The next day Marianne met with Jessica at the potions shop, like they had arranged. After going around there and Jessica buying what she needed she brought something up. “Did you read the newspaper?”

“No, one does not actively seek information so early in the morning.”

“Well aside from that terrible attitude, what Mrs. Saunders said yesterday was true. There’s been a murder in the city. A Mr. Albert Ruin, was found dead this morning with wounds that looked like they had been caused by magic. Maybe there really is a rogue out here.” Marianne flinched.

“What did this man look like?”

“Expensive dark suit, top hat, very overweight. Had some sort of cane as well, why do you ask?”

Marianne almost screamed as it could not have been anyone else. That man had killed him. She had seen the crime seconds before it happening. If she had not acted accordingly the newspapers could be bearing her name this morning. ‘This is all way too stressful.’ She thought to herself, quite rightly too.

“Nothing important, let us get moving, or we shall miss the opening.” The two girls headed towards the town, they were considerably less quiet than before. Well, Marianne was, Jessica was still chatting happily. A variety of things went into Marianne’s left ear only to come straight out of her right. It was like this until they reached the shop.

As they arrived at the supposed destination of the beauty parlour, something very different was staring them in the face. It was a small shop, the windows betrayed the dark interior of the shop, there were all manners of things lining the shelves. A small crowd was gathering outside.

“Is this the one Mary? It certainly does not look like a beauty parlour, it doesn't even look new.”

“This was where Sheila said it would be, I wonder why she thought it would be a beauty parlour, well, we are here now so we might as well see what all the commotion is about.”

“Indeed.” The two girls then proceeded to the front of the crowd. There was a man standing at the door, holding a small wooden box. He was smiling cheerfully, if not a little goofily at the crowd in front of him.

He had blue hair swept across his head, it’s colour was like sapphire. Marianne knew that this was from continuous exposure to magic but it was still very striking. One had to have been dealing with magic constantly for many years to get even a slight colour change.

He was visibly young but had a sharp jaw line and an average body size. The ladies around him were very taken aback at how handsome he was, admittedly it was mostly the blue hair that had intrigued them.

-------------------------------------

Beau had had a long morning. He had just moved into Bath and had already found a member of The Creed. He had managed to get some information but he already knew most of it. At least he had confirmed their presence here.

Not only that but there were little to no regulations to opening a shop, which allowed a 24-year-old like him to open up almost immediately. He was a nomad, but this time he felt like he would have to stay a while so he decided to make some money while he was at it. How could he have known the lady that had helped him was so popular. He decided to put on a little show for the people who had come. He hesitated slightly when he saw the same girl that had stopped him last night. ‘What a coincidence.’ He thought to himself.

“Ladies and Gentlemen.” He said gentlemen but for some reason, there were next to none, only one or two who appeared to be accompanying their wife. ‘Well, no matter.’

“Welcome, to The Treasury.” With that, he swung open the door and stopped it from closing again. He had always been one for theatrics. He placed the wooden box he was holding on an individual shelf, separated from the rest. He giggled, the customers were in for a surprise today.

A few members of the crowd hesitated but most went trucking straight into the shop, eager to either follow the boy or satiate their curiosity about the contents of the shop. Beau was sitting on the desk at the back of the shop, still grinning like a child. He had one foot up and he was resting his hand and head on the elevated knee. Once all the customers were inside and looking around the wedge popped out of the door and it suddenly closed. Then the blinds went down as well and they were left in pitch black. There were a few screams and shuffling but nothing major. Before any real commotion started Beau talked, no, whispered.

“What you’ve seen, what you think you know, this shop and I will shatter it all. Blow it out of proportions, make you slowly but ever so sweetly lose your mind, then, we shall piece it all back together again and start anew. That is just the kind of place you have stepped foot in. My only personal guarantee is that if you buy something from this shop, your life will change.”

As he said this last line the wooden box from before started to open. A deep blue started leaking out as if it was overflowing. The room started to fill with this luminous blue light that had the consistency of water. It reached their hip level very quickly.

They realised they could not see the bottom of the floor anymore, in fact, they couldn’t even see the parts of their body that had been submerged. It filled up even more and finally, everyone was completely submerged, although, to their delight, they could still breathe. A few of them opened their eyes and what they saw amazed them. They were flying, through the sky above Bath. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, the sun was bearing down heavily on their back.

Suddenly a force started pulling them. Although, they were not quite sure where it was coming from. They blinked a couple of times and they were back in the shop, except, it was empty. No, it wasn’t empty, just nothing was grounded. Everything was floating around like it had a life of its own. When someone was about to collide with something they passed right through. The next scene brought them to the Royal Palace in London, they all found themselves standing in front of Her Majesty the Queen herself. As they struggled to at least kneel they found that they already were and were in the process of being knighted. As the sword touched the shoulders of each person they found themselves kneeling on the floor of the now normal shop in Bath.

Wide eyes looked straight at Beau who was finding it difficult not to laugh, so he did. Their bewildered expression were just too funny. The customers slowly stood up, completely speechless. “It seems you did not even need to purchase anything from my shop to change your life. I hope you enjoyed Pandora’s box, unfortunately, that specific piece is not for sale. Everything else, however, is.”

With that he jumped off the desk and walked around then plopped himself onto his chair. Took out a book and started to read. The customers eventually peeled their eyes from the weird boy and started looking at the items on the shelves, they noticed each item had a name tag, a small description, and a price. A few read some of the descriptions and suffice to say, there was no lack of raised eyebrows.

