A New Watery Friend

"Yeah, yeah, have a good day and all that," Amani said with impatience as a group of kids walked out of her shop, murmuring about their purchases excitedly. She had managed to get them to buy a few items that would help with their exams, so it wasn't her problem if they got caught with them. They were the ones who paid the money for them after all, so who is really in the wrong? Not her, since the kids didn't have to buy the items. She had already dismissed them from her mind once the money was turned over to her, because she wanted to get back to what she was doing before the little brats had walked in.

There was a meow of disapproval from the black furry lump that resided on the check out counter, and Amani turned and frowned at the black cat. "Hey, no noise from you mister. That just paid for your treats you know," she said sniffing, and Binx flicked his tail in retort. "So if you don't want your salmon chewies I suggest you keep your morals to yourself." Binx stared at her for a minute before gathering himself up and hopping down from the counter, going to find a patch of sun in the storefront window. The salmon chewies were his favorite treat, and Amani grinned triumphantly. Amani one, Binx zero. Pleased with her victory, she turned to face the back counter and the object that sat there waiting for her attention.

It was the purple glass marble that she had required from a wisp of a girl the other day, and she had yet to crack the secrets of it. She knew that the marble had something to do with shadow magic, the same as her own magic, but it had not given up its secrets to her, no matter how much she coaxed it. It had been frustrating really, because Amani began to suspect that the little marble was toying with her, as if it was sentient. It very well could be, because it could be a trapped spirit inside the purple glass. She looked at it and frowned, picking it up from the ring box that it had been placed in. It was heavier than a marble should be for it's size, which was no bigger than a cherry. Amani guessed it had something to do with its magic, but she couldn't be sure. "I have a feeling that you are laughing at me," she murmured, and she had the strange sense that she was being watched, and not by her own shadow creatures. "You're a bloody handful aren't you?" She set it back down in its box. There had to be some way to unlock it.......


@ReD

Amani had heard the light tinkling of the bells on the shop door as it opened, and she frowned in annoyance. The downside to actually owning a shop was having to deal with customers when you really didn't want to, and that was the real irony of it all. Such was the life of a business owner and she sighed, deciding to close the little ring box and deal with the glass marble later. It was going to take more of her time than she had right now to find its secrets and she could hear whoever was in the shop moving around.

Brushing a few silvery strands of hair from her face, she turned and found herself looking at a handsome young fellow leaning against the counter, and her cat Binx had decided to come and investigate the newcomer. Moody little shit, she thought to herself as the little shit in question seated himself next to one of the aisles and watched them with occasional flicks of his tail. Amani glanced away from him and turned her attention back to the potential customer.

"So if you're here just for the wifi I suggest you go somewhere else," she said with a tilt of her head to the side with a smirk. "I didn't spend all my time hacking into the neighbor's wifi just so other people could freeload off of it too."

Binx seemed to make up his own mind and determined that the young man didn't pose any sort of threat, so he plopped himself down on the counter and began purring, if the noise that he was making could be described as purring. It was more like a low rumble with how loud it was, and Amani shook her head. "Shameless," she muttered, turning her attention away from the cat and back to the young man. His request wasn't an odd one, but it wasn't a request that she heard very often and so she stared at him for a few minutes.

There was a bit of a familiarity to him, although she knew that they had never met. He didn't have the look of a seer, but the more she stared the more she began to realize that he wasn't just a human boy. Fae then, or something else disguised as a boy," she thought to herself. Some of the more mischievous fae liked to disguise themselves as humans or other creatures, not that that really bothered Amani. She was part of the fae as well. But what wou;d he want divination tools for?

She came out from around the counter, reaching up to pull her hair into a bun before she started digging around for anything. "Divination tools, eh?" she asked, moving towards one particular aisle and inspecting the contents of the shelves. "I don't get that request very often. I assume you know that there are multiple ways to see into the future," she said, moving aside an old, small chest to see what was behind it. "Why would a young man such as yourself need to know what the future had in store for him?"

Tarot cards were the easiest materials to get if one really wanted to attempt to see the future, although most people really used them for fun or cheap parlor tricks. There was a worn pack of them behind the small chest, and tarot cards usually worked best when the owner had owned them for a long time. Something like a relationship was established between them. Amani didn't exactly understand it herself, since her talents lay elsewhere, but true seers were people that she had a great respect for. It was never wise to anger one, even if she didn't always believe what they spouted.

His answer though amused her, and she found herself laughing in spite of herself. "Well you're a cheerful one aren't you," she said, still chuckling, as she pulled out a small leather bag from the shelf, and as an afterthought, the small chest as well. "Perhaps you simply haven't lived long enough to decide if your future is a shit show. The fae tend to be long lived after all," she said, violet eyes glancing at him slyly before she straightened and headed back to the counter, setting the leather pouch and chest down carefully.

Binx came over to inspect the objects that she had decided on, sniffing them cautiously before Amani shooed him away. "Damn cat, I don't need your stamp of approval," she said a bit irritably, but she still scratched him behind his ears fondly before he settled back down in his spot on the counter, looking at the boy expectantly. "True seers have their preferred method of seeing the future, if they don't simply meditate. However, a true seer can use any method to see the future as long as they understand the method. Does your friend have a preferred method? Or is she still learning?"

"Perhaps she will find her calling then in one of these methods," she said nodding, reaching for the small leather pouch. She untied the strings around it and then shook out the contents gently, several white squares of bone falling onto the counter. "These are rune stones," she explained, gathering them together and pushing them closer to him so he could see them better. "There are runes on each of these, front and back, and work very similarly to tarot cards. There are a number of combinations that you can get with these, and each combination can mean something different. From what I can tell, I believe these are made from whale bones, but I can't be sure," she said, picking one up and turning it over in her hand thoughtfully. "I don't want to ruin the pieces by testing, but these are very popular in the northern reaches of the world."

Amani set the bone back down with the rest of the pieces and then slid the small box over to her and unclasped the hinges, opening it with a slight squeak from the lid. Inside there was a small bowl, no bigger than a teacup, but it was made of jade. She picked it up carefully and set it down on the counter as well. "This little beauty is a scrying bowl, and I'm afraid there is no exact science for this sort of thing," she said, leaning on her elbows on the counter. "From what I've been able to find out, this little bowl just needs to be filled with water and then a single drop of blood needs to be added from the person using the bowl. So no horrible blood sacrifices will be needed," she said with a smile. "I think the blood is just the connection between the user and the bowl, otherwise it is simply just a bowl of water."