Page 50 of A Light in the Dark
Joel laughed. “She sold it for a price she is happy with. Trust me, she is delighted knowing how happy her piece made you. But I’ll let her know about your reaction. She’ll love it. You didn’t underpay her, I promise. Her project holders are labors of love, and she works on them when she’sworking in the shop and needs to pass time waiting for customers.”
“I bet she’d make a bloody fortune if she sold cross-stitch kits in a luna moth theme, catered to the shifter who produced the silk,” I muttered. “And I’d end up buying every single Shifter Five kit. She’ll have to make an extra one of all kits just for me. She could make a specialty kit that includes a project holder themed to match the project, and there would be bidding wars to have it.”
“She’s going to have to put Shifter Five in protection. If you find out who they are, all hope is lost. I’m going to warn Two and Three just to be safe—and Twelve. Actually, we should just put all the luna moths on notice. You might try to find the ones that aren’t under contract and get their silk out of them.”
“Do you think they’d accept fifty dollars a pound for theirs? Is that too low?”
At a stop sign, Joel dug out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to me. “Find Yolana in my contacts and give her a ring. She can tell you what the going rate per pound is, and if you want to spin fibers, she can tell you if she has any shifters willing to give up their wares to supply your hobby.”
I grabbed his phone, tapped on his contacts, and did as told. I put it on speaker before dialing.
“Didn’t you just leave, Joel?” Yolana asked.
“I did, but Valerie is a little excited over her acquisitions, and she’s contemplating cornering luna moths for their goods.”
“Shifting byproduct and luna moth vomit are my two new favorite things in life, Yolana. I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m officially weird.”
The woman busted a gut laughing. “It took me a full month to accept my favorite things in life are shifting byproduct, vomit, and copious amounts of urine, usually sourced from cattle but I’ll take it from anywhere that’ll give it to me pure enough.”
“There’s a magic trick you can use to skip the urine phase,” I informed her. “And it’s just as permanent as urine.”
“I will pay in two bolts of silk or the equivalent in embroidery thread for this secret.”
Huh. Was my accidental magic trick, something I’d concocted to stop having to buy urine,thatvaluable? “A project holder, made from Shifter Five’s silk, luna moth themed but a different color and design than what I have, and enough raw silk, also from Shifter Five, to turn into thread and fabric for my stitching adventures,” I countered. “And you have to come to Stonecreek and help me kit a refugee with fiber so she can make her own clothes and stuff. I don’t think she’ll accept silk, except as scrap, out of the gate, so you have to help me bring her to the dark side.”
“Deal. I’ve been wanting to expand my contracts with the shifters anyway, so I’ll do that. I need fresh blood.”
“I think you mean silk fiber,” I told her, struggling to keep from laughing.
“That, too. I keep my scrap cloth, so if she likes working with scrap, I have scraps. I know someone in Stonecreek that can help her out without being obvious about it. I’ll talk with Joel and he can be our middleman for our Stonecreek adventure.”
“You mean driver,” Joel muttered.
“That, too.”
“How did you come up with a trick to skip the urine part?” Yolana asked.
“I can handle byproduct. I can handle vomit. But piss? Icriedthe first time I used urine for a craft project, and I swore never again. Honestly, I was trying to find a way toremovestains. Instead, I found a way to permanently set them. I did find a way to remove most stains, but it won’t work on the stuff I permanently set. Once I set something, it stays set.”
“How much bleeding do you have to contend with?”
“Zip, zilch, nada,” I reported with pride. “Rinse once, and that’sit. I have a magic trick for that, too.”
The wailing sounds from the phone made me giggle. “Joel, you are a cretin!”
“Hey, what did I do?”
“You found my guardian angel, and you hoarded her all to yourself.”
“Yolana, you control Shifter Five’s supply. You have her wrapped around your finger at this stage.”
“But she has unlocked the true secrets of the universe.”
Joel rolled his eyes, shook his head, and kept on driving. “I have to return her to work tomorrow. You can’t steal her.”
“Traitor!”
“Does that mean I can buy raw silk from Shifter Five?”
