Alice was walking back home, after spending a whole afternoon at the city mall. She ended up not buying anything, but that was beside the point, she enjoyed just browsing through the new stuff, seeing if maybe something would pique her interest. That's how she found most of her hobbies and still was searching for more.
This time she had no such luck and was walking back empty-handed. This was another thing she enjoyed doing, just walking around instead of taking a bus or driving a car. The mall wasn't far away from their house, around a ten-minute walk, a perfect distance for a quick stroll.
She knew the way by heart now, but halfway through she noticed an unfamiliar sight. There was now a new store where she could swear before was just a plain wall.
At least that is what it seemed like, at first glance, even if it looked out of place. Both the doors and the windows were stylized to look as if they were made of old, dark wood, creating a stark contrast to modern surroundings, made mostly from steel and glass. Curious, she walked closer to take a better look, but unfortunately, she couldn't see much through the weirdly opaque windows, as they were tinted white. Even so, the plate on the door was turned to 'Open' so she walked in.
"Hello?" She announced herself after stepping inside, immediately noticing the strange decor of the place. The interior was dimly lit by a single large lamp hanging from the ceiling, shrouding the numerous wooden shelves in soft shadows, each one hiding something interesting. Not seeing anyone in her immediate vicinity meant that there was no one to stop her from taking a quick look at the merchandise.
Walking along the racks she saw mostly long, narrow pieces of paper, almost like store receipts, but yellow and much thicker. Every single one was covered in lines after lines of text she couldn't even understand and weird connected symbols scattered around paragraphs. Some of them had more drawings, some less, but each one was meticulously crafted with a wax seal on the bottom. The effort and craftsmanship someone put into making them was by itself worth appreciating.
Looking around she spotted more items, ones that she knew the purpose of. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other pieces of jewelry were displayed along the shelves near the wall, and having seen more familiar objects she realized what was missing, compared to every other shop she had been to. None of the items had any notes attached to them: no description, no name, no price. Almost as if someone wasn't expecting to sell anything, and all of these were just for show.
Maybe there was some explanation on the other side of the weird, yellow notes? She reached for the nearest one, wanting to check if maybe there was a readable text on the backside.
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Alice moved her hand back, startled by the voice, her ears flicking back and forth. "For more reasons than just plain good manners."
She looked around, searching for the source of the voice, and quickly found it. At the back of the store, behind the counter sat a woman, looking down at something on the countertop before her, but the raised back wall of the desk obscured most of the view. Even so, Alice could see her black outfit and, more importantly, the huge, round hat that she was wearing.
"Um, sorry, I was just..." Alice moved towards the stranger, feeling slightly unnerved by the whole situation. Something was off about her, beyond the unusual attire. "Are those for sale? Not that I want one, I mean they look interesting, but I don't even know what these are."
"Charms." The woman answered, not raising her eyes from the desk before her, keeping most of her face hidden by her hat. Alice moved closer, wanting to see what she was working on. "The ones on the shelves are not exactly for sale, but not just for show either. We will see if you deserve one."
"Charms, as if luck charms?" Alice asked, almost close enough to see what work occupied the shop owner, but then her attention shifted to the last words she heard. "Wait, what do you mean by 'deserve'? Do I have to sign something before I can buy them, like a membership thing?"
"No, but you aren't completely wrong. I will explain when I finish this one, be patient, please. And no more questions for now." The answer came just as Alice finally was able to see what she was working on. The woman was making another one of those yellow notes using a long, metal stylus to draw the lines connecting the paragraphs of text. But as Alice continued watching more and more details struck her as odd.
The stylus was something she he'd never seen before. It looked as if it was made from a single piece of black metal, but at the same time, the upper half was transparent and seemingly hollow, with a liquid sloshing inside. She could mistake it for some fancy pen if not for the fact that the ink was dimly glowing, and each time the tip of the stylus touched the yellow paper she could see a faint, blue spark, that went out as soon as the tool was pulled back.
"And... done," the woman placed the now empty stylus on the desk and slid the finished charm to the side. "Now, let's focus on you and the reason why you are here."
"Huh?" Alice was so mesmerized by the work before her that she couldn't stop staring at the yellow note for a while longer. "Oh, right, I was just curious about the new store I saw and wanted to check it out."
"Oh, my store is anything but new," the answer came with a dismissive flick of a wrist, loosely pointing at the surrounding furniture, "albeit I try to keep everything in good shape, which can obscure its age. It takes a lot of work, even if I don't have as many visitors as I used to."
"By this store, I meant as this right here, in this building, not the franchise." Alice wasn't sure if she said it wrong, or if the owner didn't understand her, "There wasn't anything here last week. I walk this road fairly often, so I wouldn't miss it."
"Oh, you certainly would," the lady said standing up from her desk, "people who wouldn't have any use of my wares are not allowed here. They just pass by, never even noticing the entrance."
Only now Alice noticed how tall the woman was, easily into six feet territory and the round hat added another few inches to that. Her all-black outfit, combined with the lipstick of the same color created an almost unnerving image. She almost whimpered when she met the gaze of the bright purple eyes staring at her from above.
"But now you are here, which means you need something from me." The owner of the store took a step forward, but Alice immediately took one back, keeping her distance, her instincts telling her to remain cautious.
"Forgive me, sometimes I get too excited when I meet newcomers. I am too used to dealing with regular customers who know this place by heart at this point," the woman apologized, backing off and leaning against her desk, giving the girl more space. "Explaining everything would take too much time, so I think it will be easier to show you. Please, do not shout."
