Chương 33: Mammon’s

Yet winding words in the Bureau of Arcane Taxation halted unity. The Morsin seat, empowered by bloodline magic, Held veto in the House of Lords. Every motion met a wall, every order died unborn. Bjorn ruled not just with steel - But with law, and blood, and silence. The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 42 Felix navigated his way back to the common room, gave the password, grabbed his money, but needed Chris and Beatrix's help getting out to the front gates. He paused at the portcullis.

"You know, the invisible bridge was a lot more convincing after seeing everyone else go over it first." Felix said, slowly feeling the air in front of him with his foot. Syr Gorram was leaning against the nearby wall, looking on in endless amusement but not saying anything.

"Go on," Chris egged.

"Just step right on out, it'll be fine." Given that the two Dragons were looking at Felix with amusement and not stepping forward on their own, it wasn't very convincing. The two of them were now wearing black berets as well. Part of the uniform when they were outside, but they'd left their staves behind.

"If Beatrix had said it, I'd believe it." Felix said, still trying to find the bridge with his foot.

"Oh, it's totally there." Beatrix said in the flattest voice.

"Not. Helping." Felix grit out.

"You know I have paper money on me? If I fall in, it's ruined?" Felix considered a lesser concern.

"And there's all sorts of things in there that could eat me." Beatrix laughed, and strode past Felix, her feet firmly planted on the bridge that Felix's foot wasn't finding.

"Come on!" She said. Felix hurried after her. A few groans came up from behind, and a couple more students who'd been watching the show came along.

"Do we walk all the way down to, er, Corwin?" Felix asked, barely remembering the name of the little town.

"Only when Leona's in a mood." Chris said.

"Nah, we take the argo." Felix eyed the pool.

"Paper money wet bad?" He tried feebly, watching the other students sinking in.

"You don't get wet." Beatrix said.

"Normally, you need to call out where you're going, but the argo here can only connect to the one in Corwin. No need to dawdle, the silver's fine." Clutching his $782. 12 in a pouch like it was his lifeline, Felix slowly walked into the pool. He took a deep breath right before submerging his head, and the whole world shifted around him. His inner ears rang with disorientation, insisting up was left and down was up. Felix felt quite nauseous as he walked back out, but kept moving.

Beatrix and Chris were right behind him.

"First stop, Mammons!" Chris happily walked down one of the roads, and Felix followed along, his eyes wide in amazement. He'd seen Corwin before, but had been a little distracted by the wolves. He hadn't quite realized all the magic there was! Buildings floated, kids raced overhead on brooms, spells were casually cast every which way. Pixies carried banners advertising stores. People vanished and reappeared in bursts of flames, occasionally causing angry remarks. The stores had a strong alliterative theme.

Witch's Wears and Wardrobe had clothes strutting around without a mannequin, Sterling Stravolux Supplies had a tiny model of an exciting-looking broom game, and Agatha's Apothecary had frogs playing with newts in clear terrariums. They were just the first few stores Felix spotted. The Twilight Tome Treasury had a fantastical display of books in the front window. The Six Lanterns of Maltherium Mortivex was front and center, showing an undead dragon surrounded by ghostly flames.

The fires were actually projecting out of the book, and no other book was placed near it. Other book titles include The life and times of Archmage Sabian, Generations of Grimoire Games, and The Sundering of the World: How the Zombie Apocalypse came to Arcadia. The subtitle on that book was 12 easy tricks for fighting the undead! Which did not fill Felix with confidence. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Cauldrons were for sale. Gold! Silver!

Copper! Mercury! Yew! Ivory! Reusable Raffia Palm! Auto-decanting! He wanted it. He wanted all of it. Then there were the people! It was early in the morning, yet the streets were already lively. Either it was rush hour, or whatever equivalent the wixen had, or the town was quite densely populated. A man was wrapped up in butterfly wings. A woman's afro was a thundercloud, and Felix couldn't tell if it was spelled to look like that, or she was actually wearing a tiny storm.

Wands were strapped to forearms or dangled from belts with chains. Cores were glinting in the early morning light from their spot of honor on necklaces. One girl's headdress looked to be made out of a giant bird's feathers, but Felix had no idea what bird could be so large. A peacock would be the right size, but the coloring was all wrong.

"Young folk have NO consideration at all these days!" A posh gentleman loudly complained. Felix thought he might have a valid gripe. A man had just flamed away next to him, setting his robes on fire. With the absolute nonchalance displayed as he extinguished the fire on his robes, Felix thought it might be a regular occurrence. He tried to wrap his head around the idea of people effectively lighting themselves on fire around him regularly. Magic was weird.

The streets of Corwin weren't laid out in a grid, but at least they were straight.

"We want Banker's Boulevard." Chris said, turning at the sign. Felix's eyes widened as one of the buildings was on fire. The wizarding world seemed to have a lot of unusual things on fire, he was starting to notice a theme. Transportation, books, buildings, people… Given how nonchalant everyone was about it… no, better to ask.

