We had barely made it out of earshot of the castle gate guards when a prickling sensation washed over my entire body, setting my senses to full alert that someone was watching me. I looked to Mable in alarm, but she was already looking to me to verify that I felt it too.

“Start talking and laughing with me,” she whispered before letting out a loud belly laugh. “Oh stop it!” she giggled, hitting my arm playfully.

It took a moment from my brain to process to follow her lead, but once I wiped the look of terror and confusion off of my face I joined in pretending to laugh and acting like I had just made a hilarious joke. Mable linked her arm like mine like we were just two friends about to take a light hearted stroll and pulled me into walking with her, perhaps a bit speedier than just two friends out having a fun day, but not enough to draw suspicion to us.

“Keep walking,” she whispered low enough that I barely heard it, then continued to giggle.

She guided us down streets towards where we could hear people in the distance and as soon as we turned the corner onto the main shopping street of the city the feeling vanished, leaving my stomach feeling sick and my body shaky. Mable immediately stopped her random giggling, let out a long breath of air and swiveled her head around to try to look for whatever had been causing our instincts to flare.

“Magical creeps,” she growled and tugged me again to walk closer to the crowds, “let’s stay around other people for a while, we were coming here anyway.”

“Magic?” I uttered more as a realization than as a question.

Druids practiced magic quite a bit, it was a useful tool to talk to animals, creature food when times were lean, or help heal nature after powerful storms or the greed of man. The commune had been essentially run by a select few who were a bit more skilled than the others, my mother being one of them. She had been somewhat of a healer, using a combination of basic healing magic and her knowledge of useful herbs to keep everyone alive and healthy. Had I been less afraid and given it thought at the time I would have picked up on the feeling coursing through me that reminded me of the times my mother would lay her hands on my shoulders, close her eyes, and let her magic flow through me to heal a sprain or the sniffles. Since leaving though, I had not felt it a single time, I had assumed that people generally didn’t use magic on others.

“Someone decided we were an easy mark,” Mable said with a snort, “probably some thief that has learned a few magical tricks and decided we looked like a couple out of towners who might not catch on. Too bad for them I’m from a family with money, that means I’ve been on the other end of their little tricks more than once.”

“Thieves can use magic?” For some silly reason I had only ever attached the concept of performing magic to healers and wizards.

“Most people can to some extent,” she said slowly, a look of concern unfolding over her features as she gave me a long look. “I really need to set you down and have an in depth discussion of just what you do and don’t understand about the world. I’m getting the idea that maybe you don’t even use your music for magic like the rest of us do.”

Music… for magic? Had I fallen over at some point after leaving the guards and hit my head and this was just some sort of concussion dream? I had no idea what she was talking about, music didn’t have anything to do with magic, otherwise I would feel something when I played it.

“For gods’ sake,” she groaned, “do you think I make a good living as a bard by just playing decently?”

“It’s because you’re so pretty, men practically throw their entire coin purses at you,” I answered.

“We are going to discuss this later, you probably think… gods help me be able to explain this later.”

I furrowed my forehead in a frown and shook my head. Surely I had hit my head, she was making even less sense than normal, it seemed improbable that I was still so naive about something.

“Sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Guess I’m still very behind in some things, though it seems ridiculous what you’re proposing is true. That’s just not how I know the world to work.”

Mable stopped, putting both of her hands on each of my arms and turned me to face her. Her expression was vaguely amused and a little pitying.

“Look, it’s not your fault I’m still realizing things that I take for granted as the truth of the world have been obscured for you. No wonder you’re always complaining about making enough when you seem to be competent enough otherwise.” She paused, pursing her supple lips in thought. “We will get you an outfit for this date, then we’re going to go back to my room and I’m going to fill you in on a bit of a girl’s little secret. Then after our night out I’ll explain everything else. Baby steps for now, have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. If you stick with me long enough I’ll even have to sprinting.”

