In the early morning. . .
'Lady Baker. . .' Lucien's voice was calling me and I could feel his hand tapping my cheek. 'Lady Baker.' He called out to me a bit higher.
I opened my eyes and smiled at Lucien. 'Good morning, Lucien.' I yawned. 'I-Is it morning already?' I asked him.
'Yes, the sun is rising from the horizon.' Lucien said as he floated on top of me.
My eyes popped in surprise.'. . . I-I see that you have better control over your powers.'
'Mother says that, a dhampir's powers are essencially weaker than a vampire's, and by default, dhampir's can use their powers with more ease.' Lucien explained.
'I see.' I moved Liam a bit and then sat up from the bed as I stretched. 'Could you do me a favor and fetch me the bell on the window?' I asked pointing to the bell on the board of the house.
Lucien did not even blinked as he pointed to the bell and this one started to rise and float. I blinked in surprise. Lucien then made the bell float all the way to my hands. 'Huh. . . Guess the older you get it is easier to control and levítate objects.' I said remembering Liam's difficulty to do the same.
'So mother says.' Lucien then levítate down until sitting on my lap. 'But mother especifically says that it all depends on the half-blood and its conection with the power source.'
I frowned. 'Power source?' I asked him.
Lucien nodded and then yawned. 'Mother says that everyone, with some exceptions being the humans, has a power source depending of the species.' Lucien explained. 'My power source must be human food, for I never had so much power until now.' He started to fall asleep.
I chuckled at him becoming sleepy. 'In that case let's give you some dinner and bring you to your temporary bed.' I took him in my arms and brought him back downstairs.
I decided to just give him some oatmeal cookies and milk. Something small but it was better than nothing.
Lucien ate everything in one gulp and then I took him all the way to the attic, where it was farmer yet warmer. 'How do you tend to sleep, dear?' I asked him.
'Em. . . Upside down. . . Like a bat.' Lucien responded sleepy.
I nodded and then lifted him to the roof. Fortunately, the roof was increíble small compared to the roof of downstairs and main floor, so it was way easier for Lucien to grab himself onto the roof and get comfy. 'Thanks, lady Baker.' He yawned once more.
'By the way, I have to ring the bell to wake everyone up, my dear, please beat with me for I have to do so a bunch of times to make sure everyone is up.' I told as I opened the window and took the bell out.
'Okay?. . .' Lucien was already falling asleep. . .
Unfortunately, Turns out that dhampir's have very senstive ears when young. . . So things got complicated a little.
. . .
At midday. . .
As I feared. The restaurant was full, part-time employees were working over time, and full-time employees were overworking with the rest to fulfill both restaurant and bakery's orders.
I sighed as I saw all my people working hard. 'I just sent the Rosewood minors to sent out flyers for temporal jobs in here, hopefully, things won't go overboard.' I decided to escape the disaster and go to my office.
'Hey mom?' Liam came up to me. 'Why do I feel a dark presence in the house?' Liam asked with a worried expression.
Dark presence? I wondered. Oh Lucien! I understood then and smiled at Liam. 'Come with me dear.' I took his hand and we went into my office.
'You see Liam, last night, a pair of vampires came into my doorstep and left me a dhampir they did not wish nor could take care of.' I explained things as easily as possible.
'A "dampeer"?' Liam asked raising an eyebrow.
'"Dhampir."' I corrected him bringing him into my lap. 'That's the name for a "half-blood" of vampire and human.' I explained the meaning behind the word. 'Remember how did your mother, gave you to me?' I asked him and he nodded. 'Well, it happened almost the same thing. Just instead of the mother, it was two vampires who gave me the dhampir child and a box containing the. . . Child support.' I murmured a bit irritated remembering the content of the box.
'Oh. . .' Liam seemed to digest the information. 'So the dhamoir is a new sibling?' He asked. 'Can they play with me?' He asked.
'Yes. The dhampir is a boy to be exact, and, since he has lived most of his life with vampires, his inner clock indicates that sleeping time is during the day.' I explained the situation. 'So, unfortunately, he cannot play with you at the moment.'
'Oh. . .' Liam looked down.
I chuckled. 'But I will introduce you and the girls to him in the evening and viceversa.' I promised him. 'You just need to be patient.' I told him.
Liam rolled his eyes at the word "patient." I frowned at that but let it slip. 'Anyway, wanna go back to play with the other kids, or do you want to stay with me?' I asked him.
'I want to go.' Liam responded.
