After a short exchange of pleasantries and the city stipend, they left to prepare for the entrance test. It was said to be held every week, with the most recent one happening the day before.
'Six days until I know what to do with my life...'
He wasn't truly worried about the exam, feeling that having a seal broken would make the exam easy. Bai'el however, did not agree. It turns out he had agreed so readily because he had heard it was a prestigious school, but one with a low acceptance rate. They received so many strange applicants that their recommendation applicants were often rejected.
"You can't go at this haphazardly Lunas, you're the norm amongst the applicants. Their trials are difficult beyond imagination. The scent of talent isn't enough to rush your way through this."
"Well, what am I to do? I didn't ask for a later test, and I can't do much with my blood."
Bai'el's lips curled into a slight smile as he lead Lunas and Enora towards the cart driver, Joraan still waiting for them.
The large man opened the gate to the cart for them, asking where to next.
After a moment of thought, Bai'el responded "Crucible & Thorn."
"Hope you're not searching for a cure for your bits, crucible stopped selling em months ago. A real travesty if you ask my wife."
Enora giggled before nudging Bai'el, "Perhaps you may want to turn the charm down..."
He tapped his knee again, the tiniest sliver of lilac energy returning from the driver to his finger.
Lunas of course, was scribbling down the names of streets and interesting shops he saw along the way. He'd never been a studious boy, but something about the new environment made him crave more. To know more about the world around him.
They arrived at a blackened storefront, with freshly built wooden trim tracing the masonry. A sign with an oversized cauldron with little spikes piercing through it. Bai'el opened the door to the store with a tired bell above it ringing out, cuing a crooked looking old man to hobble out from behind a door.
He wore a ragged white shirt, laced at the collar with black strings that stretched too far down. A mess of grey hair rested on his balding head, like the ring of strands still holding on had been fried by something recently.
"Welcome Bai'el, Enora! Business or pleasure?" the man said while dropping a row of purple dust across the counter.
"Business, as usual. Weylon, meet Lunas. He's staying with us. Lunas, meet Weylon, the alchemist with the the most explosions in the city."
Fear and awe mixed in his Lunas' for a moment before the old man burst out into cackling laughter, "Quite the introduction haha, what do you need my friends?"
"A handful of healing flasks, and two ether flasks. Perhaps a few bludroot too."
At a wave of his own hand, Weylon went back through the door he came from. After a moment of peering at the ash grey walls and shelves lined with ingredients, he returned carrying several flasks on a string and a little bag Lunas assumed was filled with the aforementioned roots.
"32 Col for all you could need. Oh, and we've got a delivery for you. A notice."
He reached into a shelf behind the counter, pulling out a thin envelop with a deep red wax seal on it.
Bai'el dropped his coins on the counter wordlessly, only thanking the man once he held the goods and the odd letter for him. It was unmarked by any ink, carrying only it's seal.
Lunas knew it must be important, as the seal seemed to be of similar quality to the one's his father had once used. He didn't pay much mind to it, smiling at Weylon when he waved them out into the rest of their day.
Bai'el and Enora led Lunas down the street past a few boarded and scorched shopfronts, the occasional disgruntled owner trying to make the place livable again. Past them stood a taller, stranger store.
The Ivory Nocturne stuck out among the dirtied red storefronts they had passed along the way, cleanly white bricks and red mahogany framing. The ornate black window frames were blocked by curtains as pale as the ricks surrounding them.
"Don't touch anything you don't want," Enora warned with a light look as Bai'el pushed open the black wrought iron doors. A short white hallway lined with red and black displays lead to a wooden front desk half concealing another door.
Bai'el rung the little bell on the desk twice, sending out a melodious tone. While they waited, Lunas peered at the beautiful rings and necklaces beneath the glass of the displays. Deeply set rubies composed of most of the gems, and silver was oddly prominent in the pendants. The rings and various chains were all made of gold or bronze, covered in green and black gems he didn't recognize.
Eventually, a tall man of elven features emerged from behind the desk, smiling in recognition at Bai'el and Enora. He spoke in a voice far too baritone for his wiry frame, "Bai'el, welcome back. You introduced me to Enora, but who might this newblood be?" He continued with a sly look on his face, "One of yours?"
"No Enzo, but please treat him like he is," Bai'el said without clarifying on whether he was one of them, and gestured for Enzo to continue.
With a nod, the shopkeeper pulled a booklet out of it's pocket on the desk. Mechanical churning whispered through the room, and the center of the desk, the epicenter of the sound, fell away into the floor.
Enzo opened the no longer concealed door and waved the three of them through, following behind close behind. This hallway was almost horrifying in design, bloodred, and carved into the stone. The top edges of the hallways walls bore strange skulls Lunas couldn't identify. It widened, and widened, before they reached one final doorway. White bones linked with each other cascaded from the top of it like a beaded door.
They passed through, and Lunas' eyes widened at the black brick arches holding up a tall ceiling containing three levels of balconies. Enzo put the booklet from the first door in a small slot between the bricks, and the floor rose to surround them. Dozens of clear crystalline displays unfolded, but their contents varied greatly.
One held daggers of various metals and shapes, another filled with bladed garrotes. The actual jewelry was coated in runes, some ebbing brightly with ether.
"Well, what do you need for the newblood? There's been shipments of Icersen Iron, and fairly pure bloodshards."
Bai'el glanced through the displays in a couple seconds before replying, "We need a guide, preferably a Dahlia dropout, and a flame prism."
Enzo looked somewhat aggrieved as he told Bai'el his stock, "We don't have any dropouts available, but plenty of failed examinees. For the flame prism, the best we have is a blood-drinker, will that suffice?"
Without showing any displeasure, Bai'el said "That is enough. An Icersen spear too."
Enzo flicked his wrist pulling the requested items from the displays towards Bai'el's hands. He warned that the spear only had the top half enchanted, but with a glance at Lunas, and his short height, he replied that it would be perfect.
Bai'el took a thin slip of paper from Enzo, a recommendation to a failure of the esteemed Madon Family. He slipped his gloved hand into a pocket of his coat, pulling five Sol coins out and flicking them into Enzo's reaching palm.
After the last coin landed, A ring was flipped in the opposite direction unexpectedly.
"A gift for the young one, the path ahead will surely line his pockets if not his coffin."
Bai'el smiled at the morbid saying, dropping the ring into Lunas' hand eithout inspecting it.
Lunas felt a weak pull of ether from his soul fill the ring, and he thanked Enzo heartily since the ring was obviously enchanted as well as looking rather cool to him, with it's wolf like figure.
Enora seemed a little disappointed at not receiving something as well, but Bai'el patted her on the back as they turned and left. Gentle mechanical whirring spread throughout the hall behind them as the door and desk returned to their original position behind them.
When they got outside, the street was strangely empty for the time of day, and the place of the cart selling fruit that had been in front of the Nocturne previously, was gone!
Instead, three deeply black crows stood, huddling together.