Traveling Magic Shop Part 2 (Patreon)

Myst glanced at the door when the bell rang, letting him know that another child had found his way to the shop. 'Two dozen children in less than an hour, there's no way word should be spreading this fast, especially since I don't think anyone has actually left. Two dozen kids with muddy boots, at least half of which are leaving trash on the tables, expecting people to clean up after them. I'm starting to see why the old shopkeeper hated kids.'

"Can I get a tin of breath mints," one of the teenage girls asked, pulling Myst away from his thoughts about the shop's curse. He paused when he noticed that she had six or seven missing teeth on the right side of her mouth as if she'd gotten hit. He grabbed one of the metal tins filled with breath mints and handed it to her. "Two copper bits."

"Thank you," she replied as she paid him two copper coins.

"That's what I'm here for," Myst replied, curious how long it would take for the mints to regenerate the girl's teeth. 'Some of the knick-knacks are more impressive than the actual magical items.' He frowned when he saw Rose waving for him from the doorway like she was trying to get him to walk over there. "Be right back," he told Harry as he headed for the door, glad that no one could shoplift in the shop thanks to the magical rules.

"What's up?" Myst asked as he walked over to where Rose was standing.

"The girl opened a book and vanished," Rose explained as she headed back to where she'd left the book.

"Which book?" Myst asked as he followed her, making a mental note to sort through the large collection of books when he had a chance.

"That one," Rose said as they walked around a shelf and she spotted the book lying on the ground.

Myst focused on the book until his Upgrade overlay appeared over the book. 'Upgrade the number of people that can get pulled into the book at one time, the quality of things you can take out of the book or the quality of the art work, I really need more mana. Percentage of the story you need to read before they'll be released? Pretty sure upgrading that would just make it harder to get people out since it's set at ninety five percent.'

"Can you save her?" Rose asked hopefully.

"It should be fine," Myst replied as he checked the armchair in the corner with a 'Do not sit' sign on it to make sure it wasn't cursed. 'Enchanted for comfort, I guess that explains the price tag. I'm surprised the shopkeeper didn't steal it on the way out.' He stopped focusing on his Upgrade ability, letting the overlay vanish.

"How?" Rose asked.

"I just need to read the story," he said as walked over to the chair in the corner and sat down, making a mental note to move the chair somewhere with better light.

"Story time?" Rose asked hopefully as she climbed up on the chair and sat down on the armrest.

"Sure," Myst replied as he started reading the story about Lyanna Stark's trip into a magical shopping center that was like an erotically flavored Diagon Alley, not sure if he should be amused or unnerved by the fact that all of drawings in the book were on the naughty side, mostly because Lyanna was probably stuck dealing with the world in person. Thankfully he was able to distract Rose from the parts that were inappropriate for her age by reading in a series of funny voices.

Thankfully, the story was written like a children's book so it didn't take all that long to work through Lyanna's adventures in Magic School, ending with Lyanna getting on a train at the end of her first year.

Lyanna blinked a couple of times when she found herself back in the shop rather than on the train with her friends. "How did I get back here?" she asked in shock, having been sure she was never going to find her way home as even the headmaster had denied knowledge of the magics required to get her home.

"I finished reading the story," Myst replied as he glanced at Lyanna's leather bookbag that she hadn't had when she'd walked into the store and that she'd purchased at the start of the story. 'Nice to know that you can bring things out of the story without me upgrading it.'

"Finished the story?" Lyanna asked, a bit confused and still trying to adjust to being home.

"It's a magic book. Anyone that opens the book and selects an adventure option is basically trapped until someone reads the story," Myst explained.

"Does that mean you read about my classes or when I was in the bath?" Lyanna asked, hoping that it hadn't gone into the things she'd done in private.

"We didn't get a lot of details," Myst assured her as he flipped back to the first drawing so that Lyanna could see the quality of the pictures and the story. "It talked about your sword fighting class and about your art class and covered some of the cantrips you learned in your magic classes."

Lyanna smiled in relief as she thought about her first trip to the magical shopping center and some of the shops that she'd love to visit if she got another chance and knew she could find her way home from. "The shopping center had some interesting shops. How long was I gone?" she asked warily, wondering how angry her parents were going to be.

