The Pageless Book

Dagorby Pomme has always been a mysterious fellow. Not much is known about him outside of his seasonal shoppe. It's large, and contains thousands of magick artefacts from all over Dausedmera. It arrives with the first rains, and vanishes just before the first snow. The curious thing is...no one has ever witnessed it being set up. With its size one would think it would take several weeks to construct, staff, and merchandise. But it seems to pop up overnight.

One year I decided to check out this legendary store to see if the rumours were true. Each relic had a small plaque with brief details about it. Some of them had a glass dome around them so no one could touch them. Because they're dangerous, I guessed. Several of the objects were from my area, so I was naturally drawn to them. They are a part of my land's history, after all.

First I saw a rusty iron link. It was quite unremarkable. So why was it here? According to the description it was from the shackles that bind The Unnamed King in his eternal prison. The stories people tell of him vary wildly. Some scary. Some cautionary. What they all agree on is that The Unnamed King did something terrible, which caused the deities to imprison him in celestial shackles. Some say he's immortal. Some say he was crushed beneath the rubble of his stronghold. I find it hard to believe that a hunk of rusty iron was forged by the gods.

Soon I came to a curious flower. Brilliant red with three yellow orbs in the center. Some moss was growing on the table around it. Very curious indeed, given we were indoors. The sign said "The Perpetual Bloom" and claimed that wherever it went, nature soon followed. I had heard about a city in the mountains that was overrun by plants. I've always written that off as something parents tell their children to keep them from getting lost in the woods. But now I'm not so sure...

The next item that caught my eye was a pair of very old, very worn boots. They had strange markings all over them. At first I thought they were just cut up from excessive use. As I inspected more closely I could see they were overlapping runic sigils. Surely they had some grand stories to tell. "Extremely powerful" was written on the placard. "No one knows what they do" was also written. Hmmmmm...

One spot over was a small vial of faintly glowing orange liquid. This had to be the fabled elixir that cures illnesses and grants life everlasting. Personally, I don't believe it, but the vast majority of people around here view it as some sort of divine gift. Who in their right mind was drink a mystery liquid that's glowing? Ew.

Then I saw a bizarre artefact: a book, maybe about 500 pages, that was empty. Not empty as in blank pages - it had no pages at all. The cover was unmarked and smooth. By unmarked I mean literally no marks. Not a single crease or scratch. Wondering if the user was meant to add pages to it themself, I checked the sign. "Book with missing pages. Pages may be missing or invisible. No refunds." Huh. They truly thrive on the mystery of things here, don't they?

A quill and inkwell stood out to me. It must have been the bottomless ink I've heard about. The catch is you need a special tool to read it once it dries. Without it the words can't be seen. That would be a funny pairing with the pageless book, wouldn't it? Can you imagine writing on invisible pages with invisible ink? Although I do wonder what other unseen things are out there. If paper and ink need to be seen with some kind of tool, what else can the tool see?

After that I stopped in front of an ordinary smoking pipe. "Dream Pipe" the placard read. Ah. This was one of the pipes that the oracle from Pelmer made. It's supposed to let the smoker travel in between the waking world and the dreaming world. Though I'm not sure if the pipe itself causes the effect or if a special smoking blend is necessary. Either way I don't think many people around here would trust it seeing as how the oracle has become part of the local folklore. Anyone spending the night around Pelmer disappears. The rumours are that she bewitches them and feeds off their life force. If the stories are true, then this really should have a dome over it.

One artefact pulled me in from across the emporium. An extended spyglass that stood at least a meter long. It was used by a tyrant that ruled the land a long, long time ago. He massacred thousands, and levelled their cities to build monuments to himself. According to the myths, this spyglass was the key to his success in battle - it can see thirty minutes into the future. With that kind of advantage a great tactician becomes an unstoppable one. I considered purchasing it with intent to destroy it...but I was scared that I'd get curious and become addicted to the power it holds…

CONTINUED IN CREDITS SECTION (character limit)