The next morning, as I was slowly dragging myself out of bed, I heard Lou and Kito talking downstairs. I briefly wondered about how thin the floors must be, for the sound to carry so well. I cast the language spell, being able to feel Lou’s and Kito’s spirits quite easily, with nothing but a bit of wood in the way. As was proper, of course, I didn’t look too closely. It was considered rude to examine someone’s soul without consent.

As the spell took hold, I realized they were talking about me. Lou was wanting to make sure I was alright, and to see me. By the time Kito had said he’d head upstairs to get me, I was already halfway down.

“Speak of the devil,” Kito said with a smile, and I smiled back uncertainly, my spell having a bit of trouble with the phrase.

“Aera,” Lou said, her voice indicating some strain, as her eyes tracked over my whole body. “Are you well? Is Kito treating you alright?”

“What is it with you?” Kito asked, exasperated. “I’ve been a perfect gentleman.”

Lou ignored him and waited for my response, leaving Kito to sigh in frustration.

“I am well, Lou,” I said. “Really, you don’t need to worry about me. I can take care of myself. Also, Kito is right - he has been a perfect gentleman.”

Kito smiled at that, but Lou frowned.

“You can take care of yourself, can you?” Lou asked, her tone wry. “No issues at all for me to worry about?”

“Er… is something wrong?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing much,” Lou said. “Let’s head off to Alice’s place, ‘cause there’s some confusion to get cleared up.”

“Something I could help with?” Kito asked, clearly motivated more by curiosity than generosity.

“Nah, just a misunderstanding,” Lou said. “Aera being new to the States, and all.”

Kito just nodded, and I squeaked out a farewell before following Lou out.

“What happened?” I asked, as soon as we were out of Kito’s earshot.

“Just a bit of a surprise for Alice, on coming home,” Lou said wryly. “Apparently you really are quite good at cleaning.”

“Are your people unable to clean things at all?” I asked. “I assumed that things were mostly filthy due to it being costly to maintain, rather than impossible.”

She gave me a disbelieving look.

“We mostly just use soap and water,” she said dryly. “It generally gets the job done.”

“What is soap?” I asked.

Lou just sighed, long and hard, before responding.

“Do you do anything at all without magic?” she asked.

“I don’t generally use magic to breathe,” I said, after a moment. “Though… I did at the Grove, because the air was so filthy. So… actually, I don’t think I do.”

She rubbed at the bridge of her nose like my answer was giving her a headache.

“Are all of your people like that? Dependent on magic for everything?”

I laughed, “No, not at all. My situation was unusual. I was raised by extraordinarily powerful spellcasters, who… well, they hoped I’d take after them, and help with their research.”

My tone had turned melancholy, “I’m a bit of a disappointment to them. I’ve been raised with magic as the cornerstone of my every movement, but all I’ve ever really cared about was tending to my garden.”

“So they made you depend on magic?” she asked, genuinely curious again.

I nodded.

“Most people don’t train in magic till they’re older, but my first spells predate my earliest memories,” I said. “From the time I could heal, they no longer tended my injuries, unless those injuries exceeded my skill. From the time I could shift and color fabric, they refused to let me acquire clothing from anywhere, insisting I craft it myself. If it could be done with magic, and I had the skill, I had to use magic. I was never given an alternative. Nearly every waking moment of my life, if I wasn’t reading, I was practicing magic, in some way or another.”

“That explains a lot,” Lou said, looking contemplative.

We were quiet for the rest of the walk, as I wasn’t really sure how to have a conversation, beyond answering questions.

We arrived at Alice’s apartment and Lou knocked on the door. Scarcely seconds later, Slick opened it.

“Aera, Lou,” he said, sounding relieved. “Come in.”

As we stepped inside, we saw Alice looking a strange blend of confused, annoyed, and a little bit frightened.

