A doorchime, much like that in Miro's Legendary Shop of
Assorted Stuff, sounded. Into the dark, cluttered room
stepped a respectable looking man with eyes of a striking
green color and platinum blond hair swept back in an
archaic, but serviceable, style. "Good evening, madam
Shopkeeper." His voice was smooth, vaguely amused, and
almost, but not quite, condescending.

The shadowed figure behind a rectangular shadow that was
probably a counter was silent for a moment, as it studied
the interloper across the cluttered, mysterious Shop. "What
do you want, Traveler?" spat a feminine voice as melodious
as shattering icicles.

The man clicked his tongue. "Why do you all make that
mistake? I am not a Traveler. I was born with a destiny,
and even followed it to an extent for my whole life."

Silence, while the Keeper regarded the Other for another
nonce. "Yes, I can see that you did...until you died. But
now you don't. What is it you want here, Lich?" She now
seemed content to let the contempt drip from the icicle
chimes, rather than spit it at him. "Even if you aren't a
Traveler, you still walk the planes, and that makes you
dangerous."

The amiability left his countenance, and his eyes narrowed,
taking on reddish tones. "You are perceptive, I'll grant
you that. Not many see through my illusions. Fewer still
live to tell of it. But," he said, raising his hand to
forestall any interruptions, "I didn't come here to make
threats. Surely you know of the other Shop nearby."

The shadowed figure behind the counter nodded, slowly.

"I wish to keep tabs on it. If you would sell me a means of
tracking Shops across the planes, I'd be
most...appreciative."

"I do not think so. As I said, you are dangerous. In fact...
I see no reason to let you leave at all." What little light
there was in the crowded room suddenly focused in on the
man, who winced in pain. As the rest of the room was
plunged into absolute blackness, the figure in the small
pillar of light began to flicker, his flesh seeming to fade
in and out, his clothes changing from well-cut finery to
ancient tatters of the same and back several times a second.
Though his posture indicated great pain, his voice only
became colder. "You will not succeed in killing me. You
cannot really believe I'd bring my phylactery with me."

A cold smile seemed to accompany the response, which came
from no particular direction. "Perhaps not, but losing your
body will inconvenience you for a while."

A few moments later, a chant rose from the man, and he
pointed a finger that was flickering as a bony claw. The
pillar of light retracted, expanding and dimming to fill
the room again as he snapped out a final word. The shadow
behind the counter uttered a single syllable in response,
anger tinting the foul yet sweet, glorious yet corrupt word,
and the man's eyes widened in shock as he was flung bodily
out the suddenly open door.

A doorchime, much like that in Miro's Legendary Shop of
Assorted Stuff, sounded as the door closed itself behind
him.

**********

One of Those Shops
Started By: Farsan de Arnibia
This Chapter by: Segev
Chapter 5a: A New Location

**********

Reia regarded the Traveler from the business end of the
other woman's weapon. "Private conversation? But, you were
holding it in his store, where anyone could listen in."

The other woman – Alea, if Reia remembered the name she
gave Miro – considered that response for a moment before
backing off, just a bit. The sword was still leveled at the
barmaid-turned-spy, however. "Be that as it may, you were
still eavesdropping. Why?"

"I didn't trust your motives. I've heard of Travelers, and
what they do to Shopkeepers." Reia glared angrily at Alea,
but prudently edged backwards from the point of the blade.

"How did you know – " the armored woman looked taken aback
for a moment. She regained her composure, though. "You
could have picked that much up from what was said inside.
Even with that, you know too much. What is it you're really
doing here?"

She advanced menacingly on Reia. The barmaid reached down
and scooped some dirt into her hand, flinging it at Alea's
eyes. Cursing, Alea blindly swung her weapon, stumbling
towards the other girl. Reia took advantage of her
momentary respite and beat a hasty retreat. The other woman
stopped after a few feet and fumbled her weapon into its
sheath so she could clear her eyes. Reia smiled; by the
time the other woman could see again, she would already be
gone.

***

In the front room of "Miro's Legendary Shop of Assorted
Stuff", a young woman wearing a simple white dress stood
fuming at the closed door. Her black tresses fell down her
back in a loose mass, and had golden highlights that
matched her golden skin. She shook her rainbow-feathered
wings to get them unruffled. After that last visitor… she
shook her head to clear the angry haze.

