Chapter 12
As it turned out, the black uniform was closer to my size than the orange one. It was still pretty ill-fitting, so that among other things was the reason that Rasha and I were on our way to the central shopping district of Milin. We were headed to two shops that had sprung up in the time since I’d been gone, and based on the descriptions given by Koreo and the sisters, I was very excited to get to them.
A bell rang above us as we entered the first of the two shops, Carina’s Clothes. It was lunch time, so there wasn’t anyone in the shop aside from who I assumed to be the owner. She had been eating a montagon and reading a newspaper when we entered, but was quick to set both down on the counter she was seated behind.
“Greetings,” she called. She was a dark-skinned woman, older than me but I had no idea how much older, with bright red hair that was so frizzy it haloed around her head.
“Hello,” I greeted in response. “You’re Carina, right? Koreo from Healing Spirits sent me over.” I held up the black cafe uniform in my hands. She nodded.
“New hire, eh?” she asked as we approached the counter.
“You could say that,” I said. She gestured to a door that was just to the left of her.
“You can go ahead and get changed in there,” she said. I nodded, and she turned to address Rasha. “And what might you be looking for?”
“Sleeping clothes, actually,” he said. She nodded.
“I’ll show you where we keep those,” I heard her say as I opened the door to the changing booth. In no time I had pulled on the simple white top, pulled the black straps of the apron over my shoulders and around my waist and tied them into a bow at my lower back, and tugged on the black pleated skirt. I had to hold the excess fabric at the skirt’s waist in order to keep it from falling off, and awkwardly shuffled out of the changing booth.
“Ah, I see,” the shopkeep said, looking me up and down. “I’ll need to take in the skirt for sure, and the shirt looks a little big on you, too…”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “And I’ll need stockings and shoes as well.”
“And a headband,” she said. She was looking pointedly at the brown hat I was still wearing, most of my hair shoved underneath it.
“Yes,” I said again. “And I’ll need to visit next door, too.”
“So it seems,” the shopkeep replied. She picked up something that looked like a bellberry made of fabric that had a lot of sewing pins stabbed into it. She pinned and measured and the whole process went far more quickly than I’d expected. She cautioned me not to let any of the pins come loose while I was taking the uniform off, or else they might accidentally stab me. I was able to successfully take the uniform off and changed right back into the brown and green outfit I’d worn over here. I presented the pinned uniform pieces to the shopkeep, paid for the alterations and Rasha’s new pajamas, and with that we headed next door.
Next door was Sarina’s Salon. Normally I didn’t bother at all with salons, especially because my hair didn’t take dye at all. Every attempt I’d ever made to dye my hair had literally come out in the wash. Some dyes just slid right out of my hair before I could wash it. The sisters all swore by this place, though, so I decided to give it a shot. It had been a while since I’d tried, so why not?
We entered and a similar bell rang above us, and I had to do a double take because someone that looked exactly like the shopkeep next door was sitting behind a very similar counter, eating a montagon and reading a newspaper. She put both down and grinned at us.
“Welcome!” she said, with a giggle. “I can tell from your expressions that you just came from my sister’s shop next door, right?” Ah, so they were twins. This had to be Sarina.
“We did,” I said.
“And what brings you into my salon today?” she asked.
“You’ve come highly recommended from the five sisters that all work at Healing Spirits,” I said. Sarina perked up.
“Oh! My favorite customers!” she exclaimed. I nodded.
“So, I have some very… unusual hair. Dye doesn’t tend to stay in it for very long,” I explained. If possible the shopkeep perked up even more, even standing up from the stool she was seated on.
“Oooh, a challenge! Show me, show me!” Sarina demanded. I nodded and approached. Rasha followed. “Oh, and you sir, are you in need of a haircut or a dye job as well?”
“No thanks,” he said. The shopkeep nodded. Sarina ushered Rasha and I into another room. This was where she did all of her styling and dye work. There were three large sinks against a wall, shelves and shelves and shelves of various products, several comfortable looking chairs spaced out evenly throughout the room, and against one wall was a row of seats. Sarina directed Rasha to the row of chairs, where he took a seat. There were tables nearby that had stacks of newspapers and books, and Rasha picked up a newspaper with interest. I was directed to have a seat at one of the chairs in the center of the room. I cautiously removed my hat and let my hair drop down my back.
