By Ellie Patrick & The Magician
Part 1: The Shop
I found myself in the dusty old magic shop. I’m not quite sure how I got there, I just knew it was a place I needed to visit, and so one day, there I was. A bell chimed as I pushed open the door, but looking up, there was no bell. The store itself was cramped and cluttered, with narrow aisles between overloaded shelves. From the entrance, there didn’t seem to be enough space for even a child to pass through, but I had been assured that Bea had been able to navigate in hir wheelchair (it had been tight, but not unmanageable). I proceeded down the main aisle, drawn as if by some force from deeper within the shop. Surely enough, the path seemed to widen almost imperceptibly such that I could traverse it without issue, but barely.
A bit into the shop, I found a long glass display counter, filled with all sorts of jewelry and trinkets, each of which had a faint glow, only visible in the dimness of the room, and each glowed a different color. I stopped to look at them for a moment, but the pull grew stronger, so I continued on.
At the back of the shop, there was an intricately carved table, painted silver, with an embroidered cloth atop it. Candles were arranged on shelves and sconces around the table, but the light did not cast beyond the back edge of the table. From the darkness, I heard the continuous squeal of a boiling kettle. There was a chair at the table, that pulled back as I approached, as if beckoning me to sit. As I sat down, a booming voice rang out from all around me, seeming to echo within my skull.
“Elianna,” it said, “I wondered how long it would take for you to find your way here. What is it that you seek today?”
I looked around nervously, before replying “I’m not quite sure. I didn’t intend to come here today. Suddenly I was at the entrance, and something drew me back here.”
There was a pause, before the voice responded, “So, the shop intended for you to come here?”
Although, it was asked as a question, I couldn’t help but feel like it was more of a statement. The voice continued:
“You must have a deep connection to this world, if the shop chose you. I’ve been watching you for some time, Elianna; there is a magic that runs through your veins which I have not seen in quite some time. It was inevitable that you would end up here eventually.”
The voice paused, and I felt as if someone was staring into my eyes out of the darkness, looking deeper within me than even I could see. A pair of hands appeared out of the darkness, folded on the table, though I still could not see who they were attached to. The hands were perfectly manicured but ancient.
“Let me tell you about this world.”
The hands pulled apart, and a crystal ball appeared between them.
“Look closely now.”
As they said this, my focus was pulled completely towards the sphere, until it filled my entire field of view. And then I began to see things in the crystal, as they began to narrate.