I put the rest of the bread roll into my bag and said, “I’m not lost.”

“That so?” He plopped down beside me. My golden hair fluttered in the air as I bounced on the bench. The wooden planks were bending quite a bit.

We sat staring in the same direction looking at the other people walking by. “I heard you will be back by spring?” I nodded at his words.

“Are you here with your mother?” I didn’t see her with him.

“Yeah, we got some extra seeds from Klippel so were looking to sell them.” He pulled out a round black seed the size of my fingertip. Its outer shell felt rough as it laid limply on my left palm, I took the glove off. It made a scratching sound when I poked it with my nail.

“I don’t get why no one buys them.” He pulled out another one and popped it into his mouth, crunching it between his teeth. I could see a few bits of the outer shell fall out of his mouth. It looked and sounded just like eating eggshells. “They don’t taste that bad.” And he looked serious saying that.

“What plant is this?” I asked.

“Dunno.”

“And you just ate it?” Incredible.

He seemed almost offended. “I was hungry, okay? And I know what you just thought.”

I shrugged. “You’re imagining things.”

My legs kicked back and forth by the edge of the bench as we continued to people-watch. A man and a woman were walking with their arms linked together, and when she laughed at something he said, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. I wonder what my parents were doing right now.

“I’m bored. Let’s go do something,” said Eric.

“Do what?”

“No idea, there must be something fun to do in this city?” He shook his bag of seeds. “Maybe I can find someone to buy these things.” He explained how his mother had assigned him to find someone willing to buy these off their hands. He popped another one into his mouth.

“You know you are supposed to plant them right?” I remarked.

Strolling around the streets with Eric, I glanced through the countless shop windows. Whenever anything weird or strange caught my eyes he would give me a quick and concise answer on what it was. His explanations seemed to make it seem more interesting than they were.

A set of ceramic cups could be seen through such a window. They were apparently the local product of this city. Its color was unique only to this region, he said. A color that required a type of clay that could only be harvested around here. But to me, they just looked like plain green tea cups.

Eric would give me a long explanation each time I pointed to an object. He seemed to take his apprenticeship seriously as he knew a little about everything. Impressive. Wonder how much he had studied these past days. Oh, and I really meant each time, so I started pointing at whatever caught my eyes.

“Esther,” he sounded thirsty, “I think you already know about all these things.”

“I don’t think so? I may have forgotten it.” I stood in front of a display where wares of different colors and shapes were being shaded by the stall. The vendor was busy haggling with the other customers, paying the two of us no mind.

He sighed. “You know that you can’t use that line anymore, right?”

“Eric, I really don’t remember, please?” I pointed to an orange object, feeling my mouth twitch as I begged him.

“At least try not to grin while saying that…” He sighed again. “These are called carrots, a staple food in our kingdom.”

“Is that so? And what about these yellow things?”

“Those are potatoes”

“And these?”

“Onions.”

“Your explanations are quite curt, Eric. No one would buy anything from you with that attitude. You make a lousy merchant.”

He gave me a big professional smile. “Thanks, Esther. I will take that advice to heart.”

I skipped around the different shops and stalls all the while dragging along Eric. His shoulders slumped and he dragged his feet after me. That’s weird. I thought he was the one bored?

The roads came to an end, opening up to a square with a clocktower standing in the middle. And below that a crowd had formed.

The gaggle of people was centered around something. Applause and excited voices could be heard ringing as I tried to get a glimpse of whatever that had them this excited. Standing between two adults, I glanced under their armpits.

Snow white hair, reminiscent of the porcelain teacups I saw earlier, bled gently in the air. It looked almost to turn blue against the backdrop of the sky. A pair of soft round eyes, the color of the blue sky above, looked flustered as she held the hands of an old woman kneeling before her. She looked like a doe clad in a pastel dress standing there, trying to help the elderly woman off the dirty ground.

A young man stood behind her, diagonal to her left side, with his hands behind his back. He had an impassioned look standing guard behind her, the scabbard hanging on his hip indicating his work.

“Ah, please don’t do this! Your clothes will get dirty.” A clear voice.

“My clothes getting dirty is nothing in comparison to what you have done for me. I must show you my gratitude!” The old woman knelt even further, her head almost touching the wet bricks under.

