Date: October 23, 2011
Location: 47th Street, Manhattan (The Diamond District)
Lloyd Nipple did not like Manhattan. Queens had a certain rugged, honest charm, a chaotic mix of cultures and smells that reminded him of a less magical Diagon Alley but Manhattan? Manhattan was total disaster, monument to hubris.
The buildings were too tall, blocking out the sun and interfering with the natural flow of atmospheric mana, the streets were simply canyons of glass and steel, echoing with the sound of angry taxi drivers and stressed pedestrians.
"It is a hive," Lloyd observed, standing on the corner of 5th Avenue. "A colony of millions, all rushing to trade pieces of paper for imaginary value."
He adjusted his trench coat. Inside the left pocket, Subject 42 was trembling.
Void-Belly Niffler had sensed the location before they even exited the subway station. To a Niffler, the Diamond District didn't smell like exhaust fumes and roasted nuts; it smelled like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"Patience," Lloyd whispered, patting the pocket. "We are not common pickpockets. We are geologists conducting a survey."
He turned onto 47th Street, the Diamond District was a single block that handled billions of dollars in trade daily. The shop windows were blinded with iron bars and security cameras.
Hasidic jewelers in black coats hurried past men in sharp suits carrying briefcases handcuffed to their wrists.
Lloyd's Mage Sight was overwhelming here.
Every diamond, every ruby, every sapphire resonated with a faint terrestrial hum. Gems were the bones of the earth, in the Wizarding World, they were essential for enchanting.
A ruby could hold a Fire Charm for lot of centuries and a diamond could anchor a ward that would stop a dragon.
Here, they were mounted on tacky gold bands and sold to tourists.
"Wasted potential," Lloyd sighed.
He walked slowly down the sidewalk, he wasn't looking at the windows, he was watching his Niffler.
Subject 42 peeked his snout out, his nose twitched left....then right.....then he froze, staring intently at a heavily armored truck parked in front of a building labeled "Van Cleef & Arpels."
Two armed guards were unloading a small, reinforced crate.
"Target identified," Lloyd murmured.
He didn't want the truck nor he wanted the crate, he simply wanted what was inside the crate.
He leaned against a lamppost, pulling a newspaper from his pocket to blend in.
"System," he subvocalized. "Scan contents."
The blue window overlaid his vision, focusing on the crate.
> [Scan Complete]
> Container: Class-4 Steel Alloy Safe
> Contents:
> * 12x Raw Uncut Diamonds (South African Origin)
> * 1x Star Sapphire (Sri Lankan Origin)
> * Grade: High clarity, Excellent mana conductivity
> Value: $2.4 Million (Muggle Market) / 500 Mana Capacity (Magical Market)
"A Star Sapphire," Lloyd mused. "Excellent for mental magic, Occlumency shields and Memory storage."
He needed it, his mind was his greatest weapon, and without a wand, he was vulnerable to psychic intrusion. A sapphire focus would allow him to stabilize his defenses.
The guards were moving the crate onto a dolly. They were professional, hands on their holsters, scanning the crowd.
Lloyd couldn't just Accio the crate. Even if he had the power, a flying box in the middle of Manhattan would summon the Shield 🛡️ guys faster than he could say "Mischief Managed."
He needed a distraction and he needed a tunnel.
"42," Lloyd whispered. "The pavement."
He pointed to a storm drain grate about ten feet away from the armored truck.
"Go underground and resurface under the dolly. You have three seconds before they enter the building."
The Niffler didn't hesitate as he poured himself out of Lloyd's pocket like liquid shadow, slithering down the leg of Lloyd's trousers and disappearing into the storm drain with a barely audible plop.
Lloyd closed his eyes, extending his senses. He could feel Niffler moving through the pipes, a small knot of greed navigating the subterranean filth.
The guards began to push the dolly toward the glass doors of the jewelry store.
"Steady," Lloyd breathed.
He needed to stop them for exactly two seconds.
He reached into his mana core, he didn't use a spell. He used raw telekinesis on the smallest, most annoying variable available.....the shoelace of the lead guard.
Lloyd twitched his finger and the knot unraveled and the loop snagged on the wheel of the dolly.
"Whoa!" the guard stumbled, nearly face-planting into the pavement and the dolly jerked to a halt.
"Watch it, Frank!" the second guard snapped, reaching out to steady the crate.
"Shoelace caught," Frank grumbled, kneeling down to untangle himself.
But beneath the concrete, directly under the halted dolly, magic was happening.
Subject 42 had used his new Void-Belly powers to phase slightly. He popped two claws up through a crack in the sidewalk cement, a crack that hadn't been there a moment ago.
Niffler didn't open the crate as that would trigger alarms instead, Subject 42 pressed his belly against the bottom of the dolly and activated his Matter Storage ability.
To the Niffler, the crate was just an object and objects belonged in the Void but the crate was too big to pull through the crack.
So, the Niffler improvised and reached through the steel bottom of the crate. His new evolution allowed him to interact with inorganic matter on a molecular level, phasing, just for a second.
He grabbed the velvet pouches inside.
Yoink.....
One pouch... Two pouches...
The guard named Frank finished tying his shoe. "Alright, let's go."
They pushed the dolly into the building. The crate looked exactly the same. It weighed slightly less, but the steel box itself was so heavy that the difference was negligible to human muscles.