I nodded and carried him to the door and open it for him. 'Off you go.' I put Liam down and he ran back to the kids' area. I then closed the door and went back into making myself busy so I could still escape the tornado of people outside.
Although, someone soon came through my door. . . It was Rhazaroth.
'Rhazaroth?' I raised an eyebrow, but then I remembered and smiled. 'You came for the free meal that you won, right?' I deduced.
'Yes.' Rhazaroth nodded and lifted a big apple pie. 'And I am just finishing eating my dessert.' He said entering to my office, closing the door behind him and taking a bite out of the pie. 'I do not know how, but your apple pies just taste better than any other that I've tried.' He complimented.
I blushed a bit. 'That's good.' I nodded glad to hear that.
'But I came to you for other reasons.' Rhazaroth admitted sitting down on the chair across my desk. 'The magical and enchanted things that the box contained.' He said his reason for coming.
I raised both eyebrows and out everything except my journal, pen and ink away. 'Tell me then.'
Rhazaroth cleared his throat. 'The gems and crystals are magical yet harmless as long as they are in the right hands.' He told me. 'They are what elemental being call "gaia eggs," and they are often used for different stuff depending on what creature and what their purpose for them is.' He explained.
'I see.' I nodded writing it down. 'What do you think these precious rocks' purpose were?'
'Possibly to feed the child.' Rhazaroth responded. 'You see, when depending on each especie of non-human, it is a power source they need to be able to both have powers and feed.' Rhazaroth explained. 'When the non-human's power source is scarce, or worst case escenario, they can't depend on their supposed power source for any reason, they search for these gems and crystals as substitute.'
'I see.' I nodded. 'What about the other magical items?' I asked.
'The pocket watch seems attached to Lucien's three types of infernal aging: biological, physical and emotional.' Rhazaroth explained. 'The age and hour changes erratically between the actual age, the body, and the mind.' He put the pocket watch down.
Needless to say, I was disappointed. 'And the last object?' I asked him.
'Hand mirror, well. . .' Rhazaroth took a deep breath. 'I-It is hard to explain buuuuuut. . . It has an ego.' He responded.
I blinked. 'An ego? Care to explain?' I asked confused.
'When an object has An ego, it has the capacity to see, act, hear and, last but not least, talk. . . Like you and I.' Rhaz explained.
I smile marvelled. Like the evil queen's magic mirror! I thought, but seeing the tiredsome eyes in Rhaz, I quickly determined that there was more to it. 'And the issue is?'
'I. . . Do not believe, Lucien is ready to deal with that.' Rhaz determined pointing the mirro with a sneer. 'Not until he has adjusted to his new life completely. The mirror's verbal speech is passive-aggressive, and, because it was made by vampires. . . It is extrmely anti-everything-and-everyone-who-is-NOT-a-pureblood-vampire.' He explained.
'Oooooooh. . .' I looked briefly at the mirror. 'Including dragonborns?' I wondered.
'Including dragonborns.' Rhaz exhaled exhausted. 'But outside of that, the mirror has other limitations besides diversity acceptance.' He added clearing his throat. 'Limitations include, but I doubt they are limited to: only works at night, needs vampiric blood, it can actually deny a question or an order, and in the best ocasions, when he obeys to show you something or someone, he can only show you so much for he cannot give neither directions or good images if what you are looking is too far.' He explained.
I exhaled feeling my shoulders sore. 'You know what? Let's keep this hiden until Lucien gets a bit older.' I proposed.
'Agreed.' Rhazaroth nodded in agreement.
. . .
Half an hour later. . .
Agnes came to the office exhausted, sweaty, and with a big handfull of ticket orders. 'Here it is the first batch. The orcs shall be the first to come to you.' She let me know as she ran back to the kien.
I sighed as I started to sort out quickly the orders based on the symbols of each especie.
The orcs' symbol is a wooden club, so after sorting out every ticket, I made sure to read each order carefully and mentally prepare myself as to what they could offer.
As Agnes said, a group of orcs came in, but not without some of them banging their heads with the top board of the door.
'Afternoon gentleman.' I greeted them with a smile. 'Can I see each discount card?'
It was a group of four orcs, and each one of them gave me their discount cards.
The first one was a five percent discount after a "heavy meal," the second one was "buy one beer get the other half the price," the third one was "buy two super sandwiches and get the third one sandwich free," and the last one was a "ten percent discount on a full meal (soup, main course and dessert)."
