You were tempted to simply tell your friends the location of the old shop, and put you new wings and fairy magic to the test around the neighborhood while they did all the boring work. But, at the same time, you were curious about all that too.
“I’ll lead you back to the shop. We’ll see if there’s anything there that’ll answer our questions.”
“I’ll drive!” Lucy said, pulling a keychain from her pocket and letting it swing from her finger. “Maybe with all this extra cash, I can get another magical item, if they’ve got one.” She laughed, and made her way out the door.
“Let’s go then,” Marrissa said, then stopped. “On second thought...” She held out her purse toward you. “You should probably ride in my purse. It would be a lot of trouble for you if anyone to saw you like this. Consider it a favor from me to you.”
You immediately reconsidered going with them. The last thing any fairy needed was to OWE a favor, and Marissa probably knew that. Still, not going along with this would only look more suspicious. And in a less changed part of your mind, you still wanted her to trust you purely for the sake of her friendship. You decided to play along for now, and flittered into her purse politely.
As she stepped outside, you enjoyed the warmth of the sun that slipped through the top of her purse and onto your wings. But as she walked across the yard, in the direction of the driveway, you began to feel a little uncomfortable. When she opened the car door opposite Lucy, stepped inside, and closed it behind her, you felt downright queasy.
“Where’s Emma?” Lucy asked.
“Here…” You groaned.
“Emma, are you alright?” Marissa gasped.
“Don’t feel great… Let’s just go, though… 82 Devin’s Drive…” You mutter, before laying back in one of the bigger inner pockets and trying to rest.
You eventually heard the car stop and felt the purse lifting. When you heard the door slam shut behind you, you started to feel a little better. Your condition continued to improve with every step Marissia took away from the car, and within moments, you were feeling normal again. And suddenly it dawned on you.
“IRON! That’s it!” You shout.
“Emma!” Marissa looked down, her expression softening when she saw you. “Oh, good, you look much better now,” she whispered, before immediately trying to look normal, “But please, try to keep it down. Three voices coming from two girls is going to look suspect.”
“That’s part of the fun, though.”
Marissa simply sighed.
“76, 78, 80,” Lucy counted off. “And 82! Alright, let’s see if your magic shop is still in business!”
You poked your head out of her purse to have a look, to Marissa’s frustration. “Yep, that’s the place!”
The three of you head inside, the place looking just as abandoned as it had earlier today, the only disruptions in the thick layers of dust were in the spots you had walked through earlier today. With the glass window at the front of the shop being pretty messy, and the shop itself having all sorts of shelves and isles to hide behind, there was little worry of being seen in here, so you floated out of purse.
“Hello?” Marissa called out. She rung a dust-coated bell on the counter. “Is anyone here?” She looked around the small shop floor. No sign of anyone in between the aisles. “I’m surprised the door to this place was left open… And more surprised nobody else apparently wanted to just take things from here like you did.”
You laughed sheepishly. “Is it really stealing if there’s nobody to rob?”
“Anyway, let’s look for anything that might have a clue about this die. You might have to look for notes or books behind the counter or in the back room.”
“So, Emma,” Lucy said, as the two of you began looking through the isles, “what were you saying about iron?”
“Iron and steel are usually weaknesses for fairies in old stories. I think the trip in the car is what made me sick.”
“Well, that’s going to make getting around difficult,” Marissa sighed and shook her head.
“I could just fly,” you point out.
“I doubt you can fly faster than a car, for as long as a car,” Marissa pointed out. She went behind the counter, and started rummaging through the drawers.
The items in the front of the shop consisted of the typical magic shop fare; hollow hats, foldable birdcages with fake birds, a box on wheels with a saw through it, and some old posters of famous magicians like Houdini and Walter Irving Scott. As you looked at the items on the shelves toward the back though, you saw all sorts of knick-knacks: kitchenware, children’s toys, books, an old rotary phone, hedge clippers, shoes, and even a jar full of shed cicada skins. To any other person, there would seem to be no rhyme or reason to the selection at all, but you recognized something about them, something not unlike what you felt around the die since you’d become a fairy, if very, very faded. Were these items enchanted too?
You touched a teddy bear, and all of a sudden, you felt as if some of your magic was filling the void where magic used to be in the old object. It’s stubby arms embrace you, and you hear a cute, male-sounding voice say “I love you.” The bear lets go as soon as you start to move away from it. Huh. A lot like those modern “real” toys you saw on commercials, but without the grinding gears whenever the parts moved. Curious, you start releasing a little magic into other formerly enchanted items. A lot of them, like the frying pans or hedgeclippers move slightly at first, then stop, probably being originally enchanted to automatically do whatever they were normally supposed to, but some items, start glowing or making little noises. One basket even starts filling itself with chocolates.
“Oh, what’s going on here?” Lucy said, as she crossed into the isle you were in. Her eyes widened. “Woah! Are all these things magic? Are you doing that?”
“Yep!” You say with a grin, continuing to touch various items and watch as their enchantments take hold.
