"
 
Imperia scratched her head. "I fail to understand what you mean," she said. "Yeah, I wouldn't bother if I were you," another voice said. Just then, Lenora the fairy appeared on Imperia's shoulder, arms crossed and looking bored. "Missy here has gotten too lax lately. Normally, we would've been booming the moment we opened up..."
 
Robby jumped at the appearance of the fairy and gripped his bag tighter. At least the fairy he guessed he could smack with his bag if it tried to attack him. He doubted that would hurt a magical creature much, but it might stun it. Or her? He wasn't sure. It didn't seem like it wanted to hurt him and was both less and more intimidating than the so-called witch. "But... what?" he prompted, unable to help his curiousness.
 
Lenora sat down and tapped her chin. "No one's really bothered to check us out," She said. "I've seen a couple loitering before, but we weren't open at the time. We were still trying to set up the shop."
 
"Well, duh," Robby said before he could stop himself. "You literally just poofed into being in an area where magic is reserved to sleight-of-hand tricks and flashy stage shows. No one is going to walk up to a strange house like that without being extremely suspicious. And it looks like a house, not a shop. You don't even have a sign up. You have literally no advertising. The most you're going to get are people like me looking suspiciously but curiously and people like the little kid you had earlier. Most of the adults aren't even acknowledging that this place exists."
 
"The whole 'magic not seeming to be a thing' issue isn't making things better," Lenora added. "Truth be told, we've never been to a place like this before. In all the other worlds we went to, magic has been a thing, no matter how small." "And yet here, I can't sense anything besides my own," Imperia spoke up. Usually when they'd appear in another world, other witches and wizard would show up to investigate them at the very least. Here, however, only this boy, who probably wanted to kill her a moment ago, has bothered to show up.
 
"Advertisement and better salesmanship," Robby said bluntly. "There's a lot of people on this world that want magic to be real, but very few of them believe it is or even can be. Unless they're kids, but kids believe everything. You're mostly going to get people like me if you keep this up and maybe some jerks throwing rocks on a dare."
 
Back
Top