Chapter 53: The Ninety-Percent-Off Orbis

The Far West Order girl pitched with blazing enthusiasm: "A newborn bloodborn like you, up against a strong enemy, needs to fight like his life depends on it to win. Our Far West Order-made Bloodburn Charm lets you burn fifty years of your lifespan in a single instant and unleash everything you've got..."

Nathan broke into a full head of sweat and cut in fast: "Fifty years of lifespan—that's just me dead, right? I'd better pass on that one."

The Far West Order girl declared, dead earnest: "So you die—big deal. What matters is getting even! Blow up whoever's bugging you first. Tons of people love the Bloodburn Charm; almost every young-generation bloodborn carries a spare one or two."

After Nathan's firm refusal, the girl pivoted: "So if you don't like the Bloodburn Charm, you must not be into fighting. I've also got the Farstride Charm—meet an enemy, use the charm, and whoosh: forty thousand kilometers away in one go."

Nathan thought it over and asked: "Escaping forty thousand kilometers—doesn't that wrap around the Earth and put me right back where I started?"

The Far West Order girl said, disdainfully: "How do you not know anything? The Farstride Charm travels in a straight line! It just launches you into space—no lap around the Earth."

Nathan firmly declined that dubious pitch too, and the girl cycled through several more—the blood-burning potion, after which you had no choice but to walk the ghoul's path; the mutual-destruction curse priced at your own closest kin; the super-poison for getting back at man-eating bloodborn, where you poison yourself first and the enemy second... One by one, tearfully, Nathan refused them all.

The Far West Order girl finally worked herself into a snit and yelled: "You little bastard! I put all this heart and effort into pitching you stuff, and you refuse every single thing. Fine—I don't care anymore. Today you buy, or you buy; otherwise this old lady eats you raw."

The Far West Order girl ground her teeth, put on a ferocious face, and clenched her small hands into tight fists—faint lightning flickering across the knuckles.

Petite and delicate as she was, even that getup didn't look remotely scary—but Nathan knew this girl's strength. Never mind that her species was unknown; if she said she'd eat him, she might genuinely take a bite. He hastily said: "Fine, I'll buy one thing."

His caving in didn't satisfy the girl. She grumbled: "the Far West Order is an honest merchant. Even when we force a sale, we respect the customer's needs—absolutely no letting you casually buy some useless thing. Come on, I'm taking you to our warehouse, and I will make sure you pick out something you're happy with."

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Before Nathan could get a refusal out, the Far West Order girl flipped up a hand; limitless suction poured from her sleeve, and the boy, entirely against his will, shrank and dropped into it.

Nathan's face drained. All around was a vast white blur, and the girl's voice came at his ear: "How's my little Sleeve-Vault spell—decent, right? If you like it, you can pick up Orbis, a war-beast our Far West Order developed. A little familiarization and you'll have the spell down cold."

Nathan's heart gave an anxious flutter, and he said: "If I buy an Orbis, will you let me out?"

The Far West Order girl didn't answer. Nathan waited a while, asked again, still got nothing—and slid toward despair. He tried turning to black light, but it couldn't pierce the white, formless barrier all around. He tried the Quakefist Strike next, but the space formed by the Sleeve-Vault was yielding and unyielding in perfect balance, bouncing every one of his Quakefist strikes right back—nearly made him cough up blood.

Nathan exhausted every trick and got nowhere against the spell; all he could do was sit down cross-legged, clinging to the one-in-a-thousand hope, and wait for the girl to let him out.

Nathan's bond-power had been growing nonstop, and having lately killed Sebastian "with wisdom and valor both," he'd inevitably gotten a little swelled—started feeling he wasn't half bad. The Far West Order girl handed him a rock-solid lesson: his strength still wasn't anything to get cocky about, and the few parts of him that had gone floaty settled right back down.

That wait ran half an hour-plus before Nathan felt the space around him shudder; light flooded his eyes, and he slipped free of the Sleeve-Vault.

He bounced to his feet to find the Far West Order girl talking with a handsome guy in magus robes. The guy glanced at him and said, smiling: "You're Nathan? Sigrun's guest? For war-beasts I can give you our deepest discount. We've got a batch of marked-down stock just in—want a look? There are a few genuinely nice pieces in it."

Only now did Nathan learn the Far West Order girl's name—Sigrun. Cornered, all he could say was: "I need an Orbis. Got anything cheap?"

Sigrun beamed: "See—wasn't my recommendation good? The Orbis is absolutely our most distinctive and most practical war-beast. Seven hundred thousand starlings apiece—not expensive at all!"

Nathan had been braced to pay cash to dodge disaster, but he'd never dreamed the Orbis war-beast cost this much—well past what he could pay. He blurted hurriedly: "I don't have that kind of money. Can't afford an Orbis—can I switch to a cheaper war-beast?"

Sigrun went heh-heh and threw an arm around Nathan, setting the boy's whole body quivering—this time absolutely not the sensitivity of close contact with a girl, but muscle-trembling, pure fear. The girl paid it no mind and said, beaming: "Relax! We happen to have one defective Orbis we're clearing out at ninety percent off. Without my face behind it, there's no way you'd get it that cheap."

"A ninety-percent-off Orbis?"

A war-beast this expensive, discounted this savagely—Nathan held out roughly zero hope for its quality. Seventy thousand starlings he could manage, but the thought that the beast was surely defective—maybe not even worth stripping for parts—still made his wallet ache, and he haggled: "Still too steep. Any chance of a cheaper war-beast instead?"

The handsome guy in magus robes laughed: "Absolutely no further discount. The Far West Order-made Orbis have never been marked down this low—this is insider pricing. If my own account were a little less short, I'd have kept it for myself."

Nathan thought sourly: "Yeah, YOU buy it then! No way I'm playing the sucker here."

Cowed by Sigrun's tyranny, he obviously didn't dare say it out loud—just pleaded that his starlings ran short, hoping they'd shave the price a little more.

The magus-robed guy hesitated, then said, helpless: "The price itself can't go any lower—but for Sigrun's sake, I can let you put other goods toward the balance."

Nathan hesitated a moment, took out the Totem Hare, and asked: "I've got a war-beast I don't use. What's it worth in starlings?"

The magus-robed guy glanced at the Totem Hare and couldn't resist laughing: "A civilian-grade war-beast like this I can credit you three thousand starlings for—not one Coin more, no matter what."