“Chérie, what did you do to your hair?” Madeleine asked, her finger twirling one of my new white strands.

  “I... don’t know. But that’s beside the point, Maddy, I need your words here. I’m thinkin’ between Addy and Elias, but it’s all on a mission to get the blight,” I said, raising my voice.

  “Is this actually white? When—how did you do this?” she continued, bringing it to her eyes. “Magnifique... it’s to the roots…”

  “Maddy! Pay attention!” I shouted, causing her to finally look away from my hair and up at me.

  We both looked around her dusty, empty shop and saw no one. “We should be talking about this in the basement,” I admitted.

  “Mhmm...” she muttered, having gotten far too used to me for my liking. She turned around, opening the pathway to the basement.

  Downstairs, she patted a chair to her side. “We need to fix that hair of yours. You’re too young for it to become white...” she teased.

  I released the tension in my shoulders and took a seat in her chair. She hummed to herself for a moment before snapping her fingers and letting my hair fall out behind me.

  “I’m going to dye it a prettier red, chérie.”

  “Maddy! The way the blight works is that I have to siphon life from places, so I need to explore a bit more...”

  “So you’ve said,” she said, humming. Hot water poured on my scalp as her fingers worked through the strands. It felt odd having them detangled and made to go straight.

  “...Yeah! So, I have to decide between asking the vampire lord for help, or asking Addy—Adrian—”

  “Addy,” she uncorrected my statement, pushing my hair together between her fingers. “Do you never wash?”

  “With what soap?” I snapped, which caused her to snicker. “But Addy—Adrian—Lord Skye, whatever, for their help. I feel bad about going with a vampire, since, while he might be... intelligent—”

  “Attractive,” Maddy corrected, cleaning out the dirt. “Really, you’re more concerned about that than your hair turning white, [Acolyte]?”

  “Why would I be?” I blinked, staring up at her.

  “Because normal people don’t get witchmarks streaking through their hair. And they definitely don’t try to show them off,” she chided.

  “What in Amaril’s name is a witchmark, Maddy?”

  “Chérie... if you start playing with magical elements, they start shaping you too. You ever wonder why it feels so warm and lively around Amaril’s kin, or happy and... ‘happy’ around Elora’s?”

  “Not really?”

  “I thought you were a [Scholar]? You and the Symphony are one? It means both ways, you know.”

  “...So, because I’m working with death magic, death magic is changing me?”

  “More or less, yes. Manageable, and I’m surprised your first witchmark is white hair—it’s usually something seriou—CHéRIE! Were you not normally this cold? I had just thought this was your normal sickly... standard.”

  “...No, Maddy, I don’t normally feel as cold as the grave, or my blood is black and slow.”

  “...Excuse me, your blood is what, exactly?”

  “Look, does that matter at all? That’s not why I’m here.” Maddy sighed but continued to lather against my scalp.

  I enjoyed the sensation, but there was still something at stake. “Maddy! So, the vampire would be beholden to their power, and they have to obviously be evil...”

  “Mhmm...” She softly added, running her fingers against my strands until her hand went down smoothly. “Too tangled for even a comb. Ashley, we will have to buy you combs if this keeps up, as one of your first purchases.”

  “Maddy! The other path is asking Addy, and he’s definitely going to realize that all the places he showed me around are blighted. But if I don’t ask either of them for help, I won’t be able to make the blight.”

  “Sounds very hard, chérie,” she said half-heartedly, looking at bottles and mixtures at the side. “Ah, yes—‘Angry Farmgirl Red,’” she cheered. I refused to believe that was a real color.

  “Why are you not listening to me? They’re both equally hard choi—” I began, but Maddy pushed my head down into a basin.

  Cool, creamy mixture spread against my scalp and then down my smoothed hair. It was warm and felt like hot sunshine against the earth. I could feel my shoulders relax.

  “Because I’m not here to help you with your boy problems, chérie. I don’t want to get near that at all. Besides, whatever I’d advise, you’d ignore anyway and you’d keep whining.”

