Adam's Grimoire

Who: Ana Adams, Loki Laufeyson
What: Loki visits an ancient bookstore and is seen for what he is by Ana, a woman stranger than she looks.
Where: Adams' Books
Warnings: Mentions of magic, Ana's sometimes foul mouth.

Adams' Books was a old place that had been there as long as anyone could remember. Two stories high, it was dwarfed by the buildings on eitherside and yet it stood out. It's always been clean and cared for, the stone work free of graffiti, the frosted glass windows with black lettering whole and uncracked. And there was something... off about it. Not sinister persay but certainly stranger. Maybe it was the way the eyes of the iron doorknocker seemed to stare, or perhaps the way it seemed to beckon people to come up the trio of steps and inside, distracting them from whatever was on their mind at the time.

The door opened with the sound of a ringing bell, giving customers their first look. Inside, the light was warm, the air cool and thick with the smell of aging paper. Just beside the door was a section of space marked out by massive desks laden with a register and unpriced books. Shelves filled to over flowing  reached to the ceiling forming narrow rows. Books of all kinds lined the shelves sorted by category and then author. Fiction by genre, non fiction by subject and neatly placed in glass cabinets were the rare and early editions. It was quiet, soft, the volumes themselves seeming to speak without works and further back you got, the louder they became.

And always present was Ana. Quiet, sweet Ana Adams. Dark of hair and pale of skin, she greeted her customers with a smile, moved about the stacks like a ghost and could always find what someone was looking for. She was as much a fixture as the store was and felt just as strange.

***

Today was a slow day, giving Ana time to add stock to the shelves, somehow finding room amongst the full stacks. As she worked she hummed, an old tune she could only half remember.