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

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

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

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

“Yeah, we got some extra seeds from Klippel.” He pulled out a round black seed the size of my fingertip. Its outer shell felt rough as it laid limply on my palm, making a scratching sound when I poked it.

“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.” He looked serious saying that. 

“What plant is this?”

“Dunno.”

“And you just ate it?” Incredible.

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

“You’re imagining things.” 

I kicked my legs as we continued to people-watch. A man and woman were walking with their arms linked together. I wonder what my parents are doing right now.

“I’m bored. Let’s go do something.”

“Do what?”

“No idea, there must be something 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.

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

A set of ceramic cups could be seen through the window. They were apparently the local product of this city. The cups’ color was unique only to this region as it required a type of clay that could only be harvested around here. They just looked like green tea cups to me.

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. I wondered how much he had studied these past days. I started pointing at whatever caught my eyes.

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

“I don’t remember what they are.” 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. 

“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. “These are called carrots, a staple food in our kingdom.”

“Is that so? What about these yellow things?”

“Those are potatoes”

“And these?”

“Onions.”

“Your explanations are quite short, 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 as he dragged his feet after me. That’s weird. I thought he was 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, looked flustered as she held the hands of an old woman kneeling before her. She looked like a doe clad in a pastel dress as she tried to help the elderly woman off the dirty ground. 

A young man stood behind her, diagonal to the 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.”

“My clothes getting dirty is nothing in comparison to what you have done for me. I must show you my gratitude!”

“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. I could feel the affection flowing from her gaze standing all the way over here.

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

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

A voice called from the crowd. “She did it again!”

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

“She did it for free too.”

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

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

Someone in the crowd exclaimed. “I can’t believe it!”

“Who is she?”

“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 into the sky. The stick grabbed our attention as it went higher and higher. I could feel the guard putting his hand above the hilt of his sword, until we all saw it flying downwards at an amazing speed before stopping upon impacting her bent knee. It broke cleanly in half. Silence filled the air.

My mouth went wide as I tried to register in my head what had 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. The silence broke when the old woman roared. 

“That felt good!” The crowd joined her roar and I could hear Eric beside yelling something or the other. 

I saw for the first time how divine magic was supposed to look like as she healed some other people from the crowd. A yellow magic circle formed from her palmed out hands as she focused her breathing. A few seconds later the person being injected let out a blinding flash of light. It must have felt good as all of them had exclaimed their 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.

The crowd had long dispersed and only the two of them remained, she sat on a bench while he 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 to see the world.” She gestured to the adult-looking boy. “And I’m fifteen”. Her pure white teeth blinded my eyes as she smiled, making me almost shield my eyes. 

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

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

“Oh, more than I can count.”

“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.

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

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

“A tasty seed?” Lavenza glanced down at the seed in her fingers.

The boy sighed. “Give it.” He put the round seed he got from her. A crunching sound reverberated in his mouth.

“How is it?” Eric said expectantly. 

“It tastes like raisins.” 

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

“I could do without the shell though.” 

Lavenza took another seed from the ecstatic Eric. “Oh wow! It really does taste like raisins.” 

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

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

“Ha ha! You two make a funny pair.”

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

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

And so Eric and I became friends with the healing 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. 

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

“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 left 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 expected as 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 bend 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!”. 

She began focusing and a golden circle appeared over my left 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 as I saw the golden circle appear again. I already knew divine magic didn’t work on this body.

“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 long  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.”

“Can you wait for a moment?”

“...”

“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, take a deep breath, Esther.” He put his hand over my eyes, covering them. “Just breathe.”

I didn’t want to feel this way

“It hurts…” 

“I know.”

“I want to use my hand…”

“That’s only natural.”

I stood there while Eric continued to shield my eyes. He didn’t say anything as I felt myself calm down. We must have been standing there for a while.

“Sniffle.”

“Have you calmed down?” I could taste something salty sliding down my face as it fell into my mouth.

“Hic, Yeah…” My body shook from the sudden hiccups.

“Can I move my hand now?”

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

“I was going to give this to you earlier but so much happened.” I could hear him take something out of his bag. “I’m gonna move my hand now okay?”

I stayed silent as my eyes took in the bright light outside. A mass of yellow petals bloomed in front of my eyes.

“My mom said they represent strong bonds.”

Yellow alstroemerias.

“Did you get one from Karrie too?”

It smelled disgustingly sweet. I felt my mind go blank.