“Hey!” Marissa called out “Be careful with that, we don’t know what any of this stuff does!”
“That’s why I’m doing it! I wanna find out what it all does,” you say as you touched an old gas lamp. A yellow flame lights up inside, and suddenly, all three of you could see something glowing a pale blue. BEHIND a painting on a wall.
“What on…” Marissa walked up to the painting, and removed it, revealing a safe, which you could still somehow see the glowing object through.
“I wonder what the combination is?” Lucy murmured. As she said those words, a similar glow came from under the counter, somehow shining through it just as whatever was in the safe was shining through it and the painting. You flittered behind the counter, and find the source of that glow; a series of numbers etched into the underside. “19, 31, 68, 02, 47.” You read out, as the numbers stopped glowing.
Marissa entered the combination, and the safe opened. She took out the glowing object, which ceased glowing when she’d touched it; a small journal, with worn, yellowing pages.
“Does that lamp let you see things you’re looking for through walls?” Marissa asked.
“Might be,” you said. “Guess all my touching stuff was for the best after all. Let’s see if this book has the answers we’re looking for.”
Marissa read outloud.
“To those who find the die,
I assume if you’ve found this on your own, I’m already dead. I wish I could have been here for this, but there’s no need to mourn me. I’m sure you’ll want answers, and I’ll do my best to provide them. First and most pertinent, the rules for the die, as much as I’ve discovered: 1 reverses a wish, 2-9 grant the wish less effectively, 10-19 grant the wish as expected (with some slight variation in effectiveness based on how low or high the number is), while 20 doubles the effect of a wish. I have discovered that it WAS possible to increase the odds of a desired result, but it has currently had its odds adjusted in the user’s favor as much as possible. Apparently, when it was first created, it was a coin that would grant a wish if it landed heads, or reverse it if it landed tails.
Another rule is you cannot make an “if-then” wish to get around the chance of failure, so no saying “I wish that if the die rolls a one, I would lose a million dollars, but if it’s any other number, I’d gain a million dollars.”
The next thing you must be wondering is why I’m just letting you have it, rather than keeping it to myself. Well, in truth, when I first found it, I did keep it to myself. I gave myself wealth, power, fame… But it all began to ring hollow. Nothing truly brought me satisfaction, no matter what I did. In my frustration, I wished to to find some meaning in all of this. And I rolled a six.
I learned that the die had been the creation of a trickster god, dropped into the world for a laugh so many centuries ago. Even in it’s original coin form, it was sought after far and wide. Wars were fought over it when it wasn’t kept secret, and whoever had it could potentially re-shape the world as people knew it. And re-shape it they did.
I wasn’t given all the details, but the world used to be a place where magic was common, where the curios in my shop weren’t worth a second glance. Unicorns, fauns, sea serpents, vampires… so many creatures we think of as myths were real. But when someone had gotten their hands on the die. I dare not speak, or even write his name, but he began to change things. One by one, as he worked in secret, every other saphiant race died off or vanished, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, human culture was shifted to dismiss the notions of magic, spirits, or even the gods themselves.
I’m not sure whether he gave up the die willingly, once humanity was the only race left, and magic was purged from the world, or if he lost it in a stroke of bad luck, but it was passed between one human and another, none of which found true satisfaction with it. I was simply the latest.
The “meaning” I had been looking for, it seems, was not for me. Even with my wish granted incompletely, I had learned that much. To find my meaning, I was to ensure the die would reach someone that would want to bring the magic, and these lost races, back into the world, rather than horde the die for their personal wealth. I couldn’t see myself as worthy of its power anymore. And so, I wished that the die could only be seen by those that would use it to bring back the magic, and those that those people trusted, and set it in my shop. Knowing it is out of his hands, and that someday, somebody will bring this world back to its previous, vibrant state, at least, was enough to give me some small sense of meaning.
I wish you luck in restoring the world.
Isaac Elwin.”
“Woah…” Lucy said. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“I’ll say…” Marissa said, “Even knowing the die’s magic is real, I can’t help but be a little skeptical. Still… I guess it wasn’t a coincidence that one of the first serious wishes you made was to be a fairy, was it?”
“Yeah. And making more of them sounds like a fun idea to me!” You giggled.
As you playfully fluttered around Marissa’s concerned face, out of the corner of your eye you saw a large, vaguely human shape lingering on the other side of the dirty shop window. When you turn around, though, there was nothing there. You brushed it off, and returned to teasing for Marissa to give you the die.
________________
“Good grief…” a voice muttered a few blocks down the street. “All that work, and whoever found that die went and brought back the fae first, of all things. This mess’ll be a real pain to clean up.” The tall man’s left arm twitched, and he clutched at it with his right, wincing slightly. “Why couldn’t it have been a gnome or a gremlin? I’d even take an elf or a minotaur. Well, in any case, they might be able to lead me to the die. Even if it’ll take a little persuasion.”
He reached into one of his coat pockets, pulling out a small glass vial of iron filings. “Heh… Why am I complaining? I’ve been looking for an excuse to use these again for a few centuries.”