Chapter 3: Book of Thoth
"Contract received, soul bound?! Wait, what?!" Arthur was confused and befuddled by the statement that he saw. However, there was no one there to answer his question. The voices that had many things to say earlier seemed to have gone silent after their mission had been completed.
Arthur walked around the counter so he was facing the book upright. He was trying to get a better look of what it was trying to say. He could have picked the book up and turned it around but he didn't want to touch the thing lest it led to some other sort of accident.
Above the book title, there was a relief of a very thin crescent moon. With extreme caution, Arthur reached out to touch it. The crescent felt cold to his skin but it didn't respond to Arthur in any way. It didn't glow, explode or do any sort of magical stuff that Arthur was expecting. To be honest, the young man was quite disappointed. However, a voice in his mind told him the crescent held some sort of significance, one that he had not understood yet.
When Arthur pulled his hand away, his heart jumped because the writing on the cover was changing once more. The title, Book of Thoth had remained unchanged but the rest moved like squiggles as they rearranged themselves to say something else.
"To know what you do not know is to know what you know. What do you wish to know that which is yet to be known?"
"Huh?! Is this some kind of tongue-twister?" Arthur was confused by the weird statement but he had a more urgent question on his mind, "What is the meaning of the soul contract and soul bound?!"
Hearing his question, the letters on the cover moved once more. The squiggles swam like tadpoles and against the sandy background, they looked like snakes slithering through the desert. Eventually, an answer surfaced. "Your soul is now connected to the Midnight Emporium. You've pledged your eternal servitude to the store. Violation of said contract will cause your soul to be burn forever in the fire of hell."
"Wait, what?! I did not ask for this! This is entrapment! F*ck this! I did not volunteer for this!" Arthur thought about leaving the weird shop right there and then but considering all that had happened so far, he was afraid that the warning on the book might not be a joke. He did not want to risk burning forever in hell so he calmed down and turned back to the book, "Is there a loophole to this contract? What do I need to do to get myself out of this unfair contract?"
The characters on the book moved to say, "There is only one requirement, revitalize the Midnight Emporium to its full glory and you shall be relieved from your post."
"Revitalize the Midnight Emporium? That's the name of this place, right? How am I supposed to do that?" Arthur looked around the room, the place was abandoned and dead. How was he supposed to bring it back to its former glory?
Thankfully, the Book of Thoth had the answer available for him, "Complete the petitions you shall receive from the clients and eventually the Midnight Emporium will have its turn-around. Then, your job shall be done."
"Complete the petitions? What kind of petition? And who are the clients?"
"There's no easier answer to those questions than throwing yourself into the job. Does this mean you're ready for your first petition?"
"Wait, so soon?!" Arthur eyed the book suspiciously and he challenged, "Are you sure there is no other way than this? You know that your so-called soul contract is not binding in court, right? You've practically scammed me!"
"The rules of your justice system has no bearing on the contract bound within the Midnight Emporium." Then the book added cheekily as a retort to Arthur's attempt to diss it, "Surrender to thy fate or risk eternal damnation!"
Arthur found himself cornered. As unfair as the contract was conducted, he was no match for the mythical power that was at work here. With his soul hanging on the line, he sighed, "Fine, give it to me. Let me get this over this." He would appreciate to have his soul back as soon as possible.
It was unsure whether the book was sincerely trying to console him or it was just mocking him, because it added, "Chin up. There're always silver linings."
Then, the book started to glow softly like a system initiating.
Arthur was expecting something grand to go along with the magical experience he had been through so far. To his disappointment, all that happened was the book flipping open on its own to settle on a random page, its glow fading.
The young man leaned in to take a closer look. The pages were same as the ones he saw earlier. They were empty except for the glowing squiggles that moved across them.
However, seconds later, they slowly settled into intelligible words. They didn't read like passages but instead they arranged themselves into a page that looked more like an index. Listing from top to bottom, there were, Available Petitions, Client Profiles, Artifacts and Curios, Ability and Magic as well as a bunch of squiggles that Arthur couldn't understand.
