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“Hello. Is Sarah here?”

The girl behind the counter shook her head. “Sarah’s gone to a coven meeting. I’m filling in for a few days. Can I help you with something?”

“I stopped by to chat with Sarah. Are ya a member of her coven as well? I’m a witch and looking for active covens in Salem to visit.”

My disappointment to have missed Sarah was keen. Maybe that would teach me to call first before paying for a ride downtown. The magick in the shop was nearly non-existent in Sarah’s absence but ya never caught a fish without tossing out a line.

“I’m not a witch yet but I want to be one.” The girl said boldly. “There are three official covens in Salem.” She rattled off the names of all three.

I leaned on the counter. “I didn’t realize there were so many and I don’t have anything to write on. Could ya write those names down for me? If ya don’t mind, write Sarah’s name next to hers. That one will be my first choice to visit.”

Smiling, the young woman searched and found a piece of paper. “Are you the Irish witch Sarah talks about so much? I love your accent.”

I grinned at her. “Well, now, how I answer yer question depends on whether what Sarah said about me was bad or good.”

“Oh, it was all good,” the girl assured me, giggling at my teasing.

When she handed the paper over with the coven names, I smiled at her. “Thank ya for yer help. Have ya worked for Sarah long? I don’t think I’ve seen ya in here before.”

She studied the ceiling as she did the mental math. “I’ve been here a couple of months. If you need something, I’ve worked hard to learn all her inventory. I even know what real witches buy versus the stuff she sells to hopefuls and pretenders. We get a lot of those in here.”

Since I’d paid for the ride here, I figured I might as well ask the question I’d hoped to ask Sarah. “A few months ago Sarah gifted me a scrying necklace. It was right after she got them in. Have ya heard any feedback from customers about using them? I’ve had some unique experiences with mine. I was coming here specifically to let her know that.”

The girl nodded with wide eyes. “We’ve had the craziest bad luck with those lockets. Most of the magickals who bought them have exchanged them for crystal balls. They said the necklaces were too powerful. For giggles, I wore one of the returned ones around my neck for a whole day while I worked. Honestly? I never felt a thing.”

I could have told her she didn’t feel anything because her non-magickal body wasn’t sensitive to its power but that would have been cruel since she wanted so badly to be a witch.

I found it a bit strange that Sarah allowed a non-magickal to run her business in her absence. The hereditary Salem witch tolerated non-magickals but seemed to still carry a grudge about her ancestor’s unfair execution. When one of them made her mad, she cackled, waved her wand, and grinned as they ran off.

“One necklace we took back had gotten broken. The person was a good customer so Sarah took it back even though it was damaged. Would you like to see what it’s like on the inside? We found something written on it. It was so strange.”

And there went my inner alarm bells. I nodded and tried to stay calm. “If it’s no trouble, I’d love to see.”

“Sure. Let me get it,” she said and hurried off.

As I waited, I glanced at the tiny calendar tucked next to the cash register. There was equally tiny writing on it. I squinted but couldn’t see it clearly from where I stood.

“Here you go,” she said, laying the pieces on the flat surface in front of me. I pulled them closer and looked at the back of the largest piece. Part of a symbol was scratched into it.

The girl pointed. “Sarah said the symbol came from the language of the fairies and that I was not to duplicate it or draw it. Can you read what it means?”

“Maybe. I took two semesters of languages in school. One was a language used by fairy folk. The other was the language demons speak. I’m better at the demon one.”

The girl mock-shivered. “I would banish all demons to the veil if I could.”

I shook my head as I stared hard at her. “Demons won’t harm ya, but the fairy folk will make ya their slave. They think themselves superior to all creatures.”

“Seriously?” she asked.

“Yes, seriously.”

My gaze went back to the pieces. I lifted the largest piece of the broken stone to get a closer look. What was left of the symbol on it was legible but not enough for me to figure it out. I picked up the smaller piece and held the two together with my fingers. It was a command in elvish that said the strangest thing. As best I could interpret it, the symbol would have commanded the wearer to “serve yer true master”.

I found it very confusing. Why was that command on a scrying stone? Was it on mine as well?

I laid the broken pieces back down. There was no energy left in them so Sarah’s non-magickal store clerk should be okay putting them away again. “Do all the scrying necklaces come with this symbol?”

The girl’s face lit with excitement. “You know, I wondered that myself. Some of them you can’t tell without breaking them. Sarah took a few apart to check and I know she didn’t find it on all of them. It’s mostly on the returned versions that people brought back. She said she was going to check if it was on the ones she gave to her coven sisters. They’re getting super active again. A visiting witch has been teaching them new ways to harness their powers.”