  “That’s not true! I need your help to figure this problem out.”

  “Chérie, if that were true, you’d have asked me to make you into a bird and you could have surveyed it yourself. You didn’t. You want me to decide for you, and I’m not going to do that.”

  “Hold on, you can make me into a bird?”

  “Chérie, I’ve explicitly told you I turned several people into newts. You know this; you’ve heard it. Of course I could turn you into a bird.”

  “Okay, wait, why don’t you?”

  “Because you don’t want to be a bird! You want to bother me about your boy problems and ignore the very real problems that you’re looking like a ghost! Look at you!”

  She poured hot water against my hair again. It spread over the strands and pulled off the lingering dye. That colored puddle spilled into the basin and just disappeared.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “There, that’s as much as I can do for your hair, but if you go fully white, we might need to make up a reason. Are you willing to say you got cursed by a snow troll? I don’t know if trolls... or even orcs... exist, but I don’t think others know that either.”

  “Maddy!”

  “And I have no answer for the blood. The snow troll covers both, so we should go with that,” she continued.

  “Look, then make me into a—”

  “Chérie, do you want to be a bird, or are you trying to get your own wings? I think you like indebting yourself to people because it means you have something to prove.”

  “What?”

  “You made a dumb contract with me because you didn’t want to ask for help; you’re starting a weird business venture to ultimately solve a very minor problem with everything you have now. If you were worried about money laundering, all you had to do was tell me that. If Jasmine’s core idea of ‘why is Madeleine paying Ashley so much for carrots’ is concerned, it’s that I just make carrot potions and sell them for whatever I want. You’re going to pay Jasmine 2 gold a day for a shopkeeper’s job, and you don’t think anyone’s going to question that? And they won’t, because they don’t really care unless it doesn’t make any sense.”

  “A poor farm gir—”

  “Getting paid by the crazy witch lady who—and I hate to break this to you, Ashley—has more gold sitting around this shop than your entire debt and interest combined. I’m not of the same class as you, and you know it. It’s the only reason you bothered to make this contract to begin with.”

  “Maddy! Why are you telling me?”

  “You became a Level 5 [Acolyte] in less than a week, and from what I’m gathering, you’re already close to advancement. I’m providing you with the necessary reality check that the last step you’re about to make—the one from being a nobody to, well, what Elias and I are—isn’t forced on you. You have legal ways to solve this problem that would solely be yours...”

  “...and I don’t want to.” I admitted.

  “Yes, chérie. I would love to have you by my side there, but that’s going to be your choice. And it’s the same one with Adrian and Elias—if I pick either of them for you, you’re going to blame me. But, just like what you’re doing here—it was ultimately your choice, and you know it.”

  “But I don’t want to choose!”

  “Then do that Ashley thing where you write everything out. Or do what Jasmine and I would do and ask Ophelia to escort you inst—”

  “Ophelia?! Why didn’t I consider her?”

  “Do you want an answer, chérie? Besides, that way you don’t need to make any progress on your mental problems and still somehow feel like you accomplished something.”

  “You’re not very nice.”

  “Mhmm.” She pulled me off her chair and kissed my cheek. My hair was a brilliant red again, and for once, very clean. It didn’t feel like one lump, and having it smooth and straight was a pleasant sensation.

  “I’m not charging for a friend, but really, Ashley—get a grip. You’ve more pressing things to worry about than things you do not care to control. I don’t see how either of them fixes your problem. You read... tragedy, Ashley Hart. Not romance.”

  “Why thank you, Maddy.”

  “Then we must find you your Ophelia,” she said softly. Her eyes immediately went wide and her cheery voice returned. “My coven would love to meet you. If I get the chance, I’ll have to introduce a promising... Ashley.”

  “Wow, you gave me a compliment.”

  “...Finding you an Ophelia is not a compliment, chérie. However, if you do want to meet her, do you have her address?”

  “Lord Elias' Manor?”

  “...Point well made. I imagine any ferryman would know where that is.”

