“We’ll need to get you an id card, so we’ll go to the Explorer’s guild management office.”
“Lead the way.” We walked quietly on the street. There were still a few stares, but much less than before. I guess we looked normal in these simple old-fashioned clothes. now that I looked at the passersby more closely, they all had different eye and hair colors, from bright green to dark blue, but never pure white, like mine. Maybe that’s why they were staring? They could’ve been just looking at Tara, but it still bugged me.
“Um… Is white hair weird or something? Why are they still staring at me?” I asked sheepishly.
"Your hair and eye color generally reflects what abilities you have, so I have red hair because of my fire abilities. If you control water or ice, you have blue; for light, yellow or green if you have some plant-related skills; and so on. But I've never seen anyone with white hair, and I guess neither had they."
"But I don't even know what my abilities are. This is pretty frustrating," I replied. So, I have hidden abilities? Or did the preservation skill dye my hair white? "And what if you get a new skill? Does your color change as well?"
"Yes, certainly," Tara answered, "but sometimes it takes a bit of time. However, if a new skill differs too much from your current ones, your body may reject it. So, you won’t end up with having rainbow colored hair, although that’d look pretty cool. But if you're not compatible, that's it."
I noticed that Tara had two colors in her hair. A deep red base that faded into golden blonde with a smooth transition. Maybe she has more skills? So far I’ve only seen her fire ability, I thought to myself. I decided it was probably best not to pry. I didn't know if it was considered rude to ask about someone's abilities and if she wanted to tell me or if it was important, she would have said something to me already.
After a few minutes of walking, we reached a tall building that seemed to be made of glass almost entirely. It looked like a baby version of a skyscraper that got stuck in the Victorian era. We entered through the front door and found ourselves in a fancy reception area. To one side a number of booths lined the wall, looking almost exactly like a post office or a bank in the modern day. There was a short line, so we took our place and waited for a while.
When it was our turn, a very unenthusiastic old lady called out to us, and we walked to her booth. She barely looked at us while asking us her pre learned questions. “How can I help you.” “What is the name.” “Date of birth.” and so on, asking these “questions” to figure out who I was. We were here to request an Id card for me. We fabricated a background for an orphan nobody traveling merchant. My new persona had my name and age, which was to my best knowledge, 20 years old, unknown parents, and a merchant company that disbanded recently. This wasn’t needed at all as the old lady didn’t care about my background, she just wanted to get this over with.
The Id card I got was pretty cool. It acted as a credit card, storing the amount of money I have, as well as personal identification, it also had the layers of my xin crystal and the specialization. (We told her I could heal, which was true, and that I had 5 layers. Which was also true, it’s just that I had three hundred more as well. Whatever.) After we gave her all the information about me, and an excuse on why I didn’t have one already, she put a small, bronze rectangle in a magical engraving machine. That printed on a bunch of squiggles and shapes onto the card, with a black and white image of my face.
The back side acted as the credit card, also displaying the amount of money I had. According to Tara, people don’t use cash anymore, just these cards, but somewhere there are banks that store real coins. There is copper, silver, gold, and stellar coins. Each one’s worth one hundred the previous one, so a stellar coin that’s made of xin diamond is worth a million copper coins. A load of bread is around two copper coins, a night in an inn with food and shower is 20. That should give you an idea of what money’s worth around here.
Tara also pays 10 silver a month for rent, which seems like a lot. I guess I wasn’t wrong when I suspected she might be rich. That isn’t that big of a surprise, because she’s an explorer. She goes on missions organized by the explorer’s guild, to clear out bigger monster infestations that could threaten the civilians. These monsters have crystals that could be sold for good money, or even to upgrade your crystal. The more layers a monster’s xin crystal has, the more power it stores so it sells for more but it’s stronger as well. It's a good paying job but it’s very dangerous, and the mortality rate is really high. She seems to be good at it though.
“Now that you have your id and you’re officially a member of society, we should head to a barber shop and make you look like one as well.” she said once we stepped out of the building.
“Is it that bad?” I asked, nervous. I tried to shave my very weak beard, but without a razor and a mirror, or shaving cream, it proved to be rather difficult. I had a few patches of stray hairs that I tried to cut with my knife, but it wasn’t easy. I guess I kind of looked like a hobo.