'Okay, em. . . Please start bringing out your payments while I make some rough calculations.' I requested as I reviewed both orders and discount cards, and made some brief calculations. As I worked, I could hear the orcs bring out a few items. 'Please remember that I do not have any non-human staff, so anything extremely magical or super big weapon is out of the question for humane reason.' I reminded them.
I could hear orcs discussing with worried tones. . . They probably forgot that part, or they did not know.
After making a better calculation of what should I receive in total in its copper equivalent. I raised my eyes at the orcs, who had their payment out. 'Let's see.' I stood up and checked the things out.
The first orc gave two wolf furs (one white and one black), the second orc gave a spatula for welding, the third orc gave a basic cloack that he assured me was waterproof, and the fourth one was two orange fox furs.
After checking everything out, I then sat back on my seat and started to write the payment cards. 'I will take the white wolf fur, but I feel like the black wolf fur makes too much payment, the spatula is fine, the waterproof coat is also well, and the fox furs are of great quality like the wolf furs.' I finished drawing the payment cards with my signature and gave them to them. 'Outside of that, everything is fine.'
They orcs nodded and left leaving the payments either on the table or on the floor, with the exception of the black wolf fur which was taken back as determined.
While the other clients got here, I decided to pack the wolf fur, the spatula, the waterproof coat and the fox furs away for safe keeping.
As soon as I was done, the next group of clients came in. It was the goblins.
The goblins made their way into climbing the chairs and said hi to me.
'Good afternoon everybody, may I see your discount cards?' I asked putting away the orcs' food orders and taking the goblins' food orders, while extending my free hand to the goblins.
The goblins gave me their discount cards. Some were a bit sticky, some were fine, but that was not important.
The first one was "Get a free bitter tea after buying a while meal," the second one was "buy four small meat pies, get the fifth one free," the third one was "Get two stews for the price of one," the fourth one was "Get a free orc sized beer," the fifth one was "buy six oatmeal cookies, get the next two free."
I nodded as I compared the coupons with the orders. 'Please take out the payment as you see fit.' I requested as I made the calculations accordingly.
The first goblin ordered the free bitter tea with a soup sandwich and a small honey oatmeal cookie, the second goblin ordered the five meat pies for the discount to work, the third goblin bought two stews for the discount to work and gave one of them to another goblin of the group, the fourth goblin used his free orc-sized beer card to share with the group, and the fifth one bought the right cookies for the road.
As soon as I was done, the goblins have out their payments on the table.
The first goblin is paying with a lighter. 'This is my payment.' The goblin said. 'The lighter can lit up even in the rain.' He promised.
I admit that was impressive, and went on to look at the others.
The second goblin was paying in a small set of small tools. 'While they are tiny, I am sure the humans con find some use for these for small projects.' The goblin promised.
They could be used to repair clocks or locks or any other small mechanisms. . . I could make a good amount of money out of it. I determined nodding approvingly and then moved on to the next goblin.
The third goblin was paying in a small set of five artesan-smoke bombs. 'These do not contain magic. Perfect to distract enemies or intruders.' He promised.
I nodded to that and continued on with the fifth goblin, who was giving me an unused set of springs and gears. I did not had used for it, but maybe I could sell it to someone to get a good amount.
I took everything in and gave them their receipt. 'Hope you have a good day and please come again!' I bid them goodbye.
'Bye! Bye! We will! Have a good day!' The goblins left, promising to return.
After putting the payments away plus the goblins orders, I waited five minutes to see if anyone else would come and as luck would have it, the gnomes came in.
'Hello my dear gnomes, can I see you discount cards please?' I asked.
The six gnomes nodded and each of them gave me their coupons.
The first one was "buy a jam and get the other half the price," the second one was "buy 2 breakfast combos, get the third one free," the third one was "buy two breakfast combos for the price of one," the fourth one was "get ten percent discount on any breakfast combo," the fifth one was "buy two sandwiches, get the third one free," and the last one was "buy four berry muffins and get the other two free."
The first gnome had in his backpack what I could see was the two "human size" jams, the second gnome and the third gnome must have used their discount cards to invite their friends for breakfast, while the fourth one probably used his discount for himself. As for the fifth gnome, he had the three human sized sanwiches beside him inside a bag, just like the sixth gnome who had a paper bag full of the six berry muffins.
'Very well.' I nodded seeing and understanding correctly. 'Can I see the payment please?' I asked them.
The first gnome brought up what he called a "human-friendly" cough syrup. 'The doctor gnome I got it from works with humans, so he promised me that this works on humans too.' He promised.
I nodded approxing of the payment. For me, a mother with small children, this syrup was to be essencial.
