"How did these items get made if there's no way to learn magic? Are the magicians homeschooling their children and not writing any books? How did you learn?"
"Half this stuff is antiques," says the shopkeep. "Look, asking me a dozen times isn't gonna make the answer more to your liking. I don't have Hogwarts in the basement, deal with it."
"But where do you get the stuff that isn't antique - who made the Avalon itself? - isn't anybody panicking about the medallion supply? -"
"Kid, nobody knows how to make medallions."
"But some people apparently know how to make luck charms and protection amulets!"
"I'm not going to give out my suppliers' personal information. I wouldn't do it even if you weren't annoying."
"There have to be books -"
"Does this look like a library to you?"
"Aha. Well, it might be worth looking into, at some point, but probably not by, say, the next time you visit."
"I'll probably want to check in on the middle-of-nowhere-B.C. Avalon just on principle but I don't find it urgent, yeah."
"Not specifically. I might develop some, if there was a reason. Perhaps I'll take the opportunity to go to Niagara. That's always worth doing." He smiles. "I still remember the first time I saw the falls--I was six, and we had just come here from Poland. Mother thought it would be a good experience for us. It was amazing."
"I know it's not that far but when Ren decides she wants to go somewhere it's usually someplace she hasn't been, and I haven't taken the time by myself." Pause. "We could go sometime."
"If we figure out how to turn invisible first I am totally getting up close to the falls on the wing."
"...If we figure out selective invisibility can I watch, that sounds gorgeous, there should be a, a painting of that."
"True. Well, I have enough of a mental image to tell that it sounds gorgeous, maybe I'll tell my sister's artist friend about that."
"Um, Kelly I think her name is, they have an art class together and Kelly is significantly more enthusiastic about the whole thing than Jaromira is."
"Charlie's a cop. Chief of police, for whatever that's worth in a town with like six houses and a snowplow, but still. Likes going fishing and watching hockey and stuff. He's quiet. Ren's a kindergarten teacher and she likes - novelty and exotic spirituality and weird food and travel. She manages to be as embarrassing as a white anime fan with a box of Pocky, 'rediscovering her heritage' - I think it didn't interest her until her parents died and learning about it was no longer the conventional, 'done' thing. She's a scatterbrain, I've been handling things like remembering we're out of butter or that she needs to do the taxes off and on for years."