Mage Tat

[lawrencegillies.livejournal.com]

Here you are Sally, have some Mage tat!

The daylight filtered slowly through the dusty window of the old antiques shop. Dust motes filled the air as Andrew Aries entered. The bell on the door jangled almost in alarm as he shut the door again. In the rear of the shop, someone almost as antique as his merchandise stirred and looked out from behind his newspaper. Andrew smiled at him and gave him a friendly nod of the head.

 

He had come to Salisbury because one of his numerous acquaintances had told him of an interesting House clearance at one of the local manor houses. Fifty quid it had cost him in taxis to get there and back into town, and there hadn’t been anything there of any interest or particularly any value. The items of obvious value were snapped up by telephone bidders, and all the rest was tat - relatively commonplace antiques and reproduction books in the library.

 

To cap a fairly shoddy day for him thus far, the cabbie had dropped him back at the station just in time to see his train pull out. So, now he had some time to kill in a once great backwater of a city. He wandered into town, heading vaguely for the Cathedral. In old cities like this, he could see the throngs of people, mixed with plenty of other people. Ghosts in costumes ranging from the medieval to the present day mingled with the current inhabitants and the influx of what appeared to be Spanish tourists, some of the ghosts walking the streets freely, a number of them echoing their former existence.

 

He trudged grumpily through the main shopping streets, occasionally stopping to look through shop windows. He passed the Poultry Cross and moved through the Market square, currently serving its other role as a car park. He walked on into the side streets, and was about to turn back when he saw the old antiques shop. He had a quick look through the window and muttered some words beneath his breath. The shop looked normal to him, but then he saw it. A flash of energy and a feeling of power, which caused him to smile, and he muttered a few more words as he entered the shop.

 

He was quite pleased that he had been able to greet the shopkeeper in as disconcertingly cheerful a manner as possible, designed to keep the shopkeeper from bothering him – the old boy was still struggling with yesterday’s crossword, so didn’t want to get sucked in to conversation if he could avoid.  He was also pleased because he was now observing the shop and its contents on a number of different levels, or perhaps plains would be more accurate.

 

Through out the shops he could see that a few items had significance to some of the denizens of the spirit world. As yet he had seen nothing useful, as the items thus far only concerned some of the smaller, less useful spirits, quite a number of which were hanging round the shop and chattering amongst themselves gaily, seeming to like the ambience.

 

A few of the items in the shop appeared to have thin silvery chains attached which snaked off in various directions with a lazy wafting motion that always reminded Andrew of things seen under water. He stopped and examined these items, these fetters for the restless dead. He thought for a moment, and then dismissed these too. He already had many such items in his lock-up, and didn’t think he had room for many more.

 

He knew that he had seem something else, and moved deeper into the shop, occasionally catching a glimpse of the thing that he had seen from the window. Aha! There. He had come round the corner of a table, and from this angle could see the power, the primal energy throbbing off what he could now see clearly to be an old and slightly tarnished silver cup. Upon closer examination, he decided that “chalice” would probably be a better description.

 

Now that he was closer, he could also see that the energy resonating from the cup was not entirely pleasant. This item had been used for something, yes, definitely, used for something unpleasant. He picked it up carefully, sung his handkerchief to avoid making actual physical contact with it. He looked closely at the inside surface. There were dark flecks which, whilst easily mistaken for tarnish, were obviously not to a man with his perceptive talents.

 

“Have you ever had this cleaned?” he called out. There was some muttering, and after a brief pause the shop keeper appeared around the corner. One of the chains wafted up and over him as he approached.

 

“Nope, that’s as it came.” I did clean stuff once, but people started complainin’ about that so I stopped.”

 

“Have you had this long?” Andrew asked in a conversational tone.

 

“Yep, had that a while. Nice piece o’ work, but no bugger’ll buy it.” The shopkeeper closed his mouth a little too quickly. Perhaps he was not used to customers. There was enough dust around the place to suggest to Andrew that they were an infrequent nuisance in this shop.

 

“How much to take it off your hands?” there was a distinct ‘and I’d be doing you a favour’ tone in Andrews voice, which caused the shopkeeper to immediately double the price that he had in his head and add a bit.

 

“Fifty quid” said the old man.

 

“Twenty,” countered Andrew “I’ll need to get this cleaned.” He mused as if to himself

 

“Really now, I couldn’t let it get go for less than fifty. Solid silver that. Look at the hallmarks.

 

Andrew did, and with an air of ‘I’m not going to be able to get one over on you am I?’ he gave in. “Ok, fifty.”

 

The old man was satisfied. He’d triumphed over this young London upstart. He smiled to himself as he shuffled over to the till to ring the sale through.

 

Andrew Aries had to hurry to make his train. He made it, slightly out of breath and sat in the first class compartment. He looked at his newest acquisition: A Seventeenth century ritual chalice, used at that. That was definitely blood on the inside, possibly something even more potent. To the right people this would be incredibly valuable. Fortunately, he knew those people. If the need arose,  this could be priceless, before doing anyting with it, he would have find out what that need would be.