"Uh, Beatrix?" Felix said.

"The building's on fire."

"That's Mammon's." She said without blinking an eye.

"Their interest rates are hellish." Chris faux-whispered with a twinkle in his eye. Felix whimpered, but took a closer look. The building was built grandly, like a temple, made entirely out of black obsidian. Hellfire coated it from top to bottom, the flames a mix of black and red. A pair of hulking demons were standing guard outside the doors, armed to the teeth.

"Once more into the maw of the beast!" Chris cheerfully said, walking right in.

"I need to pick up some funds myself." Felix looked up at the doorway. Obsidian was hanging from it, making the whole thing look like a mouth. The inside was far more subdued. They got in line, and Felix couldn't help but stare at the tellers. Some of them looked like normal wixen. Given that they were working elbow to elbow with red skinned, pointy-tailed devils, Felix wasn't entirely sure that was the case. Plus, what even made up a 'normal' wix?

Given how many of the general population seemed to be scarred, tattooed, growing wings, or otherwise had odd things going on, adults like Professor Paracelsus and the wixen working here seemed unusual. Or perhaps Camelot was an unusual area. The walls had pentagrams hanging all over them, and a few spots on the floor had pentagrams drawn on them. The other people in the bank studiously avoided stepping in them, and Felix followed form. Standing in line was boring.

It became much more exciting when the doors slammed open, and a new pair of demons dragged in a screaming man, with a wizard following behind.

"No! I can pay! Just give me one more week!" The captive screamed.

"One more day! I can pay! I can pay!" The demons dragged the man through the lobby, and opened one of the more solid-looking doors. A chorus of faint screams came up as the door was opened, and the lobby was suddenly much warmer. Black chains erupted from the door and wrapped around the debtor.

"Noooooo!" He screamed as he was dragged in, and the door was slammed shut. Felix stared at it with wide eyes.

"That is why you don't borrow gold from Mammons. If you do, you pay it back." Beatrix whispered to Felix. He nodded like a bobblehead. No borrowing. Scraping and scrimping was the name of the game. He had thought the loan sharks where he lived were bad… ha! Rank amateurs, the lot of them. Felix was happy when a witch called them over.

"Purpose of visit?" She asked.

"Not borrowing money." Felix blurted out.

"I need to withdraw some aureli." Chris said.

"This one needs to convert noonie money."

"And you?" She asked Beatrix.

"I'm just tagging along." She said. Felix carefully counted out his money while Chris withdrew his funds. Just a casual 20 aureli, more than what Felix had for the entire year. He let the familiar pang of envy go. 10, 11, 12. $782. 12. He hovered protectively over his neatly stacked bills, reluctant to let them go.

"Trading currency?" The witch asked him. Felix nodded, and gestured to the bills. The witch's face scrunched up.

"Dollars?" She asked, like he'd brought her something distasteful." American dollars?"

"Yeah, is something wrong?" Felix asked a tad sharply.

"Let me see what the current rate is." She drew her wand, and with a few sharp motions and a muttered spell, smoke emerged from her wand. It quickly twisted into numbers.

"I can do 14 aureli and 37 denarii." She said. Felix instantly did the mental math. 737? From $782? Of course he'd get fucked on the exchange rate, nothing new. He thought he'd get the full 782 denarii, or close enough.

"Fine." He reluctantly agreed. The witch rapidly swapped the funds, then started counting the coins out in front of him. The denarii were like silver pebbles, and obnoxiously round like one. They didn't stack at all, falling into a pile. The aureli were fat golden coins, with an obnoxious picture of a fat demon on one side, and a logo that Felix assumed was Mammon's on the other.

"That's not going to be enough for everything." Beatrix pointed out.

"I fucking know." He hissed at her.

"What the fuck do you want me to do? Magic up a few more coins? I don't have anything else." Beatrix had the good grace to look embarrassed, and Felix swept the counted coins off the counter into his bag.

"Let's go." He moodily stomped out, letting his two classmates follow. That whole experience had been far tamer than he expected. Felix didn't quite know what he expected, but standing in line only to quickly trade one type of funds for another seemed… not magical. As they walked away from Mammon's, Felix looked back. The flames were on the building in such a way to make it look like a gigantic demon skull. He ignored the quiet argument Beatrix and Chris were having behind him.

"Let's get you a wand first." Chris said.

"Most important tool. Books after?"

"I have all my books." Felix admitted.

"Including the magic ones?" Beatrix asked, looking startled.

"Yup." Felix said." Impressive."

"Do we want Wilder's Wondrous Wicks and Wands, or Crown & Conduit?" Chris asked.

"Wilder's." Beatrix answered.

"Crown's overpriced." She shot a significant look at Felix.

"Ah, yeah, Wilder's." Chris agreed.

"Onwards!