Sighing, she looked to the floor where one of the priceless,
"ancient" antique vases had fallen, scattering its shards
and its liquid contents – nature better left unimagined –
across the floor. Such a mess would never do. Her long-
fingered hand waved over the shards and the liquid, and the
floor rippled as it swallowed the whole mess. At least no
energy was lost, though Miro would have to recreate the
vase if he wanted it again.

"Damn that creature. Weren may have thought that killing
Rinku would open the path for him to become a Shopkeeper,
but that won't happen! He won't get Miro – " Her vehement
thoughts were interrupted by a mental chime. "A Request...?
Perfect, we can leave that Traveler/Shopkeeper wannabe
behind!"

***

Reia collapsed into a rickety chair, almost falling when it
nearly broke beneath her.

"Careful, wouldn't want to have to take that chair out of
your pay." The voice was melodious, amused, and at the
moment rather irritating. It belonged to a redheaded woman
seated behind a shadow-covered counter, her face obscured
in darkness.

Reia glared at her employer. "Sorry," she snapped, "I just
narrowly escaped a nasty fight with a Traveler who was
speaking with Miro; should I have collapsed on the floor
instead?"

A glimmer reflected off of teeth, probably bared in a smile,
though it was hard to tell when the rest of the face was
not visible. "Yes, perhaps. But, no harm done. Less
skeptical now, I take it?"

Reia nodded. "Yes, yes, I believe you. After you took me
with you to another city, and Miro's Shop was still here...
I began to suspect you were telling the truth. But, it's
still hard to believe. Why do you need me to spy on him,
anyway? Can't you do it yourself? You're obviously a mage,
too."

"No, I'm a Shopkeeper. A rather good one, if I do say so
myself. I was concerned about Miro, he's new at this.
That's why I kept other Shops from showing up, to give him
an opportunity to get started." The crown of red hair
leaned forward, and a white glare of thin, rectangular
glasses appeared. "Now, what do you have to report? What
was that about the Traveler?"

Collecting herself, the slattern-turned-spy stood up and
pulled out a small disk. "This woman, Alea, went in to
Miro's Shop, and this compass thingie you said would point
out enemies pointed right at her, so I hid under a window
to listen in." She took a breath to carry her through the
remainder of the recitation. "Long story short, she said
she was a ‘Traveler', that parrot of Miro's got all
agitated – I guess that that's his Shop, or something – and
she said a lot about Travelers, the ‘Cycle of Faith', and
why he should take her somewhere and why she wasn't really
his enemy. He seemed to believe her, despite the parrot's
misgivings, and sent her away to consider what she'd asked.
Then she came out and threatened me for eavesdropping. I
threw some dust in her eyes and hightailed it back to
here."

The glare of the glasses was consumed by the shadows as
Reia's employer leaned back to consider this, hands clasped
loosely before her and elbows resting on the counter before
her. "I see. What logic did she use to prove she was no
enemy? By their very nature, Travelers oppose Shopkeepers."

"I didn't understand it myself. She said she didn't want to
kill him, because she wasn't one of the ‘mad ones', and
wasn't seeking some artifact that Miro's Shop didn't seem
to believe existed."

"I see. Thank you, Reia. I won't be needing your services
any further. Miro and his Shop will be leaving this world
soon. Your payment is hanging on the lintel of the door. As
promised, it will let you see the truth in most things."
The light over the Shopkeeper dimmed, bringing even her
hair into silhouette.

This sudden dismissal and end of the conversation surprised
Reia, leaving her frozen for a couple moments. "T-that's it?
You don't need me anymore?" Realizing she was beginning to
babble, she snapped her mouth shut.

"Yes, that's ‘it'. You have done well, but cannot help me
any further."

She had to work her jaw once or twice, but Reia finally
managed to speak again. "Of course. Could you tell me two
things, though, first?" Taking the lack of reply as assent,
she continued, "Miro's Shop had a parrot form that it spoke
through. How does yours speak? Second, what is your name?
You never told me it."

"My name... it would serve no good end for you to know. As
to my Shop... let's just say that it doesn't need a
physical manifestation to deal with its Keeper. Good
night." With that, the conversation was clearly ended.