I had no reason to, but I couldn’t shake the sudden nervousness that swept over me. What if she saw my hair and threw us out? What if she didn’t want to mess with hair that she perceived to belong to a Demon or something? What if—
“Oh my gosh,” Sarina breathed, and she sounded almost reverent. “You are so right, I’ve never seen hair like this! I can’t wait to play with it! Err, with your permission of course.”
“Be my guest,” I said, with a sigh. “I’ll go ahead and let you know it’s like this naturally. If I cut my hair shorter the bottom of it just turns that light purple.”
“Does it?” she asked, shocked. I nodded.
“I have no idea why. I’ve got some fae ancestry, so maybe it’s that. I don’t really know,” I said with a shrug.
“Right. Okay. So, what exactly were you needing me to do today?” she asked.
“Well, I need to dye it black at least for a little while. I’m hoping you have a dye strong enough to keep it black for at least a day or so. Dyes don’t usually stick in it for very long,” I explained. Well, I didn’t need my hair to be black per se but, damnit, everyone else’s hair matched their uniforms! I was doing it for the aesthetic!
“Well, I do have some very strong magical dyes,” Sarina replied. She sounded thoughtful. “Let me ask you this, do you need it to be black right away?”
“Well, I suppose I could hold off for a day or two if necessary,” I said, thinking about how those three weirdos and the Astorian probably weren’t going anywhere for a little bit. “Why?”
“Well, if you could spare me some of your hair I could do some tests on it,” Sarina said. “If I get an idea of why dye doesn’t stick in your hair, I can alter the dye to circumvent whatever is causing the problem and make it stay in your hair for longer.”
“Really?” I asked. She nodded. “You can magically alter hair dye?” She nodded again. “You...are a genius.” Another thing I definitely needed to learn once I got my casting back.
“Oh, you flatter me. I’m definitely not a genius,” she argued. I shook my head.
“No, really! I know a lot of magically talented folks and none of them can do that,” I said. “And that sounds lovely, but how much of my hair would you need?”
“Hmm… to really be able to do thorough testing, at least a few inches,” she said. “I understand if you don’t want to give up that much hair. I could try to work off of an inch or two, but…”
“I’ll do it,” I said. Gears were turning in my head, plans were forming. “I’ve been wanting to get a haircut for a while, anyway.”
“Great! Okay, I think I can work with about five or six inches, but I don’t need to cut all of your hair. I could give you some cute bangs that frame your face?”
“That sounds perfect,” I replied. Sarina nodded.
“I’ll start testing my dyes on your hair right away. Unless I get absolutely slammed with business, I should have some results for you by tomorrow morning.”
“That soon? Wow,” I replied.
“Yes. Now, hold still, I’m going to begin,” she instructed. She gently ran a comb through my hair first, and then there was the sound of a pair of scissors snipping. Like when her sister pinned the uniform on me, Sarina had my hair cut and brushed far more quickly than I was expecting. She handed me a mirror and I had to admit, she was good. It wasn’t much of a change, but it really did change my appearance to have two strands of hair falling down over my cheeks and stopping at my chin.
“It really did turn lighter at the bottom,” Sarina commented, and in the mirror I saw her pick up a cluster of my hair and examine it, looking surprised. “I feel like I blinked and it changed”
“Yep, that’s what it does,” I said.
“If I hadn’t watched it happen I would not believe it,” she admitted. She took the mirror and set it aside, then stooped down and gathered up my hair. “The two of you can meet me in the front area, I’m just going to get this into a tub so I can work on it later.”
“Alright,” I said. I pulled the cloth off of myself and stood. Rasha stood as well. We made our way into the front of the salon.
“Your hair looks nice like that, by the way,” he said. I grinned.
“Yeah?” I asked. Rasha started to say something else, but Sarina chose that moment to make her entrance.
“Alright, thank you for waiting and not running off without paying,” Sarina said. “And as for the dye work, I’ll only charge you if I’m successful, alright?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, and then I immediately gave her double what she requested for payment.
