The rest of their trip was nothing less than enchanting. Nair stopped at a jewelry storefront to point at what caught her eyes. Mike swept her inside, confident for once that he could afford anything she wanted.

She picked up a golden ring engraved with a pair of chained heart and held it out to Mike.

“This here,” the jeweler said, “chains two hearts together. The magic it has promises the lovers an endless supply of love and infatuation as long as they have it on.”

Nair gasped, peering at it more closely now. “Really?”

“Naturally, it comes in a pair and neither are to be taken off if the lovers are in a rough phase.”

“But,” Nair said, “what if this rough phase never passed? Will it make things smoother?”

The jeweler gave her a weak smile. “I am afraid it won’t. See, I tried this one myself, and it prolonged a marriage that should have ended years ago.”

“It’s that strong?” Nair asked, sliding it into her finger.

“Yes, terribly strong. The Wizard behind this ring was well aware of the fact people would rather stay in the same place than move on. He carved out this one and made a fortune from supplying more and more. But I guess we owe him the decline in divorce rate, perhaps. But I don’t suppose you two need it.”

Smiling, Nair replaced the ring. “You are right.”

The man showed them more of his trinkets. One ring, in particular, sounded exciting. It had a lightning bolt engraved upon it, and the jeweler explained that he once sold it to a couple who got married the very next day, naturally inviting him to celebrate speeding it up for them. When they told him they were happy taking as long as possible engaged, he held out a silver necklace with a locket dangling from its chain. Inside the locket, he said, was enough space to write a paper containing the names of all people they wished never to meet again. As soon as those people saw them, according to the instructions they detailed in the same piece of paper, they would do whatever the wearer wanted done to avoid them. A previous purchaser was once arrested after discovering he was behind the suicide of one of his college acquaintances. The poor man, as soon as he saw the customer, strangled himself in public and none could tear his grip off his neck.

“But, I am afraid this one doesn’t work on police or any law-enforcement,” the jeweler said. “So, don’t think about escaping the police if you wear a simple necklace. Just like most things, you can fool people with this but you can’t fool the government. Also, this one has awful regulations and word detection. If you write anything illegal, police will knock at your door in the dead of night, like they usually do what they arrest people.”

Nair shared with Mike a fleeting look of disappointment, but asked if she could buy it anyway. He nodded and dumped it in a weight pan of a scale.

“Two-hundred and seventy-five golden papers,” announced the beaming jeweler.

“Good, cheap actually,” Mike said. With the corner of his eye, he noticed an obsidian ring set against a white cushion, with a ribbon around both that said, “Break your habit.”

The Jeweler tapped the glass around it. “Like this one?”

“What does it do?” Mike said.

“Literally what the ribbon says here. It lets you break your bad habits. Very useful if you don’t want to waste your time to notice all of your bad habits. Terrible pain, however. Every time you try to do one your bad habits, it will either start crushing your finger or sting it with a wave of heat. Very valuable and cheap, but most people don’t buy it because of the pain. How can people change without pain? Ever seen a blade straightened out without hammering? ‘Pain straightens out people,’ I tell them, but they’d rather be the same as long as it feels good for a moment or two.”

The very same thing Mike had been telling himself. One of people’s ultimate goals was to find happiness, even if it was for but a moment.

People are beggars of happiness.

“How many of those have you sold, Sir?” Nair asked.

“I bought nearly all of them back when their owners didn’t want them anymore. They didn’t lose much, of course, but I made sure to tell them it wasn’t money they were losing, it was their time and themselves, I did. ‘People often lose themselves to find money,’ I told them, but they said it was none of my business.”

Nair tutted, clutching the sides of the glass display. “And what happened to the Wizard behind it?”

“It was a Witch, actually, a dear friend of mine. I told her if she could try to eliminate the pain, maybe people would start buying. She said she had tried for the ring to vibrate when its owner was doing a bad habit. You see, she tries everything she crafts on herself, a beta user if you might, before sending out to the market. But she said she ignored it every time and kept on with whatever habit she was doing. With the first ring, however, she said she was too guilty to take it off and was afraid of the pain whenever she tried to start doing a bad habit.”

“Shall you try it?” The jeweler beamed.

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” said Nair.

“Excellent. Do either of you mind if I slide the ring into her finger? Forgive me but I feel terribly attracted to the pieces of art in my store.”

None of them objected. Nair held out a finger and examined the ring with a gentle tap and a nod of appreciation.

