Keira did not want to do her fundraising that day. She was pretty tired from the previous day, as socialising was hard, and now she would have to stay on her feet for the entire day packing bags. Her father was supposed to be the one driving her to the store, one which was situated in a slightly larger town and surrounded by a few smaller ones and plenty of moorland. The sky was overcast, which was pretty ordinary considering the country they lived in. As it was a long drive however, Keira was trapped, and that was something her father took full advantage of.

“You know that Grandma is currently in hospital, right?”

“I know… What about it?” He sighed and drummed his fingers on the edges of the steering wheel before indicating and making a right.

“We’re putting her in a home.”

“What?!”

“I know. I know. But after her assessment at the hospital she’s been deemed too physically frail to look after herself and we don’t have the skills to look after her properly. Nor the time.”

“Grandma hates homes! How could we put her in one?”

“It’s the only option we have.”

“I meant physically. She won’t go without a fight.” Her father paused before smiled slightly, nodding as he took a left.

“Good point there. I think I’ll try to turn on my son charms.”

“The most tried and true method. I’m sure that it’ll go over great.”

“In the meantime, that means that we’re going to have to help move her out. Clean the bungalow and take anything that might be valuable.”

“You make it sound like we’re robbing her.”

“We’re not robbing her Keira. We’re just making sure we’re not leaving anything irreplaceable behind or sell it by accident. She’ll get some of the things that we don’t sell such as photos, small ornaments and maybe a tea set. Although there’s this really nice tea set that I’m not giving up on…” He trailed off and Keira took the opportunity to interject again.

“At least we won’t have to clean up much. She was always very particular about how she ran the house.”

“Oh gods was she ever. At least you didn’t have to grow up with her. I love her, but the amount of time I spent trying to keep things up to her standards was insane.” He sighed and pulled into the carpark of the store. “You have your uniform?”

“Yep, even the belt. I am good to go.”

“Don’t forget to look friendly! The trick is to pretend that you enjoy standing on your feet helping people with packing their bags for eight hours!” Keira held a thumbs up in the air in response and then adjusted her sleeve when her arm came back down in order to hide the mark. Briefly she had debated putting bandages over the symbol, but she figured that it might draw more attention to it than not and withheld.

The store itself was medium-sized, compared to some of the ones she had been in when she was in the city, and the entire front of it was covered in windows that stretched from the floor to the roof. Each of them were incredibly polished, and most likely would have reflected the sun had it been out. She approached the automatic glass door and then something flashed a vibrant red in the reflection as it retracted. Keira cast her eyes downward to the mat that was on floor and pointedly ignored the windows as she walked into the store. Her eyes stayed on the floor until her feet hit polished linoleum. Then she saw it again. In the reflection she saw another red butterfly, stuck on the ceiling staring down at her with those markings on its wings. With a wince she looked up and instead focused on the inside of the store, hoping that it didn’t stock any mirrors. It was fairly quiet, there were a few people browsing the vegetables and a few more changing aisles, so it didn’t look like she would be too busy that morning. There were only about four cashiers active, with one scanning items and the other chatting with the three people that had arrived before Keira. Then she paused and her eyes widened. Her eyes met Naima’s. And both of them scowled.

She walked up to the row of cashiers and the man who was organising the whole thing, having the group emblem on his chest he was easy to spot. Especially as he’d put himself in the centre of tills that were already manned with people. One of which being Naima. His eyes lit up as he spotted Keira approaching, and he gestured to the empty till next to Naima. He then gave her the essential run down, most of which was common sense. Such as ask them if they want help to pack their groceries before trying to pack them, and don’t put things like bread on the bottom. Then he gestured to the register next to Naima and left her to her own devices.

As it was quiet this usually involved chatting with the people working the registers and each other, though Naima had a particularly strange pastime which involved staring at her. Though it didn’t seem hostile despite the initial glare. In fact her expressions bordered on concerned. In the times that Keira had been looking over anyway. There could be death glares when she’s not looking. Eventually whatever was bothering Naima boiled over, and during a particularly quiet section of the morning, she stepped closer.

