This week on MOTE, I received the prompt of Parrish Baker: The old bookstore had a hidden rainy Tuesday door.
This week it’s more of a description of a world than a tale.
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New and Ancient Books was the oldest bookstore in town. It had been founded about a century back, and the store had a very old secret.
It wasn't every rainy day, nor every Tuesday, but when it rained on a Tuesday a hidden portal opened.
Through the door, that was only seen on rainy Tuesdays, came book sprites. They loved being in the store, and would play and entertain the customers for as long as the rain fell, but were always back behind their door before it stopped.
The sprites weren't only playing. Book sprites love old books more than anything else in the worlds. Given an opportunity they will restore a battered old tome to an extremely high quality, for free. The owner knew this, and always kept an ancient book or two needing restoration in the back room for the sprites to work on.
This didn't just keep the sprites happy, and keeping coming into the store to entertain his customers, it also helped with the store's finances. The restored books were worth more than they had been unrestored, and the restoration didn't cost the store any money. It meant that all ancient books were worth restoring, even those that would be uneconomic to send to a human book restorer, which meant that in turn, the store never turned down the opportunity to buy an old book.
Once restored, the rarer and/or more valuable ones were sold in the store. The less commercial ones the owner sent to auction.
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My offering this week went to Becky Jones. As always, I’m looking forwards to reading what everyone comes up with.
Aww, where can I find this place?
It almost reminds me of Wong's Lost and Found Emporium.