"A couple of minutes," Myst replied. "How long was it from your point of view?"

"Ten moons," Lyanna replied as she flipped the page, looking at the drawing of the train that had taken her to the magical school in the mountains. "I bought my supplies in the market then I got on a train and went to a magic school where I spent ten moons learning magic and making friends," she explained as she flipped the pages.

"Can I try it?!" Rose asked excitedly.

"I'm pretty sure that counts as personal use and Lyanna probably wants to finish her schooling," Myst told her, frowned as he got the impression that he was right about the shop counting it as personal use. "Unfortunately, I get the feeling that letting her go on another adventure for free would be twisting the shop's magic and count as taking it for personal use, which means I wouldn't get a replacement for ten years."

"Bugger," Rose complained, hoping that Lyanna would let her use it once she bought it.

Lyanna held her hand out and conjured a small feather of flame over her hand, making sure that her magic still worked now that she was back home. "How much for the book?" she asked, trying not to show how much she wanted the book and failing badly.

"How much do you have?" Myst asked, fairly sure she couldn't even come close to the suggested price tag on the back.

"Assuming I didn't lose my coin purse, twenty gold and some silver," Lyanna admitted as she checked her bag to make sure that she still had her gold.

"Is that from selling paintings?" Myst asked, knowing that she had sold some of her work, just not how much she'd made off of them because the book hadn't gone into detail.

Lyanna sighed in relief when she found that she still had all of her gold. "Most of it. I also won a couple of horse races before people stopped betting against me…" she trailed off when she looked at the back cover and noticed the price tag. "There's no way anything I have is worth a thousand gold," she admitted with a sigh.

"That's sort of the problem with expensive magical artifacts, the type of people that can afford them aren't the type of people that I'd want to sell them to. Tell you what, I'll claim the book for myself and eat the costs if you agree to give me a painting for every time you use the book," Myst offered, fairly sure that he wouldn't find anything better than a pocket school for teaching magic to himself and the twins, especially since he needed Harry and Rose to know a lot of spells if he wanted to get that bonus.

"Deal," Lyanna said without hesitation. "We always have a couple of projects for art class and that number should increase, I just have to have one on me when I come out of the story."

"Does that mean I can use it?" Rose asked hopefully.

"That's the plan," Myst replied with a smile, glad that he'd found something that would help with the quest to turn Harry and Rose into magical prodigies. "Do you want to use the book again or do you want to spend some time with your family first? I'll be here for at least a couple of weeks before the shop moves, so there’s no rush."

"The shop moves?" Lyanna asked in surprise.

"It's magic," Myst replied with a shrug.

"That would explain why it wasn't here yesterday," Lyanna admitted, having just thought they’d built it quickly. "Considering we're leaving in a couple of days for a tournament, I'd rather make sure I get everything finished."

"Works for me. You should be able to go back to the beginning and start over or continue your adventures," Myst told her, fairly sure he'd have gotten an option to upgrade the book if you could only use it once per person.

Lyanna flipped back to the first page then said, "Continue" and vanished, causing the page to flip to the next page.

"Neat!" Rose squealed.

Myst laughed as he turned the book around and started reading, curious what type of adventures she'd have.

“Do the voices!” Rose demanded with a grin.

0o0o0

"And the girls pounced on the demon, revealing her greatest weakness, the fact that she was ticklish," Myst said dramatically as a girl wearing a plain yet clean gray dress walked over.

Rose giggled as she pictured Lyanna helping a bunch of girls tickle the demon girl in the drawing, looking forward to going to school and having tickle and pillow fights with the friends she was going to make.

Myst smiled at the teenager wearing a simple white dress. "Can I help you?" he asked, happy for the interruption because it gave him a chance to make something up for the rest of the page since he didn't really want to describe the girls having an orgy with the lust demon they'd summoned for their summoning class.

"Sorry to interrupt," the girl offered, feeling a touch guilty about interrupting when they were obviously laughing about the book. It was nice to see a father spend time with his daughter, who was probably fresh from the bath and just dried off so she hadn’t put on any clothes. "Can you help me read some of the labels on the plants in the gardening section?"