“Whatever you say, I trust you.”

“I promise you’ll understand soon enough,” she said with a laugh and drew me into a tight hug. “You’re adorable, you know that right?”

“Me?” I asked more confused than ever. “I really have no idea what you’re going on about now. You’re somehow making less and less sense with the more you explain.”

“Come on,” she giggled, tugging me back to her side and leading me towards a clothing shop that looked to be targeted more towards young women. “You really think I’m this pretty,” she muttered under her breath and chuckled again.

“You are,” I claimed stubbornly.

In the shop it was immediately apparent this was a whole other class of fashion and income than I was used to. My wardrobe since leaving the general nakedness of the commune had only consisted of very plain and practical clothing that traveled well and were easy to play in. Blouses that allowed for free movements of my arms for playing was a must and generally whatever piece of cloth that covered my lower half worked for me, though I generally much preferred trousers so I never had to worry about the social manners required with thinking about the placement of my legs when I sat. Druids apparently did not care about such things and my first time wearing a short enough skirt had ended in my horrified embarrassment. The looks of amused bar patrons sitting across from me seared into me a valuable lesson that until I learned to be a civilized lady I needed to stick to things that covered me up without requiring me to think. Incidentally, I also learned at the same time that wearing undergarments with skirts was generally a good idea and not just a suggestion if you thought it might get chilly.

“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked, her eyes looking us slowly up and down. Her eyes gave away that she had judged Mable worthy being in her shop, but once her eyes fell on me her petite nose crinkled up into a look of distaste and she rolled her eyes.

“We just need an outfit or two for a special occasion,” Mable chirped, seeming to have not noticed or was not acknowledging the woman’s disgust with my presence. “Something for a nice dinner, not too flashy but just right to turn a head.”

The woman hummed under her breath like she was considering if we were worth her time, but stepped from behind her counter after a moment and approached us. Her outfit was utterly strange to me, a mix of colors and patterns that made me a little dizzy to look at for too long. Her bodice was a deep purple with silver swirls, but her skirt and sleeves were made out of a brilliant emerald green with a busy leaf pattern. Perhaps it wouldn’t have confused me so much if not for all the extra bits of fabric and lace that hung at seemingly random points from the fabric. Tiny bows and three dimensional flowers made of folded pieces of satin adorned the outfit for no practical purpose. I couldn’t see how she could stand to wear it, imagining myself in something like that made me assume that I would just worry about snagging all the extra bits of fabric on things as I went about my day, ripping them off, and then having to live with the fact that I spoiled something that probably cost more than I currently had in to my name.

“What is the special occasion?” the shop woman asked, looking directly at Mable and pointedly ignoring my existence.

I couldn’t really blame her, I didn’t know what I was doing in this kind of shop either.

“A first date, her first date,” Mable said as she pointed to me. “I want her to take his breath away more than she already has.”

The woman made a little snorting laugh sound in the back of her throat. She didn’t believe that I could have anyone attracted to me, that stung a bit. Generally I didn’t care about what people thought about me, having to shit behind a tree when people walked by on their morning walks kind of trained you to ignore what people thought of you, but I had been riding a bit of a high and she had burst my bubble. Perhaps it had been a mistake to come into a shop like this, maybe it was a mistake to have agreed to the date at all.

Mable dug into her pocket and pulled out a coin pouch that was filled to bursting, she jingled it slightly, her face looking contemplative. “Hmm maybe this is not the caliber of place that is worth either of us. I did see another place down the street that is more fitting for the quality of young women like us, these ugly designs would detract from anyone’s beauty.”

The woman let out an angry gasp and her eyes went wide, obviously not used to anyone speaking bad about her or her designs.

“Yes, these are beneath someone as lovely as you, Rose,” Mable said, returning the jingling pouch to her pocket. “Come on, we can do much better.”

“I doubt it,” the woman grumbled angrily, “good luck finding something to suit someone like her.”

