Published at 21st of February 2024 11:03 pm

Chapter 19 Black Market

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The depthless stairwell was indeed not depthless. It took a lot of walking down, but sooner than later he arrived at the place he felt was the Black Market—and it sure looked like one.

The air was stiff, and there was no sky here, no sun, no clouds, just an endless ceiling which looked to have been crafted from dark concrete, spreading out over the whole area. If not for the innumerable gas lamps brightening this market Elmer would have thought he had gone blind with how dark this place would have been.

When he had been coming down the stairs he had been expecting to only see a little bit of over ten or so people, but the sheer lot that were gathered in here surprised him senseless—there were what, thousands?—and each person had a dissimilar demeanor from the other. It was as though every few people here hailed from different cities.

Were they all Ascenders? And how come there was this much even though he had come down the stairs alone? It made no sense—the whole place made no sense.

And just then, as he was still standing amazed and confused, he heard the sound of brick scratching on brick, and he turned his head to see a wall slide open mysteriously at a far end as another person walked into this market.

Blimey…! Elmer’s mouth dropped. How was that possible? He had seen things—otherworldly and whatnot—yes, but this… how was this possible?

He quickly turned around to check behind him if the door he had come in through was still there, and alas, it wasn’t.

Elmer gripped his head, almost falling down to the ground, but he stumbled backward instead.

Was this magic? Was this really magic?

He approached the wall one step at a time as though he was sneaking up on it, while a tingling sensation swept through his skin. Then suddenly he halted, slapped his palms on his cheeks, and shook his head.

This was all fascinating, but he did not have the time for this.

He let out a breath and quickly whirled about on his feet to face the noisy and crowded street of the Black Market, before taking the first step to join in with the swarms of people congesting the area.

The place felt like one big community. There was only a narrow thoroughfare, and the alleys between the brick buildings that lined the walkways were not paths which led to another road or area of some sort. This was all there was to the Black Market. A narrow, glutted area filled with wooden stalls consisting of an awning draping over them, and shops made of brick.

Elmer tried his best to avoid bumping into people as he snuck through the cluster—there were some failures here and there, but he managed nonetheless—and through his efforts he tried to espy a shop or stall for the ingredients he sought, or something that would point him to one. But he could not. It was almost as though he was reliving his experience at the train station all over again, only this time it was worse.

With a deep inhale Elmer halted in the midst of the clamoring crowd and closed his eyes as frustration crept over him. And after a moment of personal silence, he heaved out a deep breath and swirled to his side, calling out to whoever was passing by him at that moment—and surprisingly they stopped; a varying experience from his first day in Ur.

The random person who had halted was a young man who looked to be not much older than him. He had a barely noticeable mole near the bridge of his pert nose, along with a casual face draped by wet deep brown hair which made it seem like he had just stepped out of a bathtub. And on his shoulder perched an infant chimp that kept spinning its gaze at Elmer.

Elmer watched the chimp for a few seconds before peeling his eyes from it and clearing his throat. “I’m sorry to be a bother,” he said to the young man while trying to make his voice well heard through the rowdy surroundings, “but do you know where I can get…” He suddenly trailed off.

What was he to call it? Elmer shifted his gaze and went into his thoughts. Ascender ingredients? Was it wise to mention that to a random person in a black market? He took his eyes back to the face of the young man he had stopped, and he was tickling his chimp into making soft, panting play-sounds while he looked at Elmer plainly with something of a mild smile.

Bearing a slight heaviness in his stomach, Elmer forced himself to voice after a moment of hesitation. “Do you know where I can get supernatural ingredients?” he said—wrongly. That was not what he had intended, but… he was so glad it had come out that way that he almost smiled. Supernatural ingredients could mean anything—his secret of becoming an Ascender was safe.

The young man nodded as though he was a person incapable of speech, then he pointed to the side of Elmer’s rear and led Elmer’s gaze all the way through three alleys before stopping his finger on the first shop after the third one.

That was when he finally spoke.

“There,” the young man said, “that shop sells.” He had a thick accent—one Elmer had never heard before even from the people who usually came to Meadbray—and as well a soft voice that would put him up as a child to anyone who listened to him speak without ever having a view of his young but grown features.

Where was he from?

Elmer turned back to the youth and gave him a bow of thanks, and as the young man resumed his stride Elmer then allowed himself a moment to take notice of what he was wearing, which was a roughspun tunic with black knee-length breeches and a sandal.

What was that dressing, and a chimp to top it off? It almost made him seem like he had cropped up from a tropical forest or something.

Elmer shook his head and went down the way he had been directed.

…

Arrived before a plain building and an even plainer front door, Elmer wondered how anyone was to know that it was a shop?

Why make it so hard for customers?

There was no way the owner was earning a lot.

