Walking into Spring Confections is a magical experience. One could say that anything in the Chosen Land is a magical experience, but to say that doesn't do justice to the feeling that filled every second of my first visit. It's quickly become my favorite store in the capitol. It's one thing that Deidre Dario's candy is so delicious and aesthetically pleasing; those are just the properties of any successful candy shop. But there's more to it than that.
If you look closely enough, you can see some of the more creative pieces moving ever so slightly. Her life-sized chocolate lynx bares its fangs a little sometimes. The fey creatures molded from marshmallows wander around their little diorama of candy flowers when they think no one is looking. The icing on Mrs. Dario's hand cakes seem to glow with an ethereal light. None of her stock has proven to be dangerous as far as I or any of my friends and family are aware, but there is something curious about it all. The most telling fact is that no one claims to see any of this. It would have been easy to dismiss this as mere hallucinations, but I didn't want to let myself belief that there was anything wrong with my brain. That's why I had to see for myself if this was all real, and how it worked.
Sure that this was no way to prove I wasn't crazy, I decided to hide from Mrs. Dario as she closed her shop. When Spring Confections locked its doors for the night, everything came to life in a way that it never had during business hours. The marshmallow fey were not beginning to dance around in jubilee and the cream puff birds twittered around the ceiling. The chocolate lynx even jumped down from its display and began to pad around the room like a real cat on the hunt. It nearly tore my leg off when it found me hiding behind the hand cake display. Unfortunately this caused a commotion that gave my trespass away almost immediately.
When Deidre discovered me cowering behind the shop counter, however, she wasn't particularly upset to see me there. I pleaded with her to accept the truth that I hadn't come to steal or break anything anyway. Although she seemed to be grilling me for answers about my intentions there at first, it didn't take long for me to realize that she was only messing around with me. In truth, she had been well aware of my curiosity and had been anticipating this very encounter for weeks. When I asked why, she told me that the fey in the store noticed me staring at them. She complimented me for realizing something was unusual about her store, believing that it was a sign of fate. Then, she offered me a job.
I was so excited to have had everything I ever believed about the store confirmed, but I wanted to know how she was doing all this. That made the choice to become her apprentice an easy one. For the first few months, I had been restricted to selling her products during the day, but I served Deidre faithfully. When I had been working at the shop for half a month, she finally rewarded my loyalty by trusting me to stay after closing and assist her in the making of her sweets. It was then I finally learned the secret of Deidre's candy making.
As it turned out, the products in this store come to life because of an agreement Deidre has made with fey creatures. She consorts with an unheard of race of flatland nymphs from Flora Field who bestow their magic upon her creations, giving them each a shadow of their own lives. Part of my training with this great confectioner involved meeting these creatures for myself and forming a bond with them. As it turns out, the nymphs enjoy candy more than anything else. For every bit of magic they lent to me, that was their toll.
Since then, I have also begun to create living candy like she can, but what I can do barely scratches the surface of Deidre's talent. She revealed to me that she's something called a feykin. The nymphs' trust in her is so strong that she gained the ability to use their power for herself. This has not only allowed her to produce her magical confections without cost, but she now has full control over the spells that go into them.
It was truly miraculous to see her magic at work, and a wonderful gift to learn from her. When I asked what I could have done to deserve this, Deidre smirked and told me that she had sought the perfect apprentice for a long time and I had impressed her with my awareness of her fey friends. Even with their powers at her disposal, she couldn't live forever, after all. It is her hope that I will be the one to inherit her vision for Spring Confections because she can no longer trust her daughters to take it over. This store exists to bring joy to all, and I am proud to have been entrusted with its future.
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