“P-please get up, I didn’t help you to get your gratitude!” She babbled. “A simple thanks is enough for me.” An angelic smile formed on the young girl’s face, she looked just like how my mom often looked at me. Even standing all the way over here, I could feel her affection flowing to the woman.

The old woman broke into tears as she looked up at her.

She looked flustered again. “Ah, please don’t cry!”

A voice called from the crowd. “She did it again!” And other comments went with it.

“I can’t believe she used divine magic on her.”

“She did it for free too.”

“But did it work? I’ve never seen such a bright light before.”

The old woman finally stood up at her pleading holding a cane in her hand. But the tip didn’t touch the ground. She held it with both her hands instead.

Someone in the crowd exclaimed. “I can’t believe it! She’s standing on her two legs!”

“Who is this person?”

“She’s a saint!” Resounding cheers filled the area we had been gathering in.

The old woman lifted her wooden cane high above her head, stretching it to the sky. The stick grabbed our attention as it went higher and higher still. I could see the bodyguard putting his hand above the hilt of his sword. Perhaps in case something happened? And something did happen.

The cane that was stuck in the air, flew downwards at an amazing speed. We all watched with bated breath as it descended. Before an impact to her bent knee stopped it all. The stick. It broke cleanly in half. Silence filled the air.

My mouth went wide and I tried to register in my head what just happened. The girl seemed to be in the same vein as me, standing there cupping her mouth. The young man standing a step behind her simply let out a sigh of relief before turning back into an impassioned statue.

A roar broke the veil of silence. “That felt good!” The crowd joined her roar and I could hear Eric beside me yell something or the other.

I saw for the first time how divine magic was supposed to look like when she healed some other people from the crowd. With her eyes closed, a yellow magic circle formed from her hands and a few seconds later, the person being injected let out a blinding flash of light where their wounds were. It must have felt good because all of them roared out in relief.

The girl continued to treat the crowd, healing whatever illness or ailment had plagued them. She didn’t seem troubled at all, apart from the people kneeling down in gratitude. She went through all of them. Simply gave them a gentle smile as her hair shook with the wind.

Eric and I watched her do her work and now, the crowd had long dispersed and only the two of them remained. She sat on a bench while her guard watched over her. They were talking to each other but stopped when they noticed us walking over to them.

“Oh!” She clapped her hands. “I saw you two watching from the crowd earlier.” Seeing her up front she looked to be the same age as me, maybe a bit older.

“I’m afraid we are currently taking a break.” The young man said.

“Don’t be like that Noel, I’m really fine.” He grunted in reply.

“I’m Esther, I’m currently visiting this city. Oh, and I’m fourteen.” I said my perfect introductory line. The man furrowing his eyebrows didn’t bother me at all.

“She’s still using that introduction?” I could hear Eric mutter behind me before also introducing himself. It was different from how I said it but it would do.

The girl let out a chuckle, her sweet voice tickled my ears a bit. “My name is Lavenza, I’m currently traveling with this grumpy boy here to see the world.” She gestured to the adult-looking boy. “And I’m fifteen.” Her pure white teeth blinded my eyes when she smiled, making me almost shield my eyes.

“Did you want to ask me something, Esther?” She said.

“Have you traveled to a lot of places?” I asked.

“Oh, more than I can count.”

“Then, have you seen this seed before?” I decided to help out poor Eric with his appointment.

She held it in her hand giving it a look. “What seed is this?”

“We don’t know.” Eric answered for me.

The guard’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know?”

“Yeah, but it’s tasty.” Eric demonstrated for us, crunching the seed, shell and all.

“A tasty seed?” Lavenza glanced down at the oval-shaped thing in her fingers.

The boy sighed. “Give it.” He plopped the seed in his mouth with no hesitation. A crunching sound reverberated through his teeth.

“How is it?” Eric said expectantly.

He bent his straight eyebrows a little. “It tastes like raisins.”

“I know right?! No one seemed to want to try them. Here, I have lots more!” Eric pulled out his bag of seeds.

“I could do without the shell though.” He grabbed another seed.

Lavenza tried one herself. “Oh wow! It really does taste like raisins.”

Eric turned to me. “Esther, now you really have to try one.”

“No thanks, you have some bits stuck in your teeth by the way.” He began poking at his teeth while I tried to guide him where to put his finger.

“Ha ha! You two make a funny pair.”

“Really?” I couldn’t see what she found funny.

