The Silver Lamp

Roughly eight thousand years ago, a young shadow master named Damien was cursed to be trapped within a silver lidded lamp. Eventually after passing from owner to owner his most recent owner a dragon named Erisidr tired of toying with him and left him in an old op shop to be discovered.

Well she got an answer out of him that wasn’t one word or just a shrug, somewhat surprised that he named the castle home, she stifled a billion more curious nosy questions that wouldn’t’ get her anywhere although an idea came to her, - “well, where is your home?” getting an answer that once again she didn’t’ expect to receive she remained quiet thinking it over until they reached her little home once more, unlocking the door she paused with her hand on the handle and looked back at him -  “I’d be happy to drive you there sometime, it’s only a ten hour drive or so” she didn’t know specifically where in Demark he was from but from her place to the border of Denmark was about that long adding in an hour or three for travel within the other country. It didn’t even occur to her that he might have his own ways of getting there or perhaps might have memories that prevented him from wanting to go back there, opening the door and stepping through she held it open for him not needing an answer straight away, closing the door once he had walked through she headed for the kitchen intending on  making them both a cup of tea and perhaps a slice of the cake each.

He just shook his head in response, unsure how to read that, was he displeased with her bringing it up or just neutral? He was hard to read sometimes, however the fact that he chose to stay out of the lamp instead of vanishing into it gave her hope that things were okay. Sitting down on the couch she sipped her tea, remembering the various rules he had told her that he was bound to follow she brought up the bookstore again “You can go to the bookstore whenever you want, I’m not your chaperone, as long as nobody is hurt you can do what you want” she very nearly said that she just wanted him happy but out of instinct kept that to herself. That would sound weird and she didn’t want to make things weird if she could avoid it, working on her ginger cake and tea, Lyra enjoyed the company of having someone there, still she made sure not to watch him as if he were some sort of fascinating new animal at the zoo, that wouldn’t exactly encourage even this very vague attempt at hanging out.

Picking up on the brief glance of disbelief, Lyra shut up and let him work on what he was doing, finishing her tea in time to hear it start raining she grumbled to herself. Having wanted to go out into her little garden after her hot drink, sadly that’d just have to wait for another day so she picked a movie to put on in the background at low noise and fossicked around until she found her knitting needles and some wool. Settled there on the couch with another cup of tea she got to work on a pair of gloves, used to his aloofness by now she had long decided that she wasn’t going to push him, he’d come out of his shell or lamp rather in his own time, the fact that he hadn’t vanished into his lamp straight away upon returning was proof of that so she wouldn’t bother him now lest he opted against doing this in the future. Humming away along to the soundtrack of the movie softly, Lyra half-watched the movie half focused on her knitting, the sound of the rain hitting the tin roof and windows was somewhat cozy, especially once some wood was added to the fireplace and a fire was started.

It was another rainy afternoon when her phone buzzed, picking it up and glancing at the number, Lyra frowned to herself, she hadn’t had any contact from scott in decades. Answering the phone the young warlock paced backwards and forwards chewing on her thumbnail, murmuring a greeting she dived straight into asking what the reason for his call was. The answer had her freeze in place, demanding more answers, as soon as she had all of the information she thanked Scott and turned to head down the stairs as fast as she could nearly falling down them in her haste. “Damien!” finding him and pushing her hair out of her face she caught her breath, “I’ve just had a phone call, theres a teenage shadow master on the black market” automatically assuming that Damien would give a shit, as she was the type to give a shit if anyone was captured let alone someone of her own species “We need to get him out, please?” over the past half a decade they’d become what she considered friends. He’d opened up a fair bit compared to when she’d first found his lamp, and seemed to be more comfortable around her, hoping that he would agree and come with her as he understood shadow masters better than she did, Lyra waited impatiently for his reply.

Relieved that he seemed at least interested, Lyra nodded taking a few breaths to settle herself somewhat “About seventeen, black hair, violet eyes, bad attitude and apparently is being marketed as having two soul shadows. A Ginger fox and a black fox, Scottie doesn’t deal in species that aren’t faeries so he let me know as I take in strays” at that she flicked him a somewhat teasing look as if to make a point “He’s sent me the designated url of the website so we can investigate before taking it further” while she explained that her phone vibrating meaning she’d received a text. Fishing out her phone she unlocked it and copied the url pasting it into her phones google, bringing up the page it took minimal effort to find the boy that Scott had rung her about. Offering him her phone so he could snoop for himself, Lyra was stubborn to do what she could to help the lad, while she wasn’t that enthused about explaining why she was so determined to help and if she could get away with not explaining things she would keep her lips buttoned on that matter.

Not bothering to try and deny it she shrugged “Somebody has to, the real question is are you going to come with me?” she had an inkling that he would, even she knew that violet eyes weren’t common and that shadow masters definitely weren’t. If her inkling was right his interest would be piqued and he’d come with her, she had some money saved so hopefully it’d be enough to rescue the boy, if not well maybe they could just kidnap him. They or she would figure something out, there was always a way one just had to put the pieces together to make some kind of a plan, leaving the region they were in to go get the boy was something that’d pose more of a problem for her but it was something that just couldn’t be helped.

