TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE: Snow III

 

261

******

 

“Lute, put down the three hundred argold pig. I won’t be buying forty of those no matter how many times you call it an Anesidoran Christmas swine.”

Lute put the huge stuffed doll down in the middle of the aisle in front of Alden, then sat on it, grasping its ears. “But look. It’s big enough for you all to ride into battle. Forty future heroes on their noble steeds!”

“I’m not sure you were the man for this mission,” said Alden, going around him to look at a shelf full of Mood Beasts. They were a wearable toy that changed color in response to sounds in the room around them. They were all off right now, except for the demonstrator lizard on the middle shelf, which had turned an intense fuchsia. It probably stayed that color most of the time while the toy store was open. Noisy laughter, kids pleading with parents, the whistles and beeps of electronic toys—this place must have sounded the same all day long.

It was less than a week until Christmas. Alden was now a person with a lot of money, and he had lots of new people in his life he wanted to do nice things for. Christmas shopping was much more exciting than it had been last year, when he’d had a very limited budget and a list of three people to spend it on.

But what does someone with this much money buy for people who also have money?

Lute was supposed to be helping him come up with ideas for a cool and appropriately-priced present for everyone in his gym class.

Alden knew it was not the stuffed pig. Getting them all a day pass to Challenge: Apex Towers seemed like the right kind of thing, but he was going to be gifting Lexi and Kon multi-day passes. He knew Kon enjoyed it, and he knew Lexi would enjoy it, and he knew both of them would enjoy it more if they didn’t have a stream of classmates showing up.

“Why are you doing a whole class gift?” Lute asked. He’d opted not to wear his eye patch today for their trip down to F-city. His combat boots had been enhanced with red and green laces. “I associate identical Christmas presents for everyone in the grade with Vandy. She used to do that. She probably still does.”

“I doubt whatever I get them will overlap with hers. I’m doing it because I made a list of everyone who I wanted to thank in some way, and the names added up. Giving presents to more than half of a group starts to make it seem like you’re commenting on who you dislike, doesn’t it? I’d rather do something fun for everyone. Special people can have the class gift and an individual gift.”

He picked up one of the Mood Beasts. It was a shark with magnetic jaws that would clamp onto clothes or a backpack. He thought Jeffy would appreciate it. “The minis of these are good, right? People like them? I’ve noticed some around campus.”

“Humans do like those, yes. But we’ve been liking those for eight or nine months now, so a lot of people already have a few.”

Alden set the shark down. “Why is it so hard? I missed my opportunity to copy Kon and buy a bunch of Artonan doodads for everyone. I was right there with him, but I wasn’t thinking about Christmas. And I didn’t realize how much of a hit the alien versions of random everyday supplies would be. I wondered why he was getting all those packs of tooth gum, but everyone was so excited about it.”

“He has an advantage over you because he knows which alien things are easy to buy around here and which are unique. You can get that gum all over the place, so if he was buying a bunch of it then I’m sure it’s because it came in flavors he’d never heard of before.” Lute rested his chin on the pig’s head. “Do a basket.”

“Do what to a basket?”

“A basket full of stuff that everyone in the class can pick out of. Jessica makes like a hundred huge gift baskets every Christmas for Aulia to send out. I don’t recommend you do the same kind because each of those costs more than my steed. But people are into the baskets. Getting on the basket list, getting taken off the basket list…anyway, if you stuff a basket with a large enough variety of presents then everyone will find something to make them happy.”

“Lute, that’s actually a good idea.”

“Buy me this pig.”

“Buy your own pig. Although I don’t know how you plan to fit it in your room with everything else in there.” Alden picked the shark back up and started selecting more beasts to go with it. “We all have to launder our suits on Friday after gym, so we’ll be hanging around. They can tear into a gift basket together—argue over who gets what, share whatever snacks I throw in it. It’ll give everybody something to do for a few minutes.”

“I am the right man for this mission,” said Lute. “After this, I will lead you to the mask store because the mask store is great, and there’s something there you need to experience. And then maybe <<White Shop>>. The open air Christmas market. We could do that place where they sell Fetunan imports…I wish I hadn’t suggested that you not bring the nonagon. We’ve got ground to cover.”

“It’s fine. The Nine-edged Son is a little flashy.”

