As promised, Setesh returned to the old man's shop the next day, since he previously mentioned having some sort a job for him. Knowing that the shop opens early, the fire mage had to wake up at dawn to make it to the shop in time, which left in a rather unpleasant mood, which not even a cup of ice cold chocolate milk could shake off, even deepening his annoyance.
The black haired man entered the shop, which reeked of elderberries and something else, which seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite figure it out. A slight tingly wave enveloped his body, a signal of strong magic nearby. No wonder, after all, who knew what could actually be hidden in this shop. Who the old man really was could be anyone's best guess, maybe he used to be a powerful mage in the past. Nevertheless, Setesh eventually found the old man in one of the back rooms. After a rather brief exchange of words, which the black haired man tried to keep to a minimum, he soon learned that the request was rather... strange. Khalesh asked the young man to essentially become a store clerk for a day and run his shop in his absence. Apparently the old man had some important, old-man-sage-wizard stuff to attend to and the shop wouldn't run itself.
Setesh reluctantly agreed, hoping that the day would pass by quickly and without any further annoyances.
"Hopefully I can just sit on my ass the whole day and nobody's gonna him. Fuck, if they do, what do I do?! I'm not an expert at any of this stuff!" He panicked internally, realizing that perhaps Khalesh was asking a bit too much. The day seemed to be getting worse and worse. Setesh knew that negotiating with the old man made no sense, and he could, in fact, use the money to pay rent. Ever since he moved out, he realized that the terrifying reality of the housing market can be a greater horror than many quests.
"Eeeh, fine, how bad can it get? If someone tries to rob store, I'm gonna kick their ass. At least I'll feel better."
"You seem to be lost in though, boy. Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just needed a moment to think.
"Well, don't be dozing off when I'm gone, otherwise everything will get stolen!"
He specifically forbade Setesh from leaving his position, even for a pee break. That seemed a little excessive, but fair enough, a job's a job. The money doesn't hurt.
They day went on surprisingly fast. Setesh spent the day mostly playing with his own fire and observing all the different items in the shop. Some of them looked pretty high level stuff. Unfortunately however, the peace was eventually broken when a band of teenagers came in, clearly trying to start trouble. The black haired man almost instinctively wanted to start a fight, but then realized the disastrous consequences of the old man's fury if the found his shop trashed. Therefore, he scared the kids away by summoning a small flame in his hand. The teenagers, clearly terrified of someone capable of wielding magic, were gone in a heartbeat. Many hours and quietly uttered curse words later, Khalesh returned and gave the boy his well deserved money. Setesh was overjoyed at the though of going home... and stopping by a nearby bush for a pee break.

569 words.