TEGAN'S 2F

The store at Tegan's factory was everything I had hoped it would be! Like stepping into the pages of Lycan legends. The wooden floors and counters topped if shiny glass casing, and the wooden shelves wrapped around all four walls... Every display filled with rows and rows of pens like they were magic wands.

If this were a Lycan legend, then this would be where all the heroes had to come to purchase their gear or trade their loot at some point of their career.

Although in the case of the Tegan Store, it would only apply to pens and stationery, and not swords or magic stones or Gyaara parts.

Still paper and pen also held its own kind of magic. I realized it just today while at Tegan's, and it wasn't just the power to summon Tygers.

For some reason, standing in such a space struck me with the thought that the same stories about magic and adventure were once upon a time a blank sheet of paper and a pen.

Books were a kind of magic too.

I took a side glance at my betas to see if my wolves were as impressed as I was. At this moment, 2 of 3 of them were typing furiously on their phones.

Amendment: Maybe not ALL stories were written with ink and paper. In this day and age, some magic were woven digitally too... Which immediately felt less magical.

(But we must not forget beta magic is also a kind of magic. ;P)

I narrowed my eyes at my good beta and my Ben one, both piously in beta praying position, their little screens glowing in their palms.

In this aspect, Henry's beta, Pete outshines my betas as the prime example of a magician with a phone. Hahaha.

Imagine if we used Tegan's machines to imbue magic into hand phones, and then powered them with magic stone. Would we be able to summon Tygers with a mobile app? (I really should patent that! IMAO.)

The store manager had on a bright blue suit over a light blue shirt and candy pink tie, but this was probably his uniform (and not his flamboyance) because he was accompanied by three lady sales assistants in short tight sky blue ceremonial dresses with embroidered pink roses in the same bright bubble gum pink. Against the backdrop of a century old pen shop with handcrafted wooden counters and display shelves, they looked like time travelers from a future where a Lorent designer like Mayflower made their clothes… that or the wildcard Chole decided to switch over to designing traditional uniforms.

It was one of those things that I couldn't decide if I liked or not.

They stood in a row and made low bows. When the manager stepped up to speak, he bowed again, "Welcome dear esteemed guests to Tegan's Pen Store. My name is Jonathan." 

This took me by surprise, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't expect the name of the store to sound so uninspired.

Jonathan sounded so dignified and confident in his sky blue suit that I felt sure that this had to be a totally legit magic store naming convention. Not that I had never stepped into a magic store before, but I suppose no respectable real magic store would actually call itself a magic shop.

Jonathan gestured with an open palm to the glass displays and shelves surrounding us, "Is there anything that might please our dear esteem guests to view from our humble collection?"

In which "humble" was a word that must mean something else.

For example, they did not sell paper and envelopes here. They sold bespoke embossed stationery.

Delta Felicity tutted loudly as she looked around us, "What a marvelous place! How many pens are there?"

"We currently house close to two thousand pens in our collector series, and a total of just below a hundred pens from our historical, treasure, master craftsman, and auction series." Jonathan informed us.

Far below them to sell anything more general and mass produced. Like literally, it was below them, because those were sold downstairs.

Delta Felicity raised her brows, "Impressive!"

I couldn't tell if she were really impressed or just applying a liberal amount of diplomacy.

Jonathan puffed up, "We also carry a custom series and of course, our in-house craftsman services are available by appointment."

"Oh!" Delta Felicity raised her brows even higher, "Very comprehensive!"

She looked was very close to applauding.

Ki was less easily impressed, "Perhaps we might start at your treasure and master series."

"Excellent choice, dear esteemed guest." Jonathan praised and gestured towards one of the walls of the store, "Please, this way."

We followed Jonathan over to the shiny glass cases where rows and rows of pens gleamed from behind the glass. I couldn't smell if any pen was more magical from behind the glass casing. I wished Sabre were here. She would be able to tell me which pen was prettier.

I peered into the display on the counter. Delta Felicity stuck her face close to see too, "Anything that catches our Princess' eyes?"

I quickly straightened and shook my head, "Not really, I'm just looking."

I noticed that Ki had not even bothered to glance at the rows of pens displayed in the counter. He looked coolly disinterested, even though he was the one who had asked to see the pens!

Two of the ladies quickly got to their position behind the counter.

"Shall we begin with the treasure collection?" Jonathan offered.

Ki shook his head, his capice smile in place, "Please show us only your best from both collections at once."

"Of course." Jonathan quickly obliged because the dear esteemed guest is always right on this floor of the Tegan's Pen Store.

The two ladies were sent to the backroom, which explained why Ki had not shown any interest in the pens on display - treasure and master collection pens were not kept out on display. Only a noob like me would not know this.

Delta Felicity started tutting loudly again when the ladies reappeared proferring covered trays, "Such treasures!"

Ki leaned leisurely at our counter. The other guys had not even bothered to follow us over. Ben had long made himself comfortable against the wall by the exit.

I think Mr Tegan's assistant was trying to move him towards us, but Mr Tegan was still not quite recovered from the shock of urm... MY BEAUTIFUL PENMANSHIP, yeah. I think that would be the official story.

After a moment's hesitation, Delta Bernard ambled over.

"Don't mind me." He told us, "I'm just curious."

He peered over at the pens in the glass casing and then craned his neck to see the pens in the trays. And then he took a second look and then a third. I looked too, just to see what he was checking out. To be honest, all the pens looked extremely similar, so I wasn't sure what I was looking for exactly.

