In the kingdom of Linsal, the most prestigious profession was that of sorcerer and the most prestigious of sorcerers graduated from the famed Laronia Institute of Sorcerous Arts. One of the most recent graduates to leave those sacred halls had bright purple hair styled in an elaborate wave, yellow cat eyes, and was currently sticking her tongue out the left side of her mouth in concentration as she painted the sign of her new shop. Once completed, the enchanted paint would turn the sign into an active enchantment, dazzling potential shoppers, if, that is, she could finish it without making a mistake. 

Philliya Wridall had never been terribly good at painting or drawing and her enchantment diagrams barely achieved passing grades in class. But she didn’t care. She could draw well enough to make the enchantment work in the way she wanted. They didn’t need the extra fancy swirls and flourishes to function so what was the point of including them in the first place? She could perform enchantments and channel sorcery, so, therefore, that was what mattered. 

She’d grown up steeped in sorcery, the youngest of seven children born to sorcerer parents, and it had been a perfectly logical choice for all seven of them to study sorcery. Philliya would have been stupid to turn down her parents’ offer to pay for her to study at Laronia. All six of her elder siblings had studied there as well, so off she went, her head and heart full of sorcery, dreaming of one day living the life of a lone sorcerer in a tower. She had thrived in the classes (aside from the low marks in diagram classes) and had practically wallowed in all the old musty sorcery books that the library housed. 

However, her second semester of study brought reality crashing down upon her. It happened when she decided that she should start building a book collection of her very own. She was quite sensible, so she had gone to a secondhand bookshop that other students recommended for having cheap prices. It was on the shelves of that shop that she realized even “cheap” was completely unaffordable. 

Back in her dorm room, she ran some numbers and came to a horrifying conclusion. She had zero funds for her dream of a sorcerer’s tower out in the wilderness somewhere. Sorcerers spent money almost as fast as they earned it. Her parents were no exception, and, after funding six other siblings, there was only enough money left over for Philliya, the seventh, to attend school. To put it bluntly, Philliya was broke.

Ever the sensible person, Philliya had immediately reevaluated her career options. A life of solitary research in a tower was out, and so too was hiring herself out as a guard (who would hire someone as small as her?) Also out was any other career that involved large amounts of start-up funds. Eventually she settled on a small shop of some kind, but even that would need money. So she began planning and saving.

All through her remaining years at school she feasted on the books in the library, copying by hand enchantments and diagrams that might be useful later on since she couldn’t afford to buy the books. She also frantically pursued any opportunity for money that came her way. Therefore, by the time she graduated (with newly fashioned purple hair and yellow cat eyes), she had just enough funds to launch her new shop. 

With one last wiggle of her tongue, she completed the sign and the enchantment glowed to life flashing the name of her new shop “The Salon of Enchanted Beauty”.

Stepping back, she examined the sign and its placement with a critical eye. “That should suffice.” She watched as the secondary routine of the enchantment drew out fantastical images of elaborate hairstyles which cycled through a rainbow of colors. It was programmed to never repeat itself and was a variation on an enchantment she’d found in an old book. Of course, the original creator had never intended for the enchantment to be used for a hair salon name board.

Philliya capped the bottle of paint very carefully, stretched elaborately, and only then finally entered her completed shop. The inside was just as tiny as the outside indicated with only enough room for one customer at a time, but a heavy scent of sorcery filled the air from all the ingredients she had in stock. After renting the shop and stocking it, she was back to almost broke again with just enough money for a few weeks of food. 

She stored the paint away in a locked box with some of the other valuable items. “Time to find some customers!”

Gathering up her bag, a stack of flyers, and a cloak, she headed out of the shop. With a snap of her fingers the door lock enchantment activated, sealing the shop while also displaying a “Back in a few hours” sign. Another snap of her fingers activated the number queuing system so customers could take a number to wait for her return. 

Her destination? The palace!