“Now,” the jeweler said, “it should be collecting info about you from your brain. Won’t take more than a moment before it vibrates.”

“It just did,” she squealed.

“Excellent.” The jeweler restrained himself, doing half a jump before clutching the glass display. “Now, the very first bad habit that you usually do, I want you to do it now.”

She took a finger to her teeth and bit at the nail. The ring issued a high-pitch buzz and Nair hissed, shaking her hand from the pain.

“Marvelous, marvelous,” the jeweler whispered, clapping his hands.

Mike could think of one bad habit and he didn’t want it to show in front of Nair. He shook his head and said a word of thanks when the jeweler offered him to try one. It was, however, a good idea to try it alone.

“I will have it,” Nair said.

“Sure, why not?” Mike smiled. “We will take a pair, please.”

“Very good, Sir. It will be ten silver papers apiece.”

“But that’s really cheap,” Nair whispered. “There is food that costs more than that!”

“She says its her gift to humanity, but I suppose not all of them accepted it yet. She says it’s the message that matters, not the money.”

“Touching, touching,” Nair said, shaking her head.

“Unfortunately, no one knows where she is right now.”

Nair’s reaction was loud and fast. “What? Why?”

“You are free to draw your own conclusion, but she disappeared after criticizing,” he was whispering now, speaking behind a hand, “Rainess Crowster. After her Crows from the Political Security arrested one of her friends, she said that if somehow Rainess found herself upset with magic, she would arrest it and beat it into confessing. They raided her house the same night when she was asleep. You didn’t hear it from me, OK?”

The jeweler turned to Mike. “Might I interest you in another thing for yourself, this time? Of course, the lovely miss can also get hers or borrow yours, if you’d like.”

“Sure, what do you have?”

“Two pairs of earrings, unisex of course, a tiny round thing actually but I can shape it into anything you want.” He held out his two hands. “In my right, this earring, as soon as people see it, they will be instantly drawn to like you.”

Nair breathed a tiny ‘Wow’ and took the tiny glittering piece between her fingers.

“Works for anything from interpersonal relationships to professional ones, makes people listen to you when you want them to shut up, follow you when you want company. One of my customers, still comes around regularly you see, once used it to borrow so much money from all his relatives and friends. None of them could refuse him. And in the same day, all his female cousins and friends wanted to go out with them. Forgive me for my crude language, but he and I ended up bedding many of them, all of them actually in the duration of a month.”

“What an achievement,” Mike exclaimed. “How many are with child now?”

“Mine,” the jeweler laughed, “or his?”

“God!” Mike swore.

“I was just joking with you, mate. All of them had Ink Codes to prevent unplanned pregnancy. They could fuck without getting fucked.”

“What about the other earring?” asked Nair, steering the conversation away from that rude topic.

“Aha, this one is my favorite, and I happen to be wearing one in my other ear.” He gave them a profile view of his face, and sure enough, a scarlet earring winked when it caught some of the light. “This here,” the jeweler tapped it, “can speak in your ear.”

“It can what?” Nair asked, her eyebrows raised.

“If you tap it once and you have no idea what to say to entertain a guest or speak to a friend you haven’t seen in so long, it will recommend topics to discuss and even feed you info about it so that you sound confident and knowledgeable. Tap it twice and thank it, and I can’t stress enough that you have to appreciate its efforts verbally, it will go silent. Completely safe and even keeps you up-to-date with whatever you want to know and discuss. However, it’s better to tell it what you and all the people you know usually talk about.”

“Wicked,” said Nair.

“Indeed, but a bit expensive considering its lightweight. Probably a gram or two, but still a whooping five-hundred golden papers.”

Mike turned to Nair, who nodded eagerly.

“Wrap it up, please. And please enough or we will buy everything you have.”

The jeweler grinned, tore off some wrapping paper, and pulled out a pair of small, fancy boxes.

“Were you listening to the earring during our conversation, Sir?” asked Nair, shifting the weight of standing from one foot to another.

“I wasn’t, actually, miss. Both of you are too easy to talk to and entertain.”

“What about this one?” Nair pointed to an odd-looking lilac ring that came in sets of fours, fives or even sixes. Each one had a weird carving of a crowned tree.

“These ones, eh? These are for families. There won’t be any conflict in a household if all residents wear these.”

"Do they really work?" Nair asked.

"No, but it reminds them that there shouldn't be conflicts within a family whenever they gaze at them. They are the cheapest here, but poeple won't buy them because they don't instantly solve their problems."