Weaver

Underhanded Magic

                “It’s been touched.”

                Alice had to resist the urge to place a hand over her chest, over the area the pendant lay. For some reason she wanted to hide it from Abby, from her intense gaze, “beg pardon?”

                Abby’s right eye twitched, and Alice had a vision of the woman having a sudden melt down, or snapping and suddenly lashing out at her.

                Abby repeated in a flat tone, “the necklace, it’s been touched.”

                Alice couldn’t think of what to say. Her heart was suddenly thrumming loudly in her ears. How on earth could Abby possibly know this? Of course, the pendant was black, so it looked different, but a normal person would just think it was an identical pendant in a different color. How could she possibly know that? And how much did she know? Could she somehow know that it had been a Goddess that had touched the pendant and set power there? Would she try to grab the necklace from her? For a moment Abby tensed, and it looked as though she were about to do exactly that. Alice braced herself, ready to fight back if it came to that.

                There came a quiet noise from the back, Maya had stood up, shifting the chair she was sitting on, her dark brows were drawn down, and Alice noticed that her hands were clenching the edge of the desk. At the noise, Abby turned slightly, blinking furiously, as if she had just remembered where she was. Then, abruptly, she turned and stomped out of the shop, the bell ringing furiously as she slammed the door it her.

                Alice forced herself to take a deep, calming breath as Maya exclaimed, “what on earth was that” about?”

                “I have no idea,” Alice shuffled over to the fireplace and slumped into the nearest arm chair, “I knew there was something weird about that woman though.” She rubbed her fingers over her forehead, as if she could massage away all the questions, “maybe…maybe she has something to do with the where the necklace came from. Nobody seems to know where it originally came from. The only thing the Goddess Styx told me is that it was a vessel, but that doesn’t help me figure anything out.”

                “Maybe it originally belonged to Abby?” Maya suggested.

                “Why wouldn’t she just say so then, the first time she came into the shop?” Alice lifted the twist of bone in her palm and looked at it carefully, “I mean, before it was just an ordinary piece of bone, to me at least. IF she’d asked me for it, I probably would have just given it to her!”

                “Given what?” Shakra came wandering out of the back, one half of a sandwhich in her hand, “everything alright?”

                Maya spoke up before Alice could, “She had a visit from her weird fan again.”

                Shakra looked amused, “that Abby woman? What’s she done now? Asked you to sign her underwear or something?”

                “No, not that sort of weird,” Alice grumbled, “she has an obsession with my necklace, oh…and she asked if I wanted to be her apprentice.”

                Shakra made a face, “Right. I think you could probably teach her a thing or two about magic.”

                “I don’t know,” Alice frowned into the fireplace, letting her gaze soften, mesmerized by the orange flames, “there’s something about her. Something that makes all the little hairs stand up on the back of my arms and neck. When she said she was good with magic, I believed her. But I didn’t like it. She feels….threatening. I mean, she said the necklace had been touched. How did she know that? ”