On our way back to the bar we checked in on Carina, who was busily working on the alterations. I told her that we would be back the next morning, so she could take her time if she wanted to. At least Rasha had finally gotten some pajamas. The temptation was very high to shop for some more clothing, but I ultimately decided to just do it in the morning. We meandered back to Healing Spirits. My haircut garnered a lot of surprised reactions and exclamations of how cute I looked.
The trio apparently had stayed until well after lunch. They’d sulked away when Koreo had informed them that they had to buy some food if they wanted to stay, as the bar was rapidly filling up for dinner and table space was limited. The Astorian, however, was still at the bar when we arrived. He’d been ordering a steady stream of non-alcoholic beverages and snacks and was reading through a stack of books he’d brought in with him. Sarien had been deployed — or, rather, he’d deployed himself— to make conversation with the Astorian about said books and maybe try to figure out what his goals were. The rest of the staff were eagerly awaiting his report.
The sisters had all stuck around the bar despite normally leaving after their shifts ended in the early afternoon. They were all very interested in talking to me, so I sat with them in the common room upstairs and fielded all their questions as best I could. We had tea and finished off the snacks from the noodle shop as well as the pastries from Spring Rabbit, and I told them about the old days.
“So I told Koreo to hide, and I went out and fought all six of the goons at once,” I narrated. “That was really stupid of me, you know? But I was a lot stupider back then. I mean, I won, but it sucked. I was exhausted and I got hurt pretty badly.” I reached down and lifted my shirt up just enough that the girls could see my ribs, where there was still a faint scar from a sword that I’d just barely not dodged. “I got this scar. The last guy got me pretty hard, but thankfully Koreo was able to heal me up so I didn’t bleed to death.”
“Ooooh,” all five girls said, in unison. Rasha, who was sitting next to me, looked just as alarmed as they all did.
“See, when I rescued this guy, I was smart and we changed disguises and snuck around to avoid most of the goons. I only had to fight five, and three of them were the total pushovers that were in the bar this morning,” I explained. “Definitely a lot less than the two dozen I beat up to get Koreo out of town safely. But then again, most of those guys back then weren’t magic users.”
“You didn’t really fight two dozen guys, right?” Kiri asked, looking alarmed. I nodded.
“I sure did,” I said. “Anyway, we made it out of Kiiren and just kind of wandered around for a while, trying to figure out what to do and where to go. And then we eventually found Milin. Koreo said that she’d always wanted to own a restaurant or a bar, and I helped her make that happen.”
“Wow!” Meri exclaimed. “But you left. Why did you leave?”
“Well, I still had a life back in Kiiren,” I said. “And I still do now. There’s something I’ve been researching for a long time, and I can only do that research in Kiiren.”
Around dinner time, Tori herded all of her young siblings out of the bar and back to their home, leaving Rasha and I alone in the upstairs of the bar.
“I’m glad we didn’t have to fight two dozen assassins,” Rasha eventually said. I nodded.
“No kidding. I’m not as young as I used to be,” I replied.
“So, what’s the plan now, Spikora?” he asked.
“Well, I’ve still gotta go get my uniform and get my hair dyed, hopefully in the morning,” I said. “I’ll try to get information out of those three henchmen and the Astorian, and we’ll go from there.”
“I see,” he said.
“You’re not getting impatient about going to see your sister, are you?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“To be honest, I don’t really know what I want to do any more,” he said. “I know I can’t just go back to the life of an ordinary student back in Kyrens, and I don’t know if going to my sister is going to be any help to you at all.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off. “Well, all we can do for right now is just make sure we get our rest. And eat some delicious food. I’m gonna go ask Rina to cook me up another one of the specials, personally. Want me to bring you a menu?”
“I’ll have another special too,” Rasha replied, with a genuine smile. “I intend to eat as many as possible while we’re here.”
“That’s the spirit! Oh, and speaking of spirits, I’m gonna see what’s on tap for tonight,” I declared.
“I would like to see that menu if there is one,” Rasha informed me. I nodded and stood up, stretching out my back, and headed for the stairs with a thumbs up.