MEOW: Magical Emporium of Wares - A Cozy Slice-of-Life Fantasy

I smirked as the cat stumbled over his own paws to face the front door. A hand held the door open as the figure made its way inside. The woman was human. Or at least, she looked human. Her hair was a silver white, and her face was covered in wrinkles. She took her time, slowly shuffling into the main room, and I studied the robes covering her. The cloth was a deep blue with a white motif on the edges by the floor and around her sleeves. The motif looked like a geometric rising sun. I couldn’t see her feet. I looked back up and caught her smiling at me. Her eyes were bright green, almost like the cat’s. I blushed.

“Welcome to the Magical Emporium of Wares,” I said quickly. The cat didn’t add anything, just watched the woman. “Let me know if I can help you with any of the items.”

She nodded at me and turned toward the table I had been eyeing with the candles and crystals. Unlike me when I enter a store, she didn’t touch anything and instead held her hand two to three inches over certain items. She slowly made her way around the room, and then the case seemed to catch her eye. Her body jerked as she quickly moved in front of it.

I didn’t know if I should stay behind the counter or go behind the case. Normally, I stayed behind the counter; it was safe behind the counter. The cat nudged my hand, and I almost jumped out of my skin. He usually didn’t touch me, so I stayed put. “Ask her if she wants something to drink,” he whispered. The cat couldn’t talk to anyone but me, which was a big part of how I’d gotten the job. That and thumbs.

“Would you like a hot drink? We have coffee, and several different teas?” I leaned over the counter to see her better. The woman turned from the case and made her way over to me. I quickly leaned back.

“What teas do you have? Oh, that’s a good selection.” I noticed her eyes were on the wall behind me, and I turned. At some point, the wall had changed to three shelves with canisters on them. The first shelf had a small tag with Tea written on it. The second shelf was labeled Herbs, and the third, Blends. The labels for the shelves and the canisters all were handwritten in a feminine script. “I will have a cup of the spicy cinnamon tea as I shop.”

I nodded and took down the canister. On the lid was a set of instructions. I let out a small breath. It was an easy brew, and I programmed the hot kettle for the correct temperature. “It won’t take long. I just need to get the water up to temp.” I scooped the specified amount of tea into the metal tea ball.

The woman nodded as she studied the electric kettle. Her eyes were wide. “You have strange magic in this shop.”

“We do,” I answered. Electricity was magic, depending on where we were in the universe.

“You guard it well,” she added, with a sharp look.

The cat meowed at this and drew both of our attention. “Tell her we listen to the fates,” he said, “and we hear the call.”

I really hated being his voice, but it was part of the job. “We listen to the fates,” I said aloud. The kettle beeped at temp, and I poured it into a ceramic mug over the metal tea ball before setting the timer. “And we hear the call. Your tea will be done in a few moments.”

The woman paused and then pulled several items from her robes. Wherever her pockets were hidden, they were amazing. The first couple of items were crystals, then came a wooden box, a wand with a crystal tip, and finally a blue bag. “I have several items that need to be protected. My age is great, and I do not yet have a successor.”

The cat moved and sniffed at each object before nodding. “What do the fates say?” he asked. I quickly repeated the question for him.

She jerked but responded. “They led me here. I know several who would kill for these. I have seen it, but I can’t bear to destroy them.” Her voice was soft and sounded a little heartbroken.

The cat nodded again and sent another statement, which I repeated. “We will safeguard them until the fates say it is time.” The timer went off, and I quickly removed the tea strainer before setting the mug in front of the woman.

She took a sip of the tea, and her face relaxed. Before she could say anything, the cat whispered again, this time in my mind. “Ask her if she has any other burdens we can relieve her of, any other objects we can safeguard.”

I stared at the cat, then spoke, “Is there anything else we can safeguard for you? Any other burdens?” I kept my voice soft, but inside, I was a whirlwind of confusion. That cat knew much better what was going on, clearly. I wished he’d clue me in.

The cat moved closer to me, and in the process, his tail lightly touched the coffee mug I had given the woman. The contact glowed for but a second. Her eyes stayed on me, and she frowned. “No, there is too much I still need to do. Maybe someday I will be back, but I think this is all for now.” The old woman took another sip of her tea. The smell of cinnamon filled the air then vanished. My eyes watered, but I blinked back the moisture. The frown vanished from her face.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Fine, dearie, just fine. I always thought I would have a student by now. The fates still might bless me with one, though time is getting short.”

Before she could finish speaking, the cat gave me another question to ask. “What do the cards say? Have you asked them?” I repeated the question, but I didn’t understand what I was asking. The woman hesitated before opening the wooden box she had set on the table. Inside, something circular was wrapped in a blue cloth. She carefully unfolded the item. It was a stack of what looked like tarot cards, although these were circular. Her fingers pulled the three cards off the top and set them down on the counter.

I couldn’t read the writing amid the brightly colored pictures. The first was facing the woman and had a glowing ball in the middle with a ring of bright stars surrounding the edges. The second was facing me, and it looked like a trail up a mountain with an altar at the top. The last had an oak tree in the background, a giant leaf in the center, and bright green writing along the edges.