The second gnome brought up a "book" that was his own size in length and twice his size in width.'This is not book.' He opened the book and it was hollow. 'It is a box disguised as a box. Perfect for a shelve in which to hide any meaningul objects, money, etc.' He promised me.
I nodded interested and approved the payment.
The third and fourth gnome brought up two farols each one of them, with some sort of crystal inside them. 'These are night-crystal farols. During the night they shine, during the day they don't.' The third gnome explained. 'The night-crystal should not be put under direct sunlight so every morning they must be either covered with with a cloth or put away in a dark place.' He added.
I approved the payment of each gnome and continued on.
The fifth gnome brought up a small telescope. 'This is not new, but it works like it is.' He promised. 'You may try it through the window if you are u sure of it.' He promoted.
I nodded and took the telescope, and tried it out through the window. I was able to see the mayor through the other side of town!!! The gnome was being truthfull.
I approved the payment and moved on to the last gnome.
The sixth gnome brought a small bell with string. 'This bell has a beautiful tune.' He made the bell sing, and the bell sang like a bird, literally. 'This can be put on the door so when it opens, the staff knows a client has come in.' He proposed.
I thought about it for a second and then nodded approving the item as payment. I made the receipt and let the gnomes go with full bellies and items.
I put the payments away for now, and then I went on to check who non-human was left. And there it was: two dwarves and a group of five nypmhs.
I decided to do some paper—never mind, the dwarves came in faster than anticipated. 'Good afternoon gentlemen, can I see your discount cards?' I asked them.
Both dwarves were a bit drunk (clearly took more than four beers or their equivalent), but still coherent enough so that they could follow my request.
The first card was a "buy one beer get the other half the price," and the second card was a "buy a sandwich, get the second half the price."
But, according to their orders, each of them drank more than six beers together, one stew each, and one sanwhich each.
Oh boy. I gulped down seeing both drunk dwarves and the discount cards. 'Ehem, what is your payment, gentlemen?' I asked.
Each dwarf clumsily brought up a simple yet reforced box on the table. Once they opened the boxes, they showed me a beautiful jewerly set inside each box.
Both sets had two rings, two bracelets with simpel carvings, one animal brooch (one was a horse, the other a swan), one necklace (one had a small emerald, and the other had a small tanzanite), and a small pair of earrings (emerald and tanzanite each set).
The sets of jewerly seemed to be made of a yellow-orangy color. 'Is this gold, or bronce?' I asked before jumping into conclusions.
'Bronce.' The dwarf on the left told me.
'Oh! Okay, in that case, the payment shall be accepted.' I nodded accepting the payment and quickly gave them the receipts. 'Thank you for coming, come back again!' I bid them goodbye as they clumsily left.
I quickly shut the jewerly boxes and put them away for safe keeping and went on to do paperwork. But soon I was interrupted by a group of nymphs. 'Hello my dear forest spirits, may I see your discount cards?' I greeted them.
They nodded and gave me their discount cards.
The dryad (tree nymph) had a "twenty percent discount of honey products" card, the naiad (fresh-water nymph) had a "five percent discount of drink products for the week" card, the oread (mountain nymph) had a "fifty percent discount for every heavy meal for a week" card, and the aurae (breeze nymph) had a "fifty percent discount on light products" card.
I then checked the orders.
The dryad had taken A LOT of honey products:
- A large honey cake with dried fruit
- A large honey pie
- A dozen honey oatmeal cookies with honey glazed
- A honey butter cookies with honey glazed
- A dozen honey lollipops
- Three small candy packs (tiny pouch with small candies): one pack with just honey suckle, another with honey lemon, and the third with a combination of both.
She really knew how to take advantage of the discount card. I though smiling at the side looking at the dryad who had basically all of the products on her, with a huge blush on her face.
As for the naiad, the had ordered in the restaurant two veggie pie slices and two drinks: lemonade and orange juice.
The oread had a veggie stew, a veggie pie slice and two double chocolate chip cookies.
And finally, the aurae had two mini apple cinnamon pies, a salad, and lemonade.
I cleared my throat. 'Can I see the payments?' I asked them.
The dryad brought up a medium sized yet complete honey give and a jar of honey. 'The hive is empty of bees but still full of honey and you can keep the comb for the wax, as for the jar of honey, it was made with special flowers from the heart of the forest.' She told me.
