Chapter Text
The morning dawned bright and early as the pale sunlight filtered through the purple-tinted curtains in the small loft, I was staying in. I sat up in bed, stretching as the sounds of the city waking up filled the air. From the smells permeating the air, Asra was up and cooking breakfast. I smiled at the thought of Asra in an apron, with his white fluffy hair, tanned skin, and purple amethyst eyes.
My morning rituals took hardly any time for the sheer number of times I’d done them, half asleep and before I knew it, I was seated at the small dining table, a stack of fluffy pancakes piled high before me. Asra smiled as the smell shook me out of my sleep-induced haze. Murmuring my thanks, I dived into the stack, almost moaning in delight. Nobody could make pancakes as Asra could.
The man himself let out a small chuckle, and Faust let out a hiss that sounded suspiciously like laughter. I mock-glared at the 2 of them, barely controlling the smile that threatened to spread across my face. As far as I could remember, which admittedly was not too far back, Asra always made me smile or laugh. I could only remember up till 3 years ago and not before that. I mean, I knew my name, but I couldn’t remember my parents and my childhood. Asra told me I was 18 when I’d asked him my age 3 years ago; looking so pained that I hadn’t pushed it. But he knew and he couldn’t tell me. Every time he’d tried, I’d get these massive headaches that wouldn’t go away.
As if sensing the direction in which my thoughts were heading, he frowned at me, tone light and teasing, “Hey, I thought we agreed on the fact that there would be no brooding at breakfast!”
I let out a laugh, “Sorry Asra, my bad. Tell you what, how bout I make up for breaking one of the ‘agreements’ by making lunch, huh?” With a resounding yes from him, the matter was resolved.
The sun had just about risen when we finished cleaning and setting up the store. “All set, Asra?” I asked, straightening the shelf of candles. He nodded at me, grinning lopsidedly, “Born ready, M.”
I sighed, making my way to the front of the shop. Customers had already lined up for their turn and were exploring the market right beside the shop. I put on a dazzling smile as I stepped out, “Welcome everyone! The shop is now open for business! Thank you all so much for being so patient!” The crowd gave me genuine smiles and I made my way into the shop to man the counter. Wo-man it rather, as Asra would say. I’ve always told him he had the weirdest sense of humor, and he’d just flash me a brilliant smile.
Asra is a magician btw if you didn’t know already, and I’m his apprentice. He usually handles the divination aspect of it while I’m more powerful at spells, even though we rarely perform them. Usually, I just worked the counters, helping the people who needed herbs or bundles or tonics. People from all over Vesuvia came to us, seeking our help and we rarely turned people away, except for those who wanted to hex or curse others maliciously. That was something we just didn’t do.
Asra said that the threefold law was real and had come back to bite him in the butt when he had been starting out. He still doesn’t speak of what happened though, which meant that it was either bad or really embarrassing. Personally, I was hoping for the latter.