Reia turned and walked to the door. Depending from a nail
on the post was a silver chain with a glass lens at the end
– a monocle. She took it, recognizing it as the promised
payment, and left her former employer's Shop.

***

Miro woke before the sun had even begun to lighten the
horizon, surprised to find he'd fallen asleep in the middle
of trying to figure out what to do about the strange
conversation he'd heard between his Shop and that Other.
Who was he? Another Traveler, one of the Mad Ones Alea
mentioned?

He got up, fully intending to ask the Shop about that
strange conversation he'd overheard. When he stepped into
the front room, however, he was immediately assaulted by an
excited ball of multicolored feathers. "Squawk! We have a
request! Request! Big Request, lots of energy to be made if
we take it! Squaaaawwwk!"

"Wait! Ack! Shop! Stop! Calm down!" After a few moments of
batting at the colorful streak of bird whizzing about his
head, he managed to convince the parrot to land on his
outstretched arm, from which it climbed to Miro's shoulder.
"Okay, now, what is this about a big request?"

"Just that. We got a request for Shop assistance in
providing merchandise to the bounty hunters of Heticus.
Squawk! Big mercantile area, loads of adventurers, and an
area where faith is generally laughed at, so the energy
from Shop activities is quite rewarding, Squawk!"

Miro blinked, pondering this. "If faith is laughable there,
why would we, representatives of the Cycle of Faith, be
rewarding? Won't it be harder to get energy there?"

"Squawk! No way! No priests or temples there, so the only
way to get faith energy is from the Shops! Squawk! That's
us, and we get all of it!"

"I see... Well, how far is it? Do we have the energy to
make it?"

The parrot flew over to the counter. "The location is
written here, on this receipt. We usually get these with
requests; Squawk! I didn't want to distract you with that
while you were trying to get used to the idea of being a
Shopkeeper. But, here, you see. Squawk." The parrot held up
a piece of paper in one claw, balancing on the other like a
miniature, brightly colored flamingo.

After he took the paper and studied it for a moment, Miro
said carefully, "And this is where you think we can get a
lot of energy? You think we should go here?" The parrot
nodded emphatically. The image the shop was presenting
through this bird was so comical that Miro had to work to
suppress a laugh. He didn't want to harm his Shop's sense
of dignity. "Great! This is where Alea said she wanted to
go, too. I'll go find her and tell her she can come with us.
Heck, if we charge her something, it should even give us a
bit more energy. Who say's Shops can't sell rides?" With a
last mischievous smile at the parrot, he sauntered out the
door into the still dark morning before the flabbergasted
Shop could respond.

It wasn't for a couple seconds after the door had closed
that the parrot closed its beak, and managed to blink twice.
"SQUAWWWWWWWWWWK! This isn't what I meant at all! Squawk
squawk SQUAWK!" The parrot strutted back and forth on the
counter, punctuating the angry squawks with clawed kicks at
the surface across which it was walking. After a minute of
this fowl cursing, it calmed a bit and flew over to a perch
that looked out the window onto the dark street. The
reflection that looked back was of the dark-haired young
woman. "Oh, well, at least this way we can get away from
that awful Weren. He can't know where we're going. That
young Traveler Alea will surly be less trouble than that
bastard."

***

Miro walked down the street, whistling softly to himself
and looking for that pretty Traveler, Alea. He'd normally
be worried about walking around in the dark, away from the
protection of the Shop, but he'd fashioned two items of
"merchandise" for himself. Sure, they cost energy that he'd
earned, but they would also serve to protect him outside
the shop. The first was a simple looking amulet that would
protect him from unexpected blows. If he had gauged it
correctly, it should completely protect him three damaging
things before failing. The other was a hand crossbow.
Nothing really special about the crossbow, it was just of
decent quality. The bolt, however, was what he'd spent the
most energy on. It would freeze whatever it hit into a
block of ice. He only had one bolt for now, but, if it
worked right, he could try to make more – maybe with
different effects. His biggest concern was whether or not
they'd work for him, since they weren't made for any
customers. The bolt, in particular, had been rather energy
intensive. Though, if it _did_ work, he could try to market
them... Shaking his head, he went back to scanning the
crowd (for yes, in this busy city, the streets even had a
crowd in the wee hours of the morning) for Alea. The sky
was just beginning to lighten, so it was getting easier to
see.

