Chapter 73 The Curl
Once inside the salon, Evernya nearly collided with Amber when she saw all the creative ways the hairstylists were working on their customer’s hair. Few were even touching their physical tools. Instead, they used their various magic to get the job done. She even spotted what she thought was a telekinetic levitating hair into complex hairstyles.
Amber led her to her station on the far end of the right side, gesturing for Evernya to sit down.
Amber explained in a calming, almost hypnotic tone. “First, I am going to wash your hair. Please sit back and relax. I will take care of everything. I have little experience with shifters, so let me know if I make you uncomfortable.”
She materialized a jug of a bluish substance from her storage necklace. Then she drew the liquid out of the jug into the air around Evernya’s head with water magic. With air magic, she blew Evernya’s hair upward as she engulfed it with the liquid. Amber’s eyes grow wide when she felt the consistency of her customer’s hair, nearly losing control of her magic.
“How is this hair real! It’s so light and soft! What do you do to it to make it like this?” Amber grilled with an almost rabid desire to get answers.
Evernya shrugged, unsurprised by Amber’s reaction. “I don’t know. My hair has always been perfect. Meira always complains about how unfair my hair is because I always wake up with perfectly straight hair, no bed head.”
Amber sucked in a deep breath to calm herself, realizing her reaction drew some attention. “I have heard of some shifters having soft hair, but nothing like this. Your hair is practically glowing with mana, which is probably the reason it stays perfect, and maybe its softness, but not the weight. Your hair is feather-light, yet it doesn’t blow around any more than anyone else’s hair. Mana can do many things, but physics still rules things.”
“Oh, I know all too well about physics for my telekinesis. Momentum sucks. However, I don’t have an answer to why my hair is like this, but I won’t complain. I love how I don’t have to deal with combing it out all the time. By the way, how do you know I have mana in my hair? People tell me they can’t sense my mana.” Evernya questioned, looking curiously at Amber through the mirror.
“You are right that I can’t sense your mana grade. I didn’t even sense the mana in your hair until I touched it. Amazingly, you have an absurd amount of mana in your hair, yet almost none of it leaks out. I don’t mean to pry, but you aren’t a pure-blooded catkin, are you?” Amber stated, trying to veil her curiosity, but failed miserably.
After a second of silence, contemplating how to answer, Evernya said, figuring she could reveal at least as much as her ID showed. “To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I am. Scans read me as a feline shifter, not a catkin, despite my appearance. Plus, I have external magic, which is apparently rare for a shifter.”
Amber decided not to pry further, accepting Evernya’s answer. “Well, that explains why Stephanie allowed you to check in. I am sorry for asking. I am just shocked by how your hair feels. Personally, I don’t agree with the Mage’s only rule. Shifters have hair too, but even if they didn’t have the Mage’s only rule, I doubt few shifters could afford to come here.”
“It’s ok, I am getting used to shocking people. If I had a choice, I would have never come here, but Meira insisted after she dragged me to the dress shop down the road. She seems hell-bent on making me stand out at the auction tonight, even though my catkiness will stand out enough.” Evernya grumbled.
“I’m glad she did just for the honor of working with such marvelous hair.” Amber gushed until the second half of Evernya’s statement sunk in, “Wait, so you have an invitation to the Summer Solstice Auction!? I wish I could go! All the most famous people in the Northwest outside of tier 1 cities are going to be there!” Amber exclaimed, her professional demeanor devolving into a teenage fangirl out of nowhere.
“Yet another thing Meira is dragging me to. I didn’t even know what the auction was until she dragged me here to get this stupid collar put on me. I still don’t know what this auction all entails, just that is some big event with a lot of rich people.” Evernya continued to grumble like a pouty child.
“Wait, is Meira as in Meira the Enchantress?” Amber inquired, brimming with excitement.
“Well, she is an enchanter,” Evernya replied.
Amber squealed, causing the surrounded people to glare at her with annoyance. “I can’t believe I met the Elf Enchantress herself! She rarely makes public appearances!” Amber completely dropped her professional facade, revealing her true personality as a girly teenager.
“Calm down. You are bringing even more attention to us,” Evernya whispered, annoyed, as she massaged her ringing ears.
Amber scanned the multiple pairs of eyes staring with a rapidly reddening face before returning her attention to her customer. “Sorry, sometimes I get a bit overexcited when I meet one of my idols.” Amber apologized before flipping back to a slightly more subdued fangirl mode as she attempted to extract more information. “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you call her your big sister? Obviously, she doesn’t have a blood relation to you, and from our estimates, Meira is over 200 years old, but you look to be in your teens though it’s hard to tell with shifters.”
