Hailey sat on one side of the kitchen table, facing Kait. Taylor had already left since the whole debacle beforehand had made him ten minutes late for school. Kait had apologized for the trouble and sent him off to walk in the cold with a spell to keep him warm, and while Taylor was satisfied with that, Hailey found ‘transporting her brother into the void’ to be a topic worth discussing further. The room, unfortunately, was quite cold because Hailey had opened the front door earlier, so she shivered a little, hugging herself for warmth.

Kait began speaking, answering one of Hailey’s quandaries on the magic she’d used, “Spells like that are unconsciously cast spells. Because I was too emotional, I cast a spell on accident. Usually, it takes great labors for a witch to make a new spell, but, in the case of unconsciously cast one, almost anything can happen because the spell uses all of a witch’s emotions.”

Kait remembered what her relatively inexperienced comrades had done in their final stand against the Crusaders of Kallaran. Were their foes not very aware and prepared for the Tarranian’s hate and pain-driven spells, they never would have succeeded.

“Unconcious spells usually aren’t directly harmful, though, because they do what the caster wants in an efficient and to the point fashion. You could call it a monkey’s paw scenario.” Kait had found that those spells were poetically comparable to being entirely open and direct. One could easily hurt another simply by saying what they wanted to. “Spells like that...more than anything, they are only hazards. Harmful, but not too dangerous.”

Hailey shifted her arms a little to make them appear crossed of sternness. Magic was fine and good, but only so long as it wouldn’t put her and her family in danger. “You and Taylor fell into the void, Kait. Are you sure it’s only ‘hazardous’? Look, I’m not the one letting you stay here, but I just want to let you know, I don’t agree with keeping an emotional hazard in my house.”

Kait looked down.“I’m sorry, I really didn’t want to hurt any of you, I just flipped out, I said too much-” Those were the words of a child, hiding beneath ‘sorry’ while avoiding the real issue. “I’m sorry. I can’t afford to leave your home. I know I’m a burden...but if I am, I migh-” She almost used her current lack of mental ability as an excuse. The reality was that Taylor, Clera, and Hailey couldn’t afford to live with her if things like that happened often. “No...I can only beg you all to let me stay. I can’t guarantee I won’t cause you trouble, even if I try my best. I’ll practice my emotional control, so this doesn’t happen again, but...If you think it’s not worth it to keep me here...I’d leave without a fuss.”

Hailey smiled fully, “You’re a whole lot mature than I thought,” It stung a little, knowing Hailey, of all people, had thought she was immature. “I was sure you’d just throw a few excuses at me, then I’d leave you to the wrath of my mom.”

Witches could imagine their emotions and interact with them like immiscible liquids in a bucket of water. Kait could drag handfuls of them to the surface as they floated in the water, manipulating them to her will. She carried the bubble she called ‘Void’ to the surface. Feeling nothing wasn’t pleasant, and she hated she had to repress her feelings to understand others, but it let her comprehend Hailey’s emotions more...Was it really repressing her emotions, though, or was it something else?

Given Hailey’s warm, almost sly smile, she was entertained by Kait, comparing her to a dog who had peed on the floor and acknowledged its mistake.

Hailey continued, turning a little more expressive, “I can tell you really don’t want to be selfish here. But be selfish, girl~! Look at me, I’m staying away from school and friends, even though other people are worried about me, just to...” she just then realized~! She just invalidated her argument with a terrible example.

Hailey placed a hand on her forehead in shame. Then, they burst into laughter, chuckling at their petty struggles in the security of a comrade’s understanding.

After a moment reeling from laughter, Kait spoke without addressing what had happened, “Well, no matter. I’m going shopping. If there isn’t anything else you wanted to talk about, I’ll be on my way.” She slid off the seat and walked to the front door, preparing to leave.

Hailey dampened in energy and placed her face to the table, looking at Kait. “Are you sure you can shop alone?”

“Honestly, it’s still awkward for me, but I can overcome the supermarket E-A-S-Y!” She turned to open the door.

“Do you need a coat?”

Kait winked and pointed to her scarf. “I got magic for that.”

“Got it. Bye.”

Kait waved back and closed the door.

Hailey stood up from the chair then started for the stairs and-

Kait suddenly opened the door and poked her head out. “Oh, sorry-Bye!” she said, resolute to always say goodbye.

Kait had gone to the supermarket once before and was excited to see it again. When she arrived after an hour of pacing herself, she was just as amazed by the dimensions of it as she was the first time. It was, admittedly, a giant white concrete box with no aesthetics to make it look good aside from a blue sign that said ‘Wal-mart’, but the sheer size of it was enough to blow her away. She’d seen a castle before, and the two compared in size. She walked inside, cautiously approaching, then scuttling through the two sets of automatic doors.

Inside was the wonderland of capitalism. Kait sort of understood how money worked, but her comprehension was shallow at best. After years of living in a world where currency was largely bartering, being told there was a piece of paper everyone needed that she could trade for things she needed was strangely exciting but difficult to fully comprehend.

The last time she had been to the supermarket was when Lulikan had shown her around, and the world seemed utterly surreal. Now that she had money and mind, she could properly browse through the wares without feeling like she was imposing on him. Inside was a single massive room, held up by cement pillars and filled with rows upon rows of aisles. Kait sneezed, the dusty smell of the store irritating her nose. She joyously jogged past the halls. Only a few people were out and about at this time of day as, if Kait recalled correctly, it was only nine in the morning. A feeling of solitude entered her head, and she put it to the back of her mind. Loneliness, Kait found, was not inherently bad. If the lack of other people gave a sense of freedom, it would elicit a pleasant emotion Kait named ‘solitude’. She packed the emotion into her mind for future use.

