Moments like these made Linh wonder if she and Seymour really were blood-related after all. Both of them had no idea what to do around crying women.

‘Help me,’ Seymour mouthed to Linh, as if the Lady were a wild cat, ready to bite. His fingers twitched, likely forgetting their function.

“What did I do wrong?” Lady Ella cried. “Am I being punished again?”

Linh stepped closer; she couldn’t believe she was doing this. But the other option was letting Lady Ella live untrained in the Circled City. The next time Lady Ella snapped could result in the end of many lives.

[Perhaps you shouldn’t have phrased your request like an order and just… sincerely asked, instead. Gretta is not one of your servants. You should have been respectful of that.]

This made Lady Ella go quiet. “You’re right,” she admitted, to Linh’s surprise. “I forgot what it was like… not being royalty. I’ve been spoiled by my new life and intruded too long in Madame Gretta’s space. Perhaps I should leave…”

“No!” Seymour cut in. “Linh will go and try to get that woman to take you as a student, won’t she?”

Linh wanted to splutter, but she suspected that might result in actual ink splattering on her cousin. [I will?]

“Oh yes, Linh is very good at convincing people to do what she wants,” Seymour continued, signalling Linh to go outside.

Another blush coloured her cheeks.  [No, I’m not.]

‘Just go,’ Seymour mouthed, sending her a glare that indicated this was somehow Linh’s fault—which it wasn’t.

[Fine,] Linh agreed, if only to end their silent argument. She would have to talk about this with Seymour later.

She turned around and walked outside.

Gretta was lying down in the middle of the clearing, the only blotted space in a sea of glowing flowers. Her eyes were closed, and in that moment, she did not look like a witch or some unreachable beauty but a tired being trying to breathe in some peace.

With light steps, Linh eased her way through the flowers, petals clinging with mildew to her dampening calves. If she stood too long with these petals, her legs would lose their shape. Wobble. She might have to tape her legs back on again.

Still, Linh made her way towards Gretta, until she stood over her, and she waited for Gretta to look at her.

Soon enough, Gretta’s eyes opened.

“So,” she said, “are you here to make demands of me too?”

Linh contemplated lying. But when she’d had a human body, she had never been good at keeping a neutral face. As paper, she had a hard time breaking human habits. Sometimes her face literally crumpled if she lied badly and it was painful to straighten her face back out.

[Yes, but I doubt I could force you to do anything; consider this as a request you can ignore.]

Frowning, Gretta squinted up at Linh. Then, she huffed and stretched out her arms, as if to pull down the sky. “You might want to reconsider working for Hecate, Miss Page. Being a witch is thankless business. Everyone will demand answers of you, a short cut, without understanding the rules.”

Linh… didn’t know what to say to this. She’d never considered that witches could feel tired or emotionally hurt. Witches were distant figures, the villains in various tales. Yet here Gretta was, worrying about her life, with bitterness for her occupation. The way Gretta spoke was the same way Marie would cuss about rude customers and the same way Xuan used to mutter under her breath about stubborn patients.

She felt like falling back against the flowers and letting the dew create soggy holes in her chest. What did she really know about witches? She’d never met one until Gretta. Maybe Gretta was the exception to her kind or maybe…

Linh remembered the way Quang looked when he cursed her.

[Do you know what I really came here, to be a witch’s assistant?]

Silently, Gretta sat up. Her face was unreadable. “I’ve wondered, yes.”

[My brother is an Eastern Practitioner, just like my mother was. We were taught that magic should be shifted around us, that there is a natural flow for practitioners to manipulate, like weavers tying lose threads on a chaotic carpet, trying to keep them from unraveling. We aren’t supposed to unravel these threads ourselves… just find chaotic spots to retie. That’s why we have so many healers from our country.]

“Sounds familiar. Rather boring compared to my brand of magic.”

[Quang, my twin, he… he got mad. One day, he just… snapped.]

Gretta goes still, fingers balled up together. “Snapped?”

Linh refuses to look at her. She doesn’t want pity and there’s a purpose to this story.

[He tried to use magic on me before. Small things, like bending candlelight to burn my hair. But this time… he literally unraveled me and weaved me into paper. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t change back on my own. He claims I need to pay him. He says it’s part of the practitioner rules.]

“That’s a load of rat’s dung!” Gretta shouts, “There’s nothing in the rules about paying your attacker back in gold!”

[Yes, well, I know that. But no matter what I try, I can’t change myself back. So what choice do I have but to earn that money? I keep thinking that if I had paid more attention to my mother’s magic lessons, if I had tired harder to be a practitioner instead of a writer, that I might be normal now. But I’m not.]

“…So you’re working here for money. To undo the curse.”

[Yes. And maybe learn more about magic. Maybe find a way to change myself back.]

“…I’m so sorry,” Linh heard, and she gaped when she saw the truly mournful look Gretta had.

[It’s not your fault.]

“And it’s not yours either!” Gretta shouts, as if sensing the dark turn of Linh’s thoughts. “That blasted brother of yours is supposed to be trained! He should have taken responsibility for his own actions! Didn’t his teacher ever—”

Linh pushed her palm into Gretta’s sight.

[So you agree that a teacher should guide those with magical potential so they can take responsibility for their actions.]

“Well yes! I mean…” Gretta spluttered, before glaring at Linh, “You did that on purpose!”

Maybe.

[I can’t make you teach her. It’s your choice. But please, if you won’t do it, who will? Can you trust that another teacher won’t lead Lady Ella down the wrong path?]

The same way Xuan always favoured Quang in lessons, let him get away with increasingly harmful spells because boys would always be boys.

Silently, Gretta stared down at her knees, then at Linh’s soaked feet.

“Come on,” she said suddenly, taking Linh’s hand and guiding her back to the dragon-skull carriage. “You’re going to lose your feet.”

[I’ll be fine,] Linh said out of habit, not that Gretta would pay attention to the words on Linh’s skin when Gretta seemed determined to look forward.

The two women re-entered the carriage and faced Lady Ella.

“I’ll only teach you for the three months you’re on vacation,” Gretta announced, “and then you’re gone. Oh, and you better pay me well in gold.”