"Of course," Myst assured the girl then looked at Rose. "We'll have to finish the story in a bit."

"Okay," Rose agreed as she swung her legs around and jumped down from her spot on the armrest, figuring the break gave her time to use the bathroom and get something to drink.

Myst put a bookmark in the adventure book then closed it and stood up. "What type of plants are you looking for?"

"Herbs, the cook wants to try something special for the feast tonight and was hoping that I could find something to give the meal a special flair, I think he just wanted me out of the kitchen so I wouldn't mess something up," the servant explained as they headed toward the garden section of the shop.

"I'm sure we can come up with something," Myst replied as he followed the girl back to the main room.

"I need something to drink!" one of the older teenagers called out when he spotted Myst.

"This isn't a tavern," Myst replied as he continued walking toward the door that led to the gardening section, ignoring the teenager.

"Why don't you have ale? You have fucking expensive cider," the young man complained.

Myst glanced over at the glass bottles of apple cider in a glass case by the counter and focused on his upgrade ability. 'Apple Cider of Rejuvenation, promotes healing and turns the clock back by two months if you're an adult. That explains the price tag,' he mused as he focused on the sturdy and vaguely familiar looking dark haired teenager that was complaining about a lack of alcohol. "If you want ale, find a tavern," he told the young man then walked into the gardening side of the shop, not remotely interested in selling alcohol or at least not interested in selling alcohol so that a bunch of teenagers could get drunk in his shop.

"Begging your pardon but you might want to be nicer, he's a lord," the servant girl warned Myst in a quiet voice once they were in the garden and unlikely to be overheard.

"Which one?" Myst asked absently as he glanced around the glass walled room that was filled with exotic plants. He glanced at the tree that looked to be a mix of various citrus fruits then paused when he saw a tree that appeared to be growing brightly colored panties. 'Did someone raid Xanth?' he mused as he used his Upgrade ability to check the tree. 'Panty Tree, this magical tree grows edible panties, they have a mild licorice flavor. Huh, is that a common item or a rare?'

"Baratheon," the girl replied.

He pulled his attention away from the weird tree that grew panties and focused on the servant girl. "Ah, that explains why he's looking at all of the girls like he wants to have a tumble," Myst said as he turned his attention to the tree that had a bunch of different types of citrus growing on it. "Frozen Citrus, this magically spliced citrus tree is nearly impossible to freeze and grows fruit all year round."

The girl shook her head. "There's no way the cook gave me enough to buy it."

"Fair enough," Myst replied as he walked over to the section of the garden that was labeled, 'Spices' and started looking for something that would add a bit of flair to a meal and wouldn't cause the cook to lose his head or job.

0o0o0

"Are you okay?" Rose asked when Lyanna appeared, looking like she'd been crying.

Lyanna smiled at Rose, still finding it strange that Rose hadn't aged despite the fact that this was her fifth time coming back from school and that she knew barely any time would have passed in the real world. "I'm fine, I was just telling my friends that I'd miss them since I graduated and I'll probably never see them again."

Rose winced as she thought about never seeing Harry again and realized that making friends at a magic school in a storybook wasn't without its problems. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault," Lyanna replied as she reached into her bag and pulled out a cardboard tube that was larger than the bag. "I wasn't expecting to make friends, it just sort of happened and then I graduated."

"What did you paint?" Rose asked excitedly.

"Sarazara," Lyanna replied as she pulled the canvas out of the cardboard tube and spread it out on the empty table, letting them see her friend's humanoid form.

Rose stared at the cavern filled with mounds of glittering gold coins in the painting then focused on the naked red haired young lady that was sprawled on one of the piles of gold tied up with twine. "Is that the dragon you defeated by tying her up with magic string?" she asked excitedly, recognizing the name from one of the chapters about the dragon that Lyanna had saved from a curse.

Myst smiled when the painting changed, showing the girl with a large pair of purple wings for a couple of seconds before they vanished showing that Lyanna's enchanting and painting skills had gotten better. 'This is better than a lot of the paintings I've seen in museums.'