“Welcome,” Alice said, “Slick tells me that for some reason, Aera, you’re the only person who can explain how my apartment got so clean. Not that I’m complaining, of course, but I just didn’t understand it, and then Slick was telling me that he didn’t want to lie to me, and that he didn’t know what to do, and then he got Lou, and…”

“And now Aera’s here,” Lou said, cutting off Alice’s high speed explanation.

“And apparently this is a really big deal,” Alice said, seeming to ignore Lou. “I had to make promises not to reveal a secret? And somehow all this because my walls are clean? I mean, I just wanted to know what kind of cleaner you used! I had no idea they even were that color!”

“Now that Aera’s here,” Lou said, “We can show you, because you wouldn’t have believed it otherwise.”

“You’ll want to sit down, honey,” Slick said, and confused, Alice settled down on the couch. Her annoyance seemed to be shifting to fear.

“There’s nothing to fear,” I said. “My ability may be unusual for your people, but it is a wonderful thing.”

“Your ability,” Alice repeated.

“She’ll show you,” Slick said. “So don’t worry about thinking it’s made up or nothing.”

“It’s not a trick,” Lou said. “I promise you that. She’s for real.”

With that, Lou and Slick were looking at me expectantly.

For some reason, this made me feel much more nervous than when I’d demonstrated my skill to Lou. I tried to brush it away, but my throat was getting tight.

“I can do magic,” I said, my voice scarcely above a whisper, almost sounding like a question.

Alice simply blinked, seeming uncertain.

“You got a cup that you don’t mind looking different?” Lou asked.

“A cup?” Alice said, sounding dazed. “Yes, of course, grab whichever one you like from the kitchen.”

Lou stepped into the kitchen and brought out a simple mug. She handed it to me.

“I will change this,” I said. “Do you have a favorite color, or design?”

“I… I like gold, and shimmering things,” she said, her voice still off.

The simple yellow mug shifted in my hand, as I guided my will into it. Beauty was my favorite aspect of magic, as I found nothing quite as satisfying as having an ethereal image in my mind manifest for all the world to see.

The yellow took on a metallic sheen, and I decided to blend it with a pattern involving black and silver, to make the gold stand out in magnificent comparison. When I was done, it looked like a somewhat abstract field of wheat against the night sky. The “gold” was mesmerizing, with the way I’d structured miniscule prisms in its surface, causing the wheat to move strangely in the light, almost as if it were an illusion on a black surface.

Two dimensional painting wasn’t my preferred art, which was flower sculpting, but I’d nonetheless spent many, many hours on designs like this. This particular one was one of my favorite standbys, with different color combinations, when I wasn’t sure what to make. I was pleased with the result, and handed it over to Alice, who looked like she was in a state of shock.

She held the cup, and traced her fingers over the delicate patterns.

“Wow,” she said simply, after a minute. “Magic.”

A long moment passed as she just gazed at the cup.

Then she turned on Slick abruptly.

“How could you?” she yelled. “How could you know about this and not tell me?”

“I was gonna!” he said, almost squeaking as he recoiled. “I only just found out! We were figuring out what to do!”

“You had her stay at my home and didn’t tell me she could use magic!”

“I… yeah, but she’s nice…”

“Nice?! She can use magic, Slick!”

“Yeah, but she’s just a gal -”

“What do you mean, ‘just a gal?’”

“You didn’t let me finish! She’s just a person, y’know, who’s lost and alone and scared, and I had to help her, and I didn’t know what to do!”

Alice stopped in her tracks at that, the heat slipping from her face.

“That’s true?” she asked, looking at me.

I nodded, looking down.

“My parents were trying to find another world,” I said. “A… better one. They were building something to hopefully find it, to visit it. Something went wrong, and there was an explosion. Next thing I knew, I was here. I am… I am alone. My family, my home, my entire world is gone.”

By the time I got to the end of my explanation, I’d started choking up again.

“Oh, sweetie,” Alice said, coming over to me and giving me a hug. I cried into her shoulder a little.

Thus began a startlingly pleasant evening.

Unlike Lou and Slick, who regarded my abilities with considerable paranoia, Alice preferred to wax optimistic. She didn’t want to worry or think about the things that could go wrong, instead asking me about all the fun aspects of magic. I shared happy stories, and projects I’d been most proud of.

