9 Magic supplies

Mandy floated after now properly dressed August. The gap between him indoors versus outdoors, again, felt shocking. No one would even suspect that this was the same crazy sleep deprived person from a few days back who was breaking dishes on the wall while making a dramatic appeal to an armchair of all things… how utterly mysterious. He wouldn't be applying some magic to his appearance, would he?

Mandy stared at his back and frowned as she crossed her arms.

Knowing August, that didn't seem likely at all.

She shook her head slowly.

Even in movies it was quite easy to tell that the 'ugly girl' was actually a disguised pretty girl, but with August…ah, right, now that she taught of it, the movie 'ugly girls' were actually neat and virtuous and well behaved in most ways, so there was a chance to pay attention to their appearance and notice, but August, well - no way in hell would anyone make a movie about a messy, sleep deprived, half-starved, sadistic workaholic and if they did, that wouldn't be the romantic comedy beauty make-over target.

So that was it! Mystery solved. Even if you take an incredibly beautiful person, if you apply just one layer of disguise, but also add a horrid personality, then no one would notice their good looks.

Mandy nodded happily to herself, it was always refreshing to solve a mystery.

By now Mandy had subconsciously settled to float right next to August. And, of course, Mandy had heard (mostly read) countless tales of beautiful people making you flustered just by their presence, so that part was also just that. Even now, as Mandy cast a glance at him, she could only see a tall man with the type of frail beauty and mysterious air that would undoubtedly make girls swoon left and right and wish to 'heal his broken heart' and 'become his muse', or what have you in those Harlequin novels. Except, August didn't have those strong arms or that wild untamed look which was a must for bad-tempered harlequin novel protagonists. Wasn't August actually a bit of a heroine material…?

August shivered and glanced over at Mandy almost as if sensing a dangerous line of thought.

Yet rather than using this as a cue to ask something, Mandy merely confirmed, that - yes! He would really make a good heroine for a reverse harlequin or… no, there's something even better! What if… someone handsome like that policeman from a few days ago got interested in August? Thinking this was a sin, a complete sin, but why did it feel so right?

Mandy put her hands on her cheeks and shook her head. 'No, no, no, this ain't right.' It's not like something like that would ever happen. And if there was a story like that… how would one even go about conquering someone like August? A small line of 'I can see why he likes you' spoken by Tia passed Mandy's mind and she felt her cheeks flush. No way, right?

She stole another glance at August, noticing him browsing something on his phone, there were people around already, so it wasn't like they could converse either way. As she stole more glances (basically stared at this point) she returned to pondering about his appearance.

It really was a mystery how much clothes could change a person. Boy, Mandy felt lucky to have first met August in his mad slob state, otherwise, there would be no guarantee she wouldn't have become some kind of harlequin heroine with questionable taste.

A small suspicion arose in her mind. Was August actually attractive or did he just seem that way to her? Once you liked someone you would start to perceive them as beautiful regardless of their actual features, and - once you disliked someone you would start to perceive them as ugly regardless of their actual features. If it turned out that August was not actually attractive then… didn't that almost imply that she liked him?

Mandy shuddered and didn't let that suspicion ruin her mood and felt grateful about not falling in the same trap as those monster girls did.

August cast a curious look at Mandy's face, like he was suspecting something fishy happening in her mind, yet again, but said nothing as he entered an empty stairway heading down to the subway.

Mandy noticed his gaze properly this time and turned away with an awkward smile.

But wait… if August looked like this when outdoors, why had he first come to the apartment looking like a slob? Hmm, maybe the deadlines had been crushing him badly enough to make it an exception…

Mandy shrugged. Thinking about August's appearance only lead to dangerous ideas. More importantly!

"Are we heading out to that gig Sarah talked about?" Mandy asked since they weren't close to other people right now.

"Sarah would have kidnapped me yesterday if the work was set that soon," August replied.

Kidnapped? Mandy had a feeling August wasn't joking there. For some reason, she could imagine Sarah pulling that on someone despite not having any evidence for it. That would have been interesting… no, no, awful, not interesting.

"I need to resupply on some things," August moved on to his actual goal for this outing.

Mandy's eyes shone over imagining all the mysterious things in August's suitcase. "Magic supply store?"

August squinted at the word 'magic' but didn't press the matter. "That's accurate," he said looking conflicted about it.

Mandy figured there was no meaning to ask about something she would be seeing soon, so rather than that - "when will that job be set then?"

"In nine days," August said, his eyes pointing downwards as he seemed to be pondering on it. Then a realization hit, "Ah, that makes sense."

Mandy was staring at August hoping he would elaborate.

August got the cue. "Venus will be crossing the sun, that, for mysterious reasons, boosts light alignment magic. That will help with defeating the tentacle dog."

A few nice learning topics popped up - magic alignments and - "do you keep info like that in your head?" Mandy asked. Dates when planets crossed the sun and the like.

