Funkefae School of Monsterology and the Mythical Arts

Chapter Three: The Mirror of Donegall Place

Emma trotted happily behind Beth and her mother. Her stomach was full from a lovely breakfast and the weather outside wasn't that bad, all things considered. A little dreary, but it was Ireland.

They had began their trek through the city a little over two hours ago, but as usual neither of the members of the Corner family had accounted for Emma's incessant need to look at every shop window that interested or confused her long enough for her to figure them out.

This habit of hers had caused an endless loop of stopping and starting, and had gotten her lost three times already. Nichola had begun threatening her daughter's best friend with a leash to keep her close, until Emma let slip that 'it was just something that dad and I used to do whenever we came here." That shut the pair of them up pretty quickly, Nichola thinking that she had upset the girl and Emma upset but also feeling guilty for her almost automatic response to someone questioning her ridiculous behaviour.

That had been almost an hour ago, and Emma had just been dragged away from a curious display of shoes. It wasn't until she was farther away from it, that she realised that all of the normal sized shoes were arranged into the shape of one very large one. Advertising was weird.

She and Beth followed Nichola into another shop. Clothes hung in rows and mirrors lined the back wall of the shop. They dodged and weaved through rails and rails of shirts and skirts, making their way to the back.

Reaching the wall of mirrors, Nichola stopped and turned to look back at the shop over Emma and Beth's heads. For what looked like a good shop, it was surprisingly empty at 10 o'clock in the morning on a Friday. Or maybe that was just surprising to Emma.

Turning back to the mirrors, Nichola reached into her handbag and pulled out a thin  talisman. Emma leaned forward to look closer.

"Willow?" Nichola smiled.

"Spruce actually. Now," Placing her talisman to the mirror, she whispered, "Ostio Cogitatio."

A shimmering blue light spread from her talisman, like veins, covering the entire mirror. Removing her talisman, Nichola calmly took Beth, who hadn't released Emma from her grip, by the hand and went foot first through the mirror.

Beth yelped as she was tugged through and Emma, who was dragged through last, had to agree that that reaction was spot on. It was as if someone had cooled down custard to the point that it was almost solid and had then turned that custard into some kind of door. It was cold and gloopy, and it felt like she was coated with stuff when it finally released her.

Emma rolled her shoulders and flexed her fingers, feeling uncomfortably like she had a layer of something all over her. Aftereffect from the magic, she supposed. Looking around her, she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop the excited screech she was going to make.

She had never seen so much magic in one place. Everywhere she looked, something was happening, and magic was always involved. To the left side of the store, a counter ran across the entire wall. The shelves behind it on the wall, and on all the other walls, were lined with jars and jars of everything and anything. She spotted one filled with blue tinged eyeballs, and another filled with yellowish claws. The room was heaving with men and women and children, the noise was suffocating and the air stank of magic. A tingle ran through her as she glanced around, and a shout distracted her from her excited observations.

           "Nichola, 'ow are you, 'ow've you been? Haven't seen you here for a good few weeks now." Nichola laughed.

           "I know Alfred, I know I haven't, things have been.." She glanced back at Emma and Beth who were watching her eagerly. "Busy." This 'Alfred' was not someone she would assume to be a wizard. With his almost teal eyes and his baldy patch on top of his head, he barely looked thirty.