In turn, she talked about some aspects of her childhood, relating to my feeling of loneliness. She was an orphan, taken in by an older woman named Dorothy. That was how she’d met Lou and Slick - the pair had rather absent parents, and Dorothy had stepped in to give them a bit more grounding.

Dorothy was apparently a bit of a spitfire. All three spoke of her with almost reverent tones. It was also Dorothy that had gotten Lou her gun, and taught her how to use it.

I took that opportunity to finally ask what a gun did. Turned out, it was just a strange stone thrower, that threw metal stones at high speed. I couldn’t imagine how that could pose my defensive spells any trouble at all, and told them as much. Alice immediately changed the subject, not wanting to even think about anyone shooting at me, while Lou looked at me speculatively.

The day ended, with my heart much more at ease than it had been. By the end of my first week, I was even relatively settled into my routine, though I still held out hope that my parents might swoop in and rescue me.

“It’s a gramophone,” Slick said with a grin, putting the disk - the vinyl - into the device.

It was the highlight of the first junkyard dive after I’d started at Kito’s. It began spinning, and he put some sort of pin on the disk. Music started playing, startling me.

“It’s like the radio?” I asked.

He laughed.

Rick, the saxophone player, just grinned at me. He seemed especially amused at my ignorance.

The drummer, Johnny, was oddly quiet for someone who liked such a massively loud instrument. He was simply stretching, getting ready for another bout of practice after the break.

“Nope,” Slick said. “The radio plays music from a radio tower - you just turn the dial to listen in. This here, all the music is on the vinyl. You can listen to it whenever you like.”

“I don’t understand it at all,” I said with a shy smile. “But it is marvelous. And you’ll be making one of these?”

“That’s the plan,” he said with a wistful tone. “The Cocoanut Grove is a great club. Bigwigs come sometimes, and when they do, I’ll knock their socks off.”

“We’ll knock their socks off,” Ricky corrected.

“Yeah, we will,” Slick said with a bright grin.

Oddly enough, my translation spell managed the strange sock comment reasonably well, since it was a straightforward phrase in his mind, but “bigwigs” only meant “someone important,” it seemed.

“What sort of bigwigs?” I asked.

“Producers,” Slick said.

“People who make things?” I said.

He laughed again.

“Yeah, kinda,” he agreed. “The folks who take bands like ours, The Boston Boys, and turn our music into vinyls, and play them on the radio. That way, the whole country will hear the songs. If I get picked up by a producer, I’ll make good money, but the biggest thing, I’ll be somebody.”

Ricky nodded in agreement, his face alight. Johnny just smiled.

“Have you met the producers before?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “We’ve been practicing real hard, and we’re almost ready. We just need a cellist. Then, next time one comes to the club...”

The spell balked again.

“Cellist? An… instrument player of some kind?” I said.

“The cello,” he said, nodding.

“Why do you need that specific instrument?” I asked.

“The song,” he said with a sigh. “The song in my head. I know what it needs, and it needs a cello. It needs it, for just that right zing.”

“Are cellists hard to find?”

He shrugged, a little dejected.

“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, there’s a good bunch of cellists around, but I need the right one. I need someone who’s passionate about their music, who’ll fit with the band right.”

“And someone who’s cheap,” Ricky said wryly.

“We’ll make good money,” Slick said, crossing his arms. “We’ll make it.”

“I can understand the challenge,” I said with a smile. He needed something from someone, and had nothing to offer. However… “I might be able to help.”

Ricky laughed, to my surprise. “I bet you could, at that. No one could tell you ‘no,’ I’ll wager.”

I blushed at the implication.

Fortunately, Slick did not misinterpret my meaning.

“Could you, now?” he said, his glance flicking back to his bandmates. “Maybe we ought to do that, then. I’ll finish writing up this song, getting mine, and Ricky’s, and Johnny’s parts all perfect, so we leave a good impression on our new cellist.”