He was halfway across the city, in a less crowded district,
with the dawn sky turning pink, when he thought he heard a
voice familiar from last night. Followed shortly by a
scream.

Heroic instincts he didn't know he had propelled Miro
towards the alley from which both sounds had issued. Upon
getting there, he saw one thing he recognized. "Reia!"

***

Reia stood for a moment or two outside the Shop that her
recent employer Kept. Deciding to test her payment, she
held the monocle to her eye and looked around. Nothing much
seemed different. Sure, she could see quite clearly despite
the lack of illumination, even into the shadows, but there
was no hidden truth revealed. Of course, at the moment,
people were just bustling about their business. Though, for
some reason, in this district of the city, it was almost
deserted. Unusual for this particular merchant metropolis.

Wait! The Shop! Surely that must have a unique "true" form.
Reia excitedly turned to look... only to find a blank wall.
Through both the monocle and normal vision, it was the same.
"Curses," she muttered. The Shop must have moved while she
was standing there.

Stalking off in a random direction, Reia tried to decide
what to do now. She could go try her monocle on Miro's shop,
she supposed. Or she could begin traveling back to her
hometown, to use it for the purpose for which she'd asked
for it in the first place.

"Oof!" she exclaimed. Her contemplative state had caused
her to not pay attention to where she was going, and she
had run into a handsome man in well-cut garb, with striking
green eyes. "I'm so sorry, wasn't paying attention to where
I was going!" she said. The impact had knocked her monocle
out of her eye, and she was wiping it on her blouse when he
suddenly grabbed her upper arm. The blouse covered less of
her arms than her skimpy skirt did of her legs, so she felt
his fingers firmly gripping her flesh. They were so cold,
they burned. And were unaccountably hard.

"You are the young lady who works for the Shopkeeper," he
stated, his voice sounding like an amused gravekeeper. Reia
struggled in his grasp, but it was implacable. He clicked
his tongue. "No need for that. I assure you, you are going
no where until we're done talking."

Her arm was going numb from the burning cold of his grasp,
and she was just about to snap out an uncooperative
response when she got her monocle back in place. What she
saw silenced her for a moment – the hand on her arm bore no
flesh! It was literally bare bones! Her horrified gaze
crept slowly up the tattered silk sleeve until it regarded
the man's face. Two burning flames of ice burned in the
empty eye sockets of a skull.

She screamed.

When she began beating her free fist against his ruined
vest, she felt his ribs beneath it. "Let me go! Let me go!
SKELETON!" she screamed hysterically.

The eye uncovered by the monocle still saw a flesh-and-
blood human, and that human face registered shock, until
the green eyes (and the ice-flame pinpricks in the eye
sockets) focused on her magical eyewear. "Don't be
insulting," intoned the death's visage, idle amusement
still coating his voice, "I am no mere skeleton. Such serve
me." He gestured behind her, and used his hand on her now
entirely numb arm to turn her so her back was pressed
against his cold, cloth-covered bones. Two naked skeletons
baring simple clubs stepped out of the shadows, looking no
different with or without the magic of her monocle.

Fear must have sharpened her sight by now, though, for, as
she had gone silent, she saw someone at the mouth of the
alley. As soon as she heard his voice call her name in
horror, she recognized him. Miro! What was he doing here?
He'd be killed! Steeling her courage, she yelled, "Miro,
get away! He'll kill you!"

Miro, for his part, responded by running - _into_ the alley,
towards her and the terrible creature holding her.

"Get him," ordered the man, and the skeletons shambled to
obey, brandishing their clubs. Miro charged straight at one
of them, pulling something from under his robe. Suddenly,
the skeleton he was going for was encased in a rime of ice
at least an inch thick, and couldn't move.

Miro tumbled past it, and the other swung clumsily with its
club, shattering its partner. He reached her, and grabbed
her and began pulling. "Let her go!" he commanded.

The skeletal man holding her didn't heed Miro's command,
but rather spoke amusedly. "So, you are the new Shopkeeper.
I think maybe I should kill you. After all, you've been so
kind as to present me this opportunity.