Perking up when he agreed to come along, Lyra slipped her phone into her pocket once it was returned to her “New York city” doing her best to hide how dubious she felt about leaving the small village, Lyra held her beath without realizing it when they were transported via the shadows. Blinking as the shadows cleared she looked around in interest, it seemed they’d been brought to a secluded spot of central park in the city, “The place is called The Plaza Hotel, high security presence according to Scott, easy enough to find though” whipping out her phone again she utilized the ever handy Gps on her phone that she rarely ever utilized and started walking shivering slightly in the cool night air. Time differences really were a pain in the ass, oh well once they got to the hotel it’d warm up so her resolve was to walk quite quickly keeping an eye out for anyone that could be a potential threat, walking along with her hands shoved in her pockets to keep them as warm as possible. Quite relieved when they finally arrived she stopped across the road and looked across at Damien “are we going to come up with a game plan, or are we gonna fly by the seat of our pants and go in, wander around, go up and go yup want him and then proceed to purchase and get the hell out of town?” Perhaps it was the quiet anxiety that made her babble as much as she did although it was quiet enough that the various people walking past wouldn’t overhear what they were talking about.

Going a bit red when he commented on her babbling she shut up and wrapped her arms around herself rubbing them to try and stay warm, she wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do so didn’t say anything more now that her babbling had been brought up. Watching the bright lights of the hotel, she couldn’t help but wonder how many creatures there against their will, that thought made her skin crawl. No one should be caged, unless they had broken a law, but most creatures broke no rules save simply existing, wanting to throw caution to the wind and charge in, Lyra kept a firm grip on her impulses. Having noticed that he didn’t have as many shadows, the warlock assumed that he had sent out his most reliable shadows to go and find out what information they could.

Her gaze turned from the hotels bright lights to him when he spoke “Well, I’ve never done anything like this before, its been a very long time since I left home. So I guess what I’m saying is I’m open to suggestions” the best she had was mostly from movies and she was very aware that the situations in movies were mostly heavily fabricated so she had little experience. Not at all opposed to following his lead, Lyra couldn’t help but feel quite useless, pushing those thoughts away as they weren’t going to help them rescue the boy, the young warlock took a deep breath and focused her thoughts on the boy that needed their help who was stuck in the overly luxurious hotel. In all honesty it was far too luxurious and came across as either tacky or wannabe royal, probably both in all honesty.

He explained that he believed the easiest way to rescue the young shadow master, keeping up with him and wrinkling her nose a little at how tacky it was, but she didn’t comment, at least she didn’t need to live there. Keeping close to Damien she didn’t stray from his side, taking everything in and finding it rather overwhelming, it was so noisy, thankfully there was on eother creature there and she was stood behind a desk chewing gum obnoxiously and filing her red nails, conventially attractive her blonde hair was done up into a neat bun. Noticing them she glanced up and studied them over the top of her glasses, lips just as red as her well manicured nails. However once he made it clear that he knew about things, she pushed her glasses up her nose and gave him a warm smile “Good evening sir, there are some tickets still available, for a small price I can provide you with the brochure that has all of the information you are looking for” it was safer to pass him information in a brochure as it was harder for the earwigs around them all.

Very cooperative the woman passed him two tickets and a brochure “You’re most welcome, Sir” flicking him a warm smile appearing to not even notice Lyra which suited the girl just fine. A little perplexed as to where Damien had the cash for such an expensive purchase she waited until they had found a quiet niche away from everyone else that might listen into something they had no business hearing. Sitting down looking over the glossy fancy brochure carefully absorbing all of the information she could, once that was done the first thing that fell out of her mouth was “Where’d you get the money, I was under the impression you had one” at that she narrowed her eyes “Where you avoiding it so you didn’t have to pay rent” yes sure rescuing Kieran was important but did this man not realize that she had a limited supply of money and feeding an entire man had chewed into her funds. More exasperated than anything else she, folded her arms and leaned back into her chair watching him waiting for his reply, once she had that she’d move onto what was next on their agenda.

Snorting when he claimed that she didn’t exactly ask, Lyra grumbled to herself, honestly it would have been rude to ask, folding her arms she closed her eyes for a few moments. “So we’re going to go to this auction tomorrow night and buy the boy, from some of the information in this, it’s an upper class kind of a thing so we’re going to have to dress up a little” .opening her eyes to look down at the brochure she had on the table, the young warlock picked it up and looked over it, making an assumption that he was going to come with her, Lyra wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. Who did want to be surrounded by the freaks that enjoyed purchasing and owning creatures against their will, in crappy conditions. The sooner they could get the kid out and go home the better, he was likely going to have some issues that would need working through. Analyzing the amount of work ahead of her, Lyra sighed rubbing her face tiredly, not quite sure where to go from here.