The rest of the day was busy. At first, the woman, who told Velvet to call her T (that wasn't her real name, but it made it easier for them to communicate under the concealment spell), gave her a few blueprints to make copies of.

While doing that, she kept interrupting Velvet and made her bring the tools she needed to use to do her job, making her go back and forth in the shop.

T wasn’t very talkative, seeming to prefer working on silence, which was hard for Velvet. So, she went to speak with Hyde.

“So, how is it going inside there?”

“Those blueprints look interesting, ask if she has more.”

“Wait until I finish these copies first… Still, these blueprints are very mechanical, not enough magic to be considered artifacts…”

“Crosstip screwdriver, small.” T said.

Velvet stretched before going for it. “Say, it is getting late, I’ll go make dinner for you and leave.”

“M-hm.” She took the screwdriver, not looking at her.

“Also, I got invited to a reunion of Devil’s Taste tomorrow. I want to go, so I’ll take some part of tomorrow free.”

“Okay.”

“Also I finished making copies of four blueprints already, there’s only two remaining.”

“Good.”

Velvet’s smile twitched. “Do you have any preference for dinner?”

“No.”

“So I can guess?”

The use of that word made T lift her head to look at her. “Kid…”

“Okay, okay! I just wanted to see if you were listening! … So, you have a lot of clientele… Do you know anything about Devil’s Taste members?”

“Ask Udulluay.”

Velvet saw Udulluay still on the table, who seemed to be preening himself.

Has he been here the whole time? “He said it was private.”

“Udulluay said that what happened at the gathering was private.” The owl corrected her.

“I meant his opinion. He did have problems with former members.”

The owl made strange noises upon hearing that. As if he was clicking his beak.

“C did too, now that I remember. He didn’t tell the details, but it was outside the Mergifari.” C was the name T used to refer to the man that brought Velvet here.

“What kind of problems?”

“They made connections with mages inside the Mergifari, and hunted them once they exited it.”

Ah. “Wait, shouldn’t you have warned me a bit when I told you I was going?”

T shrugged at that. “Advising someone against doing something only makes them want to do it more. If you’re dumb enough to let someone that you know eats demons follow you, at that point it's natural selection speaking.”

“Now, that’s too mean, sometimes it is inexperience speaking. I barely knew they existed, and eating demons and hunting mages are different things…”

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Velvet remembered Iren and Cornelius. One had hunted the other for its demon. “... Wouldn’t that make leaving the Mergifari dangerous for any mage?”

She remembered the wandering mages that had warned her against becoming one, and the comment of the pet shop owner.

All the mages she had known were alone, unless they formed part of a family. And even then, Cornelius had put faith on a mage outside his family, and ended up dying for that.

“... It is dangerous.” Velvet answered her own question.

For wandering mages, only the Mergifari was really safe, and, outside the month preceding the Selection, only official mages, official shops and the selected apprentices were allowed to remain there.

Velvet let out a shaky breath. “Mage society is really messed up…”

T let out an emotionless laugh. “That’s what people who are not born in a mage society tend to say.”

“Your shop doesn’t have the official seal.” Velvet said. “What will you do after the Selection?”

“I am a Selector.” T said. “I’ll go inside to teach.”

“Oh, I see.” It took Velvet a few seconds to process what she had said. “Wait, really?! … Have you already picked someone?”

“Calm down… You don’t want to work as a mechanic, do you?”

That made her let out a nervous laugh. “I… do not.”

“Search for a Selector that needs what you offer.”

“Someone told me knowledge mage places were a bit full already. But someone also told me I could become a political pawn, so I guess it’s even.”

“Oh, I know who you are now.” T said.

“Am I really that famous?” Velvet would like to blush upon receiving such a compliment, but the concealment spell made that useless.

“Not you, get down that high horse. But the man that recommended you is.”

“How famous is he?” She knew Kartal was a Selector, and member of the Scales of Poine, but she didn’t know how important he truly was.

“Captain famous.”

Velvet was taken a bit aback, but didn’t comment more, since T didn’t seem like the talkative type. “Oh, that works for me. Is C also a Selector?”

That made T laugh, and even Udulluay stopped preening and turned to look at her.

She laughed for a time longer than needed, in Velvet’s humble opinion. “Only in name, and not even in that.”

“Am I what now?” Someone had entered the shop at that moment, almost sneakily.

“Guess.” Velvet said.

“I bring you food, and you try playing me at my own game? No dessert for you.”

“But I wasn’t the one laughing!” She defended herself from the no dessert threat. “Oho, what did you bring?”

“Guess.”

“I’m going to kill both of you if you keep that up.” T threatened. “Just put the food somewhere.”

“A’ight, Udulluay, move.” He patted the owl away, until he hopped on Velvet’s chair. Then, he put a few wood boxes in his place.

There are other chairs, cmon…

T also left what she was doing, going to the table that was almost full of blueprints and boxes now.

“Let me clean first, don’t get food on the blueprints!” Velvet hurried to take away the stuff, or at least set it to the side.

“Wait, let me store the finished ones, no use leaving them here.” T looked at the papers, classifying them how she saw fit and taking them away.

“Oh, right.” Velvet turned towards C. “Did you have a problem with the members of Devil’s Taste? One of them invited me to a reunion tomorrow.”

“Hm? Did I?” He seemed to think. “It must’ve been years ago, I don’t remember.”

“Six years ago, from the time you ran away.” T said, almost mocking.

“Hm… Perhaps? I was wild back then… It sounds like something I did on a whim.”

“Everything you do is based on whims.”

“She is right about that.” Velvet and Udulluay said.

“Isn’t the fact that you are working here a whim?”

“And I do appreciate your whimsical nature mister!” The table was now clean, and, since none of the other two were doing much, she started setting up the food.

“What’s this?” Velvet looked at the strange food that was in front of her.

“Roasted snake, fried moose brain, seahorse ceviche, steamed mandrake and some seaweeds whose name I don’t remember.”

Velvet’s smile twitched, not knowing what to say. Was this normal food for mages?

To her relief, T didn’t seem very happy with the food. “The hell? Can’t you bring normal food? Where did you even buy this?”

“A temporary shop. Quit whining, try it first.”

To be honest, Velvet was feeling very attracted to the idea of eating roasted snake, licking her lips.