Fractured Kingdom

Scene 1

“Why do you do that?” Kinsey asked.

Anika bristled at her words. “Do what, dear sister?” She intentionally left the charm in her voice to sooth her sister’s mood.

Kinsey gestured toward their previous customer as he made his way across the bustling market. “You sold him more vegetables than he wanted as well as a shall for a woman who doesn’t exist.”

Anika gulped a giggle, shrugged and straightened some of the carrots they had grown on their property. Her sister really did know how to overreact. “I’m just making sure we sell our products. Don’t you want to have enough to survive the winter?”

“Stop trying to charm me with your voice. You can use it on unsuspecting customers, but not me.”

Anika sighed and her sister’s rebuff rolled off her like water sliding down the side of a glass. “Well, you drive customers away.”

“And you keep them away. Once they realize they’ve been had, they don’t return.”

“It’s no use arguing with you.”

Kinsey sighed, “I admire your gift, I really do. Goodness knows, it has served us well when we needed it. But it is wrong, it is a miss-use of power to control others and make them do what they never intended.”

“Like buy a bit more produce?”

“Precisely.”

Anika moved further down the stall and set herself to arranging the handmade items she had worked on the previous winter. She admired her handiwork on the crocheted shalls and quilted blankets. They were well done. Was it wrong of her to ask for a good return on her hard work? Was it wrong to expect customers to pay a good price and to use her ability to charm people to take care of her family? It didn’t seem wrong to her. That’s what everyone did to survive.

“Excuse me.”

Anika came out of her internal ponderings and noticed a young mother with a small blond haired boy next to her. The baby on her back was covered in a quilted padding and secured with a band of similar material that encircled mother and child.

“Yes, how can I help you,” Anika allowed the charm to rise up in her as she spoke to the woman. She could feel it warm her as it radiated from her features and softened her voice.

“How much are these?” the mother held up a bib.

 “These, they’re 1 crescent each.”

The mother’s face fell. “That seems a bit expensive.”

Anika smiled and released a little more of her charm. “Perhaps we can make a deal.” Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. She saw the woman’s desire for her product. She also knew with just the right approach, the woman could be easily convinced to spend more than she intended.

“How’s it going, dear,” a man approached from another stall that sold a variety of herbs.

“Oh, Dylan, just look at these. Cale could use some now that he’s beginning to teethe and with two boys I don’t have time to make them.”

The man, obvious the woman’s husband, took the bib from his wife’s hand and held it up for inspection.

“The sales lady here said they are 1 crescent each.”

The man whistled. “That’s a bit steep.” He turned to Anika. “How about giving us a better deal?”

Anika’s charm began to falter. She tried to pull it up but found it hard to maintain. It was almost like it was being nudged aside. “The cost is 1 crescent."