#salias

"Miss Lira," he began, pointing with his pinky along the colored threads, not daring to touch the fabric with his dirty hands. "Who was embroidering these patterns?"

"Oh, Mrs. Howells."

"The one who lives by the well?"

"And no other."

The man nodded slowly and straightened, quickly checking if any of the animals he was guarding were gone.

"Where I come from, Mrs. Howells would make a fortune for such works."

"I also think so, but I'm afraid she won't want to move to a big city."

“When Enka and Kylar actually rebuild the city, we could ask them to send some trader to that area. Establishing a trade route will do the town well. " Lira watched with amusement as the man waved a broken blade of grass, drawing a plan of action in the air.

"They want to rebuild the entire city?" she asked, going back to her braiding.

"I mean, not really," he corrected, feeling his heart suddenly sinking at the memory of his former companions and his hometown. "Kylar wants to restore its light from his father's childhood times, while Enka wants to take care of the minority of mages scattered throughout the city and not even aware of their own elements." He winced at the thought that until recently he considered himself a weaker Sariel, not a Mage.

“What about you, Mr. Salias? Do you also have any big plans for your life like rebuilding the whole goddamn city?"

The man froze and stiffly turned towards her, unable to comprehend since Miss Lira had used words such as damn. Is it because of his presence? Had he cursed so often in front of her? He usually tried to be careful around her, but maybe he had slipped out one day. It took him a moment to realize that she had, in fact, asked him a question and was now waiting for an answer while he was rethinking every single day of his stay here.

"Me? At this moment I'm paying off my debt to the town, and later? I will continue to look for myself, I have no further plans at the moment. "

"continue to look for myself," she repeated softly, but added nothing. Instead of that, she braided the last stalks, finishing the wreath of flowers, and looked at her handiwork. "What do you think about it?"

"Beautiful," said Salias, without even a moment of hesitance.

The woman accepted the compliment with a smile and got up to her feet, brushing the stray petals off her dress. She corrected the imperfections of her work for the last time and carefully placed it on the man's temples.

"If finding yourself ever proves too hard, remember that you can always create yourself, okay?" She made sure he understood, then pressed her lips against the man's temple hard enough so could not mistake her kiss for a simple touch of wind, adjusted the crooked wreath and with a dancing step she turned towards the town.