“What on earth was that Mary?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue. One minute I was flying, the next I was being knighted by the Queen, and now I’m looking at some cocky kid giggling at us as if we’ve just fallen for his little prank.”

“Now, now. There’s no point in getting huffy. Let’s look around a bit.”

“I’m not being huffy!” She huffed. Jessica giggled at her friend and walked towards one of the shelves. Marianne found it a lot more difficult to force her eyes away from the mysterious azure haired boy.

As they scoured the various merchandise, Jessica had chosen a hair clip, Marianne hadn’t found anything she was particularly interested. Although a small necklace with a silver charm and a sapphire cut in the shape of a famous bird called the peregrine falcon did catch her eye, although it was a lot more than what she could afford.

Jessica brought the hair clip to the counter where the azure boy was still reading his book. He looked up at her and smiled. “Ah, young lady, wonderful choice. What marvelous taste you have. Before you purchase please allow me to look at your magician's license.”

“Magicians license, why?”

“Why my lady, what you are purchasing is a magical item, not just anyone can buy one. A normal person does not even have the ability to use one. That hair clip would just be a normal hair clip in the hands of a normal person.

“Why have I not heard of a magical item before?”

“Ah, this is quite common. Allow me to explain. On the inside of every one of these items are magical circles, some of them have one or two, some have ten or fifty. Some have a few hundred or thousand and some... Some have millions.”

“Millions of magic circles... Like pandora’s box?”

“You are quite the sharp one, even remembering the name. That may just be correct, the one you are holding however only has four. So would you care to show me your license?”

“Here.” She handed him her license and after looking it over and recording the suitable information, he handed it back. He then stood up and walked around the table. He gestured for Jessica to turn around and for some reason she did.

“If you’ll excuse me I will show you how to use this particular item. He softly gathered Jessica’s hair and smoothly clipped the hair clip on then letting go and letting the ponytail fall. The whole process caused her to blush a deep crimson. “Unfortunately I am not a magician so if you would please inject some magic into the pin.”

The two girls paused and looked at the boy. How could he possibly not be a magician with such blue hair? Jessica reached to the pin and injected a small portion of magic into it. As she did her hair fell loose again and the pin was now at the side of her head, pinning a small portion of her hair behind her ear. She did it again and it went back to the ponytail, she beamed with delight.

“Remember my lady, every time you use that pin in a new hairstyle it will remember it and add it to the rotation. Please use it well.” This added fact caused Jessica to become even happier. The length of her hair meant she had to continuously change the style, this was actually a very practical item for her. Marianne was also very impressed by the item. The boy had already gone back to reading so the two girls headed out of the shop. Still not quite believing the experience they had just had in that shop.

Beau sighed as he temporarily closed the shop for lunch. He headed out on a quest for something to eat. On his way, he passes by the site of last night's murder. There was a middle-aged man talking to a younger woman, they were both police officers, the latter sounded like the detective whilst the male sounded hesitant and stuttery. From where Beau was standing they looked like a comedy duo. He noticed that they had not seemed to have found anything so he smiled and kept walking. The woman looked over at the young man as he walked past with his suit shirt and trousers but was quickly distracted by the stuttering man again.

Beau walked right past and bought a pasty from a famous shop. He sat down on a bench in the local park and tucked in. While he was eating he threw a few bread crumbs to the birds. He was mulling some information over and over in his head. He had found one member of the Creed so quickly but he sounded like he was new to Bath as well. The man didn't even know who Beau was so he can't have been very important. He had noticed the brand on the back of the man's shoulder in the baths.

The mark of a Creed member was very clear, the only problem was finding whereabouts on the body it was located. The mark was an angel with one wing. The mark was not hidden because the Creed was not a criminal organisation. At least not on the surface. It is more of a religious group, or cult if you will. It is called Carter. However, it is not the members of the religious cult Carter that are on Beau's hit list, it is only members of the Creed. Not every member of Carter has the mark. The mark is only gained from doing unforgivable things. Things that will allow you to join the innermost circle of Carter, that is the Creed.

There was a very small amount of information Beau was given from interrogating the top-hatted fat man. He had, however, got a lead on where the man was meeting the other members of the Creed and receiving orders. It is likely that the Creed already know of his presence here as he had killed a few other members in other cities in the same way before coming to Bath. He had been on the run from them for the better part of four and a half years. He has finally managed to chase them down to their stronghold which from the information he gained through multiple sources is in Bath. The meeting place the fat man had mentioned was an office building to the South West of town.

Not too far out, the kind of place that's hard to find unless you're looking for it. Beau smiled to himself, he knew where this building was and when the meeting was to take place, tomorrow evening. He stood up as he had finished his pasty. He started the walk home whistling as he went. As he passed by the crime scene again the two detectives had left and the cleaners had come in to clean the crime scene. The thing about using magic is that you cannot trace who used it unless the person has registered their magic.

Of course, rogue magicians haven't registered their magic so Beau was safe from that. The only trouble being that now they had samples of his magic they'd be able to match it to anytime he uses it in the future. All that will prove is that it is the same guy every time, he had already thought that far. He had in fact thought further. The police are going to notice a pattern evolving of the victims all having the same one winged angel mark. This could actually help him as it would mean the police would have to look into people that have the mark on their body and hopefully find out the dodgy activities the Creed takes part in.

Beau reopens his shop for the next batch of customers. He had been in very good business since the opening. It seems he and his shop had made quite an impression. His shelves were looking awfully empty, he scowled, it was time to order some more things.