It was pleasantly warm inside the shop, though also very dark. The sweet scent of kyphi and sandalwood incense filled the air. As Aruna looked around, an old lady approached from what appeared to be the shop’s counter. She wasn’t very tall, wore a purple dress and a purple shawl, and had keen, flashing eyes.
“Greetings, young lady,” greeted the woman. “Madame Zohari here. Are you thinking of purchasing a potion? Or a spell or staff, perhaps? We have a wide selection here.”
“I fear I wouldn’t be able to afford most of the merchandise offered here,” said Aruna apologetically, guessing that most of it would be expensive. “I have but a hundred and twenty gold pieces with me. Perhaps in future…“
“Never fear,” answered Madame Zohari, “we have some very affordable goods and services. I have two basic spells, luck and mystic eye, which cost exactly one hundred gold each. Alternatively, if you happen to have a magic item already, I can permanently increase the potency of the spells cast by it and the number of times each day that it can produce the spell effects, again for only one hundred gold.”
“Really? Sounds good,” said Aruna with delight. ”But what do the two spells do?”
“Luck simply improves your luck. Very greatly. Lasts eight hours. You can cast this on another person or creature. But it works its magic only in dangerous situations -- you can't cast this for success at gambling! Mystic eye enables you to sense without error the presence of all sorts of dangers within a radius of one hundred paces, whether traps, hostile creatures, unstable houses or bridges or caves which might collapse, or whatever. Lasts eight hours also. This spell will also reveal to you any hostile intentions in people or creatures around you, so that even if they seem to be friendly, you’ll be able to tell that they’re pretending. And again you can cast this on another person or creature, so that he or she will be able to sense the different forms of danger mentioned.”
Aruna nodded. “And you said you can permanently make a magic item more powerful, too?”
“Yes,” answered Madame Zohari. “If you have an item that casts candlelight, for example, it can be upgraded to torchlight, which is very much brighter. If you want lights still brighter, you’ll have to get the miniature sun spell, which costs two thousand gold and which by the way burns all supernatural creatures of evil disposition that come within one hundred paces, such as vampires or evil spirits. As another example, if you have an item that casts shield, I can make it a much tougher shield which furthermore protects all within ten paces, not just you alone – though it will still only protect against physical attacks, not magical ones. Unfortunately, if you have an item that produces more than one spell effect, I can upgrade only one of the spell effects produced by it per one hundred gold.”
“Do you sell any powerful attack spells?” asked Aruna. “Maybe a spell that throws fireballs? Just curious.”
“Afraid not,” replied the old woman. “This shop specializes mainly in protective, healing, utility and informational spells, though we also carry a couple spells useful for travel and locomotion, such as fly, which costs three thousand gold. The kind of spells you mentioned are just too dangerous to be made available to the public.
“So what do you desire, young lady?” continued Madame Zohari. “Would you purchase the luck spell, perhaps? Or the mystic eye spell? Or have you a magic item for me to empower?”
"I have a mandolin here that when played can produce five different types of spell effects, actually..." said Aruna.
"Well, my child," said Madame Zohari, "as I've said, I will only be able to upgrade one of them per hundred gold!"
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