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Chapter Three: Part 2

            “So what keeps people from using it all the time? I mean, people would never go to work at all!”

            “Well if someone continued to call in sick all the time they would get fired anyways.  It’s more of a novelty than anything.  People use it as a joke.  Most of what we carry is novelty objects. We don’t have anything really expensive and there aren’t any intricate spells on anything.”

            “Oh.” Alice picked up the potion, which had settled into a vibrant indigo color. “And it only takes one sip? How long does it last?”

            “The spell unravels and wears off the water after several weeks, but people have usually used it up by then.”

            Alice put the bottle back down on the desk as Azura motioned towards the staircase at the back of the room. “You must be exhausted. Let’s take your suitcases upstairs and I’ll show you your new suite.”

            Alice felt both excited and tired at the prospect of the new suite. The constant exposure to new and strange things had been pretty draining.

            “You just have the three suitcases?” Azura picked up the case she’d been carrying. “That’s everything?”

            “That’s it,” Alice admitted. “I don’t have any furniture.” She hesitated, and then shrugged. She was going to be working with this woman, she would find out sooner or later anyways. “…except a desk, which my ex has.”

            Azura didn’t ask why Jason would have her desk. “Hm… did you want to get it back?”

            She winced. “I...it’s such a recent thing, I didn’t…want to see him.”

            “Ah, I see.” Azura turned and headed for the stairs. “Perhaps we will see about getting your desk back in the next couple of weeks. If you still want it.”

            Alice lugged her suitcases up the stairs, picturing Azura Grey storming into Jason’s house and demanding the furniture out from under him. Somehow it wasn’t that hard to imagine.

            “However, in the meantime…” Azura continued. They had reached a door at the top of the staircase that led down a narrow hallway with two more closed doors. When they came to the second door, Azura opened it and finished her sentence. “…It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Alice looked around in amazement. The suite was done in the same earthen tones as the shop downstairs, but that’s where the similarities ended. Ruby’s suite was a jumble of life and colour. Everything seemed to be mismatched, but still work together somehow.  Several bronze candle sticks graced the center of the kitchen table, and copper coloured bowls of fruit sat on the counter. At one point Ruby had obviously hand painted the large, swirling designs on the far wall, and had even painted across the bedroom door, making it appear to blend into the mural. There were no curtains, only large silk scarves pinned up with clothing pegs. The light was cast over the room by a black, iron chandelier. It curled dramatically and the prongs at the end were draped with shining beads of every color.  She gaped at the number of clocks on the wall. There had to be ten or fifteen, in all different colors, shapes and sizes, each one was set to a different time for a different country.  There even a huge old grandfather that stood regally alone in one corner and Alice somehow knew this one was the current time in Victoria. In the kitchen, a number of paintings showed colourful outlines of fish, and when Azura noticed her looking at them the woman said wistfully, “Ah, fish painting. Ruby experimented with that for a while.”     She wrinkled her nose, “Not one of my favourite phases - too smelly. Paintbrushes are so much more practical.” Alice blinked at her, but she was distracted from further comment when she spotted the large player piano in the far corner of the living room.