Tracing Talisman

Raizel watched the boy who stood in the door way with a smile on his face, "Mister Raizel."

He almost sighed, this boy, Wren had been visiting for two days. He had ignored the boy for the most part of it but the boy seemed not to be fazed by it. He did not get angry or irritated. How troublesome.

Wren hesitated at the door, even though he loved visiting the mysterious shop keeper, he did not want to trouble him.

"I am not disturbing you, am I." He made sure to ask again. The man ignored him focusing on reading a book. Silence means acquiescence, so Wren entered inside.

His eyes went through the talismans displayed; Mister Raizel has not crafted any new one. He sat down, closed his eyes and breathed in before he began to cultivate.

The spiritual energy in the shop was not the greatest but something about it made cultivating easier to Wren.

He could not afford noise-cancelling headsets. The shop was really quiet and he noticed he could meditate better. Once he earns some money he would tell Mister Raizel to craft a noise cancelling talisman for him.

Raizel closed the book, he had gone through three novels and was sure he could understand what a fortuitous encounter means. It all had to do with rarity and power, the technique must be really rare and extremely powerful. He had a lot of techniques like that in store.

Next, the place and person mattered. He must be desperate and dejected enough like the world have forsaken him. His eyes wandered to the boy that was cultivating on a seat next to the door; it seems like he lacked this part.

He could sense people approaching his store and sat upright, trying to maintain a calm and inviting presence.

Tonia was getting angry at her husband's delaying.

"Hurry up, we have already decided to buy the talisman, working slower than normal is not going to help."

Tonia was a slim, attractive woman who had a handsome husband and a beautiful child. Her husband earned quite a sizable amount at the Public Bureau. Theirs have been a very happy family until… Tonia clenched Nina's little hands even tighter.

Tommy caught up with her and held Nina's hands while looking around suspiciously.

"This place….."

Tonia nodded. This place was typical of the dark alleyways where terrible things happen in movies. Gathering strength from the law that cultivators are forbidden from killing mundane, she moved forward.

They opened the door to the store.

Outside was hot and sunny but inside the store was cool and refreshing, it had a characteristic silence that made them relax. For the first time in a while, Tonia let go of her daughter's hands.

It was a small shop, there were three seats for customers, a young boy was sitting cross-legged on one. Cases of talismans on display occupied most of the store.

There was a counter where a young man sat, his eyes fixed on them. He was a cultivator; a powerful one, she knew.

"Welcome. What would you like to buy?" Raizel asked calmly.

The man Tommy, stepped forward with a document, passing it to Raizel.

"This is a permission for a tracing talisman. Do you have one here?" He looked around trying to recognize the talisman hanging around but failed.

"A tracing talisman?" Raizel looked at the document with curiosity. Was it because the tracing talisman was too intrusive or because they were a mundane family?

"Do you have it, Sir?" Tonia asked, a little urgency in her voice. This was the last talisman store in town, they would have to leave town otherwise."

"I do not." Raizel confessed.

Tonia almost slumped to the ground. She could not let her Nina out of her sight if they do not buy the talisman.

Nina had been kidnapped once already and since then Tonia had been filled with a high level of paranoia. She had nightmare so much that she had to move to Nina's room to sleep. Sometimes, she would feel so panicked that she had to hold her daughter's hands to calm down.

"But I can craft one now." Raizel concluded. He waited for their response so he could begin. His hands itched a bit, there was this new variation to the tracing talisman that he added.

Tonia sighed in relief before she felt a bit angry.

'Why can't you say all of your words in one sentence? Must you section it one?'

"I will need your hair and hers too." He started pulling out the materials he would need to craft the talisman.

Tonia and Tommy looked at each other worriedly. It is not that they did not trust cultivators, it is just that they didn't trust cultivators.

"Is our hair necessary?" She asked him. vf

Raizel frowned and sank into thought for a moment, then he replied," Not necessarily. Fingernails would do just fine. Blood essence would be the best but it is not rude to ask for blood essence from cultivators."

His face seemed to be saying, it is rude to ask but you can volunteer to hand over the blood essence.

Tonia was a bit stunned, "Cultivators? We are not cultivators."

Raizel looked at them for a while, "Your little girl has a Dao seed. Did you not know?"

"Impossible!" Tommy exclaimed. Even the little girl, Nina who had been as expressionless as a doll since she entered the shop raised her eyes in shock.

"That can't be. When they tested it, they said she had no Dao seed."

Raizel just nodded before he shifted their attention to what really mattered.

"About the material for the tracing talisman." If they give him their blood rather than strands of hair, there were so much more he could do with it.

Tonia shivered instinctively and shook her head, "We will go for the hair strands."

She plucked a strand of her hair before bending down and smiling at her daughter, "Let mom take your hair. Be good, I will buy you ice-cream."

Raizel took their hair while he thought, 'Ice-cream, what is that?"

The couple moved to the spare seats and sat down waiting. Wren greeted them. He smiled at the little girl in her mother's arms when he felt two strong glares from her parents.

He then made his way tentatively to Raizel who was grinding something in a little mortar.

"Can I help?" He asked.

Although Sects were banned, there were still a lot of families and clans in the cultivation world. They held their techniques and skills close to their chest. Mysterious things happened to people who tried to steal or copy them.

Raizel looked at him with deep eyes like he saw all through his thoughts. He leaned back on his seat, long lashes hung down, concealing his thoughts.

Wren did not flinch, if he was refused, he would go back. He knew his place; he would not overreach. Cultivating here was enough.

Perhaps Raizel was satisfied with what he saw, perhaps not. However, Wren was his first customer who opened the gate for more customers so he passed him the mortar after dipping a brush in it.

"Grind the ink."

Wren happily rushed and collected the mortar, he grinded the ink as he watched Raizel craft the tracing talisman.

He watched with fascination as Raizel drew on the paper often forgetting to grind the ink properly. Waves of ink formed delicate lines into an intricate pattern. It was beautiful.

His breath became faster and he looked at the action entranced, he seemed to sense something. If he reaches out he could...

"Ink." A clear voice distracted him

--and then it was gone. Wren did not feel frustrated, he simply handed Raizel the mortar to dip for the second talisman paper.

The tracing talisman had two ends, the mother paper and the child paper. One leads to the other.

Raizel's flexible hands continue to move across both paper, layers of dense and complicated talisman markings like flowing water covered the entire papers. They glowed briefly.

Images of tethered long ropes flashed in Wren's mind as he stared at it in fascination.

Raizel put down the brush, the two talismans glided to the couple. He introduced the talisman, "Long tracing talisman, tier-3 talisman."

The woman held the blue paper with red marking almost reverently.

Her husband stood beside her, the only words that could leave his mouth was, "Good! Good!"

Little Nina looked at the talisman with emotionless eyes. This paper would make it all go away? She wondered. Mommy would be happy again and Daddy would stop quarrelling with Mommy.

"How much? How much for the talismans?" Tommy asked still looking at it, no matter the price, he would buy.

"7,000 Credits." Raizel said. That was almost 6 dinners at Old Lin's place. Not bad.

Tommy's heart almost stopped, that was half of his salary. He brought out his phone to scan and Raizel frowned before handing the QR code of his shop obediently. It does not matter; he would still go to the back to retrieve it.

Wren smiled, seeing the couple off and then asked Raizel if he needed any more help.

"Yes. It is time for lunch. Get me a plate of Rice with Curry Chicken from Soju's eatery.

Today was a good day, he got a customer, free help and saved about 40 credits, he normally spent on delivery.

Before he closed his eyes to rest, he thought, 'Tomorrow, I will check out this ice-cream thing.'