With a breaking heart for the shop owner, Elmer briefly rubbed his fingers on his forehead. Then just as he was about to grab the door knob, the door pushed open and out came two girls in embellished frilly dresses and hats with black fishnets obscuring their faces.

They shook for a moment as though their hearts were about to jump out of their chests, and froze in their steps afterwards. That was until one of them suddenly bowed slightly at Elmer and pulled the other along in a hurry.

Elmer watched them scurry restlessly for a while as though their whereabouts confused them.

“What are they doing?” he mumbled, then smacked his lips, after which he turned back to the door and made his way into the building.

For a shop whose exterior was plain and unnoticeable, it surprisingly had something of a long line of people within it. This was the second time Elmer had been proven wrong on how a business was run. It was probably that phase where he needed to stop commenting on such. He knew nothing about it.

Weird distinct smells crawled upon his nose, squeezing it as he quickly wandered into the line while he looked about the shop.

The room was small and unadorned. There were no chairs or tables, or anything to provide the customers comfort. The only things that he could see, aside from the line of people, were the gas lamps that flickered light from the walls, and the indistinct counter which stood at the start of the line.

Elmer awaited his turn as he watched the line lessen from his front and fill up once again from behind him, as though it was a snake slithering continuously but not moving an inch from where it had once been.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Were some also here to buy Ascender ingredients as well? The thought made his eyebrows crease as he pondered on exactly how many Ascenders even existed.

Then his turn arrived.

There was a wide low space in between the counter’s shade where a filled paper bag or two could pass through, and in there he halfway slid the paper of ingredients after taking them out of his pocket.

“I want to buy these,” he said while trying to cut back on his breathing. The weird smells were thicker here.

The paper disappeared from his sight and a man’s voice whispered after, “Two hundred. You have?” They sounded young.

“Yes,” Elmer answered and exhaled. Thanks to Patsy.

He dipped his hand into his waist bag and counted the required amount before pushing it into the hole. The money vanished from his sight, and after a minute or two, a paper bag surfaced in its place.

Elmer was slightly amazed. With the sort of things that were written in that paper he would have expected the seller to take at least thirty minutes or so to prepare them, but with such quickness it almost seemed like they had been waiting for him. He was not complaining though, it saved him time.

He took hold of the bag and shuffled out of the line as he made way for the next person. Then he peeked into it and allowed a gut wrenching smell to storm his nose, forcing him to carry his eyes up to the ceiling as an escape from it.

That was definitely the snake’s heart, Elmer cried to himself. There was nothing else it could be.

He held the base of the bag with one hand and used the other to tightly shut it close, after which he took himself out of the shop.

Outside, his mind suddenly clicked. How exactly was he going to get back up?

Elmer scanned the whole area hastily, glimpsing more people coming in but none going out at the moment. He became as confused as the pair of girls he had seen earlier. What was this?

Pst… Something blew through his ear, but he paid it no mind—until it came again. Pst… Someone was calling.

He turned around to his side, probing the area of the shop, but he saw no one. Had he just been hearing things?

The smell of that snake’s heart is making me lose it, and I’m yet to even drink the elixir… Elmer felt his skin prick at the thought of what it might taste like.

“Over here.” A voice came this time—the weak, husky voice of a woman, and Elmer followed it with narrow eyes until he saw the speaker. But since he was not pleased at the sight, he shuddered.

Why was she peeking at him from an alley?

He shook his head with a deep breath and chose to walk away, but the woman called again, halting his steps.

“Some pence, please.” Her voice shivered. “Any you can spare.”

Elmer turned back to her. She was seated on the ground and covered in a black haggard robe with a cowl draping over her head which made her face indiscernible.

He gave it a short thought, then dug out two pence from his waist bag before rigidly crossing over to the edge of the alley where she was and dropping the money into her cupped-out palms.

“Thank you,” she said, bowing.

Elmer smiled awkwardly and turned quickly away. But just as he was about to leave, she spoke again.

“You want to be an Ascender?” Her voice was very faint, but Elmer heard it loud and clear. He turned sharply to her with widened eyes tainted with unease. “The shop,” she put in after a short silence. “I know because of the shop.”

Elmer’s chest loosened at her words and he was able to breathe again. “Then. I’ll be taking my leave,” he told her as he nudged his head forward in something of politeness and edginess before showing her his back.

“Wait.” She stopped him again. “I have something.”

Elmer’s muscles tensed. Should he just run? Yes. That was probably the best.

He curled his toes, preparing himself, and he would have done it if only she had not suddenly uttered something that had firmly gripped his attention.

“I have a mystic artifact,” she had said, and Elmer’s mind whirled from uneasiness to curiosity.

What was a mystic artifact?