"I'm only following along Venus," August said. "Venus crossing sun boosts light alignment that day, if you match the timing with the transit you might as well triple the effect of light magic spells and attacks, and in cases of moon hiding venus - dark alignment magic triples."

Those did sound like they would make a difference. "Other planets don't cause a change like that?"

"They do, but with the type of work I do… and I guess with the usual type of trouble my kind run into - light and dark element shifts are the most important, others not so much. I look other planets up if needed."

The two were approaching a more populated area, so the conversation halted there. Mandy figured that other planets probably boosted other elements, she had a feeling that those were the basic earth, air, fire, and water, but better check about those. Not to mention there were seven planets other than earth… maybe there were seven elements… but light and dark both were related to Venus, maybe it went in pairs?

As they got on the metro Mandy soon got distracted by clothes the girls were wearing and books in hands of those who read. And, yep - August was getting admiring looks from females… and rather than feeling disturbed by it - how she totally would if she was interested in August, right? - She felt an odd assurance that her heartbeat sped up solely because of his looks and that had nothing to do with her liking him in 'that' way or not.

Mandy felt relieved and kept looking, yet soon her gaze settled on a purple blob standing among the humans. Her cheeks turned pale in an instant. This time she averted her eyes in light speed not to cause another chasing incident.

As the two left the metro, they went out on a bustling street, then entered a side road and there it was - "Magic supply store" written in a gaudy bright print. In the display window, there seemed to be stacks of magic trick tools like top hats and fake hands and whatnot.

Mandy squinted at it all. "Seriously?"

"Yep, this is the place," August said and pushed the door open.

Mandy suppressed her disappointment and still had the faintest hope that the inside might be different, but - nope, it was the most regular trick magic store there was. Albeit a big one - there were feng shui sections, Indian bangles and an occult section too, some voodoo tools as well, as far as she could tell at first glance. It had that overcrowded mysterious shop feeling, but it wasn't anything out of this world. Yet, the actually surprising part was that the shop clerk was looking directly at her - not through her, but at her and picked up a small clay pot.

August cast a firm look at the clerk. "She's fine."

"Eh?" Mandy looked from August to the clerk in confusion.

"Oh," the clerk's gestures loosened and he put the pot down. "That's a relief," he said, finally averting his eyes from Mandy. "How may I help you then?"

"Do you have a vial of Claydon's Charmed ink and a pack of unicorn hairs, celestial crane feathers, and siren scales," August listed.

"Let me check," the man went over to the shelves and started picking up the required items from among the various bottles in the occult section.

Mandy looked at it with wide eyes… they were placed like that… among the merchandise, anyone could buy? Holy-- never in her wildest dreams would Mandy imagine that you could go in this type of store and buy real monster body parts… "Unbelievable…"

August glanced at Mandy with a question mark in his eyes.

"Even regular people can buy stuff like that?" She asked.

August smiled faintly. "No, a regular person would just come in and skip over those items like they were completely irrelevant, there are spells worked into the labels."

"Oh." Mandy nodded. That made sense. Hidden in plain sight, huh?

The clerk returned and checked in the items, totaling the price to something above five thousand, which August casually paid using a card.

Mandy squinted, but speaking about pricing near a clerk would be rude, so she asked only when they left the store. "Is that price normal, I mean...?" wouldn't it be hard for people to start working in this area if the supplies cost that much. "For supplies."

"Depends on the type of work you do," August said. "Starting silver rank tasks this much is about normal."

"Does that mean that the type of gig you have would go under silver rank difficulty?" Mandy asked.

"No, this one might even fall under platinum," August said.

A rank above August's… not a wonder August had been so reluctant until the money bomb dropped on him.

"It sucks that magic supply stores don't do online deliveries," August complained as he turned to head back home.

On the way back Mandy found out that these stores had powerful barriers over them and all kinds of protections against hungry astrals coming in and stealing items, also that shop clerks were silver rank or above to deal with nasty possessing astrals who slipped in by using human hosts. The more precious an ingredient, the more delicious it smelled and for that reason alone it was unwise to walk around carrying them unless you had very good methods to hide them. August's suitcase was one of those 'good methods', but that was only so because August had burned a lot of money and time on enchanting it. Not an amount one could afford to spend on delivery workers, sadly.

Mandy asked why couldn't the barrier block out people who were possessed. Turned out that it would also block out familiars who followed their masters or came to shop in their stead, which would cause a huge drop in sales.

It was cheaper to just chase away tresspassers.

Mandy had almost been assaulted by a purified salt, which would have caused wounds and pain even to a ghost.

"Cruel…" Mandy mumbled.

"Well, you are haunting me rather than being my familiar. By normal standards, it's like living in the Victorian era and having a scandalous relationship compared to proper marriage."

Mandy's expression soured… was that how everyone saw her? That status was just awful. "What gave it away that I'm possessing you?"

