Chapter Text
Pomni sat in the shop window, glancing at her reflection before refocusing on the busy street beyond. She clutched at the map in her hand, unfolding it again to think over her route before placing it back into her pocket, getting up, and readying herself for the trip across town to get supplies for the store.
She enjoyed getting to explore bits of the city outside her own neighborhood, but the crowds, always shouting about the war or trying to sell her things she didn’t need, were the worst kind of distraction. The kind that made her keep her head down, eyes on the ground and shoulders rounded to make as little impression as possible.
“Is that the wizard?” someone said as she exited the shop. She peered at the hill in the distance and saw a slight plume of smoke where there usually wasn’t. “Oh, I hope he’s not coming here…” Pomni doubted it. From what she’d heard, at least in rumors and snippets of I heard it from my sister’s friend, Jax didn’t frequent towns often. Most witches didn’t- not the well known ones, or anybody who showed traces of magic on their person.
As she walked down an alleyway, she bumped into someone.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t-” she paused as she saw the man. He was rabbit-esque, with long ears and purple fuzz. The whites of his eyes had a slightly yellow hue. Magic, she thought. He must have been- either magic himself or cursed.
“No problem,” he said smoothly, looking down at her with a grin. His eyes focused behind her for a moment before he took her shoulder, pulling her next to him in a fluid twirl. She gasped as he started walking, pulling her along, but not roughly. “I’m being followed right now, but don’t worry. You’ll be out of this soon enough.”
She peeked behind, moving her head just a degree until she saw black blobs, with multicolored eyes shifting and blinking all over their bodies. They stuck out against the stone walls of the alley, and morphed into almost human silhouettes as they followed.
Pomni clutched at the rabbit man’s arm, drawing herself in and tensing. Magic was nothing terribly new, in theory, but this was far more than she’d ever seen before. Much more, certainly, than she had expected to encounter on an errand.
He looked down at her and his smile widened.
“Trust me,” he said, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her close. He made a motion with his hand, sprinkling some sort of powder, and as they stepped forward, they seemed to twist through space. The feeling was akin to walking down a stair without noticing it, an almost fall. Her insides protested at the jolt, and when she looked around they were several streets over, close to her destination and at a busy intersection.
“They shouldn’t go after you now. Take care,” the rabbit man said, saluting lazily. He stepped backward and disappeared, leaving Pomni to wonder if anything that had just happened was real. She stood on the sidewalk for a moment before shaking her head. The passing of a carriage, clattering loudly next to her, brought her back to normalcy. She looked down at her map and continued on her way, trying to put the odd experience out of her mind.
It was dark when she had returned to the shop. She stood just inside the doorway, looking out at the street. The crowds from earlier had faded for the most part, and now just the occasional passerby gave her something to watch. She turned away, putting her choppy bob in a small ponytail at the nape of her neck and mentally preparing herself for bed.
The floor creaked behind her, right where it always did when a customer entered. Pomni turned around to see a pair of mismatched eyes glinting in the darkness, the rest of their form hidden by shadow.
“I’m sorry, but we’re closed for the day,” she said politely. The figure didn’t move. “You’ll have to come back tomorrow,” she said, a bit firmer this time. The figure moved into the light and she jolted. The eyes were framed by a pair of jaws floating atop a body clothed in a red suit. The figure hovered just above the floor, and its eyes flashed with anger for a moment before it smoothed out its suit, tapping its cane against the ground.
“You’re brave to aid Jax,” he said, “Particularly to go against the witch of the Wastes.” He sounded amused- almost impressed, but tempered with a smugness that reminded her of a cat toying with a trapped mouse.
“I-” she began, not knowing what she would say, but she was stopped by the witch snapping his fingers. A bright light enveloped her and she cried out, shielding her eyes and face in case he attacked. When she opened them again, however, he had left.
She inhaled shakily, hugging her arms around herself. She stepped over to the door to make sure that it was locked, eyes glazed over on the way, but frowned at how many steps it took her. She blinked to focus her eyes on the doorknob. It was at eye level.
Pomni looked down at her hands. Her skin, normally somewhat pale, had turned an unnatural bright white, and while she was never tall she had become much shorter. She locked the door hurriedly and ran over to the nearest mirror. Her eyes had turned into pinwheels, her cheeks stained bright red, and her facial proportions had changed just enough to be uncanny. She shuddered. Everything felt…wrong, in a way she couldn’t describe and didn’t want to think about. Like her body was no longer hers.
This wouldn’t do. Magic was all well and good, but if you were too obvious about it, it upset things. Much as she thought it was quite unfair, there was a reason anyone affected tended to stay on the edges of society. She supposed that was her, now. No one would look at her and recognize the woman she had been. Pomni was now quite obviously cursed, and quite frankly hideous in her own opinion, though perhaps that was a matter of her own revulsion toward having such a change forced upon her. No matter. She simply had to find a way to undo it.
She couldn’t do that here, though. This would drive away customers- the other girls wouldn’t like that. Likely the only way to reverse it would be to seek a witch.
She spent the night packing up her few things. A change of practical clothes which she altered to fit her as best she could, a meal or two worth of food that no one would care for. This life had always been meant to be temporary, and luckily she hadn’t accumulated too many things.
Just before the sun rose she left her store key on the counter along with a quick note, spouting some nonsense about a family emergency and she’d be back as soon as she could.
Even though it was early, there were still enough people out and about that her face burned with the looks she received. Most were simply curious, or a bit wary, but a few looked downright disgusted. She was grateful when she finally left the city and entered the Wastes.