“Good luck passing off these outfits obviously recovered from the corpses of the recently dead and unfashionable,” Mable shot back as she pulled me from the shop.

For good measure she slammed the shop door behind her and made a rude gesture with her hands.

“Maybe not that one,” she said with a faint smile.

“That was mortifying,” I groaned. “Am I that hideous?”

“What? No,” Mable soothed, “she was being classest. She thought you were too poor to be worthy of wearing her mediocre clothing.”

Poor? Well that was true probably, I doubted I would have been able to afford much. I could handle that better than I could handle the idea that I was just too ugly for her to want to serve me. It was strange how before meeting Mable and being around her that I had never given much of a thought to how I looked. I was pretty enough, but standing enough to her made me look all the more plain and I guess it was eating at me whether I wanted to admit it or not. It wasn’t even my fault, most any girl would look plain next to her.

“Next place,” Mable said, urging me to walk forward and get out of my worried thoughts, “we need to get you something stunning.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to afford anything on this street,” I warned as I followed her lead. “Maybe we should just try something else.”

“Let me do this one thing for you. I know you’re going to want to throw a fit, but I saw how that man in the music shop looked at you and he was genuinely smitten. It’s cute, it’s not common to see that level of puppy love so clear on someone’s face and I want to encourage it, don’t you want him to think you’re gorgeous on your date?”

I did, but enough to accept charity? I took a deep breath in and then let it out as a dramatic sigh.

“Just this once,” I waffled, “but I owe you something in the future.”

“Close enough for me,” Mable said happily as she pulled open the door to the next shop.

The experience in this store went much smoother, though I did notice that my friend was quick to pull out her fat pouch of coins much sooner this time and gave them no opportunity to write me off as too poor to waste their time on. After much measuring, fussing over my body shape, and too many color choices to count, I settled on something rather simple, but pretty. It was a basic pale yellow charmeuse dress with elbow-length sleeves that both the shop owner and Mable swore up and down would bring out the gold tones in my eyes. Paired with a pastel sky blue bodice with a simple geometric pattern created with glass beads, it was definitely the fanciest outfit I had ever worn and part of me wanted to wear it out of the shop just to know what it felt like to be a part of the elite of society, even if only in pretend.

“What about shoes, what do you have that would match?” Mable asked the young woman who had been helping us.

The woman looked me up and down in the outfit, considering the options. “I think I would match the bodice in this case, let me see if I have something in roughly that shade in the back.”

Once she had left to look for the shoes, I turned to Mable with a slight frown. “I said an outfit, not shoes.”

“Shoes are totally part of the outfit,” she countered, “besides are you going to wear those terrible, old traveling boots you have with something so refined?”

“I guess not,” I sighed, “I owe you two things.”

“Whatever makes you actually let this happen,” Mable agreed with a shrug of her shoulders. “Oh, I think you’re already turning heads.”

I turned where she was looking and through the shop windows a person with their cloak hood pulled tight to their face was looking at me through the window. It seemed weird how on a pretty warm day they would be clinging so tightly to their cloak unless they were doing it intentionally to hide their face from us. They lingered for only a moment more, then turned and walked away casually, like they had simply been peering in the window and not lingering their gaze on us at all.

“We should probably head back to the inn after this,” Mable said with a low, worried tone to her voice.

“Do you think it was the same person as earlier?”

“Maybe not, but if so then there’s lots of thieves and creeps hanging out today. Makes sense, lots of new faces and potential marks. Just keep close to me and don’t stop to talk to anyone, no matter how nice they seem.”

The woman returned from the back with a pair of flat soled shoes that seemed to be made out of the exact same material that made up the bodice. They went so perfectly and looked so good with the dress that I let myself get excited about my date seeing me in such a pretty outfit and forgot about the strange things that were going on. It didn’t hit me until my clothing and shoes were wrapped and we stepped out onto the street that we needed to focus and get back to the inn. The person from the shop window was lingering on the street, obviously trying not to have us take notice of them still keeping an eye on us.

