Somehow, Penelope was convinced into staying with Yule and Minerva. Not that it was really hard, she had no place to go, nobody local to vouch for her and definitely lacked in funds. When she agreed to stay Minerva seemed unreasonably happy that she did, sweeping her up and swinging her in a hug. Yule gave her a very sympathetic stare when this happened, but did nothing to help.

Probably because he knows how Minerva is with kids and knows better than to get too close.

Minerva loved children – perhaps a bit too much. At first, it kind of made her leery, but after helping out Minerva with the shop, the woman just seemed the type to be very enthusiastic about kids, their futures, about making a place that was safe for them to learn magic. The mage had explained that while everyone had the potential for magic, not everyone had the capability to hone themselves further or even afford it.

“Truth be told, magical education is for the rich, or at least financially comfortable. Tis a sad truth, so whether it’s a child from the local area or from the upper classes, I want to be as encouraging as possible. Especially to those in need.”

It was…truly bizarre to Penelope, meeting someone so gung-ho about kids without the worry that they were probably on some kind of offender’s list. Even the teachers for preschoolers she had known from her former life were nowhere near as energetic or it was simply a façade to get them through the day. Goodness knew Penelope had faked it a lot as Kasumi when looking after her little sister when she was just a toddler. Though the amount of time Kasumi had raised her sibling was probably not normal, all things considered.

Well, there were a few reasons for why someone who loved children didn’t have her own.

“Nellie, I just brought some herbs in, can you help Minnie mash them up?” The person asking was a tall, sleek and beautiful jackal-headed Cyno. Though slender, she was not one to be underestimated. Her graceful form hid great strength. Cynthia Riverthorn was Minerva’s life partner, a female Cyno whom had met her decades ago and they’d been together ever since. Cynthia was a warrior who did all kinds of odd jobs. Actually, her proper title was Warrior and Adventurer, which brought her all over the place in Ceralde and the surrounding area; her work was through the Adventurer’s Guild, which was explained to Penelope as more of a temp work agency the way things were run.

When Penelope heard about the guild, she got her hopes up, thinking she could go on amazing adventures found on some notice board, going up to rip off a quest she could take without checking in with anyone until she finished the job. However, when Cynthia came in after Penelope settled in, she gave the most dry explanation of the process, which really reminded Penelope of the work agencies in her past life.

Filling out a form with your abilities, an agent at the guild matches you with jobs that matched your abilities best and then they have the person posting the job interviews you before hiring you at a premium, so a part of the wages goes to the guild. Yes, yes, it definitely sounded like a temp agency…

Penelope went over to Cynthia, accepting the basket handed over to her. It was filled with many herbs hand picked by the older female. With her hands free, Cynthia could waltz right up to Minerva and give her cheek an affectionate lick in greeting, with the other woman swatting her partner playfully on the arm with a light ‘Cynthia, the children are watching!’. It was both cute and a bit embarrassing to see, and Penelope privately squealed at the display of affection in front of her, so she set to work on the task given to her.

Vasiliko was an herb abundant around Birain and is the main binding ingredient in almost all potions used by every day people. In order to use it, it had to be mashed up using a mortar and pestle. It had a very strong, aromatic scent to it and was safe to eat. It was essentially like the basil plant from Earth in terms of leaf shape and taste; the only difference that Penelope could find was that the leaves were blue in colour.

Blue is Tulilith’s favourite colour, I guess, Penelope mused while she gathered what she needed for her work.

When she decided to stay, Penelope had insisted only after Minerva agreed she could work for it, which seemed to surprise the older woman. Penelope had once lived a very precarious and stress filled life before, where the threat of being thrown out was always present. Even though she had been the one making most of the money, the fear of no longer having a home always had a stranglehold of her. And in her current homeless position, she had to make herself useful. Because if you’re useful, people won’t throw you out. She had to work until she could figure out something more permanent.

So when presented with being Minerva’s assistant with small tasks, she readily agreed. And she got to work first day, grinding up herbs. There had been a whole storeroom of Vasiliko ready for her and she was told to grind up the herbs. Seeing what she had to do, Penelope had stayed up all night grinding and potting the results of her work. Minerva had been both upset and impressed by her crazy work ethic.

“I am glad for all your hard work, but children should be sleeping at night, not staying up until dawn!” Minerva had told her.

Though Penelope had internalized this as ‘you are a dumb child who did not understand what was asked of her’. She had silently promised to do better next time as to not upset Minerva.