Upon catching Amber’s wince at her insensitive question in the mirror, Evernya replied. “I don’t mind. She kind of adopted me after she saved me from a dangerous situation and she looks far too young to call mother, so I started calling her my older sister. By the way, she is 336 years old, which she says is a young adult for an elf. You were pretty close on my age since I’m nineteen. Though from what I have heard, I will look this way for a long time, so judging age by appearance isn’t always best.”
Amber nodded in agreement, believing Evernya’s statement as truth. “Your adoption sounds like what Meira would do. I’ve read many stories about her helping people over the years, especially before the civil war. I grew up idolizing her courage in saving so many people from slavery. No one knows the exact number, but the estimates put the number around ten thousand demi-humans from slavery.”
This time it’s Evernya’s eyes widened in surprise as she exclaimed, “She mentioned she saved as many as she could, but I didn’t realize it was that many!!”
Amber’s excitement ticked up a notch in the mutual agreement of Meira’s accompaniments before plummeting down to earth. “When I awakened, I was really hoping to become an enchanter like her, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
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I probably shouldn’t tell her about my budding enchantress potential. Evernya thought as Amber continued to ramble while levitating her liquid concoction above Evernya’s head.
“Awakening air sorcery helped to lessen my disappointment, but most of her fame comes from her enchanting, not her air magic, though there were some stories she is no slouch in air sorcery either. One story rumored to have come from her free slaves tells an unbelievable tale of her standing against dozens of human mages, allowing over a hundred shifters to escape. She snuck into a warehouse, holding the recently captured shifters to free them before the slavers administered the slave bands. Unfortunately, the slavers spotted the fleeing shifters, so she stayed back to give them a chance. The details vary after this, but most stories say she defeated all the mages. Some even say she killed them all.” Amber rambled with a passionate expression.
I am going to have to interrogate her from some of her stories now. She said no one ever caught her but was vague on the details. Evernya vowed mentally, curiosity piqued.
In no rush to leave, Evernya shifted the subject away from Meira. “Why did you decide to become a hairstylist? With your dual elements, you could have done a lot.”
Amber’s enthusiasm instantly doused upon Evernya’s sudden question. After a moment of hesitation, Amber replied. “I am blessed with two elements, but I didn’t have the mana grade to back them up. When I was young, I trained hard to become an adventurer to make a name for myself, but I couldn’t even get to awakened grade 6 until I was in my early 30s. After a near-death experience in the wilds, I realized barely making ends meet while risking my life wasn’t worth it. So I focused on affinity instead, which I found I had a talent for. I had an interest in hairstyling so I tried it out and now here I am five years later. Not nearly as flashy as an adventurer, but I make a good living. Ironically, I have since hit awakened grade 7 and I am almost halfway to Grade 8 in the five years as a hairstylist, but I made my choice.”
“Sounds like you found your calling. At least I hope so for my sake since the tornado of water above my head looks pretty menacing.” Evernya commented, gesturing to the now swirling mass of liquid above her head.
“Oh, sorry about that. I will start washing your hair now.” Amber apologized with a blush.
Amber engulfed Evernya’s hair in the liquid solution. Once submerged in the liquid, she created little whirlpools in Evernya’s hair, mixing the solution into her hair while simultaneously massaging Evernya’s scalp and ears.
Within seconds, Evernya’s eyes drifted closed as her body turned to jelly. A loud purr vibrated out of the relaxed girl, causing Amber to smile. She materialized another bottle of solution, this time red, adding it to the mass of whirlpools suspended in mid-air around the purring girl’s head. The blue whirlpools turned purple as the second solution mixed, creating a foamy Afro. Amber increased the speed of the whirlpools to mix the two solutions into Evernya’s hair thoroughly. She took out another bottle of solution and mixed it in as well, causing the sudsy whirlpools to turn a deeper shade of purple.
She continued to swirl the concoction for the next ten minutes, lulling her client asleep. When the foam disappeared, leaving behind clear liquid, Amber sucked it out of her client’s hair, sending it down the sink drain at her station while simultaneously drying her hair with air magic. Amber then gently nudged the limp girl awake.
Evernya’s eyes lazily fluttered open as her purring renewed itself. She remained limp in the chair, relishing the pleasant warmth radiating through her body. Amber giggled, leaving the girl to savor her work while she grabbed a book of different hairstyles for her to choose from.