"H-hey, Keira? I am sorry about blowing up at you when we first met. I talked with some people in school about you and apparently it wasn't as one-sided as Paige made it seem."

"What wasn't one-sided?"

"The… meanness? Is that an accurate way to describe it?"

"It's an accurate way of describing how Paige acted towards me. I don't remember ever retaliating though." Naima scowled.

"You know the least you could do is own up to it."

"I would if I had ever done anything, but I haven't." Naima rolled her eyes and almost went to the other side of her till, but Keira spoke again. "I appreciate the apology, though."

"Yeah. You're welcome. How did you and Paige fall out anyway? It sounded like you were best friends when you were younger." Keira shrugged her shoulders. It was fortunate that it was still early in the morning, so there weren't enough people around to bother them.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I don't know. I wouldn't say it was a massive climactic fight where we realised we hated each other, but there may have been a turning point."

"When?"

"Well, most likely when she accused me of stealing her grandmother’s necklace. Most of the stuff before that was minor, so I didn't really think it was that important. Maybe I should have."

"Everyone has been saying that the necklace was lost and you had nothing to do with it. I mean I wasn’t really willing to believe you by yourself, but I’ve talked to loads of people who have said that it wasn’t you. So, maybe if we explained-"

"Just because you misunderstood it, doesn't mean she did. I'm fairly certain that it was malicious."

"You don't know that for certain. I just feel like it's a shame to throw such a friendship away over something that could have been entirely avoided."

"Again, that wasn't the only thing. There were other smaller signs as well that lead up to it."

"Still. Maybe it's worth a shot? Things might go differently if I'm there, since we're technically friends and all..."

"Good optimism. Still won't change anything." Naima stood there awkwardly for a little bit before changing the subject.

"Speaking of trying again... could we try again? Since we're going to be on this trip together and all, I feel like we should be on better terms."

"I don't see why not." Keira hadn't made new friends in a while, sans the ones currently stalking her, so she was a little uncertain on how to handle the situation. The default diplomatic route hadn't failed her yet though. "Hi, my name is Keira. It's nice to meet you. Definitely for the first time." Naima stared at her for a little while before bursting into giggles.

"I'm Naima and it's also really nice to meet you."

"Fantastic. Do you have any hobbies aside from standing around in a supermarket the entire day?”

"Yep. My most recent interest has been in Furda, which I think is pretty common around here." Keira nodded her head slightly.

"Any particular reason it resonates with you so much?"

"I guess I just like the idea of nature spirits looking after the world. And respecting the fae, that's a pretty large part of it too.”

“Respecting the fae… So do you leave offerings often? Or is it more of a lip service type deal?”

“Both!” Naima looked rather offended for a moment, before it sank into a small frown. “Though Dad says that it’s wasteful to leave things like alcohol and food outside. The best I can manage are a few flowers.”

“…You know I think the Wanderer’s Flame has a fae in it.” Naima’s expression fell even further.

“Clearly it’s an exaggerated account of what a wanderer’s lantern would do!” She must have caught sight of Keira’s vaguely confused expression, as suddenly she launched into a tirade. “The biggest sign is that the book describes the main character as moving all across the world and wanderer’s lanterns are known to only appear in highly specific areas and to stick to them. And blaming it for ruining his life? They only lure people to their deaths, not ruin everything around them. They don’t talk and they don’t try to make deals. The author-“

“I understand. Now that you’ve mentioned it, it seems like a stupid comparison. It was clearly a method to make an allegory about greed.”

“Good.” Silence descended upon them again, and Keira found herself struggling to break it. Then something occurred to her.

“I noticed that you were going through some cards at the campsite clean-up.” Naima’s expression brightened up again.

