Author's note: This is my entry for Earthstar_chan's challenge at LiveJournal. It is admittedly rough, but I am needing to get it posted under the deadline. I hope to come back and improve on it later.

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Amelia had always liked the marketplace in Seirune. Being that the city was an important world center it had always had its share of strange and wonderful things come through it. And now that the so called "mazoku barrier" was broken, even stranger and more wonderful things had come in from the outer world. That new fabric called "silk" for example.

Or Amelia's personal favourite, chocolate...

Anyway, she was merrily sucking on a dainty morsel of said treat as she went through the fair, looking here and there at the various wares and items for sale, everything from garden vegetables to exotic pets. She turned the corner, and found where the magicians had set up their booths. She always loved this part the most, you never knew if something new or different would show up. She set to with a will, going over all the merchandise on offer.

It took awhile, and, disappointingly, the pickings were slim. It wasn't the best day she had ever had. An old scroll that that had a few minor spells on it, more of a curiosity really, and a magic amulet that had a low level protection spell on it, but it was pretty, and might make an interesting gift for someone, someday. She sighed. This was a bit of a bore, really. Finally, she came to the last stall.

This stall was different. The merchant was someone she had never seen before, and judging by his strange garb he was from the outer world. The outer world was not known for its magic, indeed, magical items were the usual export stock from the kingdoms that had been inside the barrier, so it was strange to see someone selling things from outside here in Seirune. Amelia looked over his wares curiously. Most of it was junk, well, it might have been good stuff where he came from, but, not here.

"How's business?" she asked, trying to strike up a conversation with the merchant.

He sighed. "I'm doing quite well, when it comes to buying, but I see we have far to go to catch up to you people in this part of the world. Still, I can't complain, I have learned a lot on this trip, even if it hasn't enriched me. Pardon me, Miss, but you have the look of a white priestess about you."

Amelia smiled. "You have a good eye, Sir. But I must insist, for all our power we are actually lacking in true white magic, the mazoku barrier was erected to keep the true white power out, and we had to develop shamanistic powers which we called white that we could use for good purposes. If you want to make sales you should try to bring in true white power magic."

The merchant nodded. "I have come to think that was so, and I will remember it for next time, Miss. Thank you for confirming my suspicions though."

Amelia nodded, then she noticed a small box carved with ornate, but mysterious symbols. "Oh my, what is this?" she asked as she picked it up.

The merchant smiled and said "Um, I don't think you would want that, Miss, it is just a shriveled up old monkey's paw. It is said to have a spell on it that makes it grant three wishes to whoever owns it. It's rather unremarkable to look at, ugly even, and I wouldn't have bought it normally, but I found it in a box of items I bought from an estate sale. It took me a while to find the tale that went with it, and I've kept it as a curio, but I've always hoped to sell it as an oddity if I could find a collector."

Amelia found the catch and opened the box. The merchant was right, inside was a shriveled little hand from some sort of animal, maybe it was a monkey, but it was so mummified it was hard to say. Still, it seemed to radiate a faint magical power that Amelia could detect, just.

"How does it work?" she asked.

"Well, uh, apparently you hold it in your right hand and make a wish." replied the merchant.

"Have you used it?" asked Amelia.

"well, truth to tell, no, so I don't even know it if really works. Let me explain. See, it grants wishes, or so it's said, but it apparently does it with an evil twist, so you don't always get what you actually want. For example, one owner apparently asked for a sum of money, and was given it, but not by the coins falling from the sky. His son was killed in an accident, and the settlement for the loss was the sum he had wished for. So, I've been afraid to use it myself. Still, I haven't heard that it was always evil, so if you are a strong hearted person who will only wish for good things perhaps it won't hurt you, that is, if it really works."

Amelia couldn't explain why, but she felt intrigued by the thing. At the very least she wanted to figure out what the faint magic she felt really was. "How much?" she asked.

"Really?" asked the merchant. "Well, I don't know, say, a hundred gold?"

Amelia smiled. It was nowhere near worth that much, but bartering was part of the process. And, as many merchants had found out, Amelia was good at it. In the end she got it for 10 gold, which she figured was about nine gold, nineteen silvers, and eleven coppers too much, but, she was happy. She left the market and went home to the palace for her lunch.

