Potions Inc.

Ghost with Heartbeats: Part Two

There were those customers who came back often, either because they misused their bags feeding powder ("Only feed it once every fourteen days Mrs.Johnson, not every week...") or because they believed that if they owned more bags they'd somehow gain the power of a rootworker. Nyx wasn't so sure of the latter, power for gain was always power for one and if one gained too much they became like the darker Orisha; scary and hungry, always hungry. But the dragon-man who came back often came back with questions, or when his feeding powder was all used up (and rightly so).

"What is this for?" he asked her once as she ground frankincense into the dust at the front of the shop. She stood on her tiptoes and looked.

"Salts for cleansing."

"So for cleaning?"

She shook her head, "Not the way you're thinking, Mr. Cliff. Cleansing homes, cleansing spirits."

"With salt?"

"Yup." She nodded, then lowered herself to the ground, "Your powders all done, sir. Remember, only feed on the waning moon."

"Why that particular moon?" he asked, leaning on the countertop, looking deep into her.She didn't like the way his eyes cut. "Because it's the end of the cycle. You'll get the wisdom of all of the other moons in your bag if you feed it at the right time." She handed him a glass vial.

Another Sunday: "Is there something else I should be trying?" he asked, "I'm not sure it's working."

"Not sure?" he waded between aisles, looking and gazing at bags and vials. She found him in the prosperity section where she often found young women, men, gazing wide-eyed. "Why not trust your gut?" she asked him, looking at a piece Lilith had made earlier in the week. Something for the protection of newborns. Vamps loved Lilith's charms. "Or your soul, or whatever you believe in?"

"I think it's blocked," he finally said, "I can't feel it—isn't it supposed to be a little voice? Something telling me if the...magic works or not?"

Nyx placed her hands on her hips, "A voice, an urge, an inkling. You just have to be willing to trust it." Then, she had an idea. "I have something that can strengthen it." And she waved him past the back of the store to the outside.

There were two pools, one filled to the brim with mud, and the other surrounded by brick with pure rainwater. The mud bath was a hole in the ground dug for those patrons that needed it and sometimes Nyx needed it too.

"It's a different type of cleansing," she explained, "you submerse yourself in earth and wait for her healing. Then, you cleanse yourself in the water—a rebirth." Usually, this type of cleansing cost a couple hundred, but something inside her told her not to charge him. She wasn't sure why and it didn't sit well. There was only one other person she let cut into her profits and they were long gone. It felt good to be nice again.

She left Cliff there and brought back a towel, a bench for his clothes. When she returned, she wasn't prepared to see his barrel-wide chest and athlete's body, but she did. She cut her eyes away and swallowed the gasp that wanted to come out. Let him be and worked on her bags in the shop.

When Cliff returned, she hadn't heard him open the back door. Though he didn't have wings, it felt like he floated.

Their eyes met and she felt something heavy within her. She set down her utensils and looked at him straight, let her soul say hello to his.

When someone went through the mud-birth, words were always tough to come. Usually, they didn't come at all because they were getting re-acclimatized to their human-suit, their dragon-suit, their mortal cover.

She opened her palms and held them there, dangling in the air. He knew what to do.