Much more interesting!

“That’s … actually new,” the shop girl says. She stands, walks briskly over to the door, takes a second to eye Alex over when he almost steps in her way (it’s predatory, but murderous or lustful is a coin flip), and locks up the front door.

“We’re not getting sacrificed, right?” you joke with a small laugh, though casually scanning for heavy objects to wield.

“What? No,” she answers, walking right past you and getting down behind the counter. “I’m looking for a book.”

“For curses?” you pipe, leaning over the counter to be able to see her.

“Kind of,” she starts, then glances up. You smile broadly when she makes eye contact, and you’re surprised to see her smile, too, then snort and shake her head before going back to it. “No, it’s like a … directory, something I can use to ID who cursed you. We can work backwards from there.”

“So, what do we owe you?” Alex adds, finally coming up next to you.

“Nothing,” she begins, then trails, “ … weeeellllll, I may need you to help with ingredients and ritual stuff. Nothing you need to know what you’re doing for, just things you need to listen to what I say with.” She crinkles her nose when she pulls out a heavy, black book with old binding, along with a heavy lock on the side. “Okay. So. I’m also going to need help getting this open.”

“Crowbar?” you ask, raising an eyebrow. She stands to address the two of you directly now.

“No, I need to feed it some of my arcane signature, but charging up is going to take all day without help. You can go out and find me something I can draw from, or …”