It was good to have another task to work on. Creating a spell that would get me the information I needed, without being so intrusive as to be rude, would take some thinking.

Though, it only occupied me for a few days.

I had a plan. There were some long term issues, but as I wasn’t thinking about those yet, it was fine. I was going to make money through Kito, since he’d shown no sign of even being tempted to cheat me, once he started seeing my creations. I’d use that money to get settled into a place of my own, and build a lab. I’d build a portal like my parents had, and then when it came time to actually begin enchanting it… that was good enough for now.

At least Alice was good company. She liked to talk about all sorts of topics and enjoyed showing me around town. Her attitude towards Slick improved considerably, since she thought how he was handling the situation was admirable.

Even she thought that I was such an easy target to take advantage of, that his refusal to do so on any level was apparently incredible.

It was cute, if frustrating. Sharing strengths with friends is morally fine, of course - I was “taking advantage” of the knowledge, skills, and connections of all three, and their use of my skills were likewise reasonable. But beyond that, I could not be forced by any means that I could think of, that their people had access to. I tried to tell them this, but they didn't understand, so I let it go.

Kito had been charming from the first day, if a tad suspicious of me. His suspicions only grew that first week, but when I feigned mere shyness as my reason to avoid showing my work - an easy feat - he relented.

Lou and Slick wouldn’t take any money from me, even when I insisted. The best I could do was pay for food and drinks at the Cocoanut Grove, so they could have decent meals, as well as fixing up radios for Lou to sell to Kito. Sometimes she sold to other pawn shops, too, so that she could sell a larger quantity without suspicion.

This miniscule favor proved to be quite the boon for their family. Slick didn’t need to work as much at the docks, letting him invest more time into his music. His improvement was considerable, partly due to said practice, and also likely due to his improved health.

He even let me clean out his lungs, which was a rather grotesque process. The slimy, black tar that filled his lungs came out like some sort of snake, and left him vomiting in disgust afterwards. Between that and healing the damage in his lungs, his lung capacity was far improved, which he took full advantage of.

My only real complaint - barring the fundamental one of being trapped in an alien world - was my rate of income. With such extreme limitations on how much I could create, I was making only three or four dollars a day. To purchase land and enough resources to properly establish myself…

My income wasn’t nearly sufficient. I wasn't sure how to ask about improving it without either causing suspicion in Kito, or offense in my friends, since I was already making so much more than they were.

I was also getting bored. The pace was so slow that I simply created a week's worth of goods at a time, to ration out carefully. I also made a few fun pieces, glittering and extravagant, to amuse myself.

“This will fit you marvelously,” I said, smiling at the customer who held one of my pieces.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s a bit long, I think.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” I said. “I can take it in a bit for you.”

“How much extra will that cost?” she asked, making Kito grin.

“Nothing at all,” I said, pretending not to notice Kito’s face falling.

He was already making enough money off of me.

“Though that’s just reason to get more things, to highlight your lovely face,” Kito said.

“Tailoring work, for free?” the woman asked me, after giving Kito a flushed smile.

“Simple, quick fixes, on our goods,” I said. “And only when I’m here, naturally.”

“Which she often isn’t,” Kito said. “Making this a good opportunity.”

“Don’t mind him,” I said to the woman, earning me a smile. “He’s always focused on making money. What matters is finding something that won’t hurt your bank account, but will make you feel beautiful.”

“But Aera, she’s already beautiful,” Kito said charmingly, earning another flush from the woman. “Only the finest dresses could match that smile.”

I shook my head at Kito’s antics. He never failed to flirt with the female customers. It often worked, too, inspiring them to purchase a variety of things - mostly jewelry, previously. It had previously been his favorite thing to sell, but the clothes had been making considerable profit since I’d arrived. He’d even rearranged the sales floor to highlight the clothing in particular.

I could never quite tell if his flirting was because of his obsession with women, or with money. Or if it were both.

