Marmalade's Love Potion

Ch 3 - Whistleweather's Emporium - Pt 2

Penelope followed Abel Whistleweather around the shop counter and towards a small door obscured by a heavy velvet curtain.

Behind the door was a tight spiral of stairs, which led up to a small landing and another door of old, dark wood.

This door creaked as Abel gestured Penelope across the threshold into a large, brightly lit workshop.

There was an enormous glass sphere which filled most of a platform in the back corner of the room. Supported by a broad base of wood, the sphere was also suspended from a system of cables and chains anchored into the stone walls and broad ceiling beams. To Penelope's disquiet, these chains occasionally rattled, causing the ceiling beams to groan.

Nearby was a hearth filled with ashes, surrounded by a neat sitting area with dark leather armchairs.

The greater part of the room was occupied by a long, finely carved dining table stacked with books and contraptions in various states of repair. Smaller workbenches surrounded this central table, like celestial satellites frozen in orbit. Many of these smaller tables were piled with complex equipment made of glass and copper.

Abel weaved his way through the maze of benches to stand before one of the smallest tables. Penelope followed slowly, wary of disturbing the delicate looking equipment.

Atop the bench's rough wooden surface lay several small, cracked orbs of quartz, as well as a larger sphere of vibrant violet. Small glass bottles filled with a swirling liquid of the same colour sat in neat rows within a wooden case. Suspended above the violet sphere was a looping system of glass tubes terminating in a bright copper tap, which seemed poised to drip liquid onto the sphere below.

"Your family have long been custodians of a very fickle, very powerful alchemy."

"The Elixir of Syvensia," Penelope whispered, frowning. "I've only ever seen it the one time..."

Penelope had been very young when she had been taken to a ceremony in the Crystal Grove. She had been told to remain still and quiet, which made her nervous as she had never been very good at either.

Her mother had stood amongst the enormous silver and crystal trees, surrounded by tall attendants wearing pearly cloaks. The Queen had drunk the Elixir, which smelled of flowers and woodsmoke. Her mother's eyes had glowed an eerie violet, which had frightened Penelope. Her mother had laughed, then wept, then stood tall and roared at the sky in a language Penelope didn't understand. Penelope had fled.

She remembered the bright glitter of crystal and silver leaves, and her father smiling as he had coaxed her out from beneath a large shrub. She couldn't remember if she had been in trouble, but everything had felt different, even after they returned home. It wasn't very long after the ceremony that she had been sent away with the Sisters.

Blinking away the memory and suppressing her shame, Penelope peered apprehensively at the loops of glass tubes. The liquid within shimmered with ghostly figures.

"You mother is the most skilled seer in generations, and your sister is proving quite adept. Very impressive for her young age." Abel handed a corked bottle of the potion to Penelope, distracting her from her thoughts. She closed her fingers around the cold glass, then placed it on the table with a sigh.

"I don't have the constitution to bear the weight of foresight," Penelope said dully, quoting the words she had been told many times by various royal advisors on their annual visits to the cottage. At least, until they had stopped visiting altogether many years ago.

"Alas, very few do, even amongst the esteemed House Starwood. However," Abel gazed at the orb in front of him, "your family has agreed to trade some measure of Syvensia with Grimwood. Your mother and sister visited the shop last week to deliver this case of the Elixir in person."