“Oh I know!” She said. “Let’s be friends!”

And so Eric and I became friends with the healer girl and her taciturn guard. We chatted while I sat with her while the two boys stood. They seemed to surprisingly vibe well together as Noel began showing off his sword.

I asked her. “Lavenza, you seem like a powerful healer.”

“I don’t think I’m that impressive.” She stared in front of her. “I just try my best.”

“Has your healing ever not worked before?”

“It hasn't. Why, is something the matter?”

I pulled off the glove on my right hand letting it feel the cool air for the first time in a while. Her mouth opened a little and I could see Noel twitch his forehead standing there. Eric didn’t react.

It was an expected reaction. The flesh squirming around my once-crushed fingers were bulging like waves with circles in its epicenter. My marred hand looked disgusting as I tried fully bending my fingers. It felt like nails stabbing into it when my curling reached its full potential.

I wanted to fix my hand, if not for my mom’s sake. I could still remember how she looked when she saw my disfigured hand for the first time.

“Do you think you can heal my hand? I have five silvers if you want.” It was beyond low for employing a priest or a mage who could heal, still it was all I had on me right now.

“Don’t you worry Esther.” She held my hand. “I will try my best. No, I will do my best! We’re friends after all!”

She began focusing and a golden circle appeared over my right hand, the circle looked familiar. And after a while. Nothing happened.

No bright lights. No refreshing feeling. No nothing.

“Huh? What’s happening?”

I didn’t actually get my hopes up.

“Let me try again.”

Nevertheless, I felt a bit disappointed seeing the golden circle appear again and again, and again. I already knew divine magic didn’t work on this body. I already knew.

“It’s fine, Lavenza.” I quickly put my glove back on. “I expected the outcome.”

“Esther, let me try once-”

“It’s fine.”

I stood up from the bench. “It was fun talking to you two, but it’s getting late, we better take our leave now.” The sun had begun dipping in the sky, making the towering clock tower cast a wide shadow across the ground.

“Esther, wait-”

“Let’s meet again should the opportunity rise.” I began walking. Eric was apologizing or something before I heard his brisk footsteps come up behind me. I continued walking while he followed.

“Esther, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey, can you wait for a moment?”

I stopped replying.

“Esther, please stop walking.” I felt something grab my hand.

“Let go!” I yanked my arm back, facing him. It hurt.

“Please talk to me, Esther.” He had a stupid expression plastered on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know!” I shot back at him. I didn’t know what part of my body that hurt. My hand? My arm? My heart? It just hurt.

“Let’s calm down, okay?”

“Shut up!” I glared at him, glared at his red hair and glared at his green eyes. Don’t you look at me like that, Eric.

He took a step toward me. “Breathe, Esther.”

“You’re an idiot!”

“Yes, I’m an idiot, but you need to breathe, Esther.”

He took another step.

“You’re stupid!”

“I’m the most stupid person you know, but take a deep breath, Esther.” He put his hand over my eyes, covering them. “Just breathe.”

His warm hand blinded me. I couldn’t see anything. Darker than the night. I didn’t want to feel this way.

“It hurts…”

“I know.”

“I can’t use my hand…”

“That’s only natural.”

My teeth clenched into themselves as I could no longer control my jaw. It only wanted to bite itself. Bite the part of me that I wanted to be gone. This part that was pathetic and weak and useless. My hand was utterly useless.

Eric pressed his hand tighter and my eyes cooled down with the difference in temperature. Then he began caressing the top of my head.

“There, there.”

I could taste something salty sliding down my face, falling into my mouth. “Sniffle. What are you doing…”

“Have you calmed down?”

“Hic. I don’t know…” My body shook from the sudden hiccup.

“Can I move my hand now?”

“Not yet…” It felt calming not being able to see anything.

“But my arm is getting tired.”

I smacked his hand away to glare at him. Surprisingly, the blue sky had turned a soft orange. How long did we stand here? I stared at it, the orange glow. I was lost in it.

“I was going to give this to you earlier but so much happened and I didn’t get the chance.” I heard him take something out of his bag beside me. “My mom said they represent strong bonds.”

I turned my head. What is he talking about— A mass of yellow petals bloomed in front of my face.

Yellow alstroemerias.

“Karrie liked them.”

It smelled disgustingly sweet. My mind blanked out from its disgusting smell.