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.

Standing when he did, Lyra nodded and breathed a sigh of relief once they were back in her small safe village home, her mind now busy with several different things, she instinctively made herself a cup of tea and an extra one for the shadow master a habit she’d fallen into rather easily. Presenting it to him she sat on her favourite couch and quietly blew at the hot liquid in the cup to cool it off a little, finally speaking after about half an hour it was a very absent “You’re going to have to find something nice to wear, we have to at least appear to some degree like we're supposed to be there” she would have offered one of her fathers outfits but he was entirely too tall to fit them with any degree of comfort or style. Perhaps he had something stashed away in his lamp like the apparent huge stash of money, the thought made her shake her head slightly and went back to sipping her now almost cold tea since she’d been lost in her thoughts. All of her going out clothes were incredibly dated, clean and well looked after but dated, most of them were from the 30’s through to the late 40’s but she was too tight with money spent on herself to go and get anything recent so she was going to show up looking like a relic and would just have to deal with the looks. Going back to that place made her skin crawl but there was no choice, while she couldn’t save everyone and everything, the boy was someone that she could and so she would do her best.

Stroking Silver gently she glanced down at her when she spoke to her “I suppose we will have to” assuming that Silver would have the shadow masters measurements, Lyra finished her tea and set the cup down with a soft sigh. Noticing the narrowed look that Damien was giving his shadow she couldn’t help her quiet giggle of amusement, very fond of Silver by now, both she and Joy were her constant companions. “Shall we go in the morning then? Gives you time to make sure you get his measurements” smiling cheekily now she jabbed her thumb in Damiens direction. It was too late tonight to be bothered going anywhere, and she wasn’t that sure that she’d buy anything either, she would have to go through what she already had to see if it was really needed or not. Yawning, Lyra tucked her legs underneath herself and settled down more, rather comfortable there.

Giggling a little to herself, Lyra just nodded continuing to stroke the cat gently, she wasn’t so sure about picking anything for her, her tastes were simple and she was of the opinion that rich folks had no taste, something that she repeated to Silver. Still that could wait for later, right now it was quite nice to just sit and enjoy the company that she had in her home. Up fairly early the next morning she found silver after she’d had breakfast and a strong cup of coffee to get her through the morning “There are no good shops here for that kind of attire, I think we will have to go to a bigger town. Either Frankfurt or Berlin would probably be the best places quality and quantity-wise, they are rather packed with people though” hence the strong drink, she wasn’t that used to crowds due to the rather sheltered upbringing she’d had in this small backwater town in the middle of nowhere.

While the crowds weren’t ideal, being able to get out of the tiny village and explore the world was rather exciting after all, “I’m comfortable with you taking me, its probably quicker than having to drive all that way, if that’s alright with you and won't be too draining” very fond of Silver it was in the young warlocks nature to treat the creature with respect and dignity. The shadow was not some magical ferry to take her wherever she wanted to go on a whim, after all, already well aware that she was going to have to be careful with her money, the warlock lived fairly modestly as she didn’t have a great wage. It didn’t really occur to her to ask Damien for anything to cover his share of the food he ate or the clothes they needed to by, for as far as she was aware he was destitute aside from his lamp that he was trapped within.

By now she'd come to the conclusion that Damien was a powerful kind of creature although she hadn't said much about it. She didn't need to, they got along well and she adored the shadows, Silver was a wonderful companion that kept her company and the younger shadow that hung around really was a bundle of joy. At the question of there being anything else she'd like to do, she hummed to herself for a moment "Theres some old craft stores i'd be interested in having a look in" while she wasn't arty, she could do sewing and enjoyed making things for festivals. Her Christmas tree had a fair few home made decorations as well as a few store-bought, the chance to have a look through some of Frankfurts craft stores was a luxury she hadn't allowed herself for some time.  

Happy with the response, Lyra nodded and caught a bus to where her favourite craft store was, the building itself was at least a hundred years old and the store had been housed inside it for nearly as long. On family trips she'd been allowed to visit this place growing up, it was a decent-sized building but slightly claustrophobic as it was filled to the brim with all kinds of crafty items, taking a moment to absorb it all and to let Silver do the same, the young warlock moved deeper into the store "I love this place, every time I come here I find something I wasn't looking for that needs to come home with me, Last time it was a pair of chicken salt and pepper shakers that you could paint yourself" speaking softly to the shadow so as not to draw attention to themselves she looked over the paints lovingly wishing that she was good enough with pencil and paint, but despite many attempts and lessons, it seemed that it wasn't where her talents lay. Still, at least she could knit and crochet things, something she'd gotten better at with persistence, unlike painting and drawing. As they moved deeper her face lit up seeing adult paint by numbers charts, going over to the boxes she took one down from the shelf and inspected it, this had a pattern she could follow patterns okay, although it wouldn't be quite as good as coming up with her own creations it'd be something fun and new to try.

Dithering over what painting she'd like to do, she glanced down at the shadows words and took the pieces of leather curiously turning them over "no i haven't, but there should be tools to work the leather here, they sell everything crafty under the sun apart from maybe actual forging of things" the leather was soft and supple and a warm brown that she liked. Turnig it over in her hands she nodded deciding she'd try that instead of the paint by numbers "Where did you find the leather? the tools to work with it should be near where you found it, hopefully somethings stuff isn't always stored in a way that makes sense"the old woman who ran the store was rather quirky and as of recently had become a little more erratic than she normally was. Well that was what she'd deduced from the last few emails, as it was such a trip to Frankfurt she usually made the journey once a year and the rest of the time would email in orders for what she wanted.

That caused Lyra to pause, she didn't really know in all honesty, scouring the shelves she eventually found a book that looked like it belonged with the leather and various tools. "Well, according to this book we need a few things" reading them out so silver could collect them they soon filled the small basket that Lyra had picked up on the way in. The book was rather interesting and various ideas of what she could make flickered into life in her mind, although she wasn't settled on any of them yet, thumbing through the pages carefully she paused on a specific one. It was a pattern for beginners so something she could do and were leather bracelets of a sort with designs tooled into them, that was doable. A voice from behind made her jump, spinning around and hugging the book to her chest, she relaxed when she recognized the old witch that ran the store "Picking something you're actually going to finish this time?" the older creature queried quirking a brow to go along with her question. It was enough to make Lyra blush slightly  "yes!" sounding a little too defensive she glanced down at the floor for a brief moment before looking back up  "I'll take these please" the witch nodded and headed for the counter that was located near the entrance of the shop, breathing a sigh of relief Lyra brushed her hair out of her eyes and murmured to Silver "Thats Delphie or Delphine, she opened the store here originally" The old witch was as changeable as the wind, sometimes like a grumpy old hermit and other times more of a kind grandmotherly type.  

The woman managed a smile for the shadow and nodded "it's good to see that he's wound up in the hands of someone good, take care the pair of you" however she was relieved once they were gone. Giving a farewell to Delphine, Lyra sighed once they were home then started giggling at the cats dry tone when speaking about getting Damien into some formal clothes. Unable to help herself she finally recovered some composure "better you than me trying to do that" she didn't think that Damien would listen to her at all on this particular subject. Privately she had every belief that he was going to look quite good in the clothes that they'd picked out, feeling her cheeks burn a little she rubbed them.