Sworded Affair

[You need to be at the bowl as well, to be registered as a buyer.]

Emma floated over in due course, Noah walking beside her platform; which did not crumble, but rather kept her floating at waist height, her feet barely touching the floor. She stared down at the saddlebag in the bowl: still nothing.

"Welcome, honoured customers, to Crystal\'s Crystal Emporium!"

Emma jolted in place as a peppy girl\'s voice filled the room, bouncing off the gathered crystals to produce a most peculiar acoustic effect; akin to Emma\'s one and only visit to an opera hall as part of a school trip.

"Thank you for paying the entry fee! For five hundred Thrones, you\'ve purchased a Crystalline Core! What does it do? Nothing at all!"

The donation bowl flickered as both saddlebag and coins alike vanished, to be replaced with a glowing blue sphere twice the size of Emma\'s head. A glance around the grotto saw no signs of change; none of the visible crystals showing evidence of a newly made hole.

"Now we get to the fun part, where we shape the core into a magical item fit for a king! For every donation added to the bowl, you get a selection of three attributes, from which you can choose one. You can do this up to five times; when you\'ve had enough or selected five attributes, the finalised product will be available for creation! If you don\'t like what you\'ve gotten? Well you can re-roll your core to start from scratch, for an additional fee.

Donations are fifty Thrones per attribute, while replacement cores are a thousand Thrones each. No refunds!"

"That\'s pricey," Noah winced. "I\'ve earned a bit of coin from my salary as Mayor, but spent most of it already. I\'ve got five hundred Thrones on hand if you need though."

"Maybe we should\'ve withdrawn more at the bank..."

[It\'s fine, they accept promissory notes too, if it comes to that.]

What do you mean, if? Emma thought, her hand hovering over the remaining saddlebag. Are you unable to see the outcome?

[I can force my sight through to identify the random seed, what I can\'t do is hide what I\'m doing, not here. The moment Crystal detects my intrusion, our Crystalline Core self-destructs: at which point we\'re both out of the money and blacklisted from her services.]

This book\'s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"So it\'s completely random then," Emma sighed. "Alright, let\'s give this a spin then."

Reaching into the saddlebag, Emma counted out fifty thrones (helpfully bound into stacks of ten apiece) and tossed them into the bowl. The coins vanished upon contact, while three clay tablets appeared in front of Emma, filled with an unfamiliar language that the System helpfully identified as Tamil.

"So what happens if a customer comes here without the ability to read a foreign language they\'ve never seen before?" Noah asked, staring at the tablets in mild confusion.

[Then they get to pick at random, or write off five hundred and fifty Thrones, leave and come back with a translator.]

Emma, thankfully, had her System-granted fluency to rely on, though that only made the choices legible and did nothing to guide her actual decision.

[Choose 1 of 3 Attributes for your Crystalline Core:

Compact: Your Core is unusually small, reducing total storage volume. Your Core is efficient; there is no delay in item deposit or withdrawal.

Expansive: Your Core is unusually large, significantly increasing total storage volume. Size impacts efficiency; item deposit or withdrawal takes five seconds to execute.

Unstable: Your Core is unstable, emitting significant magical bleed-off inside the storage space. Magical items stored within recharge over time. A very small chance for each item deposit or withdrawal action to fail, locking the storage for five minutes.]

"Any chance I can get some specific numbers for these Attributes?" Emma asked hopefully, after reading them aloud for Noah\'s benefit.

A fourth, smaller tablet appeared; this time bereft of writing and displaying only something both father and daughter could instantly understand: an exquisitely drawn hand with its middle finger raised.

"Yeah, that\'s what I thought," Emma sighed.

---

Elizabeth had spent ten hours now at the hidden cup game, and she was rapidly approaching her wit\'s end. All her attempts to reach the Monkey with her magic had failed utterly; it was as if he didn\'t exist, just an untouchable ghost with an annoyingly repetitive voice. Likewise, she\'d emptied her stock of talismans for detection, warding, scrying and even exorcism all to no avail. Her expenditure at this point had exceeded ten thousand Thrones, and she had nothing to show for it except waste and frustration.

"Lift a cup at your discretion, one cup only. Find the ball and your item is free; reveal empty air and pay twice the price."

Another five minutes had passed, prompting the Monkey to repeat a warning that Elizabeth could recite in her sleep by now. Elizabeth was running out of options, save for risking it all on the roll. Biting her lip, she decided to try one last gambit before calling it quits. Slicing her thumb open with her nail, Elizabeth let a single drop of blood fall. It made it half a foot before dispersing, taking on the amorphous shape of a starfish with a cartoon face drawn on it.

"Contractor, I\'m calling in the favour you owe me for the events of 2012."

Your request is acknowledged. State your request.

"How do I solve this fucking puzzle?" Elizabeth asked, waving a hand to take in the entire carnival game.

In return for this answer, the favour I owe is repaid in full?

"Yes."

Did you try asking nicely?

Elizabeth froze, staring at the words imprinted on the starfish as if hoping she\'d misread. But no; those five haunting words remained unchanged, lasting until her contractor faded from view. Because Elizabeth had seen the game laid out before her, and immediately jumped into finding a magical solution at the Monkey\'s prompting. But then, he\'d only even spoken that single sentence; nothing to bar a non-magical solution.

"Which cup is the ball hidden under?"

At her hesitant question, the animatronic monkey smiled for the first time, lifted an arm, and pointed to the cup positioned dead centre.

"...I hate my life."