Occult Bookshop

‘Eventually, she reached a dead end. And a shop. It had a drunken facade, bowed down by disrepute and a smell of damp animal hides. There was a door on the left and bulging shop window to the right, and hanging above the door was a lantern with a miniature sphinx atop, fashionably painted in glistening garish colours. Isabella went up to the door and cleared the soot off the plate:

                                                Madame Sebbotendorf of Ekatrinburg

Seller of Rare Books and Acquirer of Fine Curios

Specialist in Root Race Antiquities

Breeder of Lhasa Apsos of Distinction

Isabella turned her attention to the window, cupped her hands against one of its convex glass panels and peered in...’

Tea-stained Madness