Reia watched, dumbstruck, as the remaining skeleton raised
its club and brought it down on Miro's head. Golden light
flared, and the club went flying from the skeleton's hand.
Frowning, the being holding her touched Miro with his free
hand, to receive a similar golden flare and have his hand
repulsed. When the skeleton, having lost its club, swung a
claw at the young man trying to pull Reia free, the
skeleton was also flung away, almost to the entrance of the
alley.

Now, the man released Reia's arm, and both she and Miro
stumbled away. As soon as he realized she was free, Miro
took her hand and began running away, but hesitated halfway
to the alley entrance when the skeleton picked itself up.
Ignoring its lost club, which lay at its feet, it began
shambling towards them again. Behind them, the mysterious
man was chanting something in a language Reia didn't
recognize. From the look on Miro's face, though, he
understood it, and didn't like what he was hearing.

Once finished with the short chant, the man recalled his
skeleton, which shambled harmlessly past the pair and stood
halfway between them and its master. "I have erected a
barrier at the entrance to this alley. You cannot escape.
Now, if the two of you cooperate, I may let you live.
You'll find I'm a reasonable individual; I just have
certain things I want. And you two may be able to help me."

Miro, still holding Reia's hand, began edging backwards,
until he was pressed against the barrier mentioned by the
Other. The Other had moved forward, maintaining the
distance between himself and Miro and Reia. When Miro was
forced to stop, however, the Other kept coming. Just when
the skeleton preceding him was nearly within arm's reach of
them, and Reia thought all was lost, the skeleton suddenly
collapsed into dust and broken bones.

The reason for this was the armored woman who had landed on
it, sword point down. She hastily stood, and leveled her
weapon at the Other. "Stay back. I don't know who you are,
but, I think you recognize a Traveler's weapon, and know
its potency," said Alea, sounding like she was trying to
sound certain.

The illusory face smirked. "I do, indeed. I've longed for
one for quite some time. The three of you have greatly
helped my goals, today. Such a pity that I only need one of
you alive...and, perhaps, even she would serve me better in
undeath." He raised a hand, and began chanting again.

Alea swore, and turned to Miro and Reia. Swinging her sword
downwards past them, it impacted an invisible wall which
shattered under the impact with the sound of a thousand
nails on a chalkboard.

The trio ran.

It took Reia a while to realize that they were actually
running to somewhere, not just away from that monster in
the alley. Miro stumbled once, hitting the ground hard.
Another of those golden flares occurred, but weaker than
before. He bounced to his feet, unharmed. "Seems there was
one more charge in that than I thought," he panted to
himself as he began running again, passing the other two
who had paused, thinking to help him up.

Finally, they arrived at Miro's Shop, and all three crashed
in, slamming the door open. The parrot flew over their
heads, angrily squawking. "Miro! What did you bring _both_
of them for? For that matter (Squawk!) how did that tavern
girl get to this city so fast? Why – "

"Shop!" interrupted Miro, quickly. "Get us out of here. To
that Heticus place, or wherever! There's someone after us!"

The Shop seemed about to argue further, but Miro met the
parrot's eyes, and the creature landed hard on the floor.
"Weren!" it whispered, horrified.

Everything lurched and went dark as the Shop suddenly
shifted.

***

When Miro came to, he found himself lying on the floor of
his Shop. Reia was collapsed across his feet. When he
managed to pull his feet out from under her, he found they
were asleep. It took him nearly a minute to massage life
back into them, during which he looked around. Everything
seemed the same. Until he saw Alea.

The first thing he noticed was that she was sitting on the
barrel he had offered her for a seat when last she was here.
The second was that she was conscious. Finally, what was
really bothering him about her hit him: while everything in
the shop was as it had been before, and he and Reia were
still dressed as they had been before, Alea was not.

Instead of armor over a white robe and a sword at her side,
she now wore body armor that could only be described as
high tech. She even had a green, translucent visor that had
glowing lines of stat readouts projected onto it. And,
where her sword had been was a very sleek looking hand gun.
Miro would have bet from its appearance that it was a ray
gun, not a projectile weapon.

He shook his head, and tried to stand. He had to balance
himself on the counter as the pins and needles still lanced
through his feet, but he managed it.

Reia, for her part, had come to. "Hey," she asked Alea,
"What happened to your clothes?"

