Chương 14: Chapter 13 - Storage Ring

"Well," the lady began, "every ring is different, and every artificer is different, so there's not really a standard. What are you looking for exactly, sweetie?" Kiara scratched the back of her head.

"Uh, I guess I'm not sure. Something that I can use to carry my money around with me?" The lady nodded sagely.

"That's wise, a ring is harder to snatch than a purse." She turned her attention back to the rings as she continued, "Our artificer matches the ring material to the storage size, and the rings with gems are imbued with more mana, so they last longer. So our silver bands are the cheapest – each one of them can hold the same amount as a small purse." The lady used her hands to show the size of a small purse about six inches across.

"Our gold rings have the same space as a large purse." Once again, she used her hands to show the size, this time about a foot in diameter.

"And our platinum rings are the largest, their pocket dimension is two feet in diameter. The simple bands are imbued with enough mana to last three months in between recharges, and the rings with gems in them will last three years in between recharges." There was a lot that Kiara wanted to ask.

"What happens if they run out of mana?"

"The pocket dimension will collapse, and your stuff will spill all over the street."

"Oh… that's unfortunate," Kiara responded simply. The old lady nodded in agreement.

"If you have the coin for it, the rings imbued with more mana are definitely worth it."

"Ah, but I don't want to draw attention to myself," Kiara said, picking up one of the simple bands.

"How does one recharge a ring?"

"You can bring it here, we can do it at a reasonable price. Or any magic shop will likely be able to do it for you. Just be sure to remove your stuff from the ring before you take it in. Some magic shops aren't very reputable, and your stuff might go missing, if you catch my meaning." Kiara nodded in response, and held up one of the unadorned silver rings.

"How much for this one?"

"15 gold," the lady replied simply as she grabbed Kiara's hand. She used a measuring tool to see what size the ring should be, then wrote it down on a small piece of paper.

"I can have it resized, and you can pick it up by this afternoon." 15 gold? Kiara was shocked. She hadn't realized how expensive magical items were. The price made her question Dustin's original assessment of the sword she had purchased. 11 silver didn't seem like enough to purchase anything special as far as magical items went, but he had made it seem like the sword might have been enchanted for that price.

Dustin had a storage ring though, and he was a self-declared travelling merchant, so he surely knew how much magical items cost. Maybe that statement had been another one of his ways to try and gauge Kiara's familiarity with magic. Or maybe this shop was overpriced, and she really was getting ripped off again. In either case, 15 gold was insignificant to her now. As she thought about it, she reached into her pocket and withdrew 1 platinum coin and 5 gold coins to pay for the ring.

* Victor was standing outside his magic shop when the young girl left. Something about her intrigued him. Not physically of course, he was old enough to be her grandfather, but something about her felt… off. He had travelled quite a bit in his life, and met people from all walks of life, and yet he had never felt anything quite like this. His magical senses could easily detect her, and as far as he could tell from them, she had no magical talent at all.

She showed up on his magical radar like any other mortal would. And yet there was something about her that he couldn't quite place. If he didn't focus on her, and let his subconscious mind parse what his magical sense was seeing, she felt similar to a peak tier 0 mage. But as soon as he focused on her, it became apparent that she wasn't a mage at all, and had no magical talent whatsoever. Beyond that, his magical sense gave off a slightly… fuzzy feeling where she was at. Her behavior was odd enough on its own.

She had purchased the cheapest storage ring available, but then had pulled coins out of her pocket that weren't there before. So she must have some kind of storage device already on her person, but she claimed to not know how they worked. Something didn't add up. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Victor knew tier 6 mages could mask their power level, and appear as if they were mortal, but mages that powerful were extremely rare.

There were only a dozen or so in the Central Kingdom, and he personally knew who most of them were. Being so close to the battlefront, it was possible this young girl was from another kingdom, but her age was impossibly young to be a tier 6 mage. Then again, at that level she would be able to control how she looked. However, it was much more likely this was a true mortal, someone without any magical talent whatsoever.