Lloyd watched the doors close and a moment later, a black smudge scurried out of the storm drain and shot up Lloyd's leg.
Subject 42 settled back into the pocket, vibrating with the purr of a satisfied puppy. He patted his belly.
"Good haul?" Lloyd asked, turning the page of his newspaper.
Niffler let out a squeak that translated roughly to: We are rich.
"Excellent."
Lloyd folded the paper and pushed off the lamppost. The heist had taken less than a minute....no alarms...no screaming. Just a shoelace and a missing inventory that wouldn't be discovered until the crate was opened in the vault.
He began to walk back toward the subway. But as he passed a small, unassuming shop front near the end of the block, he stopped.
The sign read: "Madam Yaga's Antiques & Curiosities."
It wasn't the name that stopped him. It was the aura.
Most of the street felt like cold, hard greed. This shop felt... dusty and it smelled of dried sage, old paper, and something that tingled against Lloyd's skin.
"Residual magic," Lloyd noted. "Not active but old."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Lloyd murmured, placing his hand on the door handle. "But satisfaction brought it back."
He pushed the door open, a bell chimed. The interior was cramped, filled floor-to-ceiling with junk. Porcelain dolls, rusted swords, globes that showed countries which no longer existed.
Behind the counter sat an old woman. She was tiny, wrapped in a knitted shawl, reading a magazine in a language Lloyd didn't recognize.....Cyrillic, perhaps?
She looked up. Her eyes were milky white. Blind.
"We are closed," she rasped, her voice like dry leaves.
" The sign says open," Lloyd countered, stepping inside as the floorboards creaked.
"For tourists, we are closed. For.....others, we are open." She tilted her head, sniffing the air. "You smell of grave dirt. And... something ancient."
Lloyd narrowed his eyes. "I work in sanitation."
The old woman cackled, it was a wet, unpleasant sound. "Sanitation.... Yes, you clean the cracks in the world."
She reached under the counter and pulled out a wooden box. She placed it on the glass top.
"You are looking for a focus," she said. It wasn't a question.
Lloyd's hand drifted toward his pocket, gripping the Niffler, his living weapon. "I am looking for many things. Why do you assume I need a focus?"
"Because you are leaking," she said bluntly. "You are a bucket with holes and power spills from you.....You need a funnel."
Lloyd froze, she was right. Without a wand, his magic was wild, inefficient and he was constantly bleeding mana just to maintain his passive senses.
"Who are you?" Lloyd asked, dropping the pleasantries.
"I am just an old woman who sees what isn't there," she said. She tapped the box. "This came in yesterday from a estate sale in London. It didn't want to be sold, it bit the auctioneer."
Lloyd approached the counter and looked at the box. It was made of dark wood...Holly, perhaps? and bound with silver.
He opened it, inside, resting on faded pale red clothing, was not a wand but was a cane handle, specifically, the head of a walking stick. It was carved from a single piece of obsidion in the shape of a raven's skull and the eyes of the skull were set with tiny, dull rubies.
Lloyd felt a pull.....a magnetic snap in his chest.
"Ebony?" Lloyd guessed, reaching out.
"Blackthorn," she corrected. "And the skull is carved from a meteorite. Cold iron and star metal."
Lloyd touched it.
Zap.....
A static shock ran up his arm, but it didn't hurt as it felt like a handshake. His mana, usually chaotic and fraying at the edges, suddenly snapped into focus and the leak stopped.
"It is a conduit," Lloyd realized. "Broken off from a staff, likely."
"Five hundred," the woman said.
"Dollars?"
"Cash....no taxes....no receipts."
Lloyd smiled and reached into his pocket, not the Niffler pocket, but the one holding the envelope of cash from his previous hustles. He was running low, but he had enough.
He counted out the bills.
"You know what this is," Lloyd said, sliding the money across. "Why sell it to me?"
The old woman took the money, her blind eyes staring past him.
"Because the storm is coming, sanitation man," she whispered. "And the rats need to be ready."
Lloyd paused. "The storm?"
"The sky will open," she said, her voice dropping to a trance-like monotone. "The worms will fall and the gods will play chess with our bones."
Lloyd stared at her. "Right...Well. I'll be sure to bring an umbrella then."
He grabbed the raven skull handle. It was heavy, cool to the touch. He could mount this on a rod, maybe a piece of rebar or a high-grade alloy shaft and he would have a staff.....a real focus.
He turned and left the shop, the bell chiming cheerfully behind him.
Out on the street, the sun was shining. The Muggles were rushing. The world seemed normal.
But Lloyd clutched the raven skull tight.
"Sky opening," he muttered, walking toward the subway. "Worms falling."
"She's a Seer," Lloyd concluded.
"A hedge-witch with the Sight."
He patted Niffler, who was currently rearranging diamonds in his belly.
"We need to hurry, 42. If what she says is true , we are running out of time."
He descended into the subway, leaving the Diamond District behind. He had gone in for stones, but he was leaving with a weapon and a warning..... Well his zoo needed to be ready, not just for customers but for war.
Authors Note:-
Well hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
I believe this is a unique concepts story till now.....fun...enjoying.
Would you guys please support my orginal which is a smut novel in zombie apocalypse....with a perverted mc.
I would really appreciate some comments and reviews..... 🥺.
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