I frowned. The honeycombs is already a treasure of liquid gold among humans, but super honey on the jar makes the payment really excessive. I took a deep breath. 'The payment is very generous, but to make it fair for both sides, I can easily take only the honeycomb.' I told the dryad. 'Unless you want to insist on me keeping the. . . "Super honey" jar.' I added.
The nymphs giggled a bit at me calling the honey in the jar "super honey," but did not corrected me either. I think they liked my nickname for the honey.
'"Superhoney," that quite the name, hehe. And yes, I do insist you keep it.' The dryad insisted on letting me keep the honey.
'Oooookay, well. . . In that case, can you give the names of the flowers you used to make this honey?' I requested. 'I do not want to take chances in getting someone an allergic reaction in case they are allergic to one or some of such flowers.' I let her know my worries.
'Oh sure!' The dryad started to give me the names of the flowers which were use for the honey. Once she was done, I nodded as I finished writing the list and her receipt and thank her.
Then, I went on to the next nymph.
The naiad brought a small yet simple white pearl. 'It is not much, but I am pretty sure the humans love pearls.'
The pearl was pretty small. Too small. Yet, it would be worth a lot more if I keep it and make jewerly out of it. So I decided to let it pass. 'Very well.' I wrote her receipt and followed on with the next nymph.
The oread brought an amethyst in the rough the size of my hand and a jar full of stand. 'I have come to know that humans love gems, so I brought the amethyst, as for the stand, this specific stand is often desired in human kitchen for its fire resistance.' She said lifting her chin proudly.
I gulped at the sight and size of the amethyst. It was too much. 'Em. . . I do not want to offend you, but in human terms, an amethyst of that size is worth about a hundred silvers, so, I might have to just accept the fire proof sand.' I told her in the most soft voice I could without spending nervous.
The oread raised her eyebrows in surprise when she heard the amethyst's human value, but smiled proudly when she heard me call the sand "fire proof." 'Hehe, humans seemed to have good names for everything, I supposed the sand is quite "fire proof" since it comes form a volcanic crater.' She told me. 'I do wish for you to keep the amethyst though, it is not a huge loss for me, and you humans seem to have a bigger value for it.' She insisted of me keeping the amethyst and the sand.
I was still unconvinced. But then and idea came to me. 'In that case, I can take the amethyst, but not ALL of it.' I negotiated. 'Maybe half or a quarter?' I proposed.
The oread seemed confused. 'I-I do not believe in cracking the gems apart, my lady open arms. Giving a pretty rock like this equals giving a simbolic mountain, and by crawling the gem in half, it equals breaking a mountain so. . . I still insist you take it.' She started to frown.
I stuffed a deep groan of desperation until another idea came to me. 'In that case. . . How about you give a small amehyst?' I asked. 'That way, the big amethyst gets to go home back at the mountain, and you still pay me more equally.' I proposed.
The oread seemed surprised, but then thought about it, and then searched into her bag. As she searched, I could hear rocks and stones clicking and cracking around the purse and into each other. After a moment, the oread brought another amethyst in the rough but the size of a thumb.
'Is this better?' The oread asked.
'Yes, that is much better. The smaller amethyst shall be accepted with the fire proof sand as your total payment.' I determined.
The oread smiled putting the smaller gem in the rough on the table and took the bigger gem back to her bag as I wrote her receipt and went on to the last nymph.
The aurae brought up three light grey feathers and a jar with . . . Nothing? 'These feathers can clean bad energies or be pretty decorations, as for the jar, it has the "spring breeze inside."' She said opening the jar and letting me smell the breeze.
I took sniff, and I could smell the breeze full of flowers, wild berries, and wet soil that occurs just after the rain stops during a day of spring. 'Hmmm~~. . .' I smiled. 'How much time does it last?' I asked.
'It depends on how many times and how long you leave the jar open.' The aurea answered closing the jar again. 'But it usually lasts from three to six months.' She added.
I nodded and took the jar in. 'What about the feathers?' I asked pointing the feathers with my pen.
'These feather's are able to clean the bad energies such as the residues of dark creatures, or of a curse.' The aurea said.
I nodded and wrote it down, and then wrote her receipt.
I then have them each their receipt s and bid them goodbye. 'Thank you, come again!'
'We will!' They promised and left.
I exhaled exhausted. It's barely twelve in the afternoon and I can already feel myself fainting from exhaustion. Also, if the discount cards keep up, then I am probably going to end up with a LOT of non-human stuff, and if I end up with a lot of non-human stuff. . . what am I going to do with so many non-human things if I am not capable of selling quickly? I wondered looking at the roof with worry.