He followed her discreetly, using his magical sense to keep track of where she was, never looking directly at her. As long as he stayed within 100 feet of her, he wouldn't lose her. He followed her all day. The uniqueness of the experience caught his attention, and the mystery behind what was really happening was an itch that needed to be scratched. The scholarly side of his brain wouldn't rest until he had figured out what was going on. Eventually, she met up with a young man, and they had lunch together.

He learned that her name was Shian, and the young man's name was Dustin. They talked about travelling the following day on a merchant caravan headed north, which concerned Victor. If they left now, he would never figure out what was happening here! He returned to his shop, where his employee Ethel was reading a book behind the counter. The shop only sold a few items each week, so he didn't blame her for passing the time by reading.

After she finished the page she was on, she turned to him and held out the ring Shian had purchased.

"Here, this needs to be resized down to a 6, and then we'll need a replacement ring." Victor had many rings on his fingers. He was constantly imbuing them with mana to turn them into storage rings as he went about his day. He was good enough at it to do it almost subconsciously now. He handed one of them to Ethel, who was already reading again, then focused for a minute on resizing the one that Shian had purchased. Once he was done, he handed it back to Ethel.

"Hey Ethel, I'm gonna take a trip, I might be gone for a few weeks or months, depending on how things go." Ethel looked up from her book.

"You're leaving Horange? Where are you headed?"

"North." * The caravan ride was fairly smooth at first, but once they got outside the city walls, the dirt roads made it bumpier. Luckily, most of the roads were packed down pretty well, so the really big bumps weren't that frequent. The wagons were covered, so Kiara sat near the back so she could see the passing terrain as they rode. The landscape felt sparse near the trail, mostly bushes with some occasional trees.

Off in the distance to the west, she could see a snow-capped mountain range, which she found odd since it was summer. The mountains must be really tall to still have snow this time of year. With the wagon covering opening in the back, the easiest thing to see was the caravan behind them. About twenty wagons followed along behind, each moving at a leisurely pace. The scenery was fun at first, but quickly became repetitive and boring.

Turning to the sights inside the wagon, Kiara looked around at the people travelling with them. Apart from herself and Dustin, there were three scruffy looking men, a distinguished looking man that appeared to be in his forties, and a small family. There was one more wagon ahead of them that carried other travellers, but she hadn't met any of them yet. She caught the eye of the two children in the family and smiled at them, but they buried their faces shyly in their mother's skirts.

The distinguished man had apparently seen the interaction, and chuckled to himself. The caravan stopped for a short lunch break, then pushed through until sundown. After the sun set, the wagons pulled off the main road and formed a large circle. The oxen were fed and watered outside the circle, and tents were erected inside the circle. The smell of food filled the air as fires were lit. The caravan cooks were making large pots of stew, which was easy to make in bulk, but still very delicious.

Their travel fare included food costs, so everyone ate together. Kiara scarfed down her portion, and thanked the chefs afterward. Many of the travelling merchants were families, and their young children played by the light of fire within the circle of wagons. The guard escort took up positions between the wagons, facing outwards to keep an eye on things. A few of them patrolled outside the wagon circle as well to keep an eye on the animals.

Dustin estimated that the caravan would travel 20-25 miles each day, and would stop for a full day in each city they passed by. He figured they would spend the next 3 or 4 weeks with this group before they got to Portish. Kiara knew it would be another few days from there to get back to her home town. She wished there was a faster way to make it back home, but Dustin assured her this was the safest way to travel long distances. She was just worried about her family.

After the fires died down, she laid on the ground and stared up at the night sky. The stars were beautiful, and both moons were currently visible. Lenara, the large moon, shone a beautiful green, bathing the night landscape a slightly green hue. The smaller, white moon, Talon, was a small crescent on the horizon. It was comforting to see the same night sky that she had seen every night at home. That feeling of comfort helped her drift off to sleep under the stars.

The next morning, they awoke early for breakfast, then piled back into the wagons to hit the road. Kiara quickly realized that this trip would be slow and monotonous. She needed to find a way to keep herself entertained. She turned to Dustin.

"Hey, teach me how to play Royal Bluff." He furrowed his eyebrows.

"You already know how to play."

"No, I mean teach me some strategy!" She motioned outside the wagon to the slowly passing terrain.

"It's not like we have anything better to do." He grinned and nodded.

"Fair enough, let's play."