Tisha was admiring the sculptures, and she turned to gawk at Jade in awe. “Where’d you get such pretty lighted sculptures? I’ve never seen them lighted like this!”
Jade grinned. “I lit some of Damian’s sculptures from The Glass Phoenix, so this is my work together with his.” Tisha went slack-jawed for only a moment before bouncing onto her toes.
“I want one!”
Jade laughed. “Okay, I guess we can stop there too. I need to see if Damian is done with something I requested anyways.” With that cryptic statement that she refused to explain no matter how much they cajoled, they made their way out of the library bickering like old friends. Jade couldn’t stop smiling. Was this what it felt like to go on an outing with friends? She felt light as a little cloud.
When they got to The Glass Phoenix, Jade felt it necessary to give Tisha a little warning. “Just be careful. Pretty much everything in the shop is breakable, so one wrong step could send glass shards everywhere.” She was honestly amazed she hadn’t broken anything yesterday.
When the little bell went off, announcing their presence, Damian came out of the back with a generous smile. When he saw Jade his smile got bigger, dimmed a little when he noticed Eric right behind her, then went wide with shock at seeing the very distinct appearance of the princesses. He boomed out in a much more subdued voice than yesterday, “Ah, welcome to The Glass Phoenix! How may I help you?”
Jade grinned, walking forward. “Oh calm down, they’re with me. Girls, go ahead and look for something you like. If it’s not lit already, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.” She grinned as they scurried off to inspect all the glass sculptures as Eric loomed behind her and she smiled at Damian. “I take it business is good, eh?”
He flushed a little. “Err… Yes. The light within series has all sold but one. I didn’t realize Viscount Eric and you were so close…” She grinned because Eric was still looming behind her. She filed away his title to think on at another time, as this was the first time she’d heard it. “Ironically, he thought I would love the sculpture he bought, so it was for me. I had quite the laugh about it. But since business is doing so well, I think perhaps we should take a look at the terms of the contract before we sign anything.” She gave him an astute stare, and he sighed, shaking his head.
“All right lass, it’ll be as you say. You’re a shrewd businesswoman.” He glanced at Eric as if implying that she’d sent him to spy on the prices before she negotiated.
She grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll look at it going forward, but for now, I won’t fuss with it if you have the prototypes I asked for?”
He looked surprised and a little grateful. Apparently what she was asking for was worth a lot less than what he’d earned by upping the pricing of the lighted sculptures. “Of course, I’ve got them wrapped up in the back. I’ll go grab them.” He turned and went into the back, having no fear that the four of them would steal anything.
Jade glanced at Eric, who had relaxed the moment Damian went into the back. “Want to help me write a fair contract tomorrow?”
He snickered, shaking his head. “You’re incredible. Sure, I’ll help you.”
Grinning, she encouraged, “Great, now you go pick out a sculpture you like too. Your office is way too bare.” He just laughed and started to walk towards a corner of the store where a different sculpture had caught his eye last night. She grinned in return as the girls started bringing sculptures to the counter. She raised a brow at the sheer number of them, then started counting and tittered when she reached 8. “Getting one for everyone, are you?”
Tisha bobbed and laughed, “Of course! We couldn’t leave anyone out of such awesomeness, now could we?”
Jade grinned. “Of course not.”
Camille reached inside a little medium sized bag and pulled out five crowns. It seemed she had noticed the two sculptures Eric had brought back and decided to buy them as well. Eric was about to protest, but was silenced by a hard look from Camille before he got a word out. Jade meanwhile, was staring at the bag. She hadn’t heard any clinking coming from it before, and she was pretty sure the way Camille had been walking, she’d have heard something.
Camille obviously noticed her peek and grinned. “Dad lent me his holding bag so that we wouldn’t have to have a servant following us around. I wish he’d do this every time we went shopping!” And then it clicked. She had a freaking bag of holding! She was jealous until she realized she’d signed up for a spatial magic class, and would hopefully soon be able to make one for herself. One that was less like a shapeless, ugly thing. A nice purse or backpack would be good. Maybe even a ring if she could figure out how to make it work.
Damian came out of the back, carefully setting down a medium-sized box that was filled with various things. Why she’d asked for sheets of scored and colored glass, he had no idea. The other shaped, dark glass she asked for made little sense either, nor did the little almost tubes she’d had him make. Either way, it was all relatively easy to do, requiring little skill, unlike his sculptures.
“Perfect, thanks! Can you wrap these up for us?” She indicated the sculptures before him, and he got to work packing them up as she considered the box, finally muttering, “Yeah, there’s no way I can carry that and not break it.”
Camille tapped her on the shoulder, saying with a grin, “Ah ah ah, don’t forget, I have the bag of awesome!” She took the bag over to the box, opening it wide and basically just sliding the box in. It disappeared, and she hung the bag back on her shoulder like it was nothing.
Jade asked a little worriedly, “Uhm… It won’t break in there, right?”
Tisha giggled and answered, “No, silly! It’s a separate space dimension. Your box will be totally fine, and so will our boxes!” That said, Tisha had begun putting the little metal boxes in the bag. Jade was suddenly disappointed that she’d have to wait an entire week to learn spatial magic…
With a thought, she waved at Damian, who seemed cheerful that he’d done business with royalty, and that his work would be displayed–in the palace! “Bye Damian, Eric and I will come back tomorrow to get that contract done.” He looked a tiny bit paler at the prospect that Eric would be coming back with her, then nodded and waved them off as she called back, “Have a great day!”
Their next stop turned out to be just around the corner, though in a direction she’d never gone before. She was amazed as they walked into the decidedly hot store and saw all sorts of beautiful metal figurines on display, along with a host of more practical things. The smell of heated metal settled on them like a blanket. She walked up to one of them, touching the delicate curves of the metal flowers as she turned to focus on Eric. “This is your handiwork, isn’t it?” At his shocked nod, she smiled again. “I thought so.”
“How on earth did you know that?” He asked as one of the employees came out of the shop, obviously having just finished part of his work.
He greeted them cheerfully. “Eric, what brings you here with three such…princesses?” He had trailed off, finally recognizing two of the girls. Jade had to hold in her snicker at his awestruck face.