Upon entering the store, Derek and Sonya were astounded at the decorum of the interior and the items on the nearby shelves. It was a small shop, laid out similar to a used book store. Instead of books, however, shelf after shelf held numerous artifacts that ranged in appearance from mundane to mythical to extraterrestrial. They spent a minute just standing by the door, breathing in the faint incense that might have been coming from the candle lamps along the old wooden timbers that divided the shelves along the wall.
They were approached by a woman wearing a conservative pant suit. She looked more appropriate for guiding tours of a museum than working in a small, musky shop full of bizarre trinkets.
"Well don't just stand there gawking, take a closer look! You're guaranteed to find something you like!"
She pleasantly bid them closer to a shelf full of glowing colorful potions. The couple glanced at each other, silently asking themselves if the shop was for real.
"Potions of any kind, for any malady or unfulfilled wish," the woman proclaimed. "Lovesick? Anxious? Feeling small? Feeling old? Feeling like growing a set of fangs? These are for you!"
The woman walked to another bookcase as Derek and Sonya silently followed. This section looked to be a regular set of books, but on closer inspection the labels revealed fantastic promises.
"The keenest spells of all time, at the tips of your fingers!" the woman continued as if she had delivered this same pitch a hundred times that day. "Knowledge forgotten by civilization, waiting to be rediscovered! Stories and secrets of ancient warriors and wizards!"
The woman moved on. The next shelf contained artifacts of varying apparent origins. Some looked Egyptian, some looked Asian. Many looked like simple tools.
"Cursed relics from around the world. Will they help you or harm you? Can you unlock their true power?"
Sonya suddenly started bursting out laughing. She threw a hand up to her mouth.
"I'm sorry...heh...I'm sorry," she giggled. "It's just...are you SERIOUS?"
The woman gave her a daring look. Sonya clammed up instantly. The woman raised a finger to a dragon-shaped pin on her lapel and touched it lightly. She began to glow. Sonya and Derek looked on in amazement as the woman slowly morphed before their eyes. Her appearance changed subtly at first, but became more noticeable soon enough. Her hair was darkening. Her figure was thinning. The slightest of wrinkles that betrayed middle age disappeared. When the glow subsided, a teenage girl was standing in front of the two lovers wearing a pant suit that was a few sizes too big for her.
"This pin was a gift from the Queen of England, who had acquired it from a fellow who inherited it from another fellow who received it from the great wizard Merlin. It offers thirty minutes of youth once each day." She tapped it again, the glow reappeared, and the process reversed itself. She was back to normal in seconds.
"Unreal," Sonya whispered.
"Most think so," the woman responded. "But not you two. That was proven when you walked into this shop. Only individuals with the vision and capacity to believe the unimaginable are able to make their way there. You two have ambition, correct? A desire that transcends what you perceive as the limits of reality?
Derek and Sonya looked at one another, a world of possibility glinting in their eyes.