“Straight back to the inn,” Mable said quickly, hooking her arm with mine once more and setting a quick walking pace.

We didn’t stop or dauddle anywhere, still the hulking figure in the cloak stayed just in view of us at all times. They seemed to be struggling with hurrying after us while still trying to keep up some appearance that they weren’t stalking after us to keep us in sight.

“Stubborn bastard,” Mable muttered as she made a sudden sharp turn down an alley in a direction opposite our inn. “We have to think creatively, I don’t like the idea of them knowing where we’re staying.”

“I don’t either.” I was starting to get actually scared. I had heard of horror stories from women being followed and the terrible outcomes that sometimes happened, but I had always just assumed that I wouldn’t be either of them.

“It’ll be okay, I’m good at this,” she said in a comforting tone. “We just need to zig and zag through some back alley streets and we’ll lose him or he’ll give us. We’ve already set ourselves as not an easy mark, most of the time they give up after that, plenty of other naive, unaware people to surprise instead.”

My heart dropped to my feet and Mable let out a strangled cry of surprise and anger as we turned a blind corner in the alley and almost ran face first into the cloaked figure. They were much larger up close, taller than either by at least a food and a half and they were wider than the two of us clinging protectively to each other.

“You two make it hard to get a private word,” said a deep, gravely voice from beneath the hood. “I mean no harm, in fact, I am asking you for help.”

“No thank you buddy, now scram,” Mable sneered.

“You don’t understand,” he said, sounding a bit exasperated for someone who was supposed to be a thief or just a run of the mill creep, “I am honestly looking for help and you two fit the bill.”

“I said no thank you,” Mable said louder, “not used to a girl saying no, huh? I’m used to your slimy type.”

The cloaked figure let out a long, labored sigh and pulled back the edges of his hood to reveal that he was a deeply scared and heavily tattooed orc man. I was instantly intrigued and terrified. I had never had a chance to meet with an orc up close as they tended to want to stay away from humans, but I had always been warned about meeting one alone, especially the males who were prone to bouts of anger and violence. This one seemed to exemplify that warning with the entire left side of his face seeming like it had melted at some point and scarred over. The other side had his skin covered in tattoos of strange symbols, even the white of the tusk that peaked out from his lip had some sort of painted on symbols.

I felt Mable relax slightly next of me. “You’re a wizard.”

“I am,” he confirmed, “allow me to introduce myself. I am Mangulus, ex-court wizard to King Harold Fontainebleau.”

“Let me get this straight, a court wizard wants help from us, a couple of lowly bards?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sometimes even a powerful wizard needs a more delicate touch. Not everything can always be solved with a few magic missiles and fireballs.”

“If I could do either of those they would indeed be how I solved every problem from then on,” Mable said.

The orc let out a snort of a laugh through his one good nostril. “You have the right spirit, I have chosen wisely.”

“You haven’t chosen anything yet, we haven’t agreed to do anything and we’re busy, we don’t have time to do anything for you.” Mable started to walk past the hulking orc, but he stepped to the side and blocked her path.

“I will make it worth your while,” he said in a serious tone.

“Buddy, if I had a silver coin every time a man said that to me,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“Any wish you have, I will try to fulfill within reason,” he offered.

Mable stopped trying to push past him and turned her head up to look at him with a challenge in her eye. “Any wish?”

“Within reason, I won’t be able to turn you into a dragon or something just yet, but wealth, beauty, fame… whatever your heart desires along those lines.”

Mable turned to me and held out her hands like she wanted my opinion.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” I admitted.

“I will give you ladies time to discuss, I will find you when I know you have reached a decision.”

Mable looked to be about to ask him what exactly he meant by that when the hulking orc vanished into nothing. I blinked and he was gone, it was like no one had ever been there at all.