Coal stood in the middle of his store, looking around as he busied himself with taking inventory. It was mostly out of habit at this point. It was late in the night, almost into the morning, and he wasn't even sure as to why he was still awake.
He held a hot mug beneath his mask and breathed in the vapor rising from the coffee that was the only reason he was still awake. He barely remembered making the brew, but he cherished the warmth in his hands if nothing else. He'd barely sipped at the concoction, still hoping to be asleep soon.
Looking around the twilight almost darkness of the room, he felt that familiar tickle underneath his skin that kept him from sleeping. Shaking the feeling away, he quickly looked around the shop, trying to find anything out of place.
The issue resolved itself shortly when a hoof knocked on his door.
A shiver ran up his spine, and he felt that he'd been waiting on this particular customer.
Walking over, he inspected his simple white and blue striped pajamas and made sure his mask was firmly in place. Nodding, he unlocked the door and pulled it open a bit.
"Hi, can I help you?" he asked his customer.
Listening, he nodded after a minute. "Sure, but opening the store just for you will cost you extra."
He listened for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. In that case, welcome to you. My name is Coal, and this is Lender's." Moving aside, he gestured inside the store.
He watched the customer enter, then closed the door. He didn't bother with the lock, but he did reach out with a spread hand and twist it in the air. Slowly, the light in the shop increased, bathing everything inside with a gentle yellow glow.
Watching his customer for a moment, he walked over to the door at the back of the store. "Coffee? I have some decent tasting instant mix."
The customer spoke to him again, and he nodded, walking into the back room. He paused for a second, his head cocked, before walking to his kitchen. Setting a kettle on the stove, he spooned a bit of fresh coffee into a mug. The water was quick to boil, and he stirred in a little sugar with the water.
Taking the mug, he carefully walked back in to the main room of his shop.
"Ah," he said as he spotted the customer, "this must be for you." He held the mug out to them, and they took it. "I hope I made it right."
They murmured to Coal, and he was reassured. Standing around, he walked over to his mug and sipped at it, watching the customer as they moved slowly through the aisles. After a moment he put out a hand and pulled a thing wooden box from the air.
"Smoke?" he asked.
Listening to them, he nodded before rolling a tube of paper and herbs for himself and lighting it. A soft purple cloud exhaled from the slit in his mask, and he nodded at it.
"At least you're not like some of the other customers I've had like you." They spoke to him. "Oh yeah. I had one that was radioactive, made me go get a lead suit just to sell them a wooden toy. Eleven gold, for all of that trouble."
He listened for a moment, before saying, "Sounds rough. Most people like you were trying for something like this when it became permanent, but an unlucky few are just cursed."
They asked him a question, and he shook his head sadly.
"Unfortunately, I'm not completely immune. Not really immune at all, but I've had enough of these sorts of conversations to know what needs to be said. I can remember my side of the talks well enough, which is rare but not unheard of."
They spoke to him, before turning back to the shelves.
He took a pull on his smoke, letting the cloud seep out of his mouth before taking a sip of his coffee. "Any more of you around, that you know of?"
They spoke, and he nodded.
"Good, although not definitive. Sometimes you can be hidden from each other, depending on the situation."
They spoke to him, and he nodded.
"Oh yeah, there could be another one out there who you could be forgetting, just like with you. All depends on the cause."
They spoke for a moment, before picking something up from one of his shelves.
"Ah, right," Coal said, a little surprised. "I forgot you were looking for something. You've got some coin, right? Because I had one of you who thought I would just forget him as soon as I blinked, and tried to take off with some stuff. Burnt their tail off trying to get them out of my shop."
They spoke, and a bag of coins appeared on the counter.
Looking at what they were holding, Coal reached into the bag and felt out some coins. Waiting for his hand to finish the process, he looked down and counted out ninety bits in his palm. Looking at the purse, it was still quite full.
"I've got ninety. Acceptable?"
They said something, and when Coal looked at the counter again the purse was gone. Coal walked around the counter, then pulled out a lock-box. Opening the latch, he placed the money inside before pulling out his ledger.
Blinking, he yawned and looked around the empty store. Looking down at the counter, he saw two mugs. Both smelled of coffee, but his favorite mug was still half full while the other was empty.
Looking around his store again, he reached over to the till he kept on the counter and pulled a sheaf of papers from below it. Shuffling the pages, he found the one he wanted.
Unknowables
III
Yawning, he looked over his ledger to see what they had bought. A music box, apparently, one of the older ones with tines and a music cylinder.
"Hope it was worth keeping me up for," he muttered, before walking over to the door and locking it. Twisting his spread hand in the air, he dimmed the lights in the store dramatically before scooping up the mugs on the counter and heading downstairs.