'Huh, her last name just changed.'
We separated.
'WAIT! Her last name just changed! What does that even mean?!'
Laveki noticed my distress and mirrored it.
"Did I do something wrong?" She wore a worried look.
"No, no, it's just something I noticed because of my specs, take a look." I took off my Spectacles of Insight and handed them to her haphazardly.
"Oh, my last name changed, I thought you had something scary to tell me, it just means that I've claimed what's mine."
I scratched the back of my head and put out my hands for my glasses. "If you're okay with it, then alright." I paused to accept my glasses and put them on. "My giant spirit paper should have come in by now, have you seen it?"
"It's right there, but you need some other pieces first right? Like the lens and housing?"
She pointed to a giant spirit paper with a note on top, sealed with the president's seal.
"Yeah, I've got a budget of forty lions, this page probably takes up thirty of those. Let me check."
I took the note off the page and unsealed it, the note claimed that it was thirty four lions.
"The housing and glass are going to have to be cheap as it comes, there's no way we will be able to afford a professional glassblower."
"Well that's easy, just do it yourself."
I looked at her with a face befitting of a new boyfriend.
"Have you ever tried glassblowing?" I asked "Or even just grinding down glass?"
"Nope!" She smiled. "But with a power like yours I'd bet you could whip one up real quick!"
"Laveki." Put my palm to my forehead. "Your genius never ceases to amaze."
'The secret is her naivety, she doesn't know what would be difficult or what would have been the easiest way to do it in some other world, she is in this world and this one alone, working within it's constraints.'
Orin appeared from my shadow and laid in my lap.
"Where's all of the rest of your creating crew? Devin, John, Fabiru, I haven't seen them in a long time." He said as my hand moved from my beard to his back.
"They've all got their own things to deal with, Devin started an expedition yesterday to look for a tree that's sap is said to contain pure, solid, Eneru. Fabiru is an excellent smith that is teaching his kid the arts, enough said about that."
"Wait, isn't Eneru energy, not matter?" Laveki interjected.
"That's the most likely option, but we shouldn't rule out the possibility that Eneru is a gas."
"Aww man, now I'm intrigued." Laveki pouted.
"Don't worry, they'll be back soon, for now we need to get to town and buy some quartz sand, can't make glass without it."
********
As we made our way to town, Laveki and I were talking about money, she'd never gone shopping before.
"First up, there's the housecat, this is the smallest unit of currency in Eiovi."
I showed her a small paper note with a house cat on it.
"Ten housecats make one lynx, ten lynx make up one lion, ten lions make up a tressm."
I showed her the notes in succession. They were all slightly different from the other ones and had different animals too. The tressm looked like a saber-toothed tiger with giant bird wings.
"Ok, and what is one lion worth?" Laveki deftly dodged a man who she almost ran into.
I showed her the amethyst she gave me to put on Rift Garden.
"It would take about two hundred lions to purchase this."
"Huh, always figured dear ol' dad had a good taste in gems." She replied nonchalantly.
"Ah, so it was your dad's nec- watch out!"
A small child with upside-down horns on his temples bumped into Laveki.
"Stop." I said to the boy, who was instantly met by Fent.
He obeyed.
"That's not yours. Give it back." I pointed at the chakram in his hands.
"But-"
"No buts! Don't take what you haven't earned! What's your name lad?"
He shied away from me as I got closer.
"B- Bu- Benny." He quivered, obviously never being caught before.
"Alright Benny, why are you stealing?" I asked as I pulled him off to the side.
Laveki put her chakram back on her belt as he began.
"Well, mama and papa don't work, they say the government is evil and the cops are state dogs."
"Go on."
"Well, I haven't eaten in a while and papa's sick so I've have to be the man of the house now. Plus, no one's gonna miss a few trinkets here and there, they're all just vanity. Well, that's what mama tells me." He didn't miss a beat despite his obvious embarrassment at being caught.
"Well that chakram's a bit more than a trinket." I grabbed the boy's hand and began healing the slice the chakram left in it.
Orin popped out of my shadow and wrapped around the little boy, comforting him.
"Alright kid, you're going to come with us for a while and when we're done shopping we'll go see your pops and see what's up."
"I don't wanna." He acted like he could slip away at any moment.
"I'll buy you food."
"I'm in."
During our shopping trip we had our fair share of fans trying to see us, but the golems and Orin always kept them at bay, I didn't want to wear a disguise on my first day out with Laveki.
"You really are famous, big horn guy." Benny said, getting ready to bite down on his milfoil sandwich.
"Name's Ingen, Ingen Meiung."
Benny's face lit up like the night sky.
"You're the guy who's gonna end the slums?! Recently the president guy said that there would be a bunch of jobs open for the people in the slums!"
"Yep, that's me, and that fox you're riding on is Orin. Honestly I thought you guessed already."
"We're here." Laveki looked back at us from the storefront.
"You guys stay here, you're too big for the store."
We entered the shop and the store owner immediately recognized Benny.
"You little rascal! How dare you come back here after stealing my tip jar!"
Benny attempted to escape but I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
"Apologize to him." I turned him around and bowed his head forcibly.
"I am terribly sorry for stealing your tip jar!" He said more out of fear than regret.
"I'll pay for it, how much did he steal?"
"Twelve lynx"
"I've only got lions, so take these two." I pulled out my bulging wallet. "How much is a small bucket of quartz sand?"
'I have no expenses and I get paid well, this country is great.'
The man sensed a repeat customer.
"For you, four lions."
"Deal." I handed over the six lions, making a note to get reimbursed for the four that were for the airship scanner.
"While you're here, I can't help but notice your Spatial Glove is using quartz for the focuses and even then they seem damaged. You must have noticed too, since you replaced one of them with an amethyst." He blatantly roped me in for another purchase, to which I humbly obliged.
"Do you have any rubies?"
"We sure do, but a better focus would be a diamond, they're the best besides opal."
"Well a diamond sounds good, but it's not worth it in the long run because of how much Eneru leaking happens with them, they might allow the most charges and range, but the suck you dry before you can use them fully. A ruby instead is more Eneru efficient and still has a better range than most. Plus it would fit the theme of the glove."
The Jewler thought for a while and decided something.
"You're right, let me fetch you some rubies."
While he was gone I took the quartz out of my glove with intuitive manipulation.
When he returned he was astounded that I had dismantled the glove and removed the quartz in such short order, but ultimately decided not to pry.
You have a choice of these seven.
He showed me his seven gems and I looked at him straight.
"Two tressms for the lot." I began my haggling low.
"Three tressms" He countered.
"Two tressms and five lions."
"Two tressms and six lions and you have a deal."
"Deal."
The haggling lasted less than a minute and everyone was astounded at the battle of prices.
"I used to run a shop when I was in school, valuable experience."
The store owner narrowed his eyes at me for a moment.
"Wait a second, you're not from around here are you? Your skin is paler and your Eiovian is rough." He smiled. "Wait a second! You're Ingen Meiung!"
"In the flesh." I slapped down the money and picked up my new rubies.
With a thought I slotted them into their proper place and shaped them like various flower blooms.
"Sorry, we have to get going, nice shop by the way."
With that we went off to the slums to meet Benny's parents.