After reading a book for a few minutes, to account for the time it “should” take to trim the clothes to fit her, I took the few dresses she wanted back downstairs. She tried them on again in the little curtained alcove, and I surreptitiously used magic to perfect the fit from a few feet away.

It was fortunate that with my magic I could “see” through things, else my lack of skill regarding predicting fit would have been a bit obvious.

With my mage sense - the sensory ability a person develops as they awaken their ability to use magic - the easiest thing to “see” is magic itself. Since life is fundamentally the same stuff as magic, I am able to detect life with considerable ease. All that the adjustment took was infusing a bit of magic into the cloth, so that I could perceive it easily, and compare how it felt next to the life in her body.

After the woman purchased the dresses, Kito turned to me.

“Aera, my dear, you really can charge the women for your labors,” he said. “I’ll even let you keep a large cut of it.”

“If I make it for sale, then I feel my services could be demanded of me,” I said. “I should rather simply increase the number that are sold, and maintain my freedom of discretion for whether I offer it at all.”

“It’s a good thing you have me, then,” he said. “I would protect you from anyone who tries to pressure you.”

“If a customer offered a good price for my services, but was annoying and rude, would you truly reject them, to spare me the annoyance?” I asked.

He reached over to take my hand, and I smiled again. It was a quirk of his, it seemed, that he was always touching me. My hand, my shoulder, occasionally my hair. Though it was odd that I never saw him do so with anyone else.

“I would gallantly deal with all of the annoyance, so you wouldn’t have to,” he said.

“Hmph. You’d ‘gallantly’ deal with most anything, for more money,” I said.

“True,” he said, smiling wryly. “You know me so well.”

It’s hardly a compliment, I thought to myself.

He squeezed my hand.

“But for you, my dear, I’d be willing to do more than I’d do for most,” he said.

“Only because I make you money,” I said.

There was a strange look in his eyes as he responded.

“More than that,” he said, his thumb caressing the back of my hand. “For the pleasure of your touch, I would do almost anything.”

My language spell was implying that there was a jumble of meanings that might be attached to his words, but wasn’t thorough enough to know anything for certain. So I simply took it at face value.

“Then, I suppose it’s good for you that I don’t charge you for this,” I said, lifting our clasped hands with a smirk.

“I wouldn’t expect you to be the sort of woman to charge for a touch,” he said, smiling almost mischievously.

“Certainly not,” I laughed. “I don’t even charge for my labor!”

He laughed a little, letting go of my hand. His laughter seemed a bit off, like he was perhaps a little frustrated about something.

It was a lovely fall afternoon, three weeks into my time on Earth. Slick had invited me to the Cocoanut Grove again for his performance. He played for them every few days, and enjoyed having me there. I imagined it was primarily because of Alice, since I would chat with her and tip very well.

He was going to meet me at Kito’s shop, but as usual, I preferred to wait outside. Boston was thick with life, with trees and bushes everywhere. I saw no reason to be kept indoors.

I excused myself from Kito, to go and get ready, now that the business seemed to be winding down again. After I’d gotten dressed appropriately for the Grove, I went to the door.

“Aera, hold on just a second,” Kito said, coming up next to me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said. “Do you have a minute?”

“Of course,” I said.

“You’re a beautiful woman,” he said, making me flush and look at my feet in embarrassment. “I’ve been honored to be able to help you feel welcome here, in Boston. I like to think that you’re happy here, working with me in the shop?”

This felt very personal. I just smiled at him in response, too nervous to actually answer. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this. He took this as an affirmative.

“Well, miss Aera, I was hoping that you enjoy working with me as much as I enjoy working with you,” he said. “And that you might want to spend more time with me.”

I tried to respond, and failed to make my throat work. I just swallowed instead, looking up at him timidly.

After a moment, where he realized I wasn’t going to say something, he just cleared his throat, making me realize he was a little nervous, too.

“Aera Koryn,” he said, his tone taking on a measure of formality. “I would like to ask for permission to court you.”

My jaw dropped and my mind went blank.