"You could slip through the barrier when I came in and your substance is different from mine. If you were a familiar you would look and 'feel' like the same kind of creature as me."

Mandy froze in place. "Normal people would see me?"

"Yes," August replied.

"Can't I become your familiar then?" Mandy asked with shiny eyes.

August stopped and looked at her with a teasing smile. "You wish to be bound to me till death do us part?"

Mandy started turning red, realizing that was almost a marriage proposal. "Wha-what- UGH! NO!"

August was doing his best not to laugh while Mandy fumed, yet those expressions soon faded as they came upon a hectic scene.

An Ambulance car and a police car was standing by an apartment complex giving out flashes of red and blue lights and a small crowd was gathering. The two would have passed by if not for the sight of the human being carried out on a stretcher. His skin was charcoal black and ivy green roses were blooming out of the man's mouth, sprouting out of his chest and consuming him.

"What the actual…"

"Normies don't see the roses," August spoke at a low volume, lifting his phone up, having turned on the camera.

Indeed, on the screen, the man looked like a regular corpse. He had choked, saliva dripping and dead eyes. His skin wasn't black either. Outside of the screen it didn't look even half as bad as on the screen, though, - there was an oddly natural, organic feeling to the rose covered charcoal human, but the screen showed a disgusting corpse.

August put the phone down, not noticing a policeman that had started to approach him from behind. It was the same attractive policeman that had come to check what had been up with the broken plates. The crowd was pretty loud, the noise and people walking past served as distractions. Mandy didn't notice the policeman approaching either.

"What is that?" the ghost asked.

"A type of hex, seeing the state… a work of a novice druid. If I had to guess, unregistered and untrained, self-taught... this might be fourth or fifth victim, though."

The policeman stopped, he had meant to ask for August to not take pictures, but… the things August said in low voice made the man stop and eavesdrop. Like any regular policeman he had a camera and a recorder installed on his clothes and it was just barely sensitive enough to catch what August said.

That felt oddly specific to Mandy..."Are you an expert in hexes?"

"No, I just happen to know this particular one pretty well," he replied.

Fishy... but perhaps it was a really common type of hex. "How will the police solve it?"

"This will stay an unsolved case. I mean, to normies the only clues are the rose scent in the room and corpses that seem like they have been drowned with no water nearby."

August turned to walk away and Mandy followed.

The policeman that had heard the conversation starting from 'self-taught' caught the glimpse of August from the side and was struck with a strong feeling of 'I have seen him before'. It didn't take long for him to realize that it was the same broken dishes dude. He hesitated, but rather than tailing August, he briskly walked over to his colleague.

"Will the criminal just get away with it?" Mandy asked.

"I wonder," August said. "There's a high chance that it is a kid's doing, so there might be no real punishment if the kid is small enough."

Apparently, it was the first offensive skill or magic light element mages learned or happened to cause by accident. Easy to track, so no trained or knowledgable light mage would use this method for murder. From the way August talked about it, Mandy had a feeling that the kid(?) would eventually be tracked down. The more victims, the easier it is to narrow down the suspects. Mandy did feel odd about how calmly August spoke about it all, though. It felt like August might be used to seeing things like this, no, with his job or ex-job it would be stranger if that wasn't the case.

August spent the evening writing, then the next morning after that he was compounding and enchanting gemstones. He didn't speak too much about what he was doing, though, so Mandy could only watch in awe as magical smoke, sparkles, glowing and other phenomena occurred in the room. If August wore a pointed hat and a robe he would be a stereotypical movie wizard. It was still a mystery to Mandy how people were classifying these things.

The most curious was gem enchanting - August boiled thirteen medal sized rubies in a pink liquid made by melting half the ingredients they got the day before alongside some other mysterious looking ingredients. As the liquid let out faint bubbles, August drew rune-like symbols on the surface of the liquid with the same ink he had used for charms before - a replica of the drawing etched itself on each gemstone and when August was done with writing he spat in the pink liquid. It all turned blue and the liquid got absorbed by the gems leaving behind thirteen blue sapphires with red shimmering writings on them.

"Rubies turned into sapphires?" Mandy had a conflicted expression.

"Use a camera to look at them," August said as he started cleaning up the table.

When Mandy checked the gems with a camera they looked like the same rubies from before, meaning, both the blue color and the writings were something of an astral nature. Enchantments.

Just as Mandy put away the pad she had used in place of the camera, the doorbell rang.

August frowned and quickly gathered the gems, putting them in his suitcase along with other things. Only when he had masked the suitcase and the bell had rung for the fourth time, he got up, heading over to the door.

"Who is it?" August asked, opening the door half-way.

It took only a moment for Mandy to recognize the handsome policeman from a few days ago, even if he wasn't in his uniform. Not a wonder considering Mandy had had a recent delusion about this very same man being interested in August... recalling it Mandy's cheeks flushed. It couldn't be...