'String?' Lyanna asked silently, glad that Rose was studying the painting of Sarazara rather than paying attention to what she was asking.

"Do you know how the curse breaking string that restored the dragon's sanity was made?" Myst asked, hoping Lyanna wouldn't say anything that conflicted with his version of the story because he didn't want to have to explain that the dragon was just kinky and liked being tied up.

"We took a class in curse breaking but the string was a gift," Lyanna replied, not seeing a point in mentioning that the dragon was the 'person' that gave her the rope. "Sarazara is really sweet once you get to know her and when she's not cursed."

"Neat! Do you think I'll get to meet her when I go to school?" Rose asked hopefully.

"There's always a chance," Lyanna told her, not sure if everything would reset if someone used the book or continue from where she left off.

"Where have you been?" the young man that had been complaining about not having ale asked as he walked over with Eddard. "Nice tits," he said when he noticed the painting.

"Don't be rude," Rose scolded him.

"What do you want, Robert?" Lyanna asked, even less amused by the idea of spending her life with the idiot than she'd been before she'd spent five years going to school.

"Is it too much to ask that you spend time with your betrothed?" Robert asked, deciding that scolding the child for speaking to her betters without the proper amount of respect could wait, if he bothered at all as the little savage wasn’t even bothering with clothes and he certainly wasn’t her parents.

Lyanna reached into her bag, pulled out the magical contract that she'd written up in her contract class and handed it to Robert. "If you want to marry me, sign the contract."

Robert unrolled the scroll and stared at the document. "I promise… No fucking other women without your permission? No drinking to excess? No hitting Lyanna, no getting fat? What the fuck is this?!"

"It's a simple magical contract that ensures your good behavior," Lyanna replied.

"My good behavior? Magic?!" Robert demanded.

"Can you go get some apple juice?" Myst asked Rose, not wanting her near Robert if he exploded or started throwing things. 'At least he can't kill me while I'm in the shop.'

"Yes," Rose replied then darted for the exit, wanting to avoid the shouting.

"I don't trust you," Lyanna told him. "You already have one bastard, I can't hold it against you as we haven't sworn any vows yet but it certainly speaks to your character," she explained, feeling a touch hypocritical as she'd had plenty of sex with her friends the last couple of years at school once she realized that she wouldn't keep any 'injuries'. "I got the contract from a witch. If you don't sign it, I'll do my best to escape the betrothal."

Eddard quickly read through the list of demands that his sister had written, fairly sure that his friend wouldn't be able to honor most of them. "He likes drinking too much."

"Sign or don't," Lyanna replied, wanting to avoid having to set her brother's friend on fire if she didn't have to.

"I'd never hit you," Robert assured her, fairly sure that was the only one of her demands that he wouldn't have trouble following.

"You have a wandering eye Robert, if you don't love me enough to sign the contract, find someone else that won't care when you're fucking around," Lyanna told him as she rolled up the painting of her friend and lover, not in the mood to deal with her betrothed's mental issues since she'd just spent a couple of hours saying goodbye to her friends.

"You don't have a choice," Robert blurted before he realized that was precisely the wrong thing to say to his friend's sister.

"Go fuck yourself!" Lyanna told Robert as she put the painting back in the cardboard tube.

"Piece of advice, let her go," Myst suggested as Lyanna stalked out, causing Robert to turn and glare at him which reminded him that the young man was half a foot taller than he was and probably had at least a hundred pounds of muscle on him.

"This isn't any of your business!" Robert snapped as he tore the contract in half in frustration.

"Fuck it, not my problem if you want to stick your other head in a meat grinder," Myst replied, glad that the shop's rules prevented the idiot from attacking him.

"He's right, you should let Lyanna cool off," Eddard told his friend, wanting to avoid having his friend do something he'd regret when he calmed down.

Myst shrugged as he turned and headed back to the main room to see if anyone needed something rung up, leaving Eddard to deal with his hot headed friend. 'At least her leaving shouldn't trigger a civil war this time,' he mused, thinking about the show.