  “Oh right, I’d need a ferry. I guess I can’t—how much to be a bir—”

  “Chérie, for Rhyvesta’s sake, are you backing out of your back-out? Just tell them to collect from the other end. Ophelia and Elias would never say no.”

  “That’s a thing ferries do? I feel like I’d kno—”

  “Most lords have servants that live on the villagers’ side. So it’s easier for them to have a standing offer to transport their help. They’re that rich.”

  “Wouldn’t you need to prove it?”

  “Who’d lie? It’s a trip to work, not some random person’s house. And it’s only good one way; the head maid—Ophelia, in this case—would pay it in person for the people returning.”

  “Man, rich people are something else.”

  “You’re telling me? I’m still trying to save enough for that hut, chérie.”

  “Insane... so, can I go see Ophelia and get her help?”

  “Why are you aski—oh for... yes, go see Ophelia and ignore your actual problems,” she muttered. “Before you do whatever insane nonsense you’re going to try this time, I must make a point: do be careful about what you are actually planning to choose. If I had my way, I’d work with neither of them. But if I got forced to pick? I’d rather have your Addy-Boy in power than Elias.”

  “That’s weird, I thought you were—”

  “I’m adjacent, Ashley, adjacent. Do you know why I don’t have to hide my hair color, my potions, or things I love to do? Because I’m allowed to be a witch; it’s just some witches that are bad. That’s not true of an [Acolyte]. And because of that, I don’t have to solely work in the ‘dark.’ I get to see both sides and, honestly, I’d ask Adrian. His ‘win’ at least won’t get actual humans killed.”

  “Elias will?”

  “If this town becomes blighted, it would slowly become overrun by vampires. Not the lesser ones at first, but the high ones trusted by the Count. You’ll see Ophelia, who knows how to behave—Elias always has eyes on her. Then come the less-trusted ones. Murder goes up, people get enslaved and turned into blood banks. And THEN the Inquisition comes, and it’s a mess, Ashley.”

  “But Ophelia...”

  “Is a vampire too, and while I feel for her and her family, this is why I wanted to be the broker—and not you. You should be dealing with me, and the amount of gold you actually need is in no way proportional to the harm you’re about to unleash.”

  “Then what do I do, he’s your main client.”

  “That is a good point... Well, instead of being boy-crazy and deciding which way you get executed, why don’t you make it an anomaly?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t select anything nearby—no other farms, ranches, or any tiles when you enter the Astral realm. Make a ‘witch’s ring’ around Oakheart itself. That way, all the farms around you also seem fertile in comparison. It makes Oakheart Town itself not able to be entered. For the vampires, they get more land to explore and see to on their own—and the town is sheltered if it’s in the wilderness.”

  “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

  “A witch, cursing the land? No, why, I’ve never...” she mocked, before releasing me. “But if you do decide to listen to them and let them walk in Oakheart, you might want to charge them a pretty amount. How much would you sell your old town out for?”

  “You’re really not making it better, Maddy.”

  “I am reminding you that your choices have consequences. I only need enough for a hut.”

  “I don’t think we have a good answer, actually. If they realize I’m holding it off, why wouldn’t their first reaction be to cut you off?”

  “They’re not my only clients, chérie.”

  “Okay? Then why not attack us?”

  “...Merde. Chérie, we’ve opened Pandora’s box. We either do it now, or slowly... and make a plan for that eventuality.”

  I looked at Maddy pacing back and forth. Her face was turned down as she bit her lip frantically. I watched her, and she didn’t pause. That tension made me slowly get worried too. “You really don’t like them, do you?”

  “Chérie—they are monsters. I would have never facilitated the meet if I knew that was the angle they wanted.”

  I sighed and nodded. “Ophelia sounds like the nice option then, but we’ll have to figure out a way to handle it.”

  “Just get the inquisitor on it at the same time. He already suspects it. You mess up and he’ll fix that mess. He was going to have to, anyway—with you or without.”

  I nodded and got up. “Guess I’m going to do the bad option and see Ophelia. Bye, Maddy.”

  “Don’t burn the world down, chérie. And lovely hair.”