Nocte Yin: Anti-Villain, Anti-Hero and Anti-Everything Else

Chapter Fourteen

“Here,” Alex said, handing over a new breathing charm.

They were on the second floor of Ms. Kay’s Herbal Remedies, in the back where Alex mostly worked. It was a dusty old room with two windows, barred with no way of opening them. The ventilation was doing a number on Nocte’s lungs, but she bore it silently. She was very aware of the many cup noodles she had ate from Alex’s supply, and thought better to be courteous than rude. On the walls hung branches of dried flowers, in the cubbies were the dried herbs, and scattered along the very long table were used candlesticks and whittling knives; the drawers held the many pouches, strings and twines, papers, calligraphy pens, brushes, markers needed for charm making. What Alex did for his job was not for the first floor of Ms. Kay’s, but rather for the second floor, for the more exclusive clients — the magic clients.

Nocte had learnt on her first day at Ms. Kay’s that there were two very distinct peoples on Earth: non-magic and magic. It was a concept Nocte was familiar with, but she found it entirely strange that non-magic did not know much of magic at all. In fact, non-magic made up so much of the Earth’s population that they had decided thousands of years ago that magic was not real… Thus, all the magic people were shy to make themselves known (apparently the non-magic had slaughtered many of the magic a long time ago), which was why there were two different clienteles in Ms. Kay’s Herbal Remedies.

The first floor catered to the non-magic. It held cleansing herbs, teas and candles that were not really magical in relieving coughs, preventing pimples and curing sore throats, but rather common sense to any herbalist, or any gatherer in the forest. Ms. Kay used to keep watch of the first floor until Nocte came along.

“Somnium!” Ms. Kay had called on the first day. “Let me teach you how to use the register.”

And walla! Nocte was now a cashier and sales associate of Ms. Kay’s Herbal Remedies. The downside of this job was that Ms. Kay was not paying her. Nocte should be grateful Ms. Kay even let her stay beside her beloved boyfriend, Alex, during working hours… Nocte really wanted to slam Ms. Kay into the candle display right beside the register. The candles’ scents were rather overwhelming and made her sneeze all the damn time.

The second floor catered to the magic. These clients entered from the back of the store, up a flight of stairs outside, through rain and sleet if necessary. Apparently, according to Ms. Kay, her charms were the best in the city. According to the other worker in the store, Honoka, Ms. Kay’s was only one of ten magical charm shops in the whole city. There was not much to choose from, and Nocte knew that Alex’s magical skills were top-notch in Earthling’s standards, or Canadian standards, whichever. He outranked Ms. Kay, that was for sure.

“Thanks,” Nocte said, taking the breathing charm from Alex.

A single breathing charm lasted for two days. Technically just last night they had replaced the old one, but they figured it’d be more convenient to change charms during the day and not in the middle of the night. Otherwise, they’d both have to wake up at three in the morning every other day, which explained why Nocte was feeling grumpy. As she was sleeping on the couch, Alex preparing breakfast (cup noodles) was rather upsetting as well.

Holding her breath, in a split second Nocte pulled the old charm from her neck and set the new one at her throat. The fresh pouch of herbs breathed of wildflowers and forest soil when it bounced off of her chest, right beside her heart. A single inhale brought her back to life, but she knew that the smell would make her sick by the end of the day, especially coupled by the scented candles near the register.

“Somnium!” Ms. Kay called from below.

“I gotta go,” Nocte sighed, rubbing her temples.

Alex ducked his head to hide a snicker. He knew, as much as Nocte and Honoka, that being sentinel of the first floor was flat-out BOOOR-RING! Ms. Kay’s was definitely more popular with the magic crowd than the non-magic, but Ms. Kay preferred to deal with the magic crowd herself, so not to be jipped by an old wizard who knew a good hypnotizing spell or two. Honoka, who had once been given the privilege of foreseeing the second floor while Ms. Kay was out on an errand, had given away up to five anti-pregnancy charms — for free. Honoka had explained to Nocte that she had almost been fired, but, she added, magic employees were hard to find.