Marmalade's Love Potion

Ch 2 - Grimwood Village - Pt 3

Penelope and the Sisters made their way through the snowy footpaths back to the upper village concourse, across the busy road, and through the central garden to the fortune fountain.

Though it was winter, the garden boasted a wide variety of plants from different regions and seasons. Contributions from each of the realms of Edenwood Valley were carefully cultivated and alchemically nurtured throughout all seasons, making for a lush and eclectic garden of vibrant flowers, crystalline trees, and luminescent ferns.

Penelope sat herself on the stone wall of the fountain. Mist curled along the surface of the water, and Penelope traced her hand through the pool. The water was warm, even in the chill winter air, and Penelope glimpsed flashes of small shining fish through the mist.

A large clock stood tall nearby which read eleven in the morning.

"Now, there's a brunch for the Sisters of the Edenwood Magical Order soon that we're itching to go to," Sister Rosin said peering up at the clock. "It'll be dead boring for you I'm sure, Penelope, dear. So why don't you take the coin purse and use the rest to buy, well, whatever you'd like! There's enough there for a powder or two, or even a small charm if you—" Sister Rosin cut off with a wheeze as Penelope threw her arms around the short, round woman in a strong hug.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Penelope said with an excited squeal. Sister Heely laughed. "Just be sure to meet us back here at the fountain by mid afternoon. Three past noon should be plenty of time, and then we can begin the journey home before it gets too late."

"I will!" Penelope exclaimed, tucking the coin purse safely into her inner coat pocket. She had four whole hours to explore the village! By herself!

Penelope waved as the Sisters hurried through the park towards their brunch. When they were out of sight, Penelope turned to go the other way. Penelope had brought with her a small purse of her own savings from pocket money over the years. Deciding she should stock up on a few practical supplies before spending it all on enchantments, Penelope strode off towards Papyre. She only got lost the once and had to retrace her steps through the narrow cobbled alleys before she found the small shopfront, aglow with clackstone crystals.

Penelope stepped through the glass-paned door into the warmth of the shop, which was filled with patrons scooping small crystal pebbles into paper bags, or inspecting the various messenger papers for letter writing. Penelope picked up a small wicker basket by the door and squeezed through the crowd towards the firelight clackstones.

The golden ones were best for heating large open rooms, and looked prettier than the silver. Penelope picked out several stones from their container, added them to a paper bag and placed them carefully in her basket.

The green clackstones were best for burning garden trimmings into rich compost, and worked particularly well with the red clackstones for outdoor winter fires. Penelope added several more colours, shapes, and sizes of clacktone to paper bags and tucked them into her basket.

Then she made her way to the ink station, with elegant pens of wood, bone marble, and even Darkwood owl feather. There were inks for writing, sketching, and etching, as well as pans of water paints.

Penelope smiled at a childs set of inks for pebble printing, recalling the small set of colour-changing inks Sister Rosin had brought back from the market for her when she had been young and scared of the woods. Penelope had scratched animals and flowers into the pebbles using a crude quartz carving pen, and covered the headboard of her bed in wild patterns which flashed from pink to purple to yellow. It had given poor Sister Heely a headache to look at, and Penelope had painted over it herself a few years later.

Penelope picked out some new pens of common duck feather, as well as a few small stacks of messenger paper which, when folded, would be carried on the wind to the postal houses for sorting and delivery. With her basket filled she approached the counter, handed over several coins from her own purse to the cheerful attendant, and tucked her parcel into her own bag.