“A little?”

“He’s famous. It’s not his fault.”

 

******

******

 

Walking into the mask store was like entering a tunnel lined with fantastical faces. Alden stopped right inside the door to admire them.

“The best ones are in the back,” Lute said. “Don’t just stand here with the basic stuff.”

“Don’t rush me. Do you see the one covered in scales? And I think that one over there just winked at me.”

“We can get a couple to wear to the Christmas market before we leave. Maybe it’ll keep people from bugging us. But I brought you here to show you something impressive. Trust in your guide.”

“Winking isn’t impressive?” Alden asked, but he allowed himself to be led past masks with gilded horns, sad smiles, and dramatically pointed chins toward the other end of the shop.

A girl with her hair in small braids sat behind a glass display counter. She was using a spell impression on a metal tray full of sand and lumpy green and gray gems that Alden thought might be some kind of pearl. The tray itself was pulling on his attention more than a normal object would. He suspected some part of her set-up was an ingredient and some part was being enchanted with the help of the ingredient, but he wasn’t about to interrupt her casting to ask which was which.

Lute beckoned him to the opposite end of the counter and pointed down at the masks within. Each one rested in its own unique case, with the lid opened to display it.

[You weren’t kidding,] Alden texted him, staring hard at the first piece his eyes had landed on. [What is this?]

It was smaller than many of the other masks in the room—no fanciful beak or horns here. It was a simple, lipless face shape that looked like it was made of rough concrete. Where the eyeholes would have been on a normal mask, two pools of water wept an endless trickle of tears down each cheek.

Some superheroes wore masks. Alden could think of a few who wore ones with magical effects. None of them looked like this thing.

It was somehow familiar and foreign at the same time.

<<You’ve never been here before.>>

Alden tore his eyes away. The girl had finished her casting at some point, and now she was standing on the other side of the case from him.

<<But he has.>> She motioned toward Lute, who had moved along to look at others. <<They draw people in more the first time they see them.>>

“I’ve been here a few times,” Lute confirmed. “Usually Mr. Dagim is here.”

“He’s my grandfather. And he made these. What do you think?” she asked Alden.

“I think…I’ve never seen anything like it. What does it do?”

“The same thing all of his Wrightwork does,” she said. “Camouflage. <<Very good camouflage.>>”

“Very good,” Lute agreed.

“My mother makes the masks on the wall with the illusion effects. Those are different. But everything in this cabinet is camouflage.”

She walked over to the next mask, and Alden followed. It was black with a flicker like flames in place of the eyes.

“This will hide the wearer at night and from firelight. It’s an older piece. Now, over here…this one confuses people.”

They looked down at a case holding nothing but leaves in shades of red, gold, and brown. The leaves were pristine, and they neatly overlapped into a fan, but it still wasn’t something Alden would have called a mask.

“This hides you in forests.”

“Deciduous forests on Earth,” said Lute.

“It should hide a person in other forests, too, just not nearly as well. The next one is the meadow mask.”

She led them around, explaining each one. They all worked within specific environments.

“What do they cost?” Alden asked.

“Too much. This is mostly my grandfather’s personal collection. Sometimes he sells one if he likes the person who’s asking and thinks they appreciate his art, but people who need something like this and who can afford it usually want a custom piece anyway. He does more work for wizards than locals.”

They returned to the mask that wept. The girl looked at Lute. “You brought your friend here to show him this?”

“I did. I’ve used it before.”

“The rental fee and rules for using it are the same as always. For now. After what happened with the Submerger, some police officers came by and suggested we store it in a vault for the good of the public. They want to look like they’re doing something. It annoys me.”

“Yes…the Submerger. That just…keeps making things worse for everyone all the time,” said Lute. “I’m sorry about that.”

He’s acting like he did it personally.

[Don’t dye your hair brown again, or Haoyu will call you Van Nutmeg forever.]

If she noticed anything strange about Lute’s apology, the girl didn’t comment on it. She was pulling the case with the mask out and placing it on top of the counter. Alden stepped closer.

“I’ll tell you about it like my grandfather would.” She pushed the case toward him. “This is our mask. Your friend’s. Yours. Mine. This mask is called Anesidora.”

“It’s camouflage for here?”

“Take it,” she said. “And find out.”