“Every time it is the same,” she whispered. The cat peered at each card and nodded. His paw tapped the one with the orb. I didn’t need to say anything as the woman nodded. Her hand reached into her robe, yet again. This time she pulled out a ball—or rather, an orb. It was milky white and bigger than her hand. She placed it on the counter, and it stayed where she put it. “The Orb of Seeing. It was supposed to go to my successor. My student. I still see her now and then, with bright green eyes and blonde hair. I swear she is an angel, but that’s not possible.” She let out a sigh. “Yet, I haven’t come any closer to finding her.”

The cat moved back to nudge my hand. This time my mouth opened without my input. “Maybe she comes after you, and you guide her from the lines.” Somehow my voice sounded male. The words came out choppier than normal. He broke contact with me, and my lips snapped shut. The fear came and went quickly. That had been incredibly strange, but then again, a lot of what happened in my life these days was incredibly strange. Still, taking control of me like that was out-of-line, and he knew it.

A sniffling sound broke the rage that was building in me toward the cat. The old woman had tears running down her face. I reached across the counter to grab her hand, but I brushed the edge of the orb. On contact, it flashed a bright white and hummed. I jerked away, trying to blink the spots away. The cat jumped back, but the woman didn’t move.

“Oh, you’re right. How could I have been so blind?” She took several deep breaths. I grabbed a napkin and held it out. Instead, she pulled a cloth from her robes. “You must guard it, Lord Felimid. Promise me.”

The cat padded back toward me, and I jerked my hand away. “Tell her, I promise.”

“The cat promises to guard it,” I said. His voice continued in my head, and I repeated the words. “And to make sure it makes it to the one the fates intend.” He had a name. She knew his name!

The woman nodded. “Good enough. It will have to be.” She wiped at her face one last time, and her gaze switched from the cat to me. “You have more than a spark of the gift. If you practice, you might be a witch someday.”

The cat froze for a moment at her words, but then relaxed, sitting back down.

“Good to know,” I said. Me, a witch? I mean, I did ask the cat if he could teach me magic.

The woman took one last look at the items on the counter, and her smile softened. Several years seemed to be lifted from her shoulders. Then she turned around. This time her pace was quicker and more purposeful.

“Wait,” I called after her, as the door chimed. Her robes had already vanished outside. “What was that?” I asked the cat, still confused. “We didn’t pay her.”

“Oh, that was the Prophetess of the Fates,” he replied, in the same tone as when he described the delivery guy. I shook my head. That title meant nothing to me. Sensing my frustration, the cat continued. “She could see the future. She directed her world in accordance with the fates. It led to peace and prosperity over the last several hundred years. She has no children or students strong enough with the gift to pick up her mantle and safely use the items here.”

“So now you’re chatty, since you literally used my mouth to speak?” The anger dripped out.

The cat hung his head. “I used magic on you. I needed to talk more easily with her.”

“Why?”

“She didn’t want to give up the orb. She knew her death was near, but she didn’t want to place her responsibility on another.”

A memory of the spark when his tail touched her teacup came back. “What did you do?”

“What the fates told me to do.”

I had darted out from behind the counter before my mind had caught up with my actions. My hand landed on the door handle, and I tried to turn it. It didn’t move. “You magicked her to get her to give up the orb?! That isn’t right, cat!”

“I know.” His voice caused me to let go of the door. It wasn’t like it would open if he didn’t want it to.

“Then why did you do it?” I asked with my hands on my hips.

“Because I had to.”

“That isn’t an answer!” My voice was loud, and the shop seemed to rumble in response. The noise shook the shelves, but nothing else happened. It stopped as quickly as it started.

The cat shook his head and jumped behind the counter. “Don’t you run from me!” Yet by the time I reached the counter, he was gone. The objects the prophetess had left behind were still there. “You… You’re a scaredy cat!”

I slumped against the counter, the anger draining away. I couldn’t hold onto my anger once someone was gone. My brothers had used it against me all the time, and here the cat was benefiting from it as well.

I picked up the orb and held onto it. It didn’t change this time. No flashes or anything. I set it down on the counter and shook my head. The crystals on the center table again caught my eye, and I stepped forward. I knew nothing about crystals, and while they looked pretty, they didn’t seem to do anything. They were right next to the pillar candles in their rainbow of colors. Something glittered to my right, so I headed over to the glass case. Inside were a variety of objects. A few daggers, a bowl, and several decks similar to the one sitting on the counter. To the rightmost side were three books. The titles were in a script I couldn’t read.

“I bet all of these are magical, like what she brought,” I whispered to myself. The case itself seemed to be magical. There didn’t seem to be any way into it. The case folded at the seams, and the back didn’t have an opening—magically protected magic?

I turned back to see if the cat had returned to the counter, but no such luck. Yet something had changed. The items on the counter were gone, and a book rested in their place. I moved forward. The book sat next to my blue mug, which was still half full, heat rising from the top. Candle Magic for Beginners was written across the front, and a single candle was stamped into the cover in gold foil.

“Ugh, why are your bribes this good?” I didn’t expect a response, but I grabbed the book. At least I would be able to keep busy this afternoon, and this stuff probably wasn’t on the internet. Maybe Indigo would like me reading to her about candle magic.