Arthur started from the bottom up because that was the one that interested him the most. After all, he was once just like any other young boy who harboured the dream of flying through air and shooting lasers out of his eyes like Superman. Perhaps this book would be able to help him fulfil his dream.
The book turned another page and for Arthur's sake, there was a line of explanation underneath the header, Ability and Magic. It said, the powers and abilities useable by the user in the attempt to complete the petitions assigned by clients that frequent the Midnight Emporium.
"So, in other words, these are special powers that I can use during my missions? It makes sense, after all, if the tasks came from these magical creatures, understandably, they're going to have a certain degree of danger. For self-protection, I'll need powers like this. This is shaping up more and more like an adventure game," Arthur rationalized to himself. The young man was getting quite pumped. He was going to become one of the main characters in the games that he used to play so how could he not be?
Arthur looked down to see the type of special powers that were at his disposal. He expected magic spells like fireballs or lightning bolts but to his grave disappointment, there was only one power listed and it was nowhere as flashy as he hoped it would be.
The Whispering: Ethereal voices of the woods that drew many a stray villager deep into the forest. The villagers were never seen again but their voices could still be heard echoing in the night, calling for others to join them.
The user can record any voices into the Whispering and then emulate the voices as how the user wishes.
Current Voices in Whispering (5/5): The Girl, the Woman, the Prince, Arthur's mother and Arthur's father.
'Wait, these are the voices that lured me into this shop in the first place!' Arthur realized with a shock. 'So the only special power I got is a silver-tongue? I guess that fits the theme of me being a shop owner…' Arthur's interest deflated. 'Is it too much to ask for an offensive spell? Even an illusion will be more exciting than this…'
After Arthur got over the slump, he paid more attention to the description. 'The 5/5 should mean that I can carry 5 voices and I currently have 5. I suppose the maximum number can be increased in the future, that's how these kinds of things normally work in games after all.
'How does this work though? Perhaps I should give it a test run.' Arthur imagined another voice coming out of his lips as they moved, "Arthur…"
The young man gasped because he sounded exactly like his mother. He tried it again, "Arthur, mother is so proud of you." Even though it was only her voice, Arthur could imagine her mother standing there in the shadows saying that exact sentence to him. As fake as it was, the young man felt equally comforted. After he had enough fun toying with the power, he turned back to the book.
Arthur frowned, 'Who is the girl, the woman and the prince? Why are their voices already recorded in the Whispering? Is there a significance to this or they're just random voices?' He waited patiently for the words on the page to move but there was no answer. 'I guess I'll never know.'
Moving on, Arthur turned to look at the page for Artifacts and Curios. Similar to before, it also came with a line of explanation, mythical and magical treasures that are to be gathered for the Midnight Emporium.
Arthur expected a long list underneath it but all he could see was a big block of squiggles. Just as Arthur was trying to make sense of it, he remembered a particular line of introduction about the Book of Thoth, the book offered varying intelligibility depending on the reader. 'I suppose this means that as time goes by, I'll get to read the pages with increasing clarity.'
With no other information to gather from Artifacts and Curios, Arthur turned to the page for Client Profiles. Similar to the previous page, it was filled with unintelligible squiggles. 'It makes sense, after all, I've not met any of the clients yet. It'll probably fill up with their notes after I interact with them, it's kinda like the Pokedex entry in Pokemon.'
Finally, Arthur turned to the page for Available Petitions. Surprisingly Arthur, there were already two petitions listed.
Petition No. 1
Title: The Lady and Her Pony
Client's Name: Miss S.
Rewards: Enhancement to Ability and Magic
Assignment Description: My pony has gone missing, will you help find it for me?
Petition No. 2
Title: A-Maze-d
Client's Name: Mr. M.
Rewards: Enhancement to Available Petitions
Assignment Description: Mesmerized by this piece of impressive architecture, I wandered in but couldn't find my way out. Will you come help me?
'So these are the choices for my first assignment. Which one shall I pick?'
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