“Cat?” I couldn’t even get the question out, asking how much it was in dollars.
“That’s worth…”
Indigo cut him off. “I used the rate for gold to dollars, and it more than covers the things. But, I didn’t know how to get it from this, to spending on the site.”
The number she stated made my heart tremble. Indigo had more money in that brick than all of my savings from being at this job. And it wasn’t like I didn’t put away a good amount of my salary each month.
She was rich.
I blinked, completely sidetracked by Lady Twilight giving Indigo a literal brick of gold.
“It's for ergencies, and Sapphire needs stuff, so, ergency.” The words ca out in a rush from the little dragon.
I completely understood how that all made sense. “Okay, here’s what we're going to do. Next ti, you need to talk to before you want to make any purchases, okay?”
She nodded frantically and pushed the gold brick closer to before grabbing a pillow.
“I got us each matching pillows,” she added.
“Betty is going to exchange the gold for money,” I said thinking fast. “But we need to talk to Lady Twilight about all of this, not to ntion the other orders you placed. Sapphire's mom might not want to accept anything, because of pride.”
“Pride?” asked Indigo.
The Cat replied before I could say anything. “She might not want to accept help. So beings have high standards of dignity, and she might not accept this from you.”
Indigo’s head played ping-pong between the two of us and she held out a pillow for . “You have yellow!”
I took the pillow carefully and tried not to run my fingers over it. So freaking soft.
Then she pushed a green one to the Cat, and she grabbed a purple one.
“Only things not for Sapphire,” she said.
She actually got us matching pillows. The Cat stared at her, but nudged the pillow with his nose.
“How about we cancel the other orders, then after we talk to Lady Twilight we can revisit this?”
Indigo slowly nodded. “I got excited.”
“I understand that shopping online can be addicting.” I quickly canceled the orders on my phone, thankful we still had ti. I also signed out of the shopping site.
“Fun, but too fun.”
“Exactly.” I stared at all of the other stuff. “Betty can…”
The things vanished.
Perfect. Hopefully, Lady Twilight was ready for that conversation.
The pillows vanished as well, but I bet I’d find mine on my bed. Who knew where the Cat’s went, while Indigo's would probably go into her hideaway.
“My class!”Indigo’s eyes went wide. She shot up and out of sight.
“That went well.” The Cat’s voice ca out flat. “She bribed us.”
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“Unintentionally, I think.” My head hit my palm as I chuckled. “When is Lady Twilight visiting again?”
“I don’t know.” The Cat’s tail snapped in the air. “Not for the next couple of visits. At least the pillow is comfortable.”
I couldn’t stop the small laughter.
“We have another custor before lunch, if you want to be distracted,” added the Cat. He nudged my head with his nose.
I lifted my head and scratched behind his ears. “We might as well.”
The children’s area vanished into the floor as a few other bookshelves popped up in its place. Dusty tos covered the wooden shelves, and not a single new book remained. Even the center table shifted to much older stock. Everything had cloth bindings and muted colors.
I took a deep breath to regain my bearings, and sipped my latte.
The Cat stayed closer to than normal.
“Ready?” he asked quietly.
I nodded.
The bell on the door barely rang as it only opened a crack to let inside a tiny fluttering being. A chiming sound ca from the being, as she flew inside. She wore tiny glasses, but had a bag strapped over a shoulder that hung below her as she flew. It had to be three, if not four, tis the size of her.
She stood maybe 4 inches tall, not counting her wings.
A fairy of so sort, though she didn’t even glance in our direction.
“Good morning and welco to the shop,” I said with a smile. Hopefully, we could help her.
Her hand waved in our direction and a voice ca from close by, even as she started flying through the shelves. “Morning, I’m looking for a specific book. Silence, captured in a Jar.”
I smiled and nodded, pushing a wave of my magic across the room.
If we had it, I’d find it.
The golden glow brushed against her as she read each title on the first shelf. Golden lines branched off from her, but only one connected to an object in the shop. A book on the table in the center of the room glowed.
“I think we have that, but we’ll need to find it. It might be on the big table,” I added, not wanting to rush her shopping experience.
She didn’t stop her movents, but continued going shelf by shelf, book by book, reading each of the titles.
The Cat curled up next to .
It wasn’t until one of the last shelves that she tapped one of the book's spines. It pulled itself off the shelf and then hung in the air. She slipped through the pages and nodded before pointing to us.
The book then flew through the air and landed on the counter.
“Quiet monts of quiet days,” I read to myself from the title. It wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, but it followed the the.
Two more books ended up on the counter, all with a the of silence, quiet and soothing.
Finally, she fluttered over to the table and started on the various tos there.
A squeak ca from her as she frantically tapped one of the books. It appeared on top of the others.
Silence, Captured in a Jar.
The cover continued a jar with fireflies glowing inside. It made feel uneasy. Like an empty room that you didn’t want to speak in.
Still, she kept going through the books on the table thodically, reviewing each cover before moving on.
Finally, she flew our way and hovered in the air. “You even have a first edition! This is going to help with the shouts from the rest of my books. I knew I shouldn’t have purchased so many tos last year, but it finally pushed the shelves over the edge.”
“Shouts?” I asked, as I rang up the purchases.
“Yes, from my living library. Each book has its own voice, and…” she shivered midair. “I need so silence to soothe the other books back into a calming atmosphere.”
So many questions bounced around inside my head about her library, but I didn’t even know where to start.
“For all of those titles it will be… a bag of pixy dust.” I did not stutter, but part of broke seeing that, and thinking of a children's book I’d read multiple tis growing up. While she didn’t look like one of those fairies, I didn’t know if she was where rumors of such things had started.
“Oh, that’s easy enough.” She pointed at the counter and a bag appeared. Then she tapped each of the books. They vanished, though the bag hanging below her stretched out as each to apparently fit inside.
The Cat moved between the pouch of dust and before I could reach for it.
“This was such a good trip for my library.” She waved at as she zood closer to the door. “Toodles!”
Then she slipped out.
“A living library?” I asked, thinking of the last library custor we’d had that’d involved roots of the tree which held the universe together.
The Cat shook his head. “Not a clue, but she went with a the.”
“And pixie dust is real?”
“She was a pixie, though you don’t want to touch that. It can make humans itchy.” He touched it with a paw. “Or fly, and you don’t know how you’ll react before trying it.”
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