By Shavira
It’s a back road off the main route through the Merchant District – a quaint little road with a used book store, a small shoppe where a poet tries to hawk his stories and scripts, and a pastry bakery run by perhaps the oldest man in the city. For the last year there’s been another shoppe-front along that road – a shoppe that used to sell spectacles back during that rage. But since then it’s been abandoned, quiet and lonely.
Why, then, is the road now being considered by the city for new cobble-work? Because with all the recent carriages, horses, and feet making their way down it, it’s going to pieces. The cause? That tiny abandoned building has a new life as the most remarkable candy shoppe the world has ever seen.
Walk
into Elatia René’s and you’ll have an eyeful right away. A pretty young girl
clothed in a bright dress, and her father, unforgettable in top-hat and green
spectacles. They stand over glass cases filled with the oddest confections
you’ll ever see – things of impossible crafting, doubtless made only with the
aid of magic.
The difficulty is in choosing – children flock to the ‘bug rack’, where there are chocolate-toffee beetles with squishy insides, chewy peppermint grubs, butterflies that melt into exquisite flavors upon your tongue, and even, if you are extremely brave, candy spiders.
Further down you’ll find the treasure trove, with strange coins and gems from other lands, all made of hardened sugars or honeys, chocolates or buttercreams.
And then there are the wide variety of sweets that simply create their own category: fluffy cloud candies, delicate and exotic flowers, edible candy lip glosses, miniature fruits that pair the original flavour with complementary chocolates and liqueurs, a tiny confection lantern that actually glows with some type of phosphorescence, and on and on!
No matter your age, your disposition, or your desires, this is one place that will fulfill your wildest fantasies. And they’re quick to tell you that new candies will be emerging all the time, as the mysterious and creative minds behind the candy-making craft new and exciting delectables.
I spent ten silver and got myself an assortment of confections I would have paid thirty for. And each one was an adventure in eating. Here is a place that certainly won’t disappoint your tongue, and won’t tax your purse, either. Just be prepared to wait in line.