Melanis

The knife easily slid around as if it was swimming in the water and carved off rough chunks of rock. Page directed him around to avoid hitting the humps and they soon shaved off all rocks on the first one. He began on the second one, but in his hurry, he nicked the top of a hump and the camel ran away, scared. He immediately moved to the third one, unaware of its friend running away. He was much more careful this time and cleanly carved off chunks as they fell to the floor and clinked around.

They grabbed the fourth camel and cut it up again. They hopped onto the camels one by one and ran off, the fast clip-clop of the similarly rocky feet hitting the floors. They were much faster now and the camel's backs had been cut into shapes of seats so they all just sat back as the wind rushed through their hair. They had to attach a fresh cactus fruit on a stick from Page's bag in front of them to make them run, each using a third of fruit to spread the smell to them.

It took about an hour and a half to get there. They came upon tall, polished white walls that reflected the sun so brightly they had to look away.

"Why is it so bright! I kind of expected dark walls from a town that focuses on curses and dark magic."

"Yeah, the people have strange tastes."

They arrived a few meters from the wall and got off. They realized when they arrived at the main entrance the right door was black and the left door was white. The walls were the exact opposite, the wall on the left of the door was black and the right side was white. It was like a massive yin and yang. The doors were wide open and two people stood there with black and red staffs. Page showed them his merchant card and walked in with Zeeth and Gror. There were shabby-looking vending carts all around the large street right at the entrance and a bunch of people wearing dark clothes and long, dark hair walking around, buying strange-looking things. They murmured quietly at each other, seemingly haggling. He saw eyeballs of various sizes and colors, fingers, severed animal limbs like wings or hooves all around. What looked like patches of hair floated in some jelly.

"We have to get to a place called Sun Drive, a lady there will teach us, she is a close friend of fathers."

"Teach us what?"

"You'll see." Page said mysteriously.

Somewhere else in the city, a pudgy man angrily got up from the table, taking a brown, wooden suitcase, and said to someone on the other end, "Fine, then the deal is off, Karkov. You said you would get the money, this isn't even half. Get the hell out of here."

"Fine." a tall, lanky man got up from the other end of the table, revealing half of his head from the shadows and a pair of icy blue eyes. He held his hand out for a shake and the pudgy man looked at it for a second. "Come on, Jol. The deal fell out, let's end it like gentlemen."

"Gentlemen? You lied about the money you brought!" he yelled angrily.

Karkov slightly shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, it was an honest mistake. I miscounted. Let's just shake it off and you can sell it to me later when I get the money."

The pudgy man extended a hand stiffly, gave his bony hand one strong shake and turned around to leave. From his hand where Karkov's fingers had touched, a small black bud small enough for Jol to ignore and consider a speck stuck there. Karkov gave a small smile and thought, 'if only you weren't a greedy pig. At least you could've sold it for 1000 styrs. Now I'll be getting it for free.'

An hour later, Jol was in a carriage driving away when he noticed the speck on his hand. He turned his palm around a bit and noticed more, at least ten of these specks had stuck on his palm. "Damn that carriage dealer, I knew he was lying about the leather quality."

He tried rubbing the specks off onto his seat, but no amount of intense scratching would rub them off. He finally stopped when he noticed how much they itched and hurt when he rubbed them.

"What the hell?" he kept driving on the freeway with a single hand on the steering wheel, "damn, what is this?" His hands started slipping and the specks began turning bigger. The specks suddenly extended as they became longer. The specks stretched out into thin snakes and wrapped around his arm, up to his neck, and bit him through the eyes. Blood spurt out as he used his remaining hand to grab the snakes as the carriage went out of control. More snakes sprouted from his hands and bit his mouth shut. The carriage crashed into the railing, steam shooting out the engine. The snakes reached to the back and grabbed the wooden suitcase. Jol was still alive, trying to fight off the snakes that had already bound his arms. They pulled him out of the car and slithered him back, where Karkov was walking towards the car in a black suit with his multicolored hair fluttering in the wind.

The snakes handed the suitcase to him, crawled towards the side of the freeway, and dumped themselves with Jol over the edge, plunging him into water.

He popped open the suitcase, looking at a single shiny, pitch-black ball. A creepy smile stretched across his face as he whispered, "Good." he closed the suitcase and walked off.

Zeeth and Page were on the other side of the city, where they arrived at a small dumpling store. It was a bit overcrowded but the smell of the dumplings wafted around. Page led them around to the back end and placed his hand on the door. Zeeth noticed him pumping a wave of mana from his feet to the ground with a specific pattern. The floor slid open and the three of them walked down. The trap door suddenly shut the moment Grors last strand of hair went in.

A woman from below yelled, "who's there! Tarud?"

She walked up the stairs and he could only see the glow in her cat-like eyes. "I knew it wasn't Tarud, who are you guys? How did you know Taruds secret wave?"

"I am Tarud's son. I came here to ask for a favor, to teach us curses and potions."

"Kid, I'm done teaching that stuff. The dumplings I sell alone are more than enough for me to live comfortably and I can spend all my time testing things out myself, I don't want or need students."

"You shouldn't continue using those glow potions to see in the dark, they ruin your eyesight. Your vision should already be really blurry without glasses. Using bioluminescent mole claw parts in your existing potions instead of Lumos gem concentrate and then applying to your eyes should be better. If you add green chicken eggs to the potion it can even help restore your vision."

She turned around and stared at Page, her eyes moving curiously. She ran down the stairs, a bunch of clanging and banging came from below as they stood there, still unable to see. She came back up with a small vial of glowing liquid. She handed it to Page and said, "Try it. This is what you suggested."

Page tipped some into his eyes and blinked a few times. Soon, his eyes began glowing like hers, but more brightly. She pulled out something and asked him, "what does this say."

"We are closed." Page read, "get out, you old bats."

"Hmm. So it works. Thanks for telling me, but that won't make me take you in. I can pay you if you want."

"I have other potion mixtures that can help, including this." Page held up the green bottle that he took from Weller.

she inspected it for a while but waved her hand and said, "that's a simple mana potion, and it's rather crudely made."

but Page continued talking, "I also know how to make a potion to help with tiredness and another one for muscle pain, which I assure you is on another level compared to your usual stuff. I am a master at making those."

They all looked into his eyes, trying to figure out their own things. Zeeth thought, 'how come he's never told me about these potions? The night vision one sounds so cool.'

"Listen, I will not be offering my knowledge on curses anymore. I can give you a lifetime discount on our famous dumplings, though," she said as she walked down the steps. "I can pay you hefty amounts of money for the potions, but not an apprenticeship."

"Rolas, I promise never to use this power against you. I can sign a binding contract if you would like."

"That is not the issue. I don't want students. Now if you won't trade with me for cash or discounts, I kindly ask you to leave. You may head to my restaurant and hand them this paper for three free bowls of my dumpling as a thank you, but that is it." she threw them the sign she had Page read earlier.