Next day
The school day went by calmly, much to Jon's annoyance. Sure, maybe expecting to run into his new magic teacher first thing in the morning was hoping for a bit too much, but the waiting was honestly almost unbearable. By the time the last lesson ended Jon was feeling bit stressed and questioned if his wish last night even got fulfilled. Nonetheless after school ended he went to the usual place by the wall surrounding the school, using some effort to sit on it's edge to wait for his friend Karyn.
Waiting, thankfully, did not take long as he could already spot his friend's new blonde hair a bit of distance away. She dressed the same, though her jumper looked bit more snug on her with her... enhanced... attributes. She seemed to be hurrying over towards him quite eagerly, sending him a wave from quite a distance away. "Hey, Jon-boy. Thanks for waiting." she looked around briefly, checking if anyone was listening and then saying more quietly "Did you bring it here?" there was really no need to tell to what 'it' referred to.
Jon smiled a bit "Hey, Karyn. And no, thought it would be safer to hide it somewhere for now. How are you doing?" he asked with light smile.
Karyn huffed a little "My back is feeling bit of pain from my new assets. Thankfully all bras fit as if by magic. Think I will get used to it, really. I do miss my red hair, though." She sighed. "Thought about going to salon for a haircut and to dye it if we don't figure out a workaround." Karyn said. "I had some ideas last night, though I should probably run them by you first. Think my best was to wish that when I wished for blonde hair it would have gotten dyed blonde instead of becoming natural color."
Jon hummed in thought "That could work. We could meet up tomorrow after school and try it out."
Karyn nodded "Sounds like a plan. I was thinking about going to the mall today. Heard arcade got some new game machines. Want to try those out. Wanna come?"
Jon thought it over for a moment and nodded "Sure, may as well." he said and jumped off the wall, waiting for Karyn to join him as the two made their way to the mall.
At the Mall
'Westview Mall' was the largest mall in town and had plenty of various shops and establishments ranging from various restaurants to various specialty shops. Jon and Karyn quickly made their way inside the mall, taking escalator up to the second floor where arcade was. Unfortunately for the two, the place was packed - seemed that Karyn was not the only one who heard rumours about new arcade machines. Karyn groaned in frustration seeing that "Damn. Bad luck, I guess. Think I will go stand in line to at least try out one of them. What about you, Jon-boy?" she asked her friend.
Jon frowned a bit "Don't really feel like standing in line. Think I will look around for a bit, maybe will see you later. Text me if crowd thins a bit."
Karyn nodded "Fair enough. See ya around." she said and made her way into arcade.
Left alone Jon slowly walked around the mall, inspecting various shops. So far he did not see anything that would attract this attention in any way. He sighed, closing his eyes briefly and then continued on with his exploration in another floor of the mall. As he glanced at windows and some of stands with various merchandise behind them he did not notice a woman that was walking in front of him and carrying a few boxes in her arms. Then Jon turned attention forward it was already too late - he and the woman bumped into each other and one of the boxes slipped from the pile. Reacting quick Jon moved fast to catch the box in the air, sighing in relief as he managed to catch it before it hit the ground. "I am so sorry, I should have been paying more attention. Are you alright?" he asked as he turned towards the woman, still holding the box.
The woman was quite beautiful - with short red hair that framed her face nicely. Her face was very beautiful - with large, expressive amber colored eyes that seemed to pierce through him. Her lips looked very soft and were covered in very striking dark red lipstick. Her body was nicely shaped as well, with nicely proportioned curves. She was dressed in rather elegant black dress which seemed a bit out of place in the mall, but Jon thought that it suited her really well. Around her neck she wore a strange necklace that seemed to be made of many copper-like hoops with little charms attached to them.
After finishing his examination Jon noticed that woman looked at him curiously as well and he offered her a smile. "You seem to have your hands full with those, would you like some help?".
The woman smiled pleasantly "So rare to meet a polite young man. Some help would be nice, thank you. If you could take another one of those off me I would be really grateful." Jon nodded and took another box from woman's hands now carrying two and leaving the woman with one. She smiled "Thank you. May I know the name of my helper?" she asked with some curiosity.
Jon smiled "No problem. And my name is Jon. Nice to meet you miss...?" he fished for name too.
Woman smiled "Helia. Nice to meet you too, Jon. Follow me, it is not too far."
