Aradia's Magick Emporium
527 Quinlan Road

Located a bit to the north of the densest shopping district in the Heights, Aradia's Magick Emporium is a fairly relaxed, spacious occult shop housed within a fairly modern, vaguely Victorian storefront with large picture windows and pale yellow siding. The interior is fairly rustic in appearance, with exposed wooden rafters, slightly unfinished shelves and a faintly earthy smell that mingles nicely with scents of the dried herbs that hang from some few of the rafters. Crystalline pendants dangle from a display rack near the windows, lending their own particular glittering, prismatic character to the lighting in the shop. Jars of herbs line the walls near the back, tools sit on tables, shelves and in glass display cases on the rightmost hand of the store (furthest from the door), and the largest portion of the store's central portion holds low bookshelves packed with primarily modern publications.

Aradia's staff are somewhat more serious about the occult than the staff of, say, Featherstone (or, at the least, are better aware of what they're doing with it), but they still carry a good deal of schlock, and the staff don't necessarily know as much genuine magical lore as one would hope. They're as helpful and courteous as they can be, and most of the people (primarily young women) who work in this store know at least a few rudimentary spells and at least know enough to tell an Orb of Thesulah apart from a shiny glass paperweight. The serious student can usually find a few books and items that can be put to good use. At best, however, most of the stuff sold in this shop is strictly for beginners. As a customer's knowledge of genuine magic grows more advanced, the pickings at Aradia's grow progressively slimmer.

In addition to its books, herbs and other materials, Aradia's offers private psychic readings and consultations within a secluded alcove deep in the back of the store. The resident psychic, one Madame Delphia (actually Lauren Fraser, but she uses her craft name exclusively within the shop), is generally in from 10 am to 4 pm every weekend, and noon to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, though she tends to take Wiccan holidays and festivals off (especially Beltane, Samhain and the winter equinox). Her sessions generally cost $20 for twenty minutes or $45 for an hour. Delphia tends to stick to Tarot cards and palm reading, and typically limits herself to telling people what they want to hear and offering vague advice, but she has been known to display a preturnatural insight on some occasions. A few of her regular clients even credit her with helping them to avoid various disasters and potentially deadly situations. On this point, Delphia says nothing -- and when pressed, she will at best reply that the sixth sense is not something to be used lightly. In recent years, the psychic has occasionally taken students, ostensibly to prepare a successor should she ever retire or pass away, but curiously, many of those alleged heir apparents have ended up leaving town after exactly one year and one day under her tutelage.