I put the maryseed roll back into my lips, breathing and exhaling as the moments passed.

I looked at the blond boy who walked away from me.

I had met his father a couple times before. The boy’s name… it was Nix, wasn’t it?

He was bold, just like his father described. I pursed my lips around the cigarette, “I wonder if he has any talent for magic,” I said thoughtlessly. Curious children often did.

I stood up from my porch, and I walked into my house. This house--though it irks me to say it--I didn’t consider it my home.

My home was elsewhere.

But I did reside here.

I prepared myself a meal.

“I never thought that meat would be a commodity,” I muttered to myself, looking at the meal I had prepared myself, with no meat in sight.

I checked my savings, the money I had been living on since I had arrived in this village three years ago.

It was mostly gone, spent for the odd thing here or there.

“Time steals,” I cursed.

If I was being honest myself, I knew where a good portion of all my savings had gone. The maryseed. It was a constant drain on my savings. Though, I would have run out of savings with time eventually.

I needed a proper source of income.

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I left my house, and walked to the other side of the village, still with a maryseed cigarette in my mouth.

I took a ring off my finger. I wasn’t too attached to it. It was a symbol of a time long past. I hadn’t bothered getting rid of it.

It was a gift from my double-faced mother.

Of course I didn’t care too much about it.

I would put it to good use.

I took in a deep breath of the maryseed before discarding the roll to the side. There wasn’t a much better place for it.

I knocked on the door in front of me--the door of the local tailor of the town.

I was quite precise with my body, I figured I could learn tailoring with ease. It couldn’t be harder than magic, right?

The door was still, and anticipating a long wait, I called out loudly, “Adrian,” I yelled, “It’s Rao!” I referred to myself by my name.

I heard shuffling form inside the building and the door creaked. In the next moment it opened, with the local tailor, Adrian greeting me.

“You’ll have to excuse me, Rao,” Adrian said, “I was busy with my wife,” he said, looking like a hurt puppy. He was hunched down, caressing the bottom of his cheek, which was red.

It’s probably best not to pry.

“Teach me your craft,” I asked, “I’m in need of income,” and I flicked the ring of my mother’s to him, “A sign of goodwill,” I said.

He stared at me, mulling over my request.

He nodded once, “Alright,” he said, “See if you can pick it up by being my chore boy for a couple of months,” Adrian chuckled, “You’re not much younger than I am… becoming a chore boy? It's a little humorous. I’ll have to tell the rest of the village about this,” he said, while my thoughts were elsewhere.

I scoffed in my mind at his assertion that it might take months.

Months?

It shouldn’t take that long.

I was a former mage. The intricacies of spell-layering and casting… I had long since figured them out. No mere tailoring could challenge me. I gave myself a confident nod. Adrian looked at me with a bit of confusion.