Jon, after a year or so (real time) with the stone, was far from an old man. So when listening in on his crystal ball about rumors of an old man, he knew that there was another magician in the area.
Searching for concealment spells in the area, he found that at the other end of the same shopping mall, the Spells 'R Us store was currently parked, concealed by a spell that made it show up only occasionally. Of course, being under a concealment spell cloaks the shop from ordinary people, but makes it blatantly obvious for anyone with magical powers who can look for spells. It would take a far different, far stronger, spell to hide the shop from someone like Jon.
Training his crystal ball on the front of the other shop, he spied one man sneaking out with obvious stolen property. Thieves--bah. No need to do anything about them. But the other customer was a real customer. And there was no need for the old man to get all the customers. Especially by cheating his customers.
A few minutes later, two buxom women came across a strange flyer.
The one on the right picked it up. "Look at this, Tina. It says 'magic shop'."
"What, Chris?" replied the other. "We were just inside a magic shop."
"We were?" replied Tina. "Oh yeah, we were. We got... uh, what did we get, anyway? Was that place real? I don't remember."
Chris read the words on the flyer. "Trouble with magic? Spells not functioning? Want more satisfaction from your magic? Come to the Magic Shop!" A diagram of the mall was drawn below, with an arrow pointing to a shop that neither Chris nor Tina remembered having seen when they had walked by that spot a half hour ago.
The flyer was enough to pique their curiosity and the two entered Jon's shop.
"Do you run this shop?" asked Chris.
"Me?" answered Jon. "Sure I do. I see you've found my flyer."
"So what does it mean?"
"Mean? Well, there are certain kinds of magicians' ethics. I can't just go around negating other people's magic. It could start a war, or worse. People have to ask me for things."
"I still don't see..."
"Look," replied Jon. "Some people have this idea that as long as the customer is trying to figure out what you mean, it's not your fault if they guess wrong. That's nonsense. The guy runs his store like a Monty Python sketch. And everything in the store is a Spring Surprise."
"Let's go," said Tina. "I don't understand any of that."
"Wait!" said Jon. "Let me explain. Our competitors like to mislead their customers. They make excuses and say that just because you had to try to figure out what something does yourself, it's your fault if you get it wrong, even if they know the customer made a mistake and they let the customer use it anyway."
"You mean Spells 'R' Us is a fraud?" asked Chris.
"I wouldn't call them that. 'Fraud' is legally actionable. But I'll tell you what. If you get some magic you don't want from there, I'll replace it with magic that does what you thought it does, okay?"
"Okay," said Chris. "But we didn't buy anything there... I think..."
After that followed a ten minute period where Jon just leaned over the cash register and waited for the increasingly confused Chris and Tina to say something. Finally Jon asked Tina, "Have you tried the dinosaur venom? Guaranteed to turn you into an egg-layer." He pushed a vial across to Chris.
Chris pushed it back, saying "I don't want this!"
"Thank you," replied Jon. "You finally said it, so I can take the spell away without breaking the code. I've been waiting long enough!" Jon reached for what looked like the hose of a vacuum cleaner and pointed it at the two. Invisible motes turned sparkly as they left Chris's body and were sucked into the vacuum cleaner. In a few seconds, the spell was inside the vacuum cleaner bag, and Chris was himself again.
"W-- what did you do?!" replied Chris. "The other shop! They cheated me!"
"As soon as you said 'I don't want this', I could take the spell away from you without violating the code of ethics. My offer is still good, so would you like to have a vial of duplication? No tricks. If you drink it, you become two of yourself. If you pour it on something, you get two of them. It's a special promotional exchange, so I won't charge you anything. What do you say?"
"Sure," replied Chris.
Jon handed Chris something about the size of a soda bottle. He knew, of course, that such an item could cause trouble even though it does exactly what it's supposed to do. "This is the large size, so you get several doses. A single gulp will split any person or thing into two. Have fun!"
"It doesn't just split them like chopping them?" asked Chris.
"Goodness, no!" replied Jon. "I wouldn't sell you something that kills you."
"And it doesn't make the twin evil, does it?"
"It does not."
"And it doesn't do things like split up the lifespan, so each twin only lives half as long? Or make each one half the size?"
"No, and no. Look, Chris, it does exactly what you expect, in exactly the way you expect. I told you, I don't cheat my customers, and I mean it."
Chris would have asked how Jon knew his name... except that remembering his trip to the other store, he knew it was a habit wizards have. "Well, er, thanks. Thanks for saving me too! I didn't want to be a girl...."
"If you ever change your mind," replied Jon, "I have plenty of sex change potions."
"Do you think it'll really work?" asked Karyn. "Sell people exactly what they ask for?"
"Of course it will," replied Jon. "One of the essentials in running a business is good customer service. And one thing's for sure, Spells 'R' Us has lousy customer service... Now, let's look at the crystal ball to see what happens with Chris and Tina."
