They didn't have to walk far. The first shop was tucked between a cobbler's stall and a cart that sold candied nuts. A crooked wooden sign over the door read Falling Charms.

"This is the place," Key said, waving him in.

Jory looked skeptical, but entered the shop anyway. The moment he crossed the threshold, the shop came alive in the worst way possible. Glass candle holders, clay sculptures, and crystal figurines twisted and fell from every shelf at every level. Delicate items of insurmountable value shattered on the ground all around him. He had even stopped moving, and the items still fell, one after the other.

The merchant, a broad man with a balding head, burst from behind the counter. "What in the land's end have you done?!"

Jory held up both hands. "I didn't touch anything!"

"Then how do you explain breaking everything in the store?" the merchant bellowed.

Jory pulled the goat coin from his pocket and showed it to the belligerent man. "Please, I'm sorry, it's not me, I think it's this."

The merchant froze mid-breath. His eyes dropped to the coin and widened. He snatched two candles from the counter and held them up as if to ward Jory off. "Why would you bring something like that in here? Are you trying to get me killed by proximity? Get out! Get out and take your cursed object with you!"

As Jory backed up, he accidentally bumped a shelf, causing more fragile trinkets to come tumbling to the ground. He gave several more apologies before backing out of the shop.

Key was supposed to have gone in with him, but he couldn't get his laughter under control. He stayed outside with his back turned toward the entrance, laughing to the point of tears. When Jory came out, he had to straighten himself out fast. He had to rush through the next segment so he wasn't caught breaking character.

"This is worse than I thought. We have to hurry to the next place!" Key managed to say before turning his back. It was all he could do to hide his laughter. As he led the way, he barely managed to get it under control.

The second shop was more of an open-air stall than a proper building. Shelves of books and trinkets created the shop's walls under a translucent canopy of thin fabric. Bundles of dried herbs sat in piles and hung from beams. The air smelled faintly of incense.

Key entered first; seeing nothing fall, Jory followed with cautious steps. A stack of glass plates immediately slid off a shelf and shattered at his feet.

The shopkeeper, who was Delina in a different disguise, didn't even flinch. "Welcome," she greeted. "Would you like those plates gift-wrapped?"

"Sorry about that," Jory winced, taking the coin out of his pocket and placing it in front of her. "We're actually here to talk about this."

Delina stiffened. "Ah," she said slowly. "That explains the plates."

"So you've seen this before?" Key asked, following his part of the script.

"I've read about it," she murmured, picking up a jar of white powder and sprinkling a pinch of it around the coin. She instructed them not to touch it while it was encased in the protective barrier. It was ash from the fireplace.

Then she picked up a book and set it on the counter in front of them. She blew more fireplace ash off for effect. The book opened to a page featuring an image of a goat, and Delina followed the foreign script with her finger. She made perplexed sounds as she pretended to read.

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"It says this coin was originally a gift to an enemy emperor. It was said that the coin had the power to change one's fortune for better or worse with each flip. If the coin landed on the goat, it would improve; if it landed on the skeleton, it would decline. That's a dangerous gamble if you ask me. Except, it was a lie. Because no matter how many times the coin landed on the goat, the emperor's fortune declined. He went from emperor to prisoner in a matter of months. No matter how many times he tried to get rid of the coin, it always came back…."

Jory started hyperventilating, and Key put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. The prank was starting to get out of hand, so he used the secret signal to skip to the conclusion.

"There has to be a cure for this curse," Key began, thinking of a seamless way to insert the word 'parsnips' into casual conversation. "Surely you have a candle or some parsnips lying around somewhere."

Delina looked up at the sound of the code word and made eye contact with Key. They still had plenty of dialogue left with the purpose of breaking Jory's spirits before offering a solution. Key held her gaze and motioned with his body towards Jory. He wanted to say, "Just look at him, if we push him any farther, he's going to start crying in front of all the people you have lining the roofs!"

Jory's breath came in short bursts, and his eyes twitched back and forth. He was either considering current problems or his bleak future. It was easy to see he was starting to fall apart.

Delina must have seen it too because she nodded in agreement. With a sigh, she lifted up a second tome and set it on her table. She couldn't resist blowing the simulated dust off of it as well. They had gone through all the trouble of dusting it in the first place. She quickly opened to another picture of a goat, but instead of reciting her carefully constructed lore, she turned to the next page to display a picture of a wolf.

The truth was, both books were simple collections of animal facts, written in a foreign language. They had been borrowed from the royal historian, Marcus Tal'el, and were ideal for their prank. In the right atmosphere, like a mysterious shop filled with incense and herbs, the books could easily be mistaken for ancient diaries full of secretive, mystical writings. The wolf came after the goat in the language's alphabet, so Delina tailored the story accordingly.

"It says here, there might be a cure," Delina pretended to read on, tracing the line of text with her finger. "But that depends on how you got the coin in the first place."

Jory recounted the events that led to him receiving it. As he talked, Delina nodded along, periodically checking the book for answers. When he was finished, she reached down and flipped the coin over. As soon as she did, a metal cup fell off a shelf and clattered to the ground.

"I knew it! You are both responsible for this coin. One of you for one side, and the other for the other side. Quickly now!" She shouted, pulling out a small wooden box from a drawer. She opened it to review two wolf fangs capped with silver, strung on braided leather cords. She held them up, "You must wear these always. Both of you. If you remove it, the link will only be restored once you put it back on."

Jory took one of the wolf tooth necklaces and put it around his head. When he noticed Key still holding it in his hand, looking at it like a moron, he got his attention with a shove. "What are you doing? Put it on before everything in this place starts breaking!"

Jory could almost feel a tremor shaking everything around him. He was starting to hear it. The shelves began vibrating, causing items to clink together and drift out of place. When Key noticed it, he put his necklace on too, but the shaking didn't stop. It only got worse.

"You have to touch the tips together!" Delina shouted over the sound of the tremor. "Touch the wolf tooth tips together to tame the tremor!"

Jory picked up the fang around his neck and lifted it so the tip was facing Key. Key did the same, and they touched the tips together as Delina directed. The vibrations continued, knocking several items off the shelves.

"The coin!" She shouted, holding her head in an intentional sign of panic. "Grab the coin!"

Still holding the tips of the wolf fang necklaces together, Key reached over and grabbed the cursed coin off the desk. The tremors immediately subsided, and all was quiet.

"It's over," she said, holding out her hand. "Let me see it."

Key theatrically moved his closed fist closer, opened it, and dropped three silver talents into her outstretched hand.

"This should cover the cost of all the damage you did," Delina said, placing the coins in full view for effect. "You can stop touching tips now."

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