With his hands cramping around the box, deciding whether to hold onto it or drop it like a bomb, something snapped inside Adrien. He was done playing this game and he was done being intimidated. He wanted his soul for the skin? Fine!
“Is that all, just my soul? How about my youth and free will on top of that?” The young man snarked. “Take it!”
Surprised by the sudden change in attitude, the Caribbean Man frowned. “Are you sure? Don’t you want to know the details of our bargain?”
“Not like you’re gonna explain to me what the important bits mean anyway. I want it, and you know it. You knew it from the moment you locked eyes with me,” Adrien shot back.
“I’m not in the business of cheating my customers,” the shopkeeper placated. “But I admit that normally I sell to those in the know.”
Adrien was inclined to give the other man the benefit of the doubt, mainly because he REALLY wanted the skin.
“I like your determination, young one.” the man continued, while producing a piece of jewelry from his coat. “You lease me your soul for a paltry ten years and in return you gain the skin and this pendant here. It will allow you to find this place again with ease.”
“Alright, anything else?” the teenager asked full of impatience.
“Well, no,” came the answer.
Seeing the shopkeeper finally flat-footed gave Adrien more satisfaction than it should.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Still surprised by the change in Adrien’s attitude, the shopkeeper led him to the front of the store to complete the 18 year old’s purchase. He got a smooth and milky white stone from below his counter and offered both it and the pendant to his young customer. Adrien took the small silver pendant and noticed a stylized compass in its center.
“This thing probably doesn’t point north,” he pointed out slyly before taking the white stone. “What does this do?”
“Once you sign the contract, this stone will contain your soul. It’s unbreakable, so you needn’t worry,” the elder said. Then he clapped his hands and a strand of lightning connected both of his palms. From it a paper formed like strands forming fabric. He turned the paper over to Adrien. “Hold the stone and sign it.”
Adrien took the contract and read it. It was short and contained exactly what he had been told in plain English. He would give up his soul for ten years, allowing the shopkeeper Merkutio Absolom - weird name - to do with with it as he pleased, as long as he would not ‘stain’ the soul. What that meant Adrien didn’t know. The contract was also only stating what he was buying and that it was bound to him, not what it could do, pretty much like he had expected.
Still, he got a nice pen from the shopkeeper and signed with his name, Adrien Greenfield. The second he put down the belt, he felt something like the flow from before racing into the stone. Immediately it started to shimmer brightly.
“Please, my young friend, would you hand over the soulstone?” the shopkeeper, Merkutio, asked.
There was no impatience, anger or anything in his voice, so Adrien didn’t do it immediately. Instead he held it up and inspected the now much warmer stone.
“Does the shimmer say anything about my soul?” he wondered out loud.
“Indeed. Yours is a very pure soul, though that is actually true for the vast majority of humans. It takes cruelty, malice, pointless sadism, selfishness or outright heinous deeds to truly darken your light.,” the elder man explained.
“I see.” Adrien proceeded to pack up his things and was handed a bag for the wooden box containing his succubus skin.
“Might I interest you in something else?”