THE MOMENT
"How do you have clients?" Jenny was more impressed than annoyed. Aurelio was her closest friend and soul mate on some level. She always cared about and respected him, but this was one of the few times she got to see him at his best, and it warmed the romantic feelings in her heart. "You've only ever been to this timeline once, and that was ages ago; no one should even know you here...," she had fun reminding him how impossible his general mode of existence was. It was early afternoon, and they were walking along a mostly empty downtown block.
Due to an emergency and celestial powers, reality had temporarily been rewritten. They had three weeks to accomplish a goal, and Jenny had been calling all the shots as soon as they started. But Aurelio took the initiative in asking questions and had absorbed most of the necessary information about where exactly they were and the rules involved. After two days of questions, he suddenly demanded a visit to a client.
"Once was enough," Aurelio shrugged with a grin. "People remember good service."
"But that's not how...," Jenny shook her head. The creation of a new multiverse overwrote the existing one; every time. They were currently in a preserved Moment, but, the act of replaying it always left changes. The first time Jenny and Aurelio needed to go through this Moment, Aurelio had imagined ideas and created tools that he needed to save their daughter; but, they were deemed too powerful to be allowed in the regular multiverse. The timeline was sealed and saved to keep it separate, with no intent to ever visit it again. When the time inevitably came to visit it again, Jenny went alone and each time thereafter. This was her 23rd trip, and she assumed any traces of Aurelio had long since been overwritten by her repeated mends of the timelines. They should've. And yet, a client whom Aurelio could've never met asked him to stop by and look at something. "Just remember we're in a hurry," she added. He'd already gotten all that information out of her, and nothing she could say would change anything.
"You can go pick up 23 and Dread in the meantime, if you're in that much of a hurry," he offered.
"I'm not leaving you alone for any length of time while we're here," Jenny shook her head with a giggle.
"Fair enough," Aurelio shrugged. He stopped suddenly and grabbed the closest door.
"Ohh, that makes more sense," Jenny smiled as she realized they were at his destination. She caught sight of the name 'Mundo's Tattoos' and was able to piece things together. It would've been completely impossible for any average Joe to remember Aury in this current timeline, but Mundos were different. They were Unique Souls whom Awakened with a gift of knowledge. 'Mundos' knew enough about all the Unique Souls to help any lost wanderer unaware of themselves, and they often took public-facing jobs like bartenders or tattooists. They knew how the multiverse worked, and now that Aurelio existed there, they would know he was available for business.
"It's so obvious," Aurelio rolled his eyes at her as she walked past to enter first.
"Hey, Mundo," Aurelio smiled and called out to the lean man with green hair standing behind the counter.
"Mr. Luna, it's a pleasure," Mundo returned the smile and crouched to grab something from under the counter. He pulled out a thick black tome and placed it on the wooden counter as Jenny and Aury arrived.
"May I?" Aurelio reached for the book but asked for permission before touching it.
"Please, go ahead," Mundo nodded. Aurelio pulled open the hardbound cover along with a chunk of the front to open it randomly to somewhere near the beginning. Various symbols were carefully painted, a half dozen on each page, in sparkling gold ink. His eyes widened, and he looked at Jenny. He had a very obvious question in his eyes, and all she could do was nodwith a finger to her lips. There were certain things they weren't allowed to talk about in the company of others.
"What's your asking price?" Aurelio asked the man.
"One million," Mundo replied. It was the high-end price of medium-level tome. Most magical tomes were intended for magical schools and carefully counted. The few that existed outside of that system were known to fetch high prices on the multiversal black market.
"I'll take it," Aurelio nodded, then looked at Jenny. "Sharp Development will cover it, right?" he asked.
"Much obliged," Jenny sighed as she placed a large glowing, golden cube on the counter. It was the size of a grapefruit, and Mundo nodded.
"Happy for the business," Mundo nodded at Aurelio, leaving his shop. But Jenny lingered.
"How'd you find that book?" she asked. She presented a second, much smaller golden cube with the question. Mundo smiled and collected only the larger one.
"I was cleaning out my grandfather's attic after he passed away," Mundo said. "The symbols were strange at first. They weren't like any I'd seen, but they still looked magical. Naturally, I picked one I liked and drew it on myself with a pen. It turned me invisible," he laughed. "It was unexpected, and I panicked enough to wipe it off quickly. Once it was distorted enough, I reverted to normal, and I realized what I had. I flipped through it a bit more and decided to bring it back here. After a few web searches to learn more about the symbols, I reached out to Mr. Luna."
"Why'd you panic?" It might've seemed trivial. And, it might've been, but also it might've not. "This Earth has magic, I'm sure you're familiar enough with it."
"Well, that's why," Mundo nodded. "Call it experience. I didn't recognize the symbol, and like a fool, I went and tried it on myself out of pure habit,” he gestured at their surroundings, and showed off the lush green treens tattooed up his arm. “It felt like a normal invisible spell when it happened, but I panicked because maybe it wasn't. There might’ve been a secondary effect. Thankfully I wasn’t in any danger, they're just an old style of magical symbols that no one uses anymore. I went through the book and copied the ones I thought were eye-catching," he nodded.
She'd been trying to get to the bottom of a mystery and temporarily forgot about something important. But, as soon as Mundo used the phrase 'eye-catching', she remembered something she'd told Aurelio.
"THANK YOU! GOTTA GO! BYE!" She ran out of the store and was relieved to see Aurelio there waiting for her.
"So much for not letting me out of your sight," He laughed, and she did too.
"Well, you stayed so..," she was about to thank him, but he shrugged.
"I mean, I was back by the time you got out," he smiled. "You were in there a whole two minutes."
"Did you go somewhere..?"
"Forget that, I have more questions that I hadn't thought of before," he said as he showed her the book. "I'm going to need all the details about the last time I was here. Because from everything you've explained, as far as I know, that's the only time I could've created this book."