“Oh those! I got them a while back when I had a small interest in the mystical. Did you hear the explanation?” Keira nodded, she remembered it having to do with foresight or something. “I have them with me now, if you want to have a look?” When Keira nodded again, she pulled out a box that must've been hiding in her back pocket and opened it to remove the cards from it. Even though Keira had seen Naima flick through them briefly, she never really got a close look. The fronts of them were decorated with beautiful pictures in vibrant colours and surprising amount of detail. However, even though the glimpse she got was brief, the backs were what caught her eye.

"Hey, could you turn these over?"

"Sure?" When she did so Keira got a clearer view of the backs. They were a muddy brown that were a brighter colour in the middle than towards the edge, but the pattern they sported caught her eye. It was an array of circles; some were interlocking in groups while others were on their own and off towards the edge. There were a few lines connecting the lone circles to the clusters, with a few lines going through them. It was interesting to look at, but more importantly to Kiera, they looked very familiar. She couldn't pin down from where though. The recognition tickled the back of her mind, but the memory never came to the forefront of her mind.

"Are you okay?" Keira realised that she had been staring at them for maybe a little too long. She laughed a little and scratched the back of her head, mostly to get rid of that itch.

"Yeah, I just got a little distracted. Could you tell me what language those patterns are in?" Naima's brow furrowed.

"She didn't say it was any language in particular... Though I never really paid that much attention. Honestly I just think that the company made it up."

"R-right. Which company is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I think their name is AnnointAllure? They do scented oils and candles as well as the more occult things."

"That's a multi-level marketing scheme... Are you trying to sell me something?"

"I know that and I'm not shilling their stuff. I just really liked these."

"Where, or who, did you buy them from?"

"My friend was a part of the scheme; she knew that I'm interested in this sort of thing and told me about it."

"Was this part of a recruitment thing? Like 'hey, you like our products so why not sell them' sort of thing?"

"No. I mean yes. But it was kind of proposed as the solution to all of my problems, not only the financial ones."

"That… I feel like you should get your friend out of it, it sounds really unhealthy."

"Oh, no. She's out now. Kind of depressed about it because a lot of her other friends were a part of it and now they don't really talk to her anymore, but we still talk."

"I'm s- Uh. Is AnnointAllure both a multi-level marketing scheme and a cult? Because that sounds incredibly cult like."

"I think it might be."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I don’t even think the leader needs the company as he also moonlights as an artist for the upper class and makes a killing off of them. In fact, I’m fairly certain that he was the one who drew the pictures on the cards.” Keira hummed and at the mention of the cards, reached out to touch them. As her skin began prickle when her fingers brushed the backs, she pulled them back quickly.

“I guess I can understand getting them. Aside from supporting your friend. Could I use them?”

“Oh no. Only I’m supposed to use them.”

“Ah.” Keira felt like she did a good job of hiding her disappointment. “So you pay respects to the fae, but what about those nature spirits you mentioned? Or are those the same thing?”

“Fae are a subsection of nature spirits, but while you’re supposed to pay respect to nature as a whole, it’s less important to leave offerings as they’re more neutral. I’ve still tried to do my due diligence though. Since respecting nature spirits extends to nature itself, I’ve been learning more about plants and animals. There are loads of interesting facts I’ve found, for example, animals are surprisingly smart. Crows have been known to remember kind treatment and return the favour, and otters on average are about as smart as a human toddler.”

"As opposed to a… non-human toddler.” Naima gave Keira a look. “I couldn’t think of another animal in time to make the quip.” She cleared her throat awkwardly. “In any case, that's actually pretty interesting. Do you know anymore facts?" Naima nodded enthusiastically and continued naming various animal facts, which Keira paid attention to as she began helping some people with their bags. They ended up chatting for the rest of the day, which helped pass the time during the quieter times and they ended up trading numbers after the fundraiser was over. Keira wondered whether she could ask Naima for her knowledge on the fae, as she might have a small issue with them. She sent an introductory text and a couple of questions before climbing into the car and setting off back home.