“It’ll help you fit in more. It wouldn’t be that bad if your hair wasn’t white.” she said, teasing me.
We soon reached a beautiful, small shop that had stained glass windows, and lots of plants in the storefront. The afternoon sunlight poured into the shop through the colorful glass, painting pretty pictures all across the floor and walls. A few elegant people worked on the hairs and beards of the customers. There seemed to be a small waiting queue, so we reserved a spot at the front desk.
“Hello! We’d like a haircut and a shave please. How long is the waiting line?” Tara asked the receptionist, who was an older woman, but she had elegant clothes, she looked like nobility.
“Of course! Come back in an hour’s time, I’ll make a reservation. It’ll be 20 copper pieces.” She said in a kind, soft voice. She seemed to look at my face a lot, maybe as a professional it bothered her that I was an amateur in shaving. It was a bit embarrassing. Tara touched her Id card to a device on the table, and it made a soft ding sound. I guess the transaction was successful.
“I owe you quite a lot of money now, don’t I?” I asked after we left the barber shop to look for something to eat in the meantime. She paid for my meal as well, which was 15 copper coins.
“I don’t mind, I can’t really do much with this much anyway. But if it bothers you that much, you can pay me back once you have some.” She shrugged, not worrying about such trivial things as money. She was weird. I haven’t met a person who just doesn’t care that they’re rich. That said, I didn’t really meet a lot of rich people either.
“Well, thanks for the meal. I’ll pay you back once I start working.” I said in between bites. We ate at a restaurant that served some weird food. Meat wrapped in cabbage leaves with spices, soups and roasted vegetables. It tasted good, and it felt so refreshing to eat something other than roasted wild meat that I caught moments before eating it. The question “Is this a date?” almost started to form in my mind, but I decided I’d rather concentrate on the food.
“I’ll leave you here for a bit if you don’t mind, I’ll go and find Patrik and Milo and tell them what happened.” Tara said after we got back to the barber shop.
“Sure thing, they must be worried about you.” I nodded. Being alone in an unfamiliar place was a bit unnerving, I was thankful that she helped me so much.
“What do we have here! I’ve never worked with white hair, how exciting! Where do you come from, dear?” A woman sat me down and started talking to me while she worked on my hair. We chatted about the fake story we cooked up with Tara, and I told her about my healing ability. “My, how interesting. But healers usually have gray or blue hair, you must be quite powerful.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” I chuckled nervously. She cut and shaped my hair in a way that was almost magic itself, and by the time we finished, I almost couldn’t recognize myself. My face was clean, and my hair looked like it fit today’s fashion, although I still didn’t really understand that part myself. I thanked her and walked out of the shop. I took a stroll along the streets; the sun was already setting. I sat down on a bench near the small creek that ran through the main road and watched the peaceful scenery.
It was honestly amazing how humanity could adapt and bounce back from almost complete annihilation. They harnessed the power of magic that almost destroyed life and used it to recreate the comfortable and safe life I knew. It was of course not the same, this world had monsters, but there are things that were possible here that would’ve seen insane a thousand years ago.
I was lost in thought when I saw a red crown of hair bob up and down glowing in the setting sun as my friend ran towards me.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. What are you smiling about?” Tara looked at me a bit confused. I didn’t even realize I was smiling.
“Nothing, we can get going.”
“Alright. I bought you this, it’s a gift for safely arriving in Nia.” She handed over a small bag that I didn’t even notice before. Her eyes glistened with a mischievous smile.
“What? You didn’t have to…” I was a bit flustered, but her face made me a bit unnerved. I opened the bag and… “Are you serious?”
“What, you don’t like it?” she started laughing. A clear and happy laugh that was so pure I was getting flushed again. “It’ll be super useful to you, hehe.” The gift was a children’s book that helped kids learn to read.
“No, I love it. Thank you.” I started to chuckle as well. It was a thoughtful gift, even if it was just a joke. I needed to learn how to read, after all.
“Come on, let’s go home. I’ll prepare a room for you.” And once again, my debt for Tara grew more and more.
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