"Hello! I haven't seen you around town, is this your first time here?"

The figure currently standing across the counter from Lissa nodded. They were a strange sight, wearing a mask resembling a phoenix's head as if it were Halloween. Really, even if this wasn't a small town, I'm sure I'd remember someone dressed as a phoenix walking around and ordering bread like it's no big deal.

"So, what can I get for you today?" The figure glanced up at the menu, then returned their gaze to Lissa.

"Three dozen plain bagels. Oh, and a chocolate chip muffin, please." The figure reached into their cloak and pulled out a purse.

"That will be five hundred and twelve Dragons." The figure nodded and rooted through their purse. Among the gold, silver, and bronze of the various Dragon coins, Lissa caught flashes of several other types of currency, including what looked like seashells with value amounts painted on in gold. Eventually, the figure dumped a handful of Dragons on the counter, along with a few odd square coins that they immediately snatched up again. The total amount was exactly five hundred and twelve.

"Are you planning on staying in town long?" Lissa asked. The figure's only response was a shrug.

That was Lissa's first encounter with the odd phoenix-masked stranger, but it didn't seem of much importance until a few weeks later.

The town Lissa lived in, Dimmfield, was quite small. Barely large enough to count as a town, really. There was only one bakery (which she worked at), only one bookstore, only one grocery store, and five fast-food restaurants, but nobody could agree on where exactly in town they were, what they served, or what they were called.

So it wasn't exactly surprising when Lissa ran into the figure again at the bookstore. If they were planning on staying, there was only so long they could go without running into any given resident.

"That's a good book," Lissa commented when they saw what the figure had just picked up. "It's one of my favorites, actually."

"That's good. My library doesn't have it, so I was trying to figure out if it was worth buying." The figure settled the book under their arm and continued browsing.

"Hey, sorry if I'm bothering you but..." Lissa scrambled to find the right words. It wasn't often that someone new showed up in Dimmfield. She needed to find out more! "When you say 'my library,' are you talking about a public library? Or is it more of a private collection-thing?"

The figure laughed as if Lissa had just made the funniest joke in the world. "Good question! That's a tricky one. I guess it depends on how you define the two?"

"Isn't a public library one that's open to, you know, the public, and a private library one that's only open to its owner?" Lissa asked.

"Well, I guess if you define it that way..." The figure thought for a moment. "Nope, still doesn't clear it up. Sorry."

With that, the two parted ways until not a week later when Lissa saw the figure again in the park. They appeared to be drinking tea, and- Lissa noticed with delight- reading the book she'd recommended earlier.

The figure seemed to see her, too, and motioned for her to come nearer. Lissa did as they'd asked, and sat down on the bench next to them. "Do you need anything?"

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The figure shook their head. "No... it's just that I keep seeing you around. And you're kind of the only one here who's actually talked to me... it's nice just being, well, in a normal town like this."

"Do you come from somewhere much different than this?"

"Oh, definitely. You probably wouldn't recognize the place if I told you about it, but it's... not at all like here. I like it and all, but the normalcy of a town like this is... refreshing."

Lissa smiled. "That's a nice thing to say. We don't get a whole lot of visitors here, so I'm glad you like the place so much."

"Shame you don't get many visitors. It's a nice place to visit. Hey-" the figure turned to look at Lissa- "I just realized I don't know your name. Would you mind telling me it?"

Normally, Lissa would be wary around a strange visitor. But... this one was intriguing. Like there was something about them that they were hiding. "No, not at all. It's Lissa Wright. Yours?"

The figure remained silent for a while before finally responding with, "...Athena Canis Selian." Something about the way they said it seemed a bit off to Lissa, but that was a feeling to be addressed another day. For now, she could just... learn a bit more about this visitor.

Thus began the start of a long chain of meetings. Every week or so, the two would meet up somewhere around town- the park, the bookstore, one of two cafés. Most meetings were planned, but a few were accidental.

And, just as Lissa had hoped, she did learn more about Athena. She lived in Proseia, though "not Young West Proseia mainland," which was an odd way to put it, but Lissa guessed she must be from one of the southern islands. The islands had been completely uninhabited until recently, so many of them didn't really have towns, especially the smaller or more recently settled ones. They could definitely fit the bill of "not at all like Dimmfield."

Apparently, Athena preferred to go unrecognized in public- she'd only gone into town after "a friend gave me the idea" to wear a mask. She evidently had quite a few friends. When Lissa asked if they were also from the southern islands, Athena had just laughed and said, "They're from all sorts of places. Wouldn't surprise me if one or two were from there."

Athena had also apparently never heard of the "local legend" of the coastal towns- Aleshe Manor. When Lissa first told her of the manor and its mysterious and secretive owner, Strix Cattus Aleshe, she had hung onto every word. It quickly became a habit for Lissa to pass on any stories she'd heard recently about the manor.

"So, any new Aleshe Manor stories this week?" Athena asked on one of their meetings, at the Cardinal Café. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least not yet.

"One," Lissa answered. "I heard some kids from Evensmark rowed out to the manor last week, on a dare to steal a book from the library." Athena leaned forward, listening intently. "They actually managed to reach the top of the cliff, but when they tried to sneak into the manor, Strix was there waiting for them. When she asked what they were doing, they lied and told her they just wanted to see if there were really ghosts, but Strix knew they were lying. She let them wander around the library, but when they picked up a book-" Lissa made a motion with her hands like a poof- "They were sucked inside and had to live out its entire story before she set them free. One of them lost an arm! And on top of that, she cursed them so they could never lie again."

Athena laughed. "That's a good one. I'll have to remember it for later. Hey, speaking of later- I keep coming to your town to hang out, but you've never actually seen where I live." Lissa perked up- was she finally going to get to see Athena's home? Images of a small house sitting alone on an otherwise uninhabited island spun through her head. "Want to come to a tea party at my place? I'm hosting one next week."

"Of course!" Lissa nodded vigorously. "Where is it?"

"I'll send you an invitation in the mail. It should arrive within a couple days. All the information you need will be in there." Lissa thought she could see Athena grinning under the mask, but didn't ask why. If there was anything else important, surely the girl would have told her.

Two days later, a letter came in the mail, sealed with blue wax in the shape of the letters SCA. There was no return address, only the name "Athena Canis Selian" written in flowing cursive.

Lissa broke the seal, pulled out the letter, and read it. Then she read it again. This... this had to be a joke. It had to be, right?

The letter slipped through her fingers and fluttered to the ground, its writing face-up, almost seeming as if it were looking at her and analyzing her every expression.

You have been invited to a tea party.