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Morri's Oddities.
A secluded mansion and shop, north of Elbion and close to the Gulf of Liad. A store for things one wants. A store for things one doesn't. Behold the menagarie of things you never knew you always wanted, things you never knew you would shy from. There's a bit of yourself in here, you know. Waiting. Hm. Just waiting. For you. Discover what draws your eye, and discover what repulses it. Oh yes. You'll know before you leave. Some things in life are free.
Isn't that sweet?
Hm.
* * * * *
Heike Eisen was referred. Apparently, many people were referred to this shop--not a lot who simply wandered in--and she could see why. The mansion, inexplicably, was in the middle of nowhere. A stretch of land uninhabited for miles around. The mansion was nestled among a patch of hardy, sparse trees, with the foothills of the Seret mountains to the south and the sheer cliff face and the Gulf of Liad some hundred yards to the mansion's north.
She approached. Noting the strangeness of the grass around the mansion being meticulously trimmed. Noting the sign above the mansion's front doors, the words written in elegantly stylish script: Morri's Oddities.
And the door was unlocked.
Quite inviting.
* * * * *
It was quiet on the inside. Heike's footsteps, normally verging on completely silent themselves, sounded like a troll's lumbering stomps.
She stood by the front doors in the mansion's foyer, glancing about warily. The interior of the mansion was awash in warm shades of endless red: faded pinks and muted cranberries, brilliant rose and subtle sanguine. Though the walls were packed with decorations and shelves and paintings and cabinets and all manner of smaller items neatly arrayed, not one speck of dust could be seen anywhere. Not even in the soft white glow that seemed to be an ambient light, coming from nowhere but permeating gently through the whole of the mansion.
"Wel~come~," said a voice from nearby.
Heike looked. Across from the staircase leading up, there on the opposite wall of the foyer was some manner of counter, flanked by thick crimson curtains on either side and adorned with a soft red and tasseled cloth on its surface.
Beyond the counter, sitting in a chair fit for nobility and with an elbow resting on the counter, Morri. The sorceress, the proprietor. She, oddly, appeared both child-like and adolescent, both adolescent and adult. Her presence both sinister and soothing. Her smirk made of both friendly playfulness and sly cunning. Her orange, half-closed eyes tired and energetic. The red, hooded shawl she wore innocent like a little girl's and wicked like a callous assassin's. The twin locks of her blonde hair draping down on either side of her face both purposefully disheveled and accidentally orderly. Her bare feet both endearing and repulsing.
Oh, and she wore a big bow on her shawl. Just a bow. At the base of her neck. Nothing special. Hm.
"Come closer," Morri said, her voice nasal in quality. Her consonants drawn out and enunciated in unorthodox ways and in sporadic fashion. Her inhalations a touch hollow and raspy, as if she had some trouble breathing.
Heike, with no shortage of heightened vigilance, walked across the foyer and to the counter and stood before the sitting--girl? woman?--sorceress.
"You must be Morri," she said.
"That...I am."
Heike expected her to say more. She didn't. Just kept sitting there with her elbow on the counter, gazing at and through her.
So Heike prompted, "I was referred."
"By one of my friends~~....in El~bion." Morri rocked her dangling leg back and forth lazily. "I know."
Heike, more than slightly frustrated, broke from her purpose in being here and diverted into saying, "Can I ask you something?"
A spark of interest in Morri's eyes. "You can ask me...hmmmm..." A pause. Longer enough for Heike to almost speak, and then Morri finished: "...anything~."
"Are you a girl? A woman?"
"Both. And neither."
"Are you," Heike's head turned a little askew, "intentionally contradicting yourself?"
"We all have our natures."
"What the hell are you?"
"Certainly not...what you might thin--k~~"
Heike shook her head. Let it go. So wasn't here for the sorceress, but rather for something she heard the sorceress had. And so she asked, "Do you know what I have come here for?"
"There is something you want. And there are...plen~~ty of things you don't know you want."
"I'd rather keep this to one transaction at a time."
Morri just giggled. A nasally sound, like her voice.
Heike said, "The Ocular Vampiris. Do you have it?"
"'Have' is an in~~teresting word."
"Will you sell it to me or not?"
"So is 'sell.'"
Heike closed her eyes. Touched her forehead with the side of her closed fist. Gathering the resolve to get through this interaction.
"Can you please...simply tell me...what I must do to acquire this item from you."
"Answer me thisssss: why do you seek it?"
Heike, without hesitation, said, "To destroy it."
Morri's eyelids bounced upward suggestively. "Ooooohh..."
"So what must I do?"
"First~~..."
And Morri didn't finish her sentence. Just sat there. Elbow on the counter and smirking and looking up at Heike.
"First what?"
"Say hello to Malphias."
"Who?"
"Malphias."
"You said that. Who is he?"
"That's not importan~~t."
"Alright. Fine. What is important about him?"
"Say hello. He's right behind you."
Malphias
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