After greeting daddy and eating a wonderful meal she indulged in another small piece of chocolate and went to her chambers to examine her purchases. The amulet was easy, it would protect against minor bad luck and was a good gift for a child. So, maybe it could be for a small relative on a birthday, or maybe a commoner's child could be the lucky recipient, she'd think on it. Then the scroll. It turned out to be a lot more interesting than she had thought. It was all about the Lighting spell, about as simple as you could get, except the author had delved into the mysteries of manipulating the spell. Soon Amelia was laughing as she made balls of different colours of light glide around the room and even made dancing spotlights. This was actually a good find.

Then, she turned to her major find of the day. In truth, she had done the others first because she felt herself a bit scared off by the merchant's warning of possible evil. Finally she convinced herself that it was her duty to examine the thing, after all, if it was evil, it needed to be destroyed, in the name of Justice, of course, and if it gave wishes, it might be a truly valuable find.

But most likely it was just a poor joke that had taken on a life of its own.

Amelia spent some time prodding the thing, reading books, and trying various spells. But try as she might, she couldn't crack the mystery. Finally, she decided the only thing to do was to test it. But, how to test it without unleashing evil? She reached into her pocket. A bit more chocolate to help her think, that was it.

BUT HORRORS!!! She had eaten it all!

Then, a happy thought. "A perfect test! What could go wrong with chocolate?" She took the paw in her right hand and wished "I wish I had some pure chocolate."

She gave a yelp. The paw, she was sure it had suddenly twisted in her hand...

She looked around carefully. Nothing had happened, bad or good. No curse, but also no chocolate...

She sighed, the giggled. Silly. And she must have twisted the paw somehow by herself, right?

She decided to take a break from the macabre and go for a walk. She went out to the palace grounds to get some sun and some air. After a bit she came to the back gate just as a delivery was arriving. She went over, curious about a small package that had marks from some outer world merchants on it. "What's this?" she asked the steward who had taken possession of the delivery.

"Oh, Your Highness." said the steward with a bow. "Why, it's just a delivery of some chocolate..." he started to say.

"Oh my! I got my wish after all!" said Amelia, instantly happy. "Please, let me have a piece?" she asked.

The steward hesitated. "But, Princess, it's pure chocolate..." he tried to explain.

"Just what I wanted." enthused Amelia, cutting him off. "Please? Just a tiny piece, that's all I want."

"Uh, as you wish, Majesty..." said the steward, not daring to refuse. He opened the wrap and broke a piece off, which he handed to Amelia.

"Thank you!" she said, giving him a happy smile, then she went her way.

"So, I got my wish, but no evil here, and I got it the usual way too, so, looks like you lose, Mr. Monkey's Paw. Three wishes, yeah right. Amelia, admit it, the merchant was a good story teller and you were just so bored looking for a treasure you let him take you, he, he. Oh, wait until Zel finds out. He'll give me such a frowning."

Then she had a naughty thought. She reached into her pocket again and removed the paw. After all, it didn't work anyway, why not have some fun? She wished "I wish Zel would become human again, with no evil happening to him because of it."

Again with the weird twist...

She felt a chill run through her, despite that it was a sunny day...

"Oh well, whatever." she said finally. She put the paw away, and popped the chocolate into her mouth...

"I-I tried to warn you, Majesty..." sputtered the steward who had given her the chocolate when Amelia confronted him a few minutes later. "I said it was pure, and pure chocolate is always bitter. You need to add milk and sugar to make it sweet. I'm sorry, I thought maybe you knew." he gulped.

Amelia looked stunned. "No..." she said finally. "No, I didn't know that. I'm sorry." she finished.

She wandered away, a sense of fear tickling her heart. It was a coincidence, right? The paw didn't do that, right? She had asked for pure chocolate, and by coincidence that was what she had gotten. What else would the cooks buy? They'd add their own sugar and milk. It was all a silly mistake. She gulped several times, and went back to her room. She put the paw away. If Zel was human now, she'd know soon enough. She prayed he'd not get touched with any evil by the wish.

If it worked.

She felt foolish and didn't want to be seen, so she locked her door and lay down on her bed. She wanted a nap, yes, that was it, then she'd feel better, and all would be right with the world when she awoke.

Wouldn't it?