In the Witchcraft Bar, a secret bar that catered specifically to witches and wizards, groups of modern-dressed patrons gathered in booths and at tables, making merry and letting loose to the upbeat music...
Their expressions ranged from sorrowful to joyful, thoughtful to content. Around little tables where witching drinks floated strange patterns of steam or shimmered with hazy star clusters like something out of a dream, they chatted quietly or simply reveled, savoring delicacies that only witches and wizards were privileged to enjoy.
After all, the place sold far more than ordinary drinks and snacks. It also offered all kinds of strange things, such as:
magical potions that let people resist fear; calming elixirs that soothed the mind and drew them into pleasant thoughts; blissberries that could make even the saddest person feel utterly joyful after eating just one; and wondrous "memory cherries" that let people relive their past and see clearly the things they had experienced but accidentally forgotten in some corner of their minds.
However,
under normal circumstances, ordinary people weren't admitted here—and they could never find the place anyway. It was protected by concealment magic, and only witches and wizards could see and locate it!
Of course, aside from witches and wizards, a few other special people could find the place too. Like a certain legendary witch hunter, Mr. Calder, who had been hauled into a police station just a few days earlier on suspicion of "kidnapping a child" and had nearly spent the night behind bars?
Screeeech!
Tonight, just as the witches and wizards in the bar were lost in their happiness, sadness, and various thoughts, a metallic scraping sound came from the railing by the second-floor entrance. The patrons enjoying themselves there were startled awake. When they looked toward the sound, they were so horrified