"Couldn't you get Riot to come with you?" Abby half-whined the question as soon as she and Dara exited the portal. They stepped out onto a lush, green hillside with the sun on its way below the horizon. The sky was filled with orange and purple and Abby followed Dara to the nearest cottage.
"I brought you for a reason," Dara replied as she opened the waist-high wooden gate and stepped onto the path to the door.
"Oh yeah? What reason?" Abby asked.
"The same reason I didn't bring Riot along with you...," Dara said. Abby grinned. She could only think of one secret that Dara didn't want Riot to know.
"Whoa, really?!" Excitement filled her voice and she sped up to stand next to Dara instead of following her. "You got it, Boss. I'm ready!" she said. They reached the door of the wooden cabin but Dara focused on Abby before she knocked.
"Let's formalize this right now," she said. "Follow my orders, keep it to yourself, and you'll have plenty of opportunities like this. But, you're no longer allowed to act on your own, is that clear?" Dara asked. Abby gave a faint, almost fearful nod. If there was anyone's good side she wanted to be on it was Ms. Sharp's daughter. With that settled, Dara turned and knocked on the door. Within moments it flew open with a tall, lean, silver-beared man on the other side. He wore a long golden gown and he smiled broadly at the two teenagers on his doorstep.
"WELCOME!" he shouted. He seemed to realize his own volume and lowered his voice. "Welcome to Wendell Weaver's Magical Shoppe of Curiosities, I'm Wendell," he gave a formal bow. "How may I help you two ladies?" he asked. "Looking for anything in particular?" He stood aside and opened the door wider to invite them in.
Dara led the way and the two girls entered the cabin. The front room was organized like a shop with several glass display cases instead of the couches and coffee table expected in a living room. An archway was curtained off at the back of the room.
"I'm not looking for anything," Dara answered Wendell with a shake of her head. "I found something I think is magical; I wanted to see what it was worth," she said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a transparent glass card. She offered it to Wendell without hesitating and she included an explanation. "I thought I saw numbers on it when I found it; but, now it's just glass. Is there anything you can do to check?"
"Well, I'll certainly take a look for you...," Wendell tilted his head at the glass card as he accepted it. The time appeared as soon as he touched it and he looked up in surprise; but, neither of the girls seemed to have noticed. They both stared at him expectantly. "Let me just step into my office," he gave a polite nod, then walked through the curtains into the back.
"You didn't really give me any details...," Abby said. "Why are we here exactly? Why doesn't he recognize the node?"
"Sharp Development's gotten a few reports about this guy; all he does is scam innocent mages out of their artifacts. My mom sent me to deal with it. And, it was her idea to bring you along too," Dara answered. "He's never seen a node, and he has no idea about the multiverse." Abby giggled at that.
"Poor guy," she said. "He thinks he's a big shot and has no idea what's out there."
"Well my dear...," Wendell stepped out of the curtain with an apologetic look on his face. "... I am sorry to report that this is merely glass and nothing more," he shook his head as he handed the glass card back to Dara. "You may have imagined whatever it is that you saw. But, I won't let this trip be completely wasted for you. For your first visit to my quaint shop, I'll happily give you a 25% discount on any single purchase," he said. "I'd really hate for you to leave empty-handed."
Dara accepted the card; but, she held it up as Wendell finished his promotion. When he stopped speaking she locked her dark eyes on his coffee-brown eyes and dropped the card. It fell straight down and cracked upon impacting the wooden floor.
"Whoops," Wendell chuckled to himself. "Well, now it's definitely worth...," he paused. "...less."
"That isn't the card I gave you," Dara said. "Right, Abby?" she asked her friend. Abby nodded and pulled her own node out of her pocket. She held the transparent glass card out as Dara had and she let go. The card fell about halfway to the ground, then it disintegrated into white dust; the dust vanished before it reached the ground.
"Yeah, nodes don't break like that," Abby nodded.
"What?? I..I must have grabbed the wrong one!" Wendell's eyes were wide with panic. "Let me go take a second look around!" He whirled around; but, Dara spoke up with a firm, commanding voice.
"No," she said. That was enough to stop Wendell in his tracks. He knew he was busted; the only thing that he could hope for is to try and talk himself into a lighter punishment. He wasn't exactly sure how two teen girls could punish him; but, he'd already realized there was more to them than he first thought.
"I can explain...," Wendell tried to reason his way out. He took a step forward; but, Dara shook her head.
"I don't need an explanation," she said. "Though, I am disappointed you tried to scam a pair of kids. My mom's company has received a ton of reports about you...," she shrugged. "Reports are often exaggerated and always one-sided. If you had shown restraint just this one time, you could have gotten away with it indefinitely," she said. "But now...," she shook her head. "Now Abby has to do her job."
"Really?" Abby perked up. "I get to?" Dara nodded at her as a black portal opened in the air.
"Wait!" Wendell begged. He didn't know where the portal came from but it was obvious they knew way more magic than he did. There was still a faint possibility he could haggle his way out of the situation he was in. He didn't know what Abby was going to do; but, he didn't want to find out. The pale girl with the black visor over her eyes creeped him out. "Don't you want your artifact back??" he asked. Dara paused midway through the portal. She turned around and smiled at him.
"That's another neat thing about nodes," she said. As she spoke she reached up to pluck something out of the air. "They're bound to their owner." She was suddenly holding a node between her fingers, then she waved at Wendell, then retreated into the portal. It closed behind her.
"Well...," Abby grinned as she reached up and pulled her visor off. Wendell was horrified at what was behind it; her eye sockets were occupied by two large, living spiders that began their crawl down her cheeks. "...time to get to work."