Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 25-

Day: 4

Days Left: 5476

Lives Saved: 0

Venturing further into the shop, Corinna perused through the various objects, trinkets, and knick-knacks on the shelves in the middle. Against the walls were collections of stacked chairs, cupboards, and tables with larger wares for sale, such as board games, jigsaw puzzles, speakers, and a trouser press.

Corinna stopped at the end of the shop where all of the books were kept. It seemed that the shop only occupied the garage part of the building. 

But what was in the rest of the warehouse?

It's such a large space?

What else could be here?

Not wanting her curiosity to get her into trouble, Corinna turned her attention to the books, irked by the lack of organisation. There was no method of sorting, it was not in alphabetical order, nor arranged by genre or author. Some of the books were even upside down, or their spines not facing outwards. Knowing that she would not have much time to properly organise them, Corinna at least turned all the books the right way around, which gave her a bit of ease.

She had never been much of an avid reader, nor particularly had delved into fiction. Books, for Corinna, were simply a means for gaining knowledge or had other practical uses, whether they be university textbooks, cooking recipes, the newspaper, or a children's storybook to read to her younger nephews, nieces, and cousins to coax them to sleep. Reading, for Corinna, had never been for entertainment.

The majority of the books were fiction, and most were in her language, but quite a quantity of them was foreign. Corinna's eyes scanned the titles to find any non-fiction and stumbled across a self-help book 'The Mind At Rest: Stress Relief and Breathing Exercises'. On the cover, a cartoon brain was asleep in a bed, smiling and relaxed. Flicking through the pages and headers, the young woman sighed. She had already learned all of the advice from similar books before. The only things new were unnecessary puns and personal anecdotes.

Continuing onwards, to the other side of the shop, Corinna found a new point of interest; a stack of lanterns containing glowing balls of light of various colours.

"Wisps..." The young woman leaned in closer to the lanterns. Harmony had one of these, a green wisp in a metal lantern attached to her belt at all times. Perhaps this was where she had obtained it?

"They're wisps," said Ivette, pushing herself on the skateboard and stopping next to Corinna. "They're natives to the Abyss."

"I didn't think anything could live out here," said Corinna.

"They're parasitic beings that feed on the mana of other creatures."

"They feed on mana?" Corinna noticed that the wisps were all in the right-side of their lanterns, near to Ivette. "You're a mage?"

Ivette smiled. "Yes. But, of course, you can't use magic in the Abyss. Before they imprison you, they seal your mana away."

"I suppose it would be too easy to escape if you could cast spells."

The trader nodded. "It would also be an unfair match against you non-magic users."

Corinna's attention then got caught by what was on the table next to the wisps. She stepped forward to get a closer look. They were small and dainty ornaments made out of scrap metal and nails, shaped into faeries and mermaids. Picking up a nearby faerie, that perched on top of a metal daisy, Corinna inspected the craftsmanship, impressed and curious how such a level of detail was obtained with metal.

"Ah." Ivette glided to the other side of Corinna with the wisps following her every move in their lanterns. "Those are just a little hobby of mine."

"You made these? They've very impressive- I'm surprised you could make something like this down in the Abyss."

"It's more of a difficulty finding the right tools, the materials are easy to find at the Land of the Lost."

Corinna gently picked up a metal mermaid.

"The chimaera is particularly fond of the faeries, but I prefer making the mermaids. How about you?"

"Mermaids..." said Corinna. The mermaids appeared more sturdy, and the technique used to create the scales interested her, whilst the faeries were thin and weak with little support. "They are indeed very well-made, you must have worked hard."

"You can have one if you'd like."

"No, I-" Corinna placed the mermaid ornament down. "Thank you, but I-"

"Please, I insist," said Ivette. "Consider it a welcome gift to the Eternal Abyss."

"Thank you, but I shouldn't. You've worked very hard on these. They should be traded for something else."

Realising that Corinna was too stubborn or too polite to accept the gift, Ivette changed the conversation, drawing the young woman's attention to the other objects in the shop, adding small anecdotes in how she retrieved or traded for them.

"I love your top by the way," said Corinna, motioning to the blue silk blouse with large sunflowers that Ivette wore.

"Oh, why, thank you, my dear." Ivette blushed, her hands covering her cheeks. "And you look..." The trader eyed the young woman up and down, at the white pom-pom hat, the white scarf, the white fur coat, the white dress, the white gloves, the white backpack, the white knee-high socks, and the white boots. "You let the chimaera dress you, didn't you?"

Corinna scratched at her elbows and nodded.

"Speaking of which... what name does she go by this time?"

"This time?"

"Her name is always changing. It's usually something that she is currently obsessed with."

"Harmony," said Corinna. "Her name's Harmony."

Corinna wasn't sure if she heard Ivette snort in response or not.

"I'm glad to- I'm really relieved to see another human in the Abyss." Corinna was about to scratch at the back of her neck, then stopped herself upon feeling the branded letters. "I've only met a load of monsters so far, and most of them have tried to kill me- well, actually all of them have tried- even Harmony- but everything's-" Corinna stopped upon seeing Ivette's face. "It's alright," she said slowly. "Everything with Harmony was just... a misunderstanding. We're fine now-"

"She hasn't told you yet, has she?" Ivette spoke in a low and flat tone, slow.

"Told me what?"

Ivette hesitated. "There are no monsters in the Eternal Abyss."