✅ The Nice List

Advent

This chapter is dedicated to ems-kitty-xx, whose messages somehow inspired this story. Thank you! And everybody else should go and read her stories if you haven't already ☺

Tarja danced down the street, turning from one side to another to watch the sunset colours reflecting off the finest traces of frost that had started to form on the paving slabs. She considered that it might be some kind of good luck that she happened to be outside when it was just cold enough for frost to form, and also just the right time for the sun to be at this height above the horizon, which made it look like she was running down a river of molten gold.

Of course, Tarja thought a lot of things were lucky occurrences, whether or not they were particularly noteworthy. She was the kind of person who would take any excuse to find joy. She didn't care that her horoscope was nonsense, she could still have a giggle at it. And she could still use it to give her confidence whenever she was doing something important. She would look though all the different newspapers until she found a good prediction, and then keep it in her pocket as a reminder that she was going to have a great day.

She wished she could find something to cheer up Merri. Her flatmate and best friend was so firmly grounded in reality that she wouldn't let herself dream, and that was a little sad. Especially at this time of year, when the shortest day had drained all life from the sky and everybody was making the same tired jokes about her name. Tarja wished that she could bottle the sunset and take it home, thinking that maybe that would be cause for a little joy. But things like this atmosphere couldn't be captured in a photo; you needed to be there to feel the colours, and the slight sting of cold air on warm skin. There was something special about this atmosphere, and nobody would tell Tarja otherwise.

She gave a little twirl, trying to take in the beauty of the icicles and decorations in every direction at once. It made her a little dizzy, but she didn't mind. It was okay to be a little light-headed when magic was happening. But it did mean that she wasn't quite sure which direction she was facing when her heel came down on a patch of ice that she should really have expected.

Her feet skittered on the ground, and it felt like a miracle that she managed to keep them under her. She spun as she slid, accelerating down the hill, wondering at every moment whether she was about to tumble and fall. She hit steps, and alternated between staggering and falling, before she managed to grasp the iron railings that guarded the entrance to an alleyway.

"Wow," she said, pulse racing. She knew that she could have been hurt, but it had seemed like the whole world was spinning. Now that she was safe, she could imagine it as some kind of fairground ride; a lot of fun, but it had left her short of breath. And then she looked around... "Where am I?"

This wasn't a part of the city that Tarja was familiar with, thought if she looked father down the hill she could still see a breathtaking view over the rooftops to the other side of the valley, so she knew she hadn't travelled too far off her usual path. She took a deep breath and looked around. It looked kind of posh around here; fancy houses with a proper archway giving shelter while you rang the bell. But right beside her, there was a single shop, with a sign over the door so faded that she couldn't read it in the vivid sunset colours, and a brass plaque beside the door that seemed long-since worn into illegibility. Unable to resist her own curiosity, she stepped inside.

She was immediately greeted by the smell of mysticism. It was a distinctive aroma, whose main ingredients were carefully-stored paper and all manner of exotic incense. There were wooden shelves here, arranged in a complex pattern that gave no indication of which way you would have to go to find the shop's owner. Everything could be found here, arranged with no apparent organisation. She saw rolling mats packed in tightly beside a display of tarot cards; a deck she didn't recognise. And there was a mandala, and some kind of divination board. So many things, any one of which would have fascinated her. But when they were all packed in together, she found that she didn't know where to look first. The whole arrangement gave the impression that if you didn't know exactly what you were after, you might not exactly be welcome here.