Mira placed two buckets, a shovel, a hoe, and an assortment of different cooking utensils on the counter. “Anything else you need, Mrs. Lockhand?”

“No, I think that is everything, dear. How much will that be total.”

“That will be...” Mira tried to say before being cut off by Master Luke, who rushed from the backroom.

“That will be twenty coppers,” Luke said.

“That’s all?” Mrs. Lockhand said, digging around her small pouch and pulling out two silver coins.

“Do you need any help loading the stuff onto your cart?” Luke asked, ushering Mira to grab the items on the table.

“Why thank you, you’re too kind.”

“Twenty coppers, huh,” Mira said as she watched the cart pull away from the window.

“That woman makes the best bread in the city. The last thing I want to do is cause her to go out of business.”

“Then why not just give her the stuff for free?”

“For the same reason why you're working here. Honestly, you guys are like daggers made from the same metal. I remember the day pretty well when we first met. You were sleeping behind the alleyway huddled between the trash bin and the open vent I use to air out the kitchen. How long ago was that?

“Three months,” Mira said, her cheeks growing a pale white as she recalled the memories.

“I remember asking if you wanted to come sit inside, and what did you tell me?

“I had no coin.”

“Exactly,” Luke said, chuckling at Mira’s embarrassed face. "After bringing the food outside and explaining to you that it was alright to eat it. It took you ten minutes to build up enough courage to even touch the plate."

“We had a pretty good meal that night; I think it was grains with a side of braised beef. Afterward, I asked if you wanted to stay in the attic room, and you said that you didn’t want to intrude. You then rushed down the alleyway and disappeared.”

“Yeah...” Mira said, grabbing the broom behind the counter and began sweeping the floors to try to hide her embarrassed face from Master Luke.

“So, after the week goes by, who do I find sleeping in the back alley again? I asked if you wanted to join me for dinner, inside this time, and you agreed pretty quickly. I’m glad you did come back though, you looked so malnourished.

“Malnourished?”

“Really, really skinny,” Luke said, showing a stick-like figure with his hands. “What did we even eat that day?”

“It was bread with slices of ham and cheese along with this weird white paste you put on the bread.”

“Ah… yes, the good-ole sandwich. You can never go wrong with a sandwich, especially one with bread made by Mrs. Lockhand. I think you ate like six of them,” Luke said with another chuckle.

“Eight,” Mira whispered, continuing to sweep the floor.

“After we finished eating, do you remember what I asked you?”

“Yeah… You asked if I had any money to pay for the food.”

“Oh boy, your face turned full white when I asked that. I laughed for a good minute before telling you that if you wanted to pay off the food, you could work for me in the front room for a day. I even gave you the room in the attic for the night since you had no other place to go.”

“That was the very first time I slept on a bed.”

“That’s right. I came up the stairs to ask if you needed any additional sheets, and I see you huddling in the corner of the room like a stray cat. I had to coax you into sleeping on the bed because you kept saying that it was going to get dirty.”

“But it did get dirty.”

“Nothing a little water and elbow grease can’t fix.”

“Elbow grease, I remember the first time you used that, I remember the first time you used a bunch of weird sayings.”

“Well, I’m glad I have someone that I can share my weird saying with,” Luke said with a smile. Did you enjoy your first day of work?”

“I didn’t do anything the first day. You had me sitting in the corner of the store for most of the day, and then at the end, all I did was sweep the floors.”

“Could you imagine what would have happened if I put you behind the counter? You could barely get out three words, let alone a full sentence. Oh wait, do you remember what you said when I asked you if you were hungry enough for dinner after we had closed the store?”

“Um… not really,” she said shyly, knowing full well what she had said.

“Ha… you said, ‘we’re eating again?’” Luke said, imitating Mira’s surprised reaction as he made his way to the back room. “I’m going to start dinner, come help me in the kitchen once you're done sweeping.”

“Okay,” she said, opening the door to the store and sweeping out the dust. Closing the door, she felt something was not right. The sound, more precisely, the lack of the noise coming from the bell hanging above the door gave her a slight pause.

Reopening the door, she swung it a few more times, but no sound would come from the bell. Rushing over behind the counter, she grabbed the stool and sat it next to the door. Carefully, she climbed the stool and gently poked at the bell. “That’s odd,” she mentioned, watching as the ball bearing swayed back and forth, hitting the metal walls.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Master Luke, I think the door is broken.”

“What,” Luke said, yelling from the back room. Turning off the flaming sword, he made his way back to the front room. “Is it not closing?”

“No, the bell is broken.”

“How so?”

Poking the bell again, it came back to life, the sound now echoing across the room. “How? Just a second ago, it wasn’t making any sounds.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just stuck?”

“No, I’m positive,” she said, jiggling the bell back and forth some more.

Crossing his arms, Luke squinted his eyes and glared at Mira. “The room still looks a bit dusty, can you go grab me the broom.”

“But I just swept the room,” Mira said, feeling disheartened. Grabbing the broom that rested next to the door, she watched as Luke stared closely at her like an armed guard watching a prisoner.

“Was the bell working when Mrs. Lockhand left?”

“I’m not sure, I was busy loading up the cart so I wasn’t really aware of it. Is the bell really that important? If you want, you can take the amount out of my pay for a new one.”

“No, that’s not it,” Luke said, his eyes now going back to normal. With the broom, Luke swept the floor. No motion of dirt or dust moved beneath him as he went through the motions. Taking singular steps across the room, he suddenly stopped near the corner of the room and made a motion to Mira.

“Mira, can you grab me that cloth over there,” he said, pointing to the opposite corner of the room. Waiting for her to get to the other side, he, with all his force, slammed the handle of the broom directly into the ceiling.

