Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

Several alien patrons of the bazaar paused upon seeing a man hurtle out into the open air of the parking lot, scream, then hop around on one foot, but they shrugged and went about their business, cruising from one open-air stall to another, where the lower-quality goods were on display for the common man.

Hopping in place and rubbing the road rash on his ass, Jeb eyed the dim double doorway, watching the children shy away from public spectacle. With a few sullen glances toward him, they faded from view, retreating back to their bookstore refuge.

Goddamnit. Jeb was tempted to gloat, but he was the adult, and they did tell him where to find the guy he was looking for. He didn’t wanna owe these punks anything, either.

Let’s see, buying food for twelve kids… Gotta be expensive.

Jeb slipped a bulb out of his case and threw it through the doorway. The gold coin clattered into the mall’s dim entrance, and a moment later a tiny white hand snatched it off the ground before disappearing.

There. That’s my good deed for the day, Jeb thought, turning around and hopping away, stabilizing himself with his own Myst. A minute later, he traded a few of his spending silver for a decent cane and clomped away.

“Well, if there’s one thing I’ve accomplished today, it’s that I’ve found some at-risk children to kidna—er, preemptively rescue.”

After a bit of hopping around and some advice from concerned onlookers, Jeb found a prosthesis shop where he ordered a custom-built, spring-aided piece of wood to walk on. Since he put five bulbs toward the down payment, they let him walk out with a simple loaner. The height was a little off compared to what he was used to, but Jeb had plenty of time to get used to it on the way to the Working Stiff temp agency.

******

“Oh man, that was a lot of children…and I’m pretty sure that big one could see me. Children usually have a bit more Myst when they’re younger. You should have made some Deals with those kids. Something as small as a little girl’s stuffed teddy bear could’ve gotten us some serious juice.”

“I didn’t think of it while they were pointing guns at me,” Jeb said dryly.

Smartass perked up for a moment. “Did I ever tell you why we fairies like children so much?”

“I don’t think you did,” Jeb said, carefully clomping along the cobbled street, trying not to stumble on his loaner leg and cane.

“Then get ready for another Wizard Lesson. I don’t know what the official word for the phenomena of children having more Impact is, but I like to call it ‘time value’,” she said.

“Lifespan?”

“Exactly. When you’re young, you have tons of Impact simply based on the sheer amount of potential lifespan you’ve got remaining, barring violent or untimely death. If you take away a piece of a girl’s innocence by trading her dolly for food, that experience echoes throughout her entire life. Boom, huge amounts of Impact for the price of a loaf of bread.”

Smartass grinned maliciously, rubbing her hands together.

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with taking a child’s innocence,” Jeb said, glancing at her askance.

“Oh come on, they’re losing it by themselves all over the place. Why not take a piece of the pie?” Smartass waved her hand dismissively. “Childhood innocence has tons of Myst and is great for the skin. Why else do you think so many lady wizards use it?”

“I’m starting to understand why Pharos society labeled you as a menace.”

“Who, me?” Smartass asked, her cheeks dimpled.

“Fae in general.”

“Pfft. They just haven’t adapted to us. Not like humans have.”

“Oh?”

“You humans are innoculated. You’ve got cautionary tales about making Deals with strange forces in the woods passed down from mother to child for thousands of years in every culture. Thus, when a stranger comes up and offers you a Faustian Deal, you’ve long since been conditioned to nope right out of there. Pharosian natives don’t have that kind of deep history with us. Not yet, anyway.

“Did I use ‘nope’ as a verb correctly? I’m still absorbing modern human vernacular.”

“You used it right….” Jeb fell silent as he thought for a moment while he walked.

“Are you implying fairies existed on Earth?”

“Wizards, too, as recently as four hundred years ago,” Smartass said, perching atop his head. “Then we came to Pharos.”

“Why?”

“Idunno,” Smartass said, kicking her heels against Jeb’s eyebrows. “You’d have to ask an older fae than me. Good luck with that. They tend to be mean and not as awesome as me.”

Smartass slapped her hands on her cheeks, nearly outside Jeb’s field of view. “Ohmygosh, does that mean I’m about to stop being awesome?”

“I think you’ll be fine,” Jeb said, considering the ramifications of Smartass’s words. Humans and fae coexisted as recently as four hundred years ago, and fae have only been on Pharos for a short while? One more mystery to ponder. Icing on the Weirdness Cake.

Jeb stored that information away for later perusal and focused on finding the human with magical gear for sale.

The Working Stiff temp agency was a new business, just started a month ago by an upstart human who’d bought a vast section of land off the northwestern edge of the city. It was reputed to be a farm/shop/labor rental service, run by a single human proprietor.

Jeb made out the shop nearly a quarter mile off, as the dense city died away to reveal row upon row of brilliant green vegetables sprouting in the beating sun.

How does he water all these? Jeb wondered to himself. Was there some kind of aquifer or irrigation he wasn’t aware of? He couldn’t see anything to that effect.

Gradually the scene became clear as distant dots resolved into strange