I can’t resist an invitation like that.

He reached for the mask. As he touched its rough surface, he felt a cold wind on his face. Salt pricked his tongue.

Whoa.

“Impressive, right?” said Lute.

“Yeah,” said Alden, looking down into its eyes. “Yeah, it is.”

“Put it on.”

******

 

The back of the mask was damp, and wearing it was unsettling, almost uncomfortable. But at the same time, Alden felt like he was more a part of F-city than it should be possible for a person to be.

He was unsettled, and he was as natural as the wind stirring the hair against Lute’s face while the other boy looked around, trying to detect him.

He was uncomfortable, and he was as steady as the concrete beneath his sneakers.

Lute lunged backwards, his arms waving as he tried to catch Alden by surprise, but he was moving in completely the wrong direction.

“Lute? Can you really not see me at all?” He talked, and his voice was every voice in earshot.

Lute spun away from him, hands still outstretched.

Growing bolder, Alden said, “Lute!” louder.

Maybe he was the honking of that moped that had just passed.

He shouted, for real this time. “LUTE!”

Nobody looked at him.

No one had heard anything but the city.

Alden walked up to Lute, dodged a searching arm, and leaned forward so that their faces were closer before he pulled off the mask and said, “Boo!”

Lute yelped and leaped away. “Dammit! I knew you were going to do something like that! Why did it still get me?”

“I’ll get you again,” said Alden, starting to put the mask back on.

“No! We trade after a scare. That’s only fair.”

“Awww…that wasn’t in the rules.”

The rules the girl had given them after they’d paid the fee for the mask rental were simple. They were allowed to wear it, and cause harmless mischief with it, within a zone that extended two or three blocks in each direction. They weren’t supposed to take it farther from the shop than that.

“Some rules are common sense,” said Lute. “Give it to me and head toward the first store we’re going to rob. I’ll make sure to get you back.”

“You’ll never make me scream. I have a calm and collected disposition.”

Lute put on the mask. Alden yelped.

“That doesn’t count,” said Lute, pulling it back off again. “You getting scared the second I put it on is your own problem.”

“I lost…” Alden swallowed. “I wasn’t expecting to lose targeting on you? I was going to untarget to make it fair, but when you put on the mask, it just ended.”

Lute had been his entruster all morning, but as soon the mask went on, Alden’s sense of where he was had disappeared.

“It does that!” Lute said. “I should have mentioned. I doubt it’s foolproof. There’s always some magic out there that counters another, isn’t there? But I can’t target people wearing this either. It’s an important feature for this kind of thing to have, right?”

“That does make sense.”

Alden didn’t like it at all.

What would happen if he and I were connected, and someone else forced the mask onto his face against his will? Would I still lose him?

Lute was already gone again. Alden looked around. I know he has to be just a step or two away.

Spinning slowly, eyes open and ears listening, he detected absolutely nothing. According to Lute and the granddaughter of the man that had made this camouflaging wonder, Lute wouldn’t even show up on cameras.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

What about Artonan devices?

“Hang on a second before you scare me,” said Alden, trusting that his invisible companion was listening. “I want to check something.”

He’d left his shopping bag from the toy store behind the counter at the mask shop, but he still had his messenger bag with him. He pulled his tablet out and turned on the camera feature. He saw storefronts, a man with high speed points running on the street, and the glint of sunlight off the silver bell on a passing bike.

No Lute.

“You don’t show up on this either,” he informed the apparently empty air where Lute had been standing. Tucking the tablet away again, he looked at the map of the neighborhood that the girl had sent them. Several local shops and one restaurant within the rental zone welcomed people wearing the mask to come play pranks or steal things, as long as nothing was damaged and items were paid for or returned when the mask rental was over.

Alden was surprised that it didn’t cause more trouble than it was worth to the businesses, but he set off toward the mask-friendly shoe store, occasionally moving randomly in one direction or another in an attempt to find and tag Lute. That behavior earned him a stare from one passing woman. Wow…so unfair. I was shouting in the street a minute ago, but now that I’m being quiet, people are all judgy about a little extra motion.

He’d almost reached the store when Lute appeared again, lying on the sidewalk right in front of Alden so that he almost tripped.

“What if I’d kicked you in the face?”