Brendon leaned against the counter of the magic shop on an idle winter's day, staring at the lighter Jon was holding. Sparks ignited from it, every time making Brendon's chest tighten at the sight of the small, dangerous flame. Jon didn't notice, just kept trying to light up his cigarette. Brendon averted his gaze and tried to get his mind around Jon's news.
"So," Jon repeated, "I'm going to need you around a lot more now, starting today."
Brendon looked at him with brows furrowed. "Because... you've just bought yourself a unicorn," he repeated just to make sure he hadn't misheard Jon. Jon nodded casually. "I thought they were extinct."
"Almost all magical creatures are, but it's definitely a unicorn," Jon said. "Bought it on the black market."
"I haven't seen one since I was this tall," Brendon mused, showing with his hand. "I remember being told they're hard to raise."
"Tell me about it," his employer sighed. "But, you know what they say... a unicorn is good luck. It'll help me find my half, you know? That's what they say."
"That's what they say," Brendon agreed. Jon inhaled the smoke of the cigarette deep into his lungs, dropping the lighter into the front pocket of his jeans.
"See you in a couple of days then," Jon said. Brendon nodded and looked at the cup of coffee in his glove covered hands. As Jon left the magic shop to attend to his new pet, the snow falling heavily outside carried white flakes in before the door closed. Brendon stood idly behind the counter before closing up.
Buying magical objects was a luxury few people had the money for these days, and even though Jon's shop had the best collection in the land, customers were a rather rare sight. Brendon certainly had no money to buy himself a baby unicorn, though he was sure he needed the luck.
Well, maybe the extra hours filling in for Jon would help him with that.
He walked home alone, the thick, woolen winter coat keeping him warm. He spent entire days not speaking to anyone at all. As he drew nearer to his place, he got the feeling he was being watched. He stopped and turned around, eyes nailed to a spot where he saw no one at all. He shook his head and shrugged it off, blaming it on his overactive imagination.
+ + +
Jon came to the magic shop with his baby unicorn two days later. The sparkling white horse knocked an orb down on the floor first thing, but Jon thought nothing of it. Brendon let it slide, because he knew Jon was obsessed with finding his half.
Brendon had known Jon for a few years now, and Jon had tried every trick known to man to find his half. Jon had gone to the witches for spells, to the oracles for the future, had spent most of his earnings on it. The last completion had occurred long ago, before Brendon had been born. Some said that the Age of Completion was done now, that men were doomed to be alone and die out as a result.
Jon's methods in achieving completion were somewhat unconventional. Before dying, Brendon's mother had told Brendon that the only way to find his half was waiting. She had used to say, "You will recognize your half. You will feel them." Brendon didn't know how she knew, because she had never found hers. She had stopped waiting; Brendon knew she had because she had had him. Brendon didn't know who his father had been, but he didn't care much for knowing anyway. But she had never said anything about unicorns as a way of finding the other half of one's soul.
Jon had named his creature Key.
"Key to the big question," Jon explained as he tied the leash of his new pet around the leg of a heavy, oak wardrobe claiming to be a portal to a lost world. The animal tore and tore at the leash, still untamed and wild. Jon stood up and wiped his hands. "The big question being, 'Where the hell is she?'" he laughed casually, trying to hide his desperation.
