"I have just the thing!" Meredith announced brightly before heading into a backroom behind the counter.
"Shall we just do a runner?" Nicola suggested as she and James waited, but her friend didn't answer.
Before long Meredith returned with two fist size balls of what looked like clay and placed them both on the counter in front of her.
"What is this? Model making?" Nicola scoffed.
"In a sense" the mysteroius shopkeeper replied cryptically "Now hold still a moment the pair of you and let me concentrate"
To their surprise Meredith quickly and skillfully reshaped the first greyish ball into a figure that very accurately resembled James before modelling the second into a miniature Nicola.
"What are those? Voodoi dolls of us?" Nicola folded her arms defensively.
"How quaint" Meredith chuckled "No, these are way more powerful than mere trinkets like thar. I sell this material as a novelty modelling clay that can be effortly shaped into anything even the least skillful artist desires purely by will. But of course, the magical forces the clay draws from will also insist on reshaping the individuals it is bound with in the same way. That is the cost I'm afraid"
"So that's it?" James asked, hardly prepared to believe any of this.
"Not entirely" Meredith replied "I'm willing to give you both the chance to buy your own models for £2500 each. Otherwise I will sell them at a budget price to whoever else wants them and your fate will be in their hands. It is entirely your decision."
"£2,500 for that tat?" Nicola exclaimed "You're even crazier than you look"
"We just can't afford thar, sorry" James added.
"As you wish, then I shall bid you good day" Meredith smiled cordially.
As a baffled looking James and Nicola left the shop, Meredith placed the two cursed models on a shelf near the front of the shop. They would sell by the end of the day for sure, and James and Nicola woold be back begging for her help at any price not long after.