He instinctively swirled to his side to see the woman peering at him creepily from the edge of the alley. But he shoved his wariness behind him and leaned in closer with a step, partially due to his curiosity and partially to get out of the way of a customer who had wanted to enter into the shop.

“What do you mean?” he asked, now at an arm’s length from the creepy woman.

She pointed a quivering finger at the paper bag of ingredients he was holding. “Just becoming an Ascender won’t help you against them, but an artifact will.”

Them…? Who’s them…? Elmer swallowed a lump of saliva and furrowed his brows as he watched the woman’s finger retreat and slide into her robe, stopping him from asking whatever question he had readied as he jerked backward at her latter action. Then she brought something out and laid it bare on her palms.

“This,” her voice shivered. “This is it. An artifact.”

Elmer breathed in and bent in closer again to see clearly. It was a gun—a revolver—with strange golden symbols carved all over its body. Elmer felt his neck stiffen. A revolver, an artifact?

The woman gestured the revolver at him. “This,” her voice quivered again. “This will help you fight them.”

Elmer took his eyes from the revolver to her hidden face. “What do you mean by ‘them’?”

“The horrors of night,” she said, her voice going from quivers to eeriness, sending a shiver down Elmer’s spine as he recalled the maggot-faced man and the Lost. “You have seen them?” she suddenly put in after, and Elmer’s brows pressed together. “You have seen them,” she said again, this time with surety and a chuckle, her actions making Elmer slowly lump her in with those horrors.

He swallowed and answered truthfully, “I have.” Then he took his eyes back to the revolver.

“Take it,” the woman said. “Only mystic artifacts can harm them, nothing else. And this one is special.” She grinned, almost unnoticeably.

He raised an eyebrow. “A special revolver that’s a mystic artifact, huh? Doesn’t it need to use some special sort of bullet to fire then?”

“No,” the woman told him. “This is special. Can’t you see?” She rubbed the revolver. “The symbols are engraved in a different pattern.”

I’ve never seen these symbols in my life, lady… Elmer thought to himself.

“Any bullet fired from this will be effective, and… right now it’s already loaded.”

Elmer returned his eyes to her with a frown. He was not having this weird kindness. “Why?” he asked. “Why are you giving it to me?”

“Why?” the woman seemed to sink into her thoughts. “Because you are the first person to give me some money,” she told him. “And I never said it was free.” Those words somehow relaxed Elmer’s uneasiness.

Free things draped with the pretentious cloak that was kindness always came at a fairly high cost.

Elmer looked back at the revolver. “How much?” he spoke after a while of silence. He might as well take it if it was really an artifact like she claimed it to be.

“One mint note,” the woman replied, and Elmer had a feeling that she was trying to scam him. Surely an artifact couldn’t be as cheap as his clothes. He narrowed his gaze and eyed her skeptically.

“For a special artifact that can harm supernatural beings, aren’t you putting it at a very cheap price?”

The woman lowered her palms. “I could increase it if you want?”

“No,” Elmer said instinctively, then he shook his head and dug out a mint note with a slight hesitation. But before he could settle himself, she snatched it greedily from his fingertips and outstretched the revolver at him in return. Now he was sure he was being scammed.

With downed eyebrows he took the revolver and dropped it into his paper bag while he straightened himself. He waited for a few more seconds expecting some sort of words from the woman, but when she said nothing, he turned around, and it was not until he was actually about to set on his way did she finally let her lips loose.

“I’ll be here,” she said, “if things do not turn out the way you want.”

Those words, they were… weird. Elmer sharply took his gaze back to the alley and it was empty. His chest immediately tightened while his knees weakened. What was happening?

Elmer shuffled backward twice before abruptly speeding away, scampering through the black market and drawing gazes from the people he whirled past.

His hurtle only came to a stop when he found himself back at the wall he had come in through.

“How…” He trailed off in between wheezes. “How is that possible? I saw her. She was there. She was…”

He suddenly remembered he had paid a mint note for something and he quickly opened the paper bag, the smell of the snake heart doing nothing to relax his pounding heart or agitate his mind quite enough to take it away from what he had just witnessed.

“It’s here,” he mumbled as he saw the revolver. “I was not dreaming. Then what happened?” He took his trembling eyes from the paper bag to the brick wall before him. “Did she… Did she disappear?” Elmer’s stomach hardened and he could not get himself to breathe well enough anymore. “I have to get out of here.” He poked at the wall, but it did not budge. “Open!” he screamed, his voice tinged with anger and fear. “Open.” The next one came out soft with tiredness.

And just then he heard the grating of brick on brick as the wall before him glided open, revealing the flight of stairs within it. Elmer felt the tightness in his chest lessen, but it still squeezed just enough that he hurried himself into the ajar brick wall and made his way out of the bleakness of the black market.

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