The second day Cynthia had come home from a job and they finally met. Hoping maybe Penelope could relax a little bit, Minerva had asked the Cyno female to take their guest out with her for herb gathering. Maybe let the girl play in the flower fields while Cynthia did the herb gathering. Of course, when told where they were going and for what purpose, Penelope unfortunately thought she was asked to help Cynthia look for herbs, too, and attempted to in the flower filled fields where Cynthia left her for a bit. It was only after an hour of gathering, Cynthia returned to Penelope going mad trying to find an herb that would not normally be found among the blooms, almost in tears. It was decided that Penelope would not be allowed to go on jobs with Cynthia, either.

The two adults truly had to sit Penelope down and explain to her that she needn’t stress so much on the jobs they gave her.

“You are still young,” Minerva said, holding the girl’s hands. “And yes, while we appreciate the help, we are not going to make a child work herself silly.”

“Yeah, Nellie,” Cynthia had agreed, putting a hand on Penelope’s head for a caress, taking note of how the child flinched at the touch, “just be a kid. It’s not big deal if you just do as kids do.”

It was quite a shocking talk, to the point where she sort of cried a little, surprising both Minerva and Cynthia. Penelope didn’t say anything, because it was hard to bring out any words. They were strangled in her throat, unable to push past her lips. They couldn’t even form in her head. That was how much her mind was spiraling. She didn’t understand what was going on, so she could not yet process the words being spoken to her nor what she really should say.

In the end, Penelope managed to push through her best customer service smile and nodded in faux understanding.

It was so strange being told she could be a kid, when in reality she had the soul of a fully grown adult. She felt ridiculous for the hurt and relief she felt.

“It’s okay to take things slow, okay Penelope?”

“If you want to take a break, go ahead.”

Both Minerva and Cynthia said these a lot to her over the last few days of her stay.

And the more they said it, the more she began to feel comfortable…

So of course she wanted to work hard. Of course she wanted to make them happy, because they were being so kind.

But she did her best not to go overboard (even though the urge was there, just to show how helpful she could be).

However, there was clearly some problems still. Minerva tended to forget that Penelope was rather short for her age. Not in a malnourished, lacking in nutrients sort of way – most of she had not yet hit that magical growth spurt hat would let her shoot up like a weed. At least when you compared her to the willowy Minerva and the tall Cynthia. Though only a few years older, Yule clearly outclassed her in height, too. How was this a problem? Minerva had a habit of putting things on higher shelves and spots after she finished using an item.

As Cynthia never helped with the potion creation side of Minerva’s business, Minerva only kept one of each tool within the shop. This included the mortar and pestle set used for crushing and mixing herbs. As the last person who used it, Minerva had unconsciously once again placed the tools Penelope needed too high for her to reach on her own. Why not get a stool to get it? There was none! Minerva and Cynthia were tall enough to reach everything! Why not a chair? Penelope’s former life (Kasumi) was taught never to step on a chair, because she may dirty or break it!

And she hated bothering Minerva to get it for her. At her last count, she had asked two times today. It was silly, but Penelope had developed a personal rule as to never ask anything of anyone more than three times, lest you annoyed or upset them. This number came to be as it was the safe number of times she could communicate with her mother (who would yell at her for being inattentive and stupid) or her father (who would lash out after the third time). This was a self-preservation tactic! Until she learned how far she could push the boundaries between herself and her new companions, Penelope had to be careful…

She needed to preserve the third time in case something more dire happened later that she needed actual help with.

In the back room where the workshop was, Penelope was generally alone. Minerva kept to the front of house, dealing with clients, while Cynthia was either out or in the private rooms, away from the business of the shop. Yule did pop in occasionally, but she generally did not see him in the workshop. So she came to a solution.

Nobody was looking, so she could once again call upon her special brand of magic! Penelope was still worried about the connotations of what she was capable of, but had decided not to think too hard on it. If she used it sparingly, it would be just fine. Nobody would catch her. And if she didn’t leave the shop often, she wouldn’t get caught by the representatives of the temples either. The idea of being connected to religious fanatics (according to her own mental image) was not appealing at all.

Penelope brought out her paper and charcoal from her bag, placing herself on a chair where she could easily see the mortar and pestle on its high shelf. She could see and easily sketch them out, knowing the form she needed. Deciding she only needed it for a little bit, she drew a quick sketch of the items, watching as they manifested in that same golden light. Good, she thought. She hadn’t lost her touch! If all went according to plan, her fast sketch would result in the tools disappearing before the end of the day.

Now that she could get to work, Penelope went over to the pile of gathered herbs to get started, yet a voice cutting through the silence of the workshop stopped her in her tracks.

“Hey, what did I just see?”

Penelope turned and saw Yule standing there, arms crossed and looking at her critically.