"It is part of the nature of Travelers that our gear
changes to match each new world we come to," responded Alea,
wearily.

"What kind of world are we in?!" asked the former barmaid
incredulously.

"More importantly," added Miro, "Why didn't the Shop and I
change?"

"Changing appearances is the job of the Shopkeeper,
Master," squawked the parrot. Then it looked a bit sheepish.
"I am sorry for the rough transition, squawk. But you
seemed in such a hurry, and..."

"That's alright," said Alea, drawing everyone's attention
to her again. "Um..." she shifted nervously under the
varied gazes, "shouldn't you take a look at the world, Miro?
So you can see how to change your shop, and to get some
idea of what kind of world it is? I mean, beyond what can
be discerned from the changes to my clothes and weapon."

The parrot nodded agreement. "Squawk! You need to make the
changes soon, as we should open as soon as possible. We
were lucky last time; we had the request all to ourselves.
This time, however, there are already two other Shops here.
Squawk!"

Miro nodded. He walked to the window beside the door and
opened the blinds, and gasped. His Shop was at the base of
a strangely sloped valley. Strange because it seemed to be
entirely indoors – in fact, part of a great mall. He
couldn't even see the top, nor the ceiling or sky.
Balconies provided walkways and access to shops on the
other floors, and walking on them was the strangest
assortment of things Miro had ever seen. Many of them
looked human enough, though most of those had extremely
strange skin tones and textures. Others looked like they
would have been quite at home in some of the movies that
Rikura liked so much. The rest... the rest didn't look like
anything Miro had ever heard of or even imagined before.

When he turned his attention to the floor again, however,
his jaw dropped. Which was impressive, because Reia and
Alea would have bet that it was as far from the rest of his
face as was humanly possible already.

What he saw explained the strange sloping of the floor, and
the "valley" effect. A window was set into the floor, and
through it Miro could see a slowly revolving starscape.

**********

Author's Notes:

Yep, I put them in a sci-fi universe. ^^; I figured a) that
Miro'd been in one world for too long and b) that not every
universe other than Earth would be fantasy.

Obviously, the three will have many questions, both for
each other and (Miro especially) for the Shop. Though the
harrowing escape they'd just experienced had made them act
more or less friendly, if just from the shock, Alea and
Reia are bound to remember their differences, as are Shop
and Alea. All three (Shop, Alea, and Miro) must be
wondering how Reia got from one place to another so quickly
on her homeworld, and Miro probably wants some explanations
from his Shop.

Then, there's the fun of introducing Reia to the wonders of
a more-than-modern world. I figure Alea has probably been
to one or two like this...or not, depending on the author's
mood. Miro certainly should have some preconceptions about
it, having been exposed to at least some sci-fi on earth
(by Rikura, if nothing else). How accurate those
preconceptions are remains to be seen, of course.

As to Weren and Reia's former employer...who knows where
the latter went and what the former is up to? Maybe they'll
catch up, maybe not.

Finally, I thought that Miro had it too easy in the last
world, and sought to explain why no other Shops answered
such a lucrative request – hence the other Shopkeeper's
claims of keeping them away. With no such interference this
time around, Miro's going to have some competition, which
could also make things interesting.

I am sorry that I pulled them out before we could see the
Destined Heroes again. I liked them. But, there's nothing
preventing Miro from going back there at some point,
perhaps for a vacation, or even for plot important reasons.
^_^ I sort of thought that Alea and Reia would make good
sidekicks for Miro, but, they don't have to stick around.
Alea could leave after she accomplishes whatever it is she
wants to do here (Remember – this is both the universe with
the request and the one she wanted to go to). Reia could
just decide to stay somewhere, if Miro or Alea or someone
else won't take her home, should she wish not to stay with
Miro and his Shop for a while.

Then again, Miro could always try to follow his earlier
mentioned idea and go pick up Rikura...

Hm... wonder what the time rate is in this new world vs.
that of earth and the previous world?

Anyway, Thanks go out to Chamaeleon for the extension. And
apologies to anyone who dislikes this part and what I've
done with it.

And so concludes not only my first part to lack an epilogue
after the Author's notes, but also my first impro part
other than Arcana! Wheeeeee!

**********