When she returned with a thick picture book, she once again had to nudge her client awake. “Ok enough, lazing around. I know it feels good, but I can’t have you lay there all day. I have other customers.”
Evernya lazily lifted her eyes to meet Ambers. “Can’t we just leave stop here? I’ll go find another chair to lounge on.”
“Oh no, you don’t. I am not letting Meira’s little sister get away without a beautiful hair styling.” Amber declared.
“But all I want is a trim. I don’t need some fancy hairstyle. My outfit is fancy enough,” Evernya replied with half-open unfocused eyes.
Amber dropped the thick picture book onto her sleepy client’s lap, jolting her awake. “You are not leaving this chair until I get to work with your unique hair! Your hair is beautiful as is, but too boring for a big event like the Summer Solstice Auction. At least look at this book. Maybe you will find something you like.”
“Fine, but no promises.” Evernya conceded with a grumpy expression.
Over the next five minutes, Evernya flipped through the book of hairstyles but found nothing appealing to her until she had an idea. “So, Meira and I were curious if my hair would curl, so maybe try to curl my hair a little bit?”
“Straight hair tends to be hard to curl, but we can try. How about something like this?” Amber stated, taking the book and flipping to the wavy section.
Evernya looked at the picture Amber pointed out with interest. The picture showed a pretty young woman with wavy dark brown hair loosely spiraling down her back and bangs.
“That looks nice, not over the top, like most of the hairstyles in the book,” Evernya commented.
“Well, it is a simple curl that many people have naturally, but it should add at least some style to your hair. Maybe we can add some highlights to add more color as well.” Amber replied.
“I like my shiny black hair, so no highlights.” Evernya denied without hesitation.
“Wow, you really are boring.” Amber teased while taking the hairstyle book back.
“You should see the outfit Meira bought for me. It’s about as flashy as it could get, it literally shines.” Evernya grumbled.
“Well, she probably picked everything out for you, so maybe you should at least pick the hairstyle.” Amber reasoned, secretly crossing her fingers, hoping her client allowed a fancier hairstyle.
“I like my hair the way it is, but I am willing to add some loose curls.” Evernya decided with finality in her tone.
“Fine, it’s your choice,” Amber replied with a hint of sadness.
Amber materialized a device that looked like a curling iron. She pushed mana into the curling device, causing it to grow hot. Once satisfied with the temperature, she sprayed some heat protection on Evernya’s hair before getting to work.
“You don’t use your magic for this?” Evernya questioned as Amber wrapped her hair around the curling iron.
“There is a limit to what I can do with magic alone. Theoretically, I could pull it off with air magic, but that is beyond my capabilities. However, it’s much easier and safer for the customer with a curling iron. Besides, this curling iron has enchantments to curl the hair in the exact type you want.” Amber explained as she continued wrapping Evernya’s long hair.
“If it’s that easy, wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to curl your hair yourself?” Evernya questioned, ever curious.
“You could, but these enchanted curling irons are too expensive for most people to buy. Most people would rather have a hairstylist do it while they have their hair trimmed or highlighted.” Amber replied.
Amber stopped once she wrapped the section of Evernya’s hair up to her scalp. She held the tension while sending mana into the curling iron, while picturing the style she wanted. The loose wrap tightened around the curling iron as it forced the hair into the desired shape. Twenty seconds later, a light on the curling iron turned green, indicating time for removal.
Once released from the confines of the curling iron, Evernya’s freshly curled hair spills down her back. Amber was about to start on the next batch of hair when suddenly Evernya’s hair straightened on its own back to its original straight appearance, as if nothing happened.
“What the hell!” Amber exclaimed in shock.
“What?” Evernya asked, as she wasn’t paying attention.
“Your hair straightened itself!” Amber blurted, still in shock.
“Wow, not only is my hair bed head proof, it’s curl proof too!” Evernya giggled, oddly happy with the outcome.
A few seconds later, Amber overcame her shock as a look of determination settled in. “I refuse to believe your hair is uncurlable. I am sure there is a way.”
Amber tried the curling iron again this time, holding it long after the green light came on. Unfortunately, the same result happened after about ten seconds. She then materialized another bigger curling iron, but nothing changes. Amber huffed in annoyance, but refused to give up.
“Be right back, I need to call in backup,” Amber announced as she clacked away with unusually heavy high-heeled steps.
Five minutes later, Amber returned with a tall, dark-skinned woman Evernya recognized as a telekinetic she passed earlier. “This is Natisha. She is better at curling than me, so I want her to give your hair a try if you don’t mind.”