A heavy thump rumbled to the floor as a translucent man fell from the ceiling like a sack of potatoes. The invisible cloak that surrounded his body slowly faded as a man dressed from head to toe in a dark garb jumped back. Grabbing two daggers that were stashed at his waist, he immediately tossed one.

“Fuck,” Luke yelled out, as one of the daggers slammed him in the chest.

Falling to the floor, Mira’s mind went wild as her first and only real instinct told her to get away from this situation as fast as possible. Trying to get up, she could feel that her legs were not doing what she wanted them to do. “Stay calm, stay calm,” she muttered to herself as she thought about all the times Master Luke had to handle drunk or unruly patrons. Grabbing onto the edge of the shelf above her, she could feel the cold touch of steel as she slowly pulled herself up. With a faint nod, she grabbed the handle of an oddly large bastard sword and was amazed by its heft as she attempted to point the sharp end at the intruder. With a slow push, she ran towards the man, both hands clutching onto the hefty sword with dear life.

“What do we have here?” A seductive female voice said. Mira’s whole body came to a freeze as a woman appeared standing right next to her. She wore a finely woven dark dress that hugged her body as no ordinary store-bought dress could. The dress emphasized all of her curves and gave her an air of refinement even as she made small movements.

“That’s now how you hold a sword,” she said, flicking her wrist, causing Mira to drop the weapon. “So Luke, when did you get this little kitten?”

“Elain, what a pleasure to see you again.”

“Likewise,” she said, giving a slight nod of her head. The man dressed in all black, stowed his weapon, and calmly exited the store with slow and precise movements. The bell, which Mira was still unsure was working or not, blared a loud chirping sound that could easily be heard from several blocks away. With a snap of her fingers, the bell immediately stopped, the noise ceasing while the bell still shook in a frantic motion.

“New spell, I see.”

“Took us a while to get it right, but nothing our mages couldn't figure out,” Elain said, letting go of Mira.

“You want this back?” Luke asked, pointing to the dagger that was still sticking out of his chest.

“No, you can have that as a reminder for trying to be so brazen with me when you installed that bell.”

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Mira asked, her body still shaking from the rush of endorphins.

“Come sit,” Luke said, grabbing the chair next to the door, and setting it beside her.

“No, no, I'm fine, do you want me to grab anything for that?” she said, pointing to the large splotch of blood-forming over Master Luke’s shirt.

“I got it dear,” Elain said, pulling out the dagger and placing her hands over the large gaping wound. With a flash of light, the wound immediately closed, causing Luke to instinctively flinch as the feeling of going from a ten on the pain scale down to a zero in less than a second always felt wrong to him.

"This is Elaine, commander of the King's secret guard," Luke said, looking over to Mira.

"And his ex," Elaine added with a smirk.

“You guys were married?” Mira asked, with a shocked expression.

“No, just dating,” Luke said.

“It was going pretty good until he broke up with me because he thought ‘torture was immoral,’” she said, making air quotes. "I mean, how else do you get secrets out of prisoners."

“Enough of that, we don't need to go through our whole history in front of Mira.”

“Ah, so the little kitten has a name. So Mira, are you his new plaything? Is he going to use you then toss you out like all the other girls.”

“Other girls?”

“Yes, so many other girls.”

“Don’t listen to her, and you, stop trying to sow discontent.”

“Discontent?”

“She is trying to manipulate you. That’s her job, by the way. Well, if you have no more business here, have a safe trip,” Luke said, trying to push Elain out of the store.

“Oh, come on, don't be so childish.”

“Childish, how am I being childish? I’m the one who just got stabbed.”

“Nothing fatal, just a light tap, and besides now you can thank me.”

“For what?”

“For showing you that your alarm is broken.”

“I wouldn't need it if you would just enter the store like a normal person,” Luke said, the volume of his voice now rising.

“Master Luke,” Mira said, tugging on his shirt sleeve. “I think she's doing the discontent thing.”

With a sly smirk, Elain put her hand over Mira’s shoulder. “Well, well, Mira, was it?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod.

“How would you like to ditch this boring rock over there and come work for me. I could pay you ten times what he's paying you right now.”

“Can you make food as good as Master Luke.”

“What?” Elain said, the question completely taking her off guard.

With a sly smirk of his own, Luke let out a hearty chuckle. “So what’s the real reason you're here?”

“Why does it have to be something? Can’t a worried ex periodically drop by to see how you're doing.”

“If I told you, ‘not unless the sky rained fire,’ you probably have a spell like that ready the next day. And don't try to deny it, how else do you explain the flying pigs a few years ago.”

“Alright alright,” Elain said, wiping away a strand of hair dangling in front of her face.

“I have a wedding invitation.”

“Oh… congratulations,” Luke said.

“Not for me,” Elain said in a huff. “It’s for my sister.”

“All that time dating and you never told me you had a sister. So, where do I fit in all of this?”

“I need you to pretend to be my husband.”

“What?”

“Yeah, my family thinks we're married.”

“I wonder who started those rumors?”

“Don't be crass with me, or you're going to find two daggers sticking out of you next time.”

“Alright, but what's in it for me?”

“Why, you get to accompany the finest woman in the kingdom.”

“Pass,” Luke said, giving Mira a pat on the back. “Let’s go finish dinner, I'm starving.”

“Fine, what do you want?”

“No more secretly entering my store like masked murderers.”

“For six months,” she added.

Squinting his eyes, Luke slowly let out a deep breath. “Five years.”

“One year.”

“Four.”

“One and a half.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“Deal,” Luke said with a smirk. “I would have been happy with six months, but two years, what a steal.”

After leaving the invitation, Elain gave Luke a small peck on the cheek and walked out of the store, her body fading into the now darkened streets like a whisper in the night.