She snapped her fingers and the lights went out at the same time as the window blinds shut close, filling the room with darkness. Alice yelled, taken by surprise, and there was a quiet groan heard right after. Then, one by one all of the yellow notes, so-called charms, began to light up, emitting a warm glow that after a few seconds illuminated the whole store.
"Before you ask, yes, this indeed is magic," the woman started walking slowly between the shelves, tracing her fingers along the glowing charms. "Everything you see here is enchanted in one way or another. Most of the items I made myself. I take pride in my work, and besides, a healthy dose of mistrust towards my competitors and sometimes even suppliers goes a long way to ensure I stay in business."
She picked one yellow note from the upper shelf, one that was bigger than the rest, filled from edge to edge with texts and symbols. "I may have gone a little overboard with some, not that I will take any lessons from it," she commented with a smile, picking another one, this with numerous glyphs winding in strange patterns, "and made some others aimed at, let's say, niche clientele. I know someday all of them will find the right owner."
She placed both charms back and turned towards Alice. "I suppose I never introduced myself. You may call me Elaine. Some prefer to call me by my craft and title me an enchantress; others simply call me a witch. To each their own I guess, so you can pick whichever one you like best, even if the first one is more accurate"
They both stood in silence for a moment.
"You can speak now, you know," Elaine reminded, crossing her arms on her chest.
Alice shook her head, trying to regain focus. The last few minutes turned her whole worldview upside-down, and even now the rational part of her brain was fiercely fighting to make her disregard everything she saw as hallucinations.
"So, magic is real?" She started with the most obvious question.
"As someone who is making a living off of it, I am fairly sure that it is real," the shop owner answered, "I could give you the whole show again, but it doesn't have the same effect the second time, so I'd rather not do it."
"And you are a witch?"
"More of an enchantress, as I mentioned earlier, but that's a technicality, I don't expect you to be up to date with Velarian's classification of arcane arts. As I said, use whichever one you prefer."
"And you do magic?" Alice beamed with excitement at this point, her tail swinging left and right.
Elaine looked at the girl questioningly, tilting her head. "I think I made that clear by now. You have more than enough proof."
"Yeah, right, sorry. I have read stories on the Internet, about how people sometimes find places like these, but I always thought that it was some kind of inside joke thing or something. Knowing that it is real is just... You know, cool!" Alice was grinning like a child in a candy store.
"Yes," Elaine returned the smile, "it certainly is."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Alice suddenly remembered what some of the stories she read were about and blushed just thinking about the question, but asked regardless. "Do you make like, you know, naughty stuff?"
The glimmer in the witch's eyes may have been more than just a part of Alice's imagination. "I was wondering when you will ask. Indeed, and not only do I make naughty stuff, as you call it, I make almost exclusively naughty stuff. If I weren't honest I would say that this is what my clients want, but I meant it when I said earlier, that I am proud of my work. Now, come here and let me help you find a charm that suits you."
"Oh my God, this is so cool! What do I do?"
The witch snapped her fingers and the ceiling lamp lit back up, while all of the charms stopped glowing.
"Put your hand on this," she said, pointing at the dark, glossy plate that lay on the side of the desk, "and just hold it steady for a while."
Alice did as she was instructed, and once her palm made contact with the mysterious object, she felt it heat up. Her first instinct was to pull her hand back, but her curiosity won. There was no way she would back out now.
The glass-like plate started editing pulsing light, and with it, a few of the charms also began to glow. Some shone brighter than others, and the enchantress moved to collect those first, taking them one by one and studying each individually. She placed most of them back onto the shelves but kept a few with her.
"You can take your hand back," she said finally, carrying only three charms with her, out of more than a dozen she tried. "Normally, you would simply tell me what were you looking for, and I would either pick one of my already finished charms, or take a custom order, but since it's your first time I thought you could use some help."
"Oh, thank you so much." Alice never questioned how that whole situation was supposed to work, and was happy to hear that she wouldn't have to figure everything out by herself. "Wait, does that mean that I can come here again later and ask you to make some stuff for me?"
"Greedy, aren't we? Right now you don't even know what my charms do," Elaine teased, crossing her arms, "and you already want more?"
"Ummm..."
"Patience, girl. I get it, you are excited and eager to try out new things," the enchantress took two of the yellow cards she held and put them inside a pocket on the side of her dress, "but I think you should start slow."
Alice was about to protest but decided against it seeing the stern look of the witch, instead just giving her a nod.
"That one is for you," the woman showed Alice the last charm she held, "now, a few things before I give it to you. I assume you have a boyfriend or someone of that sort?"
"I do, how do you know?"
"The charms that lit up indicated that you do, they were all designed to work better when you have someone else to help you enjoy them. Is he taller than you?"
"He is. Was that also something that you figured out with magic, or assumed by looking at me?" Alice didn't want to sound bitter, but couldn't stop it entirely.
"Bit of both. I am sorry if my question sounded condescending. The good news is, that particular charm will change that, even if only for a few hours." Elaine handed Alice the small, yellow note. This one had much less text than the one she saw being worked on earlier. "And a few quick hints before you use it. First, make sure your partner is on board with the idea. Activate it on yourself, not on him, you would be surprised how often people mess this part up. Also, make sure you are naked before you do it, it gets expensive if you aren't."