The two of them walked through the mall towards the very back of the building. Jon soon noticed that they seemed to be walking towards rather unremarkable little shop that did not seem to have any windows to it, only a door that currently had a sign 'closed' hanging on it and shop's sign above door that had a stylized crescent moon symbol on it and a flowing text near it that said 'Spellbound Oddities'. Jon examined the sign for a few moments, choosing to compliment a bit "That crescent moon sign is really cool." he mumbled to himself, though his current companion seemed to hear him as she looked at him with even more curiosity than before.
After a moment she smiled "It is, isn't it? It is my own little shop. I have not been in business that long yet, though." Jon nodded a bit, figuring that explained why he could not remember seeing this shop before. He figured that Helia probably opened it sometime during spring break. As they reached the door Helia set down box she carried on the ground and unlocked the door, then picking box back up and walking inside. Jon followed and found himself in rather interesting shop.
The interior of the shop was quite spacious, though it was cluttered with various kinds of things. Jon was amazed by the variety of various odd and interesting things he could see all around the shop. Various skulls, small statues and idols, clocks, ancient looking furniture and paintings, vials with strange liquids or what looked like fermented animal parts in them, old books and much more were all around the shop neatly placed on various shelves and stands. Jon could even notice some medieval weapons and carved staves and as he glanced deeper into shop he could see racks with various costumes on them. He looked honestly amazed by everything inside, so much in fact that he just stood in awe at all he was seeing for few moments, earning a smile from Helia.
"You can place the boxes on the counter, Jon." she motioned with her head towards large wooden counter with rather old looking cash register.
Jon snapped out of his daze and set boxes on the counter, then looking around so more "This shop is so amazing. I have never even seen a lot of the things here."
Helia smiled "Thank you. I am glad you like it. Would you like some tea?" she offered and Jon thought about it for a bit.
"Er... I don't want to intrude..." he said.
Helia chuckled "Nonsense, you helped me with boxes so I insist that you stay and have some tea with me, at the very least." she smiled warmly.
Jon smiled back "Well, if you insist..." he agreed and Helia seemed satisfied.
"Good boy. I will start the kettle." she walked through the curtain behind the counter, where Jon assumed there was another room.
While Helia was preparing tea Jon took some time to browse the shop. He tried not to touch anything in case things were more fragile than their looked, but he did his best to look at everything in detail. His attention at first went towards some of the weapons he saw - hey, he was a guy. He looked at some rather simple looking swords in the racks and then looked at more ornate and beautiful weapons that were locked in glass cases. Some seemed to have real gems embedded in them, though Jon thought that way were just really fancy props. After briefly glancing through various glass bottles and jars, his attention was drawn to the books. He briefly looked through the titles, none of which he recognized. He picked up one of the books titled 'Ars Notoria' and flipped through the pages with some curiosity.
Helia returned during this moment and walked towards him, glancing at the book. "Ah, 'Ars Notoria'. It is one of more known old grimoires. It is Solomonic grimoire compiled in 13th century. Unlike many other grimoires it does not actually contain any spells or potions and focuses instead on the acquisition of learning, the command of memory, and gaining insight into difficult books." she explained to Jon who closed the book and put it back.
"Sounds like I could have used it to better understand my homework." he joked and Helia smiled a little.
"I suppose it could be used for that. Anyways, tea is ready." she said and motioned him to follow behind the counter. They soon entered a room behind the curtain. It seemed to be a small study or room just for relaxation or meetings - there was antique round table in middle of the room with two comfortable looking arm chairs next to it. There were few bookshelves full of books and a few paintings. Between bookshelves was small table with a vase that had fresh red roses in it. The ceramic set with two cups and steaming kettle was set on the big table with a plate of chocolate chip cookies next to it. Helia motioned Jon to take a seat and passed him an empty cup, filling it with fragrant tea. She set aside a cup for herself, filling it up as well and then taking a seat too, crossing her legs elegantly.
Helia smiled towards Jon pleasantly "Again, thank you for your help, Jon."
Jon smiled back as he took a sip from his cup, surprised by how tasty it was "It was no problem, miss Helia. I must say this tea is really good."
Helia smiled "Thank you. It is my own blend. And please, just Helia is fine." She said and took a sip from a cup herself. "So, Jon, would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?" she asked with some curiosity.