On the other side of the building, refrigerators were set against the wall. Kait ran and stopped in front of one to look through. There were many different colored bags and boxes. However, Kait had no Idea what any of them were. She opened the door then kneeled. Was all that stuff food? She picked up one of the plastic bags- Kait yelped as something thudded into her. It was the door, which had rebounded to hit her. After shaking off her surprise, she looked closer at the bag.

She could recognize a few words since she was technically only outdated on the language(though by hundreds of years), but most of it still looked like gibberish. Kait kept the frozen food in her hand and closed the door. Lulikan said he’d given her a lot of money for the job she did, but she had just four dollar bills. Could they be worth that much?

She held the bag in one hand and started towards one of the blue-vested employees. For a moment, she stood still behind them. They seemed busy, loading boxes of boxes onto a dolly of sorts. Kait didn’t want to bother them, but the last time she had been so apprehensive, she had been laughed at by Lulikan...“Uhh, excuse me, mam?”

The woman placed a box on the dolly, misaligned, and looked back at Kait. She looked young, maybe Taylor’s age, and was dark-skinned, with long braids. She looked tired. “Oh, one second,” the employee slid the box a little in place to align it with the rest of the boxes. “How can I help you?”

“I don’t know what the writing on this says.” Kait held up the bag with one hand and pointed at the writing with another. She pointed at the back of the bag, where a few lists were printed.

The employee grabbed the bag then looked at it with a critical look. “Ahh, look,” she turned the bag to face Kait then pointed at a massive wall of text, “You were probably looking at the Agreian writing,” she then moved her hand a little to a different text and tapped her finger on it, “You just need to read that.” she held out the bag for Kait to take it back.

Kait looked at the text again, craning her head forward, “I don’t know what that says either.”

The girl looked at Kait with a contortion of irritation and confusion on her face, “What do ya mean?”

“I can’t read either.” Kait was aware illiteracy was a little abnormal, but didn’t feel like explaining to a random person how she was a witch from 412 years ago and didn’t know the writing.

“Oh Thatch...” The worker hadn’t ever heard of someone who couldn’t even read a bag of Tater Tots. She turned apologetic, “Oh my, I’m quite sorry for that...Uhh, well, those are Tater Tots...If you put it in the oven for twelve or so minutes at four hundred degrees, it’ll come out of the oven like a bunch of lil’ potato bites.”

Kait thought she understood the gist of what the worker said. She shrugged, “I like potatoes. I guess I’ll try them.”

“Are you sure ya don’t need any more help?” the worker seemed genuinely worried-was illiteracy really that worrisome these days?

“No, I’m fine, really. I’m not going to buy much.”

“If ya say so...”

Kait made her way to the clothes aisle, carrying the bag manually. Halfway through, she sighed and stopped walking. She couldn’t place items into her backpack-apparently that wasn’t proper etiquette-so she decided to do the next best option. She produced an umbrella from her backpack, then pressed a button on it, making it pop out. Then she jumped. With the produced wind and her giddiness, she prepared a spell. Then, she lobbed the bag of tots a little into the air, and once they reached their peak, they simply didn’t fall, floating in midair.

All witchcraft needed some type of focus and an emotion, but foci couldn’t be used multiple times. That was why she couldn’t cast a spell to communicate with Taylor when in her dream-void because she would have needed to cast the spell again, with the same item. Admittedly, there wasn’t any way to tell what would count as a ‘different focus’ other than guessing since the Spirit of Witchcraft just decided what counted on its own terms. Thankfully, she could use the wind as a focus as much as she needed to. To that end, she carried around a broom or umbrella.

Kait walked to the clothes aisle, while the bag followed her as if on a leash. Some of the passersby gazed in awe, and a few took out their phones as well, recording the stray mage as she carried the merchandise with her magic.

Kait picked out three shirts, three pairs of pants or shorts, and whatever else she wanted. Most of the things she bought were worth around $15. Kait got nervous. Was she able to pay for it all?

Giving in to her fear, she found the same employee she’d talked to again, who was walking the dolly slowly down to the entrance. She ran up to her again, a few clothes following her in the air. “Uhh, lady!”

Molly stopped walking and started to turn her head. “My name’s Molly. What do you...want...” Magic was mostly legal on private property, so long as the owner permitted it. Still, when seeing someone casually run around with flying shirts and food, it gave most people, including Molly, a shock. “Err, whattaya need help with...?”

“Oh, and my name’s Kait, Molly! So I was just wondering...” Kait pulled four bills out of her pocket and motioned with them to the clothes, “These clothes seemed really cheap. Like, these jeans are only twelve moneys.”

“Huuuuuuhh, Is this a joke, t’ya?” A girl who used magic, couldn’t read, had four hundred dollar bills in her pocket, and who called dollars ‘moneys’. Who was she?! “I, uh, yeah...sooo you do realize ya just called ‘dollars’ ‘moneys’, righ’?”

The girl lost some of her enthusiasm. “Aww, what’s the difference?”

Really, she would understand if the person wasn’t used to speaking Terrian(the primary language in the area), and wasn’t from around the place. Still, Kait was perfectly fluent, aside from the difference between dollars and money. “Uhh, dollars are a type of money, and money is a plural word.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Yeah, and I don’t know why you have a bunch of hundred dollar bills, but those are worth quite a bit. I make like, ten an hour, so that’s like, forty hours of work. Something like that.”

“Forty!? Oh jeez, uhh...” she looked around, realizing something, then took a bill into her right hand and pressed it into Molly’s chest. She grabbed it, of course. Kait quickly bowed her head in apology. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bother you!” She ran to the entrance to grab a basket, back to the clothes aisle, placing the items into her basket.

Who? What? Why? Well, no matter the answer, Molly wasn’t saying no to a hundred dollars. Well, unless it was cursed, that was possible...maybe she’d see the fortune reader just to be safe.