Love Potion

Trinkets and Dartfish

The girls were all buggling in 'Castello's Carnival of Curios', the trinket shop, when I came in.

It was a small, crookedly shop, and altogether bursting with doodads and doohickeys, sparkling from every inch of the room. That combined with our group of six left the shop incredibly cramped, not to mention stuffy. The air I breathed was hot as if coming from soup.

Persephone waved at me. She had purchased two 'communikets', matching lockets that allow you to mentally send fourteen words a day to the person whose picture is hidden in the locket. I suppose the other was for Gilbert. My stomach very unhelpfully and very jealously wrenched.

Morgaine had a weather rock. It went cold, hot, wet or dry depending on the weather in the next twenty-four hours, and if hung from a tree would sway or hang depending on the wind in twenty-four hours. At the moment, it was decidedly hot and dry, and hung inertly. When Morgaine showed it to me I immediately yearned for one, but I learnt that it was the only one the store had, as well as being extremely expensive. Four gizros, Mollis told me! Though she has a habit of exaggerating everything...

After Persephone had shown her communikets off to me she gasped, and pointed frantically at the shiny wand that was now tucked into my belt. When I showed it to her she let out an excited peep, and soon all the girls were gazing and vaunting over it.

"Yours is so pretty," sulked Mollis. "Mine's inherited from my gram... it's crusty as her elbows..."

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Morgaine upbraided, "a wand's power is not based on its prettiness. And inherited wands are commonly the more powerful... my wand is inherited from my grandfather, and it's never done me wrong..."

"But what about that time you tried to dye Persephone's hair black for her and turned it green? She had to cut all her hair off..."

Morgaine asked me rather loudly what essence my wand had after that.

I told them. I learnt Persephone's had powdered dragon tongue, Morgaine's had dried unicorn blood, Pip and Mollis had fairy dust, and like me, Tamsin had mermaid essence.

Everyone had already been in the shop a while, but I could tell they still had no inclination of leaving. Good for me: I really wanted to have a look around. There was so much to see, so many fanciful devices!

I gloated over tables of twinkling tools: sun spheres, darkvision glasses, bottled sweet dreams, keys that open any locks you've locked, round jars containing animal spirits... even a box that opens at the top and bottom, and each opening providing space as big as the box.

I was just aching over a tiny grammar phone that played tunes that were stuck in your head when I noticed the lover's section. Incapably, as if being pulled by an ethereal fishing rod, I found myself magnetised to it. I scooted over there with hesitance, hiding behind a large shelf of broaches that could change shape into any flower. The section was set out on a cakestand-like display, round levels set with pink cloths, where multiple magical gadgets winked winsomely. There were communikets, love potions, dream-sharing sweets, even a ring that you can trap a bit of your heart in, and whoever wearing it can feel some of your emotions... 

I must have been heavily glazed over it because I didn't realise that Persephone was right behind me before she bayed, "Cosmo!"

My bones bounced. "Crap!" I yelped.

"We're going." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the door. She momentarily glimpsed the section I was looking at, smirked, then turned on her heel.

"Oh, poo you, smirking like you know something I don't," I muttered, then followed her out.

Our next stop was the pet shop. Everyone already had a pet, but seeing all the animals was fun. Dragons slippered and scurried in cages, flying cats mewled, weasels scampered around pens, rats squeaked in ratty chorus... it was fantastic, but I felt queasy about all the animals being trapped in such small cages... I noted this to Persephone, and she agreed forlornly.