Delta Bernard did notice something amiss though, "How much would one of these cost?"

This was when I realized there were no price tags. Good question finance delta. I wonder why no one else had asked. I looked to Ki and wondered if he was going to buy a pen. Ki might. Lorents were into fancy expensive things like that. Wasn't he the one who had found some Master Craftsman to make Bell that magic pen... oh...

"Did you make Bell's pen here?" I asked. It did sound quite similar to the one I used upstairs. If I remembered right, Bell's new custom made pen also used magic stones instead of ink. (I told you Lorents were into this kind of thing.)

Ki smiled like a flower to the sun, "The pen you gifted Alpha James Lorent the Third?"

Because he just had to make sure everyone in earshot heard the name drop.

"If my memory serves me right, that one would be a custom by Roulette, goddess." Ki answered. It was almost like he had to run through an extensive mental catalogue to remember exactly which expensive pen it was.

Okay, fine. Maybe Ki really did have to work at remembering exactly what was gifted to Bell since the memories from multiple timelines could be confusing to sieve through.

But to everyone else who was listening (and everyone else in the room WAS listening from the moment Alpha James was mentioned), it sounded like I bought actrotiously expensive writing instruments as gifts on a regular basis.

And if Jonathan's sudden pause at the mention of Roulette meant anything, one would assume the name was recognized immediately.

Jonathan had originally been very undecided as he selected which pens to show first, but after hearing Roulette's name, it was like he immediately knew what to do. He quickly selected a few from each tray to place into smaller individual satin-lined smaller trays for showing.

He was also very disatisfied with what the ladies brought him, "No, no, we can't have those."

He waved the girls to remove the larger trays, "I only want pens from the top tier. "

He was quite huffy about it too.

Turning back to us with a smile, he gestured to the few pens he had prepared, "Although, not Roulettes, perhaps our dear esteemed guests might like to consider these. I promise you, they are just as excellent."

Maybe he meant "just as expensive" because there were no price tags. Could it be that Tegan's Pen Store was like the Moshiro of stationery stores? You know, where customers had to decide what to order without any inkling of what their bill might amount to. 

And just to make sure we understood that Tegan's offerings were not to be taken lightly, Jonathan divulged, "We do have a couple of Roulettes, but they are currently on the auction listings."

Ki nodded absently as he picked up one of the pens, "Can you tell me about this one?"

And Jonathan dutifully told Ki all about the pen in his hand, from the nib size to its materials, to the year it was made and the Master Craftsman who made it, and... Just everything except for the price.

Delta Felicity had taken to tutting and nodding at all the details. It was very boring... I really wasn't someone who was into the technical details of whether the nib was gold plated or made with iridium. By the pen, I found my eyes wandering around the shop.

There was a spiral staircase to the ground floor. The wooden banisters were carved and polished like the rest of the wooden furniture in the shop. I wonder what was downstairs.

"Oh! What a magnificent pen! Can you tell us about this one?" Delta Felicity asked.

"Fel..." Delta Bernard cleared his throat, and then he switched to mindlink, {You promised your mate you won't max your credit card this month.}

Delta Felicity's response was to toss her head back and laugh out loud. She was mad. But we all knew this.

I slipped away from the pen presentation (I'm not sure what else to call it.) Ki seemed to understand. He simply closed the space and asked about the converter or something.

Jonathan only looked too relieved to answer this question because it was a technical one.

Delta Felicity had a question too, "Do you think this colour match my earrings?"

She was asking this because the pen' barrel was this green oyster mosaic kind of thing, like her dangly earrings.

"You can't be meaning to match all your pens to your earrings, Fel!" Delta Bernard exclaimed.

"Oh, good idea Bernie." Delta Felicity decided.

I found myself in front of the curved stairs.

"Are we going down?" Ben appeared suddenly behind my shoulder - like the devil's advocate.

I looked around. I don't know why, but I expected Harvey, my good beta to pop up on the other side to tell me I should stay with the group or something. But no, Harvey was still tucked away on the other side of the shop with the rest of the wolves.

So Ben was here to accompany the alpha princess? I grinned, cool.

"Yeah. I don't think I can wait for Delta Felicity to buy that many pens." I joked lightly as I took the stairs. Ben followed half the step behind me like he always did, "She won't. There's no way."

"I wouldn't put it past her." I argued, "She's crazy."

"Yeah, but the pens your dog is looking at probably cost as much as a car each."

Oh, well that explained why there weren't any pricetags. How else would they be able to scam you? - would be my wittier response much later as I write in my diary. But when I first heard it, I only exclaimed, "That's crazy!"

And I meant even more crazy than Delta Felicity crazy.

From now on, if the only one really shopping is a Lorent, and there aren't any visible price tags, I don't care if it's a menu at a restaurant, or a bag/pair of shoes/jacket suit or pen, I was going to assume it was going to cost me the same as a car.

I shared my little epiphany with Ben and he shrugged in his usual deadpan, "Totally true, give or take one to five zeroes."

Because it's a beta's job to add those little terms and conditions... The sarcasm was Ben's own personal touch.

I laughingly waved it off, "Details, details. Since when did you ever sweat the small stuff?"

"I wouldn't call a thousand or a hundred thousand exactly small change, Sam." Ben informed me.

I suppose not, but I didn't want to let Ben have the last word. (I was the Alpha!)

"Whatever." Because I really had no retort for that.

Ben smirked, "Yeah, whatever, Sam."

And for some reason, it sounded cooler when he did it. (I blame his natural bad attitude.)