Lichen and Wisteria are green mage siblings that are the focus of a larger project I’ve been working on and they wanted to take over my brain today. Lichen works with plants, Wisteria works with animals. They are ordered to take over running businesses owned by their guild in a large city and accidentally get involved in a political uprising. But some days, they also just have to do work like normal people.
*~*~*~*
If the Guildmaster had told Wisteria that a major part of her work when taking over the Tower’s fauna business would be acting as a glorified familiar groomer for the biggest part of her day, she may have gotten up more courage to tell the man no. There were people that did this creatively for a living in Automa, she had even gone into their shops to see how in the seven hells she could offload the work onto them. Even took to handing out discount cards given to her by some of them to the mages who still insisted on bringing their beasts to her.
“Well the old Stablemaster did it.” one of them had huffed as they fussed over their terrible little mink that had made a mess of Wisteria’s office.
What she wanted to say in response was no, the former Stablemaster absolutely did NOT groom familiars. They had an apprentice who couldn’t say no to anything or they would be shipped back to the Tower in humiliation. She had numerous journal entries from the old Witch to prove it.
Instead she simply gave the tightest, least forced smile she could muster and took the payment from the mage.
“Of course. We will be making some adjustments to our offerings, with the change in management.” a speech she had given multiple times at this point. Approval from the offices couldn’t come soon enough. “In fact, we’re partnering with several of the groomers within the city…”
She went through the rest of her “please get out of here and only come back if your familiar has a medical emergency” speech. Her attitude didn’t win her any tips, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. It was time for lunch and she needed to leave before someone tried to sneak in early for an appointment.
Wisteria flipped the sign to the “out to lunch” side and cleaned up before walking out of the office. It was baffling that the two offices didn’t have a joined door between them, the flora and fauna practices. Having to walk outside and then back in was an annoyance. The comptroller at the Guild office had made it very clear they wouldn’t pay for it though, so they would have to suffer for now.
Speaking of suffering: Lichen clearly was not. He had always been better at dealing with people than she had been. When you are a mage whose power comes from animals, it shouldn’t be a surprise, though. As she opened the door, she could see a young man leaning forward on the counter her brother stood behind. The cut of his coat and the bag over his shoulder marked him as a courier, the red and gold matching the colors of the Metalsmiths guild. She cleared her throat, arching an eyebrow when her brother glanced over briefly and held up a finger to say “one second.”
The courier’s eyes widened, judging by the way their eyebrows raised over their dark lenses. He straightened himself immediately, as if he had been caught doing something terrible. He mumbled something between an apology and a “good afternoon Mage Wisteria” as he brushed past her and out the door.
“What have I told you about flirting with customers, Lichen?”
“Make sure to start before they pay, so that way I get a better tip.”
“Lichen-”
“Kidding, kidding.”
After a few keystrokes to make sure the register was locked down, he stepped out from behind the counter. The clock chimed one o’clock as he met her at the door.
“Besides, that nice lad just paid for our lunch.” Lichen grinned. “Those metal guild mages. Say one nice thing to them and they turn to putty.”
Wisteria couldn’t complain too much about that. Orders from the other guilds paid better than anything from regular folks, even though they were fewer and further between.
“Still, you should leave the other Guildbornes alone. Last thing we need right now is some inter-guild incident.”
“Can’t help that I’m so popular.”
Before she could scold him further, Lichen gripped her arm and pulled her out the door. Locking it behind them, he beamed up at her.
“Speaking of popular, how about that cafe on Main?”
Macabress Manuscripts 