Page 140 of Mud

“Oh, no—don’t be afraid, Iridian. I’m only Refiq, and I am at your service.” With a hand to his stomach, he bowed deeply, and I had to move back to give him space. I’d prefer for Refiq not to touch me at all.

“Hello, Refiq. I’m Rora,” I forced myself to say, and hishat almost fell off his head when he made to straighten up again. I saw strings of grey hair, as well as his ears—wider on the upper middle, with the tip slightly leaning toward the back of the ear. A halfling, though what half of what species he’d inherited was debatable.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Rora. As I was saying, everything always begins with water.” And he waved at the bowl in the middle of the shop, just as the ceiling dripped again—a single drop—and we watched in silence as the surface of the water rippled. “Without it, none of us would exist. Without it, there would be no clouds.” He raised a hand toward the dark ceiling of the store, as if he could see beyond it.

“I actually don’t have a lot of time,” I said, just in case he planned to continue.

“Understandable,” the halfling said, bringing his hands in front of his chest like one does for a prayer. “May I ask, what brings you to my shop, dearest Rora? I’ll admit not many come to this old door during the Roe. I get lonely.” And he laughed.

I don’t know why that made me want to start running out the door and never look back.

“Right,” I said, trying my best not to be rude. “That’s, uhm…that’s unfortunate.”

“But I understand, certainly. It is hard enough to play this game as it is, but to want to make it rain on top of everything else? Of course, of course. No judgment,” Refiq continued, and I took a step back and to the side as casually as I could, wanting some distance between us, just in case.

Refiq didn’t look like he cared.

“No judgment,” I repeated with a nod. “Do you mind telling me what you do here? Are you really a cloud maker?”

“Of course, I am.” With his hands in front of him again,he nodded his head deeply. “The best in the Roe—and the only, too.” He smiled brightly, and though I really wished he hadn’t, I still managed to hold back my flinch. “All these bottles have clouds in them—pay attention and you’ll see for yourself.”

He looked around the shelves lining the walls of his store, and I was going to say,yes, I saw them,but then when I looked again, most of the bottles were full of what looked like cotton candy.

White cotton candy trapped inside glass.

Clouds. Actual clouds. “Oh,” I ended up whispering.

“I’ve been making them for a long time, and they’re always here because…” He paused a second, as if the reason had just occurred to him again. “Well, nobody really wants rain.” And that made him sad. “Which is such a shame, really. Rain is beautiful.Wehave rain in us, too, when we’re sad, don’t we?”

I forced a smile. “We call thosetears.”

“Same difference,” he insisted. “Would you like to see a cloud? I can make a demonstration before I give them to you to prepare for the sky.”

“No, thank you,” I said, feeling like I was standing on needles already. “What I’m looking for is a bit…different. But first, if I may ask, Refiq—howdid you make these?” One needed magic to make it rain.

His expression turned sour. “With these hands—how else?” he said, showing me the back of his hands.

“Yes, but?—”

“With the magic that I’ve inherited from my late mother,” he continued, taking off his bowler hat next, showing me what was left of his grey hair around his head, and his ears. “I’m sure you noticed I’m a halfling. My father was an orc, my mother of your kind.” Something flashed in hisdull brown eyes, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I was usually very good at reading people, but he evaded my senses easily. “I don’t really have any other magic except to make these clouds, but I dothatvery well. Like I said—the best in the Roe, and the only!” He spread his arms to the sides and laughed again, but this time it was fake.

An Iridian mother and an orc father. How curious—I’d never seen a half-Iridian before.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Refiq. I want to buy a cloud from you, definitely, but I need a little bit more than that.” I wet my dry lips for a moment. “I need you to prepare it for the sky as well.” Because that, too, required magic, and I didn’t have any.

“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t do that. I only sell the clouds as they are,” he said, waving at the shelves again.

“I know that, but I need you to prepare one for the sky as well. I’m sure you can do it. If you have enough magic to create one, you should be able to make it large, too.” Or at least I hoped so with all my heart.

“But…but…” Refiq shook his head, at a loss for words for a moment as he looked at the shelves with a new light now.

“I have a silver coin right here,” I said, pulling one of the remaining two from my pocket to show him. “You can have it. All of it.” And maybe I had no clue how much these silver coins were worth, but if one paid for a meal and a room at Vuvu’s inn, it surely would pay for a cloud.

Refiq’s eyes brightened up again. “I see,” he told me. “If I were to agree to this, would you pay me in full? In advance?”

Now he was just plain greedy—very easy to see—and that put me at ease. Greed, I could handle. “Yes,” I said because I didn’t really have any other choice.

“And if I were to agree to this, when would you need the rain?”

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