“Are you sure you weren’t just looking into a mirror?” Seymour blurted out exactly what Linh was thinking.

“You don’t understand! She looks like me but isn’t really me! She’s a woman made of glass… Her steps sound like the bells the goddess of death used to beckon wretched souls! Her eyes are so empty and cold… I see an eternal winter in them…”

She sounds like an unmentionable, Linh thought.

Seymour glanced at Linh quickly, as if he heard that thought, before glaring back at Lady Ella.

“And this glass woman… does she do anything to you or your husband?” Gretta asked, hands folded sternly under her chin.

Lady Ella shivered, folding her arms tighter around herself. “N-No. She just wanders up and down the halls… and then she goes into our room and she just… stands there. She looks at me… and I hear something! Like, like nails scratching against a mirror, trying to get out! She just looks at me until morning… Then…”

Slowly, Lady Ella’s hands began to shake. Linh leaned closer to hear.

“…Daylight comes through the curtains. The sunlight hits her face and she just… cracks! Her face slowly crumbles and shatters into a million pieces, all of them falling down and vanishing into nothing, leaving behind these terrible shoes!”

No one spoke, caught up in the tale.

Finally, Gretta stood up and began pacing back and forth. “Are you sure you didn’t do anything to cause this phenomenon? No changes to your marriage? Feeling nostalgic for your old position? Missing family?”

“How dare you suggest that I miss those… those…!” Lady Ella stood up, all trembles gone. “Those people hurt me, treated me like a servant, and tried to take everything from me. They will never be my family.”

The pages holding together Linh’s chest began to dry up, to cling prickly to her body.

“Alright, alright,” Gretta held her hands up in a peace offering. “But still, magic infused objects don’t just create other entities… there must be something I’m missing… Miss Page, Bodyguard, come with me outside. We will discuss this quietly and then we will return to you Lady Ella.”

The Lady actually gaped at them. “I’m sorry… but why must you go out…?”

“This one,” Gretta smiled proudly, throwing her hands around Linh’s waist, “is going to be Madame Hecate’s new assistant! Of course, I’ve got to train her first and make sure she’s a good egg, but I can tell she’s got magic in her, I mean—”

“Oh!” Lady Ella now gaped at Linh, “You’re a… person? I thought…”

Linh fought back her sigh. No one would be able to hear it but her, and sighs made the ink on her face turn soggy. No doubt, the Lady thought Linh to be a magical creation of Hecate’s or Gretta’s.

[Yes. I am an unmentionable.]

“…I see.” Her frown became pensive, better than fearful or hateful.

“Is there a problem?” Seymour asked sharply.

Gretta’s blissful expression, suddenly turned cold. “Yes, is there a problem?”

“No, no,” Lady Ella quickly shook her head. “I just remembered something…”

“Well,” Gretta scowled.

[Stop!] Linh put her hands against Gretta’s lips. She sent a wobbly smile to the Lady and bowed her head. Then, she quickly turned around and coaxed Gretta and Seymour to follow her outside.

“What was that for?” Gretta demanded when they shut the door. “I won’t have clients being rude to my newest co-worker!”

[It is fine. Lady Ella was actually very polite compared to what I’ve experienced.]

Seymour frowned deeper at this.

[Besides, I am more concerned about her shoes… Is this the cause of a curse? Is she becoming an unmentionable?]

“No,” Gretta shook her head. “Nothing like that. Tell me, how much do you know about magic? I need to know how much I should explain.”

Linh glanced at Seymour in a panic.

Thankfully, Seymour took over. “My cousin only knows what she has read about Eastern magic but she didn’t have the talent for it. As for any Cleric knowledge… well…” He scowled. “Obviously the temples would not take an unmentionable student.”

[Tell her about you,] Linh insisted, grateful that Seymour explained her position.

Seymour refused to look at them. “I… was a student there… for a few years before I left.”

Gretta inched away slowly. “You graduated?”

Seymour shot her a glare. “No. I left.”

“Ah! Well, that’s alright then,” she grinned. “Then you should both know that both have forbidden creation of objects or lives with pure magic. For good reason too. These magically imbued objects or beings can become chaotic.”

Actually, Linh had never heard of this. Xuan had never taught her beyond the basics of healing and manipulating water.

[Why would you create those shoes then?!]

“I didn’t,” Gretta admitted. “Lady Ella did.”