He… he wanted…

A flush filled my cheeks as I remembered some of the more awkward lessons my mother had taught me. I’d not thought of Kito like that… imagining him, within the context of those rather graphic explanations, left me bright red and speechless.

Not just speechless. I wasn’t sure I remembered to breathe.

“Aera?” he asked, looking concerned.

He said a little more, but for some reason I didn’t understand…

My eyes widened with horror as I realized. The language spell!

He spoke again, seeming confused, no doubt recognizing the look of fear on my face.

I took a step back, panicking. I didn’t know what he said. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. The spell took several seconds to cast, and was difficult, requiring concentration. I couldn’t cast it here, now…

Tears filled my eyes as terror gripped me. Failure… I’d failed… I didn’t even know what failure meant, but I had, I’d made a mistake, and my friends were sure that it would be bad, and it was all my fault, and…

I couldn’t handle this. I bolted, throwing myself out the door, running down the street, hazily turning in the direction with which I was most familiar. Kito yelled something behind me. I saw Slick on the sidewalk, heading my way. I ran right into him, clinging onto him desperately, hiding behind him, lost to my own panic.

He steadied me, looking at my tear filled face, before turning to Kito angrily.

Kito was bewildered, and Slick was protective. I was still too shaken to cast the spell, but the conversation was easy to follow even without words.

Slick believed Kito had done something bad, and was accusing him. Kito was defending himself. Slick didn’t believe him. They tried to ask me something, and I cringed away, afraid to speak, afraid to give myself away by speaking the wrong language. Slick took this as confirmation, and his words were so thick with hostility that their meaning could not be lost - he was threatening Kito. Kito was furious at the accusation and threat, expressed hostility back to Slick, and then angrily made his way back to his shop.

The whole while I was shrinking even more into my skin, feeling petrified that I was still making things worse, too panicked to even begin to come up with an idea of what I should do. I just wanted someone else to decide…

Slick made that easy. He asked me something, and when I cringed away again, he just spoke in soothing tones, leading me away. Following was easy. I could do that.

He took me to a strange building. It was long and flat, only one story, but with dozens of doors, and was in poor shape. We went into the largest, most ornate door - which wasn’t saying much - and inside was a man behind a counter, looking like a store owner, though I didn’t see any goods. Slick spoke with him briefly, then handed over some money. The store owner gave him something small in return.

We went back outside, and went to one of the many other doors. Slick pulled out a key and opened the door, making me abruptly realize the obvious - this was an inn of some kind. Inside was as shoddy as outside, but it had all the necessities.

Slick sat me down on the bed, and continued to speak soothingly.

He excused himself to briefly use the phone - another of their marvelous creations. Naturally, I had no idea what was said. He returned to sitting next to me. He was mostly repeating himself at that point.

After a little while, I calmed down enough to cast the language spell.

“...he did, it’s okay, Aera. You don’t have to see him ever again, okay?”

“It’s okay,” I said, swallowing. “I just dropped the language spell.”

“What?” he asked, looking taken aback. “What do you mean? What happened?”

“He… asked to court me,” I said. “I panicked, dropped the language spell, panicked some more, and then fled.”

He just stared at me for a minute.

“He was telling the truth,” he said flatly.

“Er… probably?” I said. “I didn’t know what you were saying.”

He stared at me for another minute, then abruptly let loose a series of curses. After an interestingly educational litany, he abruptly stopped.

“Sorry,” he said, looking abashed. “Shouldn’t curse in front of a lady.”

“It’s quite alright,” I said, mildly confused. Apparently flowers were for women and cursing was for men?

“This isn’t good,” he said. “I kind of told him off, thinking he had to have done something awful to put you in such a state. But it was just him asking you for a date…”

“More losing my spell, really,” I said in a small voice.

He sighed.

“I’ve got to go talk to him,” he said. “He’s mad at you, thinking that you were being cruel to him by not defending him, when we were talking. So I’ll go and make things right. You can stay here tonight, and leave things to